Lupin's Spying, WAS: Snape, Hagrid, and Sirius Black

[quick_silver71]

No: HPFGUIDX 148345

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "horridporrid03" 
<horridporrid03 at ...> wrote:
<snip>
> Betsy Hp:
> I can totally understand Lupin being driven to a murderous rage.  
> But it's chilling how... *calm* he is about it.  I don't really 
lean 
> towards ESE!Lupin, but I feel like I cannot get a handle on him.  
> He's slippery.  And he's very, very subtle.  
<Paste>
> He's strangely weak, caving into peer pressure with disturbing 
> ease.  And yet, he spends most of PoA making subtle little digs at 
> Snape.  So he's not totally controlled by a need to be liked.  But 
> he's been the only surviving and free Marauder since the Potters 
> were killed and he's never, that we know of, attempted to contact 
> Harry.  Why was he so willing to leave Harry to the Dursleys?  Why 
> was he so reluctant to let Harry know that he was a friend of 
> James?  And again (and most disturbingly) why was he willing to 
let 
> Harry die rather than share the secrets of dead or traitorous 
> friends?  It makes me wonder about the depths of loyalty he felt 
for 
> James.

Cutting and pasting here Besty I'd like to comment on this. There a 
scene in PoA (If I remember correctly) where Lupin is telling Harry 
about the Dementors and the Dementor's Kiss and Harry notes that 
Lupin is smiling in an ironic way. That's interesting because I 
think that it reveals something about Lupin...Lupin is the type of 
guy that worries about the means to the end. And often I think that 
Lupin will tolerate a bad "mean" if it brings about the "end" that 
he wants. For instance you say that Lupin caved to peer pressure and 
let James and Sirius bully Snape but that's assuming that Lupin 
wanted to stop it. The fact that Lupin is still taking subtle digs 
at Snape 20 years later means that Lupin could have disapproved of 
James and Sirius "means" (the fact that everyone could see it and it 
undercut Lupin's position) rather then the "end" (bullying 
Snape/giving Snape what he).

As an aside...do we ever hear Sirius call the Prank a "joke" (I'm 
certain that Snape and Lupin do)? I've always wondered about Lupin's 
role in that (most people assume that he had no actual input but I'm 
no longer sure).

> Snape seems to see him as the most dangerous of the Marauders, 
being 
> sure not to turn his back on him in PoA.  That's interesting to 
me.  
> And yet when McGonagall was listing off the Marauders in PoA, 
Lupin 
> never came up.  Was he never caught in their various escapades?  
Was 
> he not considered one of the gang by the staff?  Or was JKR simply 
> trying to hide his connection with James and Sirius?  (I believe 
> Lupin tells Harry that he was their friend around this time 
though, 
> so I'm not sure why JKR didn't have McGonagall say anything.)

Interesting...I would have said that Snape seemed slightly 
disdainful of Lupin but Snape actually seemed leery of Sirius. I 
personally would have said Snape was most weary of Sirius and I 
actually think that they may have had a fair measure of each other 
(isn't it odd that Sirius calls Snape Lucius's lap-dog and then in 
HBP Spinner's End happens).

Quick_Silver