Skip to main content

harry potter - How did the curse on the DADA job work?


The facts:




  • The job was cursed.


    Did Voldemort actually curse the job of Defense Against Dark Arts professor after being denied the position?




    Oh, he definitely wanted the Defence Against the Dark Arts job. The Aftermath of our little meeting proved that. You see, we have not been able to keep a Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for more than a year since I refused the post to Lord Voldemort. - Albus Dumbledore, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince





  • It lasted From 1957 until the fall of Voldemort (1998)


    In what year did Voldemort curse the DADA job



    1957 (Y-23) [Voldemort] resurfaces and applies to teach [Defence Against the Dark Arts] Ten years after the death of [Hepzibah Smith], [Voldemort] returns to [Hogwarts], where Dumbledore] refuses to grant him a teaching job. He then curses the [Defence Against the Dark Arts] position, and since that day, no professor has stayed for more than one year in that post. Again we don't know exactly when this happened, but since most evidence points to [Dumbledore] becoming headmaster in 1956 [[Y-24]], [Voldemort] couldn't have come looking for a job much sooner than this. (HBP20)






  • No one could hold that position for more than one year


    Was Quirrell the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher for more than one year?



    It's well seen throughout the series that there is a "curse" on the DADA teacher position, that no one can hold that post for more than a year





Is there (preferably canon) information on:




  • How did Voldemort manage to do such a powerful curse?

  • Why didn't Dumbledore, knowing about the curse, not do anything to lift it?

  • Why didn't Voldemort put that curse in the headmaster's position, or on the whole Gryffindor house?



Answer



I can try to answer only the last two, because there are no details in the book about how Voldemort cursed the job. We don't even know when he did it - right after meeting with Dumbledore or later. My only guess is, he was the best at the Dark Arts. Curses are Dark Arts. He didn't hesitate to use Unforgivable Curses. The DADA curse was maybe just a laugh for him.



Why didn't Dumbledore, knowing about the curse, not do anything to lift it?



Remember the curse in the ring that caused Dumbledore's hand to go lifeless? He couldn't do anything about it. Snape just held it for a little amount of time. Strong curses cannot be lifted. Think about the curtain in the mansion of Harry's godfather, the necklace... the list goes on. This kind of curse is not a tongue-hanging curse. I also suspect Dumbledore didn't even try. He has his style of doing things, sometimes letting things go.




Why didn't Voldemort put that curse in the headmaster position, or on the whole Gryffindor house?



The curse was like an action in a cold war. If Voldemort wanted to do bad things to the headmaster, he didn't need curses. Remember, at that time, Voldemort was gathering Death Eaters. He was preparing. The last thing he needed was a powerful enemy sacked from his most favorite position (he preferred this post to that of Minister for Magic, so figure out how valuable it was to him). A sacked Dumbledore is dangerous. When he is inside school, he is eccentric, peaceful and busy in doing normal things. In other moments, he is dangerous (Battle of the Century, building the Order of the Phoenix). I bet Voldemort was fearing that, the moment he cursed him, Dumbledore would be a bounty hunter for him. So, he did something that sure irritated Dumbledore, but not sinister enough to make him go after Voldemort. The same logic goes for cursing the whole Gryffindor house.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

harry potter - How could Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra?

I want to be very careful about how I ask this question – I am not asking How did Voldemort die? [CLOSED] Below the text is the relevant passages from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows if anyone wants to review them (I'm sorry for the amount of text). How did Expelliarmus beat Avada Kedavra and kill Voldemort? I feel the reason Harry's Expelliarmus overpowered Voldemort's Avada Kedavra curse has to do with who was master of the Elder Wand and how the Elder Wand works. I've always had trouble understanding fully how the Elder Wand works, though. How much did the fact that Voldemort never truly won or mastered the Elder Wand factor into how Expelliarmus reacted to Avada Kedavra and caused Avada Kedavra to rebound and kill Voldemort? An answer based in book canon would be especially welcome, but any canon source really is fine. Harry heard the high voice shriek as he, too, yelled his best hope to the heavens, pointing Draco’s wand: ‘ Avada Kedavra !’ ‘ Expelliarmus !...
Post a Comment
Read more

Is there good canon evidence for the "Nightmare Matrix"?

On the Matrix wiki, there's an article about the Nightmare Matrix which says: The Nightmare Matrix was the second prototype Matrix, designed by The Architect after the massive failure of the Paradise Matrix in the hope that human minds would more readily accept an imperfect world with suffering. Unlike the first version, this Matrix instituted a basic cause-and-effect programming and forcibly made those connected to it accept the program. Vamp Prime, a possible remnant of the Nightmare Matrix. It also featured programs that resembled mythical evil creatures in various human mythologies such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, aliens, etc. It also failed, but many of the programs who were designed for it survived deletion in exile. The Merovingian and his wife, Persephone may have had their roots in this version of the Matrix. Upon its failure, the Merovingian started a smuggling ring of programs and information to provide a haven for exiles that would last for 6 cycles in the final ...
Post a Comment
Read more

story identification - Anime with a boy hiring a creature from a stone, meets a man named Dante and starts a journey to collect crystals

I am from India, this anime or animated series (I can't remember this was made by the Japan or other countries) was aired between 2009 and 2012 probably in Jetix/Disney XD (but I'm not sure). This anime starts with a boy (the main character, I forgot his name) who find a stone (or crystal like thing) in his dad's property, his dad was missing that time. Some day he accidentally hire a creature/monster from that stone. Other day some creature attack him and he was saved by his creature and the story begins. In his journey to solve the mystery he meets a middle aged man 'Dante' (probably that was the name; this is the only character name I can remember). He had also some stone. After that they meet with one girl and a women (one of the girls is same age with the main boy character and probably will become his partner as the story goes on). Another women probably Dante's partner. Four of them started their journey to collect all the stone/crystal. They are collecti...
Post a Comment
Read more