Can Harry Potter Predict his Future??????? (Book #4 -Goblet of Fire)

[Berit Jakobsen]

No: HPFGUIDX 88294

Migdalia wrote: 
> I don't know if anyone has brought this up yet. But I was
> wondering what everyone though about the fact that Harry Potter
> predicts his future correctly in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
> (Book #4).
> 
> Well in Chapter Fourteen (14) Harry and Ron are supposed to
> predict what was going to happen to them in the next week using the
> book "Unfogging the Future" for Divination class. But because of
> all there homework and stuff, they decide to "fake it". But does
> Harry really fake it? Harry starts inventing all kinds of things
> that are supposedly going to happen to him in the next week. But
> when you keep reading the book, if you keep in mind those
> predictions, it¡¦s obvious that there true, they don't happen in
> just one week, but they occurred little by little in the school
> year.
> 
> Just for those that don¡¦t remember them here they go:
> 
> 1. "Okay... on Monday, I will be in danger of - er -
> burns.".
> 
> [Further on in the book, Harry has to fight Dragons in the first
> task of the Triwizard Tournament, which explains his danger of being
> burned.]
> ----------
> 2. "Lose a treasured possession," said Harry, who was flicking
> through Unfogging the Future for ideas. "Good one," said Ron
> 
> [This one got me a little confused, because the way it's written,
> its like Harry suggested it to Ron. But Harry loses a treasured
> possession in the second task, he loses Ron at the bottom of the
> lake, were he has to save him to win.]
> ----------
> 3."Why don't you get stabbed in the back by someone you thought was
> a friend"
> 
> [This one was suggested to Harry by Ron. After Harry's name is
> pulled out of the Goblet of Fire, you could say Ron stabbed him in
> the back, because he doesn't believe that Harry when he says that he
> didn¡¦t put his name in there.]
> ----------
> 4. "And on Wednesday, I think I'll come off worse in a fight."
> 
> [Harry does come out worse in a fight, well in this case in the
> second task; he is the last one to leave the lake.]
> ------------
> 5. Harry laid down his quill too, having just finished predicting
> his own death by decapitation.
> 
> [This prediction doesn't come true obviously, because Harry is still
> alive. This one is mentioned a few paragraphs after the others. I
> don't remember at the end of the book, Harry almost being
> decapitated by Lord Voldemort, or anyone else. So I don't know were
> that one comes into the book at any time.]
> 
> That's were my big confusion kicks in, is Harry Potter going to
> die at the end of the books by being decapitated by Lord Voldemort?
> And can Harry predict his future?


Berit replies:

I don't think Harry and Ron's constructed predictions turned out to 
be true. They are way too general, and the one that wasn't, hasn't 
come true so far (the decapitation). You can make almost anything fit 
those predictions.

"I will be in danger of burns". Very general, isn't it? The statement 
doesn't say "I will get a burn"; just "I might get burnt." And Harry 
probably based his prediction on him going to handle the blast-ended 
skrewts in Hagrid's class... The chance of him getting a burn was 
quite high indeed; not very difficult to make such a prediction, is 
it? Anyone could do it :-)

"Lose a treasured possession". Also way too general; we could put a 
lot of things in this bag; let's say Harry didn't have to retrieve 
Ron from the bottom of the lake, but happened to lose his favourite 
quill during the school-year. Or, this prediction could apply to 
Harry "losing" his wristwatch, he had to eventually throw it away 
after it stopped working in the lake. Aha!, we'd say; Harry is a true 
prophet! Nope.

"Getting stabbed in the back by someone you thought was a friend." 
This could come true any day; anyone of Harry's friends not 
supporting him or going behind his back would have qualified; not 
just Ron and Harmione, but also Mad-Eye Moody would have fitted the 
profile. If someone stabbed Harry in the back in GoF, it was Impostor!
Moody... As you see, one can make this "prediction" apply to just 
about any incident involving someone you trust.

It's not so hard for Harry to predict he'll "come off worse in a 
fight." After all, he always seems to attract trouble, so the chance 
of him getting involved in some sort of fight and coming off worse 
during the school-year is very great indeed.

And his last prediction; "death by decapitation" is the only 
prediction specific enough to take any notice of. Sad for Harry's 
reputation as a true Seer that it didn't come through at the end of 
the week since that was when he predicted it to happen :-)

No, I just can't see how these made-up predictions could possibly be 
real predictions. It's like the one Trelawney made; was it Lavender 
or Parvati who was going to lose a treasured something the day the 
prediction was made, and then the girl got a message by owl the very 
same day, saying her pet rabbit had died. Hermione sat her straight, 
reminding her that the rabbit didn't die that day, but several days 
earlier... No, I'm with Hermione and Dumbledore + centaur Firenze on 
this (what they say often coincide with Rowling's views); there are 
very few, real predictions around, and certainly none of the mundane 
ones are true! According to Dumbledore Trelawney has made two real 
predictions in her whole life, dismissing the hundreds of hundreds 
of "mundane" ones she does in class every week; and they're the same 
kind as Ron And Harry make up to satisfy Trelawney's need for tragic 
things to happen... It's pure superstition to  believe in these types 
of "predictions". Downright stupid, according to Firenze :-)

Berit