Back to the cursed DADA-job

[colebiancardi]

No: HPFGUIDX 166473

"Inge" <Elvishooked at ...> wrote:
>
> Wondering just how cursed this job really is, or if JK made a mistake
> with the teacher-last-only-one-year vs Quirrell.
>
> It seems to me, Quirrell would have taught DADA for more than just 1
> year - but maybe I've read the actual curse wrong.
>
> If in fact the curse starts over each year, then obviously Quirrell
> must have been teaching just one year - but several things point to
> the opposite.
>
> Sorry, I don't have the books handy right now - but Percy tells Harry
> in PS that "Snape's been after Quirrells job for years", which
> indicates that Quirrell has been actually teaching the job for years -
> but of course could also refer to the point that Snape's been
> after "the job Quirrell holds at the moment" for years.
>
> Another dialogue pointing to Quirrell teaching DADA for more than a
> single year, is in OOTP when Harry speaks to Fred and George about
> previous DADA-teachers - and they (or one of them, dont remember
> which) refer to the 4 previous DADA-teachers who didn't last long -
> referring to Quirrell, Lockhart, Lupin and Moody.
> But Fred and George had been at Hogwarts 2 years before Harry came
> along, so why refer to only these 4 and not mention who was DADA-
> teacher right before Quirrell, since if there was a different one
> right before him, Fred & George would have had him/her as DADA-teacher.
>
<snipping rest>

colebiancardi:

according to Hagrid, Quirrell was gone for a year to get real life
experience. From SS, Am Ed hardcover pg70-71
"Is he always that nervous?"
"Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind. He was fine while he was
studyn' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some first
hand experience...They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and
there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag -- never been the same
since. Scared of the students, scared of his own subject --"

So, I believe Forge had Quirrell when they were first years, Percy had
him in his third year, and then Quirrell took off for a year and then
came back for Harry's first year. It could be that the DADA curse for
Quirell was to leave Hogwarts after one year of teaching DADA and find
LV. Quirrell came back to Hogwarts a changed man(so to speak) and the
curse continued. In my opinion, Quirrell, prior to his involvement
with LV, was a nice, ordinary wizard (brilliant, according to Hagrid)
whose personality and interests changed when he "found" LV.

from same book, page 291

"I met him when I traveled around the world. A foolish young man I
was, full of ridiculous ideas about good and evil. Lord Voldemort
showed me how wrong I was. There is no good and evil, there is only
power, and those too weak to seek it..."

Wow. I feel sorry for Quirrell now.

colebiancardi