Werewolves and RL equivalents (was:Re: Snape - a werewolf bigot?...)

[lanval1015]

No: HPFGUIDX 170324

> lealess:
> 
> Lupin is being passive-aggressive when Snape comes into the 
classroom 
> with the potion and tells him he should drink it directly.  
There's a 
> little power play going on, perhaps a hangover from Marauder days, 
> perhaps the result of having Harry in the room.

Lanval:
Let's have a look at that scene again.

PoA, Scholastic HB, p.156:

"Well,...yeah," said Harry. He was suddenly feeling a lot 
happier. "Professor Lupin, you know the dementors--"

He was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Come in," called Lupin.

The door opened, and in came Snape. He was carrying a goblet, which 
was smoking faintly, and stopped at the sight of Harry, his black 
eyes narrowing.

"Ah, Severus," said Lupin, smiling. "Thanks very much. Could you 
leave it here on the desk for me?"

Snape set down the smoking goblet, his eyes wandering between Harry 
and Lupin.

"I was just showing Harry my Grindylow," said Lupin pleasantly, 
pointing at the tank.

"Fascinating," said Snape, without looking at it. "You should drink 
that directly, Lupin."

"Yes, I will," said Lupin.

"I made an entire cauldronful," Snape continued. "If you need more."

"I should probably take some more tomorrow, Thanks very much, 
Severus."

"Not at all," said Snape, but there was a look in his eye Harry 
didn't like. He backed out of the room, unsmiling and watchful.

End quote.

This is Halloween. By my count, if this is the week leading up to 
full moon, it will be the third time the moon is full since the 
beginning of Lupin's stay at Hogwarts. Let's assume he does need to 
take it more than once in that week. Let's say twice at minimum. 
That would make it about the fifth or sixth time (again, at minimum) 
that Snape has supplied Lupin with the potion. Never mind the fact 
that he (or DD)may have discussed the effects/dosage/instructions 
with Lupin before. Surely he knows by now that it must be drunk 
quickly.

Why, WHY, couldn't Snape just set down the potion, as Lupin politely 
asked? Why press it even further, after Lupin states clearly, and 
without any annoyance, impatience, etc, that he *will* drink it 
directly? Which he does, I might add. "If you need more?" Please, 
Sevvie, don't make me laugh. Snape's the one who brews the stuff; 
he  knows when the moon will be full -- who better to know 
exactly when, how often, and how much his "patient" will need, but 
the manufacturer and Potions Master Extraordinare, Severus Snape.

Could it have to do with Harry being in the room (or anyone, for 
that matter)? I agree completely. What would amount to Snape's 
brightest possible moment of this particular year? maybe to see 
Lupin fired? Anything to make him squirm a bit about his secret will 
do, though. Even if it's only in front of the Potter boy. Because 
even he, it turns out, asks questions, which must be evaded. 

Then the next week, when Lupin's *out of order* -- how about a 
werewolf discussion in class? And an essay, just to make them delve 
a little deeper into the subject... 

Oh, I agree that there's a power play going on here.




>Lealess:
> Lupin is like some who know they have to take medicine to stay 
well, 
> but inwardly rebel against the whole idea of being ill in the 
first 
> place, or being controlled.  I've known three manic-depressive 
> people.  One of them encouraged me on an art project.  One was 
> married to a second cousin.  One was the girlfriend of a 
coworker.  
> They were great people to meet.  Even so, they all stopped taking 
> their medicine at one point, because they were feeling fine, or 
> because they didn't like its side effects.  Two attacked their 
> partners with knives while the partners were sleeping.  One burned 
> down his studio, which was in the basement of an apartment 
building.  
> They all *knew* they could be dangerous if not medicated, and yet, 
> they chose to go off medication.
> 

Lanval:
Sad, but hardly comparable here. People diagnosed with a mental 
disorder, IMO, suffer from said disorder all the time, not just once 
a month, until they are (maybe, maybe never; often those are 
lifelong conditions) pronounced cured by some medical authority. 
Who can say to what extent the medication works? The human brain is 
a pretty complex thing. Perhaps the decision to stop taking the meds 
was caused by their condition as well, an impulse that could not be 
suppressed by the meds? Kind of like the surprising amount of 
suicides by teenagers/children who took drugs against depression. 
Clearly a result most people, including medical experts, had not 
expected.

