DD and the rat: Conspiracy theories compared [LONG]

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 116520


Pippin wrote:
><big snip> We saw in OOP what 
> Dumbledore was like as master of the Order--aloof, remote, 
> wary of revealing himself to anyone, like Lupin, who seems to 
> have legilimency talents. And we never see that Lupin has an 
> emotional closeness to Dumbledore the way that Harry or 
> Hagrid or even Snape has. <snip>

Carol responds:
While I absolutely agree that Lupin hid a great deal more than
Sirius's abilities as an animagus in OoP, and I also agree that
something must have happened to create an estrangement of sorts
between him and the other Marauders after they left Hogwarts (note his
absence from the christening, which I discussed at too much length in
another post), I'm not convinced that we have enough evidence to
convict Lupin of the crimes that canon currently assigns to Pettigrew.
And if we call this canon evidence "Faith," and consider it a slippery
foundation for interpreting the story, surely arguments that ignore
such ambiguous canon as we have are even more prone to topple when
Books 6 and 7 come out.

But I didn't mean to get into an anti-conspiracy theory discussion
again. I'm only wondering what evidence you have that Lupin has talent
as a Legilimens. If you mean that Harry at some point thinks he can
read minds (a thought he has also had about Snape, who is an Occlumens
but not necessarily a Legilimens), I don't think that's sufficient to
conclude that he "seems to have legilimency talents." AFAWK, the only
Legilimenses (I don't know the plural) are Dumbledore and Voldemort.
DD must also be an Occlumens since he can place his own thoughts in a
Pensieve, as Snape also does, and I believe that he taught this skill
to Snape as protection against Voldemort. But I don't see how Lupin,
who urged Harry to take Snape's Occlumency lessons seriously, fits
into this picture. If he were a Legilimens, shouldn't he have worked
in tanedm with Snape to teach Harry Occlumency rather than having
Snape use a Legilimency spell for Harry to fight against?

Carol, whose drunken neighbor has passed from singing light opera to
"Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and hopes her inability to concentrate will
be forgiven