Harry Potter: Professor Trelawney Figured the Last Horcrux Out Before Anyone

Summary:

• In The Goblet of Fire, Sybill Trelawney asked Harry whether he was born in midwinter, but the boy’s birthday was July 31.
• Tom Riddle Jr., on the other hand, was born on New Year’s Eve, which is, indeed, midwinter, and his Horcrux was in Harry.
• Professor Trelawney didn’t make a mistake but sensed Voldemort’s Horcrux and assumed it was Harry her Inner Eye saw.

Lord Voldemort’s Horcruxes only began playing a prominent role in the plot in The Half-Blood Prince; the revelation about Harry himself having a piece of the Dark Lord’s soul in him came even later, in The Deathly Hallows. This huge plot twist kept both readers and characters on their toes — but it had been long foreshadowed.

In fact, Harry’s true nature was discovered by none other than Professor Trelawney, the most criminally underrated Seer in the Wizarding World!

Professor Trelawney Was Misunderstood

In the world of Harry Potter, Divination is largely laughed at: even Hogwarts students consider this subject the least important and don’t take it seriously. True Seers are notoriously rare, and Professor Trelawney, the descendant of such a Seer, was seen as a fraud for… Being unlikable, generally speaking. There was no other reason.

Professor Trelawney was full of herself, pretentious, and at the same time, incredibly anxious and unprofessional as a teacher. This led everyone (save for Parvati and Lavender, of course) to disrespect and disregard her, but it was Sybill Trelawney who produced some of the Wizarding World’s most important prophecies!

Even if we disregard her two most famous predictions — about the Chosen One and the servant rejoining his master — she was right on many other occasions. For instance, Professor Trelawney was the only one who sensed the Horcrux in Harry!

Professor Trelawney Felt Harry’s Horcrux

In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Sybill Trelawney addressed Harry and said quite a peculiar thing which both The Boy Who Lived and readers assumed was the professor yet another attempt to fool everyone into thinking she was a real Seer.

“I was saying that Saturn was surely in a position of power in the heavens at the moment of your birth. Your dark hair…your mean stature…tragic losses so young in life… I think I am right in saying, my dear, that you were born in midwinter?” Professor Trelawney said.

Harry, of course, retorted that he was born on July 31 which was quite the opposite of what the Seer had suggested. This made her look like an idiot, but she wasn’t! Professor Trelawney did determine the birthday correctly; it was just that it was not Harry’s birthday but Lord Voldemort’s. She sensed the Horcrux sitting in Harry.

Tom Riddle Jr. was born on New Year’s Eve which is, indeed, midwinter, and a piece of his soul was inside Harry the whole time. Unbeknownst even to her, Sybill Trelawney’s targeted the Horcrux instead of The Boy Who Lived himself.

Everything else she said could be applied both to Voldemort and Harry: they both had dark hair and mean stature and suffered tragic losses when they were very young. These facts were obvious about Harry but not so much about the Dark Lord whose real identity was unknown to most people, including Professor Trelawney.