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In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire Alastor Moody accepted a job as Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

However he never actually went in class since he was kidnapped and impersonated for the whole year by Barty Crouch Jr.

In Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Moody is no longer a DADA teacher and as we know the DADA curse does not have to kill the teacher - take Lupin as example. He/she just lasts for one year.

So were both Moody and Crouch Jr. affected by the curse - one spent the whole year kidnapped and one received a Dementor kiss or it was just one of them. If only one then who?

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The position, not the instructor, is cursed.

It means that next year they'll have to find someone new, for whatever reason. So, I think events transpired in a way that made it necessary to find a new instructor.

Obviously, Crouch couldn't be it. Him being an impersonator in that position to begin with seems like a result of the curse.

Moody not being it the following year, due to prior plans or due to or a result of everything else, wouldn't be there or wouldn't have stayed anyway. (I personally believe that once Voldemort returned, there'd be no chance at all of Moody sticking around to teach anything.)

I think all these events are quite intertwined with one another, and the curse, and you couldn't really separate out a single victim. As I said, the position is cursed.

And while it's generally revealed to us at the end of the books why the DADA instructor can't stick around, those circumstances are generally set in motion long before then. Quirrel wasn't going to last long with Voldemort in him. Dumbledore suspected Lockhart was a fraud from the get go. Crouch could have kept his cool after the Cup incident, leaving none the wiser, and better served his Dark Lord by killing Moody and impersonating the next DADA instructor. Instead, he went all fanboy and gloating.

So, it's entirely possible that Moody's initial one-year plan was influenced by the curse, and then when he was removed a new set of limitations were created to affect Crouch. (Even if it wasn't the real Moody to be offered the position to begin with, we'd see that there'd need to be some restructuring for the following year.)

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Alastor Moody was not even planning on being a teacher after the year was up. He was the recipient of the 'curse'. And as @randal'thor noted, he was locked in his own trunk for 9 months. That's pretty harsh. Maybe he got that because he was a real Auror? :)

Barty was Kissed, yes, but he wasn't a real teacher, as he wasn't appointed by Dumbly-dore or the Ministry- he was only impersonating Moody. Also, the only thing that we see that he teaches them that actually is used later in the series is how to resist the Imperious Curse.

However, it's arguable that nobody received the curse, because Moody was only doing it for a year anyway, and Barty was only sticking around to kill Harry. But it's possible that Voldemort's curse made Moody decide to only do it for a year.

Bonus - From the books

"One sacked, one dead, one's memory removed, and one locked in a trunk for nine months," said Harry, counting them off on his fingers. "Yeah, I see what you mean."

- The Order of the Pheonix, Chapter 9: The Woes of Mrs Weasley

So obviously Harry thinks that the curse affected Moody.

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  • can you be cursed if the consequences of the curse are something you yourself intended? Kind of makes the curse irrelevant.
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Feb 25, 2016 at 10:57
  • @TheGiantofLannister Note the quote marks.
    – Mithical
    Feb 25, 2016 at 10:58
  • a) should the quote marks be around "recipient" rather than curse and b) could you not pick either Moody or Barty Crouch Jr as the "recipient"? I guess my point is, the curse does not apply here, as neither AM nor BCJ would have stayed in the post.
    – The Giant of Lannister
    Feb 25, 2016 at 11:00
  • Or could the curse have had a bigger effect on Moody, given the terrible year he had? Like Harry said, "One dead, one sacked, one locked in a trunk for nine months, one's memory lost ..."
    – Rand al'Thor ♦
    Feb 25, 2016 at 11:09
  • @randal'thor I'd argue that having your soul sucked out by a Dementor is worse than being locked in a trunk for nine months. Also worse (in my opinion): dyng (Quirrell), losing all of your memories (Lockhart, even if it was his fault), whatever happened to Umbridge (though she deserved it!). Lupin and, arguably, Snape are the only two teachers who had a better outcome than Moody from their year holding the position.
    – Anthony Grist
    Feb 25, 2016 at 11:13

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