Occam's Razor, Lupin/James and the Shiver

[Barb]

No: HPFGUIDX 49378


I would tend to agree with SophineClaire that Lupin was shivering because of his reluctance to "come out" as a werewolf to the Trio, and Harry in particular.  He probably hasn't done it very often in his life (although the entire school will know soon, thanks to Snape) and if and when he told Harry, he would probably have liked it to be under more auspicious circumstances.

 

I'm truly mystified about why there is a question of James and Lupin trading bodies.  This rather goes against Occam's Razor (it is really NOT an obvious explanation for any mystery).  Why should we not believe that James died the same night Lily did?  It's a theory that really comes out of the blue for me, and introduces some needlessly complicated machinations on JKR's part.

 

Now, one might say the same thing about the Moody/Crouch thing and the Polyjuice Potion.  However, I believe that the first time I was reading GoF, I should have paid far more attention to Moody's dark detectors.  We learn that his devices for detecting dark wizards went off at his house, producing a ruckus, and that was why Arthur Weasley had to go there to smooth things over, before the Muggle police showed up.  Upon first reading, it seems that these devices went off for no reason.  After the fact, we know that there was an excellent reason: Barty Crouch, Jr. had forced his way into the house and imprisoned the real Moody in his magical trunk and took some of his hair to put in Polyjuice Potion, so that when Arthur arrived, it was actually Crouch to whom he was speaking, not Moody.  The impression we get from the orignal account is is that the devices were faulty, when they were, in fact, functioning perfectly.  

 

Another clue to the efficacy of dark detectors comes earlier, in PoA, when Ron gives Harry a Sneak-O-Scope, which he says Percy declared to be defective, as it kept going off when they were having dinner.  (This was on the Egyptian trip.)  However, Ron informs Harry that the twins were putting something (beetles?) in his food, so the device was NOT defective--Percy was simply unaware of the actions of the twins.  As we are told that a Sneak-O-Scope goes off when there is someone about who cannot be trusted (the twins, in the case above) and since Moody's Sneak-O-Scope (it probably really is Moody's, not Crouch's) is going off when Harry is in his office, we should have suspected that there was something up with Moody.  It was the logical conclusion; we certainly know that Harry wasn't the untrustworthy one present.

 

That Sneak-O-Scope SHOULD have been a red flag.  In the future, I certainly plan to pay very close attention to any dark detectors that show up in the books.  There have, however, been no reasons in canon to suspect that Lupin is anyone other than Lupin and that James isn't dead, especially as his shadow emerged from Voldemort's wand.  It also wouldn't fit with what we know of James Potter's character; -for him to leave his son growing up with the Dursleys when he could have revealed that he is alive and taken care of him himself would be very, very out of character, even if he was stuck in a werewolf's body.  We have no reason to believe, from the books, that James is the sort of father who would do such a thing.  Occam's Razor does, however, help Hermione determine that Lupin is a werewolf because of the timing of his illnesses and the form his boggart took.  It also helps her determine that Rita Skeeter is an Animagus--as only a bug on the wall could have heard some of the things she included in her stories.  (It helps, in the HP world, that a bug on a wall CAN actually be a person, and that werewolves are known to be real, not mythical. <g>)  All of these things follow logically within the framwork that JKR has created; Lupin and James being the same person does not, I'm afraid.

 

--Barb


http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Psychic_Serpent
http://www.schnoogle.com/authorLinks/Barb


---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]