Throwaway comment in POA

[meglet2]

No: HPFGUIDX 33501

Only my second post but I've been lurking trying to catch up with 
past discussions. (Although over 33000 posts are hard to catch up on!)

I have a thought about Lupin on the train to Hogwarts which exercised 
a few minds a while back. When Lupin on his return from dealing with 
the dementor addresses Harry by name, JKR comments something 
like, 'Harry didn't ask how Lupin knew his name.' I find that a 
strange comment. Why should Harry be even remotely surprised about 
anyone in the wizarding world knowing his name. After all for two 
years he has had to cope with all sorts of people staring at him and 
recognising him from his scar. He has been told more less from the 
start that he's famous in this world. It's like Madonna being 
surprised about someone recognising her. In my experience of JKR such 
little things can be significant. My take is that Lupin was planted 
on the train by Dumbledore to protect Harry, not, as someone 
suggested, from the dementors, but from Sirius Black. After all at 
this point everyone is convinced Sirius is guilty. He has escaped 
from Azkaban and he is assumed to be coming after Harry to kill him. 
He is believed to be so deep in the dark arts that he could escape 
Azkaban and therefore the normal protection that presumably surrounds 
the Hogwarts express could be thought insufficient. Who better to 
offer additional protection than the new DADA teacher? Furthermore 
Lupin is one of Dumbledore's 'old crowd', used to fighting dark 
powers and used also to acting incognito or in spy type situations 
and also of course, as his old friend well aware of what Sirius would 
look like even after 11 years in Azkaban. I am sure he would have 
been well briefed by Dumbledore and knew exactly who Harry, Ron and 
Hermione were and that they were usually to be found together. I 
supect that he was very far from asleep on any part of their journey 
(the triple emphasis on his comatose state is very supicious don't 
you think? - this is Rowling after all) and that if any other 
students apart from our trio had looked into his compartment at the 
beginning they would have found a wide awake teacher, quite enough to 
discourage anyone else from joining the compartment until HRH arrived.

Just a few thoughts but they reflect why I get such pleasure from 
reading and rereading these books. You keep seeing more and more 
little subtleties and plot twists. Any comments?

meglet2/Mercia