Snape & DADA: hearsay, or a true slight?

[kiricat2001]

No: HPFGUIDX 32080

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Allen, Rebecca" <Rebecca.Allen at t...> 
 
> 1. Is the job actually jinxed? If so, who do you think would jinx 
it? Is it to anyone's advantage to have a new professor every year?


I don't think the job is jinxed or cursed in the same way that we 
think of something like The Mummy's Curse, where, if you open up or 
enter the tomb, some horrible death will await you.  I think that 
Hogwarts has just had a run of bad luck.  What we don't know is any 
detail concerning how many highly trained, skillful witches and 
wizards died during the first Voldemort war.  Perhaps one reason that 
there doesn't seem to be a pool of talent for a good DADA teacher is 
that many people who would be qualified were killed.  

And I wonder also about the influence of the Board of Governors for 
the school.  We have speculated on the list about whether Fudge is an 
evil tool of the Death Eaters, or simply one of those political types 
who does not want to see the big picture.  Perhaps another potential 
point of hidden Death Eater activity is through Hogwart's Board of 
Governors.  They can hire and fire the Headmaster, so they probably 
have some sort of say in who is hired.  Is Lucius Malfoy still a 
school governor?

> 2. If it is only a rumor and Snape doesn't care whether he gets the 
job or not, then how did the rumor get started? Do you think anyone 
was deliberately trying to mislead the students?

I'm firmly in the camp that says Snape could care less about the DADA 
job, and that the rumor that he lusts after it is really nothing more 
than a campus legend.  I certainly think that Snape could do a good 
job teaching DADA, but I really do think he is devoted to Potions.  
One, he's good at it.  Two, I take seriously his words in Harry's 
very first Potions class - "As there is little foolish wand-waving 
here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic." 

 I think that statement is quite indicative of Snape's character.  He 
does understand and appreciate the subtlety required for Potions. He 
seems to feel that anyone can do the more obvious forms of magic, 
which require the shouting of commands and the use of wands, whereas, 
the magic involved in Potions is much more restrained and precise.  I 
think that one of the things that Snape finds appealing about Potions 
is precisely the notion that it is subtle and delicate and requires 
patience and precision.  

I can't help but wonder about Snape and his old buddies, MWPP, and 
what their respective Potions talents were as student.  Lupin has 
told us that he was not particularly good at Potions, but I wonder 
about James and Sirius.  Was Snape always better than they were? That 
would give him something to gloat about, especially if they were 
better at all that "foolish wand-waving" magic.  

Marianne, off to wrap presents...