ESE!Lupin condensed and Lupin and Sirius replies

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 146930


> Neri:

> But in a well-written mystery plot the author is supposed to give us
> proper clues. Snape blamed the prank on all the Marauders and
> especially on James, so if his suspicion was supposed to point at
> ESE!Lupin it was a poorly written clue. 

Pippin:
JKR points up Snape's suspicions about Lupin:
"So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry slowly, "because
he thought you were in on the joke?"
"That's right," sneered a cold voice from the wall behind Lupin.
PoA ch 18

I don't recall any canon that Snape suspects Pettigrew is
involved so I don't see how we know that Snape blamed the
prank on all the marauders.

We're told that he suspected James because he hated
James and was jealous of him, but where is the canon that he
only suspected Lupin because he hated him? Canon is the reverse:
he hated Lupin because he suspected him!

You're welcome to think the ESE!Lupin clues inadequate  and
overly reliant on reader speculation, but they're perfectly in line 
with the sorts of clues JKR has offered for other
mysteries. 

What clues do  we have for Barty Crouch Jr?
The only clue that Barty has the same name as his father is that
Tom Riddle has the same name as *his* father. The only clue
that Barty's  death has been faked is that Peter Pettigrew faked
*his* death. The only clue that he escaped from Azkaban is
that Sirius managed it. The only clue that he's using polyjuice potion
to hide his identity is Snape's reference to missing boomslang
skin, but there's no way to tell that Snape is referring to a 
recent burglary, not the one that took place two years before.
There's no hint that Fake!Moody's flask contains a potion, no 
cabbage-y smell or anything like that.

None of this would be enough to implicate Fake!Moody by itself.
You have to look at the way he acts for that. The way Lupin acts
ought to be enough to draw suspicion on him. He's willing to 
kill in cold blood. 

 I've heard any number of excuses for it -- he was temporarily 
unhinged by Pettigrew's reappearance, he was following some 
old WW tradition of revenge killings, he'd
lost faith in wizarding justice, he was blindly obedient to
Sirius.  All purely speculative, contra-canonical and highly 
convoluted, IMO, when all the time there's a  simple but heartbreaking
answer: he's a killer.

Not a brutal, psychotic or indiscriminate killer, but one who
chose to kill when he had to choose   between what
was right and what was easy. 

I fail to see why the first six books of the series 
should be concerned with spies, traitors  and
mysteries, but not the last. You don't have to *read* them for
the mystery plots, but they're definitely there. How else
are we to explain JKR's constant references to clues and
red herrings when she discusses her work? 


You are welcome to think it's no mystery and Snape is
the traitor, but if it isn't, why should JKR have refused to say
that he's evil? What's the point? And as for proper clues,
I  think that if the body of the deceased has fresh
blood on it a considerable interval of time after it's supposed
to have died of a curse that doesn't leave any trace --
well, if that's not meant to be a clue, then JKR *is* a 
terrible mystery writer. 

Pippin