All about Lupin (warning: rant)

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 122386


Pippin:
> > I think we've established that Lupin did not continue to 
practice  with Harry until Harry could produce a patronus in the 
presence  of a boggart-dementor. Harry warns his class  that 
they are not  prepared, even though some of them can do a 
corporeal  patronus, and says that  they really need to be 
practicing with a  boggart. Harry seems to have forgotten that he 
didn't get to that  point with Lupin himself. So did I, until I
re-read PoA. Jo is  tricky!


> Renee:
> Alternatively, Harry wasn't forgetful and they did get to that 
> point, only we're not being told. There was no way Jo could 
have  done so without giving away what form Harry's Patronus 
took.<

Pippin:
Huh?  There's no way Lupin could have continued the lessons to 
that point without Harry knowing what form his patronus took. 
And he doesn't know:

He screwed up his eyes, trying to see what it was. I looked like a 
horse.[...]It wasn't a horse. It wasn't a unicorn, either. It was a 
stag. --PoA ch 21

Somehow refuting ESE!Lupin theories always seems to require  
the creation of new and gigantic plot holes. <g>

 
> Renee:
> Sorry, I was quoting Arryn, not the book. I have to admit I didn't 
> check it, because it seems so extremely unlikely to me that 
Remus  would't also have told the entire story to Dumbledore. <

Pippin:
Lupin says that from what Dumbledore told him  Harry saved a 
lot of lives the night before. Then  he ask Harry to tell him about 
his patronus, and when "distracted" Harry asks how he knew, 
Lupin asks what else could have driven all those dementors 
away. That's all we know about  the Lupin and Dumbledore 
conversation.

We can also conclude that Dumbledore accepted Lupin's 
resignation. There must have been more to that than   the 
prospect of letters from angry parents. As Dumbledore says in 
GoF: "Not a week has passed since I became Headmaster of 
this school, when I haven't received at least one owl complaining 
about the way I run it.[...]I refuse to accept your resignation, 
Hagrid, and I expect you back at work on Monday," --GoF ch 24

Given Dumbledore's passion for second chances, did Lupin not 
get a second chance because he confessed everything?  or 
because he didn't?  I agree, it would be stupid for Lupin not to 
confess if he  believed that by doing so he could win 
Dumbledore's forgiveness. But ESE!Lupin's great tragedy is that 
he doesn't believe this at all. 

Of course Lupin was admitted to the Order, but again, we don't 
know how much Dumbledore trusts him. Dumbledore did not 
decide which Order members would go to the MoM. 

Renee: 
> At this point, I have to say that one of the (many) problems I 
have  with the ESE!Lupin theory is that it casts aspersions on 
everything  Lupin does or omits, to the point where even innocent 
Boggarts   become his victims. Before I knew the theory in its 
entirety, I  thought that plotwise, it was at least remotely
possible, as I said in one of my earlier post, though I had other 
reasons for believing  JKR wouldn't go there. 

But by leaving him no good impulses  whatsoever and ascribing 
him about every atrocity we've seen so far,  you're turning an 
interesting character with a dual nature of  ferocious, murderous 
monster and kind, helpful, compassionate human  being with 
flaws into a caricature of pure evil that could give  Voldemort a 
run for his money, in order to make a redundant point  about trust 
and deceiving appearances. To me, it's the contrast and the 
constant tension between the monster and the man that makes  
Lupin such a fascinating character. 

Pippin:
Whew! It's true I do underplay Lupin's good impulses in my 
posts. After all there are plenty of fans to post about how 
wonderful he is. At one point  I did posit that he was some kind of 
psychopath. I agree that would be redundant. Voldemort tells us 
all we need to know about that kind of evil. 

But if only psychopaths had evil intent, there'd be a lot less of it. 
There is another kind of evil that is done by people who realize, 
in their better moments, that  they  have given in to the darker part 
of their own natures but can't find the courage to change. 

These people have no  evil ambitions on a grand scale to begin 
with, but when their moral cowardice is married to the evil 
ambitions of  a Voldemort, watch out! The point is made for 
Voldemort that he is nothing, mere shadow, without his  
followers. It takes a Riddle to conceive of carrying out Salazar's 
noble plan. But it only takes a Ginny, too frightened of the 
consequences to ask for help, to do the dirty work.

The way I read the books, Snape is someone who found his
courage, who came back to the light knowing he would always 
be seen as a deeply horrible person (and so he is, though 
he may be improving), but was willing to bear that, rather than 
see all that he still loved and cared for submitted to Voldemort.

ESE!Lupin, meanwhile, is being sucked further and further into 
Voldemort's designs, and unless he can find the courage to 
escape, he is doomed to destroy everything he still loves.  
Though you see  all the  crimes I've ascribed to Lupin as equally 
atrocious I see them as progressively more  repugnant, starting 
with mere rule-breaking, proceeding step by step to  the murder 
of his friend Sirius, and ending hypothetically  with the attempted 
destruction of Harry, the savior of his world. 

I don't think this will contradict anything Jo has to say about love.
Love is necessary, without it we'd all be Voldemorts. But no 
matter how much you love someone,  you can't make him 
choose to be good.That,  I think , is the message behind Jo's 
warnings to the Snape and Draco worshippers, the lesson that it 
took her thirty-five years to learn.

Pippin