Quirrell (was: Voldemort's Resurrection )

[ghastrick]

No: HPFGUIDX 39804

IIRC, Quirrel had the been the DADA teacher for some years and had
been regarded as a very fine teacher. It was only after a 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

___________________________________________________________________
Perhaps Quirrell was the Wizard equivelent of a grad-student. He was 
still learning advanced DADA at Hogwarts but had begun teaching 
classes under the observation of the previous professor. 

Hagrid says of him, "Brilliant mind... He was fine when he was 
studyin outta books but then he took a year off to get some first 
hand experience." 

If Quirrell was a student-teacher it would explain how he can 
be "scared of his students" while at the same time only beginning his 
job as a professor. 

As to the conundrum of why Hagrid knew Quirrel was scared of his 
students when he hadn't even begun his first post-sabbatical teaching 
year, well, we know that Hogwarts does allow for some students to 
stay in school over the summer (Because Tom Riddle asked for this 
privelege in CoS). So perhaps Quirrell taught summer school as 
preparation for assuming his full professorship. 

Nick