The DADA jinx and its victims (Was:The best reason for Dumbledore to trust

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 138059

Valky wrote:
> To condense Carol's well thought out and detailed post, she proposes
> that the nature of the curse is that prior to the start of the term,
> an agent of the task of undoing the Professor by way of his/her own
> darker side chances itself into ambush position. In PS/SS Quirrel
puts on the Turban right before coming to Hogwarts after he fails to
get the stone from Gringotts, in COS Ron's wand breaks just as they
arrive at Hogwarts, In POA Carol suggests that the agent is the
Marauders Map, but I kind of differ in thinking that the agent is the
unfinished business among the Marauders and also between them and
Snape. Sorry Carol, but your excellent telling of the tale of the
jinx's ambush upon Lupin made me almost absolutely <snip> that the
agent was the old feud, resurrected by Sirius escape from Azkaban. <snip>
>
> So that brings us finally to Crouch. His undoing
> is not really clear. Essentially it's that Dumbledore figured him
out. So I think that the Agent here, is the Dark Mark. Lets think of
it as the last cog to slide into place when DD was wondering why Moody
took Harry away from him, DD's counting down the clues as to Moody's
> strange behaviour and it's that darn silly Dark Mark he conjured at
> the QWC that gave him away in the last seconds. Its neatly placed
> right before the start of term, thematically it pervades the story,
so I think that it makes a real good agent, in fact.
> 
> Ok so we have Umbridges Quill (or rather what she uses it for) and
> Crouch's Dark Mark, and the DADA Jinx looks a lot like Carols
proposal to me. 
> 
> So what about Snape? <snip>
> What appears to happen in HBP is that the UV is the agent of the
> curse. It fits the pattern, appears before the start of term, strung
> along through the plot it lies in wait to ambush its prey.. all good. 
> 
> <snip> In each case the actual agent of the undoing is
> itself representative of the dark side of the DADA teacher,
Quirrel's Dark side - working for Voldemort - killed by Voldemorts own
handiwork (the protection in Harry's skin), Gilderoy's Dark side - One
Spell Wonder - loses all to his spell, Lupins Dark side - Secrets kept
for his friends - loses his job to his secret that his friends kept
for him, Crouch's Dark Side - His Dark Mark which he loves - Undone in
the end by his Dark Mark, Umbridges Dark Side - drafting sadistic
> legislation - gets treated to laws of another autonomous sentient. 
>   
> So what we are looking for in the UV is the connection to Snapes
Dark side. It's obvious, but it's still ambiguous. Snape's Dark side is
> clearly that someone shouldn't Trust him. Trust is the point of a
> Unbreakable Vow, or should I say a lack of it. Now like I said, it
> remains ambiguous because we already knew that *someone* was being
> decieved by Snape, does the UV tell us anything more about who it is
> that is being decieved? <snip>
> 

Carol responds:
Good summation, Valky. You may be right about the feud rather than the
map as agent (though Lupin should not have kept it and he should have
wiped it clean before running out). I really like your Dark Mark as
agent for Crouch!Moody idea.

What I was getting at though, is that the DADA curse works Voldemort's
will, consciously or unconsciously. In almost all cases (Umbridge's
and Lockhart's are the weakest for the theory) the DADA teachers are
somehow linked to Voldemort and/or their fall benefits him. Quirrell's
connection is obvious, as is Crouch!Moody's. Lockhart is supposedly on
his way to deal with the basilisk when the DADA curse strikes. Even
Umbridge, my weakest example, is linked to Voldemort by the Dementors
she sends after Harry and the Crucio she tries to cast on him. Lupin's
fall releases Wormtail and Snape's fall kills Dumbledore, both clear
advantages for Voldemort regardless of the will of the DADA teacher
involved. 

I wanted to make especially clear that in Snape's case, the
Unbreakable Vow is not some random thing that just happens; it's the
agent of the DADA curse. As I noted earlier, it happens soon after he
accepts the job and before he starts teaching, exactly as Voldemort
enters Quirrell's head soon after he applies and before the term
begins. Unlike the pathetic Quirrell, he tries to fight it but he
fails. Just as Lupin uncharacteristically runs out of his office
forgetting his potion, the full moon, and the Marauders map because
Pettigrew has appeared on it at the worst possible moment for Lupin,
Snape runs up the stairs to find himself confronted with the worst
possible scenario--Death Eaters, a wandless and helpless Dumbledore,
and Draco failing to do the deed. The doom shaped by the Unbreakable
Vow, itself a product of the DADA curse, falls on him at that moment.

Also, I don't think it's so much a teacher's Dark side as a secret
that, along with the agent, shapes his fall in a particular way. What
Snape is concealing is where his loyalties lie. It could be a divided
loyalty that forces him to choose a side at the last moment. Or it
could be loyalty to Dumbledore for which the DADA curse is punishing
him in the worst possible way, by forcing Snape to kill him. Either
way, I think it's his secret devotion to one side or the other that
the DADA curse uses to trap him. Thanks, Valky, for helping me work
that out.

Carol, wondering if Valky noticed that an earlier post credits her
with hiding Horcruxes (So that's what you've been doing when you
weren't posting. Talk about secrets!) ;-)