Potions Master Question

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 93964

> Neri:
<snip> If DADA were not important, you can be sure that 
> Umbridge would have found a better position for herself.


Carol:
I've already anticipated the "core positions" part of your post and
answered it elsewhere, so I'll just respond to this one sentence.

First, DADA is the only open position when Umbridge insinuates herself
into Hogwarts. Second, she probably couldn't teach Potions if she
tried. ("Wands and cauldrons away. Read chapter one, Theory of
Potions. There will be no need to talk.") Third, she's particularly
concerned about DADA because she doesn't want Dumbledore to teach his
students defensive magic, which might prevent a forcible takeover of
the school. (Fudge thinks DD is creating an army, remember.) None of
that makes Potions less important to students than DADA.

Also, if DADA were more important than Potions, wouldn't one of the
heads of houses be given that position? (If not Snape, for whatever
reason, why not McGonagall? DD could probably find a skilled
Transfiguration teacher to replace her, one of her own former star
pupils, such as Bill Weasley, much more easily than he could replace a
Potions Master like Snape.) But back to DADA--DD hires total
incompetents rather than giving the position to McGonagall, Snape, or
Flitwick. We don't know of anything the students learned from
Quirrell; all they learned from Lockhart was not to release Cornish
Pixies into a classroom and how *not* to defend yourself in a duel;
and even Lupin only taught them how to deal with a few minor Dark
beings or creatures or however you would classify hinkypunks and
boggarts. (Mad Eye Moody never even got to teach because his position
was taken over by a maniac, so I'm not counting him as a person DD
hired. We don't know how he would have approached the subject.) Surely
if DADA were more important than the key courses taught by the heads
of houses, he'd have taught it himself rather than hiring such people.

I concede that DADA is important, especially with a war coming, but I
don't think it's the single most important course. (I also don't see
Transfiguration as being more important than Potions, as you said in
another post. Maybe vanishing spells will prove important, but
transfiguring a rat into a teacup?)

Carol, who hopes the students will have a decent DADA teacher next
year and that both Transfiguration and Potions will play a part in the
coming war