Somewhere, a toad farted ominously

Truth to be told I was thinking about something much more trivial than Sirius' situation in Prisoner of Azkaban. The more apt canon parallel would be his attempted flight during Tonks's pregnancy: instead of thinking about their needs he decided he was just a burden and retreated to following the hero of the moment. I can totally understand his point of view, but it makes me wonder if he'd run away from a friend's emergencies in other scenarios. Lupin does seem to run away from unpleasant situations (for instance: his downplaying the Marauders' bullying toward Snape, the aforementioned escape from Tonks, the fact he doesn't ever contact Harry even in times of need, etc...).

And yeah, I totally agree: he was afraid of losing his friends. Which is why I never touched his days as a Prefect: he should have done something about the bullying, all right, but I understand his precarious situation and I don't dare to judge him for it. The thing that irks me is the way he talks, as an adult, about those days... not what he did or didn't do as a teen.

Also sorry if the final disclaimer sounded as a "Remus is BAD", I amped it up in an attempt at comedy. It might have been lost in translation (attempting meta in another language is hard) or I just overstepped. But fanon Lupin tends to be a little bit more mellow than the canon one, and this has probably made me write a bit on the defensive.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

He's awful and he's a hero. He made the worst decisions ever and then, instead of curling up and surrender, spent the rest of his life trying to do better - not in search of forgiveness, but because it was the right thing to do (also he was a little bit emotionally black-mailed by Dumbledore, but still).

I just really like the fact that he's heinous and he still did good. He never really had a chance and yet he died a hero, while still being as nasty as he ever was.

6. What's something you have in common with this character?

10. Could you be best friends with this character?

Yeah, why not. But I don't know how long it would last, and the friendship would probably end in a really messy way. On my part I'd end up being grating and tone-deaf about the whole lycanthropy thing (more than James and Sirius? Yes, albeit in a different way), and on his part... well. A coward can still make an excellent friend and self-hatred isn't a deal breaker for me, but I do wonder what would happen if a friend of his happened to be in a really shitty situation.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

Near the end of the first war Lupin and the rest of the Marauders weren't that close anymore (which would explain his total absence from Lily's letter, amongst other things). They knew there was a traitor in the Order and Lupin thought he would be the prime suspect, due to him being a werewolf and the stigma associated with it, so he started acting strangely wary. In a classic self-fulfilling-prophecy scenario this is what made him look suspicious, and the group grew apart.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn't matter?

James, truth to be told, seemed to be a perfectly fine friend for him... the only problem is he did look very much closer to Sirius than Lupin, despite the whole Animagi thing. Also, he's been dead for the whole book series. So I think I'll go with Kingsley. He's calm, reassuring, intelligent, believes in equality, he's very chill but still with a sense of humor. And he's a fellow Order member. Arthur (or Molly, maybe) might work too, but he's a bit too close to Harry... and Lupin, apparently, doesn't really like being close to Harry.