The Case for Lupin

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 85197

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "olivierfouquet2000" 
<olivier.fouquet+harry at m...> wrote:
> I must say it is with some fear that I attack one of the most 
formidable (and twisted) theory of HPFGU : ESE!Lupin.

Fear? I don't bite, honest. <g>

> 
> But there it is, today I join the PARTY LINE. 
> 
> Let us start with the infamous post 39362. Let us look at the 
string of arguments used :<<

I'm impressed. I hope you don't mind if I answer only where I 
have something to add to what I've said in the past. 

(speaking of the scene in PoA where Lupin is reluctant to touch 
Harry) Oliver said: 
> 5) has been somewhat weakened by the following books in my 
opinion. After all, Crouch!Moody does take Harry in his arms, 
Macnair almost strangled Harry in the Department of Mystery and 
Lupin himself held Harry just after Sirius's death. Of course, it 
can be argued that Lupin's movement was rather a clue to his 
true nature, rather than a rational act, we will come back to 
this.<<

Pippin:
Lupin touches Harry for the first time when Harry is unconscious. 
"Lupin was tapping Harry hard on the face" PoA ch. 12. If he was 
afraid of a violent reaction that would be the safe way to go about 
it.   

No wizard, not even Dumbledore apparently, knows exactly how 
the ancient magic, "magic at its deepest, its most impenetrable" 
really works. It behooves ESE!Lupin to be cautious, since he is 
the first DE to touch Harry since Quirrell suffered immolation. But   
since Lupin was able to touch Harry, the other DE's could then 
do so, either because the magic doesn't work unless Voldemort 
is actually possessing them, or because Voldemort used Harry's 
blood to re-embody himself.

Oliver:
> 3) This one is a tough one. Lupin is scary. No doubt. Only I 
think JKR wrote him so in PoA for a specific reason, and not 
because he's ESE.
<snip>
t it is also my conviction that JKR did this to make the final 
confrontation in the Shack a climax. 
<snip>
 But the thing is I cannot really sense this tension in GoF (where 
Lupin is absent anyway, apart from Dumbledore asking Sirius to 
go to his place) nor in OoP. OoP's Lupin seemed to me gentle 
and mature, not scary at all. So I would say that Creepy!Lupin 
was a most effective plot device for PoA, and not an indication 
that he is ESE.
> 

Pippin:
Ah, but if JKR means to lull us into complacency and then shock 
us, as she has so many times in the past, she would need to 
dispel the aura of menace she created around Lupin in PoA, 
wouldn't she?

Oliver: 
> 
> 2) is very disturbing. Yet, nothing proves it. First, canon is that 
Lupin overemphasises the importance of Occlumency ("There is 
nothing so important as you learning Occlumency" Lupin said 
sternly), then Harry says he'll try do talk to Snape (and of course 
he doesn't).
<snip>
In fact, seeing that Snape is perfectly aware of the iportance of 
Occlumency, the fact he ignored him would rather be a huge hint 
to an ESE!Snape rather than an ESE!Lupin. <<

Pippin:
But as it turned out. what was keeping Voldemort out of Harry's 
mind was the very emotion Occlumency is supposed to 
suppress. Now, if ESE!Lupin realized this, then he would have 
every reason to encourage Harry to study Occlumency, and to try 
to press Snape to continue the lessons. 

Oliver:
>> Last but not least, there is something I don't understand in 
JKR psychology if Lupin turns out to be ESE. In the live interview 
on Scholastic.com (02/03/00), she was asked to choose a 
teacher to teach her children. She picked Lupin "because he is 
kind, clever, and gives very interesting lessons." Now she could 
have chose McGonagall, who is certainly a most qualified 
teacher, Flitwick, who seems very nice too, or Dumbledore for 
that matter. That Lupin is one of JKR's favourite character (same 
interview) is not contradictory to him being ESE, but what kind of 
sadist would she be to wish her children to be taught by an evil 
man ?<<

This is a tough one.  But JKR has never said that Lupin is good. 
She has said that he has a dark side. She also said she put 
herself into a form of denial when she was writing about Sirius, 
because she knew all along he was going to die.

 She could probably do the same with ESE!Lupin. She 
emphasizes in OOP that you can be a good teacher and still 
have Voldemort growing out of the back of your head.

 She also said  (through Dumbledore) that the undoubtably evil 
Kreacher is what he is  because of what wizards have done to 
him. The real world Lupin would not be  subject to discrimination 
by wizards, and would have become  the good person he might 
have been.  

JKR's children are unlikely to be upset by the remark, IMO. A 
child young enough to believe that Lupin is a real person is also 
too young to understand that good and evil can co-exist in one 
individual. That is why there are no bad mothers in fairy tales; 
they are always stepmothers or aunts or something. The child 
would naturally assume that it is good Lupin who would teach 
the class. Bad Lupin would be another person entirely.


Pippin
author of the  infamous post, who will readily grant Oliver his 
PARTY LINE badge.