DeliaDee: It's never mentioned that Katie was offered the position. Perhaps you could infer that from Katie having told Harry when she saw him wearing the badge that she thought he'd get it but she also could have just assumed that since it wasn't her it had to be Harry. Also, both Oliver and Angelina were captains in their seventh years. Though perhaps Katie saw up close that Angelina had a lot her plate that and didn't think she could handle it. There doesn't seem to any actual proof or evidence she was ever offered the position though.
magitech: While McGonagall was a terrible Head of House, the real truth is that this shouldn't have fallen to a Head of House as Hogwarts should have long ago banned second hand wands altogether.
Ernie Macmillan was severely disappointed.
Ernie was a pure blood Hufflepuff who was academic minded and had been looking forward to going to Hogwarts.
But his first class had been a major letdown.
He had just gotten out of Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Quirrell and what he had learned was that he wasn't going to learn anything from Professor Quirrell.
In this first class Quirrell hadn't taught ANY Defense Against the Dark Arts AT ALL.
Not only was no practical Defense Against the Dark Arts taught or shown, but Quirrell hadn't even given the class an academic lecture about Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Instead, Quirrell had literally spent the entire Defense Against the Dark Arts "class" telling the students about his travels.
This wasn't bad teaching. It was non-teaching.
It became instantly clear to Ernie that he wasn't going to learn ANY Defense Against the Dark Arts from Professor Quirrell.
This made Ernie feel deeply uneasy. Not only had his parents stressed to him beforehand the importance of Defense Against the Dark Arts as a subject, but it was obvious to Ernie himself that if he didn't learn to defend himself, he might well meet a sticky end.
Quirrell's class was clearly neither going to teach Ernie anything academically nor prepare him to defend himself.
So, later that night, Ernie got out his quill and parchment and wrote to his parents.
Ernie's letter read:
Dear mom and dad-
I regret to inform you that I have found my first experience at Hogwarts to be very disappointing, especially in one particular way. To be blunt about it, our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher didn't actually teach us any Defense Against the Dark Arts at all, be it from a practical point of view or from an academic point of view. So, what did Professor Quirrell do in our first Defense Against the Dark Arts "class"? He spent the entire period telling stories of his own travels. He didn't even TRY to teach the subject he is paid to teach. This isn't poor and underperforming teaching, it's non-teaching! Given how important the subject of Defense Against the Dark Arts is, Quirrell's non-teaching is of the utmost concern to me. As parents, this must be of utmost concern to mom and dad as well. I know that mom and dad are PISSED to hear that I'm not receiving proper Defense Against the Dark Arts teaching. I doubt that any member of the staff would listen to the concerns of a first year if he complained, but I am requesting that mom and dad inform higher figures of Quirrell's non-teaching to see if we can get him investigated and removed from the Defense Against the Dark Arts post if this is all he's going to do. I'm sorry that my letter home to mom and dad had to be so negative, but the non-teaching of Defense Against the Dark Arts is a matter of urgent concern.
-Ernie.
In cannon several classes such as Potions, History of Magic, and Defense Against the Dark Arts were clearly useless from the start. However, it doesn't seem like any student in canon informed his or her parents about some of the issues regarding Hogwarts questionable curriculum. It always felt weird to me that none of the more academic minded students, Hermione, Cedric, Ernie, many Ravenclaws, etc ever informed their parents of the non teaching of certain important subjects, especially Defense Against the Dark Arts. This story could have a part 2 down the road but in this one I just wanted to show a student informing his parents of Hogwarts poor curriculum, something I think should have happened in canon.
A shout to the following members who are currently favoring and/or following Things That Should Have Happened in Canon. Unfortunately, for those of you with periods in your usernames I had to edit them out do to formatting issues.
Ageofempierswar
Balmz
bfergu01
Brother Grimace
burnnotice
CreepyLola
dakota01372
darkblueflame14
darknessking000
deafdragonrider
DeliaDee
dfcghyjuiokp
dominick2091
Eirini2001
Elbarto4000
GammaTron
geetac
gemston123
generatorsonicevo
Ghost Dragon Master
GoemVanStitches
harper230
heidi228
InfinityMinusOne
JamesAx
kailenhargrove
Kemar372
Kull-Warrior-SG1
Lauzag
Lilly1127
LiteratureSoccerEnthusiast
Lucy Lee Dakota
marrok4shadowpaw
Morbid Crow
nozdormu
Nssheepster
Nym Potter
OJSB
PerseusOndineKelevraBlack
Philippe Cuban
Philosophize
Polskabi
punzi
Redhood1983
Sarah1981
Story341
swainbob142
synbad2
tied
TLM9312
TrimusicaDrag00n90
UltimateGenius
Ylaneysh
Thank you everyone! Much love from Arizona to all of you -Michael :)