Neville's Boggart / The Marauder's Forays

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 168084

Mike wrote:
> Well, I don't think we are suppose to think the Marauders are
"typical teenage boys". I think we are to understand they are 
exceptional teenage wizards. <snip> They have powers and abilities
which obviate the normal concerns, if one can consider running around
town as Animagi with a Werewolf as somehow bringing up *normal* concerns.
> 
> IMO, the Marauders aren't "typical teenage boys", but they are boys
 of a certain caliber acting within the context of a wizarding world.
Furthermore, I don't think their actions were as reckless as we may 
assign to some RW equivalent, because there isn't suppose to be a RW
equivalent.
> 
> Mike, who will continue to think the Marauders are *cool* because
that is what I think JKR wants me to think of them. ;)
>
Carol responds:
Oh, boy. I'm going to regret getting caught in this thread. Let me
just say that, code or no code, what the Marauders are doing is very
dangerous, and Remus seems to be the one who recognizes this danger
most clearly. He, after all, is the werewolf, the one who would do the
biting, killing or creating a new werewolf if anything goes wrong. For
the other boys, however, it's a great adventure. Note that Sirius
says, "I'm bored. Wish it was a full moon" and Remus responds
"darkly," "You might." He suggests having Sirius test him on
Transfiguration, to which Sirius responds, "I don't need to study that
rubbish. I know it all" (OoP Am. ed. 645). 

I don't know how you would react to a response like that, but I would
consider it rude and arrogant. Sirius is bored. Nothing else matters,
including Remus's feelings. It's not a full moon and studying is
beneath him, as is helping his non-Animagus friend to study for
Transfiguration. (I won't mention the antidote for boredom that arises
later since I'm focusing on Remus, not Severus, at the moment.)

All of the interaction that we see, aside from that little remark,
between Moony and his fellow Marauders relates to his being a
werewolf. (He might as well not be a Prefect since he hides behind a
book when his friends act in a way he disapproves of.) To begin with,
there's his nickname. Then there's Sirius's and James's reaction to
the DADA exam, which focuses solely on the werewolf question. Lupin
joins in the joking, but "implores" James to keep his voice down when
James says, "How thick are you, Wormtail? You run with a werewolf once
a month?" (643). Sirius and James brag about their performance on the
exam. End of exchange.

Now Remus may think that his friends became Animagi to keep him
company and to lessen his pain, but it seems to me more likely that
they did it to show off their talents and because it would be "cool"
to run with a werewolf. Remus is in no position to criticize them, in
case kindness to him is part of their motive, but he also no doubt
feels that if they didn't have the midnight run with him once a month,
they might treat him as the do Wormtail (not Sirius's contemptuous
remark about Wormtai wetting himself). He doesn't have Wolfsbane
potion (it has't been invented yet). Running with his friends is the
only thing that makes his transformations bearable. He knows it's
dangerous, knows he should tell his friends not to do it, but he
can't. he feels that he owes them a debt of gratitude, and he fears to
lose their friendship. As far as I can see, they don't know Remus at
all. He hasn't shared in their self-taught Animagus lessons (and
consequently doesn't share Sirius's attitude that he "knows it all").
What does Remus, a quiet boy who fears the loss of friendship above
all else have in common with the egotistical Quidditch star who's
always showing off or the arrogant handsome Sirius, who can't be
bothered to acknowledge a female classmate's smile? Would he be their
friend if he weren't a werewolf? 

Maybe their friendship fell apart long before the suspicion that Remus
was Voldemort's spy. James was a married man with a baby son. I doubt
very much that he was still running around on moonlit nights with a
werewolf. And if he wasn't, most likely Sirius and Peter weren't,
either. Yes, Lupin must have had some talent in Transfiguration to
have had a hand in making the Marauder's Map, but even if his talent
equalled that of his friends, his confidence didn't, and his talent
was not the basis for their friendship. To Sirius and James as much as
to Severus once he found out the truth, Remus was first and foremost a
werewolf. (I'm not talking about post-Shrieking Shack Sirius and Remus
here; I'm talking about the teenagers we see in "Snape's Worst
Memory," who are anything but "cool" in my opinion, nor do I think JKR
wishes us to see them as being so. Harry's initial shock and
disapproval was the right reaction to that scene, IMO. Granted, he was
focusing on their arrogance and their bullying, but he certainly
didn't think they were "cool." Too bad he didn't retain that attitude
and is back to idealizing James, wanting *him* to be the Half-Blood
Prince, who was also, evidently, "cool" in Harry's and Ron's view.)

Anyway, far from obviating normal concerns, greater power should bring
with it greater responsibility--which is why DD wanted Tom Riddle at
Hogwarts, after all--to learn to control his powers and use them
responsibly. I'm not saying that MWPP's failure to learn
responsibility was as great as his, but talent does not excuse the
reckless endangerment of fellow wizards any more than it would excuse
the reckless endangerment of Muggles. I don't care whether that's the
code of the schoolground or not. The Marauders weren't concerned about
anyone else's view of them in this instance. They were having "fun,"
risking the lives of the townspeople--and Remus's exposure as a
werewolf. And the same indifference to Remus's feelings and future
occurs again when Sirius tricks Severus into entering the Shrieking
Shack. Severus wasn't the only one in danger. What would have happened
to Remus had he bitten and killed or infected a classmate? Sirius is
*using* him, if not to commit murder, as Severus thinks, at least to
terrorize him. The risk to *Remus* never enters his mind.

Carol, for whom unusual talent does not excuse MWPP's endangering the
people of Hogsmeade, not does "boys will be boys"