Plot hole - discrediting Harry - Harry as Seer?

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 18365

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> But now I'm getting intrigued: why =did= JKR need someone to be 
> carrying info out of the school, Skeeter-style?  This certainly 
takes 
> up a lot of GF, but I would have said that you could excise it 
without 
> damaging the plot (it would still be enough to make a writer weep, 
as 
> Stacy said--what a lot of work rewriting all those scenes...).  As 
> things stand at the end of GF, Rita has made life more miserable 
for 
> Hermione, Harry, and Hagrid, but has had no significant impact 
> otherwise--i.e., this plotline is important to character but not to 
> plot.  Is something important going to come of one of her articles, 
> e.g. the thought someone threw out last week that because of them, 
> Fudge has been shifted from admiring/indulging Harry to really 
> believing he is dangerous?  


This was my first (and only, so far!) view on the matter.  I think 
that JKR is trying to undermine Harry's position - make him less 
popular, and make out that his dreams/behaviour are incipient signs 
of madness etc.  All necessary to shake the MoM's belief in him.  

BTW: has there been a discussion on why Harry has these dreams?  I 
know the majority of it ties in with his scar, but there are other 
instances as well IIRC.  
I hesitate to mention this, as I don't want everyone to start 
throwing things at me, but I read Richard Abanes' book (my curiosity 
got the better of me) and he waffled on about JKR's love of 
divination was manifest by the fact that her main protagonist is 
a "True Seer" or something.  I wondered about this, and came to the 
conclusion that Harry only seems to dream things as they are 
happening, not before.  The only example of divination I could think 
of is when he predicts Buckbeak's escape, against all the odds.  
This, however, can probably be put down to pigheadedness and 
deliberately saying the opposite of what Professor Trelawney wants to 
hear.

Catherine