Minerva McGonagall-/Dumbledore

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 115475


Geoff:
 
> Bearing in mind Dumbledore's insistence on calling fok by their 
> title, this seems to imply a measure of familiarity and informality 
> between them.

Finwitch:

I don't know what you mean by that? I seem to recall several times he
asks people (who are not students) to call him Albus? He also tends to
address people by their first names. That's how we find Moody's first
name, BTW. It's Harry, a student, who he reminds of that title...

1) He's the one who made Snape a professor. Think he wants Harry to
acknowledge that? Wonder how many Owls he's got from people about
having an ex-DE as a teacher? Or how mean/unfit he is?

2) Rebuke over proper titles also serves to distract from a
question... (but Harry doesn't fall for that. He says: 'Yes, him' and
retakes the question.) I wonder if asking adults to call him Albus is
also a minor distraction?

Seems to me that he minds of titles if he wants to add a bit of space
to think before answering.

Also, finding Minerva McGonagall as a cat he's telling her that she's
NOT fooling him with the cat-form when he addresses her by name, as
well as greeting her at the same time. Most of the time when he calls
her by title and surname, it's so that using first name would make it
sound like talking to a child. Particularly as Dumbledore is over
twice her age. Doing so would probably result to an angry response
saying she's an adult and has a right to be there. Dumbledore doesn't
want that so he uses a more formal manner of address.

Finwitch