Lupin, a bad guy?

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 96529

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Sherry Gomes" 
<sherriola at e...> wrote:

>>I've been reading all the comments about Lupin, and I'm very 
curious to know why some think he will turn out to be an evil 
character, and why some thinkhe may have killed Sirius.  He 
seems to me, to be one of the kindest andmost compassionate 
members of the order.  Where does it say that he is an
 habitual liar?  Is there anything in his adult life in canon to 
support these theories?  i don't count what he did in school, 
because I don't knowany mature adult who is the same now as 
they were in their teenage years.<<<

In a sense the whole series could be canon for ESE!Lupin. He 
may be the central villain for those who can't stomach a 
cardboard cutout Evil Overlord.  After all,  psychopathic killers 
don't become mass murderering evil dictators all by themselves. 
They have to get well-meaning people on their side. To the 
moralist that's what's interesting, since fortunately only a few of 
us will ever have to cope with the moral challenges of being a 
psychopath.


Don't get me wrong, I'm not a Lupin hater. In fact I like him  a 
whole lot better as a villain than I did as a troubled, brilliant, 
oh-so-sensitive sweetie pie. I could never buy that; there was 
just too much passive-aggressive stuff going on. 

I'm not saying he should be judged by his teenaged actions, if 
he's changed since then. Unfortunately, he says himself that he 
hasn't.  He tells us, in PoA, that he made up all kinds of stories 
so that his friends wouldn't guess what he was.  As an adult he 
made up  a story that Sirius was getting into the castle using 
Dark Magic he'd learned from Voldemort, and used it to 
persuade himself that he didn't need to tell Dumbledore about 
the unguarded secret passage into Hogsmeade or that Sirius 
was an Animagus.  

I recognize the contention of some Lupin defenders that the real 
reason he didn't talk was because he thought Sirius might be 
innocent. But either he made up a story about Sirius using Dark 
Magic, or he made up a story about believing that Sirius was 
using Dark Magic. No matter how you slice it, it's still daisy roots 
<g>.

More seriously, Lupin was and is a coward, though not in the 
conventional sense. He's not afraid to endure pain or risk his life. 
But he is afraid  that Dumbledore wlll abandon him. From what  
he says, he knew he was risking Harry's life and everybody 
else's so that Dumbledore wouldn't find out what a naughty boy 
he'd been. I have a hard time seeing that as kind or 
compassionate.

Is there canon that he's  braver now than he was then? Has he 
ever confessed to anything until he was caught? 

IMO, in the Potterverse, cowardice is as  big a red flag as 
torturing kittens. Like it or not, we are in Inkling territory: pagan 
Heldenmut (the sort of courage that heroes have in the face of 
desperate odds ) and Christian charity are not only compatible, 
they are one and the same. JKR calls it heart. What it takes to 
defeat evil, Dumbledore tells us, is the courage to fight a losing 
battle. No matter how kind and compassionate you can be,  if 
you aren't prepared to be kind and compassionate even when it 
might cost you everything, the Dark Side wins.

Pippin
 who thanks Bookworm for pointing out previous posts on this 
topic and who is equally happy to discuss Snape, but you may 
hear more than you want to know about vampires<veg>