The Dark Arts job, was, Dumbledore's motive

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 115914


 
> Ten'ou wrote:
> > Or - and here's one of Ten'ou's inspirations that is either 
genius  or complete insanity... The position attracts evil. Like 
when you have a ley line that's turned dark, it attracts dark things 
to it... (like attracting like) This even explains Lupin, who has 
the  tendency to  gnaw on people during a full moon unless he takes 
his  medicine like a  good doggie. I for one think that is just a 
little bit evil.
snip
> > Beatnik replied:
>snip  
It goes along with a pet theory I've had, which 
> > relates back to something that a Weasley once said (sorry, can't 
> > recall which book), something to the tune of "Some people reckon 
> > that the DADA position is cursed."
snip   

> Carol notes:
> The Weasley who made the remark was Percy in SS/PS, citing a rumor
> rather than a known fact. I don't know what to think of the jinx 
idea except that Snape (whom we don't know to be evil and who 
probably isn't given DD's trust of him) would hardly be jinxing a 
position he applies for every year. (That was also a rumor until 
Snape confirmed its truth to Umbridge in OoP.)
> 
> It's interesting that the position was considered jinxed even 
before Quirrell died, though he seems to be coming back to it after 
a year's absence doing practical research in Albania. He must have 
taught for at least a year before leaving. (Constance Vigilance, if 
she's reading this, will have some ideas on the subject.) If 
something as abstract and insubstantial as a teaching position can 
be jinxed, which seems unlikely, it would make sense that the person 
doing the jinxing would be a DE, someone like, say, Lucius Malfoy, 
who doesn't want the students to learn *defense* against the Dark 
Arts. In fact, if he hadn't given in to Narcissa, he have sent Draco 
to Durmstrang to learn the Dark Srts themselves rather than defense 
against them. 
Snape, on the other hand, studied very hard for his DADA OWL and 
evidently knew the subject in great detail even as a fifth-year. It 
seems most unlikely that he would put a jinx on a subject he cares 
so much about--or agree to substitute for Lupin, as he must have 
done every month though we only see the one lesson, if he thought 
the position was jinxed.
> 


Potioncat:
The idea that DADA might attract evil or bring out evil would lean 
towards some of the theories on why it isn't given to Snape.  (or am 
I just re-stating the point of Ten'ou's post?)  So an ideal teacher 
would be someone who is strong enough to resist that pull, and most 
likely, not a job you would want to stay in for a long time.

For some reason that reminds me of X-ray technicians who wear a 
monitor to be certain they haven't been over-exposed to harmful 
radiation. (Not sure if that's still done.)

Did Percy really say it was thought to be jinxed in SS/PS?  I could 
have sworn it was Hagrid in CoS!  (of course, I have a memory like a 
sieve)  That puts a whole different slant on the position.  I 
thought it based on Quirrell.  And along that line of thought.  
Quirrell had the job, took a year's break and came back a changed 
man.  Even afraid of his students.  Is there a known time-line for 
this?  I always thought that Harry's first year, was Quirrell's 
first year back.  But Hagrid talks about how different Quirrell is. 
So has Quirrell been tending LV for a year at Hogwarts before Harry 
comes?

It also seems that Hagrid insists that no one else applied for the 
job in one of the books (IRRC).  Which means that either Hagrid was 
wrong. Or Snape didn't apply either.

As to the jinxing.  It may just be a rumor.  We've seen lots of 
incorrect rumors at Hogwarts.  Or it could be that if it 
does "attract evil" that it is sort of self-jinxing. Or if Snape 
jinxed it, he could have done something like Hermione did...under 
these circumstance "that anyone other than Severus Snape master of 
Hogwarts is teaching" the position causes bad things to happen.

And one more thought.  Young Severus did work very hard on DADA.  It 
could be he worked on all his classes like that driven by a need to 
succeed.  Or it could be he felt the need to know the defense 
against Dark Arts as well as he knew Dark Arts.  Or maybe he wanted 
to do well in DADA to prove he wasn't up to his eyes in Dark Arts?

Potioncat