Why Suspect Lupin? Again.

[ssk7882]

No: HPFGUIDX 40116

Sarah wrote:

> One reason I would suspect Lupin as being somewhat-evil...  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? 

Well, primarily, I think that they suspected him because he is a 
werewolf.

No.  It's not very nice, is it?  But even the most tolerant of 
individuals can possess internalized bigotry, and Sirius does tell us 
that those were very paranoid times.  Werewolves are classified 
as "dark creatures."  Voldemort was a Dark Wizard.  Sirius and James 
would not have been human if they hadn't had moments of doubt.

Even if one refuses to entertain the notion that James and Sirius 
were prejudiced against werewolves per se, though, the fact still 
remains that Lupin's condition would have rendered him unusually 
vulnerable to both pressure and temptation from the enemy.  

He is both unemployable and impoverished, which renders him 
vulnerable to bribery or offers of a stable income.  

He is a member of a hated yet invisible minority, which renders him 
vulnerable to blackmail.  

He is a member of a marginalized social group, which renders him 
vulnerable to social resentment and to misguided idealism.  
Voldemort's people could well have made promises that once the 
current status quo had been overthrown, werewolves would finally be 
granted the acceptance that they had failed to receive from those 
currently in power. Indeed, it is strongly implied that they made 
just such promises to the giants.  

He is effectively chronically ill, which leaves him vulnerable to 
false hope.  Dark magic has tremendous power, doesn't it?  Its 
practitioners can do unexpectedly potent things.  Can they cure 
lycanthropy?  Alleviate its symptoms?  Might they claim that they 
could?

Honestly, if Sirius and James *didn't* find themselves worrying about 
Remus' vulnerability to all of those things from time to time, then 
I'd say that they must have been disgustingly insensitive. 

I also think that Sirius' behavior in the Shrieking Shack strongly 
suggests that Sirius, at any rate, most certainly *did* suspect Lupin 
at least in part because he was a werewolf.  Just look at what 
happens.

Sirius is not really playing with a full deck at all in the Shrieking 
Shack.  He's vengeance-driven.  He's half-mad.  His emotional 
responses to things aren't entirely normal, and neither is his 
affect.  He is grinning madly, he delivers lines like "There'll only 
be one murder here tonight" while leering maniacally at a bunch of
schoolkids whom he knows perfectly well believe him to be a crazed 
killer after Harry's blood, even when overpowered he keeps on 
agreeing to the accusation that he murdered the Potters (although he 
does at least try to explain the rest of the story, it's still not 
exactly sane behavior)...I mean, the guy can't seem to muster up a 
single normal human emotional reaction to anything going on around 
him.

So what changes?  What finally gets to him?  When does he actually 
start to *weep?*

Lupin.  Lupin comes in and extends his trust.  Instantly.  
Unquestioningly. Later on, he will have some questions about Sirius' 
admittedly rather improbable story, but he doesn't raise any of them 
at first.  Instead, he offers his hand. He offers his embrace.  He 
offers his immediate and unhesitating trust.

And then Hermione outs him as a werewolf, and the kids all start 
screaming accusations at him.  Ron delivers his "Get away from me, 
Werewolf!" line.  Hermione declares that she should have exposed him 
from the start.  Harry, told that Dumbledore worked to convince the 
rest of the staff to accept Lupin as *trustworthy* (Yes, "trustworthy"
is precisely the word used) screams out, in JKR's adorable capital 
letters: "AND HE WAS WRONG! YOU'VE BEEN HELPING HIM ALL THE TIME!"

And *that* is when we are told that Sirius has crawled over to the 
bed, that he is shaking, and that he has covered his face with his 
hand.  Indeed, he would seem to have been reduced to tears.

I'd say that Sirius suspected Lupin all those many years ago because 
he was a werewolf.  Wouldn't you?

Poor guilt-ridden Sirius.


If you're looking for suspicious things about Lupin other than his 
lycanthropy, though, then I think that there are still plenty of 
those.  Back in February, Mahoney (who I am pleased to see back with 
us!) asked a very similar question.  She asked:

> On another subject, has anyone speculated that as for Black having 
> suspected Lupin as being the spy, there might have been some reason 
> related to, I dunno, Lupin's personality that suggested it? I.e., 
> something other than, say, general distrust of werewolves? 

