Back to the cursed DADA-job

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 166494

zgirnius wrote:
<snip>
> 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).
> 
Carol responds:
I'm a bit confused here. Assuming that the curse is caused by the
slight wand movement at the end of the DADA interview (which I would
place ca. 1957-59, ten years after Riddle left Borgin and Burkes), why
would the curse not begin until ca. 1970? Dumbledore himself says,
"You see, we have never been able to keep a Defense Against the Dark
Arts teacher for longer than a year since I refused the post to Lord
Voldemort" (HBP Am. ed. 446)--IOW, the curse or jinx or whatever it is
has lasted almost forty years (ca. 1957-1996) at the time of DD's
conversation with Harry. I don't see how you've arrived at ca. 1970.

zgirnius:
> 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.
> <snip quote> 
> 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.
>
Carol responds:
Here, I agree with you. As for Fred and George, HRH, et al., not
noticing the effects of the curse/jinx before Quirrell in SS/PS, HRH,
of course, were not in school until that time. Fred and George would
have had Quirrell in what, if we can take DD's words in HBP at face
value, and I think we can, would have been his first year. He would
have seemed normal at that time, and his going off for a year to get
first-hand experience with Dark Creatures would not have been
recognized by them or anyone (except Dumbledore) as a manifestation of
the curse. (It did, however, lead Quirrell straight to Vapor!mort in
Albania, and a gullible young man was persuaded that "there is no good
and evil, only power and those too weak to seek it.") Meanwhile, the
DADA class would have been taught by a substitute while Quirrell was
on his one-year leave of absence. Whatever happened to that unknown
teacher was apparently sufficiently unpleasant to deter him from
applying again when the position reopened after Quirrell's death
(Lockhart is the "on'y" applicant, unless Snape is submitting token
applications that he knows will be rejected).

It's unclear how much any of the students other than Harry know about
what happened to Quirrell, et al. Terry Boot (IIRC) doesn't even know
that Harry fought a Basilisk until the Sorting Hat tells him, and
Dumbledore's speeches at the end-of-year banquets are remarkably vague
and general. All the students know, in general, is that suddenly, the
DADA teacher's chair at the staff table is vacant. No wonder there's a
rumor that the position is jinxed, a rumor that has reached the
outside world of the WW, resulting in an extremely small number of
applicants, those who have already had the job being, aside from
Quirrell, extremely reluctant to return.

We *know* that Dumbledore actively recruited the real Mad-Eye Moody
for the year of the TWT, apparently informing him that it was a
one-year position (as Fake!Moody tells the students). I suspect that
he recruited Lupin as well, either because of the supposed danger
posed by Lupin's old friend, Sirius Black, or because of Umbridge's
newly passed anti-werewolf legislation, which Sirius Black tells Harry
in OoP was passed two years previously--just at the time that Lupin
began to teach at Hogwarts (another instance of DD's protected-person
policy, I think, only he surely would have informed Lupin that the job
was likely to last only one year).

Of course, by the time we get to Umbridge, Quirrell is dead, Lockhart
has lost his memory, Lupin is exposed as a werewolf and can't return,
the real Moody has spent nine months in a trunk and is unlikely to
want to try again, and no one else in the WW is applying. No doubt the
fates of the last four applicants have reinforced an already
persistent rumor (especially if people know about Fake!Moody, as
well). As for Snape, it's extremely difficult to tell whether he
really wants a position he surely knows is jinxed or whether this is a
carefully engineered rumor/cover story (like the Shrieking Shack being
haunted or DD's injury being the result of slowed reactions) that DD
and Snape are perpetuating. 

One thing is clear, at least to me: Dumbledore has carefully avoided
giving the position to Snape four fifteen years because he knows the
jinx or curse is real. I have my own ideas as to his motives for both
withholding it from and finally giving it to Snape--and they have
nothing to do with yet another carefully engineered cover story of the
position tempting Snape back into his old ways. (It's extremely
unfortunate, IMO, that the first really knowledgeable and effective
DADA teacher Harry has not only can't get through to him because of
their mutual dislike but is struck by the curse in such a devastating
way. Did Voldemort suspect, once Snape was appointed to the DADA post,
that he'd be forced to "do the deed" for Draco? If so, he must have
expected a lot more from Draco's assignment after that time than
revenge against Lucius Malfoy, whether or not he knew about the
Unbreakable Vow.)

Carol, who agrees with zgirnius that the so-called jinx on the
position has been carefully planned from the beginning of the series,
and who thinks that Quirrell as an apparent exception to the rule can
be explained by one year of teaching DADA, a one-year hiatus leading
him to Voldemort, and a second, nonconsecutive, definitely cursed year