He is. Wilfully blind, I believe the term is. Which is why Voldemort is so keen on remaining in the shadows and profiting from Fudge's refusal to see the writing on the wall. The way Fudge actually believes that Dumbledore is creating an army against him, though... he really must have cracked.

Agreed.

They most certainly are, and if you're going to be fair you have to ask if teenage girls really employ such incredibly stupid and counterproductive tactics. Which I'm afraid they do as well.

I think Umbridge is very good at not asking herself questions she doesn't want to know the answers to. She's pretty much the personification of the Nazi bureaucrat to Voldemort's Hitler (well, that's a bit of a stretch at this point, but not so in book seven).

I love how random Flitwick's way of doing it is. He's always kind of off-beat that way.

You have to wonder if part of it isn't that he's jealously guarding his own task. Spying on Voldemort and keeping the Order informed is his reason for living, his way of redeeming himself for Lily's death. It would be logical for him to be annoyed at potential "competition" in that regard, any hint that his crucial role might not be so crucial after all. See also the way he says "Indeed Potter, that's my job".

As I read that, it occurred to me that Dumbledore's motives here are not merely being nice to Trelawney. She offers to leave at one point, and he tells her "sharply" to stay. It's not safe out there for the woman who Saw the prophecy, and who can say what Voldemort might get out of her if he can get his hands on her - not that he knows he has to have her yet, but he might find out. Dumbledore wants Trelawney where he can keep an eye on her - that's the reason why she ever got the job in the first place, and it's the reason why she has to stay at Hogwarts now.

It was fairly awesome, yeah. His finest hour, really - the most obvious display anywhere in the books of his magical superiority to just about everyone else, and the last time he'll be depicted as nearly omniscient and omnipotent, before his re-humanizing in books six and seven. On second thought, penultimate time - there's the showdown at the end of this book, too.