#professor trelawney

[the-colourful-witch]

🔮Professor Trelawney🔮

Oh what a joy it was to draw this woman. She is so fun. I loved figuring out her clothes; all of them long and extravagant and layered. With jewels and belts and boots. She’s a sight to behold🌟

I love how she has a dark side and can be so rude to people. How she acts all calm and mystic, but is actually quite sharp and aware of her surroundings. She was much more intense in the books, than in the films. I love love love Emma Thompson’s portrayal of her, she brought something so unique and funny to Professor Trelawney. But book Trelawney has my heart, always :)

Hope you like her as much as I do! Until the next one guys!🔮❤️🪄

[sctumsempra]

ravens and bats and the disliked professors

[overlord-of-fantasy]

Sybill Trelawney and her cards

Professor Trelawney: Hey, you want a tarot reading?

Professor McGonagall: Those are Pokemon cards.

Professor Trelawney: You got a magikarp.

Professor McGonagall: ...

Professor Tralawney: It means 'fuck you'.

Professor Snape and Professor Dumbledore: *Laugh their butts off in the background*

[all-too-random]

This woman's shape-shifting ability never ceases to amaze me

[hollowed-theory-hall]

Dumbledore is a Manipulative Piece of Shit: Part 3/?

The Prophecy

In the first post in this series, I mentioned having reason to doubt the validity and truth of the prophecy regarding Voldemort and Harry. This is this post.

Although I don't have definitive proof the prophecy is a lie, I have plenty of circumstantial evidence that sheds reasonable doubt on the prophecy and Dumbledore's interpretation of it.

(link to part 2, for those interested)

Exhibit 1: The Location

So, we know how this goes:

“I did,” said Dumbledore. “On a cold, wet night sixteen years ago, in a room above the bar at the Hog’s Head Inn. I had gone there to see an applicant for the post of Divination teacher, though it was against my inclination to allow the subject of Divination to continue at all. The applicant, however, was the great-great-granddaughter of a very famous, very gifted Seer, and I thought it common politeness to meet her. I was disappointed. It seemed to me that she had not a trace of the gift herself. I told her, courteously I hope, that I did not think she would be suitable for the post. I turned to leave.”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 840)

“That might, indeed, have been the more practical course,” said Dumbledore, “except that Voldemort’s information about the prophecy was incomplete. The Hog’s Head Inn, which Sibyll chose for its cheapness, has long attracted, shall we say, a more interesting clientele than the Three Broomsticks. As you and your friends found out to your cost, and I to mine that night, it is a place where it is never safe to assume you are not being overheard. Of course, I had not dreamed, when I set out to meet Sibyll Trelawney, that I would hear anything worth overhearing. My — our — one stroke of good fortune was that the eavesdropper was detected only a short way into the prophecy and thrown from the building.”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 843)

The reason I'm bringing this up is this specific part of the quote above in particular:

The Hog’s Head Inn, which Sibyll chose for its cheapness

Since when does an interview prospect for the position of Hogwarts professor choose the location of the interview?

We know that when Tom Riddle came to his interview for the Defence Against the Dark Arts position in 1967, the interview was held in the Headmaster's office at Hogwarts:

The Dumbledore behind the desk showed no sign of surprise. Evidently this visit had been made by appointment. “Good evening, Tom,” said Dumbledore easily. “Won’t you sit down?” “Thank you,” said Voldemort, and he took the seat to which Dumbledore had gestured — the very seat, by the looks of it, that Harry had just vacated in the present. “I heard that you had become headmaster,” he said, and his voice was slightly higher and colder than it had been. “A worthy choice.” “I am glad you approve,” said Dumbledore, smiling. “May I offer you a drink?” “That would be welcome,” said Voldemort. “I have come a long way.” Dumbledore stood and swept over to the cabinet where he now kept the Pensieve, but which then was full of bottles. Having handed Voldemort a goblet of wine and poured one for himself, he returned to the seat behind his desk.

(Half-Blood Prince, page 441)

Why would Dumbledore choose to hold Trelawney's interview in the Hogs-Head? Because it was his choice. He could've interviewed her in his office like he had Tom Riddle. But no, he preferred the cheap inn, run by a brother who hates him and is known for attracting less reputable sorts (including Death Eaters) in the middle of a war?

And even if he is holding the interview in the hogs-Head, let's say he has a good reason for it, why not make sure he wasn't overheard in such a place? We know its possible with the Imperturbable Charm.

Turning to Fred and George she said, “It’s no go with the Extendable Ears, she’s gone and put an Imperturbable Charm on the kitchen door.”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 69)

Because if Molly Weasley can cast this charm, surely Dumbledore can.

Or the Muffliato Charm that Snape has invented by that point:

and, perhaps most useful of all, Muffliato, a spell that filled the ears of anyone nearby with an unidentifiable buzzing, so that lengthy conversations could be held in class without being overheard.

(Half-Blood Prince, page 238)

But no, instead he made sure to be in a place where he was likely to be spied on and took no precautions against it, even though he could've held the interview in the safety of Hogwarts.

