Why does Snape wants DADA job if it cursed? LONG

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 148813

Sydney:
*(big snip)*
> -- Snape seems, from the Umbrige scene, to have some sort of 
emotional
> stake in this dispute-- he speaks 'jerkily' and looks 'very angry'; 
> it's the only time, in fact, that we see him angry at Umbrige, even
> when she's yelling at him about the Veritaserum
*(big snip)*
> -- Snape doesn't know the job is cursed;  he just kept applying for 
14
> years because teaching DADA to snot-nosed brats seemed cooler than
> teaching Potions to snot-nosed brats, even though he loves both
> potions and DADA, and hates snot-nosed brats, so why the big
> difference?

Ceridwen:
As you can see, I'm cherry-picking.  I like this one because it seems 
almost right to me.  It's too bad that JKR saw fit not to show much 
of the DADA class this year!  From what we did see, IMO, there was a 
very subtle difference between the first DADA intro and the first 
Potions intro.  Snape is somewhat sarcastic in DADA, but not to the 
point of calling nearly every student he has ever taught 
a 'dunderhead' (if memory serves).  The students crane their necks to 
keep him in view as he circuits the classroom.  Parvati asks a 
question and he answers without sarcasm.  He calls on Hermione to 
answer a question, he doesn't ignore her hand.  He makes a comment 
about her definition being straight out of a book (and names the 
book, which is not their text).

There is little else for classtime with Snape this book.  Harry 
doesn't seem to spend a lot of time musing about Snape, in or out of 
class.  So there must be some difference.  Someone mentioned the fact 
that Snape isn't as OTT this year, at least not from Harry's point of 
view.  Snape 'says' instead of 'sneers', for instance, when Harry 
makes that 'sir' crack. As opposed to Potions, where he seemed tense. 
Maybe he really does want to teach DADA.

Sydney:
> -- Snape doesn't want the DADA job:  he wants the DADA Curse. Here 
we
> have to sub-categorize:

> -- Snape thought he, as Mr. Dark Arts, could break the curse,
> and was, what, seeing it as a challenge?  Dumbledore did not think
> Snape would succeed, and he was right.
*(snip: Read pros and cons upthread)*
> -- Oh, all right, I'll throw a bone to ESE!Snapers:  Snape, as
> Voldemort's man, expects the curse to be lifted for him.  He keeps
> applying for the job because.. 

Ceridwen:
Let's put these two together.  Snape thought he could break the 
curse.  He assumed that either a) LV would lift it, or b) LV would 
give him the formula to break it, both suggestions because if there's 
a curse, it seems LV placed it, and Snape is, to LV, LV's man in 
Hogwarts.  Why would he want his man ousted?  If Snape really prefers 
this job, then he might want this to be true.

*(snip)*
Sydney:
>       --  Snape expects-- rightly as it turns out-- that the effect 
of
> the curse would be to expose him as a double agent.  He's sick of
> spying and wants permission to quit, which he's asking for, again 
in a
> coded way, by appying for the job;  and D-dore is codely refusing. 
> Pros:  this is a pretty good motivation, and takes the character in 
an
> interesting direction.  Cons:  Again with the mean Dumbledore:  if
> Snape really wanted to quit, wouldn't Dumbledore just let him,
> especially as a reluctant spy could do more harm than good?  Plus,
> being exposed as a double-agent is pretty close to a death-sentence,
> which brings us to:

Ceridwen:
...the argument in the forest.  Sorry, that's exactly where this 
possibility brought me.  Dumbledore took too much for granted.  Maybe 
Snape didn't want to do it any more (HBP, US, p. 405).  A lot can be 
read into that conversation, as even Hagrid notes.  But, this is one 
possibility that has been mentioned before: Snape wants out.  But, 
could it be that he wants out of the DADA job, having realized 
through personal experience now that it really is cursed?  My puny 
brain is not equipped to chase the shadows this possibility raises.

