ESE!Lupin condensed and Lupin and Sirius replies

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 147242

Jen D.:
 It seems to me that  the theory is a little unclear on Lupin's motivation. I know that LV 
> offers so many dark creatures the freedoms they've lacked in the WW 
> but how can a person who wasn't born a werewolf, who'd been raised 
> as a wizard, who was treated with fairness, even kindness by DD, how 
> can that person betray that? He's definitely had a miserable 
> existence under the leadership of the WW, unable to obtain or hold a 
> job (save the year at Hogwarts) but he's also an intelligent person. 
> The system he's in stinks, but it's better than the system LV would 
> organize, which seems to be just a reign of terror and chaos. Can we 
> really see enough motivation for Lupin, just being angry at the 
> treatment werewolves have gotten? 
<snip>
 I could see Lupin truly resenting  [James and Sirius] but finding in the 
scheme of things, they were much better than  any alternative. But is that enough 
motivation to turn spy? 

Pippin:

I'm afraid when it comes to werewolves, the wizards are no more protective
of life than Voldemort.

Poverty kills.

It has probably killed more people, RL, than all the psychotic dictators
who ever lived.

The giants are living in miserable conditions, but
at least they're getting enough to eat. They're killing each other over 
lack of living space, but they're not dying of hunger.

"What do you give a giant?" asked Ron eagerly. "Food?"
"Nah, he can get food all righ' fer himself," said Hagrid. -OOP ch20

But the werewolves aren't doing so well.

"I bear the unmistakable signs of having lived among wizards,
you see, whereas they have shunned normal society, and live on
the margins,stealing--and sometimes killing--to eat" HBP ch 16

Lupin goes on to say that Voldemort is offering the werewolves
a better life, and that it is hard to argue with Fenrir out there. 
Fenrir, we find, is not starving. He's "a big, rangy man[...]whose
Death Eater's robes looked uncomfortably tight." -HBP ch 27

I suppose that young Lupin was kept in as much ignorance over
the plight of other werewolves as we were. Imagine how it would
feel to find out the society you were desperately trying to make
yourself a part of was colluding in the oppression of your own
people.  It would be like Hermione and the House Elves, only
much worse. Moses, in that situation, ran away from the 
household where he'd been raised as a prince, and found God.

Lupin found the Order. But the Order doesn't seem interested
in fighting for social justice  or reforming the Ministry. They
haven't organized to free Stan Shunpike.  Add to that, in
VWI the Ministry was using literally unforgivable tactics against 
those it suspected of helping Voldemort, and werewolves were
suspect just by existing. Both sides were attacking innocent 
people, but the Ministry was probably hurting more innocent
werewolves than Voldemort was. 

Lupin, like many young people, would be looking for answers.
And Voldemort has always been willing to tell people what they
want to hear. He'd have made it easy for Lupin at first, just as
he did for Draco. 

It might be Lupin was only passing along information about the 
Ministry, not about the Order. With the things the Ministry was 
doing at the time, that wouldn't have seemed like much of a crime. 
But it would have exposed him to blackmail.  Voldemort
might even have promised Lupin that as long as he kept the
information flowing, Lupin's own friends would be safe. That
could be how James and Lily escaped for so long. But then the
prophecy changed everything, and Lupin had to make a choice--
either continue to help Voldemort, or tell Dumbledore everything.

But even if Dumbledore could protect Lupin, how could he protect
the other werewolves?  If Lupin had made friends with some of them,
and Voldemort was threatening to kill them, as he threatened to
kill Draco's family...James and Lily had the whole Order to protect 
them. The werewolves didn't have anyone.

Pippin