Comments | canon_reread: A Fun Little Thing I Noticed in CoS

mlleelizabeth in canon_reread

A Fun Little Thing I Noticed in CoS

Feb 26, 2007 10:37

This is the first time I’ve re-read CoS after reading HBP and I found this one lovely bit of foreshadowing by JKR absolutely delightful ( Read more... )

Comments 7

koloagirl February 26 2007, 17:15:51 UTC

Yes, if only he'd remembered... that's some pretty good planning on JKR's part.

mlleelizabeth February 26 2007, 17:48:45 UTC

It really was. I think she's done a wonderful job planning these books out. Oh, and I forgot this morning -- Lucius is there to sell his poisons to B & B, and Draco put poison in the mead. So, with the exception of the Peruvian Instant Darkness Powder, everything Draco used in his attempts to kill Dumbledore was mentioned in that one chapter in CoS.

tunxeh February 26 2007, 19:17:48 UTC

It's a sign of good craftsmanship, I think, not just that she put in this level of detail as early as she did, but that they don't stand out as important (even when the vanishing cabinet reoccurs a couple of times, with Peeves dropping it on someone then Montague stuck in it) until one rereads with knowledge of their later significance.

mlleelizabeth February 26 2007, 19:29:24 UTC

Absolutely! I've read HBP two or three times now, and it never occurred to me that the items Draco is using throughout are all things he looked over at Borgin & Burkes back in his second year. Going back through the books and finding this stuff is a lot of fun and I have more and more respect for JKR with each little thing I find.

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mlleelizabeth February 26 2007, 20:37:34 UTC

Naw, Jo's the clever one. It was only because I'm looking for her cleverness on this read-through that I even noticed it.

lastscorpion February 27 2007, 05:18:08 UTC

That's so cool!

I'm not sure that it's a problem with Harry having a bad memory; his upbringing left him reluctant to ever tell anybody anything anyhow. He never even considers it, either as a Plan A or a Plan B.

mlleelizabeth February 27 2007, 17:50:41 UTC

Good point! Harry does have to be coerced to tell anything to an adult, and I don't blame him. Though he does make the attempt in HBP and Dumbledore blows him off. Still, Harry doesn't seem to think about these things to himself, either. I think she didn't want to make it obvious, so it only stands out if you go back searching for it.