Werewolf Mystery

[lanval1015]

No: HPFGUIDX 153705

Something in HBP has been puzzling me exceedingly for some time now. 
Maybe it's been discussed; if so, I can't recall.

p.473 Scholastic HB: 

"'Well, their brother was attacked by a werewolf. The rumor is that 
their mother refused to help the Death Eaters. Anyway, the boy was 
only five and he died in St. Mungo's, they couldn't save him.'

'He died?' repeated Harry, shocked. 'But surely werewolves don't 
kill, they just turn you into one of them?'

'They sometimes kill,' said Ron, who looked unusually grave 
now. 'I've heard of it happening when the werewolf gets carried 
away.'"




In common werewolf folklore, werewolves attack to _kill_, and 
occasionally, if a victim manages to escape and survive 
the wounds, this person will then become a werewolf also. At least 
that's the impression I've always had. 

Now along comes this explanation. For a simple mistake, it's too long 
and detailed. It plainly raises some questions, however. 

If werewolves do NOT as a rule attack to kill (note that Harry 
is 'shocked' at the idea), then the entire story about Snape owing a 
life debt to James falls apart. Snape's life 'may' still have been in 
danger, but if most of Greyback's little victims -- unarmed, 
untrained, unaware and fragile-- survive, and are in fact _expected_ 
to survive... then surely a sixteen year old wizard, armed with a 
wand and an astounding knowledge of spells for his age, who quite 
possibly knew what he was about to face, shouldn't have much to fear?

Should not 'James saved Snape's life' really be 'James saved Snape 
from becoming a werewolf'? Not a pleasant fate either, but preferable 
to death, I should think.

But that's not how it is presented in PoA, or even in SS/PS. There's 
only a hint of werewolves not being certain killers in PoA, 
when Hermione chides Lupin for running around Hogsmeade and the 
school grounds: "...What if you'd given the others the slip, and 
bitten somebody?" 'Bitten', not 'killed'. (And Lupin himself 
mentioned that he was very young when he 'received his bite'. I 
always thought that a curious way of putting things).

Yet in the same chapter mention is once again made of James saving 
Snape, at the risk of his own life. Strange.

On to Fenrir Greyback. According to Lupin, he 'positions' himself 
near his victims; plans the attack. So far, so good. But -- 'if a 
werewolf gets carried away'??

Is not the whole point of turning into a werewolf to lose all 
control and all traces of humanity, and turn into a raging monster? 
How on earth does he stop himself from killing? Would not a werewolf 
in full attack mode's instinct be to tear its victim, especially a 
small  child, to bits? Er, to be extremely graphic, feed on it? How 
does he hang on to enough sanity to tell himself 'enough -- mission 
accomplished'? Potterverse werewolves, it seems, have to get carried 
away in order to kill. Harry's reaction and Ron's explanation also 
seem to leave no doubt that, while Fenrir Greyback is unusual in his 
savagery and cunning, the bite-but-not-kill approch must be common to 
all werewolves, not only Greyback.

Which bring me to the Wolfsbane Potion. Lupin tells us in PoA that if 
he takes it in the week leading up to his transformation, he 'keeps 
his mind' and becomes a harmless wolf. He also tells us that it is 
very painful to transform, and that he used to attacked himself out 
of bloodlust, for lack of other victims. Once his friends had become 
animagi, their presence seems to have had a calming effet on him; 
perhaps not as thorough as the Potion, but he appears to have  kept 
his mind enough to remember their outings, and remember them as 
pleasant. Not an emotion one would associate with a werewolf.

Then in HBP, we are told that the Potion made him suffer less when he 
transformed. How are we to understand this? That it is somehow less 
painful to turn into a tame wolf than a howling mad one? Would not 
the change of basic physical shape from human to wolf cause the 
excruciating pain, regardless of the wolf's mental state? Or does 
Lupin mean the lack of self-mutilation, when he speaks of less 
suffering?

Much confusion! Did JKR change her mind? The somewhat unorthodox 
werewolf behavior in Potterverse alone would be less of a problem, 
but it does so raise doubt about the life debt, which in turn might 
still be of further importance in Book 7...

It would also shine a different light on Snape's accusing Sirius of 
trying to kill him. If Sirius assumed, as Harry and Ron do, that 
werewolves generally do not kill their victims, not much remains of 
the neverending argument of the Prank being 'attempted murder'.


Ideas? Anyone?

Lanval