Gone a while - question about Snape

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 154606

Potioncat wrote:
> Oh, I agree. In addition, I don't Trelawney or JKR are very precise 
> people. Yet, this is what I found in chpt 15 when Trelawney is 
> answering Umbridge:
> "Now, you've been in this post how long, exactly?"
> After a slight pause in which she seemed to decide that the question 
> was not so offensive that she could reasonably ignore it..."Nearly 
> sixteen years."
> 
> OK, at that point, I thought I would help Carol's Halloween theory. 
> But when I kept reading, I saw Trelawney word things differently.
> 
> Two or three weeks pass (as I read it. There are at least two as 
> stated in chp 16) In chpt 17 in Trelawney's class--no Umbridge--and 
> Trelawney says to the students, "I say nothing of 16 years devoted 
> service...it has passed, apparently, unnoticed."
> 
> There is talk of more time passing. Of Quidditch practices, then in 
> chpt 19, October "extinguished itself in a rush of howling winds." 
> 
> So it seems Trelawney's 16 years happened before Halloween. However, 
> if we think (and one could hardly argue against it) that Trelawney 
> wasn't being precise, we could say Halloween is still within the
time frame.

Carol responds:

Thanks for trying to help my theory, but don't give up yet. Note that
Umbridge asks Trelawney to tell her *exactly* how long she's taught at
Hogwarts. At this time it's apparently still September and she says
"*nearly* sixteen years, indicating that, unlike Snape and most other
teachers (McGonagall is another exception), she was not hired at the
beginning of the school year. Dumbledore says that he had considered
dropping the subject from the curriculum altogether, so he isn't
hiring beginning-of-the-year teachers here; he's filling an unexpected
vacancy (which he would have left unfilled if it weren't for the
Prophecy, which turns Sibyll into a Protected Person).

A few weeks later, and a few weeks closer to Halloween, Trelawney
complains to her students of "sixteen years devoted service" going
unrewarded. Here she's under no obligation to state "exactly" how long
she's been teaching, and is free to round off the number to the
nearest year.

At any rate, I don't see how she could have made the Prophecy before
Harry was conceived, which would have been right around Halloween, and
given JKR's penchant for significant events happening on that date, it
makes sense to me to propose Halloween (All Hallow's Eve) as the date
of the Prophecy.

IMO, it's no coincidence that so many events, including Harry's
birthday, Tom Riddle's birthday, the Potters' and NHN's death dates,
and I've forgotten what else, happens on the 31st of various months.
It all starts with JKR's own birthdate of July 31, which she assigned
to her hero, and builds form there.

Carol, who thinks that JKR's fondness for the magical number seven may
also stem from having been born as the seventh month dies