A tribute

*waves nervously* I'm a complete newbie to

nraged, although I've been following the game for a long time. After what happened today, though, I wanted to do a tribute, and this seemed to be the best place to put it. Hope it's all right. There's an invitation at the end of the post for others to share too.

I first started reading NA around the winter of 2003, sometime after the winter ball they'd had, but my strongest initial recollection was

lupercus' Werewolf lessons. They were all incredible, but it was the last one, where he spoke of his personal experience, which got me. That's when I started reading NA regularly. And it's when I first fell in love with

lupercus, as so many others have. It was such an emotional post, so phenomenal, he became real to me. How could he not be real after that?

There was so much to love about

lupercus. His angst at being turned into a woman shortly before his wedding, the wedding itself (when he and Sirius spent their wedding night soothing Harry, I just about broke down crying). Only NA could make me cheer for the way

lupercus dragged Snape out of his grouchy shell. And then swoon again when he returned to Sirius.

Then there were the phenomenal, caring relationships he developed with both Seamus and Harry. The way he provided Seamus with a role model was fabulous – encouraging, teasing, steering, helping him get over broken hearts. I think Seamus helped

lupercus as much as he was helped in return.

And Harry. He was far more of a dogfather to Harry than Sirius was, I think (and it's *not* meant to be a criticism of Sirius). He was *there*. He joked and gently teased and encouraged and worried. He made sure Harry traveled. The post with the advertisement that went on on on on on on had me crying with laughter, and was SUCH a wonderful example of their easygoing relationship. When I stop to think about how Harry reacted (as per Sirius' post) and how he must be feeling – I want to cry for entirely different reasons.

There is, of course, so much more, so many others

lupercus interacted with, so many other prime posts that should be Memoried and included here, but this would only dissolve into rambling were I to do that. So I'll just sum up with this: For me, he was real. He was incredibly real. I wrote a small drabble for

15minuteficlets from his POV. I'm not prone to celebrity crushes, but I adored

lupercus more than any other character that I can think of. He *became* Lupin for me, the model of what Lupin was all about.

I am crushed by his death.

I adore his player more than words can possibly say. She may not want to talk to me after all this gushing, lol, but it had to be said.

I was thinking – maybe it would be a nice tribute if everyone posted their favourite

lupercus memory. Link if you feel ambitious, or just describe it if you don't. Any takers?

taradiane @ June 25 2004, 02:22:58 UTC

Actually, one of the things I loved were the icon keywords. I know it's not much, but "the boy" always just...well it gave me warm fuzzies. Every interaction with Harry was absolutely perfect - even when they weren't speaking. Remember that? I'd link, but...well LJ isn't behaving. I just loved him all around, even when I didn't agree with him (which was far and few between).