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Just throwing it out there to Harry Potter fans. Thinking about Prisoner of Azkaban, the question always comes back to me: What is Trelawney doing at Hogwarts? And frankly I've always been able to answer it myself. She's there under Dumbledore's protection.
Despite some diehard fans ideas otherwise, it's pretty clear that Rowling is consistently dismissive of people who claim powers of divination. Hermione and Prof. McGonagall don't have any patience with it. The only students who support Trelawney are background characters. The boys are bored stiff in her class and so on...
You can look at Trelawney's real 'powers' as more of a curse. She's totally out of it when she makes real predictions. (Don't ask me how such prophesies end up in little balls in the Ministry of Magic!) But that doesn't mean everyone understands that she's unaware of what she's doing. Surely, Voldemort might want to kidnap the source of the prophesy in the Order of the Phoenix to see what she else she might know about it. Umbridge, no doubt, reports back to the Ministry (and by extension Voldemort) that when she's conscious of what she's doing Trelawney would be lucky to be able to predict what time a clock would strike midnight. McGonagall is quite sympathetic with Trelawney when Umbridge wants to kick her out. So it's Trelawney's pretentions that bother her, not her person.
At least in my mind, the questions arise, how did Trelawney's prediction come to the attention of the magic world, and why would Dumbledore take an interest in her. If Trelawney were a mage the answer is obvious. But I think, it's quite possible she's not a witch. She never displays any conscious magic talent of any kind. She doesn't normally mingle with the other professors. Except for one Christmas dinner when practically everyone is gone, she doesn't even go to the feasts or show herself at the start of the school year to the new students. What's her problem? Is it McGonagall's occasional unkind words when Trelawney brags about her powers? Or is it simply that she as a squib was well aware of the magic world, but without any useful power doesn't actually feel like she belongs. So she fibs to her students (and maybe herself) about what she can do. If she were a squib, then wizards and witches might well be aware of her, and someone noticed that once in a great while she went into a trance and said something important. People may know full well she can't do it at will, but once she finds out it happens she pretends she can. She makes a startling prediction about Voldemort and Dumbledore decides to take her under his wing with the excuse that she can teach her interest, divination, even if she isn't consciously any good at it. The more I think about it the more I think that Trelawney probably can't do any magic willingly. What do you think?
Despite some diehard fans ideas otherwise, it's pretty clear that Rowling is consistently dismissive of people who claim powers of divination. Hermione and Prof. McGonagall don't have any patience with it. The only students who support Trelawney are background characters. The boys are bored stiff in her class and so on...
You can look at Trelawney's real 'powers' as more of a curse. She's totally out of it when she makes real predictions. (Don't ask me how such prophesies end up in little balls in the Ministry of Magic!) But that doesn't mean everyone understands that she's unaware of what she's doing. Surely, Voldemort might want to kidnap the source of the prophesy in the Order of the Phoenix to see what she else she might know about it. Umbridge, no doubt, reports back to the Ministry (and by extension Voldemort) that when she's conscious of what she's doing Trelawney would be lucky to be able to predict what time a clock would strike midnight. McGonagall is quite sympathetic with Trelawney when Umbridge wants to kick her out. So it's Trelawney's pretentions that bother her, not her person.
At least in my mind, the questions arise, how did Trelawney's prediction come to the attention of the magic world, and why would Dumbledore take an interest in her. If Trelawney were a mage the answer is obvious. But I think, it's quite possible she's not a witch. She never displays any conscious magic talent of any kind. She doesn't normally mingle with the other professors. Except for one Christmas dinner when practically everyone is gone, she doesn't even go to the feasts or show herself at the start of the school year to the new students. What's her problem? Is it McGonagall's occasional unkind words when Trelawney brags about her powers? Or is it simply that she as a squib was well aware of the magic world, but without any useful power doesn't actually feel like she belongs. So she fibs to her students (and maybe herself) about what she can do. If she were a squib, then wizards and witches might well be aware of her, and someone noticed that once in a great while she went into a trance and said something important. People may know full well she can't do it at will, but once she finds out it happens she pretends she can. She makes a startling prediction about Voldemort and Dumbledore decides to take her under his wing with the excuse that she can teach her interest, divination, even if she isn't consciously any good at it. The more I think about it the more I think that Trelawney probably can't do any magic willingly. What do you think?