Maligning Lupin

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 149754

> Christina:
> 
> Hermione leading Umbridge to the Centaurs is a decision that she makes
> when Umbridge is about the Crucio Harry.  Self-defense.  The
> werewolves purposefully attack innocent people.  There's a difference.

Pippin:
Werewolves attack people whom they believe are depriving them of their
rights and freedoms.  YMMV.

Christina:
  Not everybody apologizes in the same way, and Lupin is not an
> emotional man.  "I mustn't do it again," is an apology itself.

Pippin:
Erm, it's an apology for something Lupin didn't do -- bite someone.
I'd like to see an apology or at least some remorse  for something 
that Lupin did do, expressed to someone who could actually impose 
a consequence on him, one that he wouldn't have faced if he hadn't 
confessed. 

You know, like the confession of remorse Dumbledore says
Snape made to him. 
 


> > Pippin:
> > The rationale for Lupin joining Voldemort can be 
> > foreseen in the Marauder outings and in his failure to report what 
> > he knew about Sirius:
> > 
> > a)  society presented him with a forbidden, guilt-inducing 
> > opportunity that was more attractive than doing what he felt was 
> > right and
> > b) Lupin chose to pursue it
> 
> Christina:
> 
> I still feel that this completely ignores the reasons behind Lupin's
> decisions. 

Pippin:
The reasons aren't important. If you get in the habit of ignoring 
danger signs, that's going to have a consequence.Think of
 the villagers in the story of the boy who cried wolf. They stopped
listening to the boy for good reasons, but then they
didn't listen when they should have. What if Lupin's conscience is still
crying wolf, but  he's not listening anymore?

Christina:
 So why would he consciously choose to go around
> killing those friends and continuing to rack up actions that would
> disappoint DD?  Lupin keeps his mouth shut because he *likes* what the
> WW has done for him and he wants to keep those benefits.  That just
> does not swing with a Lupin that believes that he would have a better
> life under Voldemort. 

Pippin:
Where do you see that Lupin likes being poor, jobless,  an unpopular
dinner guest, and being persecuted by the Ministry?  He needs his 
wizard friends to shelter him from things  which he wouldn't have 
to suffer in the first place if wizarding society was fair. 

I doubt he believes now that he'd have a better life under Voldemort.
But that might not have stopped young Lupin from trying to use
Voldemort's emnity for his own purposes, just as Hermione tried to
use the centaurs. I'm sure Hermione didn't think she'd have a better
life if the centaurs took over -- but her immediate situation took
precedence. 



> > Pippin:
> > JKR really upped the stakes by introducing Fenrir.  It made 
> > anti-werewolf bias a lot more understandable but no less wrong. If 
> > Lupin is bad it will be even more understandable. And it will still
> > be wrong. I trust JKR to be able to get that across.
> 
> Christina:
> 
> But why would she want to?  It sounds like JKR had exactly the
> thoughts you did - we must still fight for justice even when people of
> a minority group fulfill our fears - and slipped in Fenrir Greyback to
> solve that problem.

Pippin:
As it stands, readers can feel smugly superior to the wizards, who are
so handicapped by their prejudice that they can't be bothered to tell
the difference between a rank-smelling bloodstained thug like Fenrir
and a kindly sweet-natured professor. That's demeaning to the
wizards, because it pooh-poohs their fears, and it's demeaning to
the werewolves because it says they can't disguise their evil as
cunningly as other wizards can.

It's not just that some members of a minority group may fulfill our
fears, it's that even after we get to know them, it's not  going to be
so easy to tell who those people are. We handicap ourselves
in the fight against prejudice if we think it's all based on unrealistic
fears, because we're going to be denigrating those fears instead
of building up courage.

As Ginny discovered, when you open your heart and mind
to a stranger, you are taking a genuine risk. It's a risk that's 
worthwhile, far more often than not, IMO. But it's a real one.

> Christina:
> 
> That was my point.  Perhaps I should have emphasized it.  You say that
> ESE!Lupin is afraid to get caught, but he apparently sends his best
> friend through the veil **with DD standing in the same room**.  For
> somebody that is terrified of getting caught doing something wrong,
> Lupin is awfully brazen here.


Pippin:
Sirius yelled "Harry take the prophecy and run!" Those words were his
death warrant, IMO. Think about what Dumbledore said.  Harry should 
have known there was no need for him to go to the Department of 
Mysteries.  The inference is that Dumbledore was protecting the
prophecy only because it offered an opportunity to out Voldemort
when he tried to steal it. In HBP we find out that he regards the
prophecy as essentially worthless.

