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?
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