Werewolves and RL equivalents!

pippin_999 foxmoth at qnet.com
Wed Jun 20 14:54:34 UTC 2007


No: HPFGUIDX 170488

> Mike:
> Once again, Magpie, you and I agree. I too think it all stems from 
> the Prank. And Snape has never gotten over his boyhood grudge.
> 
> This brings up a question, that I'm sure Pippin would like to expound 
> on, ;-) Snape is on his "second chance" with Dumbledore. Where's 
> Lupin's "second chance"? Could Lupin, and Sirius through his silence, 
> have left out a few details from the explanation of the Prank? Might 
> Lupin and Sirius already be on their "second chances"? Meaning that 
> Lupin might not have been as innocent of events as he presented them 
> to the Trio in the Shack.
> 

Pippin (who can't resist expounding):
 Ah, clever JKR. She gets us all hung up on Snape's charge that
Lupin was in on the prank itself, and gets us to ignore the
fact that Lupin should in any case have kept  the knowledge
of how to get into the willow  to himself and not shared
it with a reckless prankster like Sirius.

Dumbledore apparently didn't learn that Sirius was an animagus
and had been running with the werewolf,  but it could hardly be
concealed that Sirius and James had learned that Lupin was a 
werewolf, that he went to the willow to transform, and that Lupin 
must have told them how to enter it.

It sets up a nice parallel with eavesdropper!Snape. Even though
Snape didn't know what Voldemort would be doing with the
information, he could have reasonably foreseen that it would
endanger innocent people.  Likewise Lupin should have known
that Sirius would use his secret to cause trouble.

IMO, that was Lupin's first chance (and Sirius's as well.)
 Dumbledore forgave them.  But when Sirius seemingly
betrayed him a second time, Dumbledore let him be
sent to Azkaban. 

Then, in PoA,  Dumbledore learned that Lupin  had  betrayed 
his trust for the second time. Lupin left Hogwarts, but 
Dumbledore  let him remain a part of the Order. 

I think Lupin's kindness to Harry blinded Dumbledore as it
seems to have blinded so many readers, and contrary to
his custom  he gave Lupin a third chance for Harry's sake.

This works structurally in that Dumbledore's stated weakness,
caring about Harry too much, leads to the mistake of trusting
recklessly in Lupin. OTOH, no one has ever really
come up with a good reason for Dumbledore to be soft on Snape.
Certainly it can't be Snape's tenderness towards Harry!

Snape claims and Harry supposes that Dumbledore's 
weakness is  seeing only the good in people. But this is not 
borne out by canon. Dumbledore doesn't see only the good
in Sirius or Scrimgeour, nor does he fall for the claim that
the stories about Riddle are lies. 

But Harry does not and will not want to believe that Dumbledore's
trust in Snape was justified. He does not want to face
his own guilt in going to the Ministry and in weakening Dumbledore.
And yet, if Lupin is the real culprit in the death of Sirius and
in helping the DE's enter the castle, then only if Harry faces up
to and forgives himself for his own failings can the real
culprit be found!

Pippin
who thinks that Snape called Tonks's werewolf patronus 'weak'
because the Secret Keeper spell wouldn't let him say 'evil'.





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