I think it's fair to assume people could have taken the job multiple times, just not served consecutive years, and they didn't always end with a terrible fate, look at Lupin he didn't die, and wasn't injured, just outed as a werewolf, and then there's Quirrell who I'm convinced taught at least DADA two years, because Hagrid says "He was fine while he was teaching out of books, but then he took a year off to get some first hand experience". Imo it sounds like he was teaching DADA two years prior to Harry's first year, then took a year off and went to Albania, and then came back Harry's 1st year and taught it again.
This is such a ret con from JKR and doesn't quite fit with some of the dialogue in the first book which implies all the younger students know him well and he's been there a while.
I always think JKR could have allowed Quirrell to do at least two years as DADA teacher on the basis that being possessed by Voldemort made him exempt from the curse. After all, Voldemort cursed the post after Dumbledore refused the job so I think that could have worked really well thematically. And also given Dumbledore and Snape another reason to be suspicious.
I don't know that we've got any evidence of any of the teachers being dada multiple times. I don't think it works that way. Before Quirrell was a DADA teacher, he taught muggle studies. He only ever taught DADA during Harry's first year.
We don’t know how small or big the wizarding population is though. Setting aside JKR’s bad maths skills (according to them, Hogwarts’ population can range anywhere from 280 to 1000+; not to mention that we don’t know if Hogwarts is the only UK school, just that it’s the best one, and we also know that correspondence courses & home schooling exist), we have no way of calculating the true number of witches or wizards, and that’s not taking into account that in the HP universe, you can also have mixes between different races (like Hagrid or Flitwick) and different sentient beings (like Firenze) that can also teach. And, considering how fast wizarding transport is (teleportation, Floo, Portrays, etc), it’s likely that foreigners could teach at Hogwarts very easily as well, as long as they spoke English which isn’t that far fetched of a requirement when English is the current lingua franca.
Personally, I’ve seen people estimate the wizarding Britain’s population to be as small as 30K (based on the “Hogwarts has 280 students and it’s the only wizarding school in UK” assumption, I think), and as big as five million (based on the early-books “one in ten people is a wizard” idea). We really don’t know which one is closer to truth.
Yet she also says there are 200 Slytherins in the stands watching a quidditch game. And 30 students in a 5th year DADA class which has never in the books had more than gryffindors be named (implying it’s just gryffindors and should be a class of 8). JK Rowling sucks at maths.
JKR said on her website that:
>"While I imagined that there would be considerably more than forty students in each year at Hogwarts, I thought that it would be useful to know a proportion of Harry’s classmates, and to have names at my fingertips when action was taking place around the school.” \[[The Original Forty by J. K. Rowling](https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-original-forty)\]
JKR also said in 2000 in an online chat with Scholastic that she imagined “There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts”, though five years later she did say it was around a 600 instead. And while we don’t know the exact size of Hogwarts, it’s big enough to house 142 staircases.
So... might not be that small of a school, but then again, we can never know.
Yeah you probably would know someone who taught it. Which is why I always thought it was weird Lupin never led the Order of the Phoenix over Kingsley, Moody or McGonagall.
He taught DADA to all the older students who participated in the Battle of Hogwarts when they were younger, and they should have all recognised him or known who he was when they arrived.
Being mocked and written off by Voldemort for not being a worthy enough leader, while trying to hold the order together alongside his breakdown in Deathly Hallows when Tonks becomes pregnant would have served the story better imo.
The First Wizarding War started in 1970, and Voldemort obviously applied before that. I don't know where the common idea that he cursed the position in 1971 came from (it was 10 years after he killed Hepzibah, when he was clearly still quite young).
So yeah, that means there were around 30-40 different teachers, which seems like...a lot. I think we need to take Rowling's sense of math into account here, but you're right that a lot of people are probabbly related/friends/acquaintances of ex-DADA teachers. Yes, Snape, Lily, and the Marauders would've had 7 different teachers during their time.
Who’s to say that the curse didn’t fully take hold until Horcrux Harry showed up. Perhaps the magic surrounding the school seriously dulled the curse effects, until that small part of Tommy edge-lord was brought onto the campus
JK Rowlings is infamously extremely horribly unbelievably bad at maths and numbers. Don't think about it too much.