Lupin, on the other hand, is a perfectly sane, normal person with a 
normally functioning brain for 27 days of the moon cycle. I see no 
indication that he resents being forced to take medication, feels he 
doesn't need it, is sick of being sick, etc, which are usually the 
reasons people give when they go off their meds against orders.


Lealess:

> The shadow inside Lupin is quite real.  Prejudice against him 
can't 
> be excused, if he's willing to control his actions.  If he doesn't 
> accept responsibility for his own potentially harmful behavior, I 
> don't see how he can blame others, as I think he does.  He tells 
> Harry that Snape told the Slytherins about him being a werewolf, 
> implying the blame for his firing lies with Snape.  I don't blame 
> Snape.  Given Lupin's blaise attitude towards taking the potion, 
and 
> the subsequent results, the students had the right to know and 
> protect themselves on the full moon.
> 
> I don't really "blame" the manic-depressive people I knew, because 
I 
> haven't walked in their shoes and can't understand their 
> experiences.  Still, I learned to be aware of signs of missed 
> medication.  I think that's fair.
> 
Lanval:
Okay, again, where's the canon for Lupin being a habitual childish 
brat about taking his potion, and being willfully irresponsible? We 
see ONE instance, and as I've pointed out above, it's very much open 
to interpretation. I see no evidence that he had any intention of 
not drinking it. Calling that a blase attitude is going a bit far, I 
think, and mostly conjecture. 

As for the SS scene later, it's been discussed. I'm with those who 
think he *may* just be excused for that one lapse, given the 
unforeseeable and extraordinary, to say the least, cirumstances 
(where was Snape, anyway? Here he shows up in the afternoon in 
Lupin's office, one would think he would have done the same on that 
afternoon of the SS scene.... but no, he tells Lupin "I've just been 
to your office", and at that point it's evening, way past dinner), 
and that Snape obviously could have chosen to do the safe thing and 
left Lupin in the shack.

Also, and I think this has become somewhat lost in the discussion: 
there are many werewolves in the WW, and as far as we know, 
only one who canonically is being supplied with the potion on a 
regular basis. Until HBP, we never hear of any attacks, which of 
course doesn't mean there aren't any. But clearly most werewolves 
take *some* sort of precaution, which clearly works -- because 
otherwise, as someone recently pointed out, the entire WW population 
would be either dead or werewolves by now.  

Lupin lived with this disease for many years without the potion, and 
so do other werewolves. Any room with solid doors (the Shack was no 
armored room, no dungeon -- the windows were boarded up, that was 
all) and a good lock will do. Preferably a silencing charm of some 
sort (or is that an entirely 'fannish' concept'?)Lupin's parents 
certainly didn't need a Weeping Willow to keep him under control. 

So what *if* Lupin had 'passive-aggressively' decided he'd rather 
not take Sevvie's smelly concoction, and submit to an agonizing 
transformation instead, just for fun and because he hates being 
told what to do?  Would he have been stupid (career-destroyingly, 
friendship-with-DD-destroyingly, murderously stupid!) enough to just 
lie in bed, waiting for the moon to come out? Or, perhaps, he would 
have retired to the Shrieking Shack, the dungeons, *any* safe room, 
whatever, and locked himself in, as he has likely done all his adult 
life. Until he came to Hogwarts, where Snape supplied him 
with the potion, brewed on DD's orders.

This notion that the Hogwarts students's safety somehow depended 
solely on Lupin taking his wolfsbane potion is, IMO, blown a good 
deal out of proportion.