CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chamber of Secrets Chapter 18: Dobby's reward

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 189386

Potioncat wrote:
> By HBP the curse was a moot point. DD had only a year and LV would move into Hogwarts. DD knew that, and was hoping Snape would be Headmaster. 
> 
> I know it was important for DD to bring Slughorn back, but I think it was more than needing Slughorn that caused him to move Snape. Although now that I think about it, perhaps he wouldn't have moved Snape if he hadn't needed Slughorn. Thinking about it more, someone worse--ie another DE may have come into the DADA position if Snape had not.

Carol responds:
I think it was a combination of factors, not just all the points you listed but the fact that he needed Snape to kill him (which would, of course, activate the jinx or curse on the DADA position). If Snape really wanted that position as a kind of reward for all his long service, it was now or never. And he had never needed a skilled DADA teacher more, especially if that position also entailed dealing with Dark magic in the castle (for example, the cursed necklace and its effects on Katie Bell). He would have anticipated some problems of the sort from Draco, who would (I'm sure DD suspected) be more likely to use indirect methods to try to kill DD than to face him directly (which could happen only if Draco found a way to get DEs into the castle, a feat that DD apparently believed impossible--Draco had insufficient courage and too great a sense of self-preservation to confront DD alone.

Which is to say that, while he needed Slughorn for the memory, he needed Snape for equally important reasons. The only way to have them both would be to put Snape in the DADA position, leaving him as Head of Slytherin House, and give Slughorn the Potions position. So Snape is there in all his usual capacities (except, perhaps, potion making) and available for the deed that only he can perform, killing DD, when the time comes. (The Unbreakable Vow commits him doubly to committing that deed, and may have been one more reason to give Snape the DADA position in DH. To give it to him earlier would be premature; DD needed to be sure that Snape stayed around, and the uncursed Potions position was perfect for that purpose.)

The stage is set for the coming year--DD dead, the supposed DE and murderer Snape as Head Master to protect the students from the real DEs as far as possible, and Slughorn as both Potions Master and Head of House. If Snape survived, as I think DD expected, he could have returned as a non-DE headmaster with Slughorn still taking his place as Potions Master and HOH or stepped down and taken the now uncursed DADA position, probably resuming his duties as HOH from the likely-to-retire-soon Slughorn. Of course, he or the new headmaster would need a new Potions master soon, but Snape would be in a perfect position to recommend one of his former protegees in Potions class.

Carol, with apologies for babbling