Dumbledores and Snape was Re: forms of address

[finwitch]

No: HPFGUIDX 116755


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "potioncat" <willsonkmom at m...> 
wrote:
> 
> 
> >Finwitch wrote: 
> > I guess Snape *has* met Aberforth, so he isn't calling one brother
> > Dumbledore - though he isn't calling him Albus either. I think he
> > *might* indeed be related to Dumbledores - maybe his mother was
> > daughter or granddaughter to one of them?
> > 
> Potioncat:
> Sorry, I got lost at this point.  Could you explain?

Finwitch

Well, if you had known *two* Dumbledores from early on, I doubt you'd 
call either by last name. Snape never calls Albus Dumbledore so - 
it's always *headmaster* so far as Harry knows.

I speculate that if Severus Snape&Dumbledores were somehow related (a 
somewhat *distant* relation, though, and matrilinear somehow as they 
don't share last name) that would explain that he knows so many 
Dumbledores that well, he just wouldn't be using last name only. It'd 
be like not recognising him a person, just a member of a certain 
family.

He's NOT calling him by first name nor by relation-term because 
Harry's there. And because he himself is a professor, that won't 
really do either, and 'professor Dumbledore' would be a bit too 
formal of a relative. So he's stuck with that 'headmaster'. I doubt 
he's just too new in the staff... not after 10+ years!

And since *no one* but Snape has trouble with that 'Dumbledore' - 
these other Dumbledores came known to him in place other than school -
possibly trough his mother. Even a step-relation would do. Just so 
that Snape has some relative by the last name Dumbledore. 

Here's something else - what if Albus Dumbledore is Severus Snape's 
step-father? (And that's partly why JKR never tells us if the staff 
is *married* or not!)

Finwitch