Is Snape right about Remus

[kiricat4001]

No: HPFGUIDX 135203

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lupinlore" <bob.oliver at c...> 
wrote:
> You know, reading Remus in HBP puts me in the very uncomfortable 
> position of having sympathy for Snape's viewpoint.  I'm thinking 
> especially of his speech to Harry over Christmas (the one written 
in 
> nineteenth-century prose).  

Marianne:

YES! So I'm not crazy! I read that and thought "Who is this guy?" 
because everything seemed so formal and stilted and not at all like 
Remus' normal speech pattern.  

Lupinlore:
They are scrupulously fair, reasonable, 
> and patient.  Unfortunately those qualities can shade swiftly into 
> indecisiveness, passivity, and (to use a very loaded word) out and 
> out weakness.
> 
> I think Remus at the Xmas celebration is operating very close to 
the 
> dividing line, and sometimes steps over it.  My response to his 
> statement "I neither like nor dislike Severus Snape" was a snort 
> followed by "Yeah, now tell me the one about the tooth fairy."  
<snip>

Marianne:

I'm not sure this was a matter of Lupin trying to be scrupulously 
fair about things.  It struck me as his usual reticence to openly 
emote about things, but taken to an extreme, as if he was saying to 
himself "I must not complain. I must be grateful I received the 
Wolfsbane for a year. I must not complain about the part Snape 
played in getting me sacked.  I must not complain about my 
assignment from Dumbledore, even though it is based on that part of 
me I most hate - being a werewolf."

But, it definitely struck me that Lupin was exerting control on what 
he was saying and how he said it.  Maybe, as another poster has 
suggested, he simply is dealing with a lot - Sirius' death, Tonks' 
pursuit of him, etc.

This control is another reason I have a problem with the Remus/Tonks 
thing in the hospital scene.  I almost got the feeling that Remus 
has been trying to discourage Tonks all along with all sorts of 
reasons because he couldn't actually say "I like you, you're a nice 
person, but I'm really not interested."  And, with everyone else 
(Molly, Arthur, etc.) pressuring him to accept her, he eventually 
gives in.

There does seem to be a certain passivity with Remus in that he's 
accepting of whatever fate hands to him because that's how he's 
dealt with things all his life. I'd dearly love to see him lose his 
temper in a spectacular manner, for the shock value alone.

Marianne