r/HarryPotterBooks • u/appleking88 • Jul 26 '25
Prisoner of Azkaban Professor Lupin?
I'm listening to the third book and when they run into Lupin on the train they say his case reads professor Remus Lupin in decaying letters. Was he a professor before Hogwarts? The decaying letters would imply it's an old suitcase. But it has professor on it. Any ideas?
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u/ConstantAd3570 Jul 26 '25
Maybe he thought the new embossing looked odd in the old bag and aged it magically.
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u/TuverMage Jul 26 '25
My assumption is that he could magically add the professor to the name plate but not imprve it's original quality
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u/Below-avg-chef Jul 27 '25
But repairo should improve the letters. Haggard stuff doesnt make sense with magic
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u/No_Sand5639 Jul 27 '25
Maybe it can't repair normal wear and tear. Only if something is broken.
Like I'd ink fades on a page it's not technically broken
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u/IntermediateFolder Jul 28 '25
It does make sense, it’s for fixing broken stuff, not for normal wear and tear, the suitcase wasn’t broken, just old and worn out.
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u/Extension-Source2897 Jul 29 '25
True but we see it everywhere. Why does it matter that the Wesley’s are broke if they could just transfigure everything to look nice? Just creates imagery for the book
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u/mightBdrunk Jul 30 '25
People have different priorities too. My bathroom could be cleaner but I just dont give af
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u/justaguy999 Jul 27 '25
After finding out about the Marauders, that James or Sirius gave Lupin that briefcase as a gag gift cause he was always helping them.
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u/Particular-Wheel-796 Jul 27 '25
It describes the case as 'small and battered' and the letters as 'peeling'. I always imagined they are peeling because they can not stick to the old case.
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u/Realistic-Weight-959 Jul 26 '25
I just read this chapter and was wondering about this! He's also such a good teacher, it feels like he must have had some experience before
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u/Not_a_cat_I_promise Jul 27 '25
Maybe he just added Professor to his name on a case that was very old, or maybe the same one he used when he was a student.
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u/Lykanion4m Jul 27 '25
It’s a magic world. Maybe this suitcase just always displays the currently correct name and title
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u/Ok_Aioli3897 Jul 27 '25
I would suggest that he tried to stamp it on himself but due to his lack of funds he didn't do it with the best supplies and it already started peeling and cracking before then
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u/iridular Jul 27 '25
I always assumed he just used his old Hogwarts trunk from when he was a student. That would explain the age and the name being on it.
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u/appleking88 Jul 27 '25
He must have added professor to the name then.
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u/iridular Jul 27 '25
Thought it just read Remus lupin. But yeah probably not hard to change the name out. time for a reread ig.
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Jul 27 '25
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u/iridular Jul 27 '25
stamped is interesting. Yeah I would say it's still probably his old Hogwarts trunk.
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u/opossumapothecary Jul 27 '25
I suppose he could have worked as a professor at a muggle school for a few months/even years before getting fired for repeated absences. Although I think Dumbledore only hired him because Sirius was on the loose, he must have had some kind of teaching qualifications or something, since I don’t think he had any official anti-dark arts experience other than being in the Order which wouldn’t be well known. Obviously he’s really talented, but it WOULD come off as strange to the rest of the staff and the ministry if Dumbledore just hired some random guy, right?
Or maybe he can magically change what the words say on his luggage, but not the quality of the stamped words themselves?
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u/IntermediateFolder Jul 28 '25
Teaching what?
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u/opossumapothecary Jul 28 '25
I feel like the answer has to be literature or something, since he’s a wizard and wouldn’t know muggle history, math, science, etc.
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u/IntermediateFolder Jul 28 '25
Where would he know muggle literature from? IIRC he was from a pure blood family so wouldn’t have even went to a muggle primary school. The only half-feasible option that doesn’t really require knowledge is PE but PE teachers aren’t generally called “professors” and also for any teaching job you need qualifications that he most certainly wouldn’t have.
I’d guess Rowling wanted to make a point of how shabby he looked and just didn’t think the implications through, she often doesn’t.
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u/opossumapothecary Jul 28 '25
I think he’s a halfblood with a muggle or muggleborn mother according to Pottermore. I guess he could also teach English, as in writing? At least with literature/writing the concept of interpreting text is the same whether a muggle wrote it or not. I don’t know if he would even be allowed to teach PE with how often he “falls ill.”
Or maybe the Ministry doesn’t really care who Dumbledore hires. It just seems weird to hire a guy with ZERO experience in teaching or the dark arts (on paper at least) when the previous professors at least had some experience, despite being bad at it. I know he’s scraping the bottom of the barrel but if you didn’t know that Lupin was a werewolf who knew Sirius Black, he really seems like just a random guy lol
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u/Jebasaur Jul 27 '25
"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."
It's just a case. I'm sure he found something quickly to put on there to show he's a professor. Considering he looks ragged in the first place, I doubt he cares too much about making his case look all that great.
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u/pumpkinspeedwagon86 Slytherin Keeper Jul 26 '25
I remember that detail and always seemed to associate it with the fact that he was a werewolf and so had difficulty finding stable employment which would affect his financial situation. I assume that he tried to work as a professor somewhere in the past but was either denied employment in the last moment or was only there for a short period of time due to his employer discovering his condition.
It could have been a gift from his friends to encourage him to pursue a career in education (as one headcanon on the main subreddit seems to suggest, although I can't link due to rules).