The two versions of the Prophecy

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 143176

Carol:
> Also, Trelawney tells Harry that Snape must have been eavesdropping to
> pick up interview techniques and that he was looking for a job at the
> time. That's a very odd assumption considering the time frame.
> Assuming that Trelawney did indeed see young Snape listening at the
> door, she seems to have supplied her own after-the-fact explanation,
> which does not in fact make sense considering that Snape was hired
> almost two years after Trelawney was...
*(snip)*

Ceridwen:
I forgot to answer this in my last post, but this is only my second 
today so I can set the iron to low and put it aside (for now!)

I think Trelawney came up with an answer that satisfied her, and didn't 
give it any more thought after that.  She may even have convinced 
herself that it was her Inner Eye that told her Snape was looking for a 
job and trying for tips by eavesdropping.  Just because it wasn't the 
ordinary time to go looking for a job at a school, doesn't mean she 
would automatically think anything different, simply because *she* was 
looking for a job just then, so it wasn't out of the realm of 
possibility that someone else was, too.

Also, if it was later in the term, it might be reasonable to think that 
people would start sending out feelers if they want to teach beginning 
the next semester.  And, just because Snape didn't get hired at the 
same time, didn't mean he wasn't job hunting.  It just meant that 
either he didn't get the position he was going for, or that there was 
no other vacancy for him to fill.  Could Trelawney have thought that he 
was trying for a Divination position as she was, and that she beat him 
out of it?  She may have believed, or convinced herself, that he kept 
on trying until he got a position only two years or so later.

I know Dumbledore didn't have much faith in the discipline, but there 
is an O.W.L. in it, so he may have had no choice but to get a teacher 
for it.  I wonder sometimes if this is when they first came up with the 
idea of an O.W.L. for it, so Dumbledore absolutely needed to find a 
teacher for it, or if the O.W.L. came once he had a teacher?

I do think Dumbledore was keeping more information from Harry than 
there was to know.  Not lying, necessarily, but giving him information 
on a 'need to know' basis.  He didn't need to know who the spy was, or 
that the spy was seen by himself and Trelawney.  He did need to know 
the prophecy.  And, for Trelawney's sake, he (and others!) needed to 
know that she's at Hogwarts as much for her own protection as to 
provide instruction in an O.W.L. course.

Ceridwen.