Harry Potter: All 7 Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers ranked

One of the recurring gags in the Harry Potter books and movies is that every year Harry and his friends spend at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, they are taught by a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Why is there such high turnover? There are individual reasons why each of Harry’s teachers don’t return for a second year at their post, but there’s also a rumor that Lord Voldemort himself cursed the position after Headmaster Dumbledore denied it to him, twice.

The second time Voldemort applied, the story goes, he just wanted an excuse to enter Hogwarts Castle so he could hide one of his horcruxes. He cursed the Defense Against the Dark Arts job on his way out, just because. In addition to spite, he may have wanted to make sure people knew as little about how to defend themselves against the Dark Arts as possible, since he intended to use them to take over the world.

For whatever reason, Hogwarts had seven different Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers during Harry Potter’s time there. The majority of these teachers were either inept, supporters of Lord Voldemort, or both, although a couple of them were genuinely good at the job. But no one was free from the curse.

Here are all seven Defense Against the Dark Arts teachers from the Harry Potter movies and books, ranked.

7. Amycus Carrow

The last Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that we meet is Amycus Carrow. He and his sister Alecto are loyal Death Eaters, which is what Lord Voldemort calls his followers. They are hired on at Hogwarts after Lord Voldemort’s forces take over the Ministry of Magic. Severus Snape served as headmaster during this time, although his true allegiance was still to Dumbledore. He did everything he could to limit the punishments meted out by the Carrow siblings without blowing his cover.

The Carrows wreaked havoc on students of Hogwarts. As the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Amycus forced seventh-year students to practice the Cruciatus Curse on other students. He also taught the usage of the killing curse and fiendfyre, a spell that produces enormously destructive flames. The Carrow siblings punished students with the Cruciatus Curse, knives, beatings and by chaining students to walls.

Even though Harry, Hermione and Ron were in the wild hunting down Voldemort’s horcurxes at the time, Dumbledore’s army was still active inside Hogwarts, led by Neville Longbottom, who resisted the Carrows’ punishments had the army hide in the Room of Requirement. When Harry, Ron and Hermione returned to the castle to find Rowena Ravenclaw’s tiara, Alecto was sent by Voldemort guard Ravenclaw tower, where she was stunned by Luna Lovegood and Harry while they hid under the invisibility cloak. Amycus then arrived and found his sister on the ground. He planned to blame the incident on the students. Minerva McGonagall called him a coward and he spit in her face in retaliation. Unable to control his anger, Harry came out from under the invisibility cloak and used the Cruciatus Curse on him.

The Carrow siblings were apprehended and likely sent to Azkaban after the war concluded. Although there are others on this list that did heinous things, Amycus and Alecto directly tortured students at Hogwarts, which is inexcusable behavior. They’re an easy choice for the bottom of the list.