I don't think its as lofty as that. He's not really fighting for society, just his friends and himself.

I hate Remus/Tonks because Tonks is way cooler than he is, plus every author and their mother who writes Harry/Tonks feels the need to address the Remus situation. Plus he gets in the way of an awesome pairing just like fucking Bill.

 

Eh, I think it's one of the better canon pairings, myself. It was one that I did not see coming, one that had no ridiculous contrivances to make happen, and seemed the most realistically presented. Rather than two teenagers finding eternal true love at their provincial boarding school, it's two adults fighting together in a secret war who have a mutual attraction that grows into something more, but is hampered by the insecurities of one party. I could totally see that happening, and in fact have seen something quite similiar. Never seen a couple that got together before they were eighteen stay together forever, though.

I think one of the best parts of the pairing is that it happens almost entirely off-camera. We don't have to put up with Harry's asinine contributions (aside from bitch-slapping Remus in DH for being a twat) or Rowling losing the plot to digress for a hundred pages about how Tonks tries to date someone else to make Remus jealous or Lupin staring at the moon and cutting himself or whatever the hell goes through Rowling's head when she tries to write romance.

 

Not especially related but just a quirk of canon I can't get past:

They gather at 4 Privet drive, set up a half-dozen of the weaker members to disguise themselves as Harry with Polyjuice and Tonks is going to ride with Ron...

She's a metamorphmagus, awesome on a broom and an Auror. Why isn't she playing a Harry?

 

Maybe there's something to the idea of Metamorphmagi not being able to swap genders? And who knows how something like Polyjuice interacts with the ability to change your features at will. Or maybe JK just didn't take any of that into account, including Tonks' skillset. Yeah, let's go with that last one.

 

She wouldn't really have to swap genders though - it's not like any of the Death Eaters would be getting a close look at her. She could just make her hair short and black, mimick Harry's body size etc. and she'd probably be pretty indistinguishable from him during a high speed broom race a night.

Maybe they left Tonks as she is because she's pretty easy to recognize and it's known she's an Auror. If you were a Death Eater, would you guess that the real Harry is with Hagrid or one of the few Aurors in the Order?

 

I don't think he was a waste of words. In fact, to me, almost all of Lupin's scenes in PoA are quite memorable, and the third book is better for them.

Lupid did, however, slip out of the spotlight with the advent of Sirius' presence in Harry's life. Yes, Rowling probably should have thrown in a scene during OotP to bridge the gap between his prominent PoA relevance and his mild HBP/DH relevance.

As for him being with Tonks, I couldn't care less. Canon Tonks was just as irrelevant as Lupin was, if not more so.

 

Ah, but that's just it. Tonks is allowed to be irrelevant. Lupin ought to have been far more relevant. He, after all, was one of James Potter's best friends. He should have had a far greater impact and played a greater role in Harry's life than he did. At least, in my opinion.

 

Why? I don't know much about my parents best friends.

And if my current best friends died I wouldn't take care of their kids or go out of my way to visit them or adopt them and I highly doubt I am a minority.

Harry: Why did you never visit or save me from the Dursleys!!

Remus: I was mates with your Dad in school, then he knocked someone up at 20 and went into hiding. Fuck off.

 

I guess I'm different then, because I'd want to make sure my best friend's kid was doing alright and would feel obligated to tell him/her about his/her parents, stories that I know he/she couldn't have heard from his/her guardians, and keep a close eye on them and make an attempt to be a part of his/her life, until he/she is at least of age and tells me to fuck off. But then again, I regard my closest of friends as family.

 

I agree with both of you. As a person, Lupin has no obligation to visit Harry. As a character, however, he could have been more visible to readers.

 

In canon, Harry gets an O in Defense in his OWL, while Hermione gets an E. I'm not saying that Harry necessarily shouldn't have gotten that grade, but I really doubt that Hermione, who participated in a special study group and studied obsessively for tests would get less than an O. Did anyone else feel like this situation was contrived to make Harry look better?

 

Harry had mastered the hardest Defense charm by that year, or at least come much closer to it than Hermione, besides the fact that he had been exceeding Hermione in that subject since third year, when she struggled even with Lupin's test, and we can't forget that in fifth year, Hermione came to him to learn defense. It may be somewhat contrived, but at least it's consistent. She didn't just want to start the group, she legitimately thought Harry could teach her Defense, and well enough at that to be of help with passing the O.W.L., which was something that worried her in that book (more evidence of her not being that great at Defense, when she can learn everything else out of a book).

 

I think it's more the fact that we're only ever told of Harry's competence, and never actually shown it (outside of the Patronus Charm, of course).

 

I felt the same thing.

And a few weeks back, got into a drunken conversation with a friend about it (we're the life and soul of the party!).

Remember third year? Lupin had them run through an 'obstacle course' of the creatures they had encountered that year.

I can easily see a large portion of the Defense tests being to do with application - "You are in a forest in South England with three friends, and come across an abandoned tower. You open the door and are attacked by a single acromuntula. Give some spells that would be suited for fighting off the giant spider."

Spider-based spells would fail this question, and generic attacks would only score you half marks. As the acromuntula is only native to South-East Asia, it is much more likely to be a boggart, and so you would score full marks for using 'riddikulus'.


Or something similar. Maybe you're locked in a room with three keys, but two of them are cursed. You have to figure out which one is safe, then escape the room. Or something.

Defense never struck me as just a 'learn these spells' lesson, but a 'learn this spell. Here is when you would use it. Here is a better one for THESE specific situations'.

 

We don't know exactly what the exam was, but when Lupin tested them in thrid year Hermione didnt do great either. She is not great under pressure or it situation where you have to think on your feet.

 

I just thought she was like several of the people who I met through the years, genuinely knew the subject enough for full grade but lost track of time trying to put too much.

 

Ok, I know I just asked a question, but I have another:

In DH, muggleborns are being rounded up because they are allegedly stealing magic. Ron claims it's ridculous - "But how are they supposed to have 'stolen' magic? It’s mental, if you could steal magic there wouldn't be any Squibs, would there?"

I just feel that his reasoning is off. I know there is absolutely no evidence (but there's also no proof of the opposite either), but couldn't it be that Squibs are the ones muggleborns stole magic from? Especially when considering that he shows no supporting facts for his argument, how is his point even valid?

 

He's a 17 year old wizard with average education. What does he know about magical genetics?

 

The problem with muggleborn stealing magic is that they don't know of magic before they prove to be magical enough to get the letter. Only way they could "steal" magic is if there is some kind of natural process that dilutes magic when there's more wizards around, but that isn't really stealing per se.

 

It's pretty clear from the scenes in the Ministry and the Muggleborn Registration Commission that stealing magic means having a wand illegally. So in this case "wand" = "magic".