Day Three: Head of Slytherin
Iâve always wondered what Snape was like as Head of House. We donât get to see much of him around the Slytherins except when Harry is pleasant (and we pretty much know by now that Harry brings out the worst in Snape). They claim that he favorites his own house, but he never awards points to Slytherin at any point through the series, not like McGonagall who gives Gryffindor copious amounts in book fiveâfifty each for Neville, Ginny, Ron, Hermione, and Harry, and then fifty to Ravenclaw for Luna. And letâs not even talk about Dumbledoreâs blatant favoritism toward the Gryffindors.Â
But we never see Snape award points to Slytherin, which is a feat in itself. For having the tales of playing favorites all the time, the best evidence for this is that he always seems to find the opportunity to rob Gryffindor of points.Â
Yet, for the most part, the Slytherins seem to respect him as their Head. Moody-Impostor drags Malfoy off to Snape after the ferret incident in book four. When Slughorn was Head, a lot of Slytherins defected to the dark side; the stereotype of âThere wasnât a witch or wizard who went bad who wasnât in Slytherinâ could not have borne itself (though Snapeâs memories from the Hogwarts Express indicate that Slytherin was already strongly disliked). And I think when you look at Slughornâs rather inattentive teaching style, you can find exactly why.Â
Slughorn did not value all of his snakes. He couldnât even be bothered to remember his studentsâ names in the sixth book, only focusing on those who he felt would amount to something. And the young Slytherins needed someone to turn to and rely on. They found that in Voldemort, an incredibly powerful wizard who claimed to have their best interests at heart. Snape was a direct victim of this mindset, and I think that probably would have fed into his style of manning his house.Â
So what was Snape like above Slytherin house? We can really only headcanon and dream about this, but I like to think that he was a little bit more involved than McGonagall in Gryffindor if only out of sheer necessity from the conflated hostilities directed at his house. He also had the strongest group of prejudiced pureblood students on his handsâand he had to find a way to save face in Death Eater circles while protecting his other house members from their influence.
Was he successful? The only major indicator is in book twoâthe password to the Slytherin common room, pureblood. But it also raises questions, as we donât know who sets the password. It seems like in book three that the portrait sets the password, as Sir Cadogan keeps changing it on the Gryffindor students. And it would look incredibly suspicious for a Death Eater to argue it out with a picture on the wall that pureblood wizards are not superior. Snape had a lot of battles to fight. If he even knew about the password (after all, how often do we see McGonagall in the Gryffindor common room?), itâs most probably a battle he chose not to fight.Â
But look at the turn out. The only Slytherin students under Snape who became Death Eaters were the ones whose parents were Death EatersâMalfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle. While book six demonstrates many of the Slytherin students to have bad attitudes regarding blood status, they all leave during the Battle of Hogwarts except for the three aforementioned (and I refuse to believe, honestly, that out of the entire Slytherin house, not a single student stayed and fought against Voldemort, especially given that both notable Heads of House were active participants in the war).Â
Snape did something to spare Slytherin students from the Death Eaters. We donât know what he did, but for some reason, they turned away from the option that their predecessors used for support. Now, I highly doubt that Snape had Therapy Thursdays where he called all of his troubled students into his office to have group talks about their feelings with a purring cat or well-trained dog for comfort. But support doesnât necessarily have to come in open and blatant words and gestures.Â
I donât think that Snapeâs wrongful victimization of the favored Gryffindor house was directed at Gryffindor at all. I think it was directed at Slytherin. Snape, who had never known solidarity in his school years, expressed in the only way he knew how, âI am on your side,â to the students who needed to feel that the most. Those students werenât the Gryffindors, the most well-loved house, the ones that everyone supported, the brave and foolhardy and popular. They were the Slytherins, already high risk of turning to the dark in a self-fulfilling prophecy.Â
How many students, following the second war, approached a marble headstone and bowed their heads to the man who had saved them from making the worst mistake of their lives? How many whispered quiet words of, âThank youâ?Â
Because, all along, someone had their best interests in mind.Â
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