There’s something about the way she talks about it, the casualness of "werewolf", the understanding way she calls it an "illness", that hits Sirius differently. Here is a woman who has raised a boy who occasionally transformed into a werewolf—a creature she grew up thinking fictional—and faced the stigma surrounding lycanthropy as his mother. Here is a woman who could have left, or failed to keep her son hidden and safe (from himself or others), but who instead learned how to help Remus and make his life worth living. Here is a woman who understands what it means to love someone who is often reduced to his condition—both by himself and by others—and who sees it not as something shameful or all-encompassing of his identity, but merely a part of his life to understand and treasure and love like all the others.