Lupin's behavior (Was: CHAPDISC: DH11, The Bribe)

[a_svirn]

No: HPFGUIDX 180581

> Carol again:
> 
> This post is a revised version of my offlist response to a-svirn 
(who
> still doesn't agree with me <g>).
> 
> <snip>> You state that Lupin would place his wife and unborn child 
in the same
> danger as Ted Tonks would have done by remaining with them, but I
> don't think so. Yes, he's a hunted man, but they can be hidden by 
the
> Order (as happens later--and should have happened with Ted Tonks as
> well, IMO), and, yes, he turns into a werewolf once a month, but 
Tonks
> is an Auror, which requires a NEWT in Potions. If anyone besides 
Snape
> could learn to brew Wolfsbane Potion, she could--and must have done
> so, considering that she survived to give birth to her child, and 
the
> baby himself seems to have lived at least a month with his father 
(the
> timeframe of those last few chapters being a bit fuzzy).

a_svirn:
There are two arguments in one, and it doesn't seem to me that they 
easily blend. As I said off-list I perfectly agree with you that Ted 
Tonk's flight doesn't make sense, since he could have been protected 
with Fidelius the same way the Weasleys were. However, for the plot 
purposes Rowling made him a danger to his family. If we are "to 
suspend our disbelief" and read the story as it's written we have to 
take her on her word. And her word is that he did place his family in 
danger (and was in one himself) because of his blood status. By the 
same token Lupin was at the very least an embarrassment (and very 
likely a danger as well) to *his* family, because of his status of 
a "half-bred". Whether Tonks could or could not brew Wolfsbane is 
immaterial – it is not that kind of danger. It the danger of 
consorting with undesirables. 

> Carol: 
> To return to the scene at 12 GP, I think that Harry sees Lupin as
> looking for a means of escape from his family responsibilities,
> whether it's death protecting the Chosen One (a la Sirius) or merely
> going on an adventure with HRH (again, a desire more characteristic 
of
> Sirius, who seemed to view Harry as a surrogate James, than of the
> more reserved Remus, whose failures to act are more conspicuous than
> his actions, IMO. At any rate, his wish to abandon his wife and son 
to
> accompany HRH (and find out what they're up to) is very different 
from
> his choice to fight in the battle of Hogwarts to make a better world
> for his son 

a_svirn:
How? How it is different? Were Harry, Ron and Hernione going on some 
protracted World Tour? Was not their quest about defeating Voldemort 
and making a better world? 

> Carol:
(whom he isn't abandoning in that instance; he's leaving
> him in the good care of his mother-in-law and, he thinks, of his
> wife).

a_svirn:
And before that he was leaving his child in whose care? Wolves? 

> Carol:
*That's* not a suicide wish; that's a man defending what he
> believes in (Lupin at his best, and we don't even get to see him!).
> But following HRH to do he doesn't know what rather than staying 
home
> with the wife who loves and needs him (he can't, unfortunately, go 
out
> and earn a living, which is one cause of his distress or depression 
or
> whatever it is, but he can provide her emotional support at a
> stressful time in her life) is just, as Harry points out,
> irresponsible and reckless.  "Parents shouldn't leave their kids
> unless--unless they've got to," says Harry. 

a_svirn:
Harry was spouting platitudes, that's all there is to it. Men were 
leaving their wives pregnant and otherwise to go fighting from the 
dawn of time, and no one thought them cowards or suicidal. It does 
not even remotely resemble the Marauders outings at school (which 
weren't cowardly and suicidal either, though, of course they were 
reckless). And I really don't understand the argument 
about "following HRH to do what he doesn't know". He has been doing 
exactly that all his years in the Order. Every member of the order 
has been doing this very thing, because that was Dumbledore's style 
of leadership. Their motto, and certainly Lupins's motto was "it's 
not our business to know". Have they all been suicidal then? Or 
irresponsible? 

Personally, I think it was the rest of the order who were 
irresponsible, sitting on their butts and waiting for three seventeen-
year-olds to do the entire job. At least, Lupin  *tried* to do 
something. If it wasn't for his fractured relationship with Tonks his 
offer would have been perfectly reasonable. They could use help, and 
he was an asset in the Defence from the Dark Arts. Even his rather 
low self-esteem was an asset in this case, since he wouldn't mind 
taking orders from a teen-ager. Add to that that he really couldn't 
do anything to help his own family under the circumstances, and he 
was really an ideal choice. I am sure even Tonks herself would have 
agreed to that – being an Auror and all. The only problem was that 
his decision was quite obviously one-sided, he didn't consult Tonks 
or asked her opinion. He couldn't face the consequences of his 
marriage – which is of course, bad form. Still I'd say Harry had no 
business to insult him. Except, that it seemed to have worked for 
Lupin, so maybe he needed it. 

a_svirn