Random Utterly Genius Foreshadowing In Harry Potter (14 items)

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  (#4) Harry And Ron Predicted The Three Tasks Of The Triwizard Tournament

  Harry and Ron mockingly, and unknowingly, predicted all three of the dangerous Triwizard Tournament tasks in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, one whole year before the games take place.

  This piece of foreshadowing was thrown out in a seemingly lighthearted fashion, when Harry and Ron grew tired of their endless amounts of Divination homework in Prisoner of Azkaban. Instead of actually trying to read tea leaves and predict the future, the duo decided to start just kind of... guess. 

  Harry's predictions included that he would be in danger of burns, lose a treasured possession, be stabbed in the back by a friend, and come off worse in a fight. All of these eventually came true in Goblet of Fire, when he had to fight a dragon, save Ron from dangerous underwater mermaids, and was betrayed by Barty Crouch Jr. masquerading as Mad-Eye Moody. And, of course, he barely made it out alive from his graveyard fight with Voldemort.
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  (#10) A Bezoar Tutorial From The First Book Proved Invaluable Later In The Series

  The very first lesson Severus Snape taught Harry turns out to be a vital for the Boy Who Lived later on in the series.

  In Sorcerer's Stone, Harry attended Snape's Potions class for the first time. The notoriously nasty professor wasted no time in ridiculing Harry in front of all of his classmates. However, while chiding Harry for his apparent arrogance and lack of magical knowledge, Snape also mentioned to Harry that a bezoar provides a quick way to stop the spread of poison.

  This knowledge became useful during Half-Blood Prince, when Ron ingested a deadly poison while sharing a drink with Harry and Professor Slughorn. Thinking quickly, Harry grabbed a bezoar from one of Slughorn's reserves and shoved it into Ron's mouth, saving his best friend's life. 
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  (#9) J.K. Rowling Hinted Early On At The True Identity Of Scabbers

  Scabbers's true identity as the animagus Peter Pettigrew was part of the massive plot twist at the end of Prisoner of Azkaban, but eagle-eyed readers could see the reveal coming. 

  Early in Prisoner of Azkaban, it was casually noted that garden rats typically have a life span of only three years. This made Scabbers's 12-year-long history with the Weasley family far out of the ordinary. Rowling then went on to describe that Scabbers had been losing weight throughout the book, which readers later realized was the result of Peter Pettigrew stressing at the news of Sirius Black's escape. 

  The final major clue Rowling wove into the story regarding Scabbers's true identity is the fact that he was missing one of his toes. This might not have seemed strange on its own, but obsessive readers recalled that only one of Pettigrew's fingers was found when he "died," following his pre-Sorcerer's Stone confrontation with Sirius. All in all, these clues made the Pettigrew reveal at the end of Prisoner seem—in hindsight—pretty obvious.
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  (#7) Peter Pettigrew's Death Was Predicted By Dumbledore

  Peter Pettigrew's demise in Deathly Hallows was foreshadowed and set up by Albus Dumbledore near the end of Prisoner of Azkaban. After Harry talked Lupin and Sirius out of killing Pettigrew during their confrontation in Prisoner of Azkaban, Dumbledore told Harry not to be too upset about Pettigrew escaping in the end. According to Dumbledore, Harry should look forward to the day when Pettigrew would have to honor his life debt.

  This, of course, came when Pettigrew let Harry and his friends escape from Malfoy Manor in Deathly Hallows. That action resulted in his auto-strangulation by Voldemort's metal hand. It was one of those book moments that was most noticeably missing from the film adaptations. 
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  (#8) The Room Of Requirement Showed Up Earlier Than You Thought

  The Room of Requirement was indirectly introduced into the series for the first time by Albus Dumbledore in Goblet of Fire. Of course, the Room of Requirement wound up playing a huge role in Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, and Deathly Hallows.

  Dumbledore mentioned The Room in passing, describing a time he stumbled upon a miraculous, secret bathroom in Hogwarts, only to never find it again. At first, it was shrugged off as nothing more than another funny magical Hogwarts moment. However, this disappearing room came back into play in a big way in subsequent installments of the series.
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  (#1) Barty Crouch Jr.'s Foe-Glass Gave Away His True Identity

  Barty Crouch Jr. actually saw Snape in his Foe-Glass near the end of The Goblet of Fire. This quickly, and subtly, revealed Snape's true allegiance in the conflict between Harry and Voldemort.

  Book readers could be forgiven for missing this small moment of foreshadowing in the fourth book. After all, it happened amidst the chaos of Dumbledore and the other Hogwarts professors saving Harry from the machinations of the undercover Barty Crouch Jr. But it's a noteworthy moment all the same, since the first thing Snape did when he arrived in Crouch's Hogwarts office was to approach the Death Eater's Foe-Glass.

  Remember, a Foe-Glass is a magical object that allows the owner to see their true enemies at all times. Snape appearing in the mirror at first seemed like a bad sign to Harry, since Crouch spends most of the book masquerading as the heroic Mad-Eye Moody. However, when it's later revealed to be Crouch's Foe-Glass and not Moody's, Snape's appearance is a smart and subtle way for Rowling to communicate to book readers that Snape was on Harry's side all along. 

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