Name That Auror

[snorkackcatcher]

Firstly, welcome to the various new people on my flist, either from the Harry Potter Friending Meme 2007 or elsewhere!

Anyway, a question for you all.

If you happen to have read my "Tonks' First Case" story Nymphadora Tonks and the Liquor of Jacmel (and if not, naturally I can but encourage you to do so :D) you'll remember the Auror who works with Tonks on that case, one Cassius Scrimgeour. He was of course originally meant to be the OotP Scrimgeour, but after HBP was retconned to Rufus' great-uncle with the aid of a cunningly inserted get-out clause.

However, I'm intending to revise NTLJ and polish it up a bit, and among other things Rufus will have a more prominent role as Auror boss from the start (rather than getting the job at the end in a quick soft-shoe shuffle to match the story up with canon). That being the case, Cassius really needs to be less closely connected with him, although he still needs some sort of loose family connection to fulfil certain bits of plot -- I was thinking great-uncle by marriage would be far enough away?

But he'll definitely need a different surname to avoid putting new readers off. I'm afraid I can't do ticky boxes, but I thought I'd present the options and ask which one people thought would work best. :)



First, a quick refresher on Cassius' background: he's an elderly pure-blood, from a fairly posh and wealthy old family, but not one that took the "Black line" on things -- they regarded Muggle ancestry as "common", but had no philosophical objection to it. This, and canon, put certain constraints on what his surname can be -- it couldn't for example be Weasley, or Malfoy, or Black. Also, it would probably be unwise to make it the same name as a fairly important character -- like, well, Rufus Scrimgeour.

Options:


(1) Gamp

Pros: It's the one surname on the Black Family Tree that isn't used in the actual books, and occurs far enough back in that tree to fit Cassius' family. Carries no canon baggage because of that.

Cons: Might well acquire some canon baggage in DH. Sounds silly. (Probably another of JKR's literary references, like Mrs Norris.)


(2) Higgs

Pros: Used twice in canon in suitable contexts -- Terence Higgs, a Slytherin not known to side with the DEs (their Seeker in PS/SS), and Bertie Higgs, who goes Nogtail-hunting with Rufus Scrimgeour and could therefore plausibly be a relative.

Cons: Not confirmed as a pure-blood family (there are several Slytherin half-bloods, after all). Has now been mentioned twice, which could be setting up a sting in the tail in DH. Not as elegant as Scrimgeour.


(3) Macmillan

Pros: The right type of family -- old pure-bloods, but known supporters of Dumbledore.

Cons: Ernie is a fairly prominent character, and it might be unwise to suggest a family link to him when nothing will ever be made of it.


(4) Random surname of very minor character
(not known to be DE sympathiser or generally unpleasant)

Pros: Little or no canon baggage. Choosing a Slytherin gives pretty good odds of getting a pure-blood.

Cons: Little or no canon support either, pure-blood status generally not known for most names. Choosing a Slytherin also gives pretty good odds of getting a DE sympathiser.


(5) Invented non-canon name

Pros: A slightly safer version of (4)

Cons: If the family were as numerous as NTLJ describes them, probably Harry should have met or heard of at least one of them by now.


Suggestions anyone? :D

Comments

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

Not Gamp - it's working class. No class prejuduce here, but Cassius isn't. I have the same reservation about Higgs, but to a lesser degree.

[snorkackcatcher]

Mmm, fair point. Gamp doesn't sound right to me, but presumably in JKR's world one of them could marry a Black -- unless they eloped or something, and the family figured that well, however common at least they're a pure-blood, so it could have been a lot worse.

Incidentally, does "figured" there sound like an Americanism to you? I was wondering about that when Britpicking for someone -- I seem to use it quite often, but I'm not sure whether that's simply because I've read a lot of stuff by American writers. (I've even found myself using "gotten" occasionally, and that's definitely not used here nowadays.)

[lazy-neutrino.livejournal.com]

I'm maybe not the best person to ask because I grew up (till age five, anyway) in Oz, and I use 'figured' all the time. But then I also say 'sweater' not 'jumper', and I've been told that sweater is Australian. So figured sounds fine to me when it may not be.

'Gotten', however, makes me scream. Even more than 'mom'.

[golden-d.livejournal.com]

My vote's for option Four - you could always browse the HP Lexicon for names of wizards/witches who were famous a few hundred years ago, which would pretty much guarantee Pureblood status.

[snorkackcatcher]

Hmm ... I'm not sure, they could equally well have been Muggle-borns, couldn't they? And even if they were pure-bloods, the line might have ended subsequently. 4's a good shot, but I was thinking more of the lists of students and odd background characters ...

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

I'm a fan of (2) or (4). (Well, I'm a fan of (4) in life generally; she's given us so many minor characters, why go anywhere else for names?) Cassius Gamp is a little...unfortunate, no? Maggie

[snorkackcatcher]

It is an odd-sounding name, isn't it? :) I wasn't happy with it, but it did stick out on that Tree.

I do agree with you on that principle. I know in NTLJ and in some of my other stories generally, quite a few minor characters were deliberately given canon surnames -- because I felt that since the wizarding world is fairly small, the names should recur. I don't think all the names should be from canon though -- there are bound to be families we haven't met yet, plus all those with surnames from Muggle parents, grandparents etc.

In fact I got into trouble with that in NTLJ, although fortunately no-one noticed! I picked the name "Perks" for a character (after name-only sortee Sally-Anne), which was fine -- except that I specified that her father was Muggle-born for plot reasons. Since he was murdered by DEs (in the first war), it's much less likely that Sally-Anne could be a relative of my character. Sigh.

[maple-clef.livejournal.com]

I'd go for 4, for the same reasons that others have already highlighted!

[snorkackcatcher]

4's looking like a good bet ... all I have to do is pick a name. "Greengrass" possibly, as in Daphne? Or maybe that sounds too much like Heartbeat. :(

[masterofmystery.livejournal.com]

What about Davis? There's a Slytherin girl in Harry's near named Tracey Davis (it's up at the lexicon), and we know nothing about her, plus it's a pretty safe name since it's a popular surname in general, so you can go for that.

[snorkackcatcher]

The trouble is I have another important Auror character with the surname "Davies" (supposed to be some sort of cousin to Roger), and having both would be confusing, otherwise that could work. :( (And IIRC the "Davis" character is a "list-only" one, so her details might have changed anyway,)

[masterofmystery.livejournal.com]

Four seems like the safest route to go, plus it'd still be a canon character, even if we know nothing about them, so that won't make my eye twitch because of the fact that it's an OC. ;)

[snorkackcatcher]

Yeah, it does seem to be best, doesn't it? Although a lot of NTLJ would probably make your eye twitch -- it needed a lot of OCs for suspects, random Ministry staff, Tonks' colleagues and the like (especially as we had very few named Aurors before HBP, which is when the story was started -- or even after it, come to think of it).

[jesspallas.livejournal.com]

What about Belby? Or if you want a five, you could go for something obscure but elegant sounding like Falconer, Ravenwood, Woodroofe, Marchwood, Bytheway or Hartshorne. If you need more, I have many! :)

[snorkackcatcher]

Hmm, I'd forgotten Belby. Has the same sort of problem as Macmillan, though -- suggesting a tie to the inventor of Wolfsbane might give people the wrong idea?