Lupin's vampire essay

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 89634

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "justcarol67" 
<justcarol67 at y...> wrote:

The fact that Harry and Neville are discussing it when
 Snape shows up (clearly suspecting that the humpbacked 
witch hides asecret entrance into Hogsmeade) is pure 
coincidence (PoA 276-77), as is Lupin's use of the essay as an 
excuse to talk to Harry in the hall(PoA  289). An essay on ghouls 
or ogres or any other creature associated with the Dark Arts 
would have served the same purpose. <<

But it is JKR who decides what creatures should be referred to, 
and she chose vampires. That may be a random thought of hers. 
Or not. In any case, werewolves are mentioned by Fake!Moody in 
his list of what was covered last year, while vampires are not. 

Carol:
>> Why, then, should the essay be about vampires? The answer 
is the structure of Professor Lupin's class and of the textbook he 
is using. According to the Lexicon calendar, which I'm using to 
determine dateshere, the essay is assigned at a time when the 
class would naturally be studying vampires. The references to 
the essay cited above occur on Saturday February 12, meaning 
that the essay must have been assigned during the week of Feb. 
7-11--more than three months after Snape  assigned the 
werewolf essay on February 5. 

Lupin's vampire essay, therefore, can't be an act of retaliation for 
Snape's werewolf essay.<<

Why not? Retaliation need not be immediate. Some prefer 
revenge served cold. 

Carol:
> Lupin is merely going through the book chapter by chapter and 
has reached the point where the class is studying vampires.
> 
> A closer examination shows that the book progresses from 
moderately dangerous to extremely dangerous Dark Creatures 
(or beings). As Hermione tells Snape, the first eight weeks have 
been devoted to boggarts, Red Caps, kappas, and grindylows 
(170).
<snip>

 vampires would also be near the back of the book, along with 
(say) mummies, banshees, zombies, and hags, with such 
intermediate creatures as ogres, giants, and trolls filling up the 
ten weeks (not counting vacation) between hinkypunks and 
vampires. Significantly, the vampire essay is assigned only 
about six weeks before the Easter holidays, when the students 
begin reviewing for their exams. Considering Lupin's average of 
two weeks per creature, there is room in the schedule 
forvampires, two unnamed creatures, and werewolves before 
the holidays.
> 
> In other words, the vampire essay is assigned exactly when it 
should be, with no connection to Snape whatever.<<

That's an interesting theory,but the  class studies grindylows  
(only 2 X's) after pixies (XXX) in second year, and kappas (XXX). 
Lupin even says  that they've done kappas already so the 
grindylows shouldn't be much trouble. Whatever  the grand 
scheme is, it's not order of difficulty.  

We don't know why some of the creatures studied (hinkypunks 
and boggarts) are not mentioned in Fantastic Beasts. My theory 
is that they have been classed as Spirits.   It's also not clear 
whether zombies or animated mummies even exist (see my 
published works).

  I suspect the  distinction between Dark creatures and others is 
at heart political and philosophical and has no basis in 
magizoology at all. IIRC, Scamander does not use it.

Pippin