Would JKR Make Lupin Evil?

[elfundeb at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39781

Pippin said, in defense of Evil! Lupin:

I don't think James 
and Sirius are prejudiced against werewolves. What happened 
to make them think  that Lupin wasn't reliable? Why did they think 
he was the spy?

I wasn't going to question Evil! Lupin, because, after all, somebody has to 
be evil and Evil! Lupin was really quite fun, as Pippin says.  Besides, I 
didn't want to hurt her prematurely gray hedgehog.  But Pippin's question 
(also asked by ) reminded me of why I think everyone else has been Confunded 
(if willingly so) on this subject.  So here are my Ever So Boring reasons why 
Lupin isn't evil.  (references are PoA, US paperback)

Sarah said:
> 
> During the Conversation in the shrieking shack, between Lupin and Sirius, 
> Lupin, says that he was not told about the switch to Peter as the secret 
> keeper, because Sirius suspected Lupin as being in alliance with Voldemort. 
>  
> That doesn't really make sense.  Why would Sirius and James suspect Lupin 
> over Peter?  Lupin must have done something to make them suspicious.  
> 
Well, yes he did.  Lupin was a very likely suspect to Sirius, for the same 
reason that he is an attractive suspect now.  It's because he's secretive, he 
lies, and he betrays people's trust.  But why?  Because life as a werewolf in 
the wizarding world is like solitary confinement, and Lupin wants desperately 
to avoid returning to that life.

Think about what Sirius saw at the time.  They apparently knew that there was 
a spy in their midst.  Sirius dismissed the idea that it could have been 
Pettigrew because he thought Pettigrew too stupid for the job.  (ch. 19, p. 
369.) Among the other candidates, well, Lupin already had a big strike 
against him.  He lied to his new friends about where he went every month 
because they were the first friends he had ever had and he expected to lose 
them if they discovered he was a werewolf.   (ch. 18, p. 354).

We don't have much other evidence of Lupin's behavior at school (though 
there's plenty of evidence of his secretiveness in PoA), but I don't think 
the Prank helped either.  Even if Lupin were evil, I think it highly unlikely 
that Lupin was involved (whatever Snape may have thought about Lupin's 
possible complicity (ch. 18, p. 357)),  because Lupin had nothing to gain 
from the Prank and everything to lose.  If the Prank was premeditated, then 
its intended outcome of the Prank would have included exposure of Lupin's 
secret to Snape, the Marauders' enemy, and Lupin legitimately feared being 
forced out of school if the student population found out abut his condition 
(Snape tells Harry in "Snape's Grudge" that if the Prank had succeeded, James 
would have been expelled).  As it turned out, Lupin was a victim of the Prank 
as much as Snape.  In any event, Lupin cannot have been pleased abut the 
Prank and its outcome, even if Dumbledore swore Snape to secrecy.  But he 
would have been unlikely, IMO, to do anything about it.  In fact, I suspect 
Sirius would have apologized.  But the damage was done, and it probably made 
Lupin more close-mouthed than ever.  

Tight-lipped Lupin does make a good suspect, doesn't he?  Especially to an 
open person like Sirius, secrecy must be a particularly suspicious trait.  
Yes, it's pretty easy to step onto the Lupin Is Ever So Evil! bandwagon.  
Because the same things that would have made Sirius suspect Lupin make him 
suspicious throughout PoA.  But this only looks at his actions and not the 
underlying reasons for them.

In PoA, Lupin now has two secrets:  the werewolf secret he's keeping from the 
students, and the animagus secret he's keeping from Dumbledore.  He's so 
haunted by the possible consequences of his secrets being discovered that he 
doesn't want to tell anyone anything, because it might put him on the 
slippery slope of telling too much.   
 
