Slytherins and Werewolves (was:Snape vs Lupin/UK vs. US

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 170520

BetsyHp

I suspect that Snape agreed to keep Lupin's secret from the students 
for Dumbledore's sake, for as long, and only as long, as Lupin kept 
the werewolf bit under control. (I can so picture the scene where 
Dumbledore and Snape come to that arrangement. <g>) Going by 
Hagrid's account it reads like Snape gathered his Slytherins together 
for a "personal safety" announcement. Which fits with my image of 
Snape being all mother hen and protective of his Slytherins. (I 
picture him being much more hands-on than McGonagall, though I'm not 
really sure why. I picture Sprout being more hands-on than Flitwick 
for that matter.) 

Magpie:
You want rambling? I'll give you rambling. I'm kind of fascinated by the
way JKR's linked both Snape and Draco to fear or werewolves, as if that's a
Slytherin thing (while Sirius is all "Wish it were a full moon! Having a
werewolf buddy is fun!). I wonder if there's an Occlumency thing there, the
way the Gryffindors tend to like recklessness while the Slytherins are more
associated with Occlumency (Snape and Draco both being naturals) who think
their emotions (which are almost operatic in their intensity) are a
weakness. Draco's worried about werewolves as early as PS, and in HBP
Fenrir seems to be some symbol of both the scariest thing he can use to
threaten others and something he's terrified of himself. You've got this
loved werewolf on the Gryffindor side and that seems to be the symbol of
something dark on the Slytherin side.

I don't know, I just thought it was kind of interesting. I wonder if
there's something that works in the opposite direction--though I don't
think so, since we don't know Slytherin as well.


> Geoff:
> I read somewhere that, when the book came to be published
> in the US, the publishers believed that readers would be ignorant
> of and put off by this name and so settled on the title of
> Sorcerer's Stone for the American edition rather than JKR's
> original name.
> 
> Magpie:
> Apparently, it wasn't that they thought they would ignorant, so much 
> as that they wanted something in the title that suggested magic and 
> wizardry. That's what was misleading, not necessarily that Americans 
> didn't know what the Philosopher's Stone was. They asked JKR for an 
> alternate title like "Harry Potter and the School of Magic" to give 
> more of an idea of that, and she suggested Sorcerer's Stone. 

Eddie:
But British children wouldn't be confused by "Philosopher's Stone"? 
Is the term so common that Brit kids knew the book was about magic? 

Feh.

Magpie:
No--Just because the American publishers specifically asked for the title
to contain magic doesn't mean they thought British kids knew it was about
magic and wouldn't be confused. They just had a different request for the
title than the British publishers did, so the US title had something
specifically magical in it. They weren't comparing the two, probably.
Although the Philosopher's Stone is known both in the US and UK, I doubt
all schoolchildren in either country necessarily know what it is.

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