A case against Evil Lupin

[elfundeb at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 39964

Pippin:

> ho still wants to know why JKR told us there was extra 
> wolfsbane potion around  if it isn't important. 
> 
"I made an entire cauldronful," Snape continued. "If you need 
more." Ch. 8 PoA.

One thing Snape's comment tells me is that Snape is in control of the potion; 
he keeps it and doles it out to Lupin as needed.  Lupin doesn't keep his own 
supply; he has to get it from Snape on a dose-by-dose basis.  I think this is 
important to set up Snape's bringing the potion to Lupin's office on June 6.

The other think that struck me about the quote is the fact that it suggests 
that there's not a standard dose for the potion.  Snape remarks that he made 
an entire cauldronful "if you need more."   And Lupin responds that he should 
"probably take some again tomorrow."  If it's so unclear how much potion 
Lupin needs to be harmless, could Lupin have forgotten to take his potion on 
June 6 because he thought he'd taken enough?  Did he like Snape bringing him 
the potion like some kind of servant?  I guess what I'm trying to say is that 
I'm less inclined toward In Denial! Lupin these days.

Pippin continues:

Which establishes that Snape makes more wolfsbane potion at 
a time than Lupin needs. We  know that it is easy to break into 
Snape's office, and Lupin can also enter through the 
fireplace.So, if Lupin wanted to pretend that he hadn't taken his 
potion when he actually had, it wouldn't seem to be too difficult.

I can see how Lupin could have broken into Snape's office, since he tells us 
a wizard could break his locking spells.  We also know that Dobby was able to 
get into Snape's office and steal gillyweed.  However, Snape seems to have an 
excellent knowledge of his inventory, so that he noticed the missing stores 
of boomslang skin and gillyweed.  (GoF, ch. 25, p. 471 US)  I also believe 
Snape knew exactly how much of the wolfsbane potion he had prepared and kept 
track of it, especially since he was keeping his eye on Lupin.  So while 
Lupin could have stolen the potion, I think Snape would have noticed it 
missing (though maybe not until after the Shrieking Shack events).  As nobody 
else at Hogwarts besides Lupin had any use for the potion, Lupin would have 
been suspected of stealing it.  And unless Snape did not tell Dumbledore, I 
can't imagine that Dumbledore would have trusted Lupin enough at the end of 
GoF to send Sirius to his place.  So, I don't think Lupin stole the potion.

I also think Lupin's behavior when he transforms is not consistent with 
having taken the potion and exercising human control.  Lupin starts snarling 
the moment he begins to transform, then rears up and starts snapping his 
jaws, which is more like the fully fledged monster than the harmless wolf.  
If he was in control of himself, it seems to me that he wouldn't begin to act 
vicious until he was ready to pounce upon his victims -- and I presume he 
would have begun with Sirius in order to catch him by surprise before he had 
a chance to transform and control him.

And to answer one more point of Pippin's from an earlier post (which I had 
written several days ago but which the computer ate when I lost my internet 
connection):

She explained why  Voldemort's supporters would go after 
Pettigrew.  She even had Pettigrew fake his death twice, so that 
Lupin could  truthfully say: "Everyone thought Sirius had killed 
Peter. I believed it myself..until I saw the Map tonight," even if he 
had initially gone to Hogwarts because he'd learned that Peter 
was alive. 

If Lupin returned to Hogwarts because he learned that Peter was alive, what 
about Pettigrew's faking his death at Crookshanks' hand would have made Lupin 
believe Sirius had done it?  Even if Lupin had seen Crookshanks with Padfoot, 
Sirius would only have been an accessory to the crime, and this statement 
would not have been truly accurate. 

Debbie
who for the record does not want Lupin to become a poster-child for the 
disabled



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