#Remus: HIV/AIDS

[kaqtusm]

@read-reblog-repeat you wanted to be tagged mother, so suffer

Moonwater microfic/scenario

Word count: 806

TW: angst, hurt/comfort, mention of SA, mention of pedophila

Remus Lupin’s life had never been simple.

Before his 10th birthday, before the world had started to make sense, before he even understood what the word love truly meant, he had been marked. He had been broken.

It was Fenrir Greyback who gave him HIV—through violence, through cruelty that no child should ever know. And it wasn’t something that had gone away with time; it had always been there, lurking in the background of every breath, every quiet moment, every joyful experience he’d tried to have.

The blood that had been spilled that night—so much of it—had poisoned him for the rest of his life, and Remus had learned to hide it. He had learned how to swallow his fear, how to shove down his pain, and most of all, how to pretend to be normal, even when his body betrayed him every single day.

It was never something he could tell anyone. No one could know about the monster that had taken everything from him. So, Remus smiled and pretended he wasn’t broken, that he wasn’t constantly at war with his own body. He was good at it. He had been for years.

But when Regulus Black came into his life, when he started to see the way Regulus looked at him—like he was more than just a person surviving, more than just someone who had lived through hell—it terrified him. He couldn’t let Regulus see him for what he truly was. He couldn’t let Regulus into the parts of him that would only bring sorrow and destruction.

But Regulus had always been different. And Remus hated himself for that. For the way Regulus made him feel alive in a way no one else had—no one else could—in a way that brought him back to the surface from the darkness he spent so many years trying to drown in.

It all came to a head one cold, rainy night when Regulus found him hunched over the sink, struggling to breathe. His body had finally given out—too much stress, too much pain, too many years of pretending to be okay. The cold sweat clung to his skin, his chest rattling with the coughs he couldn’t stop, the body trembling under the weight of it all.

Regulus had walked in, had seen him, and for the first time, Remus couldn’t hide it.

“Remus,” Regulus’s voice had cracked with concern, too much emotion that Remus wasn’t ready for. He’d never been ready for anyone to care that much.

“Please,” Remus had pleaded, his voice barely above a whisper. “Please don’t look at me like that. It’s not what you think.”

But Regulus wasn’t listening. He was already at Remus’s side, pulling him away from the sink and holding him, his hands shaking as they touched his clammy skin.

“Tell me what’s going on,” Regulus had said, his voice tight with fear. “Please, Remus, just tell me what’s happening. What’s wrong?”

It was then that the walls finally crumbled. And Remus couldn’t stop the flood of words that came pouring out.

“I was a child,” he gasped between ragged breaths. “It was him—Fenrir Greyback—he did this to me. He… he took everything from me when I was just a kid, and I’ve been living with it ever since. He… he gave me HIV, Regulus. And now my body is breaking down, and I can’t—”

The words were swallowed by the weight of his own shame, and Remus could feel himself spiraling, the shame and the self-loathing so deep in his chest that it threatened to suffocate him.

Regulus didn’t pull away. He didn’t flinch.

Instead, he cupped Remus’s face, wiping away the sweat from his brow, his eyes locked on his with a look that pierced through the darkness.

“You are not broken,” Regulus said, his voice steady, even as the tears welled up in his own eyes. “You are not broken, Remus. What happened to you—it wasn’t your fault. And I’m not going anywhere.”

Remus tried to pull away, to tell him how wrong he was, to explain just how impossible it was for someone like Regulus to love someone like him—but Regulus wasn’t having any of it. His arms tightened around Remus, holding him close, grounding him.

“I’m here,” Regulus whispered. “I’m here, and I’m not leaving. No matter what happens, I’m not leaving you.”

But Remus couldn’t hear it. He couldn’t understand how anyone could look at him that way, how anyone could still want to be near him when they knew what he was, what had been done to him.

The silence stretched between them, but in that silence, something began to change. Something fragile, but real.

Regulus wasn’t asking him to be perfect. He wasn’t asking for answers Remus couldn’t give.

All he was asking for was to stay.

And maybe that was enough.

