OFH SNAPE was: Script from JKR's reading/ About Snape and Dumbledore

[houyhnhnm102]

No: HPFGUIDX 156937

Carol responds:

> I've snipped most of your post (which, in general, I 
> agree with) to ask a question. I can see why you would 
> regard the Order of Merlin "explanation" as passive 
> aggressive, but why regard his calling snape "Severus" 
> in that way? I always read it as an attempt at civility 
> (More civil than thou, maybe) until HBP, when I realized 
> that Lupin refers to Snape as Severus in third as well as 
> second person. Now it seems to me as if he sees Snape as 
> an equal, an exact contemporary,and he's calling him by 
> his first name just as he did Sirius Black and James Potter. 

Marion:

> Ah, but Lupin will call Snape 'Severus' with tenacity 
> when Snape insists on calling Lupin 'Lupin'. He's pushing 
> familiarity where it is clearly not wanted. It's like when 
> somebody stands just too close, invading your personal space.

houyhnhnm:

It's also like addressing someone with the tu (du/ti) when 
they are using Usted (vous/Lei/Sie/chi).  Or like a man 
calling a female colleague "honey" or "dear" when she has 
made it clear she does not care for the familiarity.

Snape and Lupin may be the same age, but Lupin is *not* 
Snape's equal at Hogwarts, either in terms of seniority 
or position.  It is for Snape to initiate any advance 
towards intimacy. Can you believe that someone who stands 
upon his own dignity as much as Snape does would not be 
conscious of that and regard Lupin's uninvited familiarity 
as insolence rather than civility?