10 Harry Potter Quotes That Foreshadowed The End

We've all come to terms with the fact that Harry Potter has ended (or we're trying to, anyway). All Fantastic Beasts movies and Cursed Child plays aside, the original book series ended almost nine years ago. And we're all totally fine with that. Mostly. We're dealing with it.

But just because the series is over, it doesn't mean that we have to stop rereading Harry Potter. And it doesn't mean that we're going to stop finding mind-blowing moments of foreshadowing that make us realize J.K. Rowling is somehow even more of a genius than we already thought.

Because she is really quite sneaky with a lot of her foreshadowing. And I don't just mean all those times in Sorcerer's Stone when Quirrell seemed really shady, or the how Lupin always seemed to get sick during the full moon, or how Fleur was checking Bill out way back in the fourth book. Those are all moments of foreshadowing, sure. But I mean foreshadowing that goes all the way to the bitter end. Like, hints that Harry's going have to face Voldemort one-on-one in the forbidden forest and... well, you know the rest. It's all in there. So check out these quotes if you need your daily dose of well-executed plot arcs.

1. "He was talking about interfering with what the planets say is going to happen... They must show Voldemort's coming back... Bane thinks Firenze should have let Voldemort kill me... I suppose that's written in the stars as well."

— Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Poor little baby Harry basically figures out exactly how the series is going to end way back in Sorcerer's Stone: Voldemort is going to kill him in the Forbidden Forest. At least, that's what Bane thought the stars predicted (and he was totally right, just six years early). Oh yeah, and one more early prediction from our centaur friends:

2. "Mars is bright tonight."

— Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Mars is the Roman god of war. So in centaur logic, "Mars is bright" means that "war is coming." And that's pretty much on the nose.

3. "Potter! What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"

— Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This is first thing that Snape says to Harry. And according to the what the Victorians thought about flowers and symbolism, asphodel is a kind of lily, which means "my regrets follow you to the grave," and wormwood symbolizes "absence" and "bitter sorrow." So... Snape is lowkey saying that he deeply regrets Lily's death, which we don't know for sure until near the end of Deathly Hallows.

4. "'So... you're going to suffer but you're going to be happy about it.'"

— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This is Ron's "prediction" to Harry when they're reading tea leaves for Professor Trelawney. And it's... exactly correct? Harry does suffer a lot (a LOT), but no matter what you thought about the epilogue, it's pretty clear that he ends up happy. He's even happy that he chose to walk willingly to his death, because it allowed him to rid himself of that pesky bit of Voldy's soul.

5. "Maybe you're going to work for the Ministry of Magic."

— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

This is Ron's other tea leaf prediction, after seeing a shape that might look something like a bowler hat. And J.K. Rowling herself has gone on the record saying that Harry does indeed become an Auror after the events of Deathly Hallows, so Ron's not too shabby at this whole divination thing.

6. "Mr. Weasley, why would I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?"

— Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Sweet little Harry. Give it another four books and you will most certainly go looking for someone who wants to kill you. And you'll confront him, expecting to die. And then you'll feel silly about saying this way back in book three.

7. "It's a shame his mother likes him."

— Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Ron says this, after joking that if they all went to Durmstrang, they could push Malfoy off a glacier and make it look like an accident. But it's actually quite a good thing that Narcissa Malfoy likes her son: In Deathly Hallows, it's only because Narcissa loves Draco that she hides that fact that Harry is still alive.

8. For a fleeting instant, Harry thought he saw a gleam of something like triumph in Dumbledore's eyes.

— Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

After Harry survive's Voldemort's resurrection, and makes it back to Hogwarts with Cedric's body, Dumbledore is... triumphant?? Why? This one isn't explained until the King's Cross scene in The Deathly Hallows. But, as Dumbledore explains, his gleam of triumph was because Voldemort used Harry's blood to come back to life. Lily's protection, therefore, will run through Voldemort's veins, and he won't be able to kill Harry. (But you maybe could have explained that a tad earlier, Dumbledore.)

9. "The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him."

— Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Snape says this to Harry during his occlumency lessons — but he says almost, because Voldemort can't always tell if he's being lied to. Because Snape lies to him for the entirety of the last two books.

10. "Neither can live while the other survives."

— Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Well, duh. There's a good old-fashioned prophecy for you. Of course, as Dumbledore later explains, this prediction from Trelawney didn't necessarily have to come true. It comes true because Voldemort believes it, and so he won't allow Harry to live unless Harry puts a stop to him. But Harry can appreciate that he gets to choose to meet his own fate, in the end.

Images: Warner Brothers, Giphy (11)