The only conclusion I can draw is that he wanted to be overheard. That he wanted some Death Eater to hear the prophecy and take it to Voldemort.

Exhibit 2: The Circumstances

But why? Why would he want Voldemort to hear a prophecy that would make him target an innocent baby?

Well, Dumbledore was in a rough spot in May of 1980 when the prophecy was made. Voldemort practically controlled the ministry and did as he pleased (even though, it wasn't much). The Order of the Phoenix had 15 of its members and member families killed from August 1979 to that interview.

Dumbledore and the Order were losing. And they were losing badly.

Arthur Weasley says:

“Oh, Molly, come on, it’s about time you got used to hearing it — look, I can’t promise no one’s going to get hurt, nobody can promise that, but we’re much better off than we were last time, you weren’t in the Order then, you don’t understand, last time we were outnumbered twenty to one by the Death Eaters and they were picking us off one by one. . . .”

(Order of the Pheonix, page 177)

By 1980, if Dumbledore wanted to win, he needed a miracle. And that's when he was approached by Trelawney approached him.

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say he held a normal interview in the castle, and in that interview, she made a real prophecy about Harry and Voldemort, but not the one we hear. Dumbledore heard the prophecy and knew he'd have to orchestrate the circumstances of Halloween 1981 if he wanted to end Voldemort. So he did.

He gave Trelawney a script, and he made sure to be somewhere a wizard down on their luck who wouldn't stand the temptation to spy on him would overhear and sell the information to Voldemort. I don't know if Dumbledore specifically intended for it to be Snape, but maybe? I don't know.

But I know he made sure Voldemort got hold of the prophecy, or at least part of it so Dumbledore could set Voldemort's demise into motion.

Exhibit 3: The Only Time We Hear the Prophecy

Now, we would never know what the true prophecy said, since it was smashed.

The only source we have for the full prophecy is the word of Albus Dumbledore. Well, his word and his odd memory:

Then, with a sigh, he raised his wand and prodded the silvery substance with its tip. A figure rose out of it, draped in shawls, her eyes magnified to enormous size behind her glasses, and she revolved slowly, her feet in the basin. But when Sibyll Trelawney spoke, it was not in her usual ethereal, mystic voice, but in the harsh, hoarse tones Harry had heard her use once before. “THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD APPROACHES. . . . BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM, BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES . . . AND THE DARK LORD WILL MARK HIM AS HIS EQUAL, BUT HE WILL HAVE POWER THE DARK LORD KNOWS NOT . . . AND EITHER MUST DIE AT THE HAND OF THE OTHER FOR NEITHER CAN LIVE WHILE THE OTHER SURVIVES. . . . THE ONE WITH THE POWER TO VANQUISH THE DARK LORD WILL BE BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES. . . .” The slowly revolving Professor Trelawney sank back into the silver mass below and vanished.

(Order of the Pheonix, page 841)

No other memory Harry sees in the pensive behaves this way. Harry always places his head in the pensive and is sucked into the memory, to walk in it. It's how a pensive always worked.

Except for this one singular instance, in which it shows a "memory" like a hologram, like an illusion.

I don't think this is a memory at all, just from how different it is described from any other memory. For context, pensive memories are described like this in the same book:

Harry walked the remaining few feet to the Pensieve and stood over it, gazing into its depths. He hesitated, listening, then pulled out his wand again. The office and the corridor beyond were completely silent. He gave the contents of the Pensieve a small prod with the end of his wand. The silvery stuff within began to swirl very fast. Harry leaned forward over it and saw that it had become transparent. He was, once again, looking down into a room as though through a circular window in the ceiling. . . . In fact, unless he was much mistaken, he was looking down upon the Great Hall. . . .His breath was actually fogging the surface of Snape’s thoughts. . . .His brain seemed to be in limbo. . . . It would be insane to do the thing that he was so strongly tempted to do. . . . He was trembling. . . . Snape could be back at any moment . . . but Harry thought of Cho’s anger, of Malfoy’s jeering face, and a reckless daring seized him. He took a great gulp of breath and plunged his face into the surface of Snape’s thoughts. At once, the floor of the office lurched, tipping Harry headfirst into the Pensieve. . . . He was falling through cold blackness, spinning furiously as he went, and then — He was standing in the middle of the Great Hall

(Order of the Pheonix, page 640)

Even if I did take the prophecy at face value, which is a big if, I can interrupt it in multiple ways. I'll give one example:

The third line:

BORN AS THE SEVENTH MONTH DIES

Sure, it can refer to July, the seventh month in the Julian calendar we use today. But before Julius Caesar and Agustus (the Roman emperors) added months named after them, September was the seventh month. It's why it's called September — "Septima" means "seven" in Latin. September is literally named "the seventh month".

And that's without talking about other calendars, that have a whole different system to their months.

Or the Line before it:

BORN TO THOSE WHO HAVE THRICE DEFIED HIM

What exactly counts as defying? It's so vague any disagreement could be considered a defiance. Is it battle? Is it that he offered James and Lily to join him and they refused?

