Lupin and the full moon

[Hillman, Lee]

No: HPFGUIDX 17730

Hello, it's Gwen, who's in a silly mood today, for some reason.

Of everything I posted in my attempts to ignore the Abanes debate, this is
what got picked up? ;^)

Okay, we'll talk about the full moon.
> 
> 
> Amy Z wrote:
> 
> > It just doesn't work that Lupin only transforms when actually 
> > exposed to the moon. 
> 
> <snip>
> 
> > Or are you proposing that even if he's indoors, if the moon is out, 
> > he's a wolf, and if the moon is behind a cloud, he goes 
> back to being 
> > a man? 
> 

This is kind of what I was getting at, yes, that the change is affected
owing to the exposure of the moon in the sky, regardless of where the
werewolf is when it happens. However, it still doesn't reconcile the whole
thing.

So Marijose wrote:

> I've just came up with a theory. It's full of holes, but... 
> 
> We know Remus transforms into a wolf regardless if he's indoors or 
> outdoors. He claimed that, thanks to the Wolfsbane Potion, he turns 
> into a harmless wolf and stays inside his office. I can't 
> recall if the 
> windows of the Shrieking Shack were covered as well. 
> 
> The only thing that *might* explain why on PoA he transforms into a 
> wolf until the moonlight touches him might be the time at which the 
> change takes place. Maybe when he's indoors, the change takes place 
> until the Lunar influence is just too strong to be avoided 
> -maybe when 
> the Moon reaches its zenith (eh... is this word well written?) or 
> something like that. But being directly exposed to moonlight might 
> trigger an immediate change -something Remus clearly forgot 
> after many 
> Full Moon indoors, or maybe he thought the night would remain cloudy 
> for still some hours.
> 
> I told you this theory was full of holes. Maybe the change had 
> something to do with the wolfsbane potion, as many fanfics 
> suggest, or 
> it's just a Flint. But it's fun to speculate.
> 
 
It could also be that after the first exposure to the moon, the
transformation stays put, unlike the aforementioned Scooby-Doo fuzzfaced
werewolves. There are still problems with this, though.


And Bugg wrote:
> 
> Doesn't the time coinside with the setting sun and not just 
> the full moon? Buckbeak was to be executed at sundown. The 
> first group moved into the tunnel before sundown. Snape would 
> have gone to look for Lupin before sundown. Harry and Hermione 
> took Buckbeak before sundown and hid in the forest. Lupin 
> turned into a werewolf when he saw the full moon, at sundown. 


Well, the sundown theory doesn't work. I just checked PoA (US hardcover). In
Chapter 21 (when Harry and Hermione are using the time-turner to rescue
Buckbeak), they get Buckbeak away while the ministry people are inside with
Hagrid. 

"[Hermione] looked nervously over her shoulder into the depths of the
forest. The sun was setting now." 

They move to the forest to hide buckbeak better. They witness Sirius
dragging Ron into the willow, and watch as their past selves follow.

A few minutes later, Lupin comes through:

"they saw another figure sprinting down the stone steps and haring toward
the Willow. Harry looked up at the sky. Clouds were obscuring the moon
completely."

So the sun was down and the moon was up when he came across the first time.
Sorry.


Over the next hour, Harry and Hermione wait. The only reference to the moon
is that "The moon drifted in and out of sight behind the shifting clouds." 

Then, in agreement with the previous description of this episode (from
Chapter Twenty), the crew comes out of the Willow.  In 20, it's described
thus:
"The grounds were very dark now; the only light came from the distant
windows of the castle."

"And then--
"A cloud shifted. There were suddenly dim shadows on the ground. Their party
was bathed in moonlight."


And in Twenty-One:
"[Harry] glanced up at the sky. Any moment now, that cloud was going to move
aside and show the moon...."

"The moon slid out from behind its cloud. They saw the tiny figures across
the grounds stop. Then they saw the movement--
"'There goes Lupin,' Hermione whispered."

So I think it's clearly the visibility of the moon (or moonlight) from the
ground that triggers his transformation. Now, whether that is a side-effect
of the Wolfsbane potion or not is unknown. However, Hermione does comment
(in 20) that he didn't take the potion, so maybe it's a weirdness from only
taking 6 nights worth of potion, but not the 7th (or however many
nights--it's not specified). It also doesn't explain why he didn't get
wolfish in the shack during those moments when the moon did peek out while
Harry and Hermione waited. However, this reference occurs close to the time
that they come out, so it could be argued they are underground in the tunnel
when it starts to clear up.

But again, since the potion is JKR's invention, she might ascribe many of
the strange effects to it, especially in light of the fact that he might
have taken a partial course of it (rather like a partial course of
antibiotic), but without the full course, the effects are unreliable.

I don't subscribe to the theory that Snape was tampering with it, for good
or bad intent.

Oh, well. Maybe it really is a Flint, but if it is, it's a very carefully
constructed and consistent one (given her attention to timing and making
sure no direct moonlight hit him prior to the Change).

Gwendolyn Grace