Halloween Countdown: 3 most built-up moments in Harry Potter

I am fond of telling the story of the twist I predicted. At the release party for Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, I greeted Dumbledore cosplayers with "You're going to die tonight." I don't say this merely to point out that, yes, I got a lot of annoyed comments from friends the next day, but to highlight a moment where the stage was set in advance. Some things in Harry Potter are just like that and tonight, let's continue our Halloween Countdown with three moments that were built up magnificently.

1. The Vanishing Cabinet

In Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry nearly gets in trouble for mucking up the corridors of Hogwarts. He's hauled off to Filch's office for some unknown punishment and is imagining all the awful things that might happen to him when there is a crash, Nearly-Headless Nick has come to the rescue by persuading Peeves to smash a vanishing cabinet.

There's not much mention of the cabinet again until the Inquisitorial Squad comes along and the Weasley twins feel it their duty to trap one of its members inside of the broken vanishing cabinet. It is of course, Draco's mysterious mission in Year 6 to repair it and enable the battle that results in Dumbledore's death on the Astronomy Tower, Bill's maiming by Fenrir Greyback, and Snape's flight from the school in the company of Draco Malfoy. What might that battle have been like if the cabinet hadn't been broken?

2. "Always"

As soon as I saw "The Prince's Tale" in the chapter index of harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I was excited for its proximity to the end of the book. Whatever the story of Severus Snape had in store, it was going to change something fundamental about the story. It just had to.

And then we were told the childhood love story of Severus and his best friend Lily. The chapter laid bare the parting of their ways and the loyalty he had to her even after she married James Potter. It didn't excuse Snape's cruelty, but my goodness, it certainly made us look twice at his anger whenever Harry recklessly endangered his life or acted too much like his father.

3. "Expelliarmus."

The disarming spell was a bit of a joke in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Snape performed it perfectly and Gilderoy Lockhart couldn't cover his embarrassment quickly enough. I don't think that enough credit is given to Snape for making sure Hogwarts students knew that spell, since Harry used it not only at a crucial moment in the graveyard at Little Hangleton, but taught it as an essential part of the training of Dumbledore's Army

We all knew on a fundamental level that Harry would fight Voldemort in the end, but his choice of spells, his "best hope," was the basic spell that his Potions professor taught him five years earlier. Harry never killed Voldemort, but he defeated him in an act of self-defense and it was the miracle that ended the second wizarding war.

We have just days before Halloween and we hope you'll join us for tomorrow's exploration of two central characters.