Questions on the Heads of Houses

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

So, a couple of questions I wanted to toss out about the Heads of Houses.

First, Snape, the Head of Slytherin, seems to be much younger (31 when we and Harry meet him) than the other Heads of House.  But, at (by?) that time he seems to have the support of his students (as well as supporting/defending them).  In particular, in second year we see Draco Malfoy sucking up to him by suggesting his father (who is on the Board of Governors) would support Snape's possible candidacy to be Headmaster.  

On the other hand, someone (Jodel?  Whitehound?  Swythyv? Oneandthetruth?  I'm not remembering at this time) suggested that Snape might have been installed as Head of Slytherin to weaken the house (given his dependence on Dumbledore).  (And that the loss of the Slug Club funnelling fresh talent into the Ministry did fatally weaken it to the point Voldemort found it possible to topple it with one blow.)

So.

Do we have canon how much Snape's house supported him?

Do we have canon when he was actually installed as Head?  I always assumed he replaced Slughorn as Head of Slytherin and Potions Master simultaneously in 1981, but that's an assumption.  So my assumption Snape was to credit for that long string of Slytherin House Cup victories might not be correct.

And... the Board of Governors has something to say about the headmastership.  What about House Heads?  Was Snape, whatever year he was installed as Head of Slytherin House, installed with their approval, against their will, or what?

Comments

Re: Thankless

[sunnyskywalker]

You know, I think I haven't been giving Jo enough credit here. Her explanations often don't make sense, but she's very good at observing and depicting complex dynamics. And I bet either her school when she attended or the English program she taught in suffered from most or all of these problems:

-Unclear chain of command/authority assignment
-Poor communication in absence of anyone assigned to facilitate much of anything
-Understaffing, leading to many staff doubling up (and having no time to figure out larger policy issues even if they think they do have the authority)
-Loss of institutional knowledge due to staff retirements + poor documentation
-Little to no training for new staff due to all of the above

Hogwarts might be in an awkward transitional period where the House Heads have lost some of their historical authority and the headmaster and Board of Governors have gained some, but no one's exactly sure where the boundaries fall anymore. So who's responsible for what? Who knows? Which means you get a combination of (1) sometimes people just do stuff without knowing whether they have authority or not, because someone has to do something, and (2) a lot of other stuff doesn't get done.

We can tell the teachers have very heavy course loads, and many are doubled up: McGonagall as the only Transfiguration teacher and House Head and Deputy Headmistress; Hagrid as grounds/gameskeeper and CoMC teacher; Snape as the only Potions teacher and House Head (and spy, not that that's an official school duty). We also know that once upon a time, Dumbledore and McGonagall both taught Transfiguration at the same time. Maybe the same was true of most or all of the required classes. Junior teacher for the lower years, senior teacher for OWL year and above (leaving time to be House Head too). The progressive staff reduction could be down to a combination of funding and uncertain authority (or battles over it between the headmaster and Board).

We know they've lost several long-term teachers and never got fully trained replacements. DADA, obviously (Merrythought > 30 or so one-year wonders). Kettleburn > Hagrid. Slughorn > a very young Snape. We don't know the conditions under which Flitwick and Sprout started teaching. That sort of loss doesn't just affect classes, but all sorts of other procedures no one ever thought to write down before, because everyone knows how and we've all been here together for decades, until someone leaves and we're all scrambling. Maybe all the House Heads used to run networking clubs, and by the 1970s, Slughorn had taken over for all the Houses because the other Heads didn't know how or didn't have the time anymore. Didn't the club in Tom Riddle's day seem like more of an all-Slytherin gathering?

Hogwarts looks exactly like it's been going through this kind of crisis for at least the past couple of decades. Who hasn't seen (or worked in) a similar environment?

Re: Thankless

[oryx_leucoryx]

.... And who was in charge all those decades?

What I'm wondering about is whether there is any evidence that Hogwarts was better run before Albus took over. Maybe Lucius knew what he was talking about when he said Albus was the worst thing that happened to the school in a long while.

Re: Thankless

[sunnyskywalker]

The only points I can think of are (a) at least there was one teacher helping some students network, and (b) at one point, Transfiguration had two teachers, which core subjects clearly need. Which isn't a whole lot, but then, I think it's entirely possible that Dumbledore inherited these problems and didn't do anything (or at least nothing that worked), so things just kept getting worse.

Wait, we know they also once started a drama club, and one headmaster tried to expel Peeves. Both of these efforts failed horribly, but they show that staff in the past were willing to try things more often than current staff. Oh, and they must have installed plumbing at some point pre-1945, which is a significant infrastructure improvement (and must have been a big project to coordinate).

Re: Thankless

[nx74defiant.livejournal.com]

Great job of describing the downward spiral Hogwarts has been.