Where did the money come from?/teachers

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 90586

Carol wrote:
 A job that doesn't pay well? How about teaching? Snape isn't rich
 despite his (presumed) pureblood status. Which makes me wonder--what
 if James was the DADA teacher and his death started the jinx on that
 position? That would put a new twist on Snape's quest for the DADA
 post--and on his resentment of James, as well.
 

Potioncat here:
Carol, you come up with the kind of ideas that leave me 
thinking "Why didn't I think of that!"
How about this theory?  James and Lily Potter are teachers at 
Hogwarts.  Both of them are killed and now there are two openings: 
DADA and Potions.  Snape needs a safe place and a job, so Dumbledore 
hires him for potions. It does seem he was hired after their deaths 
although that isn't certain. 

It would explain why Professor McGonagall refers to them as James 
and Lily (I always thought she was referring to adults she knew, 
not students she remembered) and might be why Hagrid recalls them as 
such nice people.

For that matter it could have just been James who was the teacher 
and some other teacher was killed as well...since there seems to 
have been 2 openings when Snape started teaching.

Although it would seem if they were teachers, living at Hogwarts 
would have been safer than Godric's Hollow.

As for the jinx, I always thought that started with Quirrell's 
death.  We're told somewhere that he had held the job for several 
years (4?)but each one after him only lasted a year.

Potioncat