Heads of Houses

A. Filius Flitwick (Charms) - Head of Ravenclaw House

Filius Flitwick (born October 17, year unknown) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter books. Flitwick is the Charms professor and head of Ravenclaw house at Hogwarts. It is rumoured that Flitwick was dueling champion when he was younger. Flitwick took part in the insurrection against Dolores Umbridge and is known to empathise with "half-breeds", such as Hagrid, due to the fact Flitwick himself is part goblin. As such, he is very short and requires a stack of books in order to see over the top of his desk. He has white hair and taught at Hogwarts when James Potter and company were there. It is possible that he will replace Minerva McGonagall as Deputy Head of Hogwarts.

It is told that Filius Flitwick was a dueling champion, very intelligent, and quite handsome when he was younger.

In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Filius is summoned by Minerva McGonagall to ask Professor Severus Snape to come to the aid of the Order of the Phoenix against the Death Eaters. Unfortunately, Snape stupefied Flitwick, joined the Death Eaters, and ended up killing (former) Headmaster Albus Dumbledore. (Battle of Hogwarts)

In Charms class, Flitwick is often hit by misaimed or bad spells, often flying around the room or growing boils.

The name "Flitwick" could be derived from the name of the town of Flitwick near London (though that name is pronounced "Flittick"), or it could be a combination of "flit" (that is, to move quickly and lightly) and "wick" (a word from Northern England meaning "lively.") Filius is the Latin word for "son".

Warwick Davis played Flitwick in the first two films. He also played the goblin bank teller in the first film. He will return in his role for the fourth movie, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.


B. Minerva McGonagall (Transfiguration) - Head of Gryffindor House

Please see the post "The Hogwarts Headmasters and Headmistresses".


C. Horace Slughorn (Potions) - Head of Slytherin House until 1981; Acting Head of Slytherin House from 1997

Horace Slughorn is a character in the Harry Potter series of novels written by J.K. Rowling.

Slughorn is first introduced in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, but he was Potions Master at Hogwarts for several decades before retiring in the 1980s. At this time, Slughorn was also head of Slytherin House, a position he resumes at the end of Prince. He has prominent, pale-gooseberry eyes, a "shiny pate," and an "enormous, silver, walrus-like moustache." He is enormously fat, but is only as tall as Dumbledore's chin. He considers that he is an old man, though he is not as old as Dumbledore. He suffers from a weak, wheezy chest and rheumatism. Despite this, he has managed to hide out from Voldermort (and Dumbledore too) by moving from Muggle house to Muggle house, living there when the owners go on holiday.

Slughorn generally displays traits of Slytherin, such as ambition: he is very well connected through the wizarding world, and is ever hungry to be beside famous people. He never wishes to be famous himself: as Dumbledore says, "He prefers the backseat; there is more room to spread out." Slughorn is keen to make ever-more connections, and in his post as teacher makes a habit of having regular meetings with students who are famous, related to famous people, or gifted or talented in one way or another. Known as The Slug Club, this group of students are invited to Slughorn's office for dinner, parties, and the like. Slughorn invites no other children, and refuses to invite children whose parents were famous from illegal deeds. Slughorn's weakness is love of money, which Harry Potter plays to his advantage, having lured him to Hagrid's hut under a promise to get him access to Acromantula venom, an extremely valuable magic substance.

Slughorn's personality contradicts the typical "evil Slytherin" stereotype seen until the sixth book. Despite his ambition, he is not a bad person, is horribly guilt-ridden that he unwittingly helped Voldemort's rise to power, and has less prejudice against Muggle-born witches and wizards than most Slytherins. At the end of Half-Blood Prince, he replaces Snape as the Head of Slytherin.


D. Severus Snape (Potions/Defence Against Dark Arts) - Head of Slytherin House 1981-1997

Severus Snape (born January 9, 1959) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter series of novels. He taught Potions and Defense Against the Dark Arts for 16 years, and was Head of Slytherin house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a principal setting of the novels. His chequered past and his apparent hatred of Harry Potter cause Harry to distrust and dislike him.

Snape's physical appearance is that of the classic villain: tall, thin, "hook-nosed" and "oily," and clad from head to toe in forbidding black robes "like an overgrown bat". This has led to speculation that Snape may be a vampire or have vampire blood, but this theory has been denied by Rowling in an interview.

JK Rowling says that she borrowed his surname from the village of Snape, Suffolk. His first name is Latin for "strict" or "harsh" (hence, "severe"), and may have been inspired by the Imperial Roman Severan Dynasty, noted for their dictatorial ways and despised by the rest of the Roman elite as being Phoenician-descended outsiders.

In the Harry Potter films, the character is played by actor Alan Rickman.

