Skip to main content

harry potter - Where had Lupin taught before Hogwarts?


In Prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry, Hermione, and Ron get on the Hogwarts Express, the only nearly empty compartment they can find is the one in which Remus Lupin is sleeping. They do not recognise him:



“Who d’you reckon he is?” Ron hissed, as they sat down and slid the door shut, taking the seats furthest away from the window.
“Professor R.J. Lupin,” whispered Hermione at once.

“How d’you know that?”
“It’s on his case,” replied Hermione, pointing at the luggage rack over the man’s head, where there was a small, battered case held together with a large quantity of neatly knotted string. The name ‘Professor R.J. Lupin’ was stamped across one corner in peeling letters.



At the time this happens, the school year has not started yet, and Lupin is technically not yet their teacher (although he has of course already accepted the position at the school). Nonetheless, the name stamp on his bag includes the title ‘professor’, and is obviously not a new addition, either: it is old enough that the letters are starting to peel off.


That would imply that Lupin had earned the title of professor somewhere before the summer of 1993 when he started teaching Defence against the Dark Arts in Prisoner of Azkaban.


But where? Is there any information on whether he had at any point in the past been a teacher at Hogwarts? Or at some other school?


His Wikia article says (citing Pottermore) that after the first war, he was forced to take a series of jobs that were far below his abilities and leaving them before his coworkers found out he was a werewolf; but it says nothing about teaching.


Has JKR mentioned this at any point?



Answer



J.K. Rowling has written extensively about Remus Lupin on Pottermore (Prisoner of Azkaban - Remus Lupin) and describes Lupin's parents' courtship and marriage (Remus is a half-blood, if anyone is interested), Remus's childhood, being bitten by werewolf Fenrir Greyback and becoming a werewolf himself, his years as a student at Hogwarts, his participation as a member of the Order of the Phoenix, his hand-to-mouth existence after the first Voldemort war was over and his complicated relationship with the Wolfsbane potion (he refused to take it because sampling the potion would mean admitting to others he was a werewolf), and Dumbledore's offer of the Defence Against the Dark Arts position at Hogwarts.



J.K. Rowling does not indicate that any of Remus's odd jobs included teaching or tutoring. It appears the Hogwarts DADA position was Lupin's first teaching assignment. Dumbledore assured Remus that all the Wolfsbane potion Remus would need would be available. J.K. Rowling writes that Remus Lupin turned out to be a natural teacher with an affinity for the subject matter, but more so his students and their inner workings. I think she demonstrates this aptly in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (On a personal note, it was Lupin and Prisoner of Azkaban that really hooked me on the series).


The link goes to Pottermore, the original source of the info on Lupin. You need an account to access the info on Pottermore, but accounts are free. Just an FYI. There's also the Pottermore Wiki for verification purposes -- just be advised that it's not always 100% up to date.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Do the Kwikspell courses work?

In Harry Potter we are introduced to Kwikspell course in The Chamber of Secrets (and never hear about it again). We see Filch taking courses, presumably by mail. The descriptions of Kwikspell make me think it is for people who are weak in magic (kind of like how Neville was supposed to be when he was younger), but had magic in them nonetheless. However, Ron's comments later in the chapter make it sound like it is mainly for Squibs to learn magic. However, it is strongly implied through out all the books that Squibs are essentially Muggles, and will never be able to do magic. How then is a Kwikspell course supposed to work? Do we have any information to know if it works at all? Is it a scam? An answer from any level of canon is welcome. Answer Kwikspell courses are (probably) useful to some wizards, but not to squibs. The Kwikspell course literature comes with two testimonials. Madam Z. Nettles of Topsham writes: ‘I had no memory for incantations and my potions were a family joke...

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.

languages - Do we ever see written English in the Star Wars films?

In Empire Strikes Back , we see a transcription of what R2's beeps and bloops mean, but it's not English (sorry for the low quality, it's from the 2004 DVDs): I'd assume it's what Basic looks like when written, but is there some point in the the Star Wars films we see written English instead? (This sort of spun off from a discussion in How do people understand astromech droids? .) Answer At one point there was English but it has been phased out in subsequent versions of the films. Chris Gould at DVD Active did a comparison of all versions of each of the Star Wars films, and in his comparison of Episode 4 , there are a couple of screenshots showing how the power gauge for the Death Star tractor beam was changed. I imagine there are probably more to be found in his other comparisons but I haven't got around to reading those yet.

Was the "pure soul" of Harry's what had really hurt Voldemort?

In the Order of the Phoenix, Voldemort possesses Harry, and it hurts. Greatly. I think that Dumbledore explained that it was because Voldemort's rotten soul was incapable of assimilating Harry's pure soul, that Voldemort didn't understand the love and friendship etc that Harry has in his heart. But, I think it was a lie. Remember that in Deathly Hallows, while looking for information regarding Horcruxes, it is discovered that it is in fact possible to merge a soul fragment back, but that the process was extremely painful. Now then, if Voldemort tried to possess Harry, and Harry had a fragment of Voldemort's soul, I think that it could have been the true cause of Voldemort's pain: the fact of having his soul so close of another fragment. I think that Dumbledore knew that fact, but had to lie to Harry because it was inappropriate to let him know that he had one of Voldemort's soul fragments at the moment. Is that right? Or was it truly the pure soul of Harry's...