LV's bigger plan / Trelawney at the funeral or not?

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 166432

Ceridwen:
> I wasn't too clear in what I meant.  Sorry!  Of course McGonagall
> wouldn't discuss one of the teachers with Harry, even though she
> invites him for the big meeting in her office later.  I was
imagining
> that Harry would be near her while she was talking to another
> teacher, or perhaps an Order member - say Flitwick or Molly
Weasley -
> and overhear her talking about the "ungrateful Trelawney".
> Dumbledore came to Trelawney's rescue the year before, allowing her
> to stay in the castle when Umbridge was going to throw her out.  I
> can see McGonagall being outraged at Trelawney's absence after
that,
> and complaining to someone.
<big snip>

Dana:

No, I think I understood you ;). The thing is that JKR doesn't have
to put the missing Trelawney bit in HBP actively because the plotline
of this book is about the events (Draco/ Snape) leading to DD's
death. You do not put another climax into your climax and also this
would be too big a distraction from the emotional load of the funeral
scene. The big meeting with McGonagall in DD's office was before the
funeral not after. Harry never talks to McGonagall after the funeral.
His only interactions after the funeral are with Ginny, Scrimgeour,
Ron and Hermione.

There is no time for him to listen in on other people's
conversations. Almost all other people we met as active characters
are mentioned at the funeral but not Trelawney, she is more then
just "the staff" in the story.

Instead of making Trelawney's absence a distraction to the impact of
the funeral scene her not mentioning Trelawney specifically can mean
as much into itself. It doesn't have to be because there is no way to
know until we see it ourselves in DH but it is strange that Trelawney
is mentioned from PoA on to actively seek out Harry to give him her
predictions but we do not see her actively seeking him out before or
after the funeral either.

Yet JKR found it important enough to include Trelawney just before
the climax of the book. Why? It adds nothing to the plot line, it
doesn't push the story forward because even her mentioning that
someone in RoR was celebrating adds nothing specifically, even if it
prepares the reader that something is going to happen, but we are
already set up for that by Harry's own actions.
The Snape part also adds nothing specifically to the plot of HBP or
even the main plot because eventually the messenger of the prophecy
has no importance to how the receiver of the message acts on it. And
it says nothing specifically about Snape's loyalties because if he
just defected because he had a lifedebt to the James (the only part
this scene reflects on), then one could as easily conclude had it not
been so, he wouldn't have come to DD for instance if LV had chosen
Neville instead of Harry.

The question that remains (one of many questions of course) after
reading this book is why would LV chose Draco for a plan that had
every likelihood of failing. We do not know if the DEs had orders to
kill DD or to leave him be if Draco would not be able to. This is
totally overshadowed by Snape's actions. They seem eager enough but
that is proof of nothing as we see with the DE trying to crucio Harry
while under orders to leave him for the Dark Lord, so if you take out
the Snape line of the story then it doesn't seem like LV intentions
were to kill DD because from the conversation in the beginning of
the book, we are made to believe Draco will not be able to anyway and
with his idiotic attempts, the reader is not given more confidence
that Draco will pull it off.

But Draco's task might have been a different one from LV's
perspective and him succeeding in killing DD or not, might not have
had any relation to the real task LV wanted him to perform: - getting
access to Hogwarts and distracting DD long enough for others to
perform a different task. The DEs we saw were clearly only part of
Draco's task but this doesn't mean that those three people (Bella,
Wormtail and maybe Narcissa) we see in the beginning of the book were
not part of something executed at the same time and that this part of
LV's plan will only unfold in the second part of the larger book ->
DH.

So it seems that even though the Draco plotline is ended in this
book, LV's intentions for the whole set up is not clear. Just like
Snape's reasons for taking the UV and killing DD are not clear. Or
even how much DD knew is never made clear.

Dana

Ps: This is not a question specifically in relation to this post but
I hear many people use the Diary destruction as a reason for LV to
take revenge on Lucius but I can't find it being mentioned anywhere
in the book 5 or 6 (and it was definitely not in 4) so could someone
direct me to it. Maybe I am wrong in thinking this but it doesn't
seem to be in the books but something that arouse outside of the
books to emphasize why LV would be angry with Lucius. So if someone
can help me out this will be greatly appreciated. (sorry for not
using a separate post)