CHAPTER DISCUSSION: Chapter 29, Career Advice

[dungrollin]

No: HPFGUIDX 115839


potioncat wrote:

> 9. Do you think Black and Lupin really listened to Harry?  Did 
they 
> just dismiss his worries?


This scene troubles me.  And, I apologise in advance, but I have a 
million questions, and not one single, lonely idea.

There's that comment of Sirius' that seems (to me) so out of 
place: `...and James – whatever else he may have appeared to
you, Harry – always hated the Dark Arts.' Harry isn't
worried that his father was into the Dark Arts, that hasn't
crossed 
his mind. He's worried that his father was an arrogant bullying
toe 
rag.  

Perhaps this was Sirius being honest, perhaps James *did* have a 
real bee in his bonnet about the Dark Arts, which is why he was 
always so rotten to Snape.  But the more I look at Sirius and 
Lupin's explanation of James' behaviour in the pensieve
scene, the more I think that information is being deliberately 
hidden.

DD made Lupin (presumably the calm, sensible, nice one) prefect in 
an attempt to restrain Sirius and James, the unruly rule-breaking 
bullies. In the pensieve, we see James and Sirius being nasty little 
bastards, and Lupin the prefect not taking part, but not exactly 
restraining them, either, and evidently not having the guts to tell 
them that their behaviour was out of order.  

Fast-forward to many years later, we come to the shrieking shack, 
and it's Sirius and *Lupin* who are quite cheerfully going to
murder an unarmed Pettigrew in cold blood.  Afterwards, DD says
`I knew your father at Hogwarts and afterwards.  He would have
saved 
Pettigrew too.'

Hang on... James, the vehement Dark Arts-hater, would have saved a 
snivelling traitor like Pettigrew, while *Lupin* (the nice guy) 
would have committed murder without a second thought?

The pantsing was during O.W.L.s, at the end of the 5th year, and 
Sirius says that Lily started going out with James in the seventh 
year (by which time he'd reformed enough to make Head Boy, too).
So what was it that happened in the sixth year to deflate James'
head, and turn him into Mr. Morality?

Could it be that one of the times James and Lily defied Voldy was 
while they were at school, which was what changed Lily's mind
about him? Could it be that Snape got his revenge for the prank and 
the pantsing? – If so, then the shrieking shack is not just
cunning misdirection, it's a real con!

There's that sideways look of Lupin's at Sirius, when Sirius 
says `I'm not proud of it'.  Is Lupin surprised at Sirius
saying this, as he'd never heard him express regret about the
marauders' behaviour towards Snape before?  Or does Lupin think
it's an understatement of how Sirius really feels?  Or is Lupin 
aware of exactly what Sirius isn't saying, and checking the 
expression on Sirius' face to make sure that he doesn't give 
something away? Or, perhaps, Lupin is fully aware that Sirius is, 
actually, *extremely* proud of that moment, and re-tells the story 
in excruciating detail at every opportunity?

Are Lupin and Sirius aware of exactly what point in the memory Snape 
dragged Harry out of the pensieve? Did they perhaps think that he 
saw more than he actually did?  Did they assume that he also saw 
Snape getting his revenge, Lily changing her mind about helping 
Snape, and hexing James, or Hagrid turning up to break up the party 
at the last moment? 

Does anyone have a clue, a theorem or an idea?

Dungrollin,
In favour of something bangy that deflated James' head, but 
unfortunately lacking ideas.