Trelawney's prediction & end of HBP (Trelawney at the funeral or not?)

[julie]

No: HPFGUIDX 166464


>
> > Magpie:
> > > I think Trelawney's absence from the castle after DEs invaded it
> > > would have alarmed a lot of people. Good reason for a head 
check,
> > > given all the mayhem. If we learn later that nobody noticed I'll
> > > think that's not playing very fair--and also wonder why on earth
> > > JKR missed the opportunity to give us that cliffhanger.
> > 
> > Dana:
> > You're absolutely right. That kills the theory. Didn't think of 
that
> > obviously.
> 
> Jen: Hold on a minute, Dana!  I mean, you can bow out of course <g>,
> but I think we're arguing omissions with omissions now.  Just 
because
> there should have been a head count, there wasn't one on page.  
> Trelawney's name isn't mentioned, so she must be 'staff'.  
> 
> People seem to be saying omission isn't a good enough reason for
> lack of presence and they will essentially feel JKR is not playing
> fair if Trelawney is absent without notice.
> 
> Here's what I feel is not playing fair and why the storyline is 
*not*
> resolved to me in HBP:  We see Trelawney twice wandering around the
> corridors in HBP with her cards.  She has beseeched Dumbledore
> to listen to her,  'If Dumbledore chooses to ignore the warnings
> the cards show -'  and a moment later, '- the lightning-struck 
tower,' she
> whispered.  'Calamity.  Disaster.  Coming nearer all the time...' 
(chap 25, p.
> 507, UK ed.)
> 
> Trelawney has also been visiting Dumbledore frequently, 'the 
headmaster
> has intimated he would prefer fewer vists from me,' and not only is 
she
> discussing looming disaster, her visit in 'Lord Voldemort's 
request' is
> about a continuing struggle with Dumbledore to 'banish the usurping
> nag' from the castle.  This is a continuation of what started in 
OOTP with
> Umbridge, Trelawney believing her legitimacy as a Seer is being 
questioned
> and 'Dobbin' is a visible reminder of this.  She sums up her views 
on the
> situation to Harry saying, 'perhaps the horse has heard people say 
I have not
> inherited my great-great-grandmother's gift.  These rumours have 
been
> bandied about by the jealous for years.' (chap. 25, p. 508, UK ed.)
> 
> Trelawney correctly reading the cards in HBP, with a witness, would 
be
> a perfect opportunity for JKR to end the story arc, which 
essentially spans
> back to Trelawney's arrival on the scene in POA when the whispers 
of 'fraud'
> began and then are examined further in OOTP and continue into HBP.
> Not everyone in the WW would bow before her, but in Trelawney's 
mind she
> would be legitimized.  
> 
> Now perhaps JKR didn't want to have the comic relief of Trelawney 
inter-
> fering in Dumbledore's funeral, sobbing, telling everyone how she 
tried to
> warn Dumbledore.  I can understand that, it was supposed to be 
solemn.
> She could have fit it somewhere in the hospital scene, it would be
> reasonable for Trelawney to have been awakened by all the noise in 
the 7th
> floor corridor not once, but twice, that night.  Looking at the map 
on the Lexicon,
> the base of her tower starts on the 7th floor corridor.
> 
> Re: Harry.  I'd also like to point out he didn't remember the 2nd 
prophecy
> in POA until his memory was jogged by Dumbledore.  I would have 
thought
> the conversation in the hospital room would have jogged his memory,
> or if not there, when he was thinking about his hatred of Snape 
later on.
> Another opportunity passed up by JKR to mention Trelawney
> 
> What we get at the end of HBP is a big nothing.  No mention of
> Trelawney when McGonagall, Flitwick, Slughorn, Sprout, Hagrid, 
Pomfrey
> Pince, and Filch are all mentioned by name and Trelawney is left in 
the
> illustrious company of Vector and Sinastra, who don't even play a 
role,
> and Binns, with his limited presence.  We don't know how she felt 
about DD
> dying, we don't know what she thought of her prediction being true. 
Nothing.
> 
> The kidnapping, whether someone buys it or not, was an attempt to 
fill
> in the gaps JKR didn't quite at the end of HBP.  I would love to 
hear
> someone else's conclusion as to why JKR completely omitted 
Trelawney,
> not only after the events of her predictions, but the new 
information she
> revealed to Harry about Snape.  
> 
> Jen

Julie:
I guess it boils down to what would seem the bigger 
omission by JKR, not mentioning Trelawney's presence
at the funeral (or why she isn't there), or not mentioning
a huge furor over her total absence from Hogwarts in the
aftermath of a DE invasion.

To me it is the second one that would be the greater 
omission. That Trelawney could disappear and no one
notices seems quite ludicrous to me. That Trelawney
could still be safe at Hogwarts but not mentioned as
attending the funeral or up in her room refusing or
unable to attend is perhaps a bit of a lapse by JKR
but it still doesn't come off as the kind of major error
or deliberate cheat as Trelawney being gone from 
Hogwarts with no one even noticing does. 

I also think minor lapses do occur in JKR's writing
while she has yet to deliberately fool us without 
dropping some kind of clue beforehand. And in this
case, what's the advantage to hiding the fact that
Trelawney was kidnapped during the DE fracas? We
already know LV wants her, so it wouldn't be any 
huge surprise, or something that would tie together
an unknown part of the final plot. Not that I can
see anyway.

Julie