Potions Master Question

[nkafkafi]

No: HPFGUIDX 94015


> Carol:
<snip>
> 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

Neri:
What's going on with the DADA position, this is one of the great 
mysteries in the HP saga. It is extremely strange that it is so 
difficult to find a competent teacher and that no one survives more 
than a year. The current Hogwarts teachers are hardly the only 
possible candidates. There must be hundreds of wizards in Britain who 
could still do it better than Quirrell, Lockhart or Umbridge. All 
this is perfectly true even if we assume that DADA is less 
prestigious than Potions. However, if we assume (as Snape himself 
seems to think) that DADA is more prestigious than Potions, then this 
mystery is even more intriguing. And I happen to like intriguing 
mysteries.

I already gave in this thread all my reasons to think that 
Tranfiguration is the most prestigious field. Note again, I DON'T say 
it is the most important. I say it is the most PRESTIGIOUS. This is a 
different thing altogether. 

Neri