Harry's OWL in Potions

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 125636


Me:

> > Divination? Hmm-mm. Acceptance of death, or questioning 
> information - 
> > I'd say pretty important.
> >
> 
> GEO: I say it's totally useless. The only thing divination has 
> taught the students of Hogwarts is that prophecy and predication 
are 
> 9/10s wrong.

Finwitch:

I was talking about the indirect lessons, not tealeaves. (Curiously 
enough, the one prediction Harry was doing seriously to Ron said 
that 'You'll suffer but be very happy'. As illogical as that is, it 
DID happen that year: Ron was very happy to get Scabbers back, but 
suffered because the rat kept bitting him!)

Accepting your death (watch Harry behind the grave-stone) can be 
important. You don't want to become a ghost, after all. Right now, 
life has given Harry the other lesson - that of accepting others 
dying. As Trelawney said 'that thing you dread will indeed happen' - 
(and Harry's ONLY dread had to do with Sirius getting caught -- 
losing him, that is). When she made that other 'dread'-prediction, 
giving a DATE which was accurate - I think that Lavender dreaded 
*hearing bad news* at that point of the first lesson! Hermione just 
confused things with that 'did you dread him being eaten by a fox'.

Another thing that I find important that could be taken from 
Trelawney: code-language. You know - if it looks like that sort of 
underappreciated prediction, no one who's not in the know will pay 
attention. Like - well, Grim referring to Sirius... (imagine if 
Sirius didn't die, or managed his way back and Harry needed to tell 
that to Dumbledore, possibly trough Trelawney. 'I've seen Grim in the 
future of Harry Potter...'. Or Harry telling Trelawney about 'seeing 
a grim somewhere. Please tell professor Dumbledore..' -- maybe the 
intended message would get trough, but - most importantly, Ministry 
and DEs would NOT be likely to get it. Or if you talk of conjunction 
of Moon and Sirius (it means Remus and Sirius are together)...

Of course, the Centaur (who isn't certain about anything) - well, you 
MUST question. If an auror believes everything in the Daily Prophet 
(not that Harry needs any extra for that), well, not good. AND, the 
prophecies in the DoM ARE real, and they WILL happen, no matter what. 
You just cannot be certain what they mean. (but knowing this may give 
you a *clue* to some other things). And the part about errors, 
mistakes etc. from Firenze. That 'Mars is bright tonight'. Describe 
what you see, as effectively and objectively as possible. Not a bad 
practice, either. That's what a witness should give you... and that's 
what you ought to get from them.

Interpreting prophecies and tealeaves & such, well NO. But there ARE 
tools to be learned in Divination that can be used to find out 
things. Tools that can best be learned indirectly or by life -- the 
tea-leaves and such are just a *cover* for the important lessons...

Finwitch