Boggarts/Remus&theFullMoon/Potency (WAS Re: Lupin,BewitchingHour,WolfbanePotion)

[aldrea279]

No: HPFGUIDX 39396

revrend_ish wrote:
<>what if the Full Moon is NOT the cause of a werewolf's 
transformation, but merely a coincedence? <snip> Maybe, the full moon 
is just another sign that a certain "magical hour" is at hand. The 
sign would cause the fear (hence the bogarts transformation to it), 
but would NOT have the power, because it is not the time.<>


Oh, yes! I like this.  It very well goes with what Remus saw when the 
Boggart transformed- he saw a full moon, becuase that's what he sees 
as a sign that he shall be going werewolf soon. *nods* Yes, that does 
make sense.  And it also helps to explain WHY he didn't transform at 
the sight of the Boggart moon-  it wasn't the actual time for him to 
transform, the Boggart was just trying to scare him into thinking so 
with showing him what he considers as a sign that he shall transform 
rather soon. 

I also like the way Elkins worded it:
<>What Lupin fears is his own lycanthropy, which is *represented* to 
him by the sight of the full moon. Boggarts are obviously capable
of a rather sophisticated symbolic version of "taking the form of 
ones worst fear." <>


Charles Engle wrote:
<>One other theory I've had is that Harry's reaction to the boggart is
psychosomatic. Non-canonical of course, but perhaps Lupin knows that 
the boggart can't turn him into a wolf, so it has no power over him. 
Harry doesn't know that it cannot truly exert dementor powers (just 
the impression of them)and so, he is affected (though, not nearly as 
bad as a real dementor). Lupin doesn't tell him because he knows 
Harry needs the experience, and a chance never arises later. You'll 
note, too, that the boggart-dementor in the third task (GoF) does NOT 
give Harry that weak feeling, so he may have since learned the truth 
and JKR didn't share it with us.<>

To further this theory(and going back to what Elkins commented on 
about "worst fears"):  one way we get over our fears is to conquer 
them, right?  I'm thinking that a Boggart popping up and going "boo! 
I'm scary but not real!" just only works so many times.  By GoF, 
Harry already KNOWS he can conquer a Dementor Boggart(just as in PoA 
he is able to produce that wonderful Patronus because he already 
knows he can), and so has no trouble with it.  That might even be why 
it stumbles- a moment of doubt for the poor Boggart, when it realizes 
that it's victim isn't quite paralyzed with fear, and so it slips up 
in it's Dementor performance.  Also, this goes with why Lupin was 
able to handle the Boggart "almost lazily", and why he wasn't 
concerned with turning into a werewolf at the site of it.

Elkins:
<>Hmmm? What's that you say? You want to know about the dimming of 
the lights?

Er. Yes. Well. I think *that* is probably a ::coughFLINTcough:: 
manifestation of Harry's spontaneous magic. He's dimming the lights 
himself through unconscious magic, in precisely the same way that 
Neville is always melting all of those cauldron bottoms in Snape's 
Potions Class.<>

Pip replied:
<>I'm not sure Harry is actually dimming the lights himself; or 
indeed 
that the lights are dimming at all. Following on from 
the 'psychosomatic' thought...

The Boggart seems to have the ability to reach into people's minds 
and tap into their darkest fears, taking on the appearance of those 
fears. In which case the dimming of the lights and the cold are all 
part of the Boggart's powers of illusion. 

