Generation parallels/ Lupin's personality (WAS Re: Lupin as next Headmaster)

[marinafrants]

No: HPFGUIDX 78640

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "jwcpgh" <jwcpgh at y...> wrote:
> > this doesn't absolve [Remus] of the responsibility to try and 
overcome 
> > his weakness.  It's not enough to feel bad when you've done 
> > something wrong.  You have to learn to refrain from doing it 
over 
> > and over.
> 
> Laura:
> 
> Then would you (or anyone else reading this post) say that in OoP 
> Remus is showing signs of being able to defeat this behavior?  He 
has 
> no reluctance to tell Sirius when he's out of line.  

I don't think Remus was really tested in OOP, not enough for us to 
answer that question.  Yes, in ordinary day-to-day interactions with 
people, he the adult Remus seems more willing to speak up than the 
young Remus was.  But at no point in OOP did we see him in a 
situation where the choice between speaking up and staying silent 
could make or break a relationship.  Yeah, he's willing to tell 
Sirius to shut it when Sirius gets snippy, but their dynamic is very 
different now than it was back in their Hogwarts days.  Now it's 
Sirius who's isolated, desperate and grasping at any human contact.  
The consequences for speaking up are no longer the same.  And as I 
said before, Remus has become much better at judging people and at 
getting them to respond to him in the way he wishes.

Here's something to consider: was Remus aware of the damaging effect 
that confinement at 12 Grimmauld Place was having on Sirius' mental 
state?  If he did, why didn't he confront Dumbledore about it?


I'd also 
> argue, in Remus's favor, that although in PoA he still hasn't 
brought 
> himself to be completely forthright with DD (perhaps for Sirius's 
> sake, which would mitigate the situation imo), he definitely seems 
to 
> have realized that he acted wrongly toward Snape.  His polite, 
even 
> deferential behavior toward SS suggests that. 

Remus was consistently polite and deferential toward Snape 
throughout PoA, too.  Polite and deferential appears to be Remus' 
default manner toward everyone, his shield against the world that's 
just looking for an excuse to brand him a monster even when he's in 
human form.  Note that when he drops that pleasant manner, it's 
always deliberate, and always produces the effect he wants to 
produce.

Marina
rusalka at ix.netcom.com