Lupin & passive-aggressiveness Re: Werewolves and RL equivalents/ some Siriu

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170494

lizzyben wrote:
> 
> It doesn't seem like that's the way the curse works. Quirrel didn't 
> submit his resignation because of the "DADA curse," he left because 
> people found out VD was living in his turban. Lockhart didn't resign 
> because the curse requires it, he left after being oblivated after 
> attacking Harry. etc. It doesn't seem like the curse works in 
> an "official" way - as in, the teacher knows & accepts it's a one-
> year term & then resigns. No, the curse works instead to expose & 
> intensify that person's faults & secrets. Dead, disgraced, exposed, 
> humiliated, they leave. 
> 
> So, no, I don't think DD accepted Lupin's resignation because of the 
> curse, instead, the curse worked to expose Lupin's faults & lies 
> until he had no choice but to leave. DD has kept people at Hogwarts 
> before, even after they made a mistake - Hagrid & Trelawny, for 
> example. He could have kept Lupin teaching in a different position, 
> or let him live at Hogwarts. But he didn't. And he didn't let Lupin 
> stay because Lupin had proven himself untrustworthy around students, 
> and disloyal to Dumbledore (cynically, I think this bothered DD the 
> most). DD was forced to let Lupin go, & I think Lupin was secretly 
> glad to be gone. 
> 
> Now that I think of it, it seems almost cruel to keep hiring a new 
> DADA teacher/victim each year, when everyone else knows that person 
> will end up destroyed or disgraced by the end of that year. I wonder 
> if DD includes that little clause in the employment contract? 

Carol responds:
I agree with you about the way the curse works. In fact, I wrote a
long post on the subject not long after HBP came out if anyone is
interested:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/137961?threaded=1&l=1

With regard to what DD tells the DADA applicants, word seems to have
gotten around that the position is jinxed or cursed, considering how
few applicants there are (most of them former Hogwarts students who
would have seen for themselves that the DADA position was a revolving
door.) Fake!Moody not only suspects but *knows* that it's a one-year
position. He tells the students that Dumbledore wants him at Hogwarts
during the TWT and that he intends to go back into retirement
afterwards. (Of course, he actually intends to go back to Voldemort,
but instead his identity is exposed an he ends up being soul-sucked,
as much a victim of the curse as if DD had actually hired him.)

Since he's speaking as Moody and giving DD's reasons for hiring the
real Moody and the real Moody's intentions after the year is up, it
seems likely that he's repeating what the real Moody tells him under
coercion from the Imperius Curse, just as he does when he explains why
he drinks from the hip flask. (He's giving the real Moody's reasons as
a cover story for his own use of the hip flask to conceal Polyjuice
Potion).

So if both the real and fake Moodys know that it's a one-year
position, Dumbledore must have told the real Moody so. Which is not,
of course, the same thing as telling him that it's cursed. (I suppose
DD thought that the worst that could happen to the real Moody was some
revelation of his paranoia. In his case, however, the paranoia was
simply validated.)

It's impossible to say what Dumbledore told Lupin or Lockhart.
Lockhart probably wasn't listening, anyway, or thought that the
one-year clause didn't apply to *him* (DD would see how brilliant he
was and keep him on), whereas Lupin was grateful for any job and
probably suspected that his hiring had something to do with either the
new anti-werewolf legislation or Sirius Black being at large, and no
doubt DD used the Wolfsbane Potion as an incentive. I would hope that
he was open with Lupin about the curse on the position (he's certainly
bright enough to have observed that the job never lasted and would, I
think, have heard enough about Quirrell and Lockhart to be wary of a
job that might lead to a similar fate), but knowing about the curse
wouldn't prevent it from working--for Lupin or DDM!Snape. (Umbridge he
didn't hire and wouldn't have warned.)

I imagine that most of the time, the curse simply reveals a flaw (not
being a werewolf but dishonesty and irresponsibility in Lupin's case)
that makes it impossible to retain the teacher or causes him to resign
in disgrace (as would have happened to Lockhart if he hadn't tried to
Memory Charm the boys and been hit by his own spell--Voldemort in
miniature). So DD isn't dooming the teachers to death or some other
horrible fate--Quirrell and the real and fake Moodys appear to be
exceptions to the rule, and Lockhart was hoist with his own petard.
Surely, both Snape and Dumbledore know that Snape will be revealed as
an apparently loyal Death Eater at the end of his year as DADA teacher
(and possibly killed given the danger of that revelation), which is,
IMO, why he waited so long to give the position to Snape, who must
have agreed with him given the perilous situation in the WW and
Draco's predicament in particular that it was time to do so.

Unfortunately for Dumbledore, DADA is a required subject for all
students up to OWL year and essential to survival in the WW, so he has
no choice but to hire the best candidate he can fine (always reserving
Snape till he has no choice but to hire him, both for his talents and
because it's time to let him go). It's not his fault that the position
is cursed or that the few wizards qualified to teach it have either
already had their turn or are wary of the position. He does the best
he can, actively seeking out Lupin and Moody, just as he actively
sought out Slughorn for Potions (and that memory) when it was time to
give Snape the DADA post. And even when the DADA teacher is as inept
as Lockhart or Umbridge, he can always count on the students to hex
each other in the hallways, erm, to teach each other hexes and jinxes.

Carol, guessing that Dumbledore, as usual, tells as much of the truth
as he thinks the particular applicant needs to know