[HPforGrownups] Trelawney's Predictions

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 33543

In a message dated 16/01/02 15:12:56 GMT Standard Time, margdean at erols.com 
writes:


> Ah, but Dumbledore didn't say "correct predictions."  He said
> "genuine predictions" -- by which I think he means actual
> instances of the Sight coming upon Trelawney.  It's fairly
> obvious even to Harry how different this is from the usual run of
> Trelawney's predictions.
> 
> A prediction can perfectly well be correct without being
> "genuine" in that sense; by coincidence, by good guessing, by
> cleverly vague wording, all the stock-in-trade of the
> fortune-teller.
> 
> I'm with the camp that holds that Trelawney's actual Sight is
> fitful and uncontrollable, but that she's a past master at
> plausible fakery.
> 
> 

Hear hear!

On the way back from school yesterday we were listening to the part of PoA 
where she makes her prediction of Voldemort's return.

What struck me was her incredulity when Harry relates her prediction back to 
her. Her gift seems to be so fitful that she doesn't even recognise it/ 
expect it when it happens. And then, in an apparent, if unintentional, 
admission she protests that she would never have predicted something so 
unlikely.

 'Ha! Got you, you old fraud!' was my reaction.

 It's not that I think she has no gift at all, just that she hasn't harnassed 
it. I don't think we can tell anything from the other predictions she's made: 
nothing that goodness knows how many fake mediums/fortune tellers haven't 
achieved, whether stage performers or masquerading as genuine.

Eloise (who's consoling herself with a bit of light entertainment after the 
computer just ate the last four hours' work. Yes, I know I should have saved 
it!)


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]