Trelawney's prediction & end of HBP

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 166538

Dana before:
> > I do not agree that just because he wants to avoid
> > someone it therefore means he wouldn't think
> > anything about them.
> >
> > Carol responds:
> >There may be a reason, besides Harry's state of mind
> > and a lot of other things going on, for JKR to have
> > the narrator neglect to mention Trelawney. ...
> >
> > Magpie:
> > I would offer another reason for Harry not to mention
> > her, which is just that throughout the book JKR juggles
> > what she wants Harry to focus on and if she doesn't
> > want to focus on something, he doesn't.
> >
>
bboyminn:
> I have to agree with what Magpie is implying. Note first
> that a lot of people are mentioned, but they tend to be
> people who stand out.
<snip>

Dana now:
I agree with Magpie too that JKR might not have included Trelawney
because there is no need for us to focus on her at that particular
point and thus why Harry does not mention, her but I do not agree that
in reflection to everything that happened to Harry, she would not
register on his radar.

Trelawney has a different impact on the story in its entirety compared
to Vector or Sinistra, she does not hold the same irrelevance and
can't be lumped under that same label. Firenze (which is another
teacher specifically mentioned beside the Heads) only has an impact
on Harry in CoS and OotP but still he notices him separately from the
staff. I am not saying that Trelawney not being mentioned is
therefore something that is important to the story but her not being
mentioned at all does seem peculiar when you look at the story as a
whole.

bboyminn:
> As far as teachers, McGonagall, Slughorn, and Sprout are
> mentioned, all are Heads of House, but no mention of
> Flitwick that I can find.
<snip>

Dana now:
Flitwick is also a Head of House so if he was not present Harry would
have registered it, the students are to follow their Head of House to
their seats at the funeral and if he was not there then Harry would have
mentioned him being replaced by someone else. Sprout is only
mentioned separately because see looks so different then Harry has
been used too (which is an example of the numb brain still being
perceptive to things OOC).

He does not have to reflect what happened to Flitwick that night
because it already has been reflected on in the hospital wing and he
already had an interaction with Flitwick in McGonagall's office.

Carol mentions in a previous post that empty chairs at the funeral
would have the same impact as an empty staff chair during a feast. I
do not agree because the seats at the feasts are dedicated to a
specific teacher while at the funeral they are not, therefore he
doesn't fail to notice Hagrid's seat is empty and that Snape's is
taken by Scrimgeour. (Hagrid during the funeral also does not take up
a seat with the staff as he joins his brother in the back).

Trelawney, as far as I can remember correctly, never attended a feast
so her absence at the staff table in the Great Hall would not
specifically stand out. Her absence during the funeral would
therefore also not specifically stand out, but I do think her presence
would stand out as Harry never failed to notice her presence before
as it is so OOC for her to mingle.

bboyminn:
> The people that Harry does mention are people who are
> historically significant to Harry in some way, though
> not necessarily in an important way; Malkin, Maxime,
> /some/ Order members, Tom the barman, the Hogs Head
> barman, Neville, Luna, Rita, etc....
<snip>

Dana now:
What historical significance does the bass player of the Weird
Sisters hold on Harry? Just that they played at the Yule Ball? He
never had a personal interaction with the man. I think Trelawney's
historical significance is far greater, in more ways then one.

bboyminn:
<snip>
> Trelawney may be very significant to Dumbledore, but I don't
> think Harry sees her as significant yet. Yes, she made
> a couple of predictions, but unless she is ready to
> make another one, I don't see her as very high on
> Harry's radar screen.
<snip>

Dana now:
Trelawney only holds any significance to DD because of the prediction
she made and the impact LV's choice eventually made on Harry because
the one prediction she made send LV after him.

I think saying she just made a couple predictions is slightly
oversimplifying the importance these predictions had on the entire
story arc. If the prophecy was never made it would never had reached
LV's ear. To be more precise there wouldn't have been a story that
specifically involved Harry at all. Harry's parents would still be
alive; Sirius would have never ended up in jail and dead; DD would
never had to place Harry with the Dursley's to insure the blood
protection and Harry would not have been a marked man. To say these
things are not important enough for Trelawney to be high on Harry's
radar screen sounds slightly silly to me because it is the only
reason she is on DD's.

bboyminn:
> JKR had to limit the people she named, and I don't
> think specific missing names are of any significants.

Dana:
Again, I am not arguing that Magpie could not be right and that
Trelawney not being mentioned at the funeral is therefore any
indication there is more to it then that, but to say that Harry would
not register her individually because she holds no importance to him,
even if he doesn't like her or consider her one of his intimate
circle, to me is not a valid argument to therefore conclude
Trelawney was lumped under the label "staff".

To be honest, to me JKR not mentioning her and not wanting us to
remember her at this specific point, while we are reminded from PoA
on how important her predictions have been to whatever happens to
the different characters throughout the series, seems more relevant
then when she would just have let Harry notice Trelawney for a
second.

The prediction Trelawney made in PoA was relevant not only to the end
of PoA when Wormtail escaped but also to what happened at the end of
GoF. By following her prediction made to Harry, the reader would have
been able to predict that Wormtail was going to aid LV and make his
comeback possible and you might think that Harry never did anything
that made the prophecy true, but he did when he prevented Sirius and
Lupin to kill Wormtail. It was the right moral choice for him to make
but it was nevertheless a choice that made it possible for this
prophecy to be fulfilled and what made LV's rise back to power and
thus is important to Cedric's death, Sirius' death and eventually
DD's death.

Her first prediction (or prophecy) was not only important to the
start of Harry's journey but also GoF and why LV wanted Harry's blood
(because taking away the blood protection would make it able for LV
to fulfill the prophecy, or so he thought).

It was the entire story line of OotP and the reason Sirius is dead
because no prophecy, no luring Harry to the DoM and without it no
need for Sirius to go after him. Even DD's choice not to tell Harry,
by which everything could have been prevented, concerns the prophecy
and the impact Harry's involvement eventually made on DD.

In HBP we are reminded that it is important not only to Harry and the
people he loved but also to Snape and probably his loyalties. So I do
not think or believe JKR suddenly forgot about Trelawney but she did
a great job to make her readers forget about her and this might very
well be entirely intentional.

It seems JKR did an excellent job for all her readers to consider
Trelawney a fraud but she might very well have been telling the truth
all along even if her way of expressing her predictions might be
totally annoying everyone.

Let's hope she indeed has been wrong about Harry's coming death
because till now the couple of predictions she made had an enormous
impact on in the lives and deaths of all the main characters including
what happened on the tower (as DD choice to disregard her warning
signs). It is either the choice of not to listen or to listen to the
predictions she made that influenced everything that happened during
the course of the story. JMHO

Dana