For some reason Sirius, though he knows about the prophecy,
does not know this; he tells  Harry to take the prophecy. If
Sirius had been in Dumbledore's confidence, he'd have told
Harry to drop it.

Who told Sirius of the prophecy and made him think that it was worth
risking Harry for? Not Dumbledore, I think. ESE!Lupin might  prefer not
to  kill Sirius, but in that moment he had more to lose by Sirius
surviving. Being caught as a murderer would not be worse than being 
caught as a DE spy. Either way, Sirius and Dumbledore would not want 
to be his friends any more. But if Sirius died,  Dumbledore's
precious trust could be preserved.

Harry and Neville were behind him, Moody had lost his magical
eye, Tonks was down, and Dumbledore had his hands full with
the captured DE's. There was a chance. There was no chance at
all if Sirius lived.

Christine:
  You can't say that Lupin isn't afraid of killing just because he is 
willing to kill a lying, back-stabbing murderer. 

Pippin:
But I do say that. "Killing is not  nearly as easy as the innocent believe."
Draco thinks that Dumbledore is a muggle-loving, half-witted
fool who put his father in prison, and further that killing him
is the only way he can save himself and his family. Yet he 
hesitates and finally lowers his wand. Lupin, OTOH,
only lowers his wand when Harry throws himself in front
of Peter. 

Sirius is white and shaking as he prepares to kill Peter.
Lupin actually gloats. It's a quiet gloat, but what would we think
of Snape if he'd said, "You should have known, Albus, if
Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Goodbye."? Even a hardcore 
DDM!Snaper would find that hard to explain.


> >  Pippin:
> > 
> > We haven't heard from everyone in the wizarding world.
> > 
> > We might, if we knew something about animals but not much about 
> > sheep, remind ourselves that animals come in all colors, and be 
> > suspicious of the motives of anyone trying to convince us that sheep 
> > are different by virtue of being sheep.
> 
> Renee:
> We haven't heard from everyone in the wizarding world, no. But
> werewolves are classified as non-human and considered Dark Creatures.
> When Snape says "Who knows how the mind of a werewolf works?" he is
> not just making a nasty remark, he is referring to the non-human
> status of Lupin while in human form (in non-human form, werewolves
> don't even have minds). 
 
> The official view of the Wizarding World is that werewolves *are*
> different by virtue of being werewolves. 

Pippin:

I  don't think so.

I don't think we're supposed to take Snape's opinions on werewolves
as authoritative or official. Scamander says that when not transformed the
werewolf is as "harmless as any other human." As  stated above in 
a Ministry approved text,  they are indeed humans when not transformed. 
(What goes unstated, of course, is that other humans are extremely 
dangerous, known wizard killers too. <g>)

 The Bloomsbury site tells us that half-breed is supposed to refer to
beings who are part human and part some other animal. The
inference is that Umbridge was using it incorrectly, as a slur,
to refer to Professor Lupin. 

That Snape can't tell how Lupin's mind works is explained by the
"odd, closed expression" Lupin bears in an earlier chapter. That's
an anvil-sized hint if there ever was one. Lupin is probably using 
occlumency to block Snape. Snape's opinion that werewolves' minds work
differently should thus be taken with a healthy dose of skepticism, much
like his opinion that kappas are more commonly found in Mongolia. He
really should have spent more time reading his FBAWTF instead
of scribbling in his potions book and  messing around with
curses in school. <g> 

Renee:
 Even if a werewolf were to join Voldemort for reasons that had 
nothing to do with his lycanthropy, the Wizarding World would 
still maintain it did, instead of ascribing it to human fallibility.   

Pippin:
Yes! Yes! And they'd be wrong. That's my point. Att the end of HP and the Final
Thrilling Conclusion, the Trio, assuming they survive, will know
that, IMO. They'll know there isn't going to be an instant, sugar-coated 
After School Special solution to the problems of werewolves.
But they will resolve (I think) to change attitudes that can be changed.

 But we're prejudiced ourselves if we think that prejudiced people 
are all the same. IMO. 

Some, like Ron, just don't know better. 

Some, like Snape, have wounds too deep for the healing.

And some, including some victims, because humans are really very clever, 
are exploiting other peoples' prejudices for their own ends.  The latter 
two groups, unfortunately, have a vested interest in seeing prejudice continue. 

As Dumbledore says, if you want to fight evil, you have to be prepared
to fight what seems to be a losing battle. That's not defeatism. That's
courage.

Pippin