Lupin's untainted chocolate

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 86311

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Tracy Hunt" 
<tcyhunt at e...> wrote:

> Tcy:
> There have been many posts by many posters positing that 
Lupin is  less than angelic.  The (I believe) original post that 
questioned the  purity of the chocolate given to the kids on the 
train is Pippin's  post #39562 (from June, 2002) which 
introduced us to LYCANTHROPE 
> (Lupin Yields Candy, A Nasty Trick, He's Really, Obviously, 
Perfectly  Evil).<
> 
> So, the canon never says for sure that the chocolate is 'tainted' 
- 
> however, like most theories here, there is canon to support the 
> possibility.

Just to clarify, my theory is not that the chocolate itself was 
tainted. But  JKR may be deliberately evoking the sinister urban 
folklore of the stranger with his bag of candy. 

 When I was growing up children were constantly being told they 
should not, under any circumstances, accept candy from a 
stranger, especially not one who seemed to know more about 
them than he should, and  in a situation, like a train trip, where 
no parent was likely to intervene.  The ostensible reason was 
that the candy might be poisoned, that being the only reason  
that most parents and teachers were willing to discuss.

If ESE!Lupin proves out, the incident is the kind that we can look 
back on and see foreshadowing, as we now do with the 
Grim=death omen scenes. Even though the black dog Harry 
sees is not the Grim, the association with death omens turned 
out to be  highly significant. In the same way, even though Lupin 
is not trying to poison anybody in that scene,   it may be 
significant that there are sinister associations attached to his 
actions.


Pippin