[HPforGrownups] Lupin the Brave, Sirius the Terrorist again

[Amy Z]

No: HPFGUIDX 42072

> Pippin, snipping a bit of cannon to talk about
> Sirius:
> >>"Nobody but trained Hit Wizards from the Magical
> Law 
> Enforcement Squad would have stood a chance against
> Black 
> once he was cornered." PoA ch. 10.>>

Aldrea wrote:

> Now, unless my memory fails me(and it has on many
> occasions), Fudge 
> tells this to that curvy Madame Rosmerta in the
> Three Broomsticks.  
> And I don't buy *all* of what was told there.  Peter
> Pettigrew got a 
> Hero's Death, remember, and so it builds up his
> "noble" character to 
> go on about how *brave* he was to face that armed
> and dangerous 
> Sirius Black all by himself when it would have taken
> a whole squad to 
> even stand a chance against Black.

Yeah, I think the basic idea Pippin says is true--that
people are *very* scared of Black and think he must
have very advanced powers--but I took Fudge's
interpretation with a grain of salt.  Fudge is a
bureaucrat down to his boots.  Naturally when someone
says "I'd have killed him with my bare hands," he goes
into Officialdom mode and stiffly informs him that it
would take "our experts" to do the job.  He's playing
up his own role as well as Peter's.

Aldrea wrote:

> And it's Lupin who starts towards Ron, "looking
> concerned" when Ron 
> tries to painfully stand up.  And Sirius isn't too
> concerned about 
> Ron when he lunges after Peter and -lands- on Ron's
> -broken- leg.  
> And it's not as though Lupin had much of a chance to
> say anything 
> when the Trio Expelliarmus'd Snape, what with being
> tied and gagged 
> on the floor.
> 
> Pippin:
> >>The first thing he does is confiscate the Trio's 
> wands; an odd way of trying to protect them, it
> seems to me.>>

Aldrea wrote:

> Actually, not really, considering what was going on.
>  Lupin probably 
> planned to walk in, wand out, shouting Expelliarmus
> to stop any and 
> all magic so as to get some answers.

Makes sense to me; in a hostage situation you don't
want *anyone* to have a gun.  It's really, really hard
to reason with someone who's holding a wand and
threatening to use it.  He's de-escalating the
situation, as someone else said (sorry!).  He can
always give the wands back to whomever he decides can
be trusted (which is what he does--because again, he
knows Harry won't be able to trust him as long as he
[Lupin] has a wand out).

Re:  Pippin's point a few days ago that the WW is
acting as if Sirius is a danger to the general public:
 well, yes.  But that's the official story.  Anyone
*could* be a target, and of course the MOM is going to
put out a general warning, and of course the general
public is going to be more scared than necessary.  (I
remember when the guy who killed Gianni Versace was on
the loose, people in my area--2000 miles from the
scene of the crime--and dozens of others around the
country reported "sightings" of him.  In a manhunt,
people keep their kids indoors even though the chances
of any one kid being kidnapped are a million to one.) 
But I think that people who are paying close attention
and who know what's happened at Hogwarts, like
Dumbledore and Lupin, will have noticed that Sirius is
very singleminded.  He was *in a boys' dorm in the
middle of the night while everyone was asleep* and
didn't take hostages, didn't hurt anyone, didn't blow
anything up--if his aim is general mayhem, why not? 
And why hasn't there been anything amiss in Hogsmeade,
even though he's known to be in the area?  He's acting
like a murderer, not a terrorist, and even Fudge, for
all the general warnings, knows what his aim is:  to
kill Harry.

I can't even remember why we're splitting hairs about
this.  Oh yeah, Lupin's strategy.  Well, I agree with
everyone who says he hasn't got much of one; he's
flying by the seat of his pants.  But the mano-a-mano
is a lot less stupid if he thinks he's preventing a
murder rather than Blocking a Terrorist Plot.  What he
needs to do is get to Harry, and he does that as fast
as possible, mind racing about where the alive Peter
fits into this as he runs.
 
Amy

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