Whose Vanishing Cabinets?

[Peggy Wilkins]

No: HPFGUIDX 149120

In "The Lightning-Struck Tower" chapter of HBP, Dumbledore asks Malfoy
how he got the Death Eaters into Hogwarts (pp.586-587):

DD: ".... So tell me, while we wait for your friends ... how did you
smuggle them into here?  It seems to have taken you a long time to
work out how to do it."

DM: "... I had to mend that broken Vanishing Cabinet that no one's
used for years.  The one Montague got lost in last year."

DD: "Aaaah.... That was clever....There is a pair, I take it?"

DM: "In Borgin and Burkes, and they make a kind of passage between
them.  Montague told me that when he was stuck in the Hogwarts one, he
was trapped in limbo but sometimes he could hear what was going on at
school, and sometimes what was going on in the shop, as if the cabinet
was traveling between them...  I was the one who realized there could
be a way into Hogwarts through the cabinets if I fixed the broken
one."

The broken Vanishing Cabinet is no doubt the very one that Peeves
crashed onto the floor above Filch's office, that got Harry out of
trouble in CoS.  Oh, the dire implications of a pair of cabinets
making an unknown passageway between Borgin and Burkes and Hogwarts! 
Who could have put it there, and when?  Who knew about it?  And was
anyone using it before it was broken?  The most natural explanation is
that Tom Riddle could have put it there: he worked at Borgin and
Burkes after leaving Hogwarts.  What if he had access to Hogwarts for
years?  That's a horrid thought; but I think there is a less sinister
explanation.

This Vanishing Cabinet in Hogwarts can't have been too secret, because
Filch knew about it.  When it is crashed over his office, he states
that the "vanishing cabinet was extremely valuable!" (CoS, p.128). 
Who else knows it is a Vanishing Cabinet?  We aren't given any further
information.  Well, how do you get large furniture into Hogwarts?  Who
can get that accomplished? Probably the Headmaster and the other
Professors can do it, but why would they want to?  I doubt students
are allowed their own furniture. Well, what about Filch himself?  In
HBP, Filch intercepts everything coming in to Hogwarts, and only
things that he approves get in. So it would seem that Filch can get
anything he wants into Hogwarts.

Does he have a motivation for using a Vanishing Cabinet from inside
Hogwarts?  I think he does: he is a Squib!  A Vanishing Cabinet would
allow him to effectively apparate without requiring him to be able to
apparate: something that could be very useful for him. (You can't
apparate from inside Hogwarts anyway.)  So we could now ask, if he
bought a pair of Vanishing Cabinets and moved one inside Hogwarts,
where would he put the other one?  It's useless to put the second one
inside Hogwarts, because he's already there.  Most other possible
locations would put the cabinet in danger of discovery or destruction
from people running across it and wondering why it was there.  Where
would it be safe?  The clear answer: leave the second one inside
Borgin and Burkes, where he bought it from.  It could be marked as not
for sale, and he could pay Mr. Borgin a rental fee for storing it for
him.  Now he can go to Borgin and Burkes easily anytime he wants,
without being able to apparate, and without being seen entering the
store or going into Knockturn Alley.  I can imagine a Squib would have
many uses for Dark objects of the type one could buy from Borgin and
Burkes.  This gives him free access anytime he wants.

So I would definitely point my finger at Filch!

I posted this idea regarding the Vanishing Cabinets on cosforums about
a month ago, and was quite surprised that it didn't prompt a single
remark, either for or against... so I hope it prompts a little more
interest over here!

--
Peggy Wilkins
enlil65 at gmail.com