The DADA curse and Harry

[Barry Arrowsmith]

--- In the_old_crowd at yahoogroups.com, "Eric Oppen" <technomad at ...> wrote:
>
> I was sitting around thinking about the "curse" that's on the Defense
> Against The Dark Arts teacher's position, and it occurred to me:  Did Harry,
> in fact, avoid the curse?
>
> While he wasn't an official teacher, he was teaching DADA, and doing so at
> Hogwarts.  I don't know exactly how magic works, but if he could be forced
> to compete in the Tri-Wizard Tournament even though there were three
> rightful champions, the DADA Instructors' Curse could have lit on him.
>
snip
>
> Not a very encouraging list, is it?  People in the fandom seem to think that
> Harry avoided the curse, because he wasn't ever the _official_ DADA
> instructor.  However, in his fifth year, Harry lost not only his romance
> with Cho Chang (which was probably doomed from the beginning; Cho was
> clearly still grieving over Cedric and casting around for a
> "Cedric-substitute") but his closest link to his dead parents, his
> godfather, Sirius Black.  To make it worse for Harry, Black's death could be
> laid at Harry's door---his refusal to practice his Occlumency left his mind
> open to Lord Voldemort, and that allowed Voldemort to plant the visions in
> his mind that led to the confrontation at the Ministry of Magic.
>
> Also, in common with the other DADA teachers, Harry didn't return, at least
> not as a DADA teacher.  While he was at the school his sixth year,
> "Dumbledore's Army" was apparently dead.  Even though Harry had enjoyed
> teaching, and his students had learned a lot, he didn't teach again.
>
> So-o-o...did Harry avoid the curse, or did it fall on him, too?
>

Second attempt, yahoo!mort ate the first.

Arguable, it's true - though one can't help but notice that most of
the 'disasters' that happened to Harry were not so bad after all.
For example, the Langford book expects a quick 'Reparo!' spell
to fix that mirror, the Cho Chang pash (to those with a romantic bent)
was necessary so that he'd recognise the real thing when it came along,
to those with an unromantic bent - Adolescents. Huh. What else do you
expect?

As for Sirius... most know my views on that one. As a guardian he'd have
been a disaster and DD was probably as relieved as hell when Sirius copped
it in the neck.

No, Harry got off lightly, little more than run-of-the-mill Voldy-inspired
mayhem and malice - all the other DADA profs were driven from the
school by disaster, disgrace or death. (Note that Moody never actually taught
DADA classes, Barty Jnr did - another deader.) And not forgetting that while
Harry was busy demonstrating a nifty bit of wand-waving to his admiring
audience in the RoR, there was an *official* DADA prof in post that the
gremlins were already busy lining up for the bum's rush.

Nope. I think he missed out on that particular curse.

Kneasy