Lupin's resentment : An inside to Snape's resentment

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 94267


> Sue piping in:
> This thread made me think of something bigger that Lupin may 
have  wanted to accomplish.  Though Neville was the one who's 
Boggart  turned into Snape, most of the kids are afraid of him.  
Perhaps this was just Lupin's version of "imagine the audience 
in their  underwear".  IOW, he's just a man boys and girls.  
> 
> I will pose the question to the folks out there who think what 
Lupin did was wrong:  What would you have him do?  Maybe let 
Neville's imagination run wild and decapitate the good 
professor?  Crucio perhaps?  Or maybe "I'm sorry Neville, I can't 
teach you how to fight  a Boggart (even though they are in 
cabinets around school and will be  on the final exam) out of 
profesional courtesy."  
> 
> Anyone? 


Okay. It seems to me that you've fallen for one of JKR's clever 
bits of misdirection (haven't we all?) The lesson "imagine that 
bully in his underwear" is  plainly and powerfully conveyed *to 
the reader.* Unless you're paying very careful attention to that 
one line that says Neville's problems with Snape are worse than 
ever, you won't see that Harry and Neville didn't get it.

 Lupin's lesson goes right past their obtuse thirteen year old 
minds, and Lupin doesn't appear to notice or care That's why I 
have a hard time thinking he did it for their benefit. Canon shows 
them both just as intimidated by Snape as they ever were. 

As for how Lupin could have handled it,  the text  suggests a 
multiplicity of ways.  Neville himself expects that he'll be asked to 
imagine something else he's afraid of:  "I don't want the boggart 
to turn into her either."  We saw that  happen in OOP, where 
Molly's boggart took multiple shapes.  
 
Couldn't Lupin have said, "Hmmm...sounds like you've had 
enough trouble with Professor Snape for one day " and helped 
him think of something else? Neville's highly suggestible as 
everyone knows, look at the way Prof. Trelawney psyched him 
into breaking that cup. 

Lupin could also have passed over Neville as he did with 
Hermione, or arranged a private lesson as he did with  Harry, or 
he could have arranged a less public confrontation as he did on 
the DADA final. But I'm afraid all he cared about was ingratiating  
himself with the Gryffindors and scoring a few points off Snape.

Pippin
who thinks the world isn't divided into people who are good with 
children and Death Eaters