[gonzoscrimalpast]

Not to be hella specific this morning, but has anyone read a fic of Remus having to explain HIV/AIDS to Sirius? Because, if my cursory Google search is correct, the first case of HIV was officially identified in the UK December 1981, so right after Sirius went to Azkaban. And obviously, Sirius and Remus are super gay. And I'd think that muggle London had a more happening queer scene than whatever the wizards had going on.

So what I'm picturing is Sirius and Remus having a drink at Grimmauld Place after an Order meeting (maybe with other Order members) and Sirius starts reminiscing about folks they used know and asking like "do you keep in touch with so-and-so?" and Remus has to be like "...oh. They're all dead." And then he has to explain the AIDS crisis to Sirius, but also the rest of the room who is just finding out about this horrible muggle disease (and maybe Hermione is there and can be tapped in for some facts).

I just think it would be really good and powerful and if I could write I would write something like that...

[iamnmbr3]

Your blog is a treasure on this website. Thank you for speaking up for what matters while still dedicating time to dissecting the series you love.  I wanted to ask you a question that blends both topics: I wanna talk about Tonks’ gender non-conformity and Lupin’s coding, and where JKR went wrong in later statements for both of these things vs. what we can garner from the books. I love your analysis style and would love to hear your thoughts on this. If someone’s already asked this before and I missed it, please link it, haha, I don’t wanna waste your time. Love

Wow. This is. So incredibly nice. I just sat staring at this message when I got it, filled with gratitude and warmth. Thank you so much for your kind words.

And thank you also for this great question! And for the chance to rant about what is, in my opinion, the most confounding and worst ship in the entire series - Lupin/Tonks.

(If you like this ship, that's fine; you do you. I've shipped characters who never even met. But for me, the way JKR wrote the ship did not land...and also felt like a course correct to "straightwash" two very queer coded characters into heteronormativity).

So first, let's talk about Tonks. With her short, pink hair and her tomboyish ways the coding surrounding her really lends itself to readings of her as queer/GNC. (And no this is not me saying there can't be straight cis gender conforming women with short pink hair so put down the pitchforks). She's also shown to be career driven, passionate about her work, not at all interested in being a house wife (and remember most of the women in HP seem content to settle down into traditional female roles) and seemingly not that interested in men at all. Not to mention the fact that she has a strong dislike of her given name and chooses to go by something less obviously feminine has created a lot of fodder for NB and trans readings. Also, sorry not sorry, but she canonically chose her own gender. I know that's not what JKR intended, but given the extent of Tonks's powers the reason that she is a girl is because she wants to be.

So that's Tonks.

Then we have Lupin. Who is. Extremely queer coded. I mean. The wolfstar coding. My god. Remember the bit in book 5 when he and Sirius spend like 15 pages just...staring at each other? It's a lot. I'm not even going to get into that in detail because there is just so much of it. I will say I personally see wolfstar as a deeply flawed and messed up ship with a bunch of toxicity (like the whole Marauders' dynamic tbh) and not as something fluffy and soft. I see Lupin as having been a bit infatuated with James (and having had a bit of a crush on Sirius too) while Sirius was deeply and obsessively in love with James and James alone (despite James being tragically straight). And then after James's death I can see them getting together and bringing all the baggage from their messed up Marauders dynamic into that relationship. But I know that's an unpopular reading of the ship.

Also, In a society where everyone tends to pair up to someone of the opposite sex and get married he is very single and not looking to mingle. And yeah, I know, there's the werewolf thing. But again. He doesn't seem that interested.

AND JKR made werewolves as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS which tragically has a strong history in the gay community. (The metaphor doesn't quite work since while people with HIV/AIDS pose no threat to society and do not in any way deserve their stigma werewolves are genuinely dangerous and can and will eat your child...but that's a different topic).

So that's Remus.

