The following is the third in a series of 7 articles focusing on a moment of rhetorical significance in each of the Harry Potter novels. This series evolved out of a paper presented at the 2018 Harry Potter Academic Conference.
We first meet Professor RJ Lupin in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Asleep on the Hogwarts Express, Lupin appears shabby and downtrodden. But we soon find out that he has a warm personality and is reassuringly competent. Over the course of the book, we fall for the charming and even-tempered professor, until finally the story reveals that he has been a monstrous werewolf the whole time.
Werewolf prejudice is real in Harry Potter‘s wizarding world. Many wizards fear werewolves, refuse to give them work and ultimately push them out to the corners of society. All of this regardless of the fact that werewolves are indistinguishable from other wizards 29 nights of the month. In fact, the moment she is given a reason to question Professor Lupin, even the normally tolerant Hermione exclaims, “Harry, don’t trust him…he wants you dead too — he’s a werewolf!” 1
The ‘Woke’ Marauders
Of course, Lupin did not want Harry dead. Lupin just wanted to protect his old school friends. Decades before the events of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, the child Remus Lupin was shunned by wizarding society. Young Lupin does not make real friends until he meets James Potter, Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew at Hogwarts School. He develops positive relationships with his non-werewolf friends who accept him for who he is. They even come up with a groovy name for their mischievous gang: The Marauders. Lupin says,
“I was terrified they would desert me the moment they found out what I was.… [But] they didn’t desert me at all. Instead, they did something for me that would make my transformations not only bearable, but the best times of my life.” 2
Lupin’s friends accept him into their group despite his werewolfness. Like how Sammy Davis Jr joined the Rat Pack, Remus Lupin joined the Marauders—the hip, pure-blood kids who found this whole blood-supremacy thing absolutely ridiculous. Sure, Lupin was a werewolf. But he was their werewolf.
What Is Tokenism?
In Why We Can’t Wait, Martin Luther King describes tokenism as a new method of thwarting the dreams and aspirations of black people. A token, he defines as:
“a symbol…a keepsake…a piece of metal used in place of a coin.… But he who sells you the token instead of the coin always retains the power to revoke its worth.… Tokenism is a promise to pay. Democracy…is payment.” 3
To Martin Luther King, tokenism was not real change. Tokenism was “a symbol” of the hope that change may come soon, a token gesture from those who hold power over you. Tokenism is not rhetoric that leads to action. It is appeasement designed to affect complacency rather than create change.
To Malcolm X, tokenism was much more nefarious. Malcolm X described the token Negro as synonymous to the house Negro. In a speech to Michigan State University in 1963, Malcolm X said that:
“whenever that house Negro identified himself, he always identified himself in the same sense that his master identified himself.… His master’s pain was his pain. And it hurt him more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself.… If someone came to the house Negro and said, ‘Let’s go, let’s separate,’ naturally that Uncle Tom would say, ‘Go where? What could I do without boss? Where would I live? How would I dress? Who would look out for me?’ That’s the house Negro.” 4
To Malcolm X, tokenism was tantamount to treason. It was the brainwashing of a subjugated person to make them lose identification with their own suffering people and choose the well-being of their oppressors over kith and kin.
Lupin, the Spy Among Werewolves
Three years after he resigns in disgrace from Hogwarts at the end of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we find out that Lupin’s role in the war against Voldemort is to play the spy among werewolves. He must infiltrate their society and persuade them over to the cause of the good guys.
“‘I’ve been living among my fellows, my equals,’ said Lupin. ‘Werewolves,’ he added, at Harry’s look of incomprehension. ‘Nearly all of them are on Voldemort’s side. Dumbledore wanted a spy and here I was…ready-made.'” 5
Lupin is told to ‘pretend’ that he belongs among people who are like him. People who share life experiences with him. People who struggle the same struggles as himself. But he does not belong.
“I am not complaining; it is necessary work and who can do it better than I? However, it has been difficult gaining their trust. I bear the unmistakable signs of having tried to live among wizards, you see, whereas they have shunned normal society and live on the margins, stealing — and sometimes killing — to eat.” 6
Even among his werewolf brethren, Lupin is still an outsider. He is a token. An Uncle Tom adopting wizarding culture as his own rather than staying true to his people. Werewolves are mistreated, maligned and systematically oppressed by wizard folk. Other werewolves know that the status quo is awful, so they side with the man looking to shake things up. But Lupin’s pain is the wizard’s pain. So he must persuade the werewolves to defend the status quo.
Lupin, the Traitor
Years before all this—as young men fresh out of Hogwarts—the Marauders are torn apart. A traitor sells out James Potter to the evil Lord Voldemort. And for years it appears that the traitor was Sirius Black. Sirius is sent to prison. Peter Pettigrew appears to have been murdered by him. And Lupin is once again alone and friendless.
But 12 years later, during the events of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, we find out that Sirius was not the traitor. There was a mole in the group fighting Lord Voldemort. So James and Sirius hatched a plan. They made a plan to pretend that a secret was held by Sirius when in actuality, it was held by Peter Pettigrew.
But surely they would let Remus Lupin in on the secret. Wouldn’t they? “‘Not if he thought I was the spy… I assume that’s why you didn’t tell me, Sirius?'” 7 says Lupin. Lupin is the only one of the four Marauders not to know the secret.
But for what reason would James and Sirius think Lupin might be a traitor? Sure, James could not be the spy because he was the subject of the spying. But Sirius came from a family of blood supremacists and his own brother was a Death Eater. Peter Pettigrew (the actual traitor) was ignored out of a sense of inferiority. But Lupin really had no marks against him other than being a werewolf.
Where Do the Token’s Loyalties Lie?
There’s an interesting (possibly apocryphal) story about Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. Sinatra hated racism all his life and donated funds, fame and face to the Civil Rights Movement. And as a young man, he welcomed Sammy into the Rat Pack despite his race and always defended Sammy when others sought to hold him back. But one time, Sammy got a little frustrated with his role in the Rat Pack. Sinatra and the gang frequently made him the butt of jokes because of his race. And even among black folk, Sammy was mistrusted for spending so much time with white people. So Sammy bit the hand that fed him. And Sinatra never forgot it.
The Marauders hated blood supremacy. And to prove it, James married a muggle-born. The entire group fought against the Death Eater supremacists. And the Marauders even adopted a werewolf friend. A mascot. Lupin belonged in spite of being a werewolf. Lupin says of Harry, “Sometimes you remind me a lot of James. He called it my ‘furry little problem’ in company. Many people were under the impression that I owned a badly behaved rabbit.” 8
To the Marauders, Lupin’s status as a werewolf was inconsequential. They were, in muggle terms, post-racial. But Lupin is a werewolf. It is a part of his identity, it is a part of his struggle and it’s a big deal.
While working for the good guys in the war against Voldemort, Lupin begins to bond with others like him. And during this time, he loses his best friends’ trust. They are suddenly reminded that he is not like them. He is a werewolf, and many werewolves are on the side of the enemy. Lupin was one of their own until he started hanging out with his own. Then he became a suspected traitor. And this mistake cost them their friendship for many years. And ultimately it cost them their lives.
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 17: “Cat, Rat, and Dog” | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 1999
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 18: “Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs” | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 1999
- King, Martin Luther | Chapter II: “The Sword that Heals” | Why We Can’t Wait | 1964
- X, Malcolm | “The Race Problem” | 23 Jan 1963
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 16: “A Very Frosty Christmas” | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | 2005
- ibid
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 19: “The Servant of Lord Voldemort” | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | 1999
- Rowling, JK | Chapter 16: “A Very Frosty Christmas” | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | 2005