[HPforGrownups] a cure for werewolfs?

[Paige Kalika]

No: HPFGUIDX 14358

Katie wrote:

>I have a feeling that, as part of the general hysteria and 
>lack-of-understanding of werewolves, that curing werewolves just isn't 
>possible -- and Lockhart himself might not even know it, nor do his readers.

Hmm... I just looked in PoA (my favorite!), and in "Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, 
and Prongs," Lupin (also my favorite :) tells Harry: "I was a very small boy 
when I received the bite.  My parents tried everything, but in those days 
there was no cure."  

To me, this implies that there is a cure now, but that it wasn't discovered
in time to be of any use to Lupin.  Perhaps lycanthropy is like rabies in that
in order to cause the disease, it must first travel from the site of infection
to the central nervous system (or wherever the lycanthropic virus(?) settles 
in the body) before the patient begins to show symptoms.  If the patient is 
given the rabies vaccine (not a cure) before the virus gets into the brain,
he or she may not develop the disease.  Lycanthropy and rabies seem to parallel 
each other as it is, so it's conceivable that a similar method was developed 
in the wizarding world.  

Wow- microbiology finally came in handy for something!  If only my Wednesday 
exam were on Harry Potter instead...

Paige (delurking after a few months of admiring everyone's analyses, and finally 
driven to post by micro overload and the need to procrastinate)


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