JKR Chat "The Crucial and Central Question"

[Renee]

No: HPFGUIDX 92423

Hello to all of you!

I'm a (relative) newbie: I've been a member of the list for some 
time now, but this is my first post, and though I read the first 
four HP books several years ago, I didn't become a fan until after 
OotP. 

I hope I'm not breaking any rules by barging in just like this, but 
I felt I had to react. 
 
<greatelderone at y...> wrote:
>if I were Dumbledore killing Lupin would 
> have worked better. Fellow's a werewolf and the weakest of the 
> original four(in mind) aside from Wormtail. 

It seems a bit premature to me to decide that Lupin is expendable or 
a liability before we know what kind of missions he was carrying out 
for the Order during Year 5. Also, killing Lupin because he's a 
werewolf would rather undermine the anti-discriminination theme 
running through the series. If DD were to rid himself of Lupin for 
that reason, wouldn't he be worse than Umbridge, and little better 
than Voldemort? 

The worst liability among the order members, IMO, is not Lupin (or 
Sirius, for that matter), but Mundungus Fletcher. If Harry hadn't 
been capable of summoning a Patronus - something Lupin taught him! - 
Dung's lack of vigilance would have had disastrous results. But all 
he gets is a scolding. Personally, I think the Order has too few 
members for any of them to be expendable, whether they're highly 
competent wizards/witches, or squibs like Arabella Figg. 

Finally, I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "weak in mind" - 
do you mean Lupin's not very competent as a wizard, or stupid, or 
that he doesn't have a strong personality?  

Renee