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

1. Severus Snape

Severus Snape not only nabs the top spot on this list, but he is also in the conversation of being the most important character in the entire story. Throughout the books, Snape and Harry are at odds with each other mostly because Snape can’t stand how much Harry resembles his father James. James and Harry’s godfather Sirius Black used to bully Snape when they were students at Hogwarts, and James also married the woman Snape loved, Harry’s mother Lilly. So yeah, Snape has some issue with the Potters.

However, Snape also works to protect the boy. While Snape was a Death Eater, he informed Voldemort of the prophecy about a boy who will one day destroy the dark lord, so Voldemort set out to kill Harry. Snape begged him not to kill Lilly and Voldemort agreed, but Snape knew she would still be in danger so he approached Dumbledore and urged him to hide the Potter family. However, Peter Petigrew (Wormtail), a member of the Order of the Phoenix and a close friend of James, flipped and told Voldemort their location. Voldemort went back on his promise and killed both of Harry’s parents without remorse. But for whatever reason, when Voldemort tried to kill Harry, he was ummade.

Dumbledore told Snape that even though Voldemort was defeated, he would eventually return and Harry would again be in danger. So Snape spent the rest of his life quietly protecting Harry to honor Lilly. Every single interaction and relationship Snape had for the next 17 years had to be carefully considered as to not arouse suspicion among Death Eaters so Voldemort would eventually accept Snape back into his service.

Possibly Snape’s greatest challenge came in the sixth book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when he finally got the job of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. At this point, Dumbledore’s master plan was beginning to take its final form. Now that Harry knew about Voldemort’s horcruxes, Dumbledore was ready to die and Snape had to make it happen, so as to gain the complete trust of Voldemort. This trust resulted in Snape being named headmaster of Hogwarts after Voldemort took over the wizarding world, where he was able to protect the students from the worst of the Death Eaters’ excesses and pass information to members of the Order.

Although Harry didn’t know it until after Snape’s death, the grumpy professor whom he was constantly at odds with was his staunchest protector and sacrificed his entire life so Harry could defeat Voldemort. He truly has one of the best character arcs in the series. I can’t imagine any better defense against the dark arts.

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