So he's become the master of understatement, reluctant to reveal anything, 
and always in control of his emotions.  His manner is mild, his speech 
controlled.  He even smiles at his enemies and speaks kindly of them, as he 
does when Snape brings him the potion.   (ch. 8, p. 156)

Touching Harry:  Lupin seems to be drawn to Harry, as James' son (note how he 
asks for a word with him after the Whomping Willow destroys Harry's 
broomstick) but he doesn't even want to tell Harry that he knew James and 
Lily. Any information could be a stepping stone to discovery of his secrets.  
 I think that's why he refrained from gripping Harry's shoulder when Harry 
started talking about Lily.  It's not a red herring, though as it tells us a 
great deal about Lupin's inner conflict between his desire to be supportive 
of James' son and his fear of doing anything that might reveal either of his 
secrets.  

But later, when he's teaching Harry the Patronus and Harry mentions on coming 
to that he heard his dad, Lupin, obviously feeling some emotion, slips up.  
"You heard James?"  and the secret is out.  But Lupin still tries to end the 
session quickly, presumably to avoid more questions and more revelations.

It's not till after his condition is revealed that he speaks frankly and 
honestly about his days at Hogwarts with James.  And he continues the 
discussion, with more frankness than ever, when Harry stops by after Lupin 
has resigned and is sadly packing up to go back to his solitary confinement.  

But he still has not overcome his evasiveness, as shown by Lupin's refusal to 
allow Dumbledore to see him to the gates.  He's still unwilling to speak 
openly with Dumbledore. (ch. 22 pp. 424-25)  He still feels guilty about 
betraying Dumbledore's trust -- big strike number two against Lupin.  But 
that doesn't make him evil.  It just makes him look guilty.  Dumbledore is 
still willing to trust Lupin after this, as he sends Sirius to Lupin's place 
at the end of GoF.  This is not where you send someone you suspect of being a 
spy.

Thoughts on some of Pippin's other evidence:

> Harry goes through his photo album hunting for pictures of Sirius 
> and this group has always thought it Flint-y that Harry never 
> seems to notice pictures of Lupin in there. It could be that Lupin 
> was taking the photos, as you say, but come on -- aren't there 
> 

> Unless he *wasn't* their friend any more.
> 
This isn't an explanation for why Harry doesn't notice any pictures of Lupin 
in the album, but Lupin must have considered himself still a friend and 
confidant of Sirius and the Potters at the time of James and Lily's death.  
He, in fact, was aware that Sirius had been selected as the Secret-Keeper, or 
he would not have puzzled over why he wasn't told about the switch (ch. 19, 
p. 373).  Also, Harry seems to be going through the album rapidly after he 
hears about Sirius in the Three Broomsticks (beginning of ch. 11).  He's 
looking specifically for Sirius, and isn't paying attention to people who 
don't have that dark hair like the photo in the press clipping Harry has.

> 
> Consider Fudge's conversation in The Three Broomsticks. 
> "Potter trusted Black beyond all his other friends. Nothing 
> changed when they left school."  We're being told that James 
> trusted Sirius more than Lupin, and that some of James' 
> 

I'm not sure Fudge meant that James' relationships with his other friends 
*did* change after he left school, only that his relationship with Sirius did 
not, or perhaps more to the point, James would never have suspected Sirius of 
being the spy because he had an extraordinary amount of trust in him.  

Pippin's explanation of the Shrieking Shack and Lupin's transformation:

> As soon as the moon comes out, Lupin will transform and kill 
> them, all except Harry. Yes, even under the influence of the 
> potion, because, alas! Lupin's human mind is just as twisted 
> and evil as his werewolf one. "It is our choices, not our 
> 

But as a werewolf, Lupin can't pick and choose his victims.  He may keep his 
mind when he transforms, but he has no control.  That's why the Marauders had 
to become Animagi in order to accompany him on his transformations, because 
werewolves can't resist human flesh.  So he wouldn't have been able to save 
Harry.  So this *brilliant* Shrieking Shack plan is doomed to failure, and 
because this is the werewolf symptom that creates all the problem, that 
requires all the precautions, that makes him unemployable and almost made him 
uneducable, surely he couldn't have forgotten it in devising a plan.  So he 
can't have had a *plan* that included keeping Harry alive.

