Over Kill with Dementors

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 98227

> Bookworm:
> Jumping in where SSS left off ---
> IIRC, the potion makes Lupin sleepy so that he just curls up for 
a  nap until he transforms back. That would be a different 
reaction  than being "less dangerous" with his friends. If he had 
secretly  taken the potion that night, I would think Sirius would 
notice a  difference. 

Pippin:
who doesn't want Bookworm to think her post was ignored---

Fascinating! Are you suggesting that Lupin's constant tiredness 
is an aftereffect of the potion rather than the werewolf 
transformation itself? That would be highly realistic--many 
powerful medicines have debilitating side effects--and it would 
give Lupin a subconscious reason to avoid taking it. 


I'm not sure whether canon really supports this though. In 
decoding  Lupinspeak, I adopt a sternly Morporkian* disregard 
for allusion, metaphor and idiom. Of course this is exactly what 
we are all taught *not* to do when reading fiction. But only when 
Lupin's words have been rendered into plaintext can we  safely 
procede to apply the tools of the literary detective and figure out 
What It All Means.

Lupin says, "I am able to  curl up in my office, a harmless wolf, 
and wait for the moon to wane again."

Now, this sentence creates a vivid word picture for me. I don't 
need to  imagine my family dog (a "harmless wolf") curled up in 
my office--he's right by my feet at this moment. And like all dogs 
he sleeps most of the time, about eighteen hours a day. But if we  
disregard that mental image, and look at the rest of the sentence 
a couple of things stand out.

The slightly awkward phrasing "I am able to"--why not just say "I 
can"? But the word 'able' points us back to Dumbledore's advice 
in Book Two:"It is our choices, far more than our abilities..." Lupin 
has the ability to curl up and be harmless, but that does not 
mean he will choose to do so.

The uncertain time frame of Lupin's transformations: "and wait 
for the moon to wane again." When exactly does the werewolf 
transformation wear off? Astronomy is no help if I understand 
what Shaun's been telling us (thank you, Shaun!) Astronomically, 
the moon is full only for an instant and begins to wane at once.  
Lupin will not transform before the full moon is 'up' according to 
Rowling, but Lupin's absences all take place *in the daytime*.  

He misses a DADA class  Friday  and the Quidditch game the 
next morning, and then he's absent from the Christmas feast "at 
lunchtime" though of course lunch may be scheduled early on 
Christmas Day. We don't know what time his transformation 
ended the day after the Shrieking Shack but we do know that it's 
after noon when Harry speaks to him in the DADA office. 

Now if Lupin was  in wolf form until noon, that puts Snape's 
announcement to the Slytherins in a very different light, doesn't 
it? There are no classes to keep them occupied, the House Cup 
is already lost, Slytherins have a tendency to break rules anyway, 
and they may not believe that there's a werewolf loose on the 
grounds without corroborating evidence.

Pippin
*Readers of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series will be familiar 
with the city of Ankh-Morpork, whose citizens are appallingly 
literal-minded.