femmechester:

been thinking a lot lately about why so many of us are deeply attached to remus and for me, i think it’s because he was what i wanted from my teachers. he was practical; his lessons were fun and he was never cruel to students; he was supportive and gave harry extra instruction when he needed it but boundaries were mostly maintained, and you never doubted that remus was an adult, someone you could count on if you were in trouble and that would respect you and speak to you like a person but still knew you were a child and didn’t expect anything of you beyond that.

and then you add to that what fandom built, the hurt and the betrayal after sirius was gone, the marauders history that j.k. will never quite get right; the way he jokes and makes off-color innuendo that is just this side of subtle; the worn elbows on his jumpers and his abiding love of chocolate that means so much more than just recovering from a dementor encounter; the way he gets nauseous when he’s nervous and the way he was never quite able to let go of the hope that his friend did not betray him.

the books gave us this incredibly sympathetic adult that we believed would believe in us, and we took him and spun his history into this thing we knew he had to have, something quiet and aching that resulted in a man who would always be there if you needed him. it’s so important to me that remus’ history is traumatic and yet he became such a caring person, someone with so much love in his heart and who wants with every ounce of him to be good despite the darkness he didn’t ask for.

he became one of the most absurdly admirable people in canon, not just because he was kind and gentle and good, but also because he had every reason to be callous and cruel, and i think it means so much to us because we want that for ourselves.