I was searching through the Potter section on FF.net when I had this idea. I have never seen it before, so let me know if you have seen a fic with a similar idea.

My idea can go two ways:

1) What if Headmaster Dippet ignored Dumbledores' advice and hired Voldemort as the DADA professor.

2) What if the board of governors forced Dumbledores' hand and made him hire Voldemort(A Death Eater or two on the board helps). Though it would be hard to force Dumbledore to do anything they could threaten to replace him

Truthfully I think the 1st one is more likely to happen then the 2nd. It would be very difficult to force Dumbledore to do anything, even with threats of removing him. And I don't think the board can just replace a person on a whim.

I wonder what would happen if he did get the job one of the times he applied.

No doubt he would try to influence the next generation with his ideals, maybe even start is own version of the Slug Club, Death Eater style.

Then I wonder if he would try to usurp Dumbledore a few years later and use Hogwarts as a base/school to overthrow the Ministry.

Let me know what you think. And if you have seen a fic with this idea let me know.

 

Interesting thought, yeah... but what then? Does Harry even enter into the story? Wouldn't this mean Voldemort has already won, to a degree? Does this go anywhere?

 

It's an interesting idea for sure but it fits a "What if?" discussion more, rather than a simple fanfic. Why? Because you'd have to create a massive amount of OCs to make this work in any way(unless it was a "Voldemort gets the job, and the next chaptar is '20 years later'" and the consequences of that). It would quite simply be beyond the capacity of an average or even good writer(as far as fanfiction goes anyway).

 

Beats me. I hadn't thought that far into it. I guess it would mean Voldemort had won to a degree. I imagine the first few years of his teaching would split the school in two. On one side would be the people who don't believe in his philosophies and other side do believe in them.

As for Harry, hmm, not sure. He has to be in it though. It is a Harry Potter fic. Don't know how though. I can't imagine James or Lily letting Harry go to a school where Voldemort teaches.

Or maybe Dumbledore is forced to flee the school with his supporters and decides to open up his own school somewhere else. A school that Hogwarts used to be. Dumbledore runs the war from his school and Voldemort from Hogwarts. Harry could attend Dumbledores' school. *I just thought of this stuff as I was writting*

Yeah, the OC plague would decend upon this fic. It would take an author who is exceptional at characterization to write it. Don't think one chapter showing getting the job and the next being 20 years later would be good. There should be maybe 1-2 chapters showing how he starts to influence the students and his plans for the future. Maybe then after that you could skip a decade or two. Though the chapter after that is going to have to explain what happened.

 

Would Voldemort have continued down his path of evil, remember Voldemort applied for the job a bit before the whole evil overload path. He was just Tom Riddle at the time with the occasional job of going off and torturing muggles. Maybe he didn't go down the path as fast but instead got caught and put in jail before he had a chance of his evil reign. This plot bunny changes cannon so much and there really is no way to say which direction it will go.

 

IIRC by the time he arrived to Hogwarts Tom Riddle was already pretty deep into Dark Arts. It seems very plausible that he was already recruiting followers. It also seems plausible that he was already a Dark Lord(maybe operating less openly) since I believe that he already planned on becoming one in his school years.

I think that he simply wanted unrestricted access to Hogwarts to complete some kind of a plan that he wouldn't be able to do in a short amount of time.

There's a couple of reasons that come to mind:
- Hogwarts is sure to have at least a couple of very important wizarding relics. Examples: Gryffindor's Sword, Sorting Hat, Mirror of Erised, Philosopher's Stone(for a short time anyway). These weren't there at that time but I'm sure that other items were. Even if they weren't valuable as far their cash value goes, they might've been important to V himself.
- Unrestricted access to Chamber of Secrets. No one would question a teacher travelling around Hogwarts or even doing it by night. With a bit of magic, sneaking a basilisk out of the school wouldn't be all that difficult. And unless you happen to have a roster around, basilisks are terrifying war machines(unless there's a Deus Ex Machina helping you out). There's also the fandom idea that there's something besides the basilisk in CoS.
- Or simply recruiting young people and convincing them that purging the filth out of wizarding world is a very good idea(already suggested).

 

Voldemort didn't have to walk the path to evilness, he was born evil. As a child Tom Riddle showed all the signs of being a Sociopath (harming animals, enjoys causing pain/fear, etc) long before he became Lord Voldemort.

I don't think Voldemort ever traveled a path of evil, I think he was born already at the end of the path. The generations of inbreeding probably caused physcological problems that gave him a mental imbalance (hence he was born evil) and the orphanage probably didn't see the signs so they didn't get him the help he needed.

Voldemort murdered his father not long after he left Hogwarts and created his first Horcrux. So even then I would say yes, he certainly was evil by the time he applied the first time.

 

My apologies screwed up some dates What I was trying to say though and what others have said is that your changing so much possible history with that one action, that its a major undertaking.