TBAY: In the control room

Wed Dec 3 18:51:47 UTC 2003

No: HPFGUIDX 86411

Pippin sits bemusedly in the Control Room watching as Olivier 
does a charming  Aragorn impression, with a French accent no 
less. She is  intrigued by Olivier's  thematic objection to the 
ESE!Lupin theory. Here she'd been   expecting something along 
the lines of  'JKR would never show a member of an embattled 
minority as ignoble,'  an idea  she finds less than logical. If 
persecuting people made them noble, there'd be a lot more 
nobility in this world. But Olivier has surprised her. This is a new 
and worthy opponent.

 Pippin realizes Olivier and his friends are watching her with, 
well, trepidation. A strange thing, because though ESE!Lupin is 
being taken a bit more seriously in the wake of OOP, its 
supporters are still a distinct minority. Are people really afraid of 
her? Or is it the truth they fear? 

Surely she has shown them friendship, offering them refuge 
from ESE!Bill. Pippin much prefers ESE!Charlie, if good 
Weasleys must go bad. He's got those dragon-smuggling 
friends, and where did the hooded stranger get that dragon-egg 
in the first place? And  was he really Quirrell? Wouldn't even 
Hagrid recognize Quirrell, wrapped up or not? What if Lupin was 
in Book One, passing out dragon eggs to unwary gamekeepers, 
and even, oh horrors, slaughtering the unicorns? But that's 
another post.

 She gazes meditatively into her cup, but the blood red liquid 
reflects no visage, only the shiny rim. *Are* her eyes like cold, 
empty tunnels? In her never-ending zeal to defend Severus 
Snape, has she become like him, dismissive of any theory not 
her own? What has happened to her since the days when she 
was but a harmless Hobbit fangirl, and people ignored her 
posts? She feels herself enlarged, as if she were robed in a 
huge distorted shadow of herself, a vast and ominous threat 
halted upon the shores of Theory Bay. 

Olivier perseveres. Tolkien references cannot daunt him.

>>"Well, I believe ESE!Lupin is wrong, deeply wrong, 
fundamentally wrong. You even
admitted it way back in your 39362 post, Pippin" says Olivier.

"The fact that it is sad does not mean it is not true" cuts Pippin 
"what do you
think ? JKR is not writing a lullaby."

"True, but until now she has shown great thematic consistency, 
she would not ruin the whole thematic impact of a book just for 
the pleasure of Lupin saying "bang! you're dead Dumbledore, I 
was evil right from the start". Now what is the main theme of
PoA?" Olivier asks.
<<

"Liberation," says Pippin, agreeing before Olivier can get revved 
up again. "But there is a counter-theme, is there not? Something 
not quite so romantic, but just as essential to true freedom. No 
one has ever roused the masses in the name of  self-control. 
But can anyone be free who is not master of himself?"

This is evidently a rhetorical question, for Pippin continues. "And 
JKR's themes have each their darker side. If murderers and 
dementors are liberated, then everyone else has to stay behind 
locked doors. If people ignore the rules that are made for 
everyone's safety, then the rule-makers will take away the  
hippogriffs and give us flobberworms. "

"Likewise self-control can be turned to evil purpose. It is good to 
be able to tame our emotions. But what happens if we  override 
our consciences? Marauder!Lupin, as my old friend Gandalf 
would put it,  knew  he was acting wrongly and foolishly, and he 
told himself so, but he did not listen. And as he said himself, he 
has not changed."

"That makes ESE!Lupin a much more useful villain than 
Voldemort from a moralist's point of view. Unlike the 
psychopathic Voldemorts, those who are only in denial about the 
consequences of their actions may perhaps be reached. But it is 
necessary for the lesson that those dire consequences be 
illustrated. ESE!Lupin must be shown to have done some truly 
despicable things...murdering his friend, killing young Cedric, 
helping Pettigrew escape...who would wish to be such a 
person?"

"But" says Olivier "it will  be highly disappointing if the status of 
werewolves in the wizarding world does not greatly improve by 
the end of Book Seven, and I do not see how that can happen if 
Lupin is exposed as having committed such dreadful crimes."

"No. But there could be a coverup. Our heroes will know that 
heroic!Lupin is just a sham, but as long as he's dead, and hasn't 
left an inconvenient ghost behind him, his reputation can survive, 
as long as our friends are careful. Which I think they will be, for 
werewolf!Luna's sake. "

"Noooo!" screams Erin. "Lupin can't betray Harry. I can't bear it. 
How will Harry stand it?"

Pippin looks at her, a strange expression playing on her face. 
Pity, perhaps?  "It'll hurt. But  perhaps he will not be as bereft as 
you imagine. He'll no longer be a child when the Books are 
over.Let us hope by that time he has found a love which means 
more to him than Lupin's or Sirius's or even his parents' ever 
could."

Pippin
> 
> References :
> 
> > 
> > ESE!Bill parts 1 and 2:
> > 
> > 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/85610
> > 
> > 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/85729
> > 
> > ESE!Lupin:
> > 
> > 
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPforGrownups/message/39362
> 
> A few words from The Return of the King have also slipped into 
this post