And now we get to the travesty that is remadora (again, no hate to the fans of this ship). Unfortunately, JKR became increasingly homophobic over the years which did not jive well with fans picking up on the queercoding of Tonks and Lupin and running with it. Wolfstar especially became super popular, much to her horror. So what did she do? She decided to shove the two of them into the most awkward romance I have ever seen. Every time I reread the books I look for some sort of buildup and there's just nothing. (Also, Remus literally has to be bullied into marrying her and then is immediately unhappy and tries to leave so honestly...if this was an attempt to beat the 'Remus is a closeted gay man' allegations it kinda backfired). It's so WEIRD. There's no chemistry between them. We never see them really interacting in a positive way "on-screen." Remus is also wayyyy older than her. They don't have shared interests. They are extremely different people. They never even seem happy together. AND as soon as they're together Tonks's character gets gutted and she just accepts the traditional feminine housewife role and is stripped of all her spunk and personality and forced into bland heteronormativity that ruins everything that was unique about her. I hate it so much. And it's SO obvious what JKR was doing.

But listen. I don't care what JKR says. In my head Tonks is alive and well and happily married to Ginny. Remember when Ginny canonically was like 'wtf is wrong with Bill? Who WOULDN'T want to marry Tonks instead of Fleur?!' C'mon. She clearly is down bad for Tonks. (Though also I think Fleur/Tonks would be HILARIOUS). After the war they both start comforting each other over having partners who clearly don't actually want to be with them and then a romance blooms. They even like the same music. It's perfect.

[trothplighted]

7,8 for James, Peter, remus, and lily

7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

James: I am a die-hard “Euphemia was Indian and James is visibly brown” truther ever since the desi Harry headcanons started taking off in the early 2010s. Basically everything I like about James’s personality is canonical, but I do have to give the fandom credit for that one.

Peter: I like how he’s drawn in fanart. (I don’t actually have a ton to say about Peter outside of canon)

Remus: We were pointing at lycanthropy and going “we can use that as a metaphor for HIV/AIDS” for a decade before Joanne decided that was what she wanted to do canonically. I’m giving us that win, and we’re going to run with it forever. Also, again, same as Sirius - I love that we went “oh, you’re gay as fuck” and we took him away from the author in a way she can literally never undo. Good job, us.

Lily: Lily fans are braver than any soldier on this earth because there is nothing more harrowing than being a fan of a female character who has two popular het ships attached to her in a fandom where people will bend over backwards to justify the deeds of men. I love the Lily fans who demand that she be taken seriously in her own right, who fight for her to be seen as a full person with autonomy, who cheer when she makes her own decisions.

8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

James: if you’re going to take his characterization in OotP as canon, you also have to take his characterization in PS/CoS/PoA/GoF as canon. he is a major character in these books and he is also a complex one. you cannot just pretend that only SWM is canon, the same way that Snape dislikers can’t just pretend that only his worst parts are canon.

Peter: I really don’t think he was part of an unbreakable foursome, but I also don’t like stories where he’s essentially erased from the group to make an unbreakable threesome. The four of them were friends, but we also see a high degree of variation in what that closeness means. James and Sirius are closer than brothers, closer than anything, just about. Remus seems to be trailing behind them (to quote @heartoftheserpent, he’s the one going “this is a bad idea, this is a bad idea, this is a horrible idea - oh, fine, fine, but steal me some snacks too!”) and Peter is running along trying to catch up. But I do think that all of them were incredibly close friends, and any hierarchies exist within a very tight-knit group.

Remus: gently takes your hands. stares into your eyes. you - you know that someone can be lanky and lean and chronically ill and in possession of a “dad academia” aesthetic when he bothers dressing well at all and still be a top, right. you know someone can be a top without being physically imposing and larger than his passive partner, right. you know someone can bottom and be hairy and masc and big, right. please tell me you understand this.

Lily: basically anything and everything that makes her into a pawn or prop for James or Snape. She’s her own person who’s allowed to have opinions on the boys she dates! She has accomplishments in her own right outside of romance! She isn’t a bitch or a shrew or a harpy for deciding one way or the other! Stop blaming women for the bad behavior of the men around them! Just because Joanne treats her like she’s a tempering influence on Snape doesn’t mean we should extend that into everything about her!

