Thoughts about Trelawney

[oppen at cnsinternet.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 23121

I have to agree with Hermione that Trelawney's a right old fraud; one 
of the (many!) reasons I like Hermione is because she's smart enough 
to see through her, and tough-minded enough to drop the class.  
However, I think that Dumbledore keeps her around for reasons other 
than that "she's the only thing even close to a Seer we could get for 
this job."  
Her role may well be to merely _expose_ the students to Divination, 
in hopes that a real talent might show itself by being exposed to the 
various methods she runs through.  Real Seers, according to Professor 
McGonagall (and who would dare dispute such things with her?  Not I; 
I don't _like_ losing points and getting detentions!) are very, very 
rare.  Or they could just be very, very discreet about what they can 
do, if only to avoid being run raggedy by people with a bad case of 
the "gimmees."  Real Seers might well be among the quietly wealthy in 
the wizarding world, amassing oodles of loot from knowing which start-
ups to invest in and which to avoid, and when to sell their shares in 
(forex) Weasley's Wizard Wheezes.  If the Hogwarts authorities can 
identify those with Seers' talents _before_ they get out of school 
and start amassing obscene amounts of wealth (or worse!  Think of 
Rita Skeeter with the powers of a full Seer---perish the thought!) 
they can find ways to interest them in uses for their talents for 
things other than purely selfish.  I'm sure the Aurors would love to 
have a few Seers around on the staff, and Gringotts would be able to 
find something for them to do as well.  
Well, I hope this theory finds favor---at least it makes a little 
more sense than the one I heard recently, to the effect that 
Trelawney was there because she and Snape were having a torrid 
affair.  If Snape heard me say _that,_ I'd not only lose whichever 
house I was in more points than they had ever had, but I'd be pulling 
detention duty until ten years after graduating Hogwarts, I fear.