Lupin's resignation and the legacy of hate

[Jen Reese]

No: HPFGUIDX 99737

Pippin:
> You mean, if Snape had kept quiet, and Lupin had resigned to 
> "spend more time with his remaining limbs", there wouldn't have 
> been a scandal and Umbridge couldn't have used it? You think 
> there should have been a cover-up?
> 
> Or are you saying the scandal would have been lessened if 
> Lupin himself had told the school why he was leaving? Because 
> I don't see that Snape's announcement deprived him  of the 
> opportunity to do that. 

Jen: I don't think the reason for Lupin's resignation needs to be 
announced to a table full of students, nor do I think it needs to be 
lied about and 'covered up'. A simple 'personal reasons' would 
suffice. Lupin can tell his reason to anyone he chooses, and give 
Dumbledore permission to tell the other teachers or the Board of 
Governors. Given the prejudice of the WW, I suspect the information 
would still get out, but the context would be very different.

And yes, I find it objectionable that Umbridge would take the fear 
generated by the 'scandal' at Hogwarts to push through legislation 
based on personal bias & hatred. If she passed through legislation 
based on a very real need to ensure student safety, that's a 
different story. Is that likely with Umbridge? She wasn't 
prioritizing student safety when she threatened Harry & Co. with 
Crucio and approved use of force against students in her office; she 
wasn't overly concerned about taking students into the out-of-bounds 
Forbidden Forest. 

Pippin:
> It is what the jargon-mongers call one-dimensionalizing the 
> Other. It takes the whole range of human experience and 
> compresses it into the narrow limits of a useful moral example.
> IMO, Lupin has just as much right to appear harmless and do 
> evil as Ludo Bagman or Gilderoy Lockhart. And JKR, as an 
> author, has the right to force her characters to deal with that 
> situation in her novels, just as people have to deal with it in 
real 
> life. 

Jen: I have no problem with JKR choosing to depict a person as a 
bumbler, an aggrandizer, or as harmless, then for other characters 
to discover that person is evil as well. I have no problem with 
duality at all, and think JKR does a wonderful job of depicting 
moral ambiguity. And Lupin is a highly ambiguous character.

But that same idea leads me to wonder--does JKR want the reader to 
make the same mistake Sirius & James made when they suspected Lupin 
of being the spy in the First War? Did they *also* see Lupin's 
cowardice, his difficulty standing up to his friends and his 
ommissions as proof that he was ESE & in-league with Voldemort? Will 
Harry also do this before discovering the truth?

I would find that a *much* more interesting and enlightening point 
for JKR to make--see how easy it is to turn your back on a friend in 
a climate of fear and hatred? See how easy it is to let subtle 
prejudices that were buried during the good times, come out when the 
going gets tough? Now that would really follow JKR's dictum of 
choice and choosing between what is right and what is easy!