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CronoDAS comments on Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality discussion thread, part 4 - Less Wrong
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It seems to be a plot hole in MoR (ETA: not in canon - so the zombiehood is important) that no-one who appears on screen seems to have known Quirrel before his appointment as teacher. In particular, no-one ever gets to ask, "why is Quirrel acting like a zombie, he didn't do that when I met him ten years ago". Neither does anyone say, "I know you've been wondering why Quirrel acts like a zombie; he's been like that ever since I met him ten years ago, and here's why."
No-one is holding the idiot ball. Therefore Dumbledore didn't take a complete stranger on as Defense Professor; Quirrel must have had references.
Since the zombie-hood is due to possession/mind control (in canon), we can assume that it implies possession in MoR as well (even if possession isn't true here). Also, Dumbledore remains suspicious of Quirrel. Therefore Dumbledore must have investigated Quirrel's zombie-hood, or gotten a satisfying explanation from Quirrel himself.
Further note: Dumbledore can cast warding spells such as "no-one who wishes to harm the people living here may enter this house" (this was used on Harry's house in canon and was powerful enough to protect Harry from Voldemort and the Death Eaters in the summer vacations). The warding spells on Castle Hogwarts are described as diverse and very powerful, and if they didn't have this function already, Dumbledore would have added it (in canon he presumably was holding the idiot ball and didn't do this). Therefore we know Quirrel isn't planning to harm Harry directly, or at least wasn't planning to do so at the time he entered the castle.
In canon, Quirrell had been a Hogwarts professor for several years before Harry enrolled, and other professors actually had noticed that he hadn't been himself ever since he came back from a trip. Specifically, he had suddenly become unusually meek and afraid of everything. They attributed it to something like post-traumatic stress syndrome; I don't remember the details, but they seemed to believe that he had encountered some kind of danger and had barely escaped with his life. (In Book 7, it's mentioned that Dumbledore had indeed been suspicious of Quirrell and had given Snape the task of watching him.)
Was he a professor of something other thanDADA? Cos' I think in Canon, Dumbledore had mentioned that they never managed to have a defence professor for more than a year after Voldy's curse.
I wonder what all tests must they have done on that curse. Did they try to alternate professors between two subjects? Did they try semester assignment? After all it has been atleast 12 years or so for that curse, right?
Even in MOR, a string of bad events or bad professors has happened, so I assume not much has changed there.
Yes. Rowling said in an interview that he taught Muggle Studies.
I wonder why they haven't simply renamed the course. If it was called "Battle Magic", would V's curse still apply? What if it was something completely new, like "Sunshine Course"? What if the name was changed to, say, "Transfiguration"? Let the students have McGonagall's Transfiguration and Quirell's "Transfiguration". Students might get a little confused on their first week, but the benefit of having the actual education outweighs the cost... (and btw it's legal to have 2 professors of the same subject -- in canon HP they had Trelawny and Firenze both teaching Divination; not to mention that the headmaster is free to create new positions, like he did with The Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts).
You're right! Fixed.