Questions on the Heads of Houses

[terri_testing]

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

Comments

The Winning Streak

[jana_ch]

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

Re: The Winning Streak

[sunnyskywalker]

You're probably right about JKR's intentions. On the bright side, I guess 21-year-old House Head Snape teaching students he overlapped with would allow for drama...? Dumbledore was just being considerate to fic writers, yeah, that's it!

Good point that the Slug Club shouldn't have been run by a Head of House. In fact, that might be a good role for the Headmaster to fill. You know, if they had a hands-on headmaster. They're supposed to be enough above House divisions to administer the entire school, and presumably Headmasters are usually well-connected. House Heads could focus on cultivating their own students and then nominate them for the Headmaster's club in fourth or fifth year.

Headmaster Slughorn

[jana_ch]

Who’s up for an alternate universe tale in which Horace Slughorn instead of Albus Dumbledore follows Armando Dippet as Headmaster? Albus could go off and fight dark lords on his own time without wrecking wizarding Britain’s educational system as a sideline. Binns is gently eased into retirement; Hagrid is never promoted from assistant groundskeeper; Trelawney supports herself reading cards and tea leaves at Madame Puddifoot’s; Severus gets a dunderhead-free position as a potions researcher in Australia, along with an Aussie girlfriend and a nice tan.

Oh yes, and the Marauders: Remus is home-schooled; the elder Mr Potter is persuaded to keep his valuable heirloom invisibility cloak at home after he learns how his son has been misusing it; endless hours of shuttle diplomacy keep Sirius and his family marginally reconciled until after graduation at least…and Peter is ignored.

Re: Headmaster Slughorn

[sunnyskywalker]

Dumbledore could also spend more time on his Wizengamot and International Confederation of Wizards duties, whatever those are

Re: Headmaster Slughorn

[jana_ch]

Slughorn would probably hesitate to do anything too obvious to counter Voldemort’s appeal to his students, but there is a lot he could do under the cover of good pedagogic practice-beginning, as you said, with not treating Slytherin as the House of Villains. Whereas Dumbledore saw ambition as something to be crushed (“Ambition made me kill my baby sister!”), Slughorn sees it as something to be encouraged and guided into beneficial channels. The Slug Club, now sponsored by the Headmaster, offers Slytherin students (and others) opportunities to gain legitimate power in the wizarding world so they don’t feel the need to take up with a charismatic outsider. It also doesn’t hurt that Horace, despite having adopted modern liberal ideas, clearly retains many of his old-fashioned prejudices about blood status. The Blacks and the Malfoys will say, “He’s moved with the times because that’s what you have to do to get ahead these days, but deep down he still has the right ideas

Re: Headmaster Slughorn

[sunnyskywalker]

Ooh, a Continental hire has all kinds of possibilities. Viktor Krum's grandfather was murdered by Grindlewald; I wonder whether he has a great uncle or great aunt who opposed him and survived? Though a Beauxbatons grad might be an easier sell than a Durmstrang grad, at least initially.

Heck, why not let Slughorn enjoy semi-retirement as a professor emeritus running his club on campus and get Continental hires for Slytherin Head and Headmaster. One from Beauxbatons, one from Durmstrang. Maybe they each have a British parent or aunt or something so they can claim connection to the Grand Traditions of HogwartsTM. Have three people on campus mentoring students and teaching them to network. They'd probably focus on different students and use different methods, which would be a good thing.

Re: Headmaster Slughorn

[oryx_leucoryx]

Slughorn would be limited in countering Voldemort if (as I think) he did not know who this newcomer Voldemort type was. When Tom came back he looked very different, and he seems to have avoided close contact with those who knew him previously apart from that one interview with Dumbles and the group of close 'friends'. My pet theory is that the reason Dumbles easily had an open position for Severus when he needed one was because that was when Horace realized (or was helped in realizing) who exactly Voldemort was. Prior to that all Horace saw of Voldemort was photographs in the Prophet, if there were any. So he did not know that his mistakes regarding the Horcruxes had anything to do with the crises.

Re: Headmaster Slughorn

[maidofkent]

I have wondered whether the situation in 1981 could have been a reverse of the one at the start of HBP. As you say, Dumbledore needed an open position for Severus, and he did not want that to be the DADA post. Why not ask his old 'friend' Sluggy to teach DADA for a year - difficult times, Dumbledore needs someone skilled and loyal in the post, and it would only be for a year, then you can go back to Potions. Young Snape could cover meanwhile.

That way, Slughorn remains as head of Slytherin in September 1981, allowing Severus the necessary free time to dance, apparently, to Voldemort's orders.

If Slughorn came to realise in whatever way that Voldemort was the same person as the charmer with the interest in Horcruxes, and then resigned in guilt, that would then be the DADA curse in action.

Re: Slughorn and the DADA curse

[terri_testing]

Resigned in guilt... now THAT's an interesting take!

Re: Slughorn and the DADA curse

[oryx_leucoryx]

Wasn't that the reason for his resignation in your 'Unlikely Allies'? (Any chance for more of that? Or Folly?)

Re: Headmaster Slughorn

[sunnyskywalker]

What an interesting idea! And it does seem possible given Slughorn's personality.

Thankless

[terri_testing]

Interesting comments, all! I do wonder, though, whether we might be missing a point. How much is the position of headmaster of Hogwarts purely ceremonial? Just because in our world a school head has an actual function doesn't meant the Hogwarts head does.

Not to start a hare, but is there canon for what Dumbles actually DOES, day to day?

Re: Thankless

[maidofkent]

We know from CoS that the Governors can override the Head on occasion, but that would be the same in a Muggle school, where the Head has considerable day to day power.

Dumbles seems to be the one in charge of hiring - he interviews Tom and Sybill, brings in Remus when he wishes to (acto Pottermore), replaces Sybill with Firenze, and it is only when he can't find a DADA hire that the Ministry sends in Umbridge.

We know that Lucius Malfoy thinks that Dumbledore is the worst thing to have happened to Hogwarts, which implys a great deal of power for DD, but of course Lucius might know or suspect more than most about DD's extra-curricular activities at the school.

I suppose the best answer to the question of whether the Head Master has actual rather than ceremonial power is that both Albus and Tom want the position

Re: Thankless

[oryx_leucoryx]

Not only does the headmaster hire the teachers, he can single-handedly eliminate a subject (or so it seems) - Dumbles claims to have intended to eliminate Divination. (And may have been the reason no Alchemy class opened in decades).

And obviously, the headmaster controls the protections of Hogwarts.

Re: Thankless

[oryx_leucoryx]

It seems Lucius' complaints were about Dumbles' policies regarding Muggle-born students, but we know nothing (or very little) about policies of previous headmasters.

Re: Thankless

[sunnyskywalker]

Oh, now that is an interesting question. After all, the school originally had four heads, working in concert, and no headmaster over them. Maybe originally the House Heads appointed a Headmaster just to mediate between them! The position wasn't Head Master, it was Master of the Heads. Slightly different. The Board of Governors probably came later, or grew out of some lesser, pre-existing liason with the government. And possibly the Headmaster gained power over the centuries