Defence against Dark Arts

Commonly shortened to D.A.D.A., this class teaches defensive techniques to block spells, charms, curses, hexes and jinxes cast by other wizards, counteract the Dark Arts, and to protect from Dark creatures. The subject has an extraordinarily high turnover of staff members — throughout the series no Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher has remained at Hogwarts for more than one school year. It is suggested by Hagrid in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets that "They're startin' ter think the job's jinxed. No one's lasted long for a while now." In Half-Blood Prince, Dumbledore suggests that Voldemort cursed the position. The position had been also coveted by Snape, but he was denied the position as well. Rowling explained that Dumbledore believed that teaching D.A.D.A would bring out Snape's worst side. Snape was finally appointed D.A.D.A. professor in Half-Blood Prince. Rowling announced in an interview that once Voldemort had died, the jinx he placed on the office was lifted and a permanent professor had been teaching the subject between the end of Deathly Hallows and the epilogue, set 19 years afterwards. Furthermore, she imagines that Harry Potter occasionally comes to the class to give lectures on the subject

 

List of Defence Against the Dark Arts professors:

* Galatea Merrythought (employed some fifty years before the Harry Potter series, while Tom Riddle was a student)

* Quirinus Quirrell (Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone)

* Gilderoy Lockhart (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets)

* Remus Lupin (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban)

* Barty Crouch Jr disguised as Alastor Moody (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire)

* Dolores Umbridge (Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix)

* Severus Snape (Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince)

* Amycus Carrow (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows)