Detached?Lupin

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 119333


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, 
olivier.fouquet+harry at m... wrote:
>  >Pippin:
>  > Lupin comforts other characters when it won't cost him 
anything to do so...<<
> 
> Olivier:
> This looks a bit like the "no true Scottman" fallacy to me.
> I mean, Pippin argued that Lupin is detached, I have brought a 
handful  of occasions where Lupin is visibly caring for people 
and comforting  them, especially on subjects where they don't 
have many other people to  comfort them. Now Pippin, you argue 
that these are instances where he  didn't "really" care.<

Pippin:

You misunderstand me, I think. We agree that  Lupin is capable 
of really caring.  But he is also capable of distancing himself 
from those feelings. That's what I mean by being "detached."  
When his feelings conflict, instead of working through the conflict 
he distances himself from the feelings. Nobody was going to be 
alienated if he comforted Molly, or held Harry back from the veil 
(that the  DE's didn't want the prophecy destroyed is canon), so 
there was no conflict and no reason to detach himself.

Lupin did feel a conflict about whether to tell Dumbledore about 
Sirius. He knew he should tell Dumbledore, but he was afraid he 
would lose Dumbledore's trust, which meant everything 
because, as he later explained,  Dumbledore was willing to give 
him a job.

 Instead of working through the conflict, which should have led 
him to the conclusion that Harry's life was more important than 
his job, he rationalized that Sirius being an Animagus was 
irrelevant, and tried to forget his guilty feelings about it.  If you
are right and he recognized the dog in Magnolia Crescent, that 
makes Lupin's conduct even more reprehensible, because he 
knew that Sirius *was* using his dog form to get close to Harry. It 
would be more consistent with his rationalization if  he told 
himself that what Harry saw was a stray dog and not Sirius at all, 
but there's no canon either way.

Olivier: 
> In this thread, the fact that Lupin did not help finding Sirius in 
PoA  has come out a few times. Well, if one accepts the 
possibility that Lupin could be a Legilimens, there is a 
somewhat plausible explanation.  In PoA chapter 8 Flight of the 
Fat Lady.
<snip>
> According to the "seemed to have shown on his face", Lupin 
knows that  Harry has met a dog, and Lupin certainly has 
immediately recognized  Black under his animagus guise. Thus, 
Lupin knows at this point that  contrary to what conventional 
wisdom is, Sirius has no malevolent  intentions towards Harry.
> 

Pippin:
I'm not following your reasoning. Harry saw the menacing outline 
of something  which could have been a  dog, stepped backward, 
fell, and the Knight Bus immediately appeared. There was no 
chance for Sirius to attack Harry without confronting a bus full of 
wizards, so how could Lupin have concluded it was safe? 

Pippin