Minerva McGonagall-/Dumbledore

[Geoff Bannister]

No: HPFGUIDX 115493


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "finwitch" <finwitch at y...> 
wrote:
> 
> Geoff:
>  
> > Bearing in mind Dumbledore's insistence on calling folk 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.


Geoff:
I seem to recall that most of the staff use his "Professor title". 
Can you quote a specific instance of him /asking/ someone to call him 
Albus?


> Seriously Snapey Susan:
> Similarly, while she calls him Albus the one time at PD, I don't
> think "Dumbledore" indicates much familiarity, and the remainder of
> the scene strikes me as markedly different from what we see 10 years
> later.
 

Geoff:
Speaking as a teacher who taught during the period in which this is 
set, I do believe that it indicates familiarity.

In my situation, the Head would either call us by "Mr. So-and-so" 
or "Miss So-and-so" if the relationship was no more than professional 
or by our Christian name if we knew each other better but it was 
quite normal to refer to the head as "Mr.......". Very few people 
would use his first name and it would be considered impolite to use 
his surname without the "Mr." unless there was a very close 
friendship.

Geoff
Enjoy views of Exmoor and preserved 
West Somerset Railway steam at:
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