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

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 170406

  
> > Dungrollin:
> > Snape is the ultimate ESE!Lupiner. He is *paranoid* about Lupin.
> > 
> > Magpie:
> > Hee! Agreed.
> 
> Mike:
> Excellent Dung!
> <snip>.
> 
> Mike:
> Yes, this is what I'm thinking. The Prank gave Snape an irrational 
> fear of werewolves that has carried through to adulthood and morphed 
> into a prejudice or bigotry against people who are afflicted with 
> lycanthropy. It's not just Lupin the werewolf that Snape hates, it's 
> the whole werewolf community that he despises. He has projected what 
> happened to him as the benchmark for all werewolf behavior. And the 
> sad part is that appears Lupin was not *in* on the Prank. We may find 
> out different in DH.

Pippin:
I agree Snape is an ESE!Lupiner, but is it paranoia? What if he
has actual reasons to believe that Lupin has betrayed the Order?
Snape is not the only one who suspected him of that.
You would think if Snape backed Umbridge's anti-werewolf crusade,
he'd show her more support. But he doesn't. 

I think Snape goes after Lupin-as-werewolf because it's the one
charge he thinks he can prove: a bit like the US nailing Al Capone for
tax evasion. 

Snape does not express any animosity towards werewolves in general
when Lupin is not present. The essay about recognizing and killing
werewolves scandalizes the students only because of its length--
not because recognizing and killing werewolves is something a
decent wizard wouldn't do. 

If Lupin is the only werewolf at Hogwarts (Fudge says he let 
Dumbledore hire *werewolves*) then Snape's only trying to 
expose the one, and we can't say that the essay is against
werewolves in general. But if there are more than one, then 
Snape has apparently taught companionably with them for years.
My bet would be Professor Vector, as that would put Hermione
in an excellent position to guess, especially as she had  the
time turner.  

The werewolf is an XXXXX monster in its transformed state, 
"of murderous intent and no human  conscience", " a known 
wizard killer, impossible to train or domesticate." The
wolfsbane potion makes the werewolf tame, but only as 
much as his  human conscience permits. 

We know that Lupin's human conscience did not restrain him 
from trying to murder Pettigrew. I think Snape predicted as
much. Snape was saying, IMO, that even with wolfsbane, Lupin
is not tame, not because he is a werewolf but because he
is all too humanly murderous.

There is a very common assumption, which Fenrir's appearance
ought to have undermined, that a werewolf is harmless when it's
not transformed, as though lycanthropes were somehow 
protected from having murderous designs on their own account. 

Pippin