Saving Ginny (was Re: Lockhart's incompetence)

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 143219

Alla wrote in 143187:
>snip... so I think it is 
> reasonable to speculate that teachers may think that something of 
> what he wrote in his books was true, no?
> 
> After all Dumbledore gave him  the job, right and we all know how 
> much all other adults trust Albus? Not necessarily that everybody 
> knew that he was the only candidate for the job, IMO.


Potioncat:
When we met Lockhart we had no real idea the position had been such a 
revolving door. After all, to us, there was a good reason for 
Quirrell to leave. We trusted DD, but his selection of Lockhart was 
the source of a great deal of discussion.

Looking at the DADA teachers with our HBP understanding of the 
situation, we know that there has been a new DADA teacher every year 
since about 1955. I'm basing that as being 10 years after Tom Riddle 
graduated. (using Lexicon's timeline.) 

Either the teachers "know" the position is jinxed, or they know 
there's a rumor it's jinxed, or at the very least they're used to 
seeing a parade of unusual characters in the position. Snape was 
taught by 7 different teachers and his own thoughts as a student 
about it would affect how he views the competence level of DADA 
teachers now. While they may not fully understand what is going on, 
I'm sure the teachers don't automatically think the DADA teacher is 
going to be well qualified. Nothing in the book makes me think the 
teachers were blind to Lockhart's lies.

> 
> Geoff:
> My concern is, that although there is a certain amount of smug 
> satisfaction in watching Lockhart backpedalling, what were the 
staff 
> actually proposing to /do/ about Ginny once they'd got him out of 
the 
> way?
> 
> It seems fairly obvious that they didn't expect him to get very far 
> but then immediately turned their minds to less urgent matters such 
> as keeping the students secure in the dormitories and sending them 
> home on the Hogwarts Express. There seemed to be no thought of 
trying 
> to reach Ginny....

Potioncat:
You're right! It certainly seems that everyone gave up. If anyone was 
doing something, or planning to do something, we weren't told about 
it. 

But we were told that the castle had been searched many times and no 
one could find any evidence of the Chamber. So what could the 
teachers do, but get the other students to safety? 

Someone else pointed out that it was Harry's special tallent 
(Parseltongue) that allowed him to find the Chamber, not that the 
teachers themselves were incompetent.