How Close Are Harry and Lupin?

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 96808

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> I know a lot of people have trouble with the author's favorite 
adult 
> character (Lupin) being evil, but this wouldn't be as strange as 
it sounds. 
> The villains are the mainspring of the plot. Everything happens 
> because of them. 
> 
> They are the most difficult characters to manipulate in the 
> mystery genre. So much of  what they do must be hidden from 
> the reader and yet if their actions are not absolutely credible, 
the 
> story falls flat. In other words, the author has  to invest quite a
> bit of  thought in  them, even if through most of the story they
> don't seem to be doing anything particularly important. 

Jen: This series isn't like Agatha Christie, though, where the main 
character is Miss Marple or Hercule Poiroit, and the suspects get 
paraded in through the course of one book. Harry may be the main 
character we identify with, but the other significant people in his 
life are built over 7 books.

Lupin isn't a main adult character like Dumbledore or Snape, but 
he's also not a background character, with no significant role. He's 
a part of Harry's life in several important ways, from being a 
friend of Harry's parents, to assisting in Harry's magical 
education, to being a member of the Order. 

>Pippin: 
> I believe that the Marauders' story is basically a tragedy and  
that 
> this is one of the reasons JKR is not planning a prequel. In 
> classical  tragedy the protagonist is compelled to do evil by a 
> single flaw. In ancient times it was hubris, in renaissance 
> dramas it was passion, but the quintessential modern tragedy is 
> Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. Like Remus Lupin, Willy 
> Loman's  flaw was his desire to be well-liked.

Jen:
The Marauders are completely tragic, and with Snape, make up a 
generation of the WW lost at the hands of LV. But they are *already* 
tragic to the nth degree--what purpose will adding more trauma serve 
the story? We already have a protagonist, Snape, who was compelled 
to do evil because he couldn't overcome his past, his tragic flaw. 
Sure he's reformed, but the past is never very far away, is it? 

I don't know why I keep arguing against ESE!Lupin since we won't 
know the truth 'til we read it, but there's just something 
fundamentally wrong with having a *truly* trusted person betray 
Harry, not Scabbers or Crouch!Moody, but someone who has been 
a "good guy" since first introduced.