Lupin, (him only, really)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 117881


Nora:
> Forgive me if you've answered this elsewhere, Pippin, but it 
sprang  to mind as a good case of the question about JKR lying 
vs. JKR  tricking us:
> 
> As I'm sure you know, and has been posted, umm, a while 
ago, JKR gave  a 'that's right' to the person who asked if 
Wormtail killed Cedric  with Voldemort's wand.  Not an "Umm, I 
don't think so", but a very  straightfoward confirmation.  I seem to 
remember the postulation of  two Wormtails, although I'll be 
mighty surprised if Remus Lupin is  also called Wormtail, for 
some odd reason.  Not quite the same  instance as two 
Lestrange brothers, after all.<

Pippin:
If Remus is also called Wormtail, then JKR has not lied, she's  
hidden behind a double meaning. She is, after all, the person 
who had Dobby explain that  telling Harry the diary  plot didn't 
have anything to do with "He Who Must Not Be Named" was 
supposed to be a clue. 

Underneath all the twists, turns and supernatural trappings 
beats the heart of a fair-play mystery, or so I contend. It wouldn't 
be fair if JKR didn't reveal to us the kinds of tricks she uses. But 
she has given us fair warning.

Cases of double, mistaken and secret identity begin in Book 
One and continue throughout, so I would be very surprised if the 
denouement  of the series does not involve a secret identity of 
some kind. Lupin had two secret identities exposed in PoA: 
Marauder and werewolf , which seemed to explain everything 
that Harry  wondered about him. 

But there are a number of things that have yet to be explained -- 
the peeling letters on the case,  the inconvenient timing of his 
transformation in PoA, the twelve year gap in his history, the 
ambiguous description of his boggart, his apparent failure to 
perform the riddikulus spell successfully, his absence from 
Harry's christening, the mysterious business for the order, and 
the reason that Lucius Malfoy did not attack him when he leaped 
in front of Harry and Neville at the DoM, to mention just a few.

The answer to all of this does not have to involve a secret 
identity, but that's usually been the case. It is JKR's favorite 
device for concealing motive. (I know there may be innocent 
explanations for all these things. The point is, they have to be 
invented. They're not in the books.)

Secret identity is also, according to JKR the genesis of the 
series. Harry Potter came into her mind as the wizard boy who 
did not know who or what he was.

It makes the solution so much more elegant if Lupin did all the 
killings, because they are thematically linked. The splayed body 
of the unicorn and the spread eagled body of Cedric, Cedric's 
look of surprise and Sirius's shock as he falls through the veil. 
It's elegant if they both look surprised because they recognized 
their killer and it was someone they did not expect. 

Pippin