What about Lupin?

Neotoma73 at aol.com Neotoma73 at aol.com
Fri Apr 18 09:39:15 UTC 2003


No: HPFGUIDX 55593

In a message dated 4/17/2003 6:04:20 PM Eastern Standard Time, "The Fox" <the_fox01 at hotmail.com>writes:


> It reacts to untrustworthiness, so you're more or less right.  Lupin is
> lying, there's no doubt about that -- but does that make him untrustworthy
> in general?  That's the real question, isn't it.  

Lupin is generally responsible and one of the best teachers at the school, but he does keep vital information to himself when he really should be sharing it. The most obvious example of this is that he *never* tells Dumbledore that Sirius Black is an animagus -- that simple fact would have made finding our favorite escapee so much easier, and at the time Lupin thought Black was really guilty of betraying Lily and James, and murdering Peter.


> Most of the parents who'd
> object to his being there (which objection prompts his resignation once
> Snape outs him, and isn't *that* a big allegorical neon sign) would do so
> for the simple fact that he's a werewolf; but I bet there are others, and I
> might actually number Snape among these, who are less concerned that he's a
> werewolf than they are that he *lied* about it, or at least didn't tell the
> truth, so they didn't have the chance to take appropriate 
> precautions.  Cf. Greg Louganis hitting his head on the diving board.

Given Ron's reactions to the revelation that Lupin is a werewolf, we can say there is a good bit of fear and prejudice in the WW about werewolves.  Most of which is probably deserved, given that werewolves are Dark Creatures and attack humans by preference. As far as we know, the only treatment is Wolfsbane potion, which is difficult to make and thus probably not available to all werewolves -- and they still have to be willing to drink it, which some may not.

Also, I'd like to note that Snape didn't spill the beans about Lupin until Lupin *failed to take the potion*.  Yeah, Snape was very angry and spiteful over the whole Shrieking Shack mess, but he had a rock-solid reason to do it to. Lupin couldn't be trusted to take the Wolfsbane, couldn't be trusted not to endanger the students. 

That's something to keep in mind when wondering about Lupin's general trustworthiness. He might have the best of intentions, but so far his judgement/follow-through hasn't been the best.

AnneL





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