Fawkes possible absence (was: Magical animals in canon/ Fawkes and Snape)

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 166326

Carol:

> In GoF, admittedly, Harry fights Voldemort alone, 
> but it's the Phoenix-feather wand core that causes 
> the Priori Incantatem effect and saves his life, 
> so in a sense Fawkes, an extension of Dumbledore, 
> keeps Harry alive.

houyhnhnm:

Along with the only spell he could think of in that 
moment, the one he learned from Snape--Expelliarmus.  
I'm not saying that any spell wouldn't have done to 
produce the Priori Incantatum effect, just that, when 
Harry's life was on the line, this is the one that 
came immediately to his mind. 

Carol:

> Trelawney, who has been predicting disaster 
> (but not believing her own predictions) all year,

houyhnhnm:

Speaking of Trelawney, the right old fraud.  I just got 
through reading the part in PoA where Harry is taking 
his Divination exam immediately before Trelawney went 
into a trance and delivered her true prophecy about Wormtail.

***************************
The heat was overpowering and his nostrils were 
stinging with the perfumed smoke wafting from the 
fire beside them. [Harry} thought of what Ron had 
just said and decided to pretend.
  "Er--," said Harry, "a dark shape ... um ..."
     "What does it resemble?" whispered Professor 
Trelawney.  "Think now."
  Harry cast his mind around and it landed on Buckbeak.
  "A hippogriff," he said firmly.
  "Indeed!" whispered Professor Trelawney, scribbling 
keenly on the parchment perched upon her knees.  "My 
boy, you may well be seeing the outcome of poor Hagrid's 
trouble with the Ministry of Magic!  Look closer ... 
does the hippogriff appear to ... have its head?"
  "Yes," said Harry firmly.
  "Are you sure?" Professor Trelawney urged him.  "Are 
you quite sure, dear?  You don't see it writhing on the 
ground, perhaps, and a shadowy figure raising an axe 
behind it?"
  "No," said Harry, starting to feel slightly sick.
  "No blood, no weeping Hagrid?"
  "No!" said Harry again, wanting more than ever to 
leave the room and the heat.  "It looks fine, 
it's--flying away ..."
  Professor Trelawney sighed.
  "Well, dear, I think we'll leave it there ... A little 
disappointing ... but I'm sure you did your best." 
***************************

On the first read one cannot appreciate the irony of 
the fact that Harry really is foretelling the future 
and Trelawney dismisses him, and on subsequent re-reads, 
I seem to have missed it.

The other thing that interests me is that Trelawney 
seems to be remarkably up to date on Hogwarts 
scuttlebutt for someone who is so reclusive and other-wordly.