Timeline Questions re Snape's and Trewlaney's Appointments

[miradourz]

No: HPFGUIDX 150926

Angie <gelite67 at ...> wrote:
> In OOP, Harry turns 15; Trewlawney said she'd been teaching for 16 
> years; and Snape said he'd been teaching for 14 years.
> 
> So, Trewlawney started teaching the year before Harry was born?  
> And Snape the year after?  
> 
>  I can't believe DD caught Snape eavesdropping two years 
> before and just let him go -- > 
>    
> Also, why was Snape eavesdropping in the first place?  Probably on 
> LV's orders, but why?  ST didn't have a rep for being a successful 
> seer, after all.


Miradourz:

I think that this is a mystery, not a timeline mistake by JKR. It's 
possible that neither Snape nor Dumbledore realised the significance 
of the prophecy, that is why DD let Snape go. If it was in the Autumn 
before Harry was born, no one, certainly not Snape, would have known 
which child it referred to. 
Also, who knows when Voldemort started calling himself 'The Dark 
Lord'? It may have been after he heard the prophecy, not before. 
There are supposed to be hundreds of prophecies in the Dept. of 
Mysteries - not all of them come true. This one did perhaps because 
Voldemort applied it to himself.

Snape eavesdropping? Maybe he really was after interview tips, since 
he would have feared what Voldemort would do to him if he didn't get 
a job at Hogwarts!!