Argument at Grimauld: Take 2
By: mshutts
Disclaimer: I own no one in the following.
oOo
"If the new regime thinks that Muggle-borns are bad," Harry said, "what will they do to a half-werewolf whose father's in the Order? My father died trying to protect my mother and me, and you reckon he'd tell you to abandon your kid to go on an adventure with us?" (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, pg 214)
Lupin glared back at Harry. "Who said I was abandoning my kid?" he asked in a low gravelly voice.
This response caused Harry to stop his rant for a moment in confusion. He stumbled as he tried to pick the argument back up. "You did! You said you would come with us and abandon your unborn child!" he shouted, unsure why Lupin suddenly did not seem to understand what they were talking about.
"So you would have me abandon one of my kids for the other? You would have me leave the one who needs my help the most defenseless while staying with the one who has other protections? Is that it?" Lupin demanded, refusing to back down.
Ron piped up, confused, "Wait. You have more than one kid?"
At that, Lupin sighed, righted his chair and sat down again at the table. After a moment of confusion, Harry sat back down as well. This argument had taken a decidedly unexpected turn and now he was unsure where to go. Since when did Lupin have a kid (other than the unborn one)? And what did this other kid have to do with the current argument?
The four sat in silence for a moment and, when it became clear Lupin was not going to say anything, Hermione ventured a question, "Who is your other kid, Professor Lupin?"
He turned from his contemplation of his hands to face Hermione with a small, sad smile. "You haven't figured it out yet, Hermione?" he asked with a forced cheer in his voice. "I would have thought it would be obvious."
Harry immediately began scrambling over the previous argument. Poking through the words, what was said and how it was said. And he realized, it was obvious , but he still needed to have it confirmed from the man himself. Tentatively, he asked, "Do you mean me?"
Lupin looked at him with softer eyes than Harry had seen from him in a long time. "You may not be my blood, but you are still my child. You were partially mine from the moment I first held you as an infant. And now, now when all your other parents are gone, I am the only one left with a claim to you. I am the only one left to be a father to you.
"You accused me earlier of not taking my duties as a father seriously. I assure you, I take those duties very seriously. What you failed to realize in your anger is that I have more than one child to take care of."
Lupin' voice switched from one of softness to a businesslike tone, "Tonks is a fully trained auror, living with her parents, both of whom are fantastic wizards in their own right. Even though the pregnancy will affect her ability to protect herself and our unborn child to some extent, she has enough support and a large enough background to hold her own in a fight. I am not concerned for her or my unborn child's safety beyond the extent that everyone is concerned at present for everyone else.
"You, however, are a different matter entirely. You, through no fault of your own, are in the middle of this war, Harry. You have not even completed your education at Hogwarts yet. You only just came of age.
"I do not wish to come with you for glory or fame or excitement. I wish to come with you to offer you some of the protections you should have. Protections which you yourself said a father should provide for his child.
"I wish to help you, protect you, teach you. In short, do all the things that a father should be doing for his son when he finds himself in such a situation. Now, will you accept my help?"
Harry was overwhelmed. He had never expected something like this. He had been so sure that he had been right. That Lupin had wanted the easy way out of a situation he felt uncomfortable in. That he wanted to come along for the excitement, for the thrill, for the freedom.
But now, looking at it from the perspective of a father doing his best to help his son (and didn't that word send a trill of excitement up his spine) in a difficult situation, he could not truly fault him for his actions. Would he allow one of his children to go off into danger alone while staying with the one who was safe and protected? Of course not. And, if Lupin truly did feel this way about him, could he really turn him away?
oOo
It has always bothered me how the assumption was made that Lupin only wanted to go with Harry and co. for the glory and excitement. Why would he when there is so much more of a compelling reason to go? That, and I don't particularly see Lupin as a glory-hound in any event. But, if you look at it from the perspective of someone who genuinely loves and worries about Harry, you get quite a different story. I suppose it is not really in his nature to be overly confrontational, but, in this case, I think it would have helped his cause.
Then again, would Harry really have turned him away if he had made THIS argument? And then where would JKR's plotline be? So, in the end, it's probably better for the plot that he didn't use this line of reasoning.
By the by, I left it open-ended mostly because I couldn't find a good way to conclude it without it getting insanely longer. That, and, I kind of like the slightly off-kilter ending. Thanks in advance for reading/reviewing. I would love to hear what you think.