Detached?Lupin

[olivier.fouquet+harry at m4x.org]

No: HPFGUIDX 119062

 > I've assumed that Lupin would have to  hate his former friends to
 > turn against them. But what if he only had to become detached?
 > We've certainly seen lots of examples of that in canon. All those
 > times he speaks "lightly" or "evenly" about things which ought to
 > be very upsetting,  we've taken it that he's concealing his
 > feelings. But what if he isn't? What if he's detaching himself?
 >
 > Pippin

Olivier
I wasn't too convinced by that and for a good reason. In OoP, I was 
unable to find even one instance of Lupin speaking either lightly nor 
evenly. The only characters who speak lightly are Dumbledore (even when 
dueling Voldemort) and Georges Weasley.

In PoA, Lupin speaks "lightly" twice: once when explaining Harry and 
Hermione why they were awarded points even though they didn't defeat 
the Boggart (arguably a "lightly" subject) and once to ask Harry if 
indeed he thinks "anyone deserves that?" (arguably not a "lightly" 
subject at all but Lupin is proven correct by the story).

As for speaking "evenly" in PoA, that happens twice in the Shrieking 
Shack. "Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" and "I must 
admit, Peter, I have difficulty in understanding why an innocent man 
would want to spend twelve years as a rat". True enough, those aren't 
"even" subjects.

However, making an argument that Lupin is detached with 3 occurences in 
more that a thousand pages is a bit flimsy in my opinion.

Besides, in OoP, you won't have any difficulty to find numerous 
instances of Lupin emotionally comforting the other characters. He's 
doing it with Molly (praising her house-keeping, assuring her that they 
will take good care of her children if anything happens to her or 
Arthur, recognizing she has a valid point in her argument with Sirius), 
with Harry (encouraging him for his hearing, saving him from jumping 
through the veil while he himself is clearly struggling emotionally), 
with Hermione (discussing elves rights), with Sirius (he's the only one 
that tries to keep Sirius' temper down and his repeated attempt to shut 
down Mrs Black portrait can be read as a metaphor for the emotional 
support he gives Sirius in trying to overcome his childhood), with the 
werewolf in Arthur's cell, with Neville...

So 3 ambiguous "lightly" and "evenly" (of course I may have missed 
some, but I don't think so) against massive evidence that Lupin do care 
about how other people feel. That is pretty consistent with one of the 
underlying theme of OoP: Harry's perceived estrangement from 
Dumbledore. Dumbledore's apparent lack of care is efficiently 
contrasted by the care of the other characters, including and in fact 
most prominently Lupin.

Olivier