(Untitled)

[fernwithy]

Cross-posted to Godric's Hat and fernwithyWe had a thread like this on the Quill for awhile (I'm not sure where it went off to, and I can't get to it at any rate), but as a writer, the question of how the Marauders functioned as a group interests me. I also came from a high school group with large segments still connected, so it interests me on a RL level

Comments

[matitablu]

Very nice essay - I thing you quite got the internal dynamics of MWPP... I especially agree on this point:

Sirius-Remus. This is the only one of the dyads we see in adulthood, and I have a feeling that it's shifted slightly due to Sirius's increasing instability--Lupin in OotP seems to have taken on a caretaker role that I doubt he had at Hogwarts. (In fact, he's probably subtly taken on some of James's authority.) But--at the risk of angering R/S shippers--I have to say that it doesn't seem to be a particularly strong dyad within the group.[...] Remus seems to look at his three friends as his pack, all equal to one another in one way or another. And Sirius's primary attachment is to James, with the other two as younger brothers.Indeed. I think that the Snape's worst memory chapter kind of underlined that James and Sirius were the ones who were closer to each other - if Sirius nostalgia for James in present day wasn't enough of an evidence (although with James being dead it might be natural to miss him more, I admit). I think that

[lizbee]

This is very well-considered, and I agree with you. I particularly like your suggestion that the Sirius-Remus dyad has changed dramatically. I wonder if Sirius sometimes resented Remus's proven ability to function without his "big brother". I can't remember if we have any textual evidence either way...

[lastminutegal]

In this same vein, I wonder if Remus resented the new closeness after PoA at all.

[yodallama]

wow excellent thoughts there. A lot of that iv never even thought of or considered before, but it makes wonderfully good sense. This is honestly my favorite essay iv read here before-very well thought out and such. Congradulations on excellent work!

[calanthe_b]

This is an interesting essay, and you argue your points very well.

Remus has a great need to be liked and accepted, and the others gave him both in great measure, accepting his disease and even finding a way to help him bear it. (Even symbolically taking it on themselves, by also becoming beasts every month . . .I certainly agree with you on this point to an extent, but I feel it's not quite the whole of the matter; there are a lot of undercurrents in that relationship that need to be unpacked. Particularly, I think one has to consider the extent to which the Sirius-James pair appropriated Remus' illness for their own purposes (signalled to me by James' lordly and carelessly loud putdown of Peter after the DADA exam--Remus' secret has become his property, that he can refer to as and when he chooses, rather than something that belongs to someone else and has to be protected), and how much this may have contributed to the group dynamics, particularly Remus' ability (desire?) to hold his own against the force of their combined

[fernwithy]

I think there's an element of that, but I don't think that's how Remus would have seen it or incorporated it into his worldview at the time. And I don't think it really started out that way.

[calanthe_b]

No, I agree with you, it certainly didn't start that way! And I don't know that Remus wouldn't have seen it that way--the fact that he pleads with James to keep his voice down shows that he knows his secret isn't something he has control over any more--but he might not have expressed that knowledge, as the appropriation clearly wasn't done deliberately or maliciously.

[donnaimmaculata]

Very nice essay; I like how you structured the MWWP dynamics into pairings and triplets. I especially agree with you on that Sirius and James didn't actively choose Peter as a friend "for a reason", but They would have forged a group out of the material that they had, made it special to belong even though it started out as something arbitrary and value-less. I also feel that they became friends simply because they shared a dorm, and Remus' secret only served to strengthen the bonds within the group.

Remus, who doesn't face them down in public, dressing them down in private, hitting all of their emotional weak spots (as he does with Harry following the Hogsmeade visit).

Absolutely. That's such a Remus trait, it's classic. My personal impression, as yet unsupported by canon, is that Remus significantly gained in authority after Sirius sent Snape to the Shrieking Shack. The next quantum leap in his status as authority figure obviously took place post-Azkaban, when Sirius began looking for Remus' guidance and support.

Did this carry