Theory on the DADA-post's jinx

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 85590

Yolanda wrote:
> Along the lines of Harry being the jinx on the DADA teachers, we 
> don't know how long Quirrell taught DADA, before PS/SS, however I 
> suspect it was for at least couple of school years, because Hagrid 
> said Quirrell was fine "while he was teaching out of books", then he 
> left to get some experience defending DADA.
> 
> So Quirrell must have taught for a year at least, left to get some 
> experience, maybe during the summer, then returned to teach another 
> year.  I say he returned to teach another year, because Hagrid 
> comments on Quirrell's change sound like they are about the past year 
> (or years).
> 
> I think Quirrell was there at Hogwarts for at least two years before 
> Harry. This means of course that Quirrell actually had the job for 
> more than a year, so the jinx hadn't started yet.


If it's any help, Voldemort says in GoF that he met Quirrell "four
years ago" in Albania (Am. ed. 654) and that Quirrell ("young,
foolish, and gullible") was a Hogwarts teacher at the time. Harry is
just ending his fourth year at Hogwarts in that scene, so the meeting
must have occurred in the summer of the year he entered Hogwarts, some
time around his eleventh birthday. It's possible that Quirrell has
just been hired, but it sounds as if he's already been teaching there
for at least a year.

I don't remember that specific Hagrid quote(page number, anybody?),
but I do remember reading that Quirrell didn't stammer until his
supposed encounter with a vampire (not so very far from the truth
considering that Voldemort is a sort of spiritual vampire or
parasite), which also suggests that he was teaching at Hogwarts for at
least a year before the Voldemort encounter. That would mean he was
teaching for at least two years, so the jinx could not have been in
effect.

It's even possible that he had been there as long as Snape, who is
also relatively young (32 or 33 in SS/PS, about 21 when he started
teaching). Quirrell could have started teaching at, say, 19, which
would make him about 30 when Voldemort found him. My impression is
that he's younger, though: "young, foolish, and gullible" suggests
early rather than late twenties or early thirties. Still, if he did
have the DADA position all those years, then his death would have
begun the jinx. That certainly makes more sense than having Snape
create the jinx and would explain why he kept applying for it against
the much less-qualified Quirrell.

Does anyone know when we first hear the suggestion that the position
is jinxed? Could he be its first victim and/or its originator?

Carol