Detached?Lupin

[naamagatus]

No: HPFGUIDX 119319


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
> 
> > 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." 

Different situation. Lupin and Sirius had a personal account to 
settle with Pettigrew. Sirius was talking about Aurors - people with 
juridical authority, and about abuse of that authority. Moody was 
right to bring people alive, because he functioned as a 
representative of the law. 

> > 
> > 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?<<

There was hardly a conscious choice involved. Lupin had (cowardly, I 
agree) persuaded himself that Sirius was entering the grounds in some 
other way that his animagus ability. It is a rationalization, but he 
didn't *choose* to endanger Harry in order to keep his job (in fact, 
what he feared most of all was losing DD's trust, not his job so 
much). 


> > 
> > 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.  

But there is no text to support that. As Jen pointed out, if JKR 
wanted us to view Lupin's failure as morally reprehensible, she would 
have put it in other people's mouths (as she did when DD criticised 
Sirius for his treatment of Kreacher). 

>  
> 
> 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. 

But it's not about ratting your peers at all. Harry, like most 
readers, accepts Lupin's reluctance to tell DD he had betrayed his 
trust long ago. I think you are putting thoughts and motivations in 
Harry's mind which are simply not there. 


>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. 

As far as I understand, Harry was mainly upset with Hermione because 
she lost him his Firebolt. It was about her interfering, not about 
her "ratting" on him. Of course, it wasn't fair of him to do that, 
but if all McConagall had done was to check the Firebolt and leave it 
with him, he wouldn't have been angry with Hermione.

> 
> 
> What Dumbledore thought  we don't know,  but he didn't fight for 
> Lupin's position the way he fought for Hagrid's. 

We really don't know what DD thought. We also don't know what he said 
to Lupin, and what Lupin said to him. Maybe he tried to persuade him 
to stay but Lupin insisted?  Lupin is much more decisive, self-
contained, intelligent than DD - so DD would treat him with less 
patronage than he does Hagrid. He would trust that Lupin can make the 
correct decisions for himself. 
Not that there is any text to support that, but then, there is no 
text to support your thesis.


Naama