Snape, Voldemort and the DADA position

[bkalb1977]

No: HPFGUIDX 165866

Thanks for the response, enjoyed reading it. Regarding the DADA job:
 
It just seems weird to me the intense interest in this specific job 
at Hogwarts. If Voldemort's real purpose was to be at Hogwarts and
influence kids, really any position would do fine... Slughorn was 
able to influence plenty of people as Potions Master. And as long as
Voldemort was a teacher at Hogwarts (any subject), he would have the
ability to explore the castle.

justcarol: 
> DD is probably right that LV doesn't want to teach so much as to 
> influence young minds and recruit followers--and where
> better to do that than in a popular class like DADA, which everyone
> wants to learn 
> But also, LV would not have wanted the students to learn *Defense*
> Against the Dark Arts, which is probably why he "jinxed" (cursed) 
> the class to prevent any DADA teacher from teaching more than a 
> year and particularly to prevent the good ones from returning-- 

You make good points about Voldie wanting to influence how kids
thought about the "Dark Arts" and to keep them from getting a good
"Defense" education... I guess I am wondering though if there is 
more to it than that. It seemed he was interested in the DADA job 
even as a 6th year- remember he asked Slughorn in that memory "Sir, 
is it true that Professor Merrythought is retiring?"

Plus I don't really get Snape's obsession either. I do think he 
wanted the job and Dumbledore kept refusing him. The reason I think 
that is A) he admitted this to Umbridge in OOP and had this look of 
annoyance at being asked, and B) JKR addressed this issue and didn't 
really seem to hint that it was a feint set up by Dumbledore and 
Snape.

justcarol:
> If I'm right that Snape, like Dumbledore, knew or suspected that LV
> was not dead (his words to Bellatrix to the contrary), he would 
> have continued to apply for the DADA position every year as a show 
> of loyalty to LV when he returned, but I think he knew he would 
> never be hired for the position until the time was ripe--after 
> Voldie had returned and DD urgently needed his talents in that 
> position

It's possible that Snape only applied for the DADA job to 
demonstrate loyalty to voldemort, as you suggested... i just think 
that is less likely. I get this sense that Snape really does want to 
teach that specific subject. I certainly could be reading too much 
into this... but I also wouldn't be surprised if we were to find out 
in Book 7 that there is more to the DADA job that we are aware of 
currently.

Bobby