Werewolves and RL equivalents

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 170435

Jen wrote:  
> Except it was never about a job since Lupin wasn't coming back
anyway due to the DADA curse.  Snape may not have known about the
curse but he didn't even give Lupin and Dumbledore a chance to settle
the matter before he decided to act on his own.  Snape happens to be
in the castle himself only because Dumbledore kept him out of Azkaban
and gave him a second chance and he's playing judge and jury for
Lupin's future.
> 
> I'll have to see proof in DH that Snape had student protection
uppermost in his mind during this slip (and the other times he's 
attributed with protecting students) to believe that was his primary
motive here.  It's possible, it just sure seems like from everything 
that transpired the night before there was an element of revenge at  work.
>
Carol responds:
Regardless of Snape's motive, it was (IMO) Lupin's duty to resign, and
I think that had he not done so, Dumbledore would have requested his
resignation. (As you say, the DADA curse was at work. Lupin could not
have returned regardless of Snape's actions. It was resign or be
fired. He's lucky in comparison with his immediate predecessors.)
Lupin had endangered three students by forgetting to drink his potion,
not to mention that he had kept important information from Dumbledore
all year, and for all Lupin knew, injured Harry. 

It's also unclear which version of the resignation story, Hagrid's or
Lupin's, is correct. (Had Lupin already resigned before Snape "let
slip" to his students that Professor Lupin wouldn't be returning
because he was a werewolf, which is how I imagine him passing on the
information? The time sequence isn't clear, and quite possibly Snape
overheard some of his students wondering at breakfast where Lupin was.
)Surely, Lupin wouldn't have had the nerve to show up, battered as he
was and having endangered three students, as if it were an ordinary
day?) At any rate, Snape certainly knew that Lupin would be resigning
(or asked to do so) assuming that he hadn't done it already, whether
or not he knew about the DADA curse (and how could he not, after
thirteen years of teaching and seven of attending Hogwarts?). Not to
mention that Fudge knew that Lupin had been running around the grounds
in werewolf form and would have made sure that Lupin resigned or was
fired if Dumbledore didn't. Lupin had betrayed Dumbledore's trust and
had to pay the consequences. Too bad he doesn't actually admit to what
he's done wrong, or barely alludes to it, and makes it look like Snape
is to blame. Wrong. Snape brewed the potion; Lupin forgot or neglected
to take it, and even when Snape mentioned it, did not return to the
castle to take it or tell the others to leave the Shrieking Shack so
he could transform in there. 

I don't think that Snape is "playing judge and jury for Lupin's
future." Lupin doesn't have a future at that point if "future" means a
job at Hogwarts. He's just forfeited it through his own irresponsible
behavior--and the DADA curse manipulating him to do so, if it works as
I think it does. (Just how Lupin stays alive without a job is unclear;
I don't think you can conjure food in the WW. He must have lived on
his savings from teaching at Hogwarts for a year. He wouldn't have had
many expenses there, except maybe Grindylows.)

But, yes, one way or another, the DADA curse would have guaranteed
that Lupin didn't return. He's lucky, as Snape is, that Dumbledore
believes in second chances and admits him to the restored Order--and
even luckier that he didn't end up dead or permanently incapacitated
like Quirrell or Lockhart.

Carol, overoptimistically hoping that both Lupin and Snape survive and
that they reach some sort of understanding in DH, having both been
struck by the DADA curse and forced to face the worst in themselves