[HPforGrownups] Re: What about Lupin?

[Kathryn Cawte]

No: HPFGUIDX 55549

 
The Fox wrote

> 
> >>1) The sneakoscope goes off on the train when the trio enter 
Lupin's 
> >>compartment.
> >

> ><a_rude_mechanical at y...> wrote:
> >That was for Scabbers
> 

Now me -

Firstly I hope I've attributed the right comments to the right people but I
m not sure.

I don't have my books to hand right now but I can't think of any reason why
it would go off at that specific moment rather than going off continuously
if it referred to Scabbers. I think it's some kind of double bluff - at
first we assume it's for Lupin because he's the new element (but we're not
sure because it's been going off before - as we know now probably for
Scabbers) then we discover Scabbers is Peter and we assume it must refer to
Scabbers. However it could well be that it was actually going off for Lupin
- I think it probably was in this case. This way we're still not a hundred
percent certain about who is on harry's side and who isn't.

But, and this is the important point, it doesn't mean Lupin is 'Ever So Evil
. The Sneakoscope (as far as I remember) reacts to deception - it would be
as likely to react to a prank by the Twins as to Fake!Moody (for example. It
wouldn't mean the Twins were evil - just that they wee perpetrating a
deception of some kind. So it reacts to Lupin, so what? We all know he's
perpetrating a deception - he's hiding his lycanthropy. Could he be evil
though? Probably.

However as I'm sure has been noted before - JKR has incorporated this whole
motif of blind prejudice and how wrong it is, including, but probably not
limited to, wizarding prejudices against muggles, muggleborns, giants,
werewolves .... It would surely undermine her effort to show how wrong these
prejudices are to make the only werewolf we've met actually turn out to be
evil. Since she's also shown us one heck of a lot of anti-Slytherin
prejudice by the Gryffindors this is alos a large part of my firm belief
that Snape might be an unpleasant person but he's also one of the good guys.
I will be sorely disappointed if all the Slytherins turn out to be evil and
all the Gryffindors are heroes.


K