Lupin in the Shrieking Shack was Re: On the perfection of moral virtues.

[pippin_999]

No: HPFGUIDX 169110

> Mike:
> OK, Head of House means you get to tie up and gag all those flunky, 
> non-Head of House Professors. <eg>

Pippin:
You keep trying to posit  that Snape and Lupin have equal
authority to decide what to do with Sirius. But actually, they both
must have orders from Dumbledore. The teachers have twice been 
told to search the castle for Black, and must therefore have 
some idea of what Dumbledore wants them to do if they find him.

We don't know what those instructions were, but it's highly unlikely
that they were "Sit down and tell three students, one of whom is
seriously injured,  your life story, while Black, who is known to 
be armed and dangerous, just sits there." 


Lupin was not acting like an innocent man. 

If Lupin indeed has evidence that Sirius is innocent, then he
should be getting it to Dumbledore at once, not explaining it
to Harry. Exactly what was Lupin expecting Harry  to do, 
once he was convinced?  Well, we know that, he expected
Harry to witness an extra-legal execution. Seems to me
Lupin's got no moral right to complain if he was bound and
gagged in an effort to prevent that. 

OTOH, if there was no evidence,  then Lupin should be treating 
Sirius as a dangerous outlaw. Snape doesn't know what 
Lupin is  up to, but logic shows that Lupin is  not behaving as 
Dumbledore's man. 

I'm not going to defend Snape for losing his temper or
venting his prejudices against werewolves, but just like
a paranoid person can have real enemies, even a
prejudiced person can have  legitimate concerns.

Imagine what would have happened if Hagrid had found
Sirius -- he'd have torn him limb from limb. McGonagall
would at least have wanted Dumbledore informed at once.
I don't think that either one of them would have been
at all  understanding if Lupin had  insisted they were making
a mistake, and accused them of pursuing their schoolday 
grudges (which they both had) against Sirius. 

I don't understand the minus one hundred on the morality
scale. Snape was cleared of charges -- he'd earned his  right
to be considered no more a Death Eater than Albus Dumbledore.
And no, I don't think Dumbledore was wrong about that. If
he was wrong about that he was wrong about everything.


Pippin