[HPforGrownups] Emphasis on proper address was: Snape as father figure

[Amanda Geist]

No: HPFGUIDX 131010

Thursday:

> Not saying that Severus Snape doesn't want to be treated with respect but
I've always thought this was also just teaching basic good manners.  Growing
up I was permitted to address adult friends of the family by their first
names but all throughout my parents childhoods and back children neither
addressed nor referred to adults in 'familiar terms.'  Wizard culture is
certainly old fashioned.  More than once I've read a comparison to the
Victorian era.  Also, with the greater age to which wizards and witches
live, the majority of them would have been raised with a very much stricter
expectation of behavior than I was having been born during the flower child
era.  I think this does more to explain why *all* the adults (except Sirius
of course) correct the children than the 'Snape is demanding respect he
hasn't earned' theory.  Even Lupin corrects Harry on this point.

Amanda:

I agree, but I think there may be more to it. This has been a half-formed
thought in my mind, which this particular tangent brought out: Why does
Snape seem to insist on a correct mode of address at points in conversations
in the Occlumency lessons when it seems absolutely irrelevant?

I note that Snape derails Harry's inquiries right when it seems Harry might
learn something concrete about what "our side" knows or believes. I doubt
this is by accident. Snape is using a mechanism that is already
well-established between the two of them, to control the information flow to
Harry.

Why? Because, as I've postulated before, Snape is very, very aware that
there may be a third party to the conversation. Voldemort, as Snape tells
Harry, is now aware of the connection, and it may not be certain how "clear"
the channel is or how much Voldemort is tapping it. In addition, depending
on what Snape's connection with Voldemort is now, there could be two
possible avenues for Voldemort to "hear": he could access Harry's knowledge
and memories (the channel we know), or he may be able to extract this
information from Snape.

To explain the latter: as I've postulated before, I believe Snape has been
very careful over the years to keep his memories and emotional associations
as "sortable" as possible. For example, I believe the reason Snape never
eats at Grimmauld Place is because he does not want to have to keep track of
stray memories of being there when he's practicing Occlumency with hostile
parties. I believe one reason Snape is consistently horrible to Harry is
that this behavior creates consistent memories and associations that Snape
has established ways of handling during Occlumency.

So--Snape redirects the conversations with Harry at key points, using an old
familiar mechanism, to (a) keep Harry from becoming excited about an answer,
as the excitement may attract Voldemort's attention "inside" Harry, and
therefore basically telling Voldemort much about what we know of his
movements and motives; and (b) to keep the conversation with Harry on a
familiar, standard, level of interaction to avoid difficulties with Snape's
own Occlumency later.

~Amanda
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