Remus Lupin

Remus John Lupin (born March 10, 1960) is a fictional character in the Harry Potter novels, portrayed by David Thewlis in the films.

Remus Lupin was introduced in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, during which he taught as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor for a semester. He resigned at the end of the year when Severus Snape let it slip to students that he was a werewolf. He taught the class about dark creatures and gave Harry private anti-Dementor lessons. Among both fans and the characters, Lupin is generally considered to be the best Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher yet seen in the series. Lupin reappeared in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but his role was smaller than in The Prisoner of Azkaban.

At a young age, Lupin was bitten by a werewolf, thus becoming one himself. Though he and his parents were (not unreasonably) afraid he wouldn't be able to attend school, Albus Dumbledore allowed him into Hogwarts. To secure the safety of him and his peers, a house was built in Hogsmeade with a secret passage leading to it from under the Whomping Willow. Lupin was smuggled into this house for his monthly transformations and the villagers mistook the racket he created for being extremely violent ghosts. The house was dubbed "the Shrieking Shack" and became known as the most haunted building in Britain (needless to say, the house is not really haunted at all.)

Remus kept his transformations a secret, but his friends (James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew) worked out the truth and learned to become Animagi to keep him company during his transformations (a werewolf is only a danger to humans.) He was given the nickname "Moony" by his friends because of his transformations. In their sixth year, Sirius Black played a prank by telling Severus Snape, whom all four of them loathed, where Remus went every month knowing full well it would lead to his death. James stopped Snape, which saved his life, but Snape still found out Remus was a werewolf and was sworn to secrecy by Dumbledore.

Remus was a prefect, though he had trouble exercising discipline over his friends. In an interview, J.K. Rowling linked this to Remus's desire to be liked by his friends, "because he's been disliked so often." Sirius said he was the "good boy" in The Order of the Phoenix, and Rowling said he was the "mature" one. He did not participate in the James and Sirius' bullying (as far as the readers know.)

In The Prisoner of Azkaban, he is described as having "light brown hair" that is greying. He has shabby clothing because, as a werewolf, he suffers from poverty. Few in the magical world want to employ a werewolf and are prejudiced against them. With Wolfsbane Potion (provided by Snape during his time as a teacher), he can retain his human mind during transformations. Since he's a werewolf, Lupin's boggart takes the form of the full moon.

Lupin's Name

Lupin's first name comes from the legend of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, who were cared for by wolves. Due to this, he was speculated of to have a brother, but this was disproved by Rowling. His last name, "Lupin", is derived from "lupus(a)," Latin for "wolf."

It has also been speculated that his name comes from two "Monty Python's Flying Circus" skits: a repeated one involving "Professor R.J. Gumby," and one involving "Dennis Moore, the Lupin Thief."

Lupin's significance

JKR has stated that Professor Lupin is the kind of teacher she wish she'd had. Good-natured, kind, and able to extract the best in everyone (i.e. spotting Neville's lack of confidence and helping him to overcome it by teaching him how to defeat the boggart), the fact that he's a werewolf and needs to take a potion to avoid hurting people for the rest of his life and is therefore poor makes him a symbol of the consequences of prejudice and segregation.