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That does make a certain amount of sense.....However, you're combining his not getting the DADA job with his being hired for Potions, yes? That's one way to interpret the little we're given in canon. (It's not spelled out clearly either way that I can see, unless I'm forgetting something).
I was using a different timeline, in which he would have failed the DADA interview before the hilltop, sometime in 1980. We know he was hired to teach Potions in 1981, so presumably either directly after the hilltop meeting, or sometime between then and Fall 1981, Dumbles managed to 'encourage' Slughorn to retire and filled the post with Severus so as to 1) have an excuse to be in contact with him and 2) to make him look better in Voldemort's eyes (getting a post at Hogwarts, even if it's not DADA). I find the convenient timing of an opening other than DADA, in an area of specialization for Severus, a little TOO convenient otherwise.
But either works. JKR's not exactly clear on the subject.
I was using a different timeline, in which he would have failed the DADA interview before the hilltop, sometime in 1980. We know he was hired to teach Potions in 1981, so presumably either directly after the hilltop meeting, or sometime between then and Fall 1981, Dumbles managed to 'encourage' Slughorn to retire and filled the post with Severus so as to 1) have an excuse to be in contact with him and 2) to make him look better in Voldemort's eyes (getting a post at Hogwarts, even if it's not DADA). I find the convenient timing of an opening other than DADA, in an area of specialization for Severus, a little TOO convenient otherwise.
But either works. JKR's not exactly clear on the subject.