Theory on the DADA-post's jinx

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85522

 "Steve" <bboy_mn> wrote:
>  <snipping>
> > I suspect that once Harry is gone from the school, the 'magnet' 
> that
> > has been drawing bad luck to the job will be gone too. However, I 
> must
> > amend that by pointing out that with the exception of Lupin, all 
> the
> > DADA teachers were either incompetent or their integrity was 
> seriously
> > compromised. Either way, they were corrupted in ways that almost
> > guaranteed their doom. 
> >
> 
> Jen R wrote:
 You know, I think even Lupin was undone in the end by his own 
> weakness--cowardice, as he himself says in POA . He didn't want to 
> risk Dumbledore's trust by telling him about the illegal animagi and 
> the secret tunnels; those omissions led to the finale in the 
> Shrieking Shack and ultimately, Lupin's fate. I don't see it as 
> corruption so much as a character flaw, though. (And I'm still not 
> convinved Quirrell's conversion was completely his doing--LV seems 
> to be very *convincing* when needed....). But you get no argument 
> from me on Crouch!Moody, Lockhart and Umbridge being deeply corrupt 
> to begin with.

Quirrell was also undone by his own weakness. Voldemort chose him as a
servant because he was "young, foolish, and gullible" (GoF--I don't
have the page number handy but I can find it if anyone wants it)--and
because he was a teacher at Hogwarts. (Either he had just been hired
or the jinx wasn't in effect yet. I think the former, since Snape had
applied for about the eleventh time and had not received the
position.) When Quirrell failed to obtain the sorceror's stone from
the vault at Gringott's, Voldemort possessed him. At that point, it's
difficult to determine just how much of his own will was left to him.
It must have been like being under an Imperius curse only worse
because he could never escape the mind that had violated and occupied
his own head. He knew what had happened to him and even tried (feebly)
to argue with Voldemort. But once he had drunk the unicorn blood (I
can't pinpoint when that occurred, but it was some time before the
detention in the Forbidden Forest), he became irreversibly corrupted,
tainted, doomed, and evil.

The Quirrell we see in the scene with the mirror of Erised is stronger
and more intelligent than the timid, stammering Quirrell of the
earlier scenes, but it's hard to tell how much of the timidity is an
act. I think he pretended to faint when he ran into the dining hall to
inform everyone of the troll in the dungeon. He certainly wasn't
afraid of the troll, which he had brought in himself (controlling
trolls was his one qualification for the DADA post, I suppose), but he
may really have been so terrified by the prospect of failure that he
really did faint. I think he was also genuinely afraid of Snape and
undoubtedly terrified of Voldemort. The stammering could stem from
fear but was probably an act.

So why is he so different at the end of the book? What happened,
exactly? Has he simply dropped all his pretenses or is he really
stronger than the foolish young man he was when Voldemort first
started using him? Did he paradoxically become more of a dark wizard
in his own right because of the unicorn blood? Did Voldemort's growing
strength make him stronger, too? Was he still Voldemort's puppet
despite the change in his personality or was he intending to give him
the stone of his own free will, expecting to be rewarded for his
loyalty? (I would ask how he could have given him the stone and what
would have happened then, but that doesn't really relate to the
question at hand.)

So back to the original question. Was he weak or was he evil? Weak to
begin with, certainly, and at the end barely able to distinguish
between his own will and Voldemort's, yet still able to take pleasure
in his own cleverness. He has no qualms about killing Harry, which
shows that he has indded become evil. What was left of his innocence
is gone along with his timidity. It must have been the conscious
decision to kill the unicorn and the act of defiling himself by
drinking its blood that changed him. At that moment he ceased to be a
victim and became a villain.

One thing's certain. Jinx or no jinx, he wouldn't have been the DADA
teacher the following year!

Carol, who hopes that this makes sense because I'm discovering what I
think as I type rather than presenting a fully developed, reasoned
argument