However, by the seventh book in the series, Rowling had begun depicting Lupin as in a traditional marriage with children with Nymphadora Tonks, another character who several fans previously believed to have been queer-coded.
An example of a written piece of fanwork that depicts this interpretation is Stealing Harry, in which Lupin and Black take custody of Potter from the abusive Dursley household and raise him themselves.
[10] According to Jacquelin Elliott of the University of Florida, the canonical long friendship between the two characters is a factor in the pairing's popularity, with its fans interpreting their relationship as akin to that of an 'old married couple'.
Elliott wrote: "For many fans, Remus’ lycanthropy (and Sirius’ status as a canine animagus) were central to their readings of the characters as queer, each man's human/animal hybridity heightening their respective positions as liminal figures with disallowable sexuality."
"[6] Laura Muth of The Mary Sue argued that Lupin and Black parallel "Stucky", the pairing of the Marvel Comics characters Captain America and Bucky Barnes.
However, Muth also notes that while Sirius was wrongly-accused of his crimes, while Bucky "turned out to be under the influence of an invasive mind-control experiment that erased his memories and his former sense of right and wrong.