Grindelwald, Trelawney and fuzzy timelines...

[ladjables]

No: HPFGUIDX 36757

Sorry about that double post everyone, my computer's playing the fool.

 --- In HPforGrownups at y..., I (ladjables) babbled:
>> Say Trelawney predicted a dark wizard who had the power to elude 
death could only be foiled by someone with this ability.  Dumbledore 
is privy to this information.  If Tom Riddle was able to pick the 
phoenix wand, long before Voldemort even existed, then Dumbledore may 
have had some foresight into the matter and planned the duel between 
evil wizard and good wizard for over 50 years, at most.<<

I then went on to say maybe Dumbledore gave the first feather a)
innocently or b)for someone Good, and when he became aware of Tom 
Riddle's true nature, either naturally or because of Trelawney's 
prediction, he gave another plume to Ollivander.  Now here I am going 
on about a 50 year old prediction and I'm not really sure how old 
Trelawney is.  I mean, I get the impression she IS old, but there 
doesn't seem to be anything in the text to support or refute this.   

>From their ages we know McGonagall, Hagrid and Tom Riddle were all at 
school together (not necessarily the same class though) but could 
Trelawney also have been a contemporary?  Could she have made her 
first real prediction as a teenager, and the Transfiguration teacher 
Dumbledore got wind of it?   Which was why he observed Tom so closely 
and why he later had another Fawkes wand created?  Perhaps this is 
why he keeps Trelawney on at school, because he realized she is a 
true Seer, and it's just Sibyll's histrionic personality that gets in 
the way.  Maybe she can only make important predictions at certain 
junctures in her life-once in her youth, once at her peak, and once 
before death.  Who knows?  Having the Sight doesn't mean you'll See 
all the time.

I'm getting confused with the timelines.  How old is Lord Voldemort 
now?  75? And Grindelwald, for instance.  He was destroyed by 
Dumbledore in 1945, Riddle would have been about 18.  Could 
Grindelwald have been the last great DADA teacher?  Could he have 
taught Tom Riddle, and that's why it's been impossible to secure a 
qualified DADA teacher, becuse of the stigma attached to that post?  

Goodness, I'm really turning Hogwarts into Fate's crucible, aren't 
I?  Young Sibyll predicting Head Boy Tom is going to turn evil, 
Rubeus trying to persuade Minerva not to turn her into a teacup, 
Professor Grindelwald glowering in the corridors, Professor 
Dumbledore observing from the sidelines.  But it would make such a 
great backstory, even if it's relegated to footnotes in JKR's 
Hogwart's Encyclopaedia.
Ama