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

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 180601

> > a_svirn:
> > I don't understand it. How can a character be a voice of readers?! 
> 
> zgirnius:
> By saying what we would like to say to the character ourselves? 
> Though, if the author imagined her readers would want a certain thing 
> to be said, and wrote the scene to produce this effect, it might be 
> more accurate to suggest it was the voice of the author. 

Magpie:
Yes, that is what would make him a voice of the reader--any time you 
give a character the words that the readers would logically be thinking 
about something. Or sometimes the characters ask questions the readers 
would have been asking. I think Ron's acting like the voice of the 
reader when he rattles off how pointless the camping trip seems to be, 
for instance.

However, I don't think any of that applies here to Harry, speaking for 
this reader. All I'd seen of Lupin/Tonks was a weird relationship where 
Lupin was never happy and Tonks was blissfully unaware of her husband's 
state of mind and everyone else said he should be with her and ignored 
his ambivalence as well. So I wasn't much surprised when he tried to 
duck out again, since none of the issues Lupin had with being with 
Tonks were ever addressed, just overrided by everyone else who said 
they shouldn't matter. (Lupin being Lupin bowed to the pressure and 
shut up, but that never seemed like a good idea to me in HBP either.)

When Harry started lecturing Lupin it was out of left field to me for a 
reader. Why would I suddenly think that Lupin was being a coward and a 
daredevil--which as a_svirn points out are strange things to be at the 
same time. The idea is supposed to be he's more afraid of being married 
than being killed, but that still sounded more like some random kid 
making up motivations for some adult he doesn't know that well, about a 
marriage he knew nothing about (oh, and not to mention a disease he has 
no experience living with) so I certainly didn't buy it. 

Even if Lupin didn't truly want to be with Tonks and really did have a 
horror of the danger he put her and the baby in (and a horror of 
creating a baby that would be under the same stigma he was) I didn't 
think that made him a coward--maybe because those thoughts always 
seemed perfectly reasonable to me to begin with. I mean, Lupin is the 
only werewolf here, he's the one who really knows what it's like and 
really knows what he fears. And Harry's never been very good at reading 
situations before--here, in fact, Harry's blatantly putting his own 
issues on Lupin in a way not that different than Sirius projected his 
feelings about James on Harry. 

Harry the orphan has issues with dead parents (he also has his own 
issues about doing things on his own with little help). Lupin the 
werewolf has issues with infecting others with his own stigmatizing 
illness, hurting those he loves, and therefore has a desire to use his 
life in a positive way that actually saves people. Sister Magpie as a 
reader has different questions and desires than both of them, wasn't 
angered at Lupin for leaving Tonks under protection and thought it 
ridiculous that the whole Order wasn't already doing exactly what Lupin 
offered to do. And she wonders what the scene would have been like if 
Lupin had shot back with his own meta commentary, demanding to know why 
Harry had to play the lone boy martyr hero when so much was at stake 
when it would have made far more sense to work together to destroy 
Voldemort.

-m (who felt like Tonks and Lupin's whole relationship came across in 
the end like one big delusion of Tonks and who thought DH was the best 
thing that ever happened to the Remus/Sirius ship!)