Severus Snape was born to Tobias Snape (a Muggle) and Eileen Prince (a witch). Details of his early life are incomplete, but Harry comes to suspect that Snape suffered neglect from his parents and may have been abused by his father. He comes to these conclusions through his botched lessons in Occlumency. He learns in his final Occlumency lesson that Snape was extremely unpopular and lonely in his teens, perhaps due to or causing his interest in the Dark Arts.

The enmity between Snape and Harry begins in Harry's first year, from the moment that they first see each other. Much of Severus Snape's disdain for Harry Potter seems to arise from a rivalry between Snape and Harry's father, James Potter, when they were both students at Hogwarts. Snape seems to have been obsessed with the Dark Arts, and it was said that, as a first-year Hogwarts student, Snape knew more hexes and curses than most seventh-year students; additionally, his bookish demeanor and unattractive appearance made him an outsider and a target of scorn.

In Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry learns that Sirius Black (one of Harry's father James Potter's best friends, and Harry's godfather), lured Snape to the Shrieking Shack where he could have been seriously injured or killed by Remus Lupin in his werewolf form. Snape's life was saved by James Potter; Snape believes, however, that James had been involved in the plot and only decided to intervene out of fear of expulsion from Hogwarts. Later, in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, it is revealed that Snape suffered teasing and bullying at the hands of James Potter and Sirius Black during their fifth year at the school.

Snape frequently antagonizes Harry, calling him "a nasty little boy who considers rules to be beneath him" [HP4]. He taunts Harry during Potions lessons, ridiculing his work and giving him frequent detentions. Snape also attempts, on several occasions, to have Harry (and his best friend Ron) expelled from the school. Nevertheless, Snape saves Harry's life on more than one occasion.

At the end of the fourth book Snape tries to convince Cornelius Fudge that Voldemort has returned by showing him the Dark Mark on his arm, which reappeared when Voldemort returned. Dumbledore then sends Snape on a mission, which is later revealed to have been to visit Voldemort.

For a time during the course of the fifth book, Dumbledore assigns Snape the task of giving Harry lessons in Occlumency, the protection of one's mind from outside intrusion or influence. Snape is assigned this task because he is extremely skilled in both Occlumency and its companion art Legilimency, both proficiencies undoubtedly useful in his undercover work among the Death Eaters. The classes are cut short, however, after Harry uses Dumbledore's Pensieve (borrowed by Snape that he might sequester private memories during Harry's Occlumency lessons) to observe Snape's worst memory. Viewing this memory proves to be an unpleasant shock for Harry, who discovers that his father and Sirius had been arrogant bullies who persecuted Snape much as Dudley Dursley and Draco Malfoy persecute Harry.

In the sixth book, while at his home at Spinner's End, Snape is first seen swearing a vow to Narcissa Malfoy (mother of Draco Malfoy), that he will protect her son and help him complete whatever task Voldemort has set him to do. He is finally permitted to take the post of Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. He is seen by Hagrid arguing about some important task which Dumbledore has set him. At the end of the book Dumbledore asks Harry to get Snape to aid him, but when Snape arrives, he kills Dumbledore on the Battlements of Hogwarts (Battle of Hogwarts).


E. Pomona Sprout (Herbology) - Head of Hufflepuff House

Pomona Sprout (b. May 15) is the fictional Herbology teacher and head of Hufflepuff house in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. She is a dumpy, cheerful little witch. She wears shabby earth-covered robes and a patched and frayed hat over her fly-away grey hair.

Professor Sprout was played by British character actress Miriam Margolyes on screen.

Her most notable accomplishment in the Harry Potter novels is having prepared a draught of mandrake to revive those who had been petrified in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. She subsequently appeared in Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. She made a strong amount of bubotuber pus that helps clear up stubborn forms of acne.

Later on in the school year she was chosen to comfort Amos Diggory and his wife after the death of their son, Hufflepuff student Cedric Diggory at the hands of Lord Voldemort.

In Order of the Phoenix, she accepts Harry Potter's story in The Quibbler about Lord Voldemort's resurrection. She awarded Harry 20 points to Gryffindor for telling his story, under a clever ruse.

In Half-Blood Prince Professor Sprout fights the Death Eaters along with her colleagues Minerva McGonagall and Filius Flitwick and five students from Dumbledore's Army. Professor Sprout is one of the main advocates of keeping Hogwarts open after Dumbledore's death, stating that Albus Dumbledore would've wanted it. She also supported the suggestion that Dumbledore should be laid to rest at Hogwarts. She attended Dumbledore's funeral, where she was seen cleaner than her students ever previously saw her, a reference to her usual activity gardening in the Hogwarts greenhouses.

As a likely reference to her subject of teaching, Professor Sprout shares her first name with Pomona, the goddess of fruit trees and horticulture in Roman mythology. Her last name is equally appropriate; "sprout" is an English verb meaning "to grow (as shoots or buds)".

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