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

[oryx_leucoryx]

Hey Terri! Long time no see!

We never see Severus in conflict with Slytherins before HBP, do we? There Draco is keeping Severus out of the loop of his plans, and Severus is speaking critically of Crabbe and Goyle's academic situation - but in any case, these happen in a private conversation.

Severus keeps his interactions with Slytherins private. We get hints that he does discipline them (because they make an effort not to be caught by him), but he always supports them in front of Gryffindors - and Slytherins know not to put him in the uncomfortable position of having to deal with undeniable offenses. He also supports the House spirit by showing up to Quidditch games, and in POA he even wears a green scarf.

Hmm, in COS he gets the Slytherin team permission to use the Quidditch pitch very shortly after the Gryffindor team (and since the Gryffs were busy talking - was it about strategy? I forget - they missed their practice entirely).

I can't remember any personal interaction between a Slytherin student other than Draco and Severus.

I don't think there is canon for your other questions. (Nor do we know when Lucius became governor.)

[oryx_leucoryx]

Regarding House Heads, what we know is that we never see Minerva, Fillius, or Pomona show anything but solidarity with Severus until he kills Albus. The strongest case is, of course, when they support his insistence that it was time Gilderoy did something about the monster.

[sunnyskywalker]

Interesting questions!

We don't know exactly when Professors Sinistra or Vector joined the faculty. Or Madam Hooch or Pince, for that matter. One of their predecessors could have been Head of Slytherin during the '80s, or at least part of them.

While it seems unlikely that the instructor for first-year flying lessons/Quidditch referee could be a Head of House, if Hooch's predecessor had been, perhaps their instruction (and partiality?) could have given Slytherin an edge in the Quidditch Cup and thus the House Cup.

Having an older Head of Slytherin who retired in, say, 1988, with Snape only then taking the position after several years of teaching, certainly sounds more plausible than appointing someone who'd finished school so recently that some of his students remembered him as a student. And if the Board of Governors does have a say in House Heads, Snape having proved himself for several years first ought to work in his favor.

I figure that if JKR has given us an opening to have Hogwarts operating even slightly like a real school, we should take it.

The Winning Streak

[jana-ch.livejournal.com]

On the principle of Occam’s Razor, I prefer to assume that Dumbledore, for whom good pedagogic practice is a low priority, simply threw his indentured double agent in the deep end and made him Potions Master and Head of Slytherin at the tender age of twenty-one. If so, the only noteworthy thing we know about Severus as an extremely young Head of House is that he presided over Slytherin’s seven-year streak of winning the House Cup beginning only three years after he took the job—a streak which would have continued had it not been brought to an end by Dumbledore’s theft of the Cup in Harry’s first year. I have put together a timeline of Severus’s early years as House Head.

Severus’s final year as a Hogwarts student was 1977-1978; his first year as a teacher was 1981-1982. When he started teaching, the current fifth, sixth, and seventh years had all known him as a student, though not necessarily well. They had been first, second, and third years in 1977-78. Slytherin’s seven-year winning streak began in 1984-85, the first year in which there were no students at Hogwarts who had actually seen Snivellus bullied by the Marauders. You’d think many of them would have heard about it from siblings or school gossip, but at least they hadn’t been there. If we can attribute the winning streak to Snape’s leadership, then he had taken only three years to crush the gossip and rally his serpents behind him against the rest of the school.

One way in which Snape differs from Slughorn is that his loyalty is very much focused on Slytherin House. Harry calls this favoritism, but in fact it’s part of his job description as Head of Slytherin. He protects and advocates for his students; all the Slytherins know he has their backs, whether they’re targeted by students of other Houses or feel they’re treated unfairly by other teachers. Under Slughorn, those Slytherins who didn’t qualify for the Slug Club may well have felt neglected. Their Head should have been looking out for them, and instead he focused on a mixed group of personal favorites. The Slug Club itself was a good thing, giving students a way to socialize across House lines, and facilitating the entrance of talented newcomers into wizarding culture. But it would have been better if it had been run by someone who was not a Head of House. Dumping the Slug Club and giving all his attention to his Slytherins must have won Severus their loyalty and personal respect despite his youth and half-blood status. It probably didn’t take long for Slytherin House to notice the difference between Snape and Slughorn, and to respond to Snape’s support with careful good behavior (in public) and hard work in class, both of which would gain House points, and lead to the winning streak.