[albi-bumblebee]

if “Remus is gay coded” because “werewolves are a metaphor for people with aids/hiv”(ignoring the bi erasure in that kind of statement)(and how bigoted that is considered how werewolves are portrayed in hp)(and ignoring how awful that is to say because Remus was a child when he was bitten) then you will also have to think that all of the death eaters were trans and Snape and Regulus were detrans because JKR said the death eaters were a metaphor for trans people(i think the terf worms have eaten the entirety of her brain) last year(i think? maybe it was two years ago i’m bad with time) but nobody is arguing that. maybe just maybe because it’s bigoted and dumb ;o; who knew

[sn4pe]

"waa waa snape outed remus as a werewolf"

ok i think the reason the fandom reacts to this the way they do is that they think werewolfism is an allegory for being gay (this is why so many hate remus/tonks, and ship remus/sirius) rather than an allegory for hiv - a devastating virus that will kill the patient but which is only spread under very specific conditions. the aids epidemic didn't reach its peak until 2004, and there wasn't even any treatment for slow the progression of hiv to aids until 1997, but it was well known before that time that you couldn't catch hiv just be being around seropositive people - even if bigots acted like you could. THAT is what remus is meant to represent (this was a very important lesson for children to learn at the time the books were being written, i remember having countless assemblies and lessons about hiv in the 90s). the majority of people with hiv are heterosexual, and most are women. only white anti-gay bigots think hiv is a ~gay disease~ and that therefore remus must be gay and any anti-remus character must be homophobic.

it's not "remus is gay and needs to lose his job", it's "remus has hiv and it was fine up until he negligently exposed children to his bodily fluids, so now he needs to lose his job".

(the way this fandom assigns incorrect meanings to very obvious allegories drives me insane. like people thinking house elves are meant to represent slavery when it's very obvious they're meant to represent battered housewives doing constant unthanked and unpaid domestic labour, with everyone ignoring their bruises and injuries, and when someone does try to help they get told off for being a busybody and not minding their own business. like, their liberation movement is the same acronym as the feminist movement! it's so on the nose a child is supposed to be able to pick up on it. and yet this fandom is like "hurr durr it's slavery and you're meant to think hermione is wrong for trying to end it!!!".)

!!!!! this !!!! all this !!!!

[dufferpuffer]

Adding up to that Severus has a not-so-secret daughter au! Some good nasty drama

Since the lycanthropy is based on the AIDs and they can be passed down to offspring, let me introduce you to:

After the Prank, Severus did get infected but never went through the actual transformation, so he just carries it in his blood with some side effects (maybe he eats raw meat now and has sharper senses, who knows). But even if he's not a werewolf as such, he still has the infection in him...and his daughter is born with it, turning into a full werewolf each moon and overall suffering all the regular effects of the curse.

Just one more reason for them to dislike lupin (and the marauders in general)

I REALLY hate Lycanthropy being tied to HIV/AIDs. I know the author said so, but she says alot of things that suck, and that's one of them. It's a real stinker.

In any case, Lycanthropy isn't actually passed down from parent to child - that's a myth, perpetuated by the fact so few Werewolves ever have children. Remus was worried - but its just another point on his list of "things he is anxious about that aren't real/don't matter as much as he thinks they do" He has nothing to fear about sex. He would have more to fear about kissing - but even then, that isn't how Lycanthropy works.

It doesn't change your genes. Its a magical disease - you don't become a non-human, your DNA isn't changed. You're only contagious at the Full Moon, about 12 hours a month and ONLY via saliva, not blood or sexual fluids. Even if Severus was partially infected with cursed wounds, like Bill Weasley - as he doesn't transform he cannot pass it on.

Same with HIV/AIDs. A father doesn't pass it to their child. The DNA/RNA in his sperm does not have HIV - just the fluids it is carried in. A mother can pass it down through the pregnancy, childbirth fluids or breastfeeding - but not necessarily.

In order to have a child infected with Lycanthropy Severus would need to be fully bitten by Remus and then also bite his own child - or pick up a child from somewhere that has already been bitten.

And that's cute. Why is Severus so good at brewing Wolfsbane...? He's been doing it for his daughter for years already. But I don't really see how, even if you HC that Lycanthropy can be passed down to children via the fathers DNA, that it is something to 'dislike Remus' about...? Remus wasn't a part of that prank. He was a sick boy who did everything right. He wasn't wandering around, he wasn't being reckless - he was hiding in the shack. He was as much a victim of the prank as much as Severus was.

