Perfidious!Lupin(WAS: Against Evil!Lupin responses (long))

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 49695

Marina said (of perfidy):
> The dictionary definition may not reqire malice, but I don't think 
> I've ever before encountered the term in a context that didn't 
imply 
> it.  Dictionary definitions sometime miss the connotations 
attached 
> to words in actual usage.

The usage note in my Random House says "*perfidious* 
applies to what is abominably treacherous: it suggests vileness 
of behavior and often deceitfullness"

Many of the blackest names in treachery are not associated with 
malice, and many of them regretted their doings afterward. 
Judas hanged himself and Brutus ran upon his sword. Were 
they not perfidious? Macbeth's betrayal of Duncan is vile 
precisely because there was no malice involved: "I have no spur 
to prick the sides of my intent, but only vaulting ambition..."


Me:
> > I think the closest parallel in Harry's experience is his theft of
> > the Weasley car, when he realizes that because of him, 
Arthur 
> > Weasley could be in trouble.
> > 
> > "Harry pushed his porridge away. His insides were burning 
with 
> > guilt. Mr. Weasley was facing an inquiry at work. after all Mr. 
> and 
> > Mrs. Weasley had done for him over the summer." -- CoS ch. 
6.

Marina:
> I don't think that's a parallel at all.  Harry is feeling bad 
> because he was caught and then presented with tangible 
negative 
> consequences of what he's done.  If he and Ron had gotten 
away clean 
> with that Ford Anglia stunt, if no one found out and no one got 
in 
> trouble, do you think he'd be sitting around angsting about 
what 
> might've been?

Harry has been angsting about what might happen to  Mr. 
Weasley since the day before, when Snape pointed out that 
Ron's father works at the Ministry of Magic. And he still feels 
"bleak" about it months later, when he finds out the results of the 
inquiry. My point was that Harry feels (and the reader has been 
shown)  what a despicable thing it is to betray someone who 
goes out of their way to help you. 

Marina:
>Harry had plenty of opportunities to tell, he knew he should 
> tell, he knew he was lying to Dumbledore about something 
important, 
> and he did it anyway

I must point out that Harry did *not* lie to Dumbledore in CoS. 
Dumbledore very gently and delicately said, "I must ask you, 
Harry, whether there is anything you'd like to tell me. Anything at 
all."

Dumbledore carefully gave Harry a choice about whether to tell 
him or not, and Harry chose. Not wisely, but not treacherously 
either. Harry doesn't owe anything special to Dumbledore (if 
anything, the reverse is true) and it's not his job to keep the 
school free of basilisks.

I agree that Harry's sense of duty  doesn't always kick in when it 
should, but when it finally does, he listens to it. This is what I 
don't see in Lupin. Lupin, according to his own account, has felt 
guilty before and it didn't change him.

 Maybe, as you say, the confession marks a true change of heart. 
After all, he's willing to let Harry take Peter up to the castle, 
though  one thing that is sure to happen is that Peter will tell 
everything he knows. Innocent or guilty, Lupin's secrets are toast. 
(Poor Sirius, if only he had been a real Death Eater and had had  
names with which to buy his release from Azkaban)

 And then Lupin volunteers to be chained to Pettigrew. After 
talking for at least an hour about being a werewolf, he  forgets 
about  the full moon? His greatest fear? Even if Lupin thought he 
had taken his potion, he still should have known that he was 
going to change. He really shouldn't have offered to be chained 
to Peter. If that was a mistake, it was an awfully convenient one. 

Pippin