Snuffles' name/ Hufflepuff - a thought

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 98131

Geoff:
I thought I would emerge with a bucket of cold water to throw over 
the smouldering embers of the overheated thoughts about Snuffles.

I think that sometimes, we are still looking for deep meanings in 
some parts of Harry Potter where there are none. bboy_mn, in message 
96597 quoted Freud "sometimes a cigar is just a cigar".... 

If we look at ourselves as we are in the Real World, we can find 
ourselves to be quite a complex mixture. We may be working very 
openly with colleagues or friends or we may have covert agendas of 
our own. We may be concocting detailed plans or we may be just doing 
something simple. I, at the moment am sitting in front of my computer 
with my mid-morning hot chocolate and choccy bar, just putting 
together thoughts to post into the group. 

If there was such a thing as an ESE-meter, it would perhaps have a 
range from 0 (perfectly good) to 100 (totally evil). No one would 
register 0; Voldemort would be well up towards the 100 as would one 
or two others such as, perhaps, Peter Pettigrew. Hopefully, most of 
us would register fairly low readings.

What has this to do with Snuffles? Well, lots of suggestions have 
been put forward about this nickname. I am postulating that perhaps, 
it was just a nickname without any undertones. For my reasoning, who 
did he reveal it to?

`"No one's tried to attack me so far, except a dragon and a couple of 
Grindylows," Harry said.
But Sirius scowled at him. "I don't care
 I'll breathe freely again 
when this Tournament's over and that's not until June. And don't 
forget, if you're talking about me among yourselves, call me 
Snuffles, OK?"'

(GOF "Padfoot returns" p.463 UK edition)

Sirius makes his remark to Harry, Hermione and Ron. I cannot see any 
reason for him to have a hidden agenda here so I take the nickname at 
face value. Also, having two dogs, I immediately accepted the 
nickname as perfectly suitable for someone transformed into a dog. 
That's my non-conspiracy theory for today.

A completely separate thought arose from a point made by Ellen in 
message 98112 and the word Huff. The definition about "blustering" 
reminded me of the UK expression about someone "huffing and puffing" 
about an occurrence which then made me think about Hufflepuff. Should 
we anticipate that members of Hufflepuff are the sort of people who 
fuss and bluster about things and get hot under the collar when 
everything isn't spot on? Fudge drops nicely into this category; did 
he attend Hogwarts and was he in Hufflepuff? Ernie Macmillan, 
certainly, seems to exude a slight air of pompousness – I get the 
feel, nice guy but a bit full of his own importance.
Or am I just playing with another cigar? :-)