Because everyone else is doing it ...

[snorkackcatcher]

Happy Birthday to JKR!

(And to Harry, of course. Unless she kills him off!)

And because it seems appropriate to be fannish, here's something I only just realised when reading the Sectumsempra chapter in HBP while looking a quote up (although no doubt most people had it figured out ages ago): JKR basically tells us what Draco is up to, while making sure that we've got other stuff to distract us!

*facepalm*

When Harry gets into the Room of Requirement and finds out that it seems anyone who wants to hide something gets the same Room, he notices the Vanishing Cabinet in passing, mentioned amid a lot of other stuff ... except of course that the Cabinet has absolutely no reason to be there unless someone was hiding it (because if it was a member of staff who moved it presumably they would just chuck it out as broken and dangerous). And who would hide it unless for nefarious reasons? One Draco Malfoy, perhaps, who has been using the Room in a way Harry hasn't been able to figure out? Who is known to have enquired in Borgin & Burkes about mending something broken that was part of a pair, the other of which is in the shop? And who, a few pages before, was actually seen crying because "it won't work"?

Of course, if you're like me, when you first read this passage you weren't paying attention to little details like that because you wanted to know what Snape was going to do about Harry's use of Sectumsempra, and were distracted shortly afterwards by the Quidditch final and Harry/Ginny and so on ... In short, a classic little piece of hiding in plain sight of the kind that JKR does so well. If I were wearing a hat, I'd take it off to her. :)

Comments

[a-t-rain.livejournal.com]

Nice catch. After looking over the passage, I'm now rather curious about why somebody felt the need to dispose of "a tarnished tiara" in the Room of Requirements. (The Tiara of Ravenclaw, perhaps?)

[snorkackcatcher]

Cheers. Yes, I know, you get the feeling that something in that room out of the dozen or so bits of stuff mentioned has to come into play in Book 7 somehow (and so presumably does the HBP's book, given that Harry took such pains to make sure he could find it again), it's just a question of working out what. :) The tiara would be a good bet; second choice that bust of an ugly wizard (Slytherin or some Gaunt, possibly).

[enchantedteacup.livejournal.com]

Ooh, I didn't catch that! I really ought to reread the books; every time I promise myself to read extra slowly and extra carefully the first time around, I get caught up in what's happening and forget to. Maybe there's more stuff...

*Hops off to look*

[snorkackcatcher]

Yes, I know. The quote I was looking up was actually a couple of chapters earlier, but I just kept reading. :)

[melusinahp.livejournal.com]

It's so nice to see someone write detailed meta about what JKR actually did right.

This is a really clever catch. I doubt I would have realised what was going on, even on re-reading.

[snorkackcatcher]

Heh, thanks. I do get a little tired sometimes of seeing JKR's writing abilities ... er, written off as if she were a Mary Suethor on a sugar high. :)

[tree_and_leaf]

Ooh, that's nice - well done for spotting it, and thanks for sharing.

*Is not frustrated that she didn't spot it herself, oh, no, not at all, precious*

[snorkackcatcher]

Cheers -- mind you, I never noticed the other times I'd read the passage. :)