Snape - a werewolf bigot?? Was: Say it isn't so Lupin!!!

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 170134

> Dana:
> 
> Interesting because Lupin only puts people at risk once a month and 
> only at night time, yet he is treated like he is a danger all the 
> time.  

Pippin:
Actually, we don't have canon that he transforms only at night.
Several of his absences take place during the daytime. But the
greater problem is that there are werewolves like Fenrir who
*are* a danger all the time, not because they're werewolves but
because they've declared war on the WW and allied themselves
with Voldemort. It's wrong for Snape to assume that Lupin
is one of those werewolves, but it would be equally wrong to
assume that he couldn't be. 

> Dana:
> But the problem is that people actually do judge his mistakes harder 
> because he is a werewolf. It is constantly said that he put the trio 
> in danger because it was a full moon night and he forgot his potion 
> and therefore he was wrong because he should remember under all 
> circumstance including emergencies that he is a werewolf first and 
> not just a human.

Pippin:
I've also heard it  claimed that the transformation was already
affecting him and he couldn't be expected to reason clearly, so
it isn't just anti-Lupin listies who think shock is not an adequate
explanation for his behavior. Whatever his state when he
saw Peter on the map, he was apparently calm and in control of
himself and quite self-possessed as he related his past history
and even when Peter was finally forced back to human form. 

To say he was a nervous wreck inside while being apparently
so calm would give truth to Snape's words -- Lupin's behavior
really can't be fathomed in any ordinary way. 

Dana:
> That is what people say Lupin should have done while they are 
> forgetting that Lupin actually never was a threat to anyone because 
> Sirius was there and Sirius, like he did during their school days, 
> can keep a werewolf in check.

Pippin:
Sirius's power to keep a werewolf in check is not absolute. There
were close calls, many of them, even with Prongs to help. Certainly
Snape had no reason to believe that Sirius would keep Lupin in 
check, or even to believe Sirius's claim that he was an animagus.

Dana:
> Snape on the other hand is giving a total pardon for his actions in 
> the shack because he might think Harry was in danger, while him 
> going to the shack had nothing to do with Harry.

Pippin:
It had to do with Harry the moment Snape found the cloak outside the
willow. Snape had to know that Harry would not have willingly 
left it behind. Up to that time, Snape had no evidence that Lupin 
was doing anything wrong, but conversely Snape had just as much
right to prowl the grounds at night as Lupin did. 

OTOH, the cloak was also proof that Harry was out of bounds
and breaking rules again -- not something Dumbledore might
want brought to his attention in front of Macnair and Fudge.
If Harry had reached the Shrieking Shack then he had
left Hogwarts and was outside Dumbledore's jurisdiction, and
the spells of protection on its walls. Dumbledore wouldn't 
want that known either. 

I have not heard anyone give Snape total pardon for his
anti-werewolf prejudice. We're simply saying that JKR is
perfectly capable of holding Snape responsible for his words
while giving Snape honest reasons to suspect Lupin. 

Consider Trelawney. She *is* a more powerful seer than
Firenze and she has a right to claim it, whether she 
really believes it or not.  However that hardly justifies her 
anti-centaur language. Is that too subtle for children to
understand? 

There may be some who analyze the books incompletely,
so that they grasp that Snape and Trelawney are both 
just in their claims and prejudiced in pursuing them,
but don't get the irony that their prejudice is self-defeating. 
But I think it would just make people upset
with the books rather than persuaded that prejudice must
be okay. 

I had an experience like that with a book called The Paul 
Street Boys. I loved it as an adventure story as a child.
As a young teen I was disgusted with what I thought was
the author's pro war stance. Then I read it again as an older
teenager and discovered that the characters' bravery and
patriotism, though brought out by war, were set 
ironically against its futility --something I'd wholly 
missed earlier. I had a good laugh at myself, I can tell you.


Dana:
> JKR is not going to make Lupin ESE for the simple fact that Remus as 
> a human does not have it in him to want to hurt other humans

Pippin:
I doubt that JKR would make Remus such an Uncle Tom. Which of us
doesn't have it in us to hurt other humans?  There'd be no need for 
moral education if we didn't have that power.  But I think JKR has it
in her to show just how demeaning and debilitating such an 
expectation would be. If Remus is made to feel that he's a monster
for having such normal feelings as anger and hate, then it's
only among the other monsters that he would ever feel
worthy of acceptance. Reason enough to cut them too much slack.

I don't think Lupin wants to utterly destroy the WW, any more
than Hermione wants the centaurs to utterly overthrow the WW. But
she didn't mind using them as a stick to beat Umbridge, did she?
And by the time she realized she couldn't control them, matters
were out of her hands.

Pippin