All about Lupin

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 121892


Pippin wrote:
> <snip> And so, I also can't believe that though Rowling placed Lupin 
> between Harry and the veil, and thus between Harry and 
> Sirius, had Lupin say, "Not at all" in response to Sirius's plea for 
> forgiveness, and had the narrator note for  us that Harry knew 
> Bella's scream "meant nothing",  Lupin  had nothing to do with 
> Sirius's death. <snip>

Carol responds:
Without taking a stand on ESE!Lupin (though I happen to think that
he's more weak than evil), I want to point out that your remark on
Bella's scream is taken out of context. The full quotation is:

"Harry heard Bellatrix's triumphant scream but knew it meant
nothing--Sirius had only just fallen through the aarchway, he would
reappear from the other side any second. . . ." OoP am. ed. 806,
ellipses in original).

Clearly Bellatrix's scream of triumph indicates that she knows Sirius
is dead (or will be when he passes through the Veil) and that, as
we're shown later in the confrontation with Harry, she believes she
killed him. The scream "meant nothing" to Harry not because he
believes that someone else killed Sirius but because he believes that
Sirius isn't dead. (This is an example of the unreliable narrator
reflecting Harry's POV, but in this case the misperception is
countered quickly; we learn immediately that Sirius isn't coming back,
and both Lupin and Dumbledore later state that he is dead. Note the
use of "knew," which is often an indicator that what Harry "knows" is
wrong. It's used again when Voldemort possesses him: "He knew he was
dead," 815--clearly a mistaken perception on Harry's part.)

Although we're not told who cast the spell, the implication is
certainly that it's Bellatrix. We're told about her first jet of
light, identified as a stunning spell, missing Sirius and then "The
second jet of light hit him squarely in the chest" (805). Probably
this spell was not an AK or Harry would not be in denial about
Sirius's death, but Bellatrix certainly acts as if she's the one who
cast the spell, whatever it was, and sent Sirius through the Veil.

Didn't mean to get into the second part of the argument here; I just
wanted to present the context of the remark on Bella's scream, which I
believe you're interpreting a bit too loosely.

Carol