Why Remus Lupin was the most heartbreaking and tragic character in Harry Potter

While many of Harry’s teachers, heroes, and friends went through tragedy and loss, the most heartbreaking of all Harry Potter characters was Remus Lupin.

Admit it; when you found out Lupin had died in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” you cried a tear. While Tonks died with him, he left behind a son that Harry would go on to raise. But this wasn’t the only reason Lupin had the most heartbreaking and tragic life throughout the series.

When he returns as a spirit to help Harry, he’s seen as a much younger version of himself. So is Sirius. The two’s souls died around the time Lily and James Potter died and the Resurrection Stone only brought their souls back; bringing them back much younger than Harry had seen them. It’s a much more obvious realization in the book than the movie, but nevertheless, the resurrection stone brought back a much younger version of themselves. A tragic reminder that more than just Harry’s parents died that night.

Lupins tragic story goes much deeper than that

But it’s Lupin’s story overall that is the most tragic. While Sirius may have been arrested and tormented, blamed for the deaths of his friends, Lupin was the one to live with the memories. He lost four friends the night the Potters were killed. Three died and the fourth was blamed. He lived the rest of his life a social outcast (because of his lycanthropy) and without the knowledge of the truth.

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To make matters worse, he believed the rumors that Sirius was a Death Eater and responsible for the deaths of the Potters. The guilt he must have felt after realizing the truth must have been traumatic. He went through more than a decade of his life blaming the wrong person, despite years of the friends supporting each other; he blamed a man who had looked past the lycanthropy and became a black dog to stop Lupin from feeling so much of an outcast.

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Then after his friends’ deaths, his soul was gone. He lived a life of poverty and despair, until he came to Hogwarts to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts. It looked like he could have something, but he was just a shell of his former self, slowly going mad with the grief, heartache, and loss. He found something in Tonks but it wasn’t enough to repair all the damage. Fortunately, she didn’t want to repair the damage but accepted him for who he had become.

Just as he was finding a footing and had the potential to gain life again, he was killed. He and Tonks gave up their lives in the Second Wizard War, just as his friends had before. It was only in death that he could be reunited with everyone, but to do that he lost everything that was in his future.

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Lupin is the most heartbreaking character in “Harry Potter.” Nobody even comes close.