Dumbledore's judgment

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166023

colebiancardi:  
> <sniP> I do think DD was scraping the bottom of the barrel with
Lockhart - who else was there to teach DADA?  Should they have
cancelled the class?

Carol responds:
The alternative was Snape, whether or not he applied for the position.
I've already expressed my view that he didn't want to lose Snape by
placing him in that position, and with Voldemort still vapor, he
didn't really need a highly talented DADA teacher. (Save Snape till he
really needs him.) There's also his knowledge of the jinx on the
position. Could manipulator!Dumbledore have a secondary objective of
exposing a fake? Or did he think that the students might actually
learn something from the books even though the author is taking credit
for other people's exploits? Did Dumbledore even know when he hired
Lockhart that Lockhart was a phony? Would he have used Legilimency on
a teacher with such an impressive resume, suspecting him of lying?
Maybe he really thought that Lockhart was as brilliant as he claimed
to be--at least until Lockhart actually started teaching. I'm sure
that the story of the Cornish Pixies made the rounds rather quickly.

Assuming that Dumbledore saw through him from the job interview
onward, if there was a job interview (maybe he was just hired based on
his application and supposed credentials), should he have cancelled
the class rather than hire a man who might not be as qualified as he
claimed to be? I don't think the MoM or the parents would allow that.
The students, especially those in NEWT or OWL year, needed *some*
instruction in that class. (At least, many students, including HRH,
learned Expelliarmus from Snape in the short-lived duelling club!) 

Dumbledore had to hire somebody. It wasn't yet time to hire Snape. The
only applicant (or only *other* applicant, as you prefer) was
Lockhart. Ergo, Lockhart was hired. And, of course, the plot required
an inept DADA teacher who would end up with his own Memory Charm
deflected onto him by Ron's broken wand. We can hardly blame
Dumbledore for JKR's plot needs. 
  
colebiancardi: 
> > > I am not sure what "he figured (incorrectly) that information
was no longer of any value" means. I don't know who "he is"
> > 
Eggplant:
> > "He" is Snape.

colebiancardi: 
> > > and why "he" figured incorrectly
> > 
Eggplant:
> > Snape figured Harry could never escape from Umbridge and make it
all  the way to the ministry, he (Snape) was wrong. 
> > 
> colebiancardi:
> that is one reading, I suppose.  But it is your opinion, and I do
not agree with it.

Carol responds:
I don't agree, either. Snape did determine inform the Order that Harry
thought Sirius Black was being held hostage in the MoM and determined
that it was false. That in itself suggests that he's on the Order's
side. And why *would* he think that Harry would actually try to go to
the MoM? After all, he's communicated his message to Snape. The wise
thing to do would be to come back to Snape once he escaped from
Umbridge and ask Snape what he discovered. Of course, there was the
whole question of whether he *could* escape from Umbridge, but when
Snape went back to check, he discovered Draco et al. covered in hex
marks and learned from them that Harry and Hermione had gone into the
forest with Umbridge. So he would straighten out the mess with the
hexes, hear the whole story, send the IS to the hospital wing and wait
for Harry to come back from the forest. After all, he would know that
there was no "weapon" and that Hermione had lied to Umbridge. He would
know that Harry's broom had been confiscated by Umbridge and that
Hermione didn't have one. He would know that you can't Apparate from
Hogwarts or its grounds even if Harry and his friends knew how to do
it. How, exactly, is Harry supposed to get there? Surely, Snape could
not have anticipated that six kids, three of whom can't even see the
Thestrals, would ride those fearsome-looking beasts to the MoM?

When Harry didn't return, Snape realized that there were two
possibilities. Either, against all odds (and common sense), they had
somehow gone to the MoM after all, or they were still in the forest
with Umbridge, perhaps held captive by the centaurs. So he did the
only things he could do, alert the Order and search the forest
himself. And possibly, he alerted Dumbledore as well, given that he
knew DD would be arriving at Order HQ immediately. Most likely, Snape
asked him to go there. That they were in touch that night is apparent
from everything Dumbledore knew about Snape's actions, not all of
which he could have obtained from Kreacher.

Carol, who thinks that Snape's delay in informing the Order that Harry
had gone to the MoM is easily explained by the unlikelihood that Harry
had actually done so