[HPforGrownups] Quirrell (was: Voldemort's Resurrection )

[Edblanning at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39793

Ali:
> --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "bluesqueak" <pipdowns at e...> wrote:
> > --- In HPforGrownups at y..., "grey_wolf_c" <greywolf1 at j...> wrote:
> > > Suzanne Chiles says:
> > > > IIRC, Quirrel had the been the DADA teacher for some years and 
> had
> > > > been regarded as a very fine teacher. It was only after his 
> > research
> > > > trip to Albania that things went bad.
> > > > 
> > > > Zoë
> > > 
> > Grey Wolf replies:
> > > We have been repeatedly told that the DADA teacher position has 
> > been 
> > > jinxed and that Snape has been after it for years. I always 
> assumed 
> > > that Quirrell had just come back from an extended visit to 
> Albania 
> > > (i.e. a year or more long), and that something had happened to 
> the 
> > > previous DADA teacher too. There may even be canon one way or the 
> > > other. We'll have to relay on someone else for this matter, 
> though, 
> > > since I cannot remember at this moment if it's just my feeling or 
> > > something more canonical. Any takers?
> > 
> > I agree that PS/SS could be read either as 'Quirrel's just got the 
> > job' or 'Quirrel's been in the job for years and has just taken a 
> > sabbatical', but in CoS it gets clarified by Hagrid:
> > 
> > "Gettin' very difficult ter find anyone fer the Dark Arts job....No 
> > one's lasted long fer a while now." (CoS, UK paperback p.88)
> > 
> > Which implies Quirrell had only just got the job in PS/SS.
> 
> Actually, I disagree here, although I admit that canon is confusing. 
> Quirrell is not introduced as a new teacher, which he probably would 
> have been had he just taken up the post. Also, when Harry first meets 
> Quirrell in the Leaky Cauldron Hagrid tells him that Quirrell *is* a 
> teacher at Hogwarts, rather than he is going to be a teacher at 
> Hogwarts. Finally, when Harry asks Percy who the teacher sitting next 
> to Quirrell is, during the banquet, Percy says (memory here not 
> verbatim), so you already know Professor Quirrell. This implies to me 
> that Percy already knows Quirrell, which he probably wouldn't if 
> Quirrell was just starting.

Two more pieces of canon.

1)When Hagrid talks about Quirrell after introducing him, it is obvious that 
he is familiar with him (implicitly from Hogwarts) - he's 'usually' 
trembling; 'never been the same since' (implying he knew what he was like 
before he went); 'scared of the students' (if not at Hogwarts, then how does 
Hagrid know?)

 2) GOF, 567 (UK HB)
'Then...four years ago...the means for my return seemed assured. A wizard - 
young, foolish and gullible - wandered across my path in the forest I had 
made my home. Oh, he seemed the very chance I had been dreaming of... for he 
was a teacher at Dumbledore's school...'

I thought this was going to sort it all out, but now I'm not so sure. 
The implication is that he's on a sabbatical from Hogwarts, but it *could* 
mean, I suppose that he had simply been appointed, rather than already taught 
there.

But the interesting thing, of course, is that his trip to Albania is 
immediately before Harry's first year, so, if this was part of the 
sabbatical, how did Hagrid already know that he was scared of his students? 
(If the sabbatical happened earlier, then why did he put on his p-p-poor 
nervous Q-quirrel act?)

Ooh....I think I've found a FLINT!

Eloise






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