Lupin and Neville's boggart

[Ken Hutchinson]

No: HPFGUIDX 169153

>
> wynnleaf:
>
> 
> Why does Lupin choose Neville for the first person in the boggart 
> lesson?  
> 

Ken:

The implication from the text is that Lupin wanted to show confidence
in Neville in the face of Severus' mocking of his competence. Neville
badly needs someone to have confidence in him. Lupin is one of the few
people in the WW who have enough sensitivity to mentor someone like
Neville. I sincerely hope he doesn't turn out ESE!

> wynnleaf:
>
> Later in POA, Harry asked Lupin why he didn't give Harry a chance to 
> tackle the boggart in class.  Lupin claims that it's because he 
> assumed that Harry's boggart would be Voldemort (in fact, this *was* 
> Harry's first thought as well), and Lupin didn't think it a good 
> idea to have a boggart change into Voldemort right there in class.
> 
> Before the rest of the books came out, that explanation made sense.  
> Now it doesn't.
> 
> We now know that Lupin was a member of the Order at the time of the 
> Potter's deaths, *as well as* when Frank and Alice Longbottom were 
> crucioed into insanity.  

Ken:

This is a long shot but I've read somewhere that Rowling reworked the
story at some point and shifted things a bit. I don't know how valid
that claim is or what it is based on. If it is true then perhaps Lupin
hadn't been a member of the Order (which perhaps might not have
existed) at the time PoA was written. Even if untrue I think there are
reasons why Lupin's story can be believed.

> wynnleaf:
>
> If Lupin *assumed* that Harry's boggart was Voldemort, shouldn't 
> have he assumed that Neville's boggart would relate to being 
> crucioed into insanity by death eaters?  Yet Lupin chose Neville 
> *even before* asking what his greatest fear was.
> 

Ken:

I don't think I buy this line of reasoning. Lupin assumed that Harry's
boggart would be Voldemort because Harry had actually faced Voledmort
twice in the past two years. He is not going back to infant terrors in
Harry's case and therefore probably not in Neville's either. I'd guess
that Lupin already suspected that Snape and/or his gran would figure
in Neville's boggart experience. 

> wynnleaf:
>
> Now one might think that Lupin's asking Neville to relate his 
> greatest fear lets Lupin off the hook, so to speak.  But consider 
> the consequences of the situation if Neville had been forced to say, 
> in front of the whole class, "my greatest fear is being crucioed 
> into insanity by the Lestranges."  

Ken:

Perhaps Lupin would not have pressed Neville on the issue if he had
seemed reluctant. Lupin seems sensitive enough to me to have detected
Neville's reticence and to have let Neville gracefully off the hook.
Given the exchange that had just taken place with Snape, Lupin didn't
have to be a genius detective like Sherlock Holmes (though I would
prefer Monk!)to expect the answer he got from Neville.

Ken