Nice versus good, was: Hagrid and Snape: Was Snape, Apologies, and Redemption

[marionrosnl]

No: HPFGUIDX 152812

Hi, newbie here.
 
It always amazes me that so many people like Lupin because he 
is 'nice'.  I abhorr the man *because* he is 'nice'.
 
Remus Lupin is always kind, polite, politically correct, always 
prepared to find excuses for people's behaviour and so *nice* it 
scares me. The man is so *fake* it hurts! He never shows what he 
feels, truly feels. He never get angry, never shouts at people, even 
when confronted with Pettigrew (finding out after twelve years that 
the friend he supposedly mourned was a traitor and the friend he 
condemned to Azkaban was innocent) he keeps his cool and shows no 
great emotion. He's so eventempered that it is subhuman. But for all 
his 'niceness' (or perhaps because of it) he is also incredibly 
manipulative: he knows how to win people and how to piss off those 
he dislikes in such a way that he *still* looks nice (that 
BoggartSnape incident was no accident, I tell you).
 
Passive-agressive one might say.
 
Practically dissolve-into-the-background bland-natured.
 
I don't trust people like that. Because they are slumbering 
volcanos. Everybody thinks they're harmless little hills. Until the 
lava erupts. 
 
In fact, a couple of weeks ago I when I browsed through the public 
library, uneasy because I couldn't put my finger on why I was so 
suspicious about Remus Lupin I stumbled across Agatha 
Christies' 'Death Comes In The End' (I think it is called - it's the 
one that takes place in Ancient Egypt) and it all clicked. In that 
book a family is nice, and kind and peaceful. Until the father 
brings home a new, unpopular wife. Soon, things fall apart and the 
first few murders happen. And then it turns out that the 
family members aren't all so nice and kind and peaceful. They all 
have a less-than-wonderful side to them that floats on top, now that 
their lives are in turmoil. Except for one: the ever-so-kind, 
stable, but boring brother. He *stays* kind and stable and boring. 
And of course, he turns out to be the killer. 

Then it hit me: I knew why Lupin makes my teeth set on edge. He's 
*too* kind and eventempered. Yes, he has a passive-agressive side, a 
manipulative side, but it is overshadowed with a blanket of... 
*niceness*... that makes me suspiceous.
 
Give me Severus Snape any day. He might not wear all his emotions on 
his sleeve (indeed we see only his anger and disdain, and those 
might well be there because, as an occlumens, he needs to mask his 
more subtle emotions. Not to say that the anger and disdain aren't 
genuine - they are) but he is at least honest in his dislike and 
disdain. He will not 'play nice' and then embarrass you in front of 
the whole school ('whoopsie, who'd have thought that Neville 
Longbottom's boggart would be you, Snape'). He might embarrass you 
in front of the whole school, but he won't be 'nice' about it.
 
I *like* that.
 
Snape is not nice, but he *is* honest about it. Lupin lies. Yes, he 
does. The first thing that springs to mind in the Shrieking Shack 
when he tells Harry that Snape hated James because James was better 
at Quidditch ("probably jealous"). Wtf?! Quidditch? Jealous?! Then 
he goes on about how ashamed he is for deceiving Dumbledore as a student.  He had given his solemn word that he'd lock himself up in the Shack when a werewolf but he breaks that vow to cavort with his animagi friends (and let's hope they never met a human during those 'outings' because werewolfLupin would have ripped him apart) So ashamed he was of breaking his vow that, when returned in an responsible position as teacher, he will keep quiet, let a presumed murderer roam loose amongst his charges (remember the slashed painting and Sirius looming over Ron with a knife?), he intercepts a magic map (which might have shown the Headmaster the whereabouts of the assumed massmurderer), breaks yet again a vow to the Headmaster (that he drink his Wolfsbane Potion and stay indoors on full moon nights) and when he tells us that he is ashamed, he is ashamed for all the *wrong* reasons. He was ashamed of his childhood actions because he broke his word, NOT because he put others into mortal danger.
 
The man is bloody *dangerous*! Far more dangerous than Fenrir 
Greyback (yes, I know some people will gag at this).  He is so bloody 
dangerous *because* he is so nice!
 
He is so nice, you'd hire him as a babysitter.
 
And then he'll 'forget' his potion and eat your baby.
 
But you'll forgive him, you'll forgive him *anything*, because he is 
so *nice*.
  
 
In the immortal words of Stephen Sondheim (from the musical 'Into 
the Woods'):

[LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD after the encounter with the Wolf]:

Mother said,
"Straight ahead,"
Not to delay
or be misled.
I should have heeded
Her advice...
But he seemed so nice.

<snip>

And I know things now,
Many valuable things,
That I hadn't known before:
Do not put your faith 
In a cape and a hood,
They will not protect you
The way that they should.
And take extra care with strangers,
Even flowers have their dangers.
And though scary is exciting,
Nice is different than good.

 
Lupin might be nice, but he's far from good!
 
 
Marion