SOURCE: HARRY POTTER AND THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (2004) by J. K. Rowling

DESCRIPTION: "Harry could see Lupin's silhouette. he had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake...There was a terrible snarling noise. Lupin's head was lengthening. So was his body. His shoulders were hunching. Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws...."

PLOT: In this novel shapeshifters are very important (including a werewolf, and wizards who can turn into rats, dogs and stags) play an integral part in the story. Harry's Defense-Against-the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Remus Lupin is cursed with lycanthropy. Lupin suppresses his curse with magic potions but at the climax of the story he fails to take it and attacks Harry and his friends. He later resigns from Hogwarts because the news gets out of his curse.

WEREWOLF FACTS: The book does a good job of contrasting these two different ideas of a were creature that is a slave to the change and another who controls the power.

INTERESTING FACTS: The filmmakers chose wisely to make Professor Lupin look like the medieval drawings of werewolves, which long ungainly arms and legs. This avoided all the "Wolf-Man" comparisons. Black's wolf looked like the portentous Black Dog, the Grim, that appears to foretell of someone's death, frightening Harry unintentially.