I do think that there are plenty of reasons other than his lycanthropy
that Sirius and James might have suspected Lupin.  My full defense of 
this claim is message number #35040, but here in summary:

He chose to specialize in the Dark Arts.  He has a black sense of 
humor. He responds to emotional distress by retreating into a very 
cool and seemingly heartless manner.  He speaks of dark or upsetting 
matters in a breezy and flippant tone of voice.  His demeanor when 
practicing magic is unsettling (the specific words that JKR uses to 
describe his wandwork are the words that she ordinarily reserves to 
describe the demeanor of her sadistic villains).  He is unnervingly 
sensitive to others' thoughts and needs.  He has a pronounced jugular 
instinct.  He has the capacity for cruelty.  

He is more than clever enough and emotionally controlled enough to 
have made an effective spy, and he had *experience* with it.  As a 
member of a hated yet invisible minority population, a certain type 
of deceit and self-misrepresentation was already a fundamental part 
of Lupin's identity.  All werewolves are spies.  His friends would 
likely have understood this.  It might well have given them pause.

By the time of canon, Lupin would also seem to have developed a more 
than a few self-destructive or self-sabotaging tendencies.  These may 
be symptomatic of emotional damage from the Potters' deaths.  Then 
again, he may always have had those leanings, and if so, then that 
would make him pretty suspect too, wouldn't it?  After all, you just 
don't *get* much more self-sabotaging than selling yourself to the 
Dark side.  Forgetting to take your Wolfsbane Potion pales in 
comparison. 


Sarah again:

> Lupin must have done something to make them suspicious. . . .If you 
> ask me, he must have done something odd which tipped James and 
> Sirius off....

Lupin was suspect to begin with, by simple virtue of being who he 
is.  They were suspicious and paranoid times.  In such times, any 
action might be viewed as an "oddity," an incongruity, a tip-off.  In 
such times, just about anything can set the snowball of paranoia 
rolling right down the hillside.  (For an illustration by example, 
check out any of Theory Bay's "Order of the Flying Hedgehog" 
threads.  A keyword search for the words "Ever," "So," and "Evil" 
should do the trick.  ;->)


But on the subject of Hedgehoggian speculations, Pip wrote:

> I think it is very likely that JKR is going to introduce a theme 
> of 'prejudice causes some of its victims to turn to evil'. She's 
> already hinted at that with Dumbledore's suggestion in GoF that the 
> Giants have turned to Voldemort because he has promised them rights 
> and freedom. 

> Evil!Lupin would fit in very nicely with that theme. 

Indeed, this is the only Evil!Lupin scenario that I really find at 
all canonically plausible.  In spite of all of Pippin's heroic 
efforts, I don't really think that he's already turned.  But I remain 
open to the suggestion that JKR might decide to do such a thing with 
him in future volumes.  As Marina wrote:

> If a potentially good and noble man is going to be pushed toward 
> evil by bigotry and hate, I wanna see it happen *now*, not hear a 
> speech about how it happened fifteen years ago. "Show, don't tell" 
> is the motto.

> I think the situation is ripe right now for a "temptation of Remus 
> Lupin" storyline. 

I think so as well.  I think it would be a great subplot.  I don't 
know if I believe that JKR's planning on it, but I'd certainly enjoy 
it.  And I do tend to agree with Pip that we're more than likely to 
see *someone* get corrupted at some point in the story.

I still hold out hopes, though, that JKR plans to tie "Elephant In the
Drawing Room" House Slytherin into that particular thematic function 
somehow.

Sarah again:

> Everyone always said how weak Peter was, and how he hung around his 
> powerful, protector like friends. So then why would they suspect 
> Lupin and not Peter...

They only speak about Peter in precisely that way after they already
know that he's turned.  McGonagall, believing him to be a martyr, does
call him both a weakling and a tagalong, but she doesn't slant this
observation at all in the direction of Peter being attracted to power,
or seeking protectors.  Only Sirius does, and he's speaking from 
hindsight.

As for why they wouldn't have suspected Peter...well, if he was 
anything back then like he is these days, then why on earth would 
*anyone* have suspected him?  He really doesn't come across as 
someone who would make all that competent a spy, does he?  He gives 
the impression of having no emotional control whatsoever.  And 
he can't tell a decent lie to...well, to save his life.

He does seem to have an unusual facility for leading others to 
underestimate him.  That, however, is a talent which by its very 
nature almost always goes completely overlooked.  ;-)



-- Elkins (now off to the homoeroticism thread, to tackle a much 
bigger Elephant in an altogether darker Drawing Room).