Master of This School

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 111715

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "zendemort" <zendemort at y...> 
wrote:

zendemort;
> I found something very intringuing while reading PoA for the second 
> time. It is minute, but interesting nonetheless. 
> 
> When Snape comes across the Marauder's Map, he tells the 
> map "Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, demands that 
> you reveal the secrets you hide" (quote is not exact but along the 
> same lines, although the "master of this school" part is exact). 
But 
> there is a little problem here. You see, Snape is not the master of 
> Hogwarts!!!! DD is the "master of this school"!!!! So why does 
Snape 
> call himself master of the school? I wonder what he is after? Does 
> he wish to become the Headmaster of Hogwarts at one point? 
> hmmm....... 
> This could provide clues into his personality... and his private 
> thoughts (possibly, he considers himself greater than Dumbledore, 
> the true master?)... But can it also tell us anything yet to come?

Geoff:
I would have considered it more suspicious had he said "The" master 
of this school.

It smacks a little of the archaic to me, such as when you see 
references to "Jean Smith, spinster of this parish" in a church 
record. In my teaching days, I might have referred formally to myself 
as "Geoff Bannister, /a/ teacher (or master) at this school" though 
heaven knows what circumstances woudl have provoked it!

It also reminds me of the scene in LOTR when Gandalf is trying to 
open the doors of Moria and he starts running through a string of 
spells to achieve it initially without success. Perhaps this form of 
words is one which Snape was using as a first attempt to get the map 
to divulge information and he hit the jackpot first time. He possibly 
had other modes of address up his sleeve if this one failed....

Geoff
who invites group members to enjoy 
photographs of Exmoor scenery and 
our heritage railway at:
http://www.aspectsofexmoor.com