it does bother me though that when pansy made an openly racist comment, literally no one, not even harry, defended angelina. all those times of harry’s blood boiling because draco made a rude comment about ron’s family or everyone getting angry (as they should) as “mudblood” was being thrown around, but no one said anything about this racist comment
do you ever think about how the series of events that lead to Dumbledore’s death in HBP was literally set into motion by Oliver Wood’s passion for Quidditch
okay but literally I can’t stop thinking about this -
it is of course possible that Draco would have gotten the Death Eaters into the school some other way if the Vanishing Cabinet hadn’t created the perfect opportunity, but it wasn’t looking likely.
so like, it’s reasonable enough to assume that Dumbledore’s death (at the hands of Snape specifically, obviously I know he was going to die soon enough from the curse, but the timing does make a difference so I’m still focused on this) occurred because of the Death Eaters getting into the school. the reason the Death Eaters were able to get into the school was because of the Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, which Draco repaired.
the Vanishing Cabinet ended up in the Room of Requirement over the summer of 1996, presumably (reasoning for this is in the next paragraph), and Draco discovered it there sometime in his 6th year. but the only reason he had even known what it was, and what it could do, was because he had spoken with….
Graham Montague, a Slytherin who was in 7th year in 1995-1996 (when Harry & co were in 5th year). Montague was shoved into the Vanishing Cabinet in that year by Fred and George Weasley, because he was a part of the Inquisitorial Squad and was presumably about to take points from the Weasley twins for doing something disruptive. and we know that Montague got stuck in a limbo between the two connected cabinets, due to one of them being broken - he could hear things being discussed in Borgin & Burkes, which is how he was able to let Malfoy know that the other “end of the tunnel”, or basically the other cabinet, was in Borgin & Burkes (which, Draco would already have seen as a 12-year-old, in the summer before his 2nd year, when he visited the shop with his father - fun fact, Harry hid in that exact cabinet while Lucius Malfoy was transacting with Borgin).
Montague would never have had this experience at all if the cabinet hadn’t been broken in the first place. but in fact, we know exactly how, when, why, and by whom the cabinet was broken.
it was in the fall of 1992, when Nearly Headless Nick observed that Harry had gotten in trouble with Filch, and prompted Peeves to drop that very same cabinet from a large height in order to cause a distraction for Filch, allowing Harry to get out of trouble.
why was Harry in trouble in the first place? because he was “tracking mud” in the corridors.
why was he tracking mud in the corridors? because Oliver Wood had had him out on the Quidditch pitch all day even though it had been literally storming outside. so Harry came into the castle drenched and splattered with mud.
Dumbledore literally died because of how obsessed Oliver Wood was with winning the Quidditch Cup.
thank you for coming to my Ted Talk.
sorry, one more thing - people keep reblogging this with tags that imply they think that this is like a “headcanon” or just “plausible” and while I get why you would think that, I need you to really understand how canonical this is because it’s Very canonical which is Ridiculous
to clarify:
the bits about the Vanishing Cabinet being the only real way he had to get the Death Eaters in, having heard about it from Montague and how that made him realize he could use them as a passage, etc - that was all clearly laid out in HBP, chapter 27 (The Lightning-Struck Tower).
Montague being shoved into the cabinet takes place in OOTP, chapter 28 (Snape’s Worst Memory).
Draco seeing the cabinet and Harry being in the cabinet is all in CoS, chapter 4 (At Flourish and Blotts).
and the entire situation with the Quidditch practice and the mud and Harry getting in trouble and Nick getting Peeves to drop the cabinet is in CoS, chapter 8 (The Deathday Party).
it’s the lined-up-dominoes meme, and it’s ridiculous. and it’s all on the page.
It’s better than that.
Voldemort died because Harry was the master of the Elder Wand that Voldemort was trying to use.
Why was Harry the master? Because he overpowered its previous master, Draco, and won its allegiance.
Why was Draco master of the Elder Wand? Because he disarmed Dumbledore in the precise sequence being discussed, which relied on the vanishing cabinet.
Harry defeated Voldemort because of Oliver Wood’s passion for quidditch.
Technically, Draco lead to Dumbledores death twice. Both by getting the death eaters into the castle but also because if it weren’t for him stealing Neville’s rememberall, Harry wouldnt have ended up on the team at all, and consequentially, getting mud through the corridors
this is exactly the kind of hyper specific meme that I am here for!!!!
[Image Description: four gifs in a vibrant Halloween palette. 1) A werewolf howling against the moon, in purple. 2) Floating pumpkins over the purple ceiling of the Great Hall. 3) A deep orange wall with the words “The Chamber of Secrets has been opened, enemies of the heir beware” written on it in blood. 4) Winged Death carrying a man into the yellow sky, surrounded by birds.]
You all know, of course, that Hogwarts was founded over a thousand years ago, by the four greatest witches and wizards of the age. Godric Gryffindor, Helga Hufflepuff, Rowena Ravenclaw, and Salazar Slytherin. Now three of the founders co-existed quite harmoniously. One did not.
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) dir. Chris Columbus
