Not killing Peter / Umbridge / Snape / Snape / Snape / Vanishing Cabinets

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 163144

Catlady:
> (The attempt to understand or explain Lupin's problematic behavior in
> this scene is probably the reason why the ESE!Lupin and MAGIC
> DISHWASHER theories were created. 

Pippin:
I can't speak for the proponents of MAGIC DISHWASHER (once
known as the MDDT) but ESE!Lupin started out with the idea
that it would be a good joke to find canon showing that Lupin
would be the traitor. However once I started looking 
I found so many clues that I started to consider it seriously. 

I started my search in the early encounters between Harry and
Lupin, because that is where a mystery author is supposed to
plant a clue as to how the crime was committed. I had no idea
what specific crime I was going to accuse Lupin of, mind you, 
I was just trying to construct a mystery plot out of the canon
available.
 
It was actually Snape's odd remark in PoA about having made a 
whole cauldronful of wolfsbane potion that launched the theory. 
The presence of extra potion led inevitably to the idea that the
potion could be stolen. 

 Who would want to steal wolfsbane except Lupin?  But why 
would Lupin need to steal it when Snape was making a more 
than adequate amount for his needs?

Only, I realized, if Lupin had actually taken his potion 
when he supposedly didn't take it, the night of the shrieking
shack. But that would mean that Peter's escape was intentional.
And then I remembered Sirius's remark that the servants of
Voldemort would be hunting Peter also, and his suspicion that
Lupin was the spy, and it all became terribly clear. 

What if Sirius was right, Lupin was the spy, and all of Lupin's 
actions that night were meant to find out how much Sirius knew, 
how much Peter knew, and to keep them from comparing notes? 
Once ESE!Lupin had found out all he needed to know, he was 
ready to eliminate Peter, but when Harry wouldn't allow it,
he arranged Peter's escape instead.

In those days, it wasn't so clear how the wizarding world looked
at private vengeance, though Sirius's "I want to commit the 
murder I was imprisoned for" (possible paraphrase, I  don't
have my books with me) should have given us a clue. But a 
lot of people argued that Harry was being naive and most
'good' wizards would have approved of what Sirius and Lupin
were doing.

As for the sleeves...

There is a scene in PS/SS I think where Hermione rolls up
her sleeves prior to doing some bit of magic. I think it's
partly a joke about the stage magician's  "nothing
up my sleeve"  and partly a way to show that the caster 
doesn't want to be hampered by his trailing sleeves -- 
but now that I think of it, it could just be that Lupin was 
showing Peter his dark mark. 

Wouldn't the others have seen it? I'm not sure.

There is a hint in the way Fudge reacts to Snape's attempt to 
reveal it that maybe only certain people can see them, and 
we don't know when Harry got the ability. Maybe it was only 
after Voldemort used his blood in the resurrection spell -- 
could that be the reason for the gleam in Dumbledore's eyes?

Catlady:
> I've always considered that, like the claim that kappas are more
> common in Mongolia, to show dear Sevvie's lack of knowledge rather
> than lack of nastiness. Also in GoF, Harry and Ron spent a detention
> "forced to pickle rats' brains in Snape's dungeon". I've always
> thought that one was aimed at Ron as a rat-owner. As the pain aimed at
> Neville may have missed because horny toads aren't toads, the pain
> aimed at Ron missed because he had ceased to like rats at the end of
> PoA. That suggests that Severus had no idea that Scabbers was
> Pettigrew and therefore was still sincere in his belief of Sirius's
> guilt.

Pippin:
Or it suggests that Snape had come to believe that Pettigrew was
indeed a traitor and wanted to see Ron and Harry take some vicarious 
revenge. Snape seems to have accepted Dumbledore's belief that 
Sirius was innocent by the end of GoF. He never gives up his
loathing for Sirius but he never accuses him of being untrustworthy
again.

Pippin