Quirrell's tenure (was Re: The DADA curse and Harry)

[Eustace_Scrubb]

Eric Oppen wrote:
> I was sitting around thinking about the "curse" that's on the 
> Defense Against The Dark Arts teacher's position

> Let's recap what happened to the DADA professors we know about.
> 
> Quirrell: possessed by Vapormort and "left to die."
<snip>

Now Eustace_Scrubb:
I wonder...how long was Quirrell the DADA teacher?  We are given the
impression that he was at Hogwarts teaching prior to Harry's arrival
in PS.  Hagrid tells Harry after the meeting in the Leaky Cauldron: 
"Poor bloke.  Brilliant mind.  He was fine while he was studyin' 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".  That sure sounds
like he taught DADA for more than one year, although perhaps we could
hypothesize that he taught some other subject "outta books," then went
to get "first-hand experience" when he was given the DADA job and so
only taught that subject for one year.  But it seems a stretch...

But by the time HBP rolled around, DD notes that "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." (exactly when was
that?  ca. 1970? at the very latest 1979 or 1980-tho' that seems
highly unlikely)

I wonder now whether this is just evidence that JKR wrote PS without
all that clear a notion of how the other 6 books would develop--after
all, until the first one was picked up and published, the "series" was
just a vague concept.  Later the "curse" became more specific.

If indeed the interview with LV took place sometime in the late '60s
or early '70s, that would mean that Harry's parents also had 7
different DADA teachers.  Better than 2 dozen DADA professors would
have passed through Hogwarts by Harry's 7th year.  I wonder if all of
them were as ill-fated as Harry's instructors?  It would seem the last
dozen or so (not just Quirrell through Snape) would have had to be
nuts to take the position.  Does Hogwarts carry workman's comp insurance? 

Cheers, 

Eustace_Scrubb