HBP - Trelawney's Drinking

[redandgoldlion]

No: HPFGUIDX 132958

The book was wonderful! I'm fully as intriged by Snape as everyone 
else. However, you all seem to have him covered as a topic, so I 
thought I'd bring up Trelawney.

The woman obviously has a drinking problem... And as a general rule, 
she appears to be a fraud. However, we know that she can make real 
prophecies as well. 

At first I thought her real prophecies could only be things she 
didn't remember, as this was how it appeared in the past. She 
certainly had no recollection of the prophecy she made during 
Harry's exam or, apparently, the one Snape overheard her telling 
Dumbledore.

But then came the cards. The "Lightning-Struck Tower". Here's what 
she says when she runs into Harry in "The Seer Overheard":
(US edition, p.543)

"Again and again, no matter how I lay them out -- " ... "--the 
lightning-struck towner,"she whispered. "Calamity. Disaster. Coming 
nearer all the time..."

There she was, reading the lightning-struck tower, hiccuping and 
hiding her sherry bottles.

When she made her first prophecy--*the* prophecy--she was at the 
Hog's Head--a pub!

So, my thought is this. Maybe, just maybe, being drunk increases her 
prowess in divination (which, I admit, I thought was non-existent 
until PoA). 

Of course, she didn't *seem* particulary drunk during the exam, but 
with Trelawney, who knows? I'm quite sure she keeps a bottle of 
sherry handy in that tower of hers.

~redandgoldlion~