Detached?Lupin

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 119254


> Pippin:
> > We don't? 
> > Trying to kill Peter was extremist activity, at least Harry 
> > thought so.  
> 
> Jen: We differ here. Murder is legally and morally wrong. 
Extremist  connotates activites which are highly unusual and 
radical in nature.  Committing murder can be a part of an 
extremist activity, but it  isn't extremist in and of itself.
Otherwise we would see far fewer  murders in the world and far 
more evil overlords.<
 
> Harry indeed thought Lupin & Sirius were wrong to murder 
Pettigrew,  and he didn't want to see them become "murderers" 
because of him.  Harry didn't appear to equate their potential 
crime with choosing a  lifetime of service to Voldemort. <

Pippin:
But Sirius did, in GoF. "I'll say this for Moody, though, he never 
killed if he could help it. Always brought people in alive where 
possible. He was tough, but he never descended to the level of 
the Death Eaters." 


> 
> Pippin: 
> > Failing to inform on Sirius was abetting someone whom he 
believed had engaged in pure blood ideology, Muggle torture 
 and affiliation with people engaging in nefarious activities.  
> > 
> >  Lupin's job was more important to him than Harry's skin, 
and if  that wasn't choosing power over love, what is?<<
> 
> Jen: That's Lupin's assessment of the situation, yes. Harry 
didn't  seem to view it that way, nor did Dumbledore. Fudge was 
told by  Snape that the Trio was consorting with a 'murderer and 
werewolf,'  implicating Lupin by association, but nothing comes 
of it. <

Pippin:

According to Lupin, Dumbledore managed to persuade Fudge 
that Lupin was trying to save the children's lives when he went to 
the shack.   But  that doesn't mean Dumbledore didn't view 
Lupin's failure to tell him that Sirius was an animagus as moral 
cowardice. Dumbledore may believe that Lupin was genuinely 
remorseful over what he had done, and deserved a chance to 
make up for it.  He's big on second chances, after all. 
 

Harry  doesn't see Lupin's actions as reprehensible because 
he's thirteen years old, and according to his schoolboy's grasp of 
morality, you don't rat out your peers, no matter what. He was 
ready to drop Hermione for telling McGonagall about the Firebolt, 
even though he knew she'd done it because she was concerned  
for his life. I would expect Harry's understanding to shift as he 
grows older. This theme is brought out in OOP, where Sirius 
tries to explain to Fred and George that  they aren't in the Order 
because they don't  understand that there are more important 
things than showing loyalty to Dad.

There aren't a whole bunch of adults who know what Lupin did, 
only Dumbledore, Sirius and Snape -- Fudge couldn't have been 
told or the Ministry would have known that Sirius was an 
animagus.


What Dumbledore thought  we don't know,  but he didn't fight for 
Lupin's position the way he fought for Hagrid's. He may have 
decided that Lupin is okay to be an Order member, but wasn't 
ready to be a Hogwarts teacher, just as he seems to feel  Snape 
is okay to be a Hogwarts teacher but not ready to teach DADA.

Sirius needed Lupin to forgive him for thinking that Lupin had 
been the spy--it would have been churlish to withhold 
forgiveness from Lupin in return.  Now he's dead, so we won't 
have to deal with his disillusionment.

We don't know about Snape's current attitude towards Lupin, 
since IIRC they don't interact in OOP. But he was definitely 
unreconciled at the end of PoA.

Pippin