Snape as Headmaster

[Eric Oppen]

No: HPFGUIDX 189142

It has occurred to me that Snape, during his tenure as Headmaster of  
Hogwarts, was not the person really in control of the school.  With  
the Carrows right there in Dark Arts and "Muggle Studies," they could  
have served the same purpose as "political officers" in the armed  
forces of the former Warsaw Pact countries.

Political officers were there to keep an eye on the real officers, who  
were always distrusted by the communist regimes (their terror was  
based on what Napoleon I had done to the French Revolutionary  
government) and to keep them on the orthodox line.  Decisions by the  
regular commander had to be approved by the political officer before  
they went into effect.  This system was partially abandoned by the  
Soviets during WWII, because it was unwieldy and slow, but was  
reintroduced in peacetime.

Another analogy that could be made is to kings who theoreticallly are  
absolute or nearly so, but in fact are prisoners of their guards or  
prominent nobles or other people.

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