So I know the whole “Albus Severus” controversy has been going on FOREVER now but I just saw an interesting post about it which got me to thinking. I agreed with a lot of the points it made but much like many other posts it implied that Harry somehow neglected people like Molly and Arthur and Remus by naming his kid after Snape and Dumbledore.
But I really disagree with this? The thing about most of the people (apart from Hagrid) who the fandom consider “more worthy” of being the namesakes of Harry’s children is that they all have other people who can name their children after them.
I see people complaining that Harry never called any of his children “Fred”, but wouldn’t Fred II have been born by then anyway? Same goes for Molly. Teddy’s middle name is “Remus” and honestly if I were Harry I would want to leave Remus to Teddy, should Teddy wish to name any potential future children after his father.
But the thing about Albus and Severus is that they have no remaining family. They have no decedents who will remember them. They will both be mentioned in the history books, but they nonetheless remain very lonely figures, and I think Harry identified with that.
I’m not saying that they aren’t both deeply flawed (though I think the tumblr attitude to both of them is very one-sided and I dislike it), but in a way I feel like it made total sense for Harry to name his son after them.
Dumbledore did some deeply sketchy things regarding Harry’s treatment during the war, but the strain put on him was massive. He was the one person everyone looked to for the safety of the wizarding world and Harry knows that pressure. He knows how isolating that can be.
When Harry sees Snape’s childhood he sees himself – lonely and abused, but finding solace in the magic of Hogwarts. There, of course, the similarities between them essentially end, but again that feeling of loneliness is something that Harry knows all too well.
Its not about shunning those who loved him in favour of people who treated him poorly, it’s Harry knowing that most of those people have other family to remember them. Snape and Dumbledore don’t have that, and despite all the other shitty things they did, both of them did help Harry in their own ways.
So Harry wants to ensure they are remembered, because if he doesn’t do it, who will?
That’s…that’s nice 😀
I’ve never understood the kerfuffle about Albus Severus’s name, personally.
I just like the name Severus, and if I were Harry I’d’ve probably been planning to name my firstborn after Professor Snape all through Hogwarts and beyond, partially just to piss him off.
(I kind of want an AU now where Snape’s still alive when Harry’s kids start attending Hogwarts and Snape’s still teaching there and Harry’s all “I must send you to battle the foe I once battled when I was your age.” And Snape’s either like, “aww, damn, more Potters” or else flips a behavioral switch and makes himself their favorite teacher, with great glee at consternating Harry.)
But seriously, I think there’s also a huge sense of remembering what it cost to get Harry his clear shot at Voldemort. All the events lining up in perfect sequence that it took to get the one with the power to defeat Voldemort into a position to defeat Voldemort. The Horcruxes are Dumbledore’s doing; the fact that he was in a position to be saved the first time around is Snape’s.
Harry is the hero of the story, the one who brought down the monster and got the happily ever after. Severus and Albus are both people who didn’t get the happily ever after, and spent their lives working to arrange that other people could. Severus Snape blew up his own chances with the only person he’d ever loved; Albus Dumbledore found himself taking up arms against and defeating the person he loved.
And then they each did the quiet work, playing the long game—Dumbledore studied Voldemort’s life, followed obscure leads, deduced the Horcruxes with little solid evidence beyond his insights into Voldemorts personality, and let the war drag on to better set up that final, fatal blow. He died, unsure if his efforts would succeed.
Snape spent a lifetime as a double agent, betrayed friends and cause and talents in hopes of salvaging something from the shattered pieces of what he’d unwittingly sacrificed; he dealt with suspicion in all directions and sacrificed whatever credibility and good name he’d managed to earn when called upon to do it. He died, unsure if his efforts would succeed and so frighteningly close to failing his final charge. And he may have been plenty awful enough to deserve it, in the meantime, but it absolutely must have been horrible.
Both lived, and died, alone; both lost what family they might have otherwise had; in great part due to their efforts, Harry had the opportunity to survive, to grow up safely, and to know which blows must be struck against Voldemort, and in which order, to destroy him once and for all. Both spent their lives in the ashes of their dreams, in service of enabling someone else to emerge from his as a phoenix reborn.
And Harry, who has the happily ever after, the love and the family and the adulation of the world, can’t give them what they didn’t get. He can’t give Albus his sister restored and healthy, his mother alive, his father freed, a Gellert Grindelwald more interested in Albus than in world domination. He can’t give Severus a world in which he never applied “mudblood” to anyone, much less Lily, in which she married him instead of James, in which he achieved anything he dreamed of achieving in the world.
Harry can’t give them that. But he can give their names to his child, who has a live, loving family and as much possibility as anyone for finding love, and the whole world ahead of him. A statement, by Harry, that this is what he wishes they could have had. Not any kind of repayment, but a thank you.
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