Dream interpretation

Ron Weasley: "I never remember my dreams, you say one!"

Harry Potter: "You must remember one of them."

Ron Weasley: "Well, I dreamed I was playing Quidditch the other night. What d'you reckon that means?"

Harry Potter: "Probably that you're going to be eaten by a giant marshmallow or something."

— Harry and Ron in Divination class 1995.

Dream interpretation, also known as oneiromancy, is a method of Divination that involves analysing dreams. The word oneiromancy comes from the Greek root oneiros, meaning "dream," and mancy, meaning "prophecy". Long ago, it was thought that dreams contained important information, and/ or predict the future (but often in a hidden form, like the riddle form prophecies take). Dream interpreters were hired for royalty to interpret their dreams. It is one of the oldest forms of divination. It is covered at Hogwarts in the fifth year Divination class and was most likely part of O.W.L. teachings. The textbook for this subject was The Dream Oracle by Inigo Imago. Professor Sybill Trelawney considered dream interpretation to be "a most important means of divining the future." However, Harry Potter didn't seem to think it was particularly useful, as he usually made up dreams in the classes and also thought dream interpretation couldn't tell him what his dreams meant. Parvati Patil and Lavender Brown, on the other hand, appeared to consider this particular subject very useful, and were seen discussing their dreams very seriously in the first class they had on this subject. This is not surprising, though, as Divination is their favourite class and they are usually the most diligent students in it.

History

In 1995, Harry and Ron had to keep a dream diary for a month as a part of their Divination homework because neither of them could remember or want to discuss their dreams. Neither of them took this serious enough, and wrote down made up dreams, most of which are tragic events of themselves, due to Trelawney's likings of predicting Harry's death. She later told them to do it again for the next month.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (First mentioned)
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (film) (deleted scenes)

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Sources

• The Sorcerer's Companion; A Guide to the Magical World of Harry Potter by Allan Zola Kronzek & Elizabeth Kronzek