On the Dark Arts job:
> 
> Also, if Hagrid was in contact with Lupin at the end of PS/SS, 
> why wasn't Lupin asked to take the Dark Arts job? The thing that 
> >> works best about evil!Lupin is that it gets rid of all these Flinty 
>> 
> 
This never seemed like a Flint to me.  Hiring a werewolf as a professor was a 
very risky thing to do, even for Dumbledore, who points out that "werewolves 
are so mistrusted by most of our kind."  (ch. 21, p. 392).  If Dumbledore did 
not know Lockhart beforehand, he may have been unaware of just how 
incompetent he was.

But one big reason why I think Lupin will not become "evil" in the "join the 
Death Eaters" sense relates to Pippin's very first argument in favor of Evil! 
Lupin:

> JKR wouldn't create two characters with the 
> same narrative function. Only one of them can be the 
> scapegoat--the other is guilty, guilty, guilty. It can't be Sirius. 
> Everybody in the wizarding world thinks he dunnit. It's Harry's 
> quest to clear his name. But that leaves--
> 
> 

But if you look at it differently, Lupin can't be Evil! for the same reason.  
 James and Sirius were the ringleaders (ch. 10 p. 204), and Lupin and 
Pettigrew were the followers. They needed James and Sirius (Peter for 
protection, Lupin for friendship).  

Since JKR wouldn't create two characters with the same narrative function, 
Lupin can't be guilty! guilty! guilty!  Only one of the fpllowers can be a 
traitor and that's Pettigrew's job.  Of course, Lupin *is* guilty.  He's 
guilty of the crime of silence and he's guilty of the crime of fear.  

It seems that Dumbledore could give Lupin a wizarding 
education, but he couldn't force the wizarding world to treat Lupin 
as a human being. Can't you  just imagine Lupin  getting the 
same treatment as Winky? "That's not the point of a werewolf!" 
and slam goes the door.  There are plenty of real life examples 
of people who became extremists under such circumstances. 

This is very true.  But that might better suggest a future plot development, 
rather than suggesting that Lupin has been evil all these years.  His 
Hogwarts days with the Marauders were undoubtedly the best of his life.  His 
explanation in the Shrieking Shack does not at all suggest that James was 
involved in the Prank, and we've been given no other reason why Lupin would 
want to betray James.  To the contrary, by saving Snape, James undoubtedly 
saved Lupin from expulsion.  And Dumbledore names Lupin as one of the "old 
crowd" indicating that Lupin was not unemployed at that time.  Maybe after 
enduring 12 years of isolation (during which time there would have been no 
opportunity to join up) and being forced back into it at the end of PoA might 
have embittered Lupin, but I think the reassembly of the old crowd may 
forestall that.

Moreover, we've already got quite a number of evil characters running about.  
Though I do think there will be more revelations that someone hitherto 
unsuspected is evil, I think thematically Lupin works better as a gray 
character than an evil one (as I think Fudge does, too).  He's already made 
two mistakes -- his secretiveness led to James and Lily because it led to 
Sirius' choice of Peter as the secret keeper.  His second mistake could have 
had tragic consequences, too, as Harry would have been killed if Sirius had 
been the servant of Voldemort, as Lupin believed him to be.  Lupin is a 
wonderful example of how even good people make terrible choices that lead to 
evil consequences.  And even with the comfort of working with the old crowd 
again, Lupin may make the same mistake yet again, because the threat of his 
solitary prison is as present as ever.  Or his fear may be something the DEs 
can exploit.  I think this would be a much more interesting plot development 
than to have Lupin turn out to be another Barty Crouch.

Debbie, who really enjoys all of these innovative theories that challenge our 
ingrained readings of the text, even though Faith *does* intervene sometimes


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