Snape again

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 148712

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "sidd_m2003" <sidd_m2003 at ...> 
wrote:
>
> OK, OK, you may say "not again" but I had had a really an interesting 
> idea last night. DD knew that DADA department is cursed and no 
teacher 
> can last for more than one year yet he appoints Snape as new DADA 
> teacher. Which makes me think that DD knew that Snape will not need 
to 
> teach at Hogwarts after this year. In other words, he knew all about 
> the plan and he had decided that he will need to die in the end. 


Well, several possibilities:

1)  Are we sure that the DADA position is in fact cursed?  As I recall, 
DD is only speculating based on the fact that no one has held the 
position for two years consecutively (Quirrel I believe held it for a 
year, was gone for a year, then returned for another year) since he 
refused it to Voldemort.  However, we are only dealing with speculation 
on DD's part, and I don't think we were ever given positive evidence 
that such a curse in fact exists.  Given that, DD may simply have been 
taking a calculated risk in giving Snape the position, rather than 
knowing for a fact that Snape would be gone at the end of the year.

2)  Given the precedent of Quirrel, DD may have had a plan in mind to 
avoid the curse (rotate Snape out after a year, for example, then 
rotate him back in).

3)  If the position is indeed cursed, DD may simply have been 
attempting to force Voldemort's hand.  Voldemort knows that Snape is 
his "man" inside DD's camp.  By giving Snape the job, DD is forcing 
Voldemort to make a decision:  Either remove the curse or lose your man 
inside Hogwarts.  In other words, he's trying to force Voldemort to 
weigh the value of his petty revenge against the value of having a spy 
in DD's camp, and is hoping that Voldemort's desire for ultimate 
victory will force him to withdraw the curse on the DADA position.

4)  DD may well have planned for Snape to leave at the end of the 
year.  That does not mean that DD expected the situation on the Tower 
or expected to die.  He may have had some other scenario in mind by 
which Snape would leave Hogwarts.  He may have meant for Snape to leave 
Hogwarts and permanently join Voldy's camp, or he may have had some 
other plan in mind.  There is no necessary connection at all between a 
knowledge of the DADA curse (if such in fact exists) and the events on 
the Tower.

So, I'd say that 1) you would have to assume that a DADA curse does in 
fact exist and, 2) even if it does, that proves pretty much nothing 
except that DD MIGHT have expected Snape to leave the DADA position, 
perhaps temporarily, after a year.  I say MIGHT because even that is in 
no way proven, given that DD may have been attempting a ploy to force 
Voldemort to remove the curse altogether.



Lupinlore