Do you think Harry would have been better as the DADA teacher instead of as an auror? 147

OH gosh YES absolutely! Harry James Potter, born to two brilliant parents he never got to know, whose most important memories revolve around the teachers and mentors who changed his life, none more so than Professor Lupin, who once would have been his Uncle Remus. Harry wanted to become an auror because Book 4 he was taught by Mad Eye Moody (regardless of him being Barty Crouch Jr. he was still a huge impact on Harry), and felt underprepared to face Voldemort in the Graveyard. 

In Book 5 Harry tentatively sounds out Ron “It would be cool….to be an auror.” “Yeah, it would,” Ron agreed fervently. Why? Because that was what was needed at the time. Harry goes on to form Dumbledore’s Army, and he thinks that the reason he enjoys it is because of DADA and because they are being fighters, but fails to recognize he enjoys it for teaching.

After the War, Harry probably feels it’s his duty to clean up the rest of the Death Eaters. And that’s fine. But after a while…wouldn’t he be tired? Wouldn’t he be deep-in-his-soul tired of darkness and soul splitting and torturers? So he retires. Early. Before 30. He has the money to live on his own but he gets an owl a few years down the road from McGonagall. She offers him the post, and it would be the ultimate slap in the face to Voldemort. Harry lets James and Albus graduate, but Lily is ecstatic for her dad to be her teacher. All of the students are completely in awe, and although with a few rough starts, Harry settles into his tenure at Hogwarts as the permanent DADA professor for many, many years, refusing the headmastership for his true love: teaching. Headmaster Longbottom was always kind to him though, and the two men grew old and fond of each other, their friendship stretching long behind them, the winding road of what might have almost been. Harry attends Frank Longbottom’s funeral with Neville in his forties. A year later, they lay a bewildered Alice to rest. 

Hogwarts becomes famed for its two Wizarding War heroes, just as Cambridge and Oxford had their great leaders of the time. So yes, Harry James Potter, Professor Potter returns his Dumbledore’s Army to where it belongs: in the heart of the school.