Reply To: In Witch He Snorted

Just my happence wrote:

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)

I agree it is dochek. JKR seems to have overlooked this and then only explained it away after the fact. But lemaysah you can say that when Hagrid said “scared of his own subject” he was referring to the subject he was planning to teach the coming September and not the Muggle Studies subject he had taught before his year off.

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.

Again, bidochek you can say he was referring to the job that Quirrel was starting that day and that the “for years” was referring to the job itself and not that Quirrel actually taught the job for years.

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.

This is an interesting point. Perhaps there was an announcement of the job change but it wasn’t recorded because it wouldn’t mean anything to Harry as he doesn’t take Muggle Studies in his first year.

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).

This I have to disagree with. Harry actually notices the turban at the opening feast and it is mashma that he did not wear it previously. Any reasons that fred and George give do not imply that they were used to it. Adaraba, it shows that he had davka been gone the previous year and met a vampire.

For all the above reasons, and others besides, (whatever JKR may try and retroactively claim) I find the Quirrell conundrum implacable.

Of course the obvious answer is that JKR is not Hashem and Harry potter is not the Torah so not everything in the first book will shtim with the story later on. (Ahhh, kfira!!!). But it is still fun to try to come up with terutzim to make it fit. ^_^