All about Lupin replies

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 122500


Various replies, scroll down for yours:

Gerry:
> To make ESE!Lupin possible you have to have two traitors. 
Peter does not deny he was the Secret Keeper, and therefore the 
only one who could betray the Potters. He nowhere, nowhere 
says anything that points to Lupin, though he has the opportunity. 

Pippin:
Is it written in stone somewhere that only one old school friend 
can be a traitor? That would be news to the Cambridge Spies 
(Burgess, Blunt, Maclean and Philby). 

http://www.crimelibrary.com/spies/cambridge/cambridgemain.ht
m

Peter is accused of three crimes: betraying the secret, a year's 
worth of espionage against the Order, and killing twelve 
Muggles. I think he was guilty of only the first. It's true that
Peter doesn't point the finger at Lupin in the Shrieking Shack. 

In the first place, he may have tried. His mouthings are very like 
the product of a silencing spell. But what does he have to gain if 
he does? He's still the false secret keeper, worthy of death for 
that alone in Sirius's eyes. And if Lupin is really a DE, he's not 
going to let *any* of them live to accuse him. 

At least if Pettigrew confesses, there's a chance Lupin will let the 
others go. But Peter never does admit to having been the spy, or 
to the Muggle deaths. 


Arynn Octavia:
> Remus was a danger to the students, neither Hagrid nor 
Dumbledore were. If he forgot his potion once, he could do it 
again. As he says: "They will not want a werewolf teaching their 
children, Harry. And after last night, I see their point. I could
have bitten any of you...that must never happen again." PoA p. 
423<

Pippin:
Ah, yes, the famous confession. You know, if Dumbledore's 
confession at the end of OOP had been made according to the 
same formula he'd have said something like this: "Fudge and 
Rita Skeeter  have been saying that I'm too old to do my job. And 
after last night, I see their point. I could have lost you to 
Voldemort." A bit lacking, isn't it? 

And if Lupin's confession had followed Dumbledore's formula, 
what could he have said? How about,"It is my fault Pettigrew 
escaped. Werewolves are at fault if they do not remember to take 
their potion." (paraphrase of Dumbledore's words, OOP ch 37)

You see the difference, I hope. Lupin not only fails to 
acknowledge the actual damage he did, leaving Harry to blame 
himself (so much for Lupin's vaunted sensitivity to Harry's 
unspoken needs), he also fails to acknowledge any personal 
responsibility. He blames the whole business on being a 
werewolf,  which of course he can't help, and fails to 
acknowledge, unlike Dumbledore, that his job is to manage his 
condition, not use it as an excuse.

Renee:
I don't see much difference between your ESE!Lupin and a 
psychopath. Could anyone commit the impressive number of 
murders and other atrocities, starting at the age of 16 - hating 
himself for what he's done, as you imply - and be the kind and 
caring person we see in the books?

Pippin:
As you can see in the above example, Lupin isn't wholly without 
guilt. That makes him different than a psychopath like Riddle. But 
he's become very adept at avoiding the issues. Can kind and 
caring people become murderers under the influence of 
someone like Riddle? Apparently so. There are those 
distressing psychology experiments where people placed in the 
role of  lab experimenters or prison guards were easily 
persuaded to torture and abuse others. Their moral cowardice 
was related to their desire to please others, just as Lupin's is. 

Could Voldemort's friendship have mattered to Lupin? It 
mattered to Ginny. "No one's ever understood me like you, 
Tom....I'm so glad I've got this diary to confide in. It's like
having a friend I can carry around in my pocket...." CoS ch 17

IMO, Lupin wouldn't hate Voldemort just because he looked like 
a monster, or because other people thought he was evil, and he 
would feel sorry for him. He might even think he could save him.

> Renee:
> I wasn't talking about the kind of love that makes blind, also 
known as infatuation, but about the love commonly called charity 
in a Christian context. And yes, I do think that JKR's message is 
that true charity will greatly enhance what goodness there is in 
people,  and lack of it will diminish their chances of turning away 
from  evil, with Tom Riddle and young Snape as the prime 
examples.

Pippin:
It's not the kind of love that's at issue, IMO.  If people can choose 
evil in the face of God's goodness, surely Dumbledore's cannot  
always avail?

Pippin

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