kitchen

[kausarqadir]

originally quoted from THE MIRROR OF ERISED(PS/SS)
it is when harry has left the library (restricted section)...
"he came to a sudden halt in front of a tall suit of armour. he had been so busy getting away from the library, he hadn't paid attention to where he was going. Perhaps because it was dark, he didnt recognise where he was at all. there was a suit of armour near the KITCHENS, he knew, but he must be five floors above there."
i was in the impression that they didnt know about the kitchens as they came to know about it in GOF when the twins brought back the food for celebrating the fourth Griff champ.

[Tonks]

Ok, I'm assuming that Harry probably knew about where the kitchens were, because they have to be under the Great Hall since the food is sent up through the tables. Therefore, he knows the general location of the kitchens as early as SS/PS, but doesn't discover how to enter them until GoF. Keeping in mind that there do not seem to be an excessive amount of suits of armor around Hogwarts, i think that the "suit of armor near the kitchens" could easily just be Harry knowing that there is a suit of armor on that floor in that specific wing..

[Hermione]

I agree with Tonks, Harry didn't know the exact location of the kitchens, but the setting probably set the tone for kitchens and cleaning rooms. It is a different envirment from a classroom.

[Alz]

I think given this was PS/SS - everything was still new to Harry - as such he was making assocations in order to set markers of where he was and what was there.
It's like landmarking - when you give directions you tend to point towards things that people will see - that way they tend to know they are on the right path.
I think it would be impossible to know every part of Hogwarts - but you would assume some locations would be noted - and of course the kitchens is a place we can all relate to - we all have one!
It is interesting we wait till GoF to explore the details some more :)

[The SketchWolf]

First of all, very observant of you to pick that up, Kausaqadir (hope I spelled that right!). Lol, I probably just flew right past that.

Anyway, they probably knew the general location, even if they didn't know where the entrance was, as has been said by Tonks.

Also, we have to remember that JK Rowling herself once said that many of the rooms in Hogwarts change places and move about. Some, of course, seem to be firmly in their place, and the kitchen did seem to be 'pivot point', if you follow me, as in, it had its roots right there where they should be and wasn't about to budge, but we can also assume that it moved as well. They may have even used a different room as the kitchen at one point.

Although the reader usually doesn't know any more than Harry does (unless you figure out a clue or something before he does) these weren't necessarily Harry's thoughts. For example, we can talk about the Goblet of Fire in Harry's first year (in the text), but he won't know what it is. Does that make any sense?

Well, I'm still amazed that you recognized that. I'd usually pick up something like that, but oh well. That's something to think about, there.

[Boing]

I think that he might have heard about there being a suit of armor near the kitchens. We do find out that Fred and George really like to go down and pilfer food from the kitchens, so it is quite possible that they would have said something about the suit of armor in one of their conversations - like, Fred almost bumped into the suit of armor and I nearly jumped out of my skin . . . that sort of thing.