JKR on Lupin was Imperius Resistance etc

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 122888


--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "hermys_quill" 
<chitrasahai at y...> wrote:

> watch out for Draco and Snape. Draco is not going to be on 
light  side. Has she stated something about Lupin also?  Lupin 
can be on evil side, taking revenge or something.<

Pippin:
Heh, heh! You've come to the right place <veg>. But to answer 
your questions, JKR has said some very nice things about 
Lupin, such as that he's her favorite character among the 
grown-ups, a great, wonderful man, and the teacher she would 
like for her own daughter. 

But..

she's also said that he has a failing
http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2003/0626-alberthall-fry.
htm

I really like Professor Lupin, the character, because he's 
somebody who also has his failing he's such a great man and
he's a wonderful teacher in fact I would say that Lupin is the one 
time I'vewritten a teacher I loved really liked to have had because 
ProfessorMcGonnagol is a very good teacher but she can be 
quite scary at times, very strict. So Lupin's a wonderful teacher 
and a very nice man but he has afailing and his failing is that he 
does like to be liked and that's where he slips up because he 
has been disliked so often that he's always so pleased
to have friends so he cuts them and awful lot of slack.

and he's damaged...

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2002/1102-fraser-scots
man.html

It took me five years to plan the series out, to plot through each of 
the seven novels. I know what and who's coming when, and it 
can feel like greeting old friends. Professor Lupin, who appears 
in the third book, is one of my favourite characters. He's a 
damaged person, literally and metaphorically. I think it's 
important for children to know that adults, too, have their 
problems, that they struggle. His being a werewolf is a metaphor 
for people's reactions to illness and disability. I almost always 
have complete histories for my characters. If I put all that detail 
in, each book would be the size of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, 
but I do have to be careful that I don't just assume that the
reader knows as much as I do. 
---


JKR sounds pretty bitter about the indignities she endured as a 
single parent, forced to live in poverty as Lupin is:

http://www.quick-quote-quill.org/articles/2002/0602-mirror-goldwi
n.htm

And she also has issues about the treatment of disabled 
people, (see above) so I could see her casting Lupin as a sort of 
'fire next time' character -- if people are denied their rights too 
often, they'll rise up to fight for them, and they may not want to 
look as closely as they should at who their allies are.

Pippin