Remus Lupin

Remus John Lupin (March 10, 1960 - May 1998) was a wizard during Voldemort's first and second rises to power. He was member of the First and Second Order of the Phoenix and taught as the Defence Against the Dark Arts professor in the 1993-94 school year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He resigned at the end of the year when Severus Snape let it slip to students that he was a werewolf.

In his school years, he was one of the Marauders and friends with James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. With them, he created the Marauders Map.

Hogwarts years
At a young age, Lupin was bitten by a werewolf (later revealed to be Fenrir Greyback), thus becoming one himself. Though he and his parents were (not unreasonably) afraid he would not be able to attend school, Albus Dumbledore allowed him into Hogwarts. To secure his safety, as well as that of 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. Transformation is difficult and painful, and when isolated from humans or the company of other animals, the werewolf would attack itself with its teeth and claws out of frustration. The villagers mistook his screaming as that of 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, although Dumbledore encouraged this rumour to discourage curious villagers from ever exploring.)

Remus kept his transformations a secret, but his friends (James Potter, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew) worked out the truth in their second year, and by their fifth year had 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, saving 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 Remus was the "good boy" in Order of the Phoenix, and Rowling said he was the "mature" one. Sirius says that Lupin did not participate in his and James's bullying (of Snape, in particular), but Lupin regrets never having told them to stop.

Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher
Lupin took the post of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts in fall of 1993, replacing the now permanently amnesiac Gilderoy Lockhart. Lupin taught the class about dark creatures and gave Harry private anti-Dementor lessons. His students (except those in Slytherin house) held him in extremely high regard and loved the hands-on style of his classes; he is considered by Harry and his friends to have been their only decent Defense teacher, although his competition is hardly stiff in this regard. (One was a fraud, two were ordered by Voldemort, and the others were Dolores Umbridge and Severus Snape.)

The Second War
Lupin reappeared in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but his role was smaller than in Prisoner of Azkaban. In Half-Blood Prince, he was a spy for the Order of the Phoenix, living amongst fellow werewolves and trying to convince them to join Dumbledore's side. He was killed during the Second Battle of Hogwarts by Antonin Dolohov.

Appearance
In Prisoner of Azkaban, he is described as having "light brown hair" that is greying, and a pale face with premature lines in Order of the Phoenix. He has shabby, patched clothing because, as a werewolf, he suffers from poverty. Few in the magical world want to employ a werewolf and almost all are prejudiced against them. With the recent addition of new anti-werewolf laws passed by the Ministry of Magic, finding employment became practically impossible (essentially, almost illegal). With Wolfsbane Potion (provided by Snape during his time as a teacher), he can retain his human mind during transformations. Since he is a werewolf, Lupin's boggart takes the form of the full moon.

There is evidence to suggest that Lupin is a more powerful wizard than he lets on. While on the train during Prisoner of Azkaban, he summons fire without a wand (wandless magic being difficult to perform) and holds it in the palm of his bare hand. Later, in Order of the Phoenix, he is the only fighter besides Dumbledore who was not wounded, killed or knocked unconscious in the battle at the Department of Mysteries.

Family
Lupin married Nymphadora Tonks in the summer of 1997, and they had a child, Ted Lupin, named after Tonks's father. Harry Potter is Ted Lupin's godfather. However, Lupin and Tonks both died in the Second Battle of Hogwarts in May 1998, leaving their son behind - an incident eerily similar to the deaths of Remus's friends, James and Lily Potter, nearly seventeen years before. In a Bloomsbury-sponsored webchat held on July 30, 2007, J.K. Rowling mentions that Antonin Dolohov had killed Lupin in battle.

Name etymology
Lupin's first name, "Remus", comes from the legend of Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome, who were cared for by wolves. Due to this, some fans speculated that Remus had a brother, but this was disproved by Rowling (in The Deathly Hallows, Romulus is one of the code names used by Potterwatch). His last name, "Lupin", is derived from "lupus(a)", Latin for "wolf". Lupin actually means wolflike in Latin and is also the name of a flower.

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".

Significance
Rowling has stated that Professor Lupin is the kind of teacher she wishes she had had. He is good-natured, kind, and able to extract the best in everyone (e.g., spotting Neville Longbottom'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 makes him a symbol of the consequences of prejudice and segregation, as well as society's often negative reaction to the ill and the disabled. Late in the books, Professor Lupin develops a romance with Nymphadora Tonks and they eventually decide to get together after Lupin is persuaded by the Weasleys and Professor McGonagall that he should despite his protests that he is too old and too poor, and that it is too dangerous for her to be involved with a werewolf. They get married in secret in between books 6 and 7 and have a child part way through book 7. They name the child Ted after Tonks' dead father. Remus begins to have second thoughts of having a family while Harry, Ron and Hermione are searching for the Horcruxes and attempts to join them, leaving Tonks and their son with her parents. Harry convinces him that it is better for the baby to have him around than to be abandonded. Ironically, during the Second Battle of Hogwarts he is killed alongside his wife, whilst battling Antonin Dolohov in the Hogwarts grounds, leaving his son to be raised by the boy's grandmother (his grandfather, Ted Tonks, was killed by the Death Eaters) and Harry, in his role as the boy's godfather.