The Ministry has shifted whether they consider Werewolves as 'Beings' or 'Creatures' for years - and in either case, whether they are considered 'people' or 'animals' - they don't have human rights. Just being found out is a danger to Remus' life.

Remus would be mortified to know he had even partially infected Severus... even more so that his Lycanthropy had been fully passed onto a child. He would be DEVASTATED. He would be torn between feeling some responsibility over the child, to teach them how to manage their condition... and wanting to run as far away as possible, hide in a hole - and die from shame.

[maladaptivewriting]

Hii, I was re-reading the final chapter and I can't help but wonder, since lycanthropy is an allegory to AIDs in the fandom, when Remus and James go to treatment and they cannot longer turn into wolves, is it a reference to the said "no-detectable, no-tranamissible" about HIV?

you could definitely make the connection. i don't personally use that allegory because the idea that there is a character who forcefully infects children with lycanthopy always felt homophobic to me given how people treated gay men during the AIDS crises.

[imheredisappointingmyparents]

Apparently, Remus being a werewolf was allegory for him having HIV/AIDS.

This makes me about how dark the things can be (as if they are not already). Discussing them bellow

TW for HIV/AIDS; SA; CSA; ableism; p*dophilia; SA trauma; trauma in general; homophobia; mentioning N*zism and m*rder;

CW for swear words (spec. fuck)

DEAD DOVE: DO NOT EAT

As we know he was bitten by Fenrir Greyback when he was five. Although AIDS can be transmitted by blood and saliva, this can also be allegory for CSA (bite is sexual symbole - "Marks and symbols" by D. Kindsley, 2nd edition) which goes a bit in the 'evil gays' stereotype but I'm not going to in depth here why the stereotype is so bad. With this direct analogy JKR reinforces the evil and completely false stereotype that gay men are danger to children (and mind you she claims to be an ally (she is not)). And as we know Fenrir Greyback (who represents All Other Werewolfs) loves attacking little kids and spreading the decease which is just what far right people incorrectly think gay men do. So congrats, JKR, you presented the whole queer community as p*dos who want to murder kids! (/S)

Remus is also named after his decease. Because of course he is, what else we can expect from JKR. That's like having HIV+ person named Hivus Aidis or Autoimunicaus Deceaseus.

Werewolfs are also avoided and treated as something unnatural, subhuman, just like HIV positive people/people with AIDS were in the 80s.

Werewolfism in HP as allegory for HIV/AIDS is bad because it claims all HIV positive people are evil except one (which is obviously NOT true). Werewolfism was never destigmatized in HP in my opinion.

JKR also made Remus Lupin teaching super controversial, super dangerous and extremely reckless. Which kinda reinforces the stereotype that HIV/AIDS is transmitted by skin/air which is NOT true. HIV+ people/people with AIDS can and should be allowed to teaching. They can also have HIV- kids but everyone seems to forget that.

Let's talk about Remus' scars. The ones made by Greyback. JKR is literally saying - everyone can see you were SAd/HIV+ because it leaves permanent change of your whole body. That low key reminds of the thing some far right say about SA survivers, doesn't it? That they can always tell because of the way they look. This is just disgusting

Ooo, let's talk about the fact that Remus is supposed to be gay man too (or in fact was because we all know what happens in canon). How the actual fuck all her gay men are portrayed as evil? Dumbledore is just a man who could have prevented everything with Voldemort but didn't, Grindelwald was a N@zi, Sirius Black to his dead was thought to be a m*rderer and now Remus is portrayed as part of people who are usually predators. Such a great representation, I'm sure no one got offended! (/S)

In conclusion: HIV+ people/people with AIDS are not evil. Queer people are not evil. JKR sucks.

Thanks for reading!

Link to the video inspo (from which I took some points):

[dandyshucks]

if Wardell somehow broke containment from this little blog, my biggest fear is that the marauders girlies would be like "OMG IS THAT REMUS??? IS THAT REMUS MARAUDERS??? OMG MARAUDERS FANART??? THIS LOOKS LIKE REMUS!!!" bro keep your nasty HP shit away from me and my creations :[ keep that distasteful offensive AIDS/HIV allegory character away from me jfc

[severussnapeconfessions]

I often wonder what it would have been like if Lily had lived, and she and Snape raised Harry. Would he have been an only child? Would he have been as reckless? Would he have taken to potions? I’m pretty sure he would have made fast friends with Hermione at least, since I can’t see either Lily or Snape totally giving up their muggle ties. I can see Harry being raised Muggle, to hide him from the world until he turns eleven.

