What will theorists think? (was: Re: Lupin, a bad guy?)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 96617

Like many of us, I found HP and this list at a very troubled time in 
my life. All this theorizing is my escape and it's flat out fun. 
Meanwhile, I've learned alot about  presenting an argument in 
what I hope is an entertaining way, and defending a controversial 
position without losing my temper or being offensive (I hope.)

ESE!Lupin was going to be a joke. The list was going through 
one of its periodic bouts of Snape-bashing, and just to rattle 
some chains, I thought it'd be fun to do a non-serious TBAY 
proving that the secret traitor to Dumbledore would be 
sweetiepie hero Remus.  I was reading a book on how to 
construct a mystery story  at the time, which advised that the  clue 
to the dirty deed should be planted somewhere in a scene 
where the sleuth interviews the villain.  I decided to 
search the chapter where Harry visits Lupin and Snape brings 
the potion, thoroughly not expecting  to find anything suspicious 
at all. But there was this:

"I made an entire cauldronful," Snape continued. "If you need 
more." --PoA ch 8

Well, that could be a clue. It was slightly out of place, for one 
thing, like a tilted picture frame. The extra cauldron of potion 
never figures in the action. If it was only there as a character note 
about how much Snape loves making potions, why wasn't it 
closer to his entrance in the scene?   Oho, I thought, what's that 
extra potion for? And then it struck me. 

If there was extra potion, Lupin could have taken it the night of the 
Shack.  But then Lupin *didn't* lose his human mind when he 
transformed. Why, he must have wanted Pettigrew to escape!  
*He* was the Death Eater who Peter feared was after him. 

Once I started hunting for clues, they seemed to be everywhere. I 
began to feel that my little joke might be no joke at all. It was 
leading me in a direction that would make a lot of listies 
uncomfortable, and I wondered if I'd be spoiling the end if I was 
right. But I needn't have worried. Most are still stoutly convinced 
of Lupin's innocence, and will remain so, no doubt, right up till 
the moment when JKR outs him at last. Fortunately I don't have 
to convince anyone that the theory is true...that's *her* job. <veg>

Of course she has tools at her disposal which  I lack. One of the 
things JKR does as she reveals a mystery is explain one or two 
of the clues. This validates them in a way that  I cannot, so it's 
very hard for any of my solutions to be so convincing.

 If I'm right, I'll have bragging rights  forever more. If I'm wrong,
I'll still be able to enjoy dissecting the story that JKR did write
and 
fleshing out the skeleton of the one she didn't <g> . And I expect 
to have  a whole lot of company. What e'er betide, there's going 
to be a boatload of unhappy Shippers out there <g> 

Anyway, ESE!Lupin is so  detailed  by now that it's  bound to be 
wrong, even if  true in concept. That's the hazard of canon-based 
theorizing. JKR isn't bound by our silly rules, and can introduce 
new things like metamorphmagery and portraits that move from 
house to house at any time. C'est la vie. 

 I approached my first reading of  Phoenix very interested in 
finding out what theories would stand up and which would falter, 
but I was immediately  swept up in the story and forgot all about 
them till I was done. I realized, about an inch or so from the end, 
that Hagrid wasn't going to die as I thought, but I never 
suspected it would be Sirius.  I should have been suspicious 
when I couldn't figure out a dramatic way for Snape and Sirius to 
reconcile and still have Harry be the focus of the story. Snape 
and Sirius will never reconcile. Snape and Harry, now...

Pippin
whose very first post asked if anyone thought Snape was a 
vampire