Are Professor Trelawney's predictions still considered laughable and unlikely after the events of the books?

Question

When I ask this question, I don't mean when book three happens. More so, after the series ends.

Before that, everything she does seems laughable, and everything that does work out for her appears to be pure coincidence.

There are multiple instances where Professor McGonagall expresses her concern for divination itself. For example, after Harry and Ron got up from their seats and Professor Trelawney asks who got up first, Professor McGonagall states:

‘I doubt it will make much difference,’ said Professor McGonagall coldly, ‘unless a mad axe-man is waiting outside the doors to slaughter the first into the entrance hall.'”

Even Dumbledore seems to be slightly irritated at Trelawney during this scene as well.

Obviously, this seems to speak for itself. The book does admit it is a more-or-less imprecise branch of magic.

However, everything Trelawney says (more or less) comes true. Dumbledore does die first of all of the other Professors, Harry does (technically) die in the final book (the Grim), and Umbridge does face something terrible in the near future. My question is, are Trelawney's predictions treated with some sort of respect after the end of the books?

Note: I know she was fired because of Umbridge, but respect is not limited to the school grounds.

Answer 1

The simple answer is: Even if Trelawney makes the greatest prophecies, people would still dislike her because of how weird and dramatic she is. Harry still doesn't like her in the later books even though he knows how accurate her prophecies are.

But even if she didn't have a likeable personality, I still think People will still view Trelawney's predictions as laughable, and I'll try to explain why her prophecies don't get credited and publicly recognized, and therefore people don't take her seriously:

• The "Chosen One" prophecy: Only Dumbledore, Snape, Voldemort, Harry, Ron and Hermione know some part of this prophecy. Half of these people are dead and they all kept the prophecy secret, so nobody knows its content.

• "The thing you are dreading" aka Lavender's rabbit dying- Hermione points out a few things that make the prediction wrong:

  Hermione hesitated; then she said, "You -- you were dreading Binky being killed by a fox?"

  "Well, not necessarily by a fox," said Lavender, looking up at Hermione with streaming eyes, "but I was obviously dreading him dying, wasn't I?"

  "Oh," said Hermione. She paused again. Then -

  "Was Binky an old rabbit?"

  "N - no!" sobbed Lavender. "H - he was only a baby!"

  Parvati tightened her arm around Lavender's shoulders.

  "But then, why would you dread him dying?" said Hermione.

  Parvati glared at her.

  "Well, look at it logically," said Hermione, turning to the rest of the group. "I mean, Binky didn't even die today, did he? Lavender just got the news today -" Lavender wailed loudly. " and she can't have been dreading it, because it's come as a real shock -"

Hermione has a point, and the prediction doesn't sound so impressive after her explanation.

(In reality, the prediction was fulfilled- a few hours later, Sirius Black breaks into Hogwarts and attacks the fat lady. The theory goes that Lavender logically was dreading Sirius Black, and therefore Trelawney was actually correct.)

• "One of our number would leave us forever" aka Hermione leaving: This is one of those cases where the prediction came out to be true, but it wasn't that impressive and nobody really cared or thought more highly of Trelawney. (See the first answer.)

• "The Dark Lord will return" prophecy: Only Dumbledore and the trio know about it.

Again, Trelawney is just a hated teacher by the students, so the attitude towards her is more because of the way she presents the prophecies, and less about what they actually mean.