[HPforGrownups] Why didn't they ask Lupin?/Did Sirius value Peter's life?

[Patricia Bullington-McGuire]

No: HPFGUIDX 53508

On Sat, 8 Mar 2003, Christine Acker wrote:

> Christine here again.
> 
> Why didn't the Potters ask Lupin to be their
> Secret-Keeper?  Could it possibly have anything to do
> with his being a werewolf?  I can't imagine why (or
> maybe I'm just too tired to think).  Didn't they trust
> Lupin and Sirius equally?  They (or James at least)
> would have had to trust and love Lupin to learn to be
> an animagus for him and stand by him when everyone
> else shuns him b/c he's a werewolf.
> 
> Any theories?

James was closer to Sirius than to any of his other friends.  He trusted
him completely.  Sirius tells us in PoA that he suspected Remus was the
spy.  It's reasonable to assume Sirius would have expressed these concerns
to James and Lily.  While I'm sure it was hard for Lily and James to
consider any of their friends a potential spy, the evidence was clear that
someone was spying, so "equal" love and trust could no longer be an
option.  So since they knew *someone* was a spy, and the one person they
trusted completely thought it was Remus, Remus would have seemed like a
very bad choice for Secret Keeper.

The fact that Sirius suspected Remus also explains why he wanted Peter to
be Secret Keeper (to tie in to a related thead).  It wasn't that he didn't
value Peter's life.  It was that he valued James and Lily's lives so much
that he wasn't willing to trust even himself.  Simply being a Secret
Keeper doesn't place anyone in danger.  Being *known to the Death Eaters*
as a Secret Keeper places your life in danger.  If they don't know (or
suspect) your status, you are in no more danger than anyone else.  But if
they think you are a Secret Keeper (even if you're not), you are in great
danger.  Sirius knew he was only human and that it was possible he might
break under torture and betray James and Lily, even though he did not want
to.  By switching with Peter but not telling Remus (the suspected spy)
Sirius figured he was taking all the risk of the Secret Keeper on himself,
but without the risk that he would break under torture and betray the
Potters.

What I want to know is why the Potters didn't take up Dumbledore's offer
to be Secret Keeper.  Yes, they loved and trusted Sirius completely and
Sirius is a pretty powerful wizard, but he's nowhere near Dumbledore's
level.  The only thing I can imagine is that they let their emotional 
attachment to Sirius get in the way of their critical judgement.  Can 
anyone come up with a better explanation?


----
Patricia Bullington-McGuire	<patricia at obscure.org>

The brilliant Cerebron, attacking the problem analytically, discovered
three distinct kinds of dragon: the mythical, the chimerical, and the
purely hypothetical.  They were all, one might say, nonexistent, but each
nonexisted in an entirely different way ... 
                -- Stanislaw Lem, "Cyberiad"