[HPforGrownups] Digest Number 5024

[drliss at comcast.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 108496

HunterGreen:
I never really thought about it that way...I suppose it could have 
just been that Lupin was really close to the Potters, and hadn't been 
killed by Voldemort yet, so *perhaps* that's enough to suspect him. 
However, I do think it was rather dense of Sirius to not suspect 
Peter at all (from all indications in PoA, Peter being the spy came 
right out of the clear blue sky to him). His animagus form is a *rat* 
for goodness sakes!

Lissa:

Well, I'll totally agree with you that Sirius was being pretty dense!  However, as intelligent as Sirius is, it doesn't really surprise me.  He strikes me as someone who a.) doesn't always have a lot of common sense and doesn't always listen to the common sense he DOES have, and b.) once he gets an idea in his head, he's NOT wrong, and you'd better not insinuate that he is!  And rats don't have quite the same stigma in the WW that they do in the Muggle world- I mean, Ron kept "Scabbers" as a pet and was offered another rat by the magical animals shop.

But yeah.  Sirius, dude, he was a RAT.

Huntergreen:
Well, he comes up with that explanation so quickly that I assume the 
thought had occured to him before. If you thought someone was a spy, 
I can't imagine it would be wise to *tell* them they're under 
suspicion. However, you bring up a good point here, Lupin comes to 
grips with Sirius, James and Lily keeping something rather big from 
him because they thought he was a spy really fast, doesn't he? If ESE!
Lupin is true, that's exactly how he'd react (how can he be offended 
about being thought a spy if he is one?).

I think there had to be more than just 'narrowing down' that went 
into Sirius' choice to urge James and Lily to use Peter as the secret-
keeper versis Lupin (of course, as a theory suggests, they *did* use 
Lupin, they just didn't tell Sirius in case *he* was the spy and 
figured it would be easy for Voldemort to break Peter, and it would 
be a good cover for him...but perhaps its better not to get into 
*that* here). Lupin would be the clear choice here, I just can't see 
Sirius sitting down and trying to decide between Lupin and Peter 
being the spy. Lupin was almost as close to him as James was, there 
had to be a reason he suspected him (if ESE!Lupin was acting odd, for 
example...).


Lissa:

SO against the ESE!Lupin theory.  I could be wrong, and I know there's stuff in canon to point to it, but I just can't see JKR turning him evil.  For one, he's one of her favorite characters.  And for two, she's said that she's been playing with the theme of intolerance with Lupin.  She's not going to turn him around and make him evil, because that basically says "See?  He deserved the treatment he was getting all along!"  SOMEONE'S a traitor, yes, I'm pretty sure.  But it's not going to be Lupin, just because of "out of character" evidence.  

Someone else on another board pointed out that maybe Lupin WAS really stung that Sirius thought he was the spy, but decided that the Shrieking Shack was neither the time nor the place to get into it.  There's a whole year in between the Shrieking Shack incident and when we see Sirius and Lupin together again, and we have no idea of what they said to each other in that year.

I can definitely see your point about Sirius not sitting down and making a logical decision.  He's much more impulsive and rash.  I REALLY want to know how long he was thinking it was Lupin specifically though.  It could have been a year... it could have been a few minutes right before they decided to do the Fidelus charm.  

My other thought on Lupin being so quick to forgive was that maybe he suspected Sirius before the Potters were actually murdered, while Sirius was suspecting him.  So he can forgive Sirius now because it's "well, um... I kinda thought the same thing.  Oops."

I'm REALLY hoping that first chapter of Book 6 (that's been 13 years in the making) is going to be what happened that Halloween night.  

Huntergreen:
Thank you (o; For some reason I see Lupin as the type who would 
rather *take* a picture than be in one.

Lissa:

I totally agree.  I also wonder if there ARE any pictures of Lupin in that photo album Harry's got.  

Liss

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