lupin, werewolves & "wagga wagga"

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 147366

Michelle wrote: 
> Very interesting question you brought up.  I had forgotton about the
werewolf "cure".  I would be wary of anything Lockhart had claimed to
have done though. <snip> The person whose memory he stole could have
just been treating the werewolf symptoms with Wolfsbane Potion and
Lockhart decided to make the "story" even better by having the
werewolf completely cured by the Homophus Charm.  For all we know no
one has ever successfully performed the Charm.

<snip> If Lupin is working up to performing the Homophus Charm this
could be huge for book 7.  Question: Can you perform the charm on
yourself?  If not Lupin would still not be cured of his "disease".  
> 
> What if most of the werewolves don't have a conscience anymore? 
What if taking Wolfsbane Potion is the only way to retain the human
part of yourself and Lupin is a rarity among the werewolf packs? 
Maybe Lupin was sent by DD to treat the new werewolves with Wolfsbane
in an attempt to retain thier humain qualities?  In that case Lupin
would be in even more danger than originally thought. Imagine the
untreated, "human-less" werewolves finding out that Lupin was trying
to treat the new recruits in order to help them retain their humanity.
<snip>

Carol responds:
First, it's "homorphus" with an "r" (ho[mo], man or human, plus
"morph," change, plus "-us," masculine suffix). (Geoff, please correct
me if I'm wrong.)

I have a feeling that this spell is the same one that Lupin and Black
used in PoA to change Pettigrew back into his human form--not
permanent or binding, just a way of revealing his human identity. (I
could be wrong, of course, as the spell they use is not named.) But it
would be rather difficult for Lupin in werewolf form to use it on
himself as he can neither speak nor hold a wand.

The scene in OoP where Lupin is talking to Mr. Weasley's werewolf
roommate in St. Mungo's (in a conversation we don't overhear) implies
strongly that there is no cure for werewolves, neither a spell nor a
potion. Nor does Wolfsbane Potion "treat the symptoms." All it does is
calm the rage of the werewolf and allow him to keep his mind when he
transforms. It does not prevent the transformation itself. A werewolf
who took it would still be revealed as a werewolf if he allowed
himself to be seen by others on a full-moon night. 

Nor can Lupin concoct Wolfsbane Potion for himself. He is dependent on
Professor Snape, a potions expert, to make it in PoA. Since then,
Lupin has had to do without it, which (IMO) explains why he is more
ragged, more lined, more grey-haired each time Harry sees him after
PoA. Unemployment alone would not do that (he isn't starving), nor
would grief for Sirius Black, who has not yet died when we see Lupin
early in OoP as one of the advance guard, greyer and with more lines
"in his young face" than Harry remembers from the previous year.
(Interesting that Lupin alone of the surviving Marauders and Snape,
who is the same age, is twice referred to as young.)

Yet Lupin has been able to retain the human part of himself without
Wolfsbane Potion for most of his life. First and probably most
important, Dumbledore allowed him to attend Hogwarts (and arranged for
him to transform in the Shrieking Shack with Madam Pomfrey's help).
Second, in about his fifth year, his friends were able to join him on
full-moon nights in Animagus form (not that I think their adventures
were exactly sensible or risk-free, but apparently they made the
transformations more bearable for Remus). Third, after Hogwarts, he
was able to join the Order and presumably contribute to it, even
though he no longer had the Shrieking Shack to hide in and most likely
no longer had the company of his friends on full-moon nights,
especially after James Potter married and fathered a child. 

We don't know what happened during the time when Sirius Black (at
least) started suspecting Lupin of being the traitor, or where he was
during the twelve years between Godric's Hollow and his hiring as DADA
professor in Harry's third year, but the battered suitcase with its
peeling letters seems to indicate that he was some sort of itinerant
teacher or tutor. (Maybe, like Quirrell, he had one other earlier year
as DADA professor at Hogwarts but lost his job through the DADA curse
before being permanently banned from that position?) At any rate, he
had neither the company of his friends (one was dead, one was hiding
in rat form, and one was in Azkaban) nor access to Wolfsbane Potion
during those twelve years. It's only during his ten months at Hogwarts
that he's able to transform in peace because Snape "made the potion,
and made it perfectly." And yet Lupin (whatever his failings and
weaknesses) apparently maintains his humanity throughout those years
or he could not have returned to Hogwarts to teach DADA (and
established such a rapport with Harry). Weak and prone to secrecy he
may be, but he is also (with the notable exception of running out to
the Shrieking Shack without taking his potion on a full-moon night,
with lamentable consequences) calm and rational and compassionate.

So whatever he's doing with the werewolves in OoP and HBP, it's not
offering them Wolfsbane Potion (or "curing" them with the Homorphus
Charm). He *may* be setting an example of civilized behavior, but as
the other werewolves are uneducated and would resent his ability to
use a wand legally if they know about it, I can't see him making much
of an impression.

What I don't understand is how parents whose children were bitten
during Dumbledore's tenure as headmaster could allow the children to
be uneducated, simply discarding them and letting them fend for
themselves eating scraps from rubbish bins and endangering others by
transforming once a month. What parent, short of the fortunately
childless Bellatrix Lestrange, would do that? Maybe the parents didn't
know that Dumbledore would tolerate and protect the werewolf children
if the parents asked his help, but surely they would educate them at
home and provide a safe place for them to transform even if they
didn't send them to school? And wouldn't the children get Hogwarts
letters like all other magical children in Britain, as Remus obviously
did? Why would DD go to the trouble of helping one child, even
planting the Whomping Willow so he could hide in the Shrieking Shack
each month and not help other children in the same position? It seems
like a giant plot hole or plot flaw to me.

Carol, wondering if Lupin spent those twelve lost years tutoring
werewolf children