[HPforGrownups] Re: Lupin, a bad guy?

[Batchevra at aol.com]

No: HPFGUIDX 96563

In a message dated 4/20/04 7:08:59 PM Eastern Daylight Time, foxmoth at qnet.com 
writes:

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? 

I can appreciate your points about Lupin, but think of it this way. Lupin in 
POA is protecting the memories of the friendship that he had with Sirius, 
James and Peter, who if they had been found out to be illegal animagi, could have 
gotten into serious trouble. Remember, Hermione is blackmailing Rita Skeeter 
with that information. Rita Skeeter isn't writing for the Daily Prophet and as 
we see in Hogsmeade at the Three Broomsticks, she has fallen into hard times, 
to protect herself from being in trouble. 

Confessing when he has to? when Lupin is finally confronted in POA by 
Hernione as being a werewolf, do you remember Ron's reaction to Lupin? Page 253, POA 
UK version, paperback. 

"Ron made a valiant effort to get up again, but fell back with a whimper of 
pain. Lupin made towards him, looking concerned, but Ron gasped, 'Get away from 
me, werewolf!'"

This is the reaction that most have in the WW, no wonder Lupin kept his 
secret, didn't tell anyone about the best times of his life because it would get 
his friends into trouble and taint what was wonderful memories for himself. 
Until Ron heard that Lupin was a werewolf, Ron liked Lupin and would have accepted 
help from him, instead Ron turns on Lupin with the prejudice that he has 
learned from the WW.

Batchevra


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