Vanishing Cabinets

From UnknowableWiki

The Vanishing Cabinets are two large cabinets connected by magic; when you walk into one, you appear in the other. Each cabinet can be placed in a desired location and a person can travel from one cabinet to the other. If you enter a broken cabinet, you can end up in a limbo between the cabinets and be shuttled back and forth between the locations of each, being able to hear things that happen in the vicinity of either one, but unable to communicate with the outside. One of the Vanishing Cabinets, a black and gold one, is located at Hogwarts. It is originally on the first floor (OP28), from where it is moved to the Room of Hidden Things, one of the many shapes of the Room of Requirement in 1996 (HBP24). The other, which is black, is in Borgin and Burkes, a shop in Knockturn Alley (CS4, HBP6).

In the summer of 1992, before his second year, Harry Potter accidentally finds himself in Borgin and Burkes through a mistake with Floo powder; he ducks into one of the Vanishing Cabinets to hide (CS4), and as it is broken, it does not take him anywhere. Inside the cabinet, he witnesses Lucius and Draco Malfoy's visit to the shop.

Later that year, at Hogwarts, Argus Filch catches Harry dragging mud into the castle and brings him into his office to punish him. Nearly Headless Nick, who wants to help Harry, convinces Peeves to drop the Vanishing Cabinet right above the office. Upon hearing the noise, Filch leaves Harry unattended for a short time. Harry finds Filch's Kwikspell documents while the caretaker is gone. When he returns, Filch is talking to Mrs. Norris, saying excitedly that the Vanishing Cabinet was very valuable an that this might finally enable him to get rid of Peeves. He lets Harry go without punishment when he discovers that the boy has found evidence that he is a Squib (CS8).

During the Trio's fifth year, Fred and George Weasley force Montague into the Vanishing Cabinet when, following the creation of the Inquisitorial Squad by Dolores Umbridge, Montague tries to dock house points from the twins; he disappears before he manages to take the points away. He is stuck in a limbo between the cabinets for weeks, gravitating back and forth between Hogwarts and Knockturn Alley and unable to make contact with anybody at either end. Finally, he manages to Apparate out although he does not have a license; he nearly dies in the attempt and turns up in a toilet on the fourth floor (OP28, HBP27). He tells his story to Draco Malfoy, who is the first to realise that the two cabinets must belong together and that one could create a passage into Hogwarts by fixing them.

When Voldemort orders Draco to kill Albus Dumbledore, the boy plans to make use of the cabinets. In the summer of 1996, he asks Borgin to tell him how to repair the broken Hogwarts cabinet and to keep the other one safe at the shop for him (HBP6). Presumably, it is Draco who hides the Hogwarts cabinet in the Room of Hidden Things. He spends most of his free time in the room, trying to repair it (HBP19). In June 1997, he has succeeded and uses the connection to bring Death Eaters into Hogwarts, starting the Battle of the Astronomy Tower that results in the death of Albus Dumbledore (HBP27).