a post about remus lupin’s vaguely unsettling physical appearance
you know how the wolf from the movie looks kind of pathetic and gangly? i love and cherish it. remus lupin, known cryptid.
when harry and co. first see him they straight up wonder if he’s dead.
“No, no, he’s breathing,” whispered Hermione,
(also i love how our first impression of him is just….nothing. he’s asleep. we have nothing. he sleeps hard. that’s it. well fucking done, jo. it’s just so fantastic that harry is sort of mildly dubious of him after the double wammy of lockhart and quirrel and then remus actually turns out to be a good teacher. i love that.)
yeah anyway face-wise he looks starved and half-dead, except for his eyes
“his eyes looked alert and wary”. still disconcerting. i love it. we have nothing to judge his character on at this point, we just know that he’s really ill-looking.
(and then madam pomfrey says something about finally getting a DADA teacher who knows his remedies, and i fall in love with him all over again)
Lupin smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher’s desk. He was as shabby as ever but looked healthier than he had on the train, as though he had had a few square meals.
so first of all, fuck this book. let my son eat. second, we still have so little impression of this man, he’s all passive-aggressive pleasantries and vague smiles. he must have been like…..emaciated on the train. i hate this fucking book.
It certainly looked as though he had been ill. His old robes were hanging more loosely on him and there were dark shadows beneath his eyes; nevertheless, he smiled at the class as they took their seats,
fuck this book
anyway coming at this passage with a decade and a half of hindsight, dear god, this man has just had all of his skeletal and muscular structure forcibly rearranged and then put back together, and he’s still smiling. that in and of itself is sort of disturbing, let him have a break, let this man have a break,,
A ray of wintery sunlight fell across the classroom, illuminating Lupin’s gray hairs and the lines on his young face.
this passage is genuinely confusing to me because it seems like jo is suggesting that if not for his lycanthropy he would actually be really handsome
(not that the lycanthropy stopped dean thomas from having a massive crush on him)
and then there are these gems:
“Still looks ill, doesn’t he?” said Ron as they walked down the corridor, heading to dinner. “What d’you reckon’s the matter with him?”
“Oh, well—you know—working hard,” said Hermione. Close-up, Harry saw that she looked almost as tired as Lupin.
personality: exhausted
but seriously, it’s like the main thing jo wants to establish about him is how tired he looks. and now we have these bits, post-reveal:
An odd shiver passed over his face.
Lupin forced a laugh.
He pushed his graying hair out of his eyes…He looked sober and tired.
“Enough of this,” said Lupin, and there was a steely note in his voice Harry had never heard before.
Harry could see Lupin’s silhouette. He had gone rigid.
aksfnkasnfaksfksnf this one is my FAVORITE because the exact moment where he loses his human mind and the wolf takes over is unclear and for all we know, he could already be gone. GOD i love this book
like harry has spent the better part of a year in the company of this carefully mild-mannered mentor figure and in one night he witnesses him 1. attempt murder and 2. transform into a goddamn DARK CREATURE
so good. this book. so. good.
Lupin smiled wryly.
^^^this is probably the most bitter we’ve ever seen him and i hate it. imagine how pissed he was. imagine him getting to the carriage and sirius is just inexplicably inside it. he complains to sirius the whole way out the castle gates. sirius complains back about prison food and lack of readily available hair products for known convicts. they catch up. they kiss probably.
anyway this post has no point i just like analyzing how odd and occasionally frightening lupin looks
yeah anyway face-wise he looks starved and half-dead, except for his eyes
“his eyes looked alert and wary”. still disconcerting. i love it. we have nothing to judge his character on at this point, we just know that he’s really ill-looking.
Lupin smiled vaguely and placed his tatty old briefcase on the teacher’s desk. He was as shabby as ever but looked healthier than he had on the train, as though he had had a few square meals. so first of all, fuck this book. let my son eat. second, we still have so little impression of this man, he’s all passive-aggressive pleasantries and vague smiles. he must have been like…..emaciated on the train. i hate this fucking book.
this passage is genuinely confusing to me because it seems like jo is suggesting that if not for his lycanthropy he would actually be really handsome(not that the lycanthropy stopped dean thomas from having a massive crush on him)
“Oh, well—you know—working hard,” said Hermione. Close-up, Harry saw that she looked almost as tired as Lupin. personality: exhausted
…He looked sober and tired.
Okay, so I have a lot of feelings about Lupin that are a little inappropriate and relate kind of to what I’m going through, so this post might get a little weird.
The entire book about him looking starved and wary and emaciated is how I imagine my coworkers look at me because I don’t have a lot, but I work my ass off and my work ethic is 10/10 and I know how to survive off a little bit, but I always look like I need a hug or a square meal or nap. Hermione looking as tired as Lupin is my aesthetic right now with AmeriCorps VISTA and going to school. Lupin is hot as fuck, with or without the lycanthropy. He could most definitely get it. According to the Harry Potter headcanons, Lupin was Hermione back when he was at Hogwarts. I understand that lycanthropy is synonymous with HIV/AIDS in the Harry Potter series, but why would Dumbledore or whoever the headmaster was hire Lupin? If you’re willing to send first years to the Forbidden Forest for detention, you could at least hire the brightest student that attended Hogwarts at the time.
I think I might be the female equivalent of Remus Lupin à la Prisoner of Azkaban rn.
