Foreshadowing / Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

• Ginny is more present in this book than in the previous four combined, and often makes Cho look bad. It's Ginny's idea of "Dumbledore's Army" that is used, instead of Cho's more generic "Defense Association." Ginny is usually the one who snaps Harry out of his numerous funks over the course of the book, including when he's convinced he's being possessed by Voldemort. She has been possessed by him, and could have told Harry exactly what it felt like, if he had bothered to ask. And the tender scene in the library as Harry and Ginny share Easter eggs together. And the line "Ginny got the Snitch right out from under [Cho's] nose." Could it be more obvious? Especially the scene where the two share an Easter Egg?
  • In the final chapter as they discuss Ginny’s love life, Ron makes a curious look towards Harry when he suggests she find someone else, foreshadowing that he becomes a Shipper on Deck (with only a bit of reluctance just coming from being an older brother) for them.
• Neville also begins to show signs of life as well; notably, he's still fighting when all the other kids, who are notably better wizards than him, have already been defeated. Unfortunately, this just shows the danger in relying on Fridge Brillianceinvoked: Rowling did it all so subtly with both Neville and Ginny that a lot of people missed it.
• "I heard... that awful boy... telling her about them, years ago." Harry assumes she's taking about his father and snaps at her, but this doesn't seem to gel with the reveal later in the book that Lily only started dating James in her seventh year at Hogwarts and previously hated him. That's not Aunt Petunia referring to James and Lily. She's referring to Severus Snape, who is revealed in the final book to have been living in Petunia and Lily's neighbourhood and had been friends with Lily long before she met James.
• Snape, when talking to Harry about Legilimency: "The Dark Lord, for instance, almost always knows when somebody is lying to him." He says "almost" because Snape is the one who (for a while at least) manages to get away with lying to Voldemort in the final two installments.
  • Looking back at this quote, it can also be seen as foreshadowing to Narcissa successfully straight-up lying to Voldemort about Harry being dead in Deathly Hallows.
• There's a reason Sirius's name is blacked out.
• The full prophecy's final line: Neither can live while the other survives is misinterpreted by both Harry and deliberately falsified by Dumbledore, as meaning one must kill the other. It's actually a subtle foreshadowing of the fact that contained within Harry is a piece of Voldemort's soul, and he remains tied to Voldemort as a Horcrux.
• Early on Nearly-Headless Nick claims to have "never been guilty of cowardice in [his] life!" At the end he reveals that the reason he's a ghost is because he was afraid of death.
• Whilst Sirius and Harry are examining the Black family tree, they come across Phineas Nigellus Black. Sirius states that "[he's the] least popular Headmaster Hogwarts ever had". Later in this book, that title will go to Dolores Jane Umbridge. Phineas's tenure as Headmaster would also be depicted later in Hogwarts Legacy and indeed, he was not a great or well-regarded Headmaster, even when he was alive.
• At Grimmauld Place, amid a Doxy infestation, Molly is noted to have consulted "Gilderoy Lockhart's Guide to Household Pests". Lockhart later makes his first appearance in the series since Book 2 when the trio visit St. Mungo's and it is revealed he is writing his final book "Who Am I?".
• At Grimmauld Place, the unopenable locket found in the drawing room has great significance in Book 7.
• At Harry's trial, when Dumbledore suggests that the Dementors were sent to attack Harry, Umbridge alone shifts, perhaps involuntarily. Her rebuking this suggestion is also the first time she is fully seen and heard. Near the climax of the book, it is revealed that Umbridge sent the Dementors to deal with Harry.
• The memory of Snape's that Harry watches has the younger Snape use some spell that leads to a slash appearing on James' cheek, like he was cut with a knife. That's Sectumsempra, a spell that doesn't get named until the next book, and is revealed to have been somewhat of a signature spell of Snape's. Also, James counterattack with a spell that is more than likely to be Levicorpus.
• At one point, Phineas Nigellus Black tells Harry that the Slytherins can be brave, but don't go headlong into danger like the Gryffindors—they were more likely to retreat and come back with help. This foretells the climax of not only this book (Harry rushes headlong into danger, a mistake that results in the death of his godfather), but also the climax of Book 7 (Professor Slughorn leaves with the evacuating students, including the rest of the Slytherins, but returns later with reinforcements in the form of the students' parents and the citizens of Hogsmeade, later going up against Voldemort himself. Word of God is that some of the Slytherin students also returned with Slughorn, also with reinforcements).
• Harry, concerned that Hagrid's injuries aren't going away, wonders whether he was attacked by something with magical venom that prevents wounds from healing. Later in that same chapter, Mr. Weasley is attacked by Nagini, and we find out that Nagini possesses that very ability.
• Harry has a scar-induced dream from Nagini's perspective instead of Voldemort. Snape claims it's because Voldemort was posessing Nagini at the time. It's actually because both Nagini and Harry contain a piece of Voldemort's soul, which is what Harry's scar is connected to.
• Sirius's younger brother is named Regulus, following the Stellar Theme Naming used by the Black Family. More precisely, he's named after the most prominent star in the Leo Constellation, also called Cor Leonis, the lion's heart. Now, what do we learn about why he died in Book 7?
• Ron and Hermione's bickering strongly reminds Harry of Molly and Arthur Weasley's bickering at one point. Molly and Arthur are an old married couple. Come the epilogue of Book 7...
• In the Hog's Head inn Harry notices that the bartender looks "vaguely familiar". It's Dumbledore's brother Aberforth. The movie adds an extra layer in that the bartender is shown with a pet goat.
• The chapter named "Snape's Worst Memory" is named not for the bullying Snape endures, but for another reason, which we learn in Book 7.
• The first American Edition’s cover art (on the backside) features the party of Order members who go to rescue Harry’s group - Moody, Lupin, Tonks, and Sirius and provides two examples of this trope at once.
  • Sirius is in an archway and isn’t with the main three on the cover, foreshadowing how he’ll be passing through the veil.
  • Kingsley being absent from the group also coincidentally foreshadows how he’ll be the only character from the five who survives the series.
• A multi-layered example with the Howler Petunia receives at the beginning warning her to "remember my last." The ending reveals it was sent by Dumbledore and is referring to a previous letter, the one he gave her when he left Harry on her doorstep in the first chapter of the series, explaining why he was doing so. Additionally, the reference to the "last" letter implies there were others as well, and we find out in Deathly Hallows that Dumbledore previously sent Petunia a letter when she was a child, politely declining her request to come to Hogwarts with Lily.

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