Why does Snape wants DADA job if it cursed? LONG

[Ceridwen]

No: HPFGUIDX 148847

> Ceridwen:
> >Let's put these two together. [Maybe he really does want to teach
> DADA.] 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.

Sydney:
> Well, Snape was applying for this every year when V-mort was
> missing-vapourmort as well, so I don't see how he thought he could
> communicate to him that, by the way, could he lift the DADA curse 
for
> him while he was floating around in limbo?'.  Also, this doesn't
> explain why Dumbledore doesn't give him the job.  This is a very
> important point that I haven't seen anybody cover.  I can't see that
> it's because Dumbledore is more worried about something happening to
> Snape than something happening to, say, Lupin or Moody. I don't 
know,
> maybe Dumbledore really, really likes Snape as a Potions teacher and
> doesn't want to lose him?  *is dubious*.  

Ceridwen:
You're probably not going to get too many bites for Dumbledore's 
reasons when the thread is about Snape's reasons for wanting the 
position.

But, if that's what you want, I'll play.

There are a few things readily apparent in HBP.  One is that 
Dumbledore has gone out of his way to get a new *Potions* professor.  
Harry thinks Slughorn is slated for DADA, and frankly, so did I.  
Isn't that the usual pattern?  Hindsight tells me that I should have 
realized that a veteran Potions master would naturally take up his 
old position, especially since he taught the current Potions master.  
Hindsight is wonderful.  You can see so clearly!

Another thing which is not obvious, but is part of the knowledge 
behind the series so far, and which also ties in with my above, is 
that the school had a hard time finding a DADA professor the year 
before, hence Umbridge from the Ministry.  It could have come to the 
point that no one else applied for it, and Dumbledore didn't want 
another meddling, potentially harmful drone from the MoM to traipse 
along and fill the slot.

Dumbledore could have been worried about Snape.  Or, more accurately, 
his spy in Voldemort's camp.  If Snape takes the position and ends up 
leaving Hogwarts, two things happen.  One, Snape is discredited 
somehow.  In the most extreme example, which we got in HBP, Snape is 
discredited to the Order.  He loses his usefulness to the Order as a 
spy.  Two, Snape is no longer useful to Voldemort.  He has lost his 
position near Dumbledore and can pass no useful information.  This 
could mean Snape's life in the extreme, or it could mean limited 
ability to maintain contact with Dumbledore.  Neither situation would 
be good.

Some of us have speculated that Dumbledore knew this was his last 
year at Hogwarts/alive.  He makes the request of the Dursleys to have 
Harry stay one more period of time the next summer all the way up in 
chapter three.  This sounds like taking care of affairs, since he 
probably will not have another chance to speak with the Dursleys.  
When Slughorn mentions that DD ought to retire (slowing down), 
Dumbledore agrees and says he just might.  Foreshadowing?  Dumbledore 
is curt with Harry throughout the book, uncharacteristic  behavior.  
He seems urgent in wanting to get things done in a hurry.  His hand 
has been injured, and is described as looking dead.  More 
foreshadowing?  If Dumbledore is making arrangements for his own end 
throughout the book, then he believes he will not be at Hogwarts, or 
able to make these arrangements, later on.  Could he want Snape to 
go 'deep cover' with LV?

If Snape goes deep-cover, he may become privy to more information 
than he otherwise would have gotten by being only peripheral to the 
DEs, since his time necessarily had to be spent at Hogwarts.  Or, he 
could become a catalyst for disgruntled DEs to turn against LV and be 
hidden by DD and/or the Order.  He would be in a place which is more 
suitable to throwing monkey wrenches, or spanners, into the works on 
the DE end of things.  He might become a free agent wandering around, 
finding things, or helping Harry on his quest.  Were you one of the 
people who think that DD didn't mean to actually die at the end of 
HBP?  If so, this scenario might make some sense.  Because even if 
Snape was discredited somehow to everybody else, he would still, in 
the initial theory, have DD to take his reports.  A dead DD was not 
on the table.

On Snape applying every year, apparently Dumbledore never quite 
believed that Voldemort was gone.  Dumbledore would certainly inform 
Snape of this suspicion, so they could carry out the charade every 
year.  No matter whether Snape turns out to be any sort of Alphabet!
Snape, Dumbledore insisted that he trusted him, and would have 
provided for his spy.  And, since the DADA curse is apparently 
automatic, then, in the Potterverse, could the lifting of the curse 
for the 'right' applicant also be automatic?

How's that for a start?

Ceridwen, who wonders how the Dramaturgical Approach would apply?