In DH he was "Draco", not "Malfoy": - Was "Draco redeemed?"

Carol justcarol67 at yahoo.com
Tue Sep 11 21:37:54 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 176960

Carol earlier:
> >
> >  (I don't know about anyone else, but I find it jarring for a
little boy to be referred to as "Snape" while two other little boys of
the same age are referred to as "Sirius" and "James.")
> 
Kemper responded:
> You're right of course.  But I think it's appropriate to his
character that he's referred by his surname.  It only seems to be
Cissy, Lily and Albus who refer to Snape with his first name.  They
are also the only ones who show any sort of empathy or intimacy (not
sexual) to him.  Everyone else he keeps at arm and wand's length.
<snip>

Carol again:
I'm not so sure. Harry consistently refers to Remus Lupin as "Lupin"
and so does the narrator. I think it's because Harry knew both of them
first as teachers, whereas James (who died before Harry knew him) is
his father and Sirius (who starts out as "Black" when he's thought to
be a bad guy) becomes "Sirius" as early as the Shrieking Shack scene.
(Hermione starts off tentatively with "Mr. Black" and then changes to
"Sirius," perhaps because she's trying to be friendly or
compassionate, and he remains "Sirius" from that point on. 

For me, the use of "Sirius" for Black (by the narrator as well as HRH)
suggests that he never really grew up. He sees Harry as the
reincarnation of James and wants to relive his old adventures. For
Harry, he's partly a father figure and partly a big brother. Lupin,
his fellow Marauder, never becomes "Remus" to Harry (as he does to
Tonks), IMO because he's first and foremost an authority figure.

As for Snape, Harry has trouble even calling him "Professor Snape."
The idea of calling him "Severus," or even thinking of the child or
teenage Snape as "Severus," simply doesn't occur to him. We see it
first in SWM in OoP and again in "The Prince's Tale" in DH. As I said,
it's jarring to me, but I think it reflects his identity in Harry's
mind as simply "Snape." (And, of course, even as he's getting these
glimpses of the child Severus as someone not that different from
himself who was his mother's best friend, he still thinks that he
murdered Dumbledore, an impression not fully erased until much later
in the Pensieve excursion--though I think the earlier memories pave
the way for the revelation that the "murder" was Dumbledore's idea and
fulfilled his wishes, not Snape's.)

It isn't just Dumbledore and Narcissa who call Snape "Severus,"
though. I'm sure that Lucius does, too, as do Igor Karkaroff and
Slughorn. Dumbledore, of course, is a special case since the use of
first names isn't reciprocal. Snape would not more call DD "Albus"
than he'd call Voldemort "Tom." Slughorn may use Snape's first name
because he recalls him affectionately as a former student, but since
they're colleagues and Snape, though much younger is the Slytherin HoH
(Slughorn's former position), it could also be a mark of equality.
(BTW, I noted that Snape calls McGonagall "Minerva" in DH, perhaps to
emphasize that he's headmaster despite being not much more than half
her age, but I'm not sure that's what's happening.)

But the most interesting case to me is Lupin. In PoA, he addresses
Snape as "Severus" while Snape addresses him as "Lupin," perhaps, as
you suggest, keeping him at arm's length but also, IMO, because he
suspects him of helping Sirius Black into the castle. In OoP, Lupin
refers to Snape as "Snape" with reference both to his skill as a
"superb Occlumens" and, rather oddly, to the incident when James and
Sirius bully Severus (perhaps because Black is with him at the time?).
 But in HBP, Lupin reverts to calling Snape "Severus" when he tells
Harry that he neither likes nor dislikes him and that he must be
grateful for his perfectly made wolfsbane potion. He becomes Snape
again after he "murders" Dumbledore (and we see Lupin at his most
vengeful and accusing). Meanwhile, Slughorn is still calling him
"Severus." Lupin calls him "Snape" again with reference to
Sectumsempra and George's ear, but when he shows up at 12 GP he asks
HRH if they've seen anything of "Severus."

It could simply be that JKR can't make up her mind, or it could be
that Lupin really does have mixed feelings about Snape, who is his own
age and whom he, as prefect, should not have allowed his friends to
publicly humiliate. I like to think that, under other circumstances
(no meeting on the train between Severus and James, no Voldemort, no
werewolf bite) they might have been friends, but, of course, that's
just wishful thinking.

Whatever Lupin's motive for sometimes addressing Snape as "Severus" or
referring to him in the third person by his first name, it can't be
*Snape's* standoffishness that's motivating him to do so (though
certainly, that's one of Snape's motives in not reciprocating the
attempt at intimacy, which he perhaps perceives as a liberty on
Lupin's part).

Another interesting use of first names occurs in CoS with "Rubeus" and
"Tom." It seems to me that sixteen-year-old prefect Riddle is using
Hagrid's first name to establish his own superior position, but
thirteen-year-old Hagrid misinterprets it as a friendly gesture and
reciprocates by calling him "Tom."

Carol, who thinks that the use of first names as a mark of intimacy
among male characters is important but is not sure quite how or why






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