Sydney: 
>       -- Snape expected-- wrongly as it turns out-- that the DADA
> curse would kill him, as he has darker secrets than most.  Snape
> wanted this outcome and Dumbledore didn't;  Snape has enough
> obligations to D-dore to drag out his miserable existence under his
> kindly eye, but applies for the DADA job yearly as a scab-peeling
> excercise in Dumbledore's face.  Pros: You have to love the irony of
> the actual outcome of the curse.  Big emotional payoff, and probably
> the most shocking thing for Harry to discover.  Plus, the scab-
peeling
> does sound so very Snapey. Probably the most in-character option for
> Dumbledore  Cons:  does Snape really seem suicidal?  Would he do
> himself in before he could take V-mort with him?  I'm the world's
> leading suicidal!Snape proponent, and even I'm dubious about this.

Ceridwen:
Not suicidal.  I've never read him like that.  Angry, yes; longing 
for a nice, quiet life, yes, preferably one without students.  But, 
what if he's so tired and stressed that death suddenly seems like a 
nice, long nap, one that won't be disturbed by the Dark Mark burning, 
or Dumbledore coming up with yet another plan?

Sydney:
*(snip)*
> Riddle did, after all, apply for THAT job, so maybe there was
> already something weird and unique about it.

Ceridwen:
I can see that working without Snape's part in it.  But again, the 
puny brain, too many shadows, but intriguing.  Something to play with 
while doing the dishes.


Sydney:
> -- adding  Jen's theory:
> >My brain can spin all sorts of theories about why Snape got the
> >position and for efficiency reasons my personal favorite is simple:
> >Voldemort, for whatever twisted Dark Lord reason, said to
> >Snape: "Get the DADA job or else", so Snape went to Dumbledore and
> >said, "give me the DADA job or I'm a dead man" and Dumbledore
> >said, "Hmm, compelling reason. OK."  Simple, efficient, and
> >requiring only a modicum of explanation.

Ceridwen:
We can put some other things in HBP toward this one, I think.  
Wormtail is living at Snape's house.  Some of us believe he's there 
to spy on Snape.  Now I'm wondering if the spying, if it's true, has 
more to do with Snape getting the job?  Did LV just get tired of 
excuses and say it had to be done?  Does he doubt Snape's sincere 
efforts?

Is the curse there to do Dumbledore in?  It's had its chances, with 
Lupin being outed as a werewolf, which would reflect badly on the 
headmaster for hiring him in the minds of a lot of the parents; 
Quirrell (Q-Mort, unbeknownst to most) tried to kill The Boy Who 
Lived (long before the Ministry tried to discredit him), again, a bad 
reflection on DD if it would have happened; the CoS being opened and 
several students attacked.  If one or more died, that would reflect 
badly on DD, and as well, the Weasleys *could have* gotten upset that 
no one noticed their daughter was possessed by a budding Dark Lord; 
Umbridge was able to oust DD from the school temporarily; Crouch!
Moody embarrassed the school internationally, on DD's watch, by 
messing with the TriWizard Tournament, and DD didn't seem to know (by 
outside observation; the entire curse took place during Dumbledore's 
tenure as headmaster, more than twenty years, possibly forty years, 
of losing one DADA professor after another.  This reflects very badly 
on Dumbledore.  Wouldn't the board be expected to want to get rid of 
him after a while?  No other headmaster that we know of, has had this 
sort of problem.  The more I think about it, the more I think the 
position was cursed to bring Dumbledore down.

But, why?  Just anger on LV's part that DD actually told him to his 
face that he would never give him the job?  Or does LV desperately 
want to get into Hogwarts for other reasons?  And, not just because 
of Harry - the curse was put into place before Harry's parents were 
born, since he applied for the job just out of school (1945?), then 
again, ten years later (1955?).  The whole Harry, BWL, thing is just 
a part of a larger whole, if this is true.

Anyway, if the curse is there to get Dumbledore out, then someone 
tied to LV (Snape has the Dark Mark, and is at least supposedly 
working for LV) would finally get it done, even if he or she didn't 
want to.  Maybe that's the nature of the curse, and now that 
Dumbledore is no longer headmaster, the curse is over.  *Maybe*.

Sydney:
> -- -- The real reason Snape wants the DADA job:  Comes with parking 
space.

Ceridwen:
That's it.  Got to be.  A perk of the job everyone suspects is 
cursed, just to attract applicants.  Right next to the front doors, 
even ahead of Dumbledore's space.  And, a house elf valet thrown in.

Ceridwen.