Nitwit? - Remus John Lupin

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168032

Ceridwen wrote:
<snip>  He had information that Sirius, "known" murderer, "known" to
be after a student, was an Animagus who could shift his shape and
avoid the protections put into place by both school officials and the
Ministry of Magic.  He may have been able to fool himself into
thinking that this wouldn't be too important to tell, but after the
episode of Black slashing the Fat Lady's portrait, and certainly after
he stood over Ron with a knife, he had to see that telling was important.
> 
> He didnt' tell.  Remember, all this time, he thought Sirius had 
betrayed James and Lily and killed Pettigrew.  He had no loyalty to 
Sirius now that might not backfire in his face.  His failure was in 
worrying what Dumbledore might think at his not having spoken up about
Sirius's talent before the slashing incident.  He didn't want 
Dumbledore's disappointment.  He kept his mouth shut, even as this
"dangerous criminal" made deeper and deeper progress into Harry's dorm.
> 
> This went against Dumbledore.  It is Dumbledore's responsibilty, as
head of the school, to ensure the students' safety.  In order to do 
this, he needs all available facts at his disposal.  Remus withheld a
 key fact. <snip>

Carol notes:

Nice post, Ceridwen, and I agree with you. But I want to add that
Lupin withheld more than *a* key fact from Dumbledore.

The only information that Lupin himself admits to withholding is
Sirius Black's being an Animagus, which, of course, enabled Black to
slip past the Dementors guarding the gates (and allowed him to climb
into the stands to watch the Quidditch match undetected). But Lupin
also knew that Black knew more than one secret passageway into the
castle (even if the Hump-backed witch passage was the only one that
was unguarded and unblocked, that's still a way to get inside
Hogwarts) and that he could be hiding in the Shrieking Shack once he
was on Hogwarts grounds (as he clearly was, to have gotten into the
castle twice). As Ceridwen asys, he withheld this information from
Dumbledore even after Black had slashed up the Fat Lady's painting and
Ron's bed curtains with a twelve-inch knife. And it really doesn't
matter that Black wasn't after Harry. He *was* intent on murder and he
*was* terrifying the students. And Lupin *thought* that he had
betrayed the Potters and killed Peter Pettigrew, not to mention twelve
Muggles, yet he said nothing about all these things!

In addition, he kept the Marauder's Map rather than turning it in to
Dumbledore. Had he done so, confessing that he'd withheld all that
information earlier, DD could have spotted Pettigrew on the map and
followed Black and Ron into the Shrieking Shack and prevented all the
events at the end of PoA, from Lupin's failure to take his Wolfsbane
Potion to Pettigrew's escape. Lupin might even have kept his job since
he wouldn't have endangered any students and Snape wouldn't have had
any motive for letting Lupin's condition "slip." I suppose we could
blame it all on the DADA curse instead of Lupin <smile>, but, really,
his behavior was quite irresponsible not only in rushing out without
his potion knowing that students were on the grounds (PP was in Ron's
posket) but throughout the year. Of course, if he hadn't spotted PP on
the map, rushed out without his potion, and transformed into a
werewolf, allowing PP to escape to Voldemort and costing himself his
job, GoF would have been hard up for a plot.

Carol, who thinks that Lupin was concealing a lot more than he admits
to concealing in PoA but thinks that the DADA curse intensified his
weakness and used it to his detriment