Is Lupin James?

[drliss at comcast.net]

No: HPFGUIDX 109698

Pippin quotes:

'An odd, closed expression appeared on Lupin's face." --PoA ch 
14 

(note the wordplay between "odd,closed" and "occlumens")

"All this year, I have been battling with myself, wondering whether 
I should tell Dumbledore that Sirius was an Animagus."--PoA ch 
18

If Lupin couldn't block his thoughts, wouldn't Dumbledore have 
discovered his secrets? 
 

Plus there's a huge hint that legi-thingy doesn't work on 
werewoves:

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," 
hissed Snape.

--PoA ch 19

Pippin
who agrees 100% that Lupin is holding a very big secret,  and 
thinks JKR owes Galadriel Waters a huge debt of gratitude for 
throwing the 'Lupin is James' red herring into the bay. 

Lissa:

While I don't agree with Pippin about what Lupin's secret actually -is- ;), I do agree he's hiding something.  However, I'm not convinced he's an occlumens.

I get the impression that even if you're a Legoperson, you have to actually TRY when you're reading someone's mind.  I think Dumbledore knew that Lupin was pretty conflicted already in PoA- he's got the werewolf thing going on and DD had to know that returning to Hogwarts wasn't all peaches and cream for Lupin.  But he trusted Lupin and didn't think that Lupin was helping Sirius get into the castle.  (I'm wondering if Dumbledore was the one who had to tell Lupin that James, Peter, and Lily were all dead and Sirius was the traitor.  Whoever had to do that must have HATED that job!)  So if he trusted Lupin, why would he try to read his mind?  And if he's not making a conscious effort to do it, then he wouldn't know Lupin's hiding something.

The other thing that comes to mind concerning the Lupin/James switch is that Lupin had no clue that Peter was the Secret Keeper.  Unless Lupin and James made the switch before Sirius suggested making Peter Secret Keeper (which WAS a last minute thing), shouldn't he know?  And if Lupin-in-James' body was told that Sirius wanted to make Peter the Secret Keeper because Sirius thought Lupin was the spy, then Lupin-in-James's body would know that Sirius wasn't the spy.  There was some time in between Peter being SK and the murders- wouldn't Lupin and James have switched back?  Or Lupin at least let James-in-Lupin's-body know that the switch had been made?

Boy, I'm confused :)

I do agree it's a great red herring though- I just think there's too many flaws in it to work!  (not the least of which the strongest argument (the spectres coming out of the wands) has been confirmed to be an editorial error.)

Liss

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