Remus is the worst

[Ava Gordon]

No: HPFGUIDX 99406

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Mandy" <ExSlytherin at a...> 
wrote:
> 
> Mandy here:
> Renee you make a very good point.  Life is about choices, and it is 
> easy to say `make a choice between what is easy and what is right', 
> but sometimes the choice that has to made, is between bad and worse. 
> How then, so you decide which is right and because neither choice 
> will be easy?  

Ava - 
   Just wondering if you could clarify - when you say 'bad' 
and 'worse', do you mean (A) morally/ethically or (b)in terms of how 
rotten it would make the decision-makers life?  

Mandy -
> I have defended Peter Pettigrew on many occasion.  He's a fascination 
> to me because I see similarities between himself and myself at high 
> school.  Fortunately I grew up to be a relatively normal adult.  
> Haven't killed anyone, although I've though about it at times. ;-) 

Ava -
Relating to my question, above - is that because (a) killing is 
wrong or because (b) the punishment for the crime sounds unpleasant, 
& you're not best buddies with Johnny Cochran.  

    If you're like most people, I suspect, the answer is a 
combination of both, but ultimately, the question is - why does 
someone make the choices they make?

Mandy -
> In thinking about Peter's defection, I have speculated that he was put  
> in a position where he had to choose between his family and his 
> friends.  Of course this is pure speculation, but it does beg the 
> question how do you choose between people you love? 

Ava -
     No evidence he made any such choice.  In fact, little Petey 
decided to follow Voldemort even when the Big Cheese was at his 
weakest & there was nothing stopping him from continuing his 
miserable ratty little life.  What could be defensible about that?  

Mandy -
> Sirius' answer was to die.  

Ava -
  How so?  If you're talking about Way Back Then, he foisted his 
duty on Peter, & then tried to kill the Rat.  Arguably, if the 
thought that killing Peter could send him to Azkaban entered Sirius' 
mind at all, he made a sacrifice in risking imprisonment by chasing 
Peterdown, but at that point, he was already a wanted man for the 
Potters death, so heck, what's another friend's murder, in the 
scheme of things?

Mandy -
He told Peter he should have died rather than sacrifice 
> his friends, but that is easy coming from a man with no children, or 
> family, only friends.   Again, we don't know if Peter has any family 
> at all either and perhaps he doesn't and Sirius was right. But I'm 
> certain the DE and Voldemort used such techniques in converting 
> people to their side. Threatening to kill children and family to 
> force someone into committing heinous crimes.  

Ava -
    Know what?  From what we've seen of Peterkins, I bet he's 
sacrifice his 1st born to save his own hide.

Mandy -
> How do you choose between one child and another?  How do you choose 
> between the deaths of one or two people over the deaths of many?  Is 
> it easy to make that sacrifice for the greater good?  Well, what if 
> those two deaths are your children or parents, or brothers and 
> sisters?

Ava -
   Don't see that any of that lot, w/ the possible exception of 
Potter, had that choice to make.  

Mandy -
> I think Remus is constantly battling with the kind of conflict within 
> himself. How could he stand up to James and Sirius in school when he 
> knew they were the only friends he had and they knew his secret?   He 
> knew how vindictive they were, if he spoke out against them they 
> could have destroyed his life with one sentence. "He's a werewolf."  

Ava -
  If he thought that of his best friends, doesn't say much for them, 
does it?  But I agree, Lupin more or less admits that part of the 
reason he couldn't control P&B was because he didn't want to risk 
losing their friendship.

Mandy -
> Remus now appears to be alone. Remus lives in fear, a very dark and 
> sad place.  And I have to say it would be, or was, as easy for Remus 
> to fall to Voldemort as it was for Peter.

Ava - 
   Peter had no compunctions about ratting out his best friend to 
the biggest bully in the playground.  Can't see Lupin doing that.  
Now, if you want to weigh Lupin against Snape, that seems more 
plausible.  Of course the fun thing with Snape is to play around 
with the question of his big Why Voldemort?  (Well, that's not the 
only fun thing of Snape's to play around with, but I digress...)