Snape and DADA (Was: Theory on Petunia)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 156474

Doddiemoemoe wrote:


<snip>(there has to be a reason why Snape wanted 
> the DADA teaching position...)Why would snape want this? Is there 
> something in the DADA office? <snip>

Carol responds:
Sorry to snip your Petunia post, but I think Petunia is a Muggle like
Vernon, as we've been told in every book. The narrator can't be *that*
unreliable! Also, how could Lily be a Muggleborn if one parent was a
House-elf? (I can't even imagine such a marriage, actually, or where a
Muggle would meet one.)

But regarding Snape: I think you're forgetting an important detail. He
uses his old office in the dungeons, not the DADA office that Umbridge
and the other DADA teachers used. So whatever his reasons for wanting
DADA, that isn't one of them.

However, we have conflicting accounts. Hagrid says in CoS that
Lockhart was the only one who applied for the post, and in OoP we have
a similar story about Umbridge, IIRC. And yet Snape tells Umbridge
that he's applied every year for the post. Does he really do that or
does he only want people to think that he does? Is it just a
formality, something he and DD agreed on when DD gave Snape the
Potions position and kept doing later in case Voldemort came back and
asked questions?

Snape *must* know that the position is jinxed/cursed, considering the
fates of the previous DADA teachers (including quite a few before
Harry enters Hogwarts). So if he's really applying and really wants
the job, it must be because he's an expert in the subject and thinks
he can do a better job than the people who are actually hired. He must
also think that he can somehow defeat the jinx on the position. (IF
he's ESE!, of course, he just wants to get out of Hogwarts and go back
to being a DE, and a jinxed class would serve that purpose--if it
didn't kill him instead.)

Seriously, I think Snape had mixed feelings about the class. He knew
he'd be good at it, but he also knew it was jinxed. I think that he
and DD had an arrangement: He would teach Potions until the time came
when DD really needed Snape and only Snape to teach DADA. DD could
have hired Snape and prevented Umbridge from invading Hogwarts, but he
felt that the time hadn't come.

But after the battle at the MoM, with Voldie back in his body and no
longer sidetracked by the Prophecy, DD knew it was time that the
students had the best available DADA teacher--not the real Mad-Eye or
a Ministry teacher, but someone who knew both DADA and the Dark Arts
inside out, and was familiar with Voldemort as well. And note that
Snape *does* teach them what they need to know, both on a practical
and a theoretical level, without demonstrating any Unforgiveable Curses. 

There were other considerations as well, some of them comparatively
minor but still important. DD wanted Slughorn at Hogwarts for that
memory and to protect him, and Slughorn was a Potions teacher not a
DADA teacher. He also happened to be the former HoH of Slytherin when
Snape inevitably lost his job at the end of the year. And DD wanted
Harry to take NEWT Potions without having to antagonize Snape by
ordering him to let Harry into the class. And Snape could perform the
DADA teacher's other duties, such as removing curses from cursed
objects and treating cursed students, better than Madam Pomfrey or
anyone else on the staff. But I think the clincher was that Voldemort
had ordered Draco to kill Dumbledore. I think Snape put all these
arguments together (except the Harry/Potions one) and made his case to
Dumbledore. "Hurry up, please. It's time." Now or never, Dumbledore.
And Dumbledore agreed with him.

Carol, who thinks that Dumbledore gave Snape the DADA class in what he
knew would be his own last year at Hogwarts as a sign of trust and
because he really needed him in that position