Lupin/ Father Figures

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 165020

Debbie:
Carol earlier:
> (And BTW, we know that DD placed an ad in the Daily Prophet after
Lockhart was incapacitated; it's one of the things he mentions in the
post-Basilisk interview with Harry. So probably that's how Lupin found
out about the job, and DD, given both the Black situation and his
policy of sheltering strays, not to mention that he actually knew
something about Dark creatures, would have been happy to hire him.)
> 
> Debbie:
> I appreciate your encyclopedic knowledge of canon; I had forgotten
that DD had placed an ad.  Yet since Lupin seems to view himself as
all but unemployable, I'm not convinced he would respond to an ad. 
After Lockhart (who *is* the type to respond to an ad), I think DD had
to recruit the DADA professors, and after GoF, he ran out of options.
<snip>

Carol again:
That's also a possibility. Maybe no one responded to the ad and DD
recruited Lupin as he recruited the real Mad-Eye in GoF. It does seem
like more than coincidence that Sirius Black's old friend is the DADA
teacher when Black is supposedly out to murder Harry. But *if* Lupin
applied for the job on his own initiative (and the peeling letters on
his suitcase, "Professor R. J. Lupin," suggest that he's been teaching
somebody somewhere), Dumbledore would not have turned him down. Maybe
DD hoped, as he had hoped when he made Lupin a Prefect, that Lupin's
knowledge of his old friend could be used to protect the students. If
so, he was wrong. Lupin's desire to protect his secrets, and his
ability to lie to himself, made the attacks on the Fat Lady and on
Ron's bedcurtains possible. And he should have turned in the
Marauder's Map to Dumbledore even if it meant confessing that he was
one of the makers and that his friends were Animagi. But he placed his
own job security and Dumbledore's (unfounded) trust above the
students', and particularly Harry's, safety.

Debbie:
> This is what I meant by dangerousness.  It was dangerous to Lupin's
own defense mechanisms.

Carol:
Okay. I agree, then. Lupin's secretiveness is a form of
self-protection, and he's hiding more than his being a werewolf (which
DD and the staff already know). He's concealing everything he knows
about Sirius Black that could be useful in catching him, and he
doesn't want Harry to know how close he was to Sirius Black and James
Potter as a boy. Every scene between Harry and Lupin is full of missed
opportunities for one to confess something to the other. (Harry
decides not to tell Lupin about the "Grim" or the conversation he
overheard in the Three Broomsticks. Lupin could have spared Harry that
painful eavesdropping scene if he'd told Harry that Black was his
godfather. Is his motive for secrecy the same as Mr. Weasley's, to
keep Harry from going after Black, or self-protection, or both? He
doesn't even tell Harry how he knows that the Marauder's Map is a
Map--or how to work it--and Harry, who likes and trusts him, doesn't
pursue the matter.

Debbie: 
> In addition, while Lupin may fail at being a father figure, in PoA
he demonstrates an ability and an interest in providing the kind of
mentorship one might expect from a good teacher, giving hours of his
free time to each Harry the Patronus, and giving good advice (doing a
much better job than Snape in the Snape's Grudge chapter after Draco
sees Harry's head in Hogsmeade). <snip>

Carol:
Oh, yes. Lupin can pull a very effective guilt trip when he so chooses
(in contrast to Snape, whose resentment of James gets in the way) and
hold back crucial information about the Marauder's Map at the same time. 

And did you notice all the excuses he makes to postpone or try to
curtail the Patronus lessons (which Harry only wants so that he can
defeat Slytherin at Quidditch without being distracted by Dementors?

"I'll try and help. But it'll have to wait until next term, I'm
afraid. I have a lot to do before the holidays. I chose a very
inconvenient time to fall ill" (PoA Am. ed. 189). 

"I don't pretend to be an expert at fighting Dementors, Harry. Quite
the contrary" (189).

"Lupin looked paler than usual. 'Harry, if you don't want to continue,
I will more than understand'" (239).

"Listen, Harry.--perhaps we should leave it at that for tonight. This
charm is ridiculously advanced. I shouldn't have suggested putting you
through this" (241).

"'Can we have another go? Just one more go?'
"'Not now,' said Lupin firmly. 'You've had enough for tonight'" (242).

Harry has had glimpses, or rather he's heard voices, recalling the
deaths of his mother and father at Godric's Hollow. Is Lupin merely
feeling compassion for Harry, feeling that putting him through the
lessons with a Boggart!Dementor is somehow worse than facing a real
Dementor? Are Harry's memories so painful for Lupin that he wants to
stop the lessons regardless of the consequences for Harry? Is Lupin
worried that those memories will reveal something about *him* that he
doesn't want Harry to know? 

BTW, Lupin's sharp reaction when Harry asks him if he knew Sirius
Black ("Lupin turned very quickly. 'What gives you that idea?' he said
sharply" (PoA Am. ed. 242) reminds me of Aunt Petunia when Vernon asks
her about the Potters in SS/PS ("As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley
looked shocked and angry. . . . 'No,' she said sharply. 'Why?'" [SS
7]) Both Lupin and Petunia are hiding something.

Carol, who doesn't deny that Lupin can be an effective teacher when he
so chooses and that he has a good grasp of adolescent psychology but
still feels that Lupin's selfish spinelessness is more dangerous than
Snape's sarcasm