Head of House missions(was Re: Why did the founders retain Slytherin's house?)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 117894


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, annegirl11 at j... wrote:
> BTW, ITA that sorting kids into Slytherine is to keep an eye on 
them.
> It's not giving up on them at all, it's taking the kids with the 
highest
> risk factors and keeping an eye on them. Unfortunatly, I'm not 
convinced
> the current head of house is doing his job in keeping an eye on the
> potential problem kids.

Or, perhaps one could say that although this would normally be the 
job of the Head of Slytherin, Severus has another job that, 
unfortunately, takes precedence.

Perhaps the Heads of each house have particular duties traditionaly 
associated with their House.  So the Head of Slytherin is supposed to 
watch out for racists and dark wizards while the Head of Ravenclaw 
looks out for future scholars and the Head of Hufflepuff identifies 
future teachers, healers, and diplomats.  In this scheme, the Head of 
Gryffindor keeps an eye out for heroes.

Now, part of the interesting question here is that we have seen very 
few other examples of the Head of House other than the present heads 
and the archetypal portraits we have of the founders.  There are two 
possible exceptions, however.

One is Phineus Nigellus.  It is a reasonable assumption that before 
being "Hogwarts' least popular Headmaster" he was Head of Slytherin.  
It is interesting that, unlike the case with Salazar and Snape, we 
have no indication that Nigellus was ever tainted with being a Dark 
Wizard (except perhaps by association with the Black family).  Also 
it is of interest that in his interactions with Harry and Dumbledore 
he comes across as snotty and sarcastic, but never evinces the bitter 
pettiness, or the extreme unfairness, that characterizes Severus.  
Thus, it is possible that Phineus is a more typical example of a Head 
of Slytherin than is Snape.  If that is so, and it is of course a 
pure guess, then a more typical Head of Slytherin would be an 
unpleasant and unpopular person, a person who has few illusions about 
the nature of humanity or of teenagers, but nevertheless a person 
without a lot of Snape's least attractive attributes as a teacher, 
and without known connections with Dark Wizards.  Such a person would 
perhaps be well suited to recognizing the signs of an incipient Dark 
Wizard and moving to nip the situation in the bud.  It makes one 
wonder who was Head of Slytherin during Riddle's years at Hogwarts, 
or Severus' for that matter.

In the case of Gryffindor it is reasonable to suspect that Dumbledore 
was Head of House before becoming Headmaster.  If so it is likely 
that the typical Head of Gryffindor possesses the traits that he and 
McGonagall share, that is basic fairness and a devotion to their 
students combined with a hardheaded insistance that people must learn 
from "real-life" experience and from suffering the consequences of 
their mistakes.

Any other thoughts?

Lupinlore