42 – Ha gufah ra’aya, the conversation you quoted takes place before the school year started and Hagrid is quoted as saying that Quirrell is “scared of his own subject”, implying that he already teaches DADA, the subject he then teaches the following school year (i.e. for a second consecutive year) and after the Sorting Ceremony Percy tells Harry that Snape has “been after Quirrell’s job for years”, again implying that Quirrell taught the subject previously. Quirrell is not welcomed back, implying that the year out was not the previous one nor is it mentioned that (unlike when Snape changes subject in Book 6) he will now be teaching a different subject than before. His turban (which he got on the year out) is something that the pupils are used to already, as Fred and George show when they tell Harry (on the second day of term) that some think he keeps garlic underneath to ward of vampires (in other words he wore the turban the previous year and therefore the year out was at least two previous). For all the above reasons, and others besides, (whatever JKR may try and retroactively claim) I find the Quirrell conundrum implacable.
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