Detached?Lupin

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 119351


Olivier wrote:
<snip>
> "He thought for a moment of telling Lupin about the dog he'd seen in 
> Magnolia Crescent but decided not to. He didn't want Lupin to think
he was a coward, especially since Lupin alreadv seemed to think he 
> couldn't cope with a boggart. Something of Harry's thoughts seemed
to have shown on his face, because Lupin said, "Anything worrying you, 
> Harry?" "
> 
> 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.

Carol responds:
I don't think we can safely assume that Lupin is using Legilimency
here. All he's doing, apparently, is reading Harry's expression and
recognizing doubt or hesitation. Harry is misunderstanding Lupin's
reason for preventing his confrontation with the boggart (a matter
that is cleared up later), but the misunderstanding prevents him from
confiding in Lupin--which is just as well because Lupin has secrets of
his own and would not have revealed to Harry that the "Grim" was
Sirius, any more than he told the full story after Harry heard James's
voice in a later scene involving the boggart!dementor. Note his "Yes,
I knew him. Or thought I did" in reference to Sirius at this point.

Nor can we assume that "Lupin knows . . . that Sirius has no
malevolent intentions towards Harry." Lupin learns that Sirius is
innocent only when he sees Peter Pettigrew on the Maruader's Map.
Until then, he, like everyone else, assumes that Sirius is trying to
murder Harry, and he points out Harry's folly and ingratitude for his
parents' sacrifice in endangering himself by sneaking into Hogsmeade
(a view partially shared by Snape). Lupin fools himself (or tries to)
by pretending that Sirius is getting into Hogsmeade using Dark Arts
learned from Voldemort, but this pretence ignores not only Sirius's
animagus ability but his knowledge of the secret passages on the
Marauder's Map they both helped make. (Note that he conceals the map
from Dumbledore, as I've pointed out in another thread.)

At any rate, we have canon evidence for Lupin's behavior on these
occasions and for the motives he attributes to himself. We also have
his apology to Sirius for suspecting him. If he *knew* that Sirius had
no evil designs on Harry, why didn't he actively aid him earlier
instead of passively allowing him to enter the castle and concealing
his own secrets as far as possible from Harry, Snape, and Dumbledore?
I think Lupin is trying to have it both ways and convince himself that
he's innocent, but I don't think he *knows* that Sirius is.

Nor do I think we have anything like conclusive evidence that Lupin is
a Legilimens. We have only Harry's suspicion that Lupin is reading his
doubts from his expression, which is perfectly possible and reasonable
without Lupin actually knowing what those doubts are--or that they
involve the black dog he saw in Magnolia Crescent.

Granted, Harry thinks at times that both Snape and Dumbledore can read
his mind and we know that Dumbledore, at least, is a Legilimens (not
quite the same as a mind reader, as Snape tells us), but the wording
here is different: not Harry felt as if Lupin was reading his mind,
only "something of Harry's thoughts must have shown on his face." And
that, as we all know, happens quite often in the Muggle world as well
as the WW, and if we're a teacher with some knowledge of psychology,
learned or innate, we have no trouble reading doubt or hesitation on
the face of a thirteen-year-old.

Carol, who thinks that if Lupin were a Legilimens or an Occlumens, he
would have offered to teach Harry Occlumency himself despite the
inconvenience of not being at Hogwarts