[HPforGrownups]Draco's Name WAS: Lupine / Muggle Parents / BIG Castle

[datalaur <datalaur@yahoo.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 52925

heather:
>  People have wondered how his parents knew to name him "Remus", and
> > > Pippin hypothesized a Naming Spell which automatically puts an
> > > appropriate name on the child, but I don't see how even a Naming
>  Spell could control what family name he had inherited ... the same
>applies to Sirius Black being a Black Dog animagus ("an-ee-may-juss"
>to me) ... I want to know how it is that the wizarding folk never
> notice that so many of their people have meaningful names and get
> > > suspicious of them. Such as how could no fellow student have
> > > suspected that Remus Lupin was a werewolf just from his name?
> > 
> > I wonder why Lucius Malfoy named his child so peculiarly, 
> especially as his name features prominently in the school motto.
> > 
> > The real live dragons in the books seem to be nothing more than 
> large wild creatures, unless I've forgotten something dark about 
them.


claire:
> Draco, as well as refering to dragons, can refer to snakes: the 
> constallation Draco is the Snake (like Aries, the Ram), which would 
> make more sense for an old Slytherin family like the Malfoys. But 
> dragons in HP are also powerfully magical creatures <snip>


I believe the constellation itself is also a powerful motivator for 
Lucius, who I think had high ambitions for his son at birth.  There's 
info at http://www.crystalinks.com/draco.html .  It explains that 
Draco is a northen constellation that basically spreads across the 
whole sky -- I can definitely imagine Lucius looking up and taking 
his son's name from the snake that rules the sky.  By the way, 
Draco's star Thuban used to serve as the celestial north pole (in 
other words, the heavens seemed to revolve around Thuban) about 4000 
years ago as proved by Egyptian pyramid construction... but perhaps 
there's also a bit of authorial foreshadowing that Draco will not 
hold sway for long?).  Another point is that at the time, Draco / 
Thuban was associated with being "imperishable" and "never dying" as 
the celestial pole star never set (nor did nearby stars.) 

The site also lists a bunch of different related myths, including the 
Greek myth mentioned in another post (scroll about halfway down the 
website to see that stuff).  Another interesting one from an 
authorial foreshadowing point of view would be the one about Draco 
coming from the Chaldean dragon Tiamat, who is the "dragon of chaos", 
and whose death leads to the creation of the heavens and the earth 
(a 'new world' is created).  

Anyway, that's my theory.  One of these days I'll write a new-daddy!
Lucius fic using it.

laur