Lupin as a fun uncle that comes round once in a while.

thoughts?

Hi!

I will assume you are saying that Snape would raise Harry with Lily, considering that James Potter was the only one who died that night? So instead of having Harry surviving alone to the killing curse, we'd add Lily. I don't know if this is what you mean, but I will continue with this supposition.

I have some considerations in first place. Snape would still have been one of the culprits of his death then. What would make Lily consider Snape as her companion knowing that it was him who had gotten James killed?

But then, and now I am only thinking to myself, she did have a baby with a man who practically blackmailed her to date him.

Perhaps Lily's judgement is not the best one. Although I still think she wouldn't be the right one for our dear Severus. But moving on to your topics and assuming they get together immediately:

Snape would still have a permanent reminder that Harry was not his biological son, because the resemblance to older Potter would still be screaming at him everyday. So I believe he would like to have a child of his own with Lily, even if the child ended up to be Lily's hardcopy.

However, not only Severus would be out of depth with all the parenthood stuff but also Lily would still be fragile about losing a husband. So my guess is that they would probably try to have another child after Lily's proper grief time and having a 6 or 8 year old Harry already probably.

Canon Harry was a good kid with his heart in the right place, and he grew up in a hostile environment. Severus certainly wouldn't be the one to spoil him, so I don't think there would be much of a change in Harry's behaviour. I can see that the relationship with his parents would be based on profound respect. Eventually he'd know about what transpired in the night of Voldemort's fall and got James killed, would have an enormous fight with Severus, but in the end love wins.

Now, inclination towards potions? Perhaps... but mechanically. Lily was good with Potions as far as we know, and we don't need to talk about Severus. I can imagine that they would still do it occasionally at home or be private brewers or have an apothecary of their own... So Harry would know very well how to do it, but his passion would lie somewhere else.

You mention that he'd befriend Hermione - I don't think he'd change any of his friendships. Again, Harry is a good kid. Despite Snape's canon opinion 😅

Lily and Snape would very much be in touch with their muggle ties, I absolutely adore the idea of a muggle Severus casually forgetting to use magic to do tedious tasks at home... and Harry would certainly know how to live like one, and survive perfectly well.

About keeping him hidden until he was 11 : he'd still be the boy who lived... so I get your point. They'd have to move somewhere where they'd be completely anonymous. That's thrilling.

Lupin would totally be the fun uncle, I can see Severus and Remus letting go of the past and respect each other. They did it while Remus was a teacher after all.

Now, off topic, but of all the marauders, Remus is the only one who I don't disfavour. I don't know where, and who, but someone mentioned that lycanthropy was being compared to having HIV/AIDS, so I believe that in the end the people who surrounded him were compassionate enough to protect him (but their compassion was declared extinct after that particular accomplishment), and he felt compelled to do the same in order to not be ostracised.

He'd be present in Harry's life, and unfortunately so would Sirius because Lily and Remus would have tried to clear his name.

I don't know if this was the sort of "thoughts" you were expecting! Thank you for the message!

[roseandremus]

Werewolf Questions

Hello hello!

I have recently become engrossed in the Marauders Era of Harry Potter fanfiction for the first time in over 5 years, and I need help (because I'm maybe trying to write fanfiction). So, in regards to Remus becoming a werewolf "on the full moon", I have questions that I am unsure about how to answer.

Also, I don't support TERFs!

This is longer than I thought so here's a scroll break :)

How accurate do you all usually go in this regard?

I know "accuracy" and specificity is generally to each author's desires, but like, I get stuck in the minutiae and would appreciate any and all help! I've been looking up when the full moon was during his years at Hogwarts (1971-8) and have been finding sources which actually give me the times, which I thought was great until I saw times like 14:20:45 or 06:03:58. I understand that, practically, the moon would be made "full" at any time of the day, but how would this impact werewolves, which leads into my next question(s).

