Trelawney was wrong, she spoke of Snape, but thought it was Harry

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121715


LadyOfThePensieve wrote:

> since we know Snape was born at January, 9th, we know he is a
> capricorn and the capricorn is astrologically ruled by STATURN (by
the way the 7.planet in our solsystem)
> 
> In GoF, chapter 13 (Mad Eye Moody) she [Trelawney] teaches the
studenst to interprate the constellation of the planets. <snip>

> 'I was saying, my dear, that you were clearly born under the baleful
> influence of Saturn,' said Professor Trelawney, a faint note of
> resentment in her voice at the fact that he had obviously not been
> hanging on her words.
> 
> 'Born under - what, sorry?' said Harry.
> 
> 'Saturn, dear, the planet Saturn!' said Professor Trelawney,
sounding definitely irritated that he wasn't riveted by this news. 'I
was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the
heavens at the moment of your birth...Your dark hair...your mean
stature...tragic losses so young in life...I think I am right in
saying, my dear, that you were born in midwinter?'
> 
> 'No,' said Harry, 'I was born in July.' <snip>

> So while she believed she was talking of Harry (she wasn´t ideed),
we can now be sure maybe 85 percent it was Snape she was speaking of,
even she didn´t know it , of course. We couldn´t know it, because we
hadn´t no clue Snape was born in Midwinter and as capricorn and under
Saturn´s rule.
> 
> What do you think of it?

Carol responds:
I proposed something similar earlier:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/121474

Snape was born if not in midwinter, at least in what *seems* like
midwinter in England, he has dark hair, and he had an unhappy 9and
perhaps literally tragic) childhood. Potioncat and others have noted
that this description might also apply to Tom Riddle and Sirius Black,
since we don't know when they were born, but neither of them can be
considered to be of "mean" stature--both are described as tall. And
while Snape is never described as short (he's clearly taller than
Harry even in OoP), he's shorter than Sirius and described in several
places as thin, so he could conceivably be 5'7" or so with a small
frame--not tiny like Flitwick but still rather small for a man.

At any rate, I immediately thought of Snape when I first read
Trelawney's description and have been expecting to discover that he
had a winter or midwinter birthday ever since. As noted previously,
I've been watching the birthdays on JKR's site since bleak and dreary
November with Severus in mind, but the Capricorn sign is more
appropriate with regard to the influence of Saturn in Trelawney's
description, as is the Janus symbolism we discussed in the "Happy
birthday, Severus Snape" thread.

So Trelawney, as usual, is not so much wrong as misreading the
information available to her, just as she misreads the dog in the
crystal ball as a Grim.

Carol