A case against Evil Lupin

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 39986

 Pippin:
 
>>  who 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.<<


Debbie:
>> 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.<<<

That could have been established without telling us that there 
was extra potion available. We are dealing with a work of art 
here. It's not as though there's a video of everything that happens 
in the Potterverse, and all Rowling does to create her novels is 
mentally play it back and write everything down just as it 
happened. Even if that's an imaginary exercise that Rowling 
performs as her first step, what ends up on the page is what 
Rowling means to tell us. Every sentence serves a purpose, 
whether it's to entertain, inform, persuade or confuse.

Now it could be that it's just a character note: "Snape is the kind 
of fellow who would make  a huge batch of a difficult potion just 
because he can."  Or maybe not. It's an odd place for an 
amusing character note, because we're supposed to see 
Snape's  behavior in this scene as ominous, but it's a very good 
place for a clue. 

Debbie:
 >>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?  <<<

Again, it's an odd place for a character note, and one that goes 
against the impression of Lupin in this scene. What it does  do 
is confuse Harry ( and the reader) so that when Snape says that 
Lupin hasn't taken his potion in the Shack, it's not obvious that 
an emergency  is imminent. The reader isn't   told that it's a  full 
moon, and isn't sure if Lupin has to take his potion every day in 
order not to be dangerous. 

However, it doesn't give a  reason for  Snape and Lupin to be 
confused in the Shack. They must know that it's a full moon. They 
also  ought to know what the minimum safe dose of potion is.   
Otherwise, no one could ever be sure that Lupin has had 
enough potion, and it wouldn't have been safe for him to stay in 
his office during his transformations.

IMO, Rowling doesn't really establish that Lupin gets confused or 
forgetful under stress,   not compared to Neville.  Or Voldemort.  
(maybe *Voldemort's* been memory charmed?) Aside from the    
absent-minded Professor stereotype, all we have is Snape's 
comment about Lupin's lack of organization, and Lupin's 
statement that he's not much of a potion maker. That's clever. It 
inclines us to think that Lupin must be forgetful like Neville, 
without really showing us that he is.   But Lupin doesn't  seem so 
disorganized to me. His lessons are so well worked out. And 
then he remembers to pick  up the Cloak.  

I would guess that forgetful!Lupin and non-compliant!Lupin are 
both red herrings, but for different sets of readers. 


 >>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.<<

 Debbie:
>>> 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).  <<<

That was part of my original theory. Snape did notice the missing 
potion later that night,  and that led him to expose Lupin. It 
doesn't matter whether he told Dumbledore or not, because it 
would only have been his word against Lupin's that some potion 
was missing. Rowling has established that a case of missing 
property is not  enough  to authorize the use of veritaserum on 
a suspect. So regardless of what Snape and Dumbledore 
suspect, they have no evidence for an accusation. 

Debbie:
>>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.<<

Ah, but we don't know everything that Dumbledore has told 
Sirius, because Dumbledore and Sirius are in correspondence.  
(GoF ch. 30.) If Dumbledore sent Sirius to Lupin's it could be 
because they had agreed  Lupin should be watched. Sirius 
wouldn't necessarily have to suspect Lupin himself to agree to 
that. Dumbledore's usual method  is to keep  those he suspects 
free to act but under surveillance until they have impaled 
themselves on their own swords, like Lockhart. 

Debbie:
 >>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. <<

Lupin can't start with Sirius. Lupin is chained to Pettigrew and 
Ron. But if Lupin pretends to be a vicious werewolf,  Sirius will 
transform and come to protect Ron, Peter will make a break for it 
and  if Sirius doesn't kill him, Lupin can  chase him back to 
Voldemort. 

 As soon as Peter gets away, and not before, Lupin disengages 
from Sirius and flees into the forest. Then, I assume, he 
summons the Dementors. He doesn't need to be in human form 
to do this since the Dementors can sense his human mind. 
Everyone is so interested in the question of how 
the Dementors were driven away that no one asks  how they 
were summoned in the first place. But they can be called: Snape 
says that he will do it in the Shack.

Debbie:
>>> And to answer one more point of Pippin's from an earlier 
post<

Pippin:
>> 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. <<<
 
Debbie:
 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. <<<
 

By that logic Dumbledore was lying when he said Voldemort 
killed Cedric. Lupin doesn't have to know exactly how Wormtail's 
death was accomplished in order to think that Sirius was 
responsible for it. He could have thought that Crookshanks was 
obeying  Sirius, or that Crookshanks had been framed, which of 
course he was.  All that Lupin  has to know is that Sirius has a 
reason to want Pettigrew dead.

Pippin
who thinks that the ending of PoA is unresolved compared 
to the endings of the previous books, and therefore does not 
think JKR was obligated to unmask all her characters. As for the 
reader being too close to Lupin, who knows how we will feel 
about him by the end of Book 7?