2. How does the moon impact werewolves, and how many days are these transformations supposed to take effect? If the moon is full at midday, do werewolves still transform at night or would that be considered a "pass" month because the sun overpowers the moon (or whatever)?

Maybe this is the skeptic in me but I don't understand the practicality(?) of werewolf transformations. How does the moon force out the wolf? Or is it more like the sun keeps the wolf in? If it is the later, then how come werewolves don't become wolves every night except maybe solar eclipses?

In HP, werewolves become one because of a bite from a werewolf, but how does work? Is it supposed to be a magical effect (because I don't think it is because of the presence of non-magical werewolves)? And, if it were a magical effect, wouldn't that mean the possibility of disspelling that effect, similar to disspelling a jinx or hex? Is it supposed to be a physical effect, like AIDS/HIV? If so, what does that say about the magical community and their medical community? Are we supposed to believe that werewolves have been part of the magical history for centuries, and the medical community has not done shit about it until the early 1980s? I'm supposed to believe they have potions/elixirs that can regrow bones or potions that can literally transform your body into that of someone elses or potions that are quite literally liquid luck but they haven't helped werewolves stop unwanted shifts? Not one person?

3. Last question, I promise! What is considered the full moon for werewolves? The day the moon becomes full and only that day, or would it be the night closest to the time of the full moon? For example, if the full moon is at 06:03:58 on September 5th, does that mean the full moon would be the night of the 4th going into the 5th, the night of the 5th going into the 6th, or something else?

Anyway, how werewolves work is, I suppose, the question I'm really trying to find the answer to. Thank you to any and all that respond!

[dragons-r-cool]

Fixing lycanthropy in Harry Potter

(Please note, JKR is a disgusting person who is spreading only hate, and you should not provide her with financial support by purchasing licenced media or merch)

Remus Lupin and lycanthropy in general presents an issue for harry potter, as it is used to parallel the real world condition of HIV AIDS. This is a problem because of the presentation of werewolves in the series as dangerous and violent. The prejudice directly reflects the hate that was spewed at queer people during the AIDS crisis and is still rampant in modern homophobia.

To create a more accurate (or at least less harmful) alagory, my first suggestion is to make werewolves less dangerous. To do this, it should be explicity stated in the text that werewolves do not attack people unless they feel threatened (kind of like bees), despite the propaganda within the wiziding world that they are hungry monsters out for blood. This could be done by having Harry, Ron, and Hermione completing the essay Snape sets and mentioning the differences between a more evidence based account of werewolves and the texts Snape assigned them to work from.

I would also make a slight alteration to the medications that are used. I would keep wolfsbane pretty much the same (perhaps include a pain management element?), but also present a second potion that requires less frequent doses and lasts longer (this is so that remus forgetting his potion on the night they catch Peter does not impact the effects of this potion). This potion is based on the real life medication used for HIV positive people to prevent the spread of the virus by reducing viral load, its purpose would be to prevent the spread of lycanthropy so that when transformed, Remus does not risk infecting others.

This change allows the narrative to shift focus from the people around Remus (and the threat he poses to them) to the effect lycanthropy has on Remus himself. The pain it causes, the mental load of being unable to control himself, the damage the curse does to his body, etc. This creates a more accurate representation of disability, as it presents the condition as affecting the individual in a significant way, unrelated to its effect on those around them.

With these changes, the story becomes about a discriminated minority, pressured out of his position on no real basis (as he now poses no real threat to the students, unlike the canon story) and it can explore both the struggles he faces with his condition and the difficulties caused by a bigoted society.

[eolewyn1010]

Back on Her Who Does Not Deserve To Be Named, Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban / Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban bears the doubtful honor of having been (still being? albeit on a much lower level overall) my favorite of the series. Not that it's flawless, but I'll get to that. First things first: This copy is old to the point of the spine letting go of the pages one by one, and it was not bought in a time when financially supporting JKR in any capacity would have made me sick.

