Master of This School

[Edis]

No: HPFGUIDX 111786

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "tonks_op" <tonks_op at y...> 
wrote:
> Snape says "Professor Severus Snape, master of this school, demands 
> that you reveal the secrets you hide"  He does this to use the full 
> weight and power of his postion to get the map to show its 
secrets.  
> He may well have designs on DD's job, but that is not the reason he 
> uses that word at this time. It is sort of like saying "with the 
> full power invested in me I hereby demand that you show yourself" 
It 
> is in sense a spell directed to the map to show itself, and it is a 
> spell that requires a show of dominance and power.
> 
> Tonks_op

Tonks_op has got it I think. Being old enough to remember British 
Education in the 1950's the statement 'Master of this School' by 
Snape is for me a clear invocation of official authority as a member 
of staff combatting some piece of student skulduggery.

It is a conscious use of archaic educational terminology by JKR as a 
literay effect here. Slightly clearer English might be 'A Master of 
This School. The invocation is of a formal and rigorous tradition.

Teachers with departmental responsibility in those days would be 
called 'The Latin Master' or 'Geography Master' or 'Chemistry Master' 
or whatever. Each and every one would be a 'Master' of that 
particular school. (The Chemistry Master by the way would be 
informally referred to as 'The Stinks Master' by the pupils. 'Stinks' 
being the slang term for Chemistry.) I recall an official School 
expedition when about 30 of us went studying geology in Scotland for 
a week. In the hotel dining room we explained to other guests why we 
weren't starting dinner yet, but standing behind our chairs, by 
saying 'we are waiting for our Masters'.

Edis