the Dark Arts Job

[beatnik24601]

No: HPFGUIDX 115984


Ten'ou wrote:
> The position attracts evil. Like when you
> have a ley line that's turned dark, it attracts dark things to 
it...

Beatnik replied:
> Ooh, I really like this theory...<<snip>> something to the tune 
of "Some people reckon
> that the DADA position is cursed." I think that these people might
> reckon correctly. Is it possible to curse a teaching post? If so,
> who's doing the cursing? Snape, so that he might get the job
> someday or working on LV's orders? Some other evil person at
> Hogwarts, who has not revealed their evilness yet?

Carol notes:
> The Weasley who made the remark was Percy in SS/PS, citing a rumor
rather than a known fact. 

Beatnik responds:
I realize this was a rumor (sorry, if it sounded like I was trying 
to pass if off as fact), but who's to say that some rumors can't be 
true.  After all, the existence of the Chamber of Secrets was at one 
time 'just a rumor'.  And, there are other examples within the text 
where rumors turned out to be accurate (like the one you cite 
below:)) BTW, I looked it up...and the reference I found was in CoS, 
and it was Hagrid, "People aren't to keen to take the job. They 
startin' to think it's jinxed."  Although, I swear a Weasley said 
something to this effect, as well.

Carol:
> 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.)

Beatnik:
My thought about Snape, was that he would jinx the position, in 
order that he *could* apply every year.  The position would have to 
be open for Snape to have a chance to be appointed to it.  I, also, 
assumed that if Snape had performed the jinx, he would know how to 
lift it once he was the DADA teacher. I don't think this has 
anything to do with Snape being evil, just ambitious; after all, he 
was in Slytherin!

Carol:
> 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.)

Beatnik:
This confuses me, too.

Carol:
> 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.

Beatnik:
Again, the reason I think Snape would jinx the position would be to 
allow him to teach it.  I don't know that Snape really cares that 
much about the students' education in the subject. The only lesson 
we saw, the entire purpose of his curriculum was to punish Lupin, 
and get him fired.  Of course, it's definitely possible that someone 
else has jinxed the position, for example, someone who doesn't want 
the students to learn DADA, like a DE. That is, if the position is 
jinxed at all.

Beatnik
P.S. Thanks to Carol, to responding to my post, it makes us Newbies 
feel so special;)