Cedric and Pettigrew (was Re: Faking Sirius' Death?)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 91780

Tonya:
>>If this were all true then where do YOU think 
that JKR is taking us??  Who could be the traitor?? and 
WHY??<<

Well, the original Eversoevil!Lupin post is 39362. I have been 
tinkering with this idea for a while, as you can see. WHY is the 
big question--and a mark of JKR's storytelling craft.  Concealing 
Lupin's motives preserves the mystery even for those of us hot 
on his trail.  So what follows is of necessity highly speculative.

39362 posits Lupin as a gloating maniac, young Barty redux, but 
I admit even I have trouble with that. Anyway, OOP dragged a 
more interesting possibility across our path--politics. 

Lupin's comment in OOP that he's not a very popular dinner 
guest seems like an odd thing to say...which could mean it's a 
hint. It recalls the disastrous dinner party at the beginning of 
CoS, the one where Harry is invited to make no noise and 
pretend he's not there. A parallel is being drawn between the 
way the Dursleys treat Harry and the way the Wizarding World 
treats werewolves. As Harry told us, it's impossible to live with 
the Dursleys and not hate them. And hatred will out.

Now Arthur is sure that the goblins who have suffered at Lord 
Voldemort's hands would never go over to him, but Lupin isn't :

"I think it depends what they're offered," said Lupin. "And I'm not 
talking about gold; if they're offered freedoms we've been 
denying them for centuries they're going to be tempted."

What could Voldemort offer the werewolves?   I can just hear his 
recruiters claiming that he, like them, has been unjustly 
maligned, that he regrets the excesses committed in his name 
but it's only to be expected when people have been mistreated 
for centuries, that he deplores the loss of innocent life but he 
won't condemn  those who have lost hope and turned to 
violence, that he's only the enemy of Muggles and Muggleborns,  
that it's a shame we purebloods have lost sight of our kinship 
with our magical brethren by polluting our heritage--I could go  
on. I've  heard this kind of stuff in real life, unfortunately. Lies 
obviously, but desperate people will believe anything.

And wolfsbane potion--there've been werewolves for centuries; 
why is it such a recent development? Surely that's an analogue 
for the "orphan drug" problem faced by MS sufferers like JKR's 
mother. Could it be that no one but Voldemort found it profitable 
to sponsor research into werewolves? The ministry doesn't care 
about werewolves as long as they're not drawing attention to 
themselves, but Voldemort would consider them his natural 
allies -- or slaves. A werewolf with a human mind controlled by 
the Imperius Curse could be a devastating weapon, not that 
Voldemort's recruiters would mention that <g>. 

Really, instead of asking why Lupin betrayed the Order, we might 
ask why he joined it in the first place. Could it be that he, like 
Marietta, didn't really want to, but his friends expected it of him? 
It's James who's on fire to fight the Dark Arts.  So Lupin joins, but 
his doubts persist.  He talks to other werewolves, perhaps a bit 
incautiously when he's among his own kind, and he comes to 
the attention of Voldemort. Without realizing it, he's developed as 
an agent...and then one dark day, he has to choose.

Well, that's one scenario. How he was  recruited I don't know, but 
we know that Sirius and James became suspicious of him. And 
that, I think, is something Lupin could never forgive. I think he 
expected that Sirius at least would understand, would cover up 
for him, as I believe he did over the Prank.  So he turned against 
Sirius with the wrath of a friend (or a lover?) betrayed, all the 
while wishing, as estranged friends often do, that he could 
somehow make things all right again.

Of course before long Lupin discovered what Voldemort was. But 
it was too late. He had to go on spying or be exposed and face 
the consequences. Maybe he told himself if he rose high enough 
in the Dark Lord's favor he could come in time to alter his 
purposes, to control his course. Voldemort, Evil Overlord par 
excellence, knows how to encourage such beliefs while still 
maintaining his hold. 

So Lupin's not a psychopath--but it's canon that he's a champion 
at denial and rationalization. And his compassion may be 
genuine, but is it enough? Even Dumbledore has trouble caring 
for the fate of faceless strangers. And look at Hermione. Nobody 
would call her evil--yet.  But she has  a ruthless way with her 
enemies. She kidnapped and blackmailed Rita Skeeter, and the 
trick she played on Umbridge echoes The Prank all too closely. 
Her cleverness has backfired on her more than once. Suppose 
she inadvertently harmed an innocent person. She's a brave 
girl--she might be willing to admit it and take the consequences.  
But is Lupin as brave as she? 

I believe JKR writes as a closet Inkling, melding her Christian 
beliefs with the heroic tradition. For JKR, heart is the eighth 
virtue, courage and love as one, the force in the locked room, 
..which makes cowardice a deadly sin. And Lupin has admitted 
to being a coward.

Hmmm. Hermione's desperate to take SPEW further. If 
someone were sympathetic about that, offered her help, might 
she not tell them more than she should? She talks about Harry 
all the time anyway. 


Pippin  
who now has a bad feeling about all those letters Hermione's 
been writing to Viktor And who apologizes for not being able to 
cite the interview about the duel. Grrr, I know I read it 
somewhere.