Trelawney's part in HBP: Planting info on the Tarot D...

[M.Clifford]

No: HPFGUIDX 137504


> Sherrie here:
>  
> Interpretations vary depending on the author - but nearly all of   
> them include the idea of the old being swept away suddenly to allow  
> room for the new to come in.
>  
<snippity>
>  
> A great deal of the interpretation rests also on the identification    
> of the subject of the reading - who exactly was the Querent for whom  
> Sybil was casting here?
>  
> Sherrie
> Tarot reader since 1970
> 

Valky:
Hehe. As a fellow veteran of the cards Sherrie I commend you on that
excellent point, and I'm giggling as I think of my answer.

In my experience there is one certain answer to this question: someone
so obssessively consulting the Tarot, as Trelawney is in HBP, is
looking for *her* answer. She is the Querent, and she *wants*
something, and the Tarot isn't telling her what she wants to hear. 

My best guess, presuming that JKR is somewhat familiar with the human
tendency to try and force the signs appear, is that Trelawney wants
the cards to tell her Hogwarts will go back to the way it was. When
she was happy in her Tower with her cosy little job all to herself.
Her subject is Hogwarts, and in particular, her job I think. 

What probably concerns her most about the Tower is not that it
portends imminent disaster and catastrophic changes in Hogwarts, as
far as she's concerned that already happened last year (well to *her*
anyway and thats what matters isn't it.. as Firenze implies,
preoccupied with the trivial small concerns of herself in her fortune
reading). You see Trelawney thinks, I believe, and possibly (though
not completely) accurately, that these changes she forsees in the
Tower, this separation and relinquishing of ties, are *her* ties to
*her* job and *her* home, Hogwarts. 

Quite distraught she runs to Dumbledore, who has repeatedly assured
her that Firenze is no threat to her continued position at Hogwarts,
to challenge him, and defy him to again denounce what the fortunes
hold. The cards say she isn't staying at Hogwarts, they say she's
about to lose everything, "Oh say it isn't so Dear Dumbledore, throw
out the mule please, it is the only way to avert this terrible
fortune." And Dumbledore again says to her, "Dear Sybill I assure you,
*Firenze* is not a threat to *anybody* in Hogwarts. Perhaps you should
go and introduce yourself to him, I am sure that you two could have an
*enlightening* conversation about those cards of yours." Peering over
his glasses at the handful of disastrous portends causing Trelawney so
much grief.

I am supposing that, had Sybill got to know her fellow teacher,
instead of pinning the blame for her worst fears coming true on his
dear furry behind, he could perhaps have told her that those cards
quite possibly speak to her of much greater things than herself and
their shared job. But she wasn't about to do that was she..

<eg>

Thanks for bringing that up Sherrie, I've enjoyed the change of pace
from the other threads I've been contributing to.

Valky