Snape keeps the position until he flees after killing Dumbledore. At that point, McGonagall says this:

Slughorn might keep the position in Deathly Hallows, but I don't remember an exact point where it's stated.

 

I don't have the book on me at the moment, but I think that McGonagall says something along the lines of "Go get your Slytherin's, Horace." When she is arranging for the defense of the castle and the evacuation of the students.

 

Does McGonagall use the apostrophe in the modern meaning of "here comes an s"?

 

Is there any canon direct effects of Voldemort and Quirrell killing unicorns and drinking their blood, or is it some vague bad effect that never materialises?

I mean Voldemort is no longer fully human after being resurrected but that could have been from horcruxes or other magic he's done upon his soul. There doesn't seem to have been any effect on Quirrell. Unless the flesh burning at Harry's touch is because of the curse from the unicorn blood and not Lily's protection (e.g. maybe the touch of a virgin burns his flesh because of some vague association of unicorns liking virgins).

 

The newfags from 2012 are worst than us from 2011

 

Here's one I was thinking about earlier today: where are all the familiars? And why is dumbledore the only adult who's ever mentioned having one? I mean, I get that you can't waste story time listing off every kid's cat or whatever, but... like is it just a first year thing?

 

From Pottermore:

 

It seems to me that both Fawkes and Nagini fit her first definition of familiars. I don't know why they wouldn't, functioning as messengers, spies, servants, and more at various points throughout the series. Fawkes helps Dumbledore avoid death a number of times in the Atrium, and even helps his protege against the basilisk just because Harry showed loyalty to him. Nagini was used for reconnaissance, espionage, and ambush in OotP against Arthur. I mean, maybe not Nagini because she's a Horcrux, but Fawkes at the very least? Especially since Dumbledore didn't just go out and buy him. IIRC Fawkes would have had to come to him, right? And he left forever when Dumbledore died.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Fawkes warning them of Umbridge's approach as well.

 

We don't know how Dumbledore acquired Fawkes, or the exact nature of their relationship. They certainly seem to be able to communicate in some way.

I think Nagini is probably the closest to a familiar, in that there's a connection on the level of the soul.

 

IIRC, those who drink unicorn blood are "cursed" or live a "cursed life". It is possible to interpret this as Voldemort was doomed to fail right when he ingested unicorn blood. It's a stretch, but whatever.

 

Well, whatever curse drinking unicorn blood endows, they believed that the Philosopher's Stone resurrecting Voldemort would rid him of it, so it's possible his resurrection ceremony in GoF also broke it.

 

I always interpreted it as he couldn't get any worse than he was at that point. He was already in as bad a condition as you could get without dying, so no curse was able to really make him any worse. He was already living a "cursed life".

 

I always thought, since it was unicorn blood, that it would combine with his current blood to keep him alive. Assuming he did that for a year, he probably had mostly unicorn blood running through his veins. Which, when he does the ritual in GoF he has Harry Potter's blood running through his veins, avoiding the curse.

The second idea I had was that it just fucks Quirrell since he has the physical body. Can you even curse spirits?

 

What are you on about? He's drinking it, not getting a blood transfusion.

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I get that Voldemort killing unicorns is like Wolverine's job in the X-men- to get beaten up weekly to show how badass and serious the villain-of-the-week is, and for the unicorns to show how evil and cursed Voldemort already is. But the cursed life is some vague non-effect I guess since Quirrel doesn't actually have any resulting curse.

 

Voldemort's curse was to be defeated by deus ex. Every single time.

 

I think you might be misunderstanding the effects of unicorn blood. Here is the quote.

My taking from this is that unicorn blood doesn't save your life and curse you as two separate things. They are the same thing. The curse is the life and the life is the curse.

Drinking unicorn blood gives you a 'half-life, a cursed life'. This will save you from death but at the cost of being trapped in that state. It's not a curse in the same way as the Blasting Curse is a curse but in the classical meaning. You are forced to endure a hellish half existence until you die.

This is backed up by what Firenze is saying. The philosopher's stone will end the 'curse' because it can bring Voldemort back to full life, out of the 'half-life, a cursed life' he gained from drinking the blood. His resurrection in fourth year would do much the same.

 

^This, and I'm glad somebody quoted it to jog my memory completely. And it /was/ a cursed, half-life, for both Voldemort's shade and, probably more importantly, for Quirrell. You'll note that Quirrell actually did have nothing more than a half-life for the rest of his days, playing host and puppet to Voldemort's possessing spirit right up until that spirit left him to die at, literally, Harry's hands.

So yes, it's a 'curse' more in the abstract, metaphysical - classical, if you prefer - sense, than the more definite but still vague 'curse upon the Defense Against the Dark Arts position' we hear so much about in canon.

By the way, I always like to mention how much I love the Defense-position curse if for no other reason than the way it always plays out. You know it's going to happen, it feels inexorable - you just don't know what the mechanism will be that brings it about. It's the sort of thing that makes Shakespeare and Old World mythology so great; stories like Oedipus Rex and Macbeth, where everything is linked and you only really see it clearly in hindsight.

Like the Prophecy in Harry Potter and how that played out, actually.

 

Can you explain the difference for Quirrel between before drinking unicorn blood where he had a half-life for the rest of his days playing host and puppet to Voldemort, and after drinking unicorn blood where he was pretty much the same.

Unless there was something at the end of the book I missed about how him drinking unicorn blood meant that when Voldemort left he would die rather than my understanding of the possession itself and the length of the possession causing him to die if Voldemort scarpered whether or not Harry mercilessly burnt him to death.

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And yeah, I love the curse on the Defence position- it's clear, predictable in what it does but the curse shows itself in different ways. About the curse- when exactly did Snape get the defence position? Before or after he was forced into making the Unbreakable Vow? Because if it was before the Vow then that curse is a fucking nasty one.

 

It also makes one wonder if Snape was suicidal or at least masochistic as it's repeatedly stated that he wanted to teach defense instead of potions.

The handling of the defense curse is also maybe the worst of Dumbledore's questionable solutions. He keeps hiring professors one after another even though he knows the odds of their premature death are pretty high.