Snape's textbook and the purpose of Slughorn being Potions professor

[huntergreen_3]

No: HPFGUIDX 133939

Bekki wrote:
>>But why was Slughorn a Potions teacher instead of a DADA teacher? 
Maybe:

5) A horcrux sounds more like something a DADA professor would know 
about than a Potions professor unless, as I've read other people 
suggest, the creation of a Horcrux is connected to a Potion.<<

HunterGreen:
Its possible that *any* teacher in Hogwarts could know what Horcruxes 
are, but he asked Slughorn because Slughorn was his head-of-house and 
he thought it would be easiest to get the information out of him. 

Bekki:
>>6) As Ersatz Harry said, it's a way for Harry to get the Half Blood 
Prince's book. Howevever, I wonder how would this have been managed if 
the HBP strand was part of CoS.<<

HunterGreen:
I wonder that as well. I can't see how the Half-Blood Prince plotline 
would fit at all into CoS (and that's probably why it was moved out), 
but it could have worked a similar way, with Harry losing his potions 
book this time instead of having not purchased one, but I don't like 
the idea of Snape being the one who gave him the HBP book, so I don't 
know how it would have worked, maybe him finding it in the library or 
something?

Bekki:
>>Or is there some other reason?<<

HunterGreen:
Well, the simple reason that Slughorn didn't teach DADA, is that he's a 
potions teacher. Dumbledore wanted the information from him, so he 
called him to teach potions and finally gave Snape the DADA postion 
(how he thought Snape would avoid the curse on it, is anyone's guess). 

>From outside the books, my feeling is that the Half-Blood Prince plot 
required someone besides Snape to give Harry the book, since Snape 
would have either not given Harry a book he knew to be his, or that he 
would have figured out that Harry was using his potions advice a lot 
sooner.
The other things that Slughorn did (the slug club, telling Harry about 
Lily) could have been done if he was the DADA professor. (Though, I do 
find it interesting that *two* heads of Slytherin house have been 
potions professors, not DADA, which would seem the natural choice, hmm 
perhaps its just that Snape began teaching the year that Slughorn 
retired?)
 Plus, wasn't it fun to see someone else teaching potions? 


-Rebecca / HunterGreen