Harry 'thinks' they rekindle after each Boggart attack; suppose the 
reason they are alight after each attack is that they never really 
went out? The cold would also be a power of illusion - the Boggart 
senses that Harry associates Dementors with cold, so you get 
a 'sense' of cold.<>

Ooh, yes, I don't think the lights actually ever rekindled or 
dimmed.  In the chapter where Harry learns the Patronus, Lupin is 
never mentioned as noticing the lights going out or anything.  It 
only mentions him extinguishing lights at the end of the lesson, 
which Harry -assumes- had rekindled when the Boggart/Dementor left.
(and we all know not to trust what Harry assumes =)  I think the 
Boggart takes the outward form of whatever a person fears, but then 
also adds whatever creepy effects it can to help futher the illusion 
it is putting up.  Hence, the room growing dark and cold whenever the 
Dementor appears.  I think that the Boggart also associates that the 
reason Harry is so afraid of the Dementors is that it brings up such 
painful memories as of his parents' death.  And so, the Boggart does 
the same. OR, that Harry himself just associates the Dementors with 
his parents' death, and therefore he himself unconciously pulls up 
such memories- it even says that he somehow sadistically enjoys it in 
the fact that he gets to hear his parents' voices.  Hmm...I am now 
thinking the later of these two to be the more probable.



Cindy: 
<>Actually, the term "Bewitching Hour" is a bit misleading. In 
Mahoney's original example, she used midnight as the Bewitching Hour 
as a convenient example. But the theory doesn't require that it be 
midnight. The Bewitching Hour (which might not even an hour, BTW) 
is simply whatever time it is that triggers Lupin's transformation. 
It might be 11:30, it might be 2:00 a.m. Who knows? But it does 
not have to be midnight, and on the night in question, it wasn't 
midnight.

So what was the time of the Bewitching Hour that night?<>

Well, according to A Goldfeesh, Lupin transformed at 11 o'clock on 
the night of The Shack Incident. 


Dicentra replied with:
<>If you look in the almanac, it will tell you not only the day of the
full moon but the precise *time*. Apparently, the moon is truly full
for only a few minutes before it begins to wane.<>

And does this change, the exact time of the moon becoming truly 
full?  If so then there isn't a set "Bewitching Hour", I suppose.  
And this even helps to further the above mentioned theory about why 
Lupin doesn't react to the Boggart Moon.  The Full Moon is merely a 
sign that the tranformation shall be taking place soon, and so he 
doesn't transform at the site of the Boggart moon.  And the "truly 
full" idea does explain away the coulds bit.  I guess it doesn't 
matter if he's standing outside in the moonlight or not- once the 
moon has reached true fullness, he turns werewolf.  But, is this with 
or without the Potion?  

I ask this because Grey Wolf's Potency!Theory intrigues me:
<>The potion curbs the instinct, and keeps Lupin from transforming 
in "those days" as long as the moon doesn't hit him... for a few 
hours. Then, about two or three in the morning, the moon's presence 
is just too much and he transforms, even if he's behind walls or it's 
a cloudy night.<>

Oh, breakthrough!  I think the potency thing goes both ways- with the 
Potion and the Moon.  He does have to take the potion for a full week 
before the moon, and so perhaps, without the potion, he would be 
werewolfy for that full week(is not sure about this)? And THAT is why 
he had to go to the Shrieking Shack, which is boarded up, to keep 
things out(People, -Moonlnight-) and to keep people in(Remus 
himself).  Him going to the Shack also possibly helps tone him down a 
bit, keeping him out of the full light of the full moon.  And the 
same with the Potion- it helps tone down his reaction to the moon.  
He can put off becoming a werewolf for awhile until the Moon becomes 
quite strong, and he can also keeps his wits so as to keep him 
harmless.

*sits for a moment in thought*  Hmm...and perhaps Remus being a 
wizard helps him to deal with his werewolfness.  The moon IS visable 
in the daytime, and perhaps someone with less magic in them would 
become werewofly during the entire week the moon is growing full.  
And Remus, being a wizard, is able to keep himself normal- except at 
night, when the moon is most potent. And then with the extra magic 
from the Potion, he is able to keep himself fairly normal for most of 
the Full Moon Week, except at the moon's true fullness.

Aldrea *would think to add more, but is anxious to burn, stab, and 
utterly destroy the Remus Is Ever So Evil Theory*