Chapter Discussion: Prisoner of Azkaban Ch 16: Professor Trelawney's prediction

[Susan A]

No: HPFGUIDX 190206

Megan:
> And for some reason, it was funny to me that they were all
> disinterestedly regurgitating their history lectures on their exams
> just like muggle kids, in contrast to all the other exotic and
> exciting classes.

Potioncat:
> Newsweek recently referred to Professor Binns in an article about 
> how boring history is the way it's taught in schools. I have to 
> smile at all the ways HP has worked its way into our culture.

SSSusan:
As a former history teacher myself, I take modest offense at this... same way I get a little tired of the Marian the Librarian stereotypes.  MY students weren't bored to death, nosiree Bob.  Hmmmphff!  *grumble, grumble, grumble*


Potioncat:
> 3. Using everything you know about Trelawney, and especially the 
> events of this chapter—what makes her tick? What kind of character 
> was JKR writing?

Alla:
> I am still not completely sure. I mean, we know that she was not 
> writing a complete fraud, thats for sure and I think based on Half 
> Blood Prince as well she is also someone who really wants to be 
> taken seriously in her profession.

Potioncat:
> Oddly enough, something Trelawney said to Harry made me begin to 
> wonder about the fraud part. I've always thought she was sincere 
> yet insecure in her craft--and not particularly good at it. But 
> when Harry tells her she just made a prediction about LV, she says 
> something alon the lines of "I wouldn't be so bold as to make that 
> sort of prediction..." (sorry, am not at home, no book.) The
> wording made me think she "made up predictions" on a regular basis.

SSSusan:
Interesting!  It never occurred to me that Trelawney might have been semi-admitting that she makes things up here.  I took her more as 'sincere and insecure... not particularly good,' and essentially clueless.  

*We* get to see that only a couple of times did she make really big, really accurate predictions, but she doesn't even get to experience or know about those, since she's in the (necessary) trance-like state when they come to her.  Still, I think she believed in Divination, even if she didn't recognize her true experiences with it nor acknowledged consciously the ways in which she was faking it most of the time.

Potioncat:
> 4. OK, everyone thought this prediction was about Sirius Black the
> first time they read it. (If you didn't, why not?) So, now that we 
> know the future—how true or accurate is this prediction? What 
> does "chained these twelve years" mean?

Alla:
> I totally thought it was about Sirius Black when I read it at 
> first. Hm, "chained these twelve years", I thought at the end that 
> it meant Peter chained by his rat's body, metaphorically speaking? 

Potioncat:
> Someone pointed out that Peter was chained to his alias since he 
> had no way of safely becoming Peter again. So, while it's a 
> stretch, he is freed from his bondage to his animagus form...

SSSusan:  
Absolutely, I have taken it the way you two have suggested – that it referred to Peter's being chained to his rat's body.  I think that's exactly it -- that he had no *safe* way of returning to his Peter Pettigrew self and was thus metaphorically chained to his Wormtail/Scabbers self.  Like Alla, I can't quite imagine another interpretation.


Potioncat:
> 8. The Trio hears the ax fall, and Hermione says, "They did it."
> Did Buckbeak lose his head—or was the Trio already there?

Megan:
> I think they were already there.

SSSusan:
Like Alla, time-turning gives me a headache and makes my head spin, but on this one, I'm absolutely certain that they were already there.  There wasn't a bloody Buckbeak decapitated head lying there that somehow got `fixed' the `second time around.'  Nope, there was no second time around; the TT!trio was there the first time and prevented the beheading altogether.  

I think.  :)

Siriusly Snapey Susan,
wondering if anybody's found my pitcher of margaritas around here....