Snape, Voldemort and the DADA position

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 165875

Goddlefrood:
 
> As long ago as October 2005 I put together a 
> little piece on Snape and the DADA position. I 
> believe he never wanted it and still hold that 
> view. He certainly did not apply every year, and 
> my reasoning is in the referred post below. Here 
> is a link to that post, from which anyone interested 
> could follow the discussion. No-one really managed 
> to counter my original view, but then that's the 
> joy of the list, I await a dressing down. 
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/141829

houyhnhnm:

Hey, Goddlefrood!  Hnuy illa nyha majah Yahoo!

Good points about Snape's obvious pride in his title 
and the alternative explanations for the hostility 
Snape shows other DADA professors.  Then of course, 
there is the love of his subject evinced by the speech 
made at the beginning of term in Harry's first year.  
But the strongest reason, IMO, to suspect the claim 
that Snape applied for the DADA position evey year 
and was turned down is that the reason given by Rowling 
in the interview (and by Snape himself to Bellatrix) 
just doesn't hold water.  The DADA position might 
bring out the worst in Snape, but making him head 
of Slytherin House wouldn't?  Sending him back out 
as a spy among the Death Eaters wouldn't?

I don't see Snape as being out for himself.  He may 
see himself that way, but I believe he is actually 
a moralist in disgust.

Medvedénko:  "Why do you always wear black?"
Masha:  "I am in mourning for my life."
~Anton Chekhov, The Seagull