[HPforGrownups] Re: Newbie + translation questions

[Susan Hall]

No: HPFGUIDX 20948

>But Snape calls him Lupin all the time, right? Even though Lupin
calls him Severus? Since I'm not very familiar with western
>customs... is it usual for one person to address another by the last
>name while being called the first name back? Just wondering.

Two rather nasty ways of doing an English insult, I reckon.  Honours even.
In the 1950s male colleagues, even close friends, addressed each other by
the surname only eg Tolkein would probably have called Lewis, Lewis, and
Lewis would have called Tolkein, Tolkein.  People with whom you were on more
formal terms you would have called Professor Tolkein (jolly confusing if
they happened to be called Lord Humphrey Vere de Vere, admittedly, but this
is etiquette we're talking about here).  People who you were extremely close
to/had been at school with/ used to turn into animals with you could call by
their school nickname eg "Hello, Tumnus, old chap" but not in a formal
setting.  First names could be used on the death bed, but even then it was
more proper not to (remember Nelson?).

By the time Snape and Lupin reached school in the 1970s , the older masters
would have been using the same convention among themselves, the boys  would
have been addressing each other by first names or nicknames, but the masters
would have addressed the boys by surname only , while the boys would
probably still have been expected to address the older masters as "sir" ,
while the younger and trendier masters would be allowing " Mr x" or
"Professor y", especially in arithmancy classes [by the way, I use the terms
"master" and "boys" not because I haven't spotted that Hogwarts has been
co-ed for about a thousand years, but because the rules for women are
different and too complicated to explain here].

Therefore, when Snape addresses Lupin as Lupin it can either be read as (1)
"we are close friends and colleagues but I happen to be locked into an
old-fashioned mode of expression "or (2)"I loathe you so much I'm going to
pretend we're both back at school, I have at least 20 years seniority on
you, and regard you as equivalent to a first year kid or a poltergeist. "
Guess which I think is intended?

The Lupin riposte gallant in which he calls Snape Severus therefore can be
read as (1)" I know you're behaving like an unpleasant old git, and I shall
address you in the mode which would wind you up most if it really *were* 20
years ago, you *were* a teacher and I *were* a first year kid "or (2)" we
are close friends and colleagues and you are sensitive enough to notice that
I have always disliked my first name and preferred to be addressed by
something less annoying".
 Guess which I think he is responding to?

Susan