[HPforGrownups] Vanishing Cabinet/Flint?

[Vivamus]

No: HPFGUIDX 133811

> OK, so could someone make some sense of this for me?
> 
> When Draco is explaining the use of the Vanishing Cabinet in 
> HBP, he talks about how his classmate Montague got stuck in 
> it, heard snatches of sounds from both Hogwarts and Borgin 
> and Burke's, and eventually had to Apparate to get out of the 
> cabinet, nearly dying in the process. (Though whether his 
> death would have resulted from incompetent Apparition or just 
> from starving in the cabinet, I'm not
> sure.)
> 
> Now, as Hermione well knows, you can't apparate in Hogwarts 
> except during the one scene where they relaxed that rule so 
> that the students could practice in the Great Hall.  So 
> clearly Montague must have Apparated out into Borgin and Burkes.
> 
> But I went back and checked this plot point on OotP, because 
> I was curious about whether Rowling had foreshadowed it 
> without my noticing.  According to OotP, Montague was pushed 
> into the cabinet by Fred and George, and turned up several 
> days later stuck in a toilet at Hogwarts.
> 
> Am I to believe that Montague Apparated into the shop, and 
> then in his near-dead state went back to Hogwarts, hid in a 
> toilet, and pretended not to remember how he got there--just 
> to conceal the passage to Borgin's?  This seems overly 
> elaborate to me and makes me wonder whether this is a Flint.
> 
> Kelly L.


Vivamus:

I assume that when he was in the Vanishing Cabinet, he wasn't actually IN
Hogwarts, so the anti-apparation spell wouldn't have applied.  He could
apparate out of the cabinet.  Since he wasn't actually OUTSIDE Hogwarts,
either, he could in fact apparate from inside the vanished cabinet to inside
Hogwarts, bypassing the protection.  This is supported by the link made
between the two cabinets once the one that Peeves smashed was repaired.  So
he apparated out of the cabinet into the toilet, where he got stuck and
nearly died (drowned?).