Lupin, the Moon and the Bewitching Hour

[cindysphynx]

No: HPFGUIDX 32768

Hollydaze wrote:

> I always presumed he became human again when the sun came up. The 
>way I explain his absence form lessons is that being a wolf took so 
>much out of him that he had to take a couple of days of to recover 
>enough to teach again. We know that it must take something out of 
>him as Harry, Ron and Hermione continually notice that he looks 
>weaker when he comes back after being "ill". He himself also tells 
>us that it is very painful to become a werewolf, so I would presume 
>he would have to rest and recuperate after the transformations.
 
I'm not sure we can sort this part out.  When Lupin returns from 
being ill (that is, curling up in his office as a harmless wolf), he 
is drained.  That could be a side-effect of the wolfsbane potion, 
rather than the transformation.  Also, he could be spending between 1-
3 days as a harmless wolf -- who knows?  For all we know, he starts 
teaching again while looking ill immediately after transforming back 
into a man without taking time to recover.

When he has a full-fledged, painful transformation, however, we don't 
know how long that lasts.  True, Dumbledore says Lupin is out of the 
forbidden forest the next day.  But we don't know if Lupin took the 
potion the first two days and failed on the third day.  We also have 
no information at all (IIRC) on what triggers Lupin's transformation 
back into a man, either with or without wolfsbane potion.  Indeed, it 
could be that in a 3-day full moon cycle, Lupin transforms and 
untransforms three times (ouch!).

Fortunately, it doesn't matter if I understand Mahoney's theory.  The 
witching hour could be a particular time each of the three days, or 
it could be one particular point in the cycle.  The theory works 
either way, I think.

Cindy (wondering if the correct term is "bewitching hour" 
or "witching hour")