[HPforGrownups] Re: Lupin is James

Thu Dec 26 18:17:57 UTC 2002

No: HPFGUIDX 48837

sharana (who apologized in advance for her English and then proceded to write
an 18k essay in better English than many native speakers) wrote:
<SNIP>
> I believe that before the night Voldemort was defeated, Remus and 
> James switched bodies without telling anyone (except Lily) and that 
> it was Remus who died, not James. James lives in Remus's body. 

Wow, what a cool theory!  My only questions are:
1. Why then does FakeRemus turn into a werewolf?
2. Why can't Harry stay with Lupin, since if he is really James, he would be a
blood relative?
3. Why has FakeLupin been living like a pauper if he has all of James' money?

Possible answers to my own questions are:
1a. We don't know very much about werewolves in the Potterverse, or anything at
all about such an advanced Switching spell (or whatever they used).  Maybe
James has transformed so completely into Lupin that he even retains Lupin's
"little secret".
1b. Since James was an animagus, maybe being in Lupin's body gives him the
ability to transform into a wolf at will (rather than a stag), and he used the
full moon as a ruse to leave the scene.  He is really not a werewolf, but
rather a wolf animagus.  He also takes Snape's wolfsbane potion to keep his
cover, since Snape knew Lupin was a werewolf and was likely the most vocal
opponent to Lupin's appointment.  The potion makes a non-werewolf just sick
enough to lend credibility to his werewolf status.  If this is the case, would
RealRemus have transformed while he was in James' body?  Maybe he didn't even
last a month before Voldemort killed him, or maybe Lily knew how to make
wolfsbane potion.
2a. There is some reason why Harry can't know that Lupin is James, which will
be revealed in a later book (I'm thinking book 7; Harry will be denied his
father until he no longer needs him).
2b. Going along with 1a above, James has so completely transformed into Lupin
that he no longer affords Harry the "blood relative" protection.  This is very
difficult for him, since he wants so much to protect his son, which further
explains his reactions to Harry's Dementor-induced memories.
3a. He wants Harry to have all his money.
3b. He gave Dumbledore his only vault key and can't access his money.
3c. Accessing his vault would blow his cover as Lupin.
3d. He has been accessing his vault all along, but has been taking only enough
to survive.  Harry wouldn't notice this because he has no idea how much money
was in there to begin with, and wouldn't know if a few Galleons went missing.

I'm also curious as to who you think knows about this switch (you said Lily was
the only one who knew at the time, which means that the only person who knew
and is still alive is FakeLupin).  Dumbledore has a reason to trust a werewolf
to the extent that he hired Lupin; maybe he knows about the switch?  Maybe the
switch mitigates or eliminates the werewolf transformation, leading Dumbledore
to trust him.  You seem to believe that Sirius figured it out in the Shrieking
Shack.  Anybody else?  And what does this mean for the speculations about what
Lupin has been doing for the past 12 years?  If he's not really a werewolf, he
wouldn't have any problems getting a job, except that James didn't need to work
and may not have any marketable skills.

> When the Dementor is about to kiss Harry, he is saved by a Patronus 
> cast from someone who looked very familiar to him. We later find out 
> that it was Harry (in the time loop) that cast this Patronus. But 
> how did this loop begin?

I'm not so sure about this one.  As a sci-fi fan myself, I see this as a
classic temporal causality loop.  In other words, when a person goes back into
the past, two of that person exist for the period of time from the point that
the person went back to until the point when they went back in time (this is
supported in canon, as TimeTurned!Harry and TimeTurned!Hermione can observe
themselves and must hide from their normal selves).  The time traveler would
experience this time period exactly twice, once in normal time and then again
when they go back.  But each time, both instances of the person exist, so they
can potentially see each other (which is why the time travelers have to hide). 
The first time through the loop, Harry saw his future self across the lake.  He
didn't know this, because he didn't know about the Time Turner yet, and he was
too distracted by the Dementors to recognize himself any better than "someone
who looked strangely familiar".  The second time around, Harry knows what's
going on and has been observing himself, and casts the Patronus, at which point
he realizes that he had seen his future self earlier as the Dementors
overpowered him.  The event that triggers the loop is simply the act of going
back in time.

Think of it this way:  If a person from the future comes back to our time, we
can see that person even though he hasn't yet used his time traveling device
(and in fact may not even be born yet, depending on how far back in time he has
come).  This is why Harry is able to see his future self before he uses the
Time Turner.  Many sci-fi authors have grappled with this topic on many levels;
for an excellent example see the series finale of Star Trek: The Next
Generation (or for a simpler example, see the episode "Cause and Effect" - yes,
I am a geek ;-P).

sharana asked:
> I have a question, I learned English when I was a girl (I lived a 
> couple of years in London) so some of my English comes from 
> intuition. Prongs is a name I would associate with a stag or horse, 
> but I don't know why. Could please someone tell me? Also, what is 
> the difference between a stag and a horse? Thanks

"Prong" means something that branches out, like the tines of a fork (dientes de
un tenedor) or the antlers of a stag.  A stag is a male deer (venado), while
horse = caballo, which has no antlers and therefore would not be nicknamed
Prongs.  I'm curious to know how old you were when you lived in London?  I'm
curious because I'm interested in language acquisition and early childhood
development.

Sherry

=====
"The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above-average drivers."

      -Dave Barry, "Things That It Took Me 50 Years to Learn"

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