Vagueness means it could mean literally anything and puts the whole interpretation of the prophecy in question.

Conclusions

So, we have a prophecy that was made under odd circumstances, where the only source we have to it is supposedly a memory of a powerful Legilemense that knows how to edit memories.

There isn't exactly cutting evidence the prophecy is fake, but I think there's enough here to make us doubt its validity along with its intentions and interpretation.

[dramioneasks]

Anima Communitatio Memoriae By: Sc2014 - T, 10 chapters - Will Draco and Hermione be able to put aside their differences in order to fulfill the destiny Professor Trelawney saw for them years ago? Dramione. Eighth year. Ignores Epilogue.

[mrstellmeafuckingsecret]

sybill trelawney hcs? luv ur names fatima/jack btw idk smt about it js gives me the best vibes youre like that small transition between autumn and winter where the wind is cold and it cuts right through you because you're not quite cold enough to wear your coat and warm layers yet but in that second you regret it

hi hello that's litr the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me umm haha msg me let's get married ily

also, i was litr just thinking of sybill. i have my pinterest board for her to open rn. uh, have some hcs <3

she was raised in a muggle village as an only child

severely autistic child who showed violent magic since a very young age

couldn't make any friends easy at all

at hogwarts, she was one year above the marauders

the girls in her dorms were nice but in an overtly condescending way

she got horrible grades in nearly everything. she could memorize contents and stuff, but she couldn't write right for shit, her hands wrote down what her brain thought with absolutely no format

she was slightly better at herbology than the rest of the subjects

on that note, absolutely abhorrent handwriting

she took divination because of her grandmother and grew to absolutely adore it

she also took arithmancy (which she was less good at, but good nonetheless) and ancient runes

was bullied a lot because she had mini-visions in school occasionally

invited by slughorn to the slug club, but she never went since she never had anyone to go with her

hated hated hated silence, she talked excessively

she became close to the girls in her dorm eventually, one in particular whom she developed a small obsession with

that girl, call her lucy, was her lesbian awakening (she had just assumed she never liked any boys at school, none of them showed overt interest in her either.)

listens to 40s music near-exclusively

had a horrid burn on her chest that she got when she was fifteen, she was making tea and the water fell on her because she got her first prophecy

after that, she only wore large clothes that covered her entire body

speaking of body, sybill's body weight fluctuates horribly often bc she hyper fixates on stuff and forgets to eat (+sleep) and also binge eats

told dumbledore that the spy may be from the marauders which is why he believed it was sirius

felt guilty about the (harry/voldemort) prophecy bc she felt if it was her own fault

she predicted deaths every year because she foresaw her loved one's death and didn't tell them

i have more but im sososo sleep deprived rn. i love sybill (and u im sirius serious let's get married)

[calmlyerratic]

Ron's funniest moment?

"Oh Professor, look! I think I've got an unaspected planet! Oooh, which one's that, Professor?"

"It is Uranus, my dear," said Professor Trelawney, peering down at the chart.

"Can I have a look at Uranus too, Lavender?" said Ron.

Most unfortunately, Professor Trelawney heard him, and it was this, perhaps, that made her give them so much homework at the end of the class.

—GoF, Ch 12

[atheostic]

Famous Atheists

Emma Thompson

English actress. known for her parts in films like Harry Potter, Nanny McPhee, Sense & Sensibility, and Men in Black 3.

"I'm an atheist; I suppose you can call me a sort of libertarian anarchist. I regard religion with fear and suspicion. It's not enough to say that I don't believe in God. I actually regard the system as distressing: I am offended by some of the things said in the Bible and the Koran, and I refute them. ... I think that the Bible as a system of moral guidance in the 21st century is insufficient, to put it mildly. ... I feel quite strongly that we need a new moral lodestone if we can't rely on what is inside our own selves. Which I think, actually, is pretty reliable."

=-=-=

Jane Cornwell interviewing Thompson, 'Acting on outspoken beliefs Archived 2012-05-26 at archive.today', The Australian, 15 October 2008, Features, p. 19

[sctumsempra]

snape ranting in trelawney’s office one day like “i say shit that i’m right about all the time but no one ever believes me i feel clinically insane” and trelawney starts twitching in the corner

[mewser]

People can hate on professor trelawney all they want but the fact that she has THE Dream Job cant be denied like imagine getting paid to just Ponder The Orb scream about death and be That Overdramatic Bitch

Me when

[thehauntedrocket]

Professor Trelawney

Art by Skottie Young

[fleursfairies]

the hate towards cho chang is rooted in sexism!

the hate towards lavender brown is rooted in sexism!

the hate towards fleur delacour pretty much just IS sexism!

the hate towards trelawney is rooted in sexism!

the hate towards, dare i say, umbridge, is rooted in sexism!

criticism towards hermione is usually not rooted in sexism!

[thesmokingguns]

[aesthetic--mood]

Sybill Trelawney Aesthetic