Quote 1
“I’d never
have believed this. . . . The man who taught me to fight dementors—a
coward.”
Harry speaks these angry words to Remus
Lupin in Chapter Eleven, after Lupin has offered his assistance
and protection to Harry on his quest. Lupin has just married Tonks
and gotten her pregnant, but he already regrets these actions, foreseeing
a future in which his child will be scorned as a part-werewolf.
Harry correctly perceives that Lupin is only superficially embracing
risk and danger, and is in reality fleeing his responsibilities.
Harry is in no mood to be patient with anyone who abandons his child,
feeling himself to be painfully bereft, not only of his own parents,
but of Sirius and Dumbledore, whose guidance he badly needs. Harry’s
outburst is thus a sign of Harry’s own resistance to having to take
responsibility for himself, as well as a deserved rebuke to Lupin,
and a reminder that the hardest task can be staying loyal and faithful
to someone, even when that means doing nothing. Harry is struggling
to stay loyal to Dumbledore.
