Remus Lupin: Good man doing nothing (long!)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 149293

> Betsy Hp:
<snip>
> Yes!  I totally agree.  I think there's a reason Lupin and Snape 
> mirror each other in the pensieve scene.  But the thing is, Snape 
> uses his self-hatred as fuel to keep himself going, to *do* 
> something. While Lupin's self-hatred paralyzes him.  We know Snape 
> dislikes Lupin for his weakness.  Lupin may well dislike Snape for 
> his... shamelessness, maybe?  Perhaps these two wounded men could 
> help each other out (or die trying <g>). <snip>

Carol responds:
They also have the common bond of having suffered from the DADA curse.
I think you're right that they'll discover at least one common bond,
not to mention a shared desire to help Harry. Too bad their
reconciliation (if it can be called that) will almost of necessity
take place off page.

> > >>Christina:
> > I think it would be interesting to consider that Lupin might have 
> > been awake the entire time.
> > <snip>
> 
> Betsy Hp:
> It is an interesting thought.  And it could well be possible.  It's 
> also possible that Lupin was sick from a recent change or a hard 
> travel.  However, Lupin is still in a position of avoiding 
> involvement, whether willfully (pretending to be asleep) or 
> otherwise.  There's certainly a symbolic element here that I think 
> is meant to be there. JKR could have easily had Lupin arrive on the 
> scene when the dementor does as the new teacher coming from another 
> compartment, for example. <snip>

Carol:
My thought was that he was supposed to remain mysterious and slightly
sinister (giving out chocolate, the Sneakoscope going off, etc.).
We're supposed to be suspicious of him. And the name, of course,
suggests a connection with wolves (although I admit that I didn't make
the *were*wolf association, which ought to have been given away by
Snape's essay). So, IMO, when we see him with Sirius Black in "The
Cat, the Rat, and the Dog" (shades of Richard III!), we're supposed to
think that Snape was right and he's been helping the "murderer" into
the castle.

> Betsy Hp:
> <snip> I do like Lupin, so I hated to see that his natural state 
> was one of weakness.  I had hoped that the willingness to let Harry 
> die rather than take action was some sort of strange phenomenon 
> instead of business as usual. <big snip>
> But the rest of the time, Lupin *did* wait for someone else to do 
> something.  Which yes, people do, and which yes, isn't a horrible 
> sin.  But it is weak.  And it's not very helpful to those around 
> you.  And in a time of war it can become deadly.  If Sirius really 
> was evil and really did want to kill Harry, Harry would have been 
> dead in PoA, because Lupin was waiting for someone else to take care 
> of it for him. <snip>

Carol responds:
I think you're right that weakness is his natural state (if having
been bitten by a werewolf qualifies as natural--we'd have seen a very
different Lupin if that hadn't happened, I'm sure). And I agree that
not informing Dumbledore that Black was an Animagus and knew several
secret passages into the castle was very wrong (selfish and weak) and
put Harry at great risk. Not even the slashed painting or the slashed
curtains, when Ron ws terrified by a man with a twelve-inch knife,
prompted him to act. Nor did he turn in the Marauder's Map as he
should have done, an inaction that had its consequences when PP showed
up on the map on a full moon night. (Of course, I blame the DADA curse
for taking advantage of Lupin's weakness and trapping him through his
own decisions.)

But, to change the subject a little, how *did* Black get in? Surely
the castle doors weren't left open for a dog Animagus to walk through.
(I know he could get past the Dementors, but he couldn't open a door
without shifting back to human form.) Nor could he have gotten in
through the Shrieking Shack passage, which leads to the grounds, but
not to the castle. And I don't see how he could have sneaked into
Honeydukes in dog form, either. Does anyone know how the passage that
was used by the Weasley twins until it became blocked fits into the
chronology? Was it still unblocked during the timeframe of PoA?

Carol, who snipped a lot of interesting points because she had nothing
to add to the discussion