A father figure to Harry Potter , long before Harry was even aware that he had a godfather, this man was the first of his father's best friends that he came to know and love, came to him as a teacher of his favourite subject in Hogwarts or should I say that this man was the reason Harry fell in love with subject which would later go on to be a cornerstone of his career, he wasn't just a teacher but a friend , a well wisher , an advisor , a comrade in arms and above all a man with a generous heart.
A lot has been talked about Sirius and James but very little about Remus Lupin. And thats why I felt that if I have to start talking about Harry's father figures, then it should be Remus to start off with.
As he became Harry's favourite teacher in Hogwarts, he didnt know that his new friend had a terrible secret to hide nor did he know that Remus would be instrumental in helping Harry accept the good heart of his Godfather Sirius Black.
But before we think about the Remus-Harry equation, its Remus alone we need to discuss because this was a man guaranteed to go evil yet he was a pure soul. Bitten by Fenir Greyback , the dreaded werewolf , Remus entered Hogwarts as not just a 11 year old child alone, he was a werewolf too and a constant threat to his fellow schoolmates and anyone around him but he was lucky enough to be of age as Dumbledore ruled over Hogwarts, who realised that as long as safety measures were taken there was no reason for Remus to miss out on his education, Dumbledore may have been among the first of a few people who didnt see Remus as someone to be shunned but saw him as just another true heart who had an unfortunate curse fall on him. His best friends were also amongst the people who had enough sanity and open-mindedness to know that not all werewolves need to be shunned.
But Remus on his own right could have gone astray, he could have been like the rest of werewolves who lives their lives like monsters, full moon happened only once a month but his kind lived the lives of wolves for their entire lifetime and they cant be held responsible for such a lifestyle, if you want to blame then let it be on the entire society who treated such unfortunate victims with cold hearted brutality.
The mindset of the werewolves was the result of the torture the society met out to them, rather than helping them overcome the tragedy on their lives and helping them lead a normal life like any other, the society treated them as vermin , as untouchables , as something rotten and evil and thus the werewolves were thrown back to the backyard of the society and in such a situation they out of the need of survival entered a life of crimes and evil sorcery, Voldermort used their hatred towards humanity for his own benefits, in werewolves he found the accomplices he needed to carry out his evil deeds , revelling in the joy of being accepted for what they are, they joined his vast army of evil dreaded creatures of the dark.
But Lupin because of the good fortune he was blessed with, found himself eventually belonging to nowhere, except for a few people who loved and cherished him, the rest of the world discarded him but not just that, he was also considered by the wolves to be the backstabber of his own kind, in a single line, he was an outcaste among the humans as well as the werewolves but none of this injustice could ever taint the purity of his heart.
He lived for the people that mattered to him, he could go to any extent of suffering as long as the people he cared about were happy and safe. Be it James & Lily , Sirius , Harry , Dumbledore .. the list could go on.
As much as he loved his friends, it never made him blind to the goodness of his apparent enemies either. Always just and noble in his thoughts and decisions, even at a time when James and Sirius loathed Snape, Lupin wasn't the man to let hatred cloud his sound judgement, the school time war between his friends and Snape, he saw it for what it was, a rivalry between 2 houses that were by instinct bound to hate each other. He never really thought Snape was evil, and even much later, even though he never was in a position to be his friend but he always acknowledged the fact that Snape was generous to him while concocting the Wolfsbane potion even when Snape could have used it as a chance to mess up his life further. If there was anytime that Lupin truly hated Snape , it was only when Harry named him the murderer of Dumbledore.
Knowing his inhibitions, Lupin never nursed dreams of having a normal family but that when Nymphadora Tonks walked into his life a force of nature, to an extent she was an outcaste of a different type herself, born to parents where the mother is a witch and the father is a muggle, the blue blood obsessed power lords of the wizarding world never accepted her, scorned and spurned away by her Mother's kith and kin, Tonks was the result of the rebellion her mother did by marry her father.
And she was drawn to Lupin like a moth drawn to a flame, despite being rejected by Lupin multiple times, she never gave up on him and went after him though it caused her great pain. Lupin on his part couldn't take the happiness she offered because he was unwillingly to bring her into a world where she and their child would be treated as filth.
But as they life is pursuit of happiness and no matter how bleak your life may appear to be , there is always a tiny ray of light that could illuminate your lives as long as you are willing to let the light IN.
And so when Lupin and Tonks married and had Teddy to whom Harry was godfather , life indeed looked good but none of them knew that tragedy was just around the corner, Lupin and Tonks died fighting side by side just like James and Lily, but the silver lining was that if Harry didnt have his Godfather Sirius to raise him then Teddy was blessed enough to have his Godfather Harry Potter to watch him grow up.
The face-off between Harry and Lupin when he offered to join Harry in his hunt for Voldermort even if that meant he had leave behind his wife and son, it brings out interesting facets in both the characters,
Lupin on his part wants to find a way to distance himself from his wife and son so that they could slowly go back to having a normal life away from the shadow of an outcaste, also he wants to ensure the safety of his best friend's son , he wanted to be with Harry in putting an end to evil and also being with Harry always gave him the feeling that he had James and Sirius back, that he was back amidst the 2 people who had been instrumental in making his cursed life a blessing to live with.
And Harry on his part is disgusted to even think that his father's best friend would abandon hos own family , knowing what his father would have wanted and would have done, even though it was cruel he sends Lupin away.
A lot more can be said and debated about Remus Lupin but if there is one thing that the world can understand from his life, then its the reality that, no matter to what terrible circumstances your life takes you, you can always rise above your shortcomings and live a life to be emulated by others.
He showed us that not all werewolves are evil.
He showed us that they aren't evil by choice but they are evil by circumstances.
Its werewolves in the wizarding world, in our world we can say the same about the discriminated and oppressed,
Slavery , Criminals , Gender/Caste Discrimination etc etc ... most of the social evils are a result of the ignorance and lack of humanity of the humankind.
A single bad egg need not necessarily taint the entire community ... give every individual an equal chance to develop and live a good life.
A child born to a murderer doesn't have to be a murderer by rule.
A child born to a sex worker doesn't have to be a sex worker by rule.
Never hold any human accountable for the evil that happened beyond his/her choice/control.
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