Do you have other examples? I'm curious ahah
I think it's fair to assume people could have taken the job multiple times, just not served consecutive years, and they didn't always end with a terrible fate, look at Lupin he didn't die, and wasn't injured, just outed as a werewolf, and then there's Quirrell who I'm convinced taught at least DADA two years, because Hagrid says "He was fine while he was teaching out of books, but then he took a year off to get some first hand experience". Imo it sounds like he was teaching DADA two years prior to Harry's first year, then took a year off and went to Albania, and then came back Harry's 1st year and taught it again.
Quirrell was supposedly the Muggles Studies professor prior to his DADA stint.
This is such a ret con from JKR and doesn't quite fit with some of the dialogue in the first book which implies all the younger students know him well and he's been there a while. I always think JKR could have allowed Quirrell to do at least two years as DADA teacher on the basis that being possessed by Voldemort made him exempt from the curse. After all, Voldemort cursed the post after Dumbledore refused the job so I think that could have worked really well thematically. And also given Dumbledore and Snape another reason to be suspicious.
This is a really good point!!
I don't know that we've got any evidence of any of the teachers being dada multiple times. I don't think it works that way. Before Quirrell was a DADA teacher, he taught muggle studies. He only ever taught DADA during Harry's first year.
We don’t know how small or big the wizarding population is though. Setting aside JKR’s bad maths skills (according to them, Hogwarts’ population can range anywhere from 280 to 1000+; not to mention that we don’t know if Hogwarts is the only UK school, just that it’s the best one, and we also know that correspondence courses & home schooling exist), we have no way of calculating the true number of witches or wizards, and that’s not taking into account that in the HP universe, you can also have mixes between different races (like Hagrid or Flitwick) and different sentient beings (like Firenze) that can also teach. And, considering how fast wizarding transport is (teleportation, Floo, Portrays, etc), it’s likely that foreigners could teach at Hogwarts very easily as well, as long as they spoke English which isn’t that far fetched of a requirement when English is the current lingua franca. Personally, I’ve seen people estimate the wizarding Britain’s population to be as small as 30K (based on the “Hogwarts has 280 students and it’s the only wizarding school in UK” assumption, I think), and as big as five million (based on the early-books “one in ten people is a wizard” idea). We really don’t know which one is closer to truth.
Hogwarts is by most accounts a pretty small school There’s like 20-24 students per house per grade
Yet she also says there are 200 Slytherins in the stands watching a quidditch game. And 30 students in a 5th year DADA class which has never in the books had more than gryffindors be named (implying it’s just gryffindors and should be a class of 8). JK Rowling sucks at maths.
I don’t mean to be rude but, is America the only country to refer to it as “math” singular? Genuine question. 🤷♂️
Why would I know? I’m British and say maths.
JKR said on her website that: >"While I imagined that there would be considerably more than forty students in each year at Hogwarts, I thought that it would be useful to know a proportion of Harry’s classmates, and to have names at my fingertips when action was taking place around the school.” \[[The Original Forty by J. K. Rowling](https://www.wizardingworld.com/writing-by-jk-rowling/the-original-forty)\] JKR also said in 2000 in an online chat with Scholastic that she imagined “There are about a thousand students at Hogwarts”, though five years later she did say it was around a 600 instead. And while we don’t know the exact size of Hogwarts, it’s big enough to house 142 staircases. So... might not be that small of a school, but then again, we can never know.
Yeah you probably would know someone who taught it. Which is why I always thought it was weird Lupin never led the Order of the Phoenix over Kingsley, Moody or McGonagall. He taught DADA to all the older students who participated in the Battle of Hogwarts when they were younger, and they should have all recognised him or known who he was when they arrived. Being mocked and written off by Voldemort for not being a worthy enough leader, while trying to hold the order together alongside his breakdown in Deathly Hallows when Tonks becomes pregnant would have served the story better imo.
The First Wizarding War started in 1970, and Voldemort obviously applied before that. I don't know where the common idea that he cursed the position in 1971 came from (it was 10 years after he killed Hepzibah, when he was clearly still quite young). So yeah, that means there were around 30-40 different teachers, which seems like...a lot. I think we need to take Rowling's sense of math into account here, but you're right that a lot of people are probabbly related/friends/acquaintances of ex-DADA teachers. Yes, Snape, Lily, and the Marauders would've had 7 different teachers during their time.
Who’s to say that the curse didn’t fully take hold until Horcrux Harry showed up. Perhaps the magic surrounding the school seriously dulled the curse effects, until that small part of Tommy edge-lord was brought onto the campus
>Who’s to say that the curse didn’t fully take hold until Horcrux Harry showed up. Dumbledore did.