To be honest: Before James and Sirius turned out to have been colossal dipshits, quietly condoned by Remus, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black were my favorite characters. I found them compelling, their separate tragedies, their trust and friendship, I wanted Sirius to redeem himself in the eyes of society and I wanted Remus with his AIDS parallel to get a satisfying arc to happiness. That's not what I got, but I didn't know that when I first read this book. And it was before Reincarnated British Colonialism Bill Weasley shacked up with a literal teenager, before Winky and the House Elf slavery apologist track were introduced, before we learn that even after Voldemort's defeat muggles will be held in contempt, before Ron and Harry shoved off most of their academical work to Hermione, before all the othering and bullying heaped on Luna that she's just supposed to accept, before the other prominent HIV parallel of the series is introduced as a very blatant child molester parallel. Before "you can't trust the caricatures of Jewish capitalists". Before our beloved jokesters start selling date rape drugs. Before our protagonist makes it clear that the most off-putting thing a girl can do is want to talk about her feelings. In short, the absence of so many of the later bs makes it possible for me to take much more of this book at face value. I hadn't really started to dislike the characters JKR wanted me to like. So this is a story that uncovers a lot of the past Harry's life is built upon, and the time travel adventure is cool, his emotional journey throughout the year is gripping... This book is fun, and easy to read; even while reading two more books at the same time, I was through this in a couple days.

And then there's all the... less funny stuff. How Aunt Marge carries on the theme that Millicent Bulstrode introduced: That an Obviously Evil(TM) female character gets the most vile insult JKR could think of - looking ugly in a decidedly unfeminine way. Wonder what's up with that. How a character who's described as fat will soon turn out to be bad news and also stupid (seriously, look up the description of teen Pettigrew; they call him a fat kid far from brilliant). That betraying the Potters is apparently a worse crime than killing 12 people (this is either the wizard world's rampant disregard of muggle lives and safety or Rowling projecting her priorization of her main characters onto her entire world; who cares about twelve dead people who are not even named in the narrative). That teachers at this school constantly get away with bullying students (Snape bullies Hermione, McGonagall bullies Neville). That Ron blatantly bullies one of his ostensible best friends (and later wife; I'm expected to buy the upcoming relationship as healthy or something), and Harry basically lets it slide.

I'm still giving this four out of five time turners. This is admittedly at least in part out of nostalgia for what was my favorite of the series, but also because this book precedes so much bullshit. Things go steadily downhill from here on out:⏳⏳⏳⏳

[thebreakfastgenie]

#like the antisemitic stuff and the werewolves as an allegory for AIDS stuff were not apparently to me as a kid the way cho chang was @bayleafpaprika

I think the werewolves as an AIDS allegory thing was legitimately just misguided. Remus Lupin's lycanthropy is an allegory for HIV in book 3, particularly with struggling to find work and being unfairly fired. I honestly don't think she connected the dots when Fenrir Greyback became a bigger character later, that there would be implications about portraying people with AIDS as dangerous predators. I don't know if we have confirmation on this either way, but that's always how it's come across to me. And honestly, just to reiterate again, it's a series for children, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to not expect children to read Fenrir Greyback's characterization as an extension of an allegory four books earlier.

There is plenty in Harry Potter that with the benefit of hindsight is problematic, but it's also been picked over by academic-minded adults more than probably any other children's series, at least any other modern children's series.

There are people who actually worshipped JKR and there are people who gushed about her because she wrote Harry Potter and they loved Harry Potter who literally knew nothing about her that wasn't in the author bio on the dust jacket. I think fandom oriented people tend to forget how big a population the latter was! But Harry Potter was so huge at its peak that it had a lot of casual fans who deeply, deeply loved the series, maybe even knew the trivia of the actual books inside and out, but never engaged with the fandom side of things or dove deep into meta information. There were normies attending midnight release parties, the series was that big.

[ax3-e0ns]

Headcannon: Remus also likes Disney but for sorta similar reasons as Virgil, except on an entirely different level. 

Roman, Virgil, and Remus could all sit down and watch Beauty and the Beast but while Roman watches with the focus on the romance and Virgil on the Stolkhome syndrome takes, Remus would sit and watch it under the lens that the movie is one whole dissection of the aids epidemic. And because Roman and Virgil wouldn’t have the background understanding, Remus would need to explain how the major director for that movie was not only a gay man but also a gay man who was severely sick with aids and HIV related complications during the aids epidemic and how that information actively molds the very narrative and message of the movie in his eyes.