Evil!Lupin, and Draco (was Kneazel?)

[pippin_999 <foxmoth@qnet.com>]

No: HPFGUIDX 53170

I wrote:

> > Crookshanks' limited abilities as a lie-detector are, of 
course,  absolutely crucial to Evil!Lupin theory, since the whole 
thing  depends on an understanding that everything Lupin says 
in the Shack is literally (and only literally) true.<<

 David:
> ...and I have been meaning to check FBAWTFT about precise 
Kneazle abilities for some time since this has always struck me 
as a weak point.  It seems unlikely to me - even allowing for 
dilution by  ordinary cat ancestry - that mere literal truth-telling 
would evade  Crookshanks' abilities to spot deception.  He knew 
Sirius was not what he seemed without any lie or half-truth being 
uttered by him.<

Me:
"The Kneazle has an uncanny ability to detect unsavoury or 
suspicious characters and can be relied on to guide its owner 
safely home if they are lost." FBAWTFT p. 24.

If we agree that Sirius is *not* unsavoury or suspicious, then 
there is canon that Crookshanks lacked the ability to detect it, 
since "It was a while before he trusted me." PoA ch 19. 

 My theory is that Crookshanks can tell when people are 
consciously perpetrating an untruth, but *doesn't * know who is  
untrustworthy or unsavory. What abrogates his ability to detect 
Evil!Lupin is not the objective truth of Lupin's words, but that 
Evil!Lupin is utterly, purposefully and perfectly sure that 
everything he says is true.

Sirius and Peter are, on the contrary, perfectly sure that they are 
not a dog and a rat, respectively.

Pippin