Why write the *Defense* job as the cursed one?

[lynn-waterfall.livejournal.com]

Why did JKR make it be the Defense job that was cursed?  Having a cursed class did allow her to regularly introduce new professors, and I can understand wanting to do that, particularly since the action was mostly confined to the school.  But why the Defense job?

I can think of some unflattering reasons, such as not wanting to write a hero who can really *do* stuff, or not wanting to have to work out what kind of stuff such a hero would *do*. Or maybe she just wanted to ensure that readers would be interested in the class that happened to be cursed, and Defense would naturally get readers interested, particularly young readers.

Are there any really good reasons?  

We never saw Quirrell teach anything, and the book gives the impression that he wasn't teaching well. Lockhart didn't teach the actual subject at all. Lupin focused on Dark creatures, not Dark Arts; he could've been a replacement Care of Magical Creatures professor, instead of Hagrid. He still could've helped tutor Harry to fight dementors. Crouch and Umbridge's classes do work better as Defense classes, but Snape just needed to moved aside for Slughorn to take over Potions.

Frankly, JKR could've made the *History* class be the cursed one. It wouldn't've affected Quirrell, and Lockhart could still have plausibly talked about himself (as an important figure in *recent* history, of course!).

Lupin's only relevant Defense thing was tutoring Harry to fight dementors, which he could have done as a family friend even if it weren't relevant to his subject. It *was* out of class, after all. The boggart scene does contribute to the characterization, but it could've been included by, say, having Lupin premptively substitute for the Defense teacher, who would later substitute for him during the full moon.

Crouch!Moody could have focused the history class on the recent war with Voldemort, and made his class unusually interesting by demonstrating some of the spells used. (Assuming that the actual Defense class couldn't fill in that bit of background info.) He has the right personality for adding a bit of Defense to another class, and Dumbledore would still take advantage of the cursed position to have an Auror around to keep an eye on things.

Umbridge would probably still need to take over Defense, but things could shift at that point. The previous Defense teacher they'd had could have been forced to resign by the Ministry, and Binns could take over History if there was nothing else to do with that job.

And don't tell me that Voldemort wouldn't've been creepy wanting to teach history. Written by a good author, that could be as creepy as anything.

(If Voldemort actually wanted to teach, that is. The books don't make it sound like Voldemort had a very sincere interest in teaching Defense, although I do find that possibility intriguing.)

Not that it has to be History in particular, although that class would have had potential. It's amazing how little JKR did with the Defense class concept, though. It was practically only there to indicate that fighting is a part of the WW, and to excuse Harry from the need to spend time *outside* class training to fight Voldemort.

Comments

[karentheunicorn.livejournal.com]

And I hit send before I ment to,

On the teaching assistants. We never really got to see a real and true 7th year in action.

During Harry's 7th year, he wasn't even at school and the school was somewhat different due to the Carrows being their upsetting the order of what was normal.

I've kind of wondered if in 7th year, there may be something there as far as teachers gaining high level students as assistants.

We know that 6th and 7th are considered above average classes. As with Snape's class he doesn't except anyone below a certain level of potion knowledge.

So, to me a normal thing would be 7th year, the people who actually make it through 6th year - those students who are able to say, make it into Severus' 7th year. Some would be chosen as assistants and such.

At least that is what would make sense to me, but we really don't see any evidence of that happening.

We dont' see Harry commenting in any of the books about McGonagall's 7th year assistants or thinking how much he dislikes so-and-so because they're a 7th year favorite Potions assistant to Snape.

So, we don't really get that JKR developed the idea in any way.

It's just basicly the world revolves around Harry - I guess if he doesn't notice it doesn't exist (LOL!)

[sunnyskywalker]

Hard to say with Slughorn, because we also know he likes to live comfortably. Without knowing more about the wizarding economy (how much do fancy nightclothes cost? is the food for the parties he throws free because it's on Hogwarts grounds, or does he have to pay for private events, and how much does food cost?), we're pretty much in the dark. Since they also get room and board 10 months of the year, plus free medical care (I would guess - from Pomfrey unless it's something extremely serious), they have low expenses, too, which would complicate the calculations.

I would expect the NEWT-level assistance to assist with the youngest classes if they existed, leaving the professors more time to work with the advanced students. Even Harry ought to notice that his classes from first through third years have assistants present, especially if they're Slytherin! Imagine the dramatic potential... Because there aren't any wizarding universities, and Hogwarts was founded and existed concurrently for centuries at a time when Muggle universities accepted students at around ages 14 or 15, NEWT classes seem to be the rough equivalent of college, not that wizarding education maps exactly onto ours (even if they do use the same academic calendar). Students who have passed their OWLs would presumably be qualified to teach the basics, at least as far as subject knowledge goes, but wouldn't be able to do much assisting for the upper levels since they haven't learned that stuff yet themselves.

But since as you point out we never see Harry complain about Snape's 7th-year assistant deducting points from them during class or anything, I think they probably don't exist - unless they don't actively assist in class but just help behind the scenes grading essays. Maybe that's why Harry doesn't recognize Snape's handwriting in the HBP book - the writing on his essays all along hasn't been Snape's, even if Snape reviewed it and agreed with the assistant's grade, and the writing on the board is magic word processor writing (we see him use his wand for it instead of chalk) in the magical equivalent of Times New Roman font :D