Crying wolf?

[slgazit]

No: HPFGUIDX 81879

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, B Arrowsmith 
<arrowsmithbt at b...> wrote:
> What to make of Remus Lupin?

Good question. Certainly one of the more interesting characters in 
the story...

> I  revised my predictions. OK, so he's going to be ' the third man 
> through the door'.

I think there are many hints that he is doomed in one of the two 
coming books. I just don't know if he'll have a raving werewolf 
episode first.

> In CoS Tom Riddle sneers at Hagrid for trying to raise them 
> under his  bed. Odd that. They should be cubs only for one day in 
every 
> 28.

I always figured that they must have been the product of a werewolf 
and a real wolf mating when the werewolf was in his or her animal 
form (ouch can't imagine what it would be like if the werewolf was 
the female - grrrr....). Do products of this cross-breeding ever turn 
human, or maybe only when the moon is completely out? :-)

> For example, he is seemingly unaffected by Dementors. Why?

That was never said. He can overcome them using the Patronus charm, 
but it says nowhere that he is not affected by them.

> What was his motive in having 
> Lupin at the school anyway? DD attracts misfits like  a magnet 
attracts 
> iron filings,  but to take on a pupil that every month turns into a 
> ravening monster, lacking all civilised restraint, responding only 
to 
> it's own murderous instincts is something else. This was a school.

I think it was conpassion and also concern for the future. There are 
very few children with magical abilities. We are talking of at most 
100 in the whole of the British isles. Letting even one go uneducated 
diminishes the entire wizarding community. Not educating Lupin means 
also that you are abandoning a child who was already discriminated 
against to have nothing else in life when he is in human form. The 
only time he can have any meaning is when he is a monster. It could 
make him more dangerous to the community.

> Some of his reactions to events are puzzling, too. At the Shrieking 
> Shack he seems to know, before being told, what Sirius' story is. 
How? 
> On entering, his first action is to  disarm Harry. Why?

I don't think he knew ahead of time, but he knew that Peter Petigrew 
was alive because of the map. So the supposed victim of Sirius' 
attack is alive and well - and in hiding. What else could it have 
been?

> It requires no 
> persuasion by Sirius before Lupin accepts his story, even though 
for 
> twelve years the entire WW, including Dumbledore, has been 
confident of 
> Sirius' guilt.

Because the evidence was right in front of them - namely Scabbers.

> Why the constant mention of his worn and aging appearance? Is this 
a 
> normal werewolf effect?

I am guessing so. Also a foreshadowing of his upcoming death. I also 
believe that he must be older than the rest of the MWPP quartet 
because he had to wait for DD to become headmaster before he was 
allowed into Hogwarts.

> Did he fight or was he up to 
> something else? Did he throw the fatal spell? Some suspect so.

Well, perhaps he was in the other room with the other students? We 
only see the story from Harry's POV after all. There seems to be some 
hints to that effect because he is the only adult who mentions the 
other children (Ron, Luna, Ginny and Hermione) during the DoM battle.

> Could it be a pseudonym? A name he chose himself, hiding his true 
> identity to save the family face?

This is what I suspect or, if he was bitten very young, perhaps his 
parents named him so - if they did not abandon him in some wild wood 
when they found out that is.

Salit