Back to the cursed DADA-job

[Zara]

No: HPFGUIDX 166493

> Bart:
> I have this feeling that the curse on the position is something 
that JKR came up with after GOF (when Harry is told that Snape has 
been after the job for only 4 years). It was probably a mistake on 
JKR's part, because the math makes this quite problematic. 

zgirnius:
Sorry to nitpick, but when was this, and who said it? A chapter name, 
at least, would be appreciated, if not the actual quote. This 
contradicts a statement made in PS/SS by Percy Weasley that everyone 
knows Snape is after Quirrell's job:

> PS/SS:
> "Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so
> nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't
> want to -- everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful
> lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."

zgirnius:
I don't see how 'everyone' could 'know' Snape is after Quirrell's job 
if he had only been after it for a year at that point. (It also 
contradicts the conversation of Snape and Umbridge in Potions class 
in OotP, but as you are suggesting Rowling changed her mind post-GoF 
this is less of a problem for your theory).


> Bart:
> So, based on the account, Hogwarts has gone through at least 10, 
and probably at least 20 DADA teachers, and NOBODY HAS NOTICED THIS 
TO BE ODD, where when it is mentioned, only the last few teachers are 
brought up? I am trying to figure out, if Hagrid didn't mean that 
Quirrel had taught DADA before he went on sabbatical (in PS/SS), then 
what COULD he have meant (given that he phrased it as he did)? 

zgirnius:
We have better canon on the timing from HBP, "Lord Voldemort's 
Request". Tom Riddle finidhed school, worked for a time at Borgin and 
Burkes, disappeared for about ten years, and then applied for a job.

Tom Riddle was nearing the end of his HOgwarts years in 1945. This 
places the job interview in the late 50's/early 60's. The curse has 
been in effect, apparently, since Snape's schooldays. (Likely start, 
circa 1970).

It is not true that "NOBODY HAS NOTICED THIS TO BE ODD", that the 
position is jinxed is mentioned to Harry by Hagrid as a rumor in CoS.

> CoS:
> "He was the on' man for the job," said Hagrid, offering them a
> plate of treacle fudge, while Ron coughed squelchily into his 
> basin. "An' I mean the on' one. Gettin' very difficult ter find 
> anyone fer the Dark Arts job. People aren't too keen ter take it 
> on, see. They're startin' ter think it's jinxed. No one's lasted 
> long fer a while now."

zgirnius:
To me this suggests that Rowling has planned the cursed position 
since at least CoS, and far more likely in my view, since before the 
publication of PS/SS. I think she had definitely planned to have a 
different DADA teacher every year, you see, and the curse was 
probably the 'story-internal' justification for this device.