And I know that there is a tendency to see Lupin's attempt to run away with the Trio as a fall from grace, but I cannot agree. And no, I am not just saying that because of an obsession with the character. It is one of his most believable scenes. And I cannot see it as a negative. It is not an attempt to recapture a lost youth or run away from responsibility, as Harry frames it (too many people are wont to accept Harry's framing of events, despite his continued misreading of everyone around him). It is a natural continuation of the worry that kept him from accepting Tonks in the first place (and I am speaking now from the position of someone taking the Tonks/Lupin relationship at face value, not as my usual self shipping Lupin and Sirius with Tonks as an unfortunate aside), and of what he has experienced of the attitudes both from the Ministry and the wider wizarding world in regard to werewolves. We see it only as Harry see it, but there have been some very strong indications earlier in the books as to how they are treated. I see Lupin's attempt to distance himself from his family as a fairly unselfish act, founded in a fear of the taint he risks bringing on them. I am not saying it is wholly rational, but it is not selfish. If I sound overly defensive, that is because I have had this discussion before.

Harry: I want to hit him for how he sent Lupin away. If Lupin had died without this being made right between them, I would have. Fictional character or not.