Dumbledore's employment policy (WAS: Characters You Hate)

[Grey Wolf <greywolf1@jazzfree.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 51143

Snapesangel wrote:
> I think you rather have the idea that Dumbledore is omnipotent.

I do not, and I encourage you to read through the MD discussion to see 
that I have often made the point that Dumbledore is not only *not* 
omnipotent, but that he's not all knowing either (see bellow to see why 
it is relevant). 

> No other applicant just means that no one responded to the
> advertisment and made an offer to teach as a result of it, it does
> not mean no one could have been promoted internally or done cover
> lessons if they had been asked, given more incentives or had the
> gravity of the situation furhter impressed upon them.
>
> Snapesangel

Your argument still makes little sense to me. I can tell you, because 
I've worked this out (and said so in my previous post of this thread) 
that no other teacher of Hogwarts has the time to teach DADA on its 
own. I supose that several could be hired, but that doesn't mean they 
would be any better than Lockhart. Snape is probably the one that 
could've done it best, but he's already teaching more than 40 hours a 
week of potions (45 min/class, 4 classes/week&group, 2 groups/year, 7 
years), so he simply hasn't the time except ocasionally to teach DADA. 
And I doubt Binns or Sprout could cover DADA. McGonagall and Flitwick 
might, but their expertise lies in other fields.

And now, we get to the juicy point - you acuse me of thinking that 
Dumbledore is omnipotent (heavens knows why), when it is you the one 
that gives Dumbledore all-knowing abilities. It seems obvious that what 
Lockhart wrote in his books is mostly real DADA stuff (with some 
reservations on the homorphous charm). As Ron puts it, "the things he 
*says* he's done". I don't think that Dumbledore would've been 
aquainted with Lockhart before he hired him, and thus there is no way 
Dumbledore could've known that Lockhart hadn't done all those things. 
And, since those things *were* done, they probably would be believable 
enough to think that Lockhart, beyond his showmanship, really knew 
about DADA.

Dumbledore would've surely known that Lockhart was full of himself, of 
course (how could anyone not know?), but that is no reason *not* to 
hire someone. And no-one suspected of him before getting to know him. 
The Weasley's complain that they already know how to de-gnome the 
garden, not that Lockhart's method is useless, for example. The staff 
quickly realise he's an incompetent, but only because he makes a point 
of introducing himself to everyone and personally making an ass of 
himself.

The fact is that, until that point, he might not have looked like the 
most brilliant DADA teacher imaginable, but certainly he was good 
enough, especially when no other choices were available.

Hope that helps,

Grey Wolf