Nymphadora Tonks

> Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus. It's Tonks.
>
> Tonks' intense dislike of her first name, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

**Nymphadora Lupin** (née **Tonks**) – 2 May, 1998) more commonly known as **Tonks**, and occasionally **Dora**, was a British half-blood witch and a Metamorphmagus. She was the only child of Ted and Andromeda Tonks (née Black). Tonks attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry from 1984-1991 and was Sorted into Hufflepuff House. She was in the same year at Hogwarts as Gryffindor Charlie Weasley.

After leaving Hogwarts, Tonks joined the Ministry of Magic and trained to become an Auror under the watchful eye of Alastor Moody, qualifying in 1994. In 1995, she joined the second Order of the Phoenix, working undercover in the Ministry and helping to guard the Department of Mysteries. In June of 1996, she fought in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. At some point, Tonks fell in love with Remus Lupin, her fellow Order member and a werewolf who felt he was too poor, old, and dangerous for her and thus rejected her feelings, although he felt the same way. In the wake of the return of Lord Voldemort, Tonks was assigned to Hogsmeade as part of the Auror task force sent to guard Hogwarts. She later fought in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower. After seeing the love Fleur Delacour held for Bill Weasley despite his injuries, she publicly declared her love for Remus.

Tonks and Remus were married in the summer of 1997. She formed part of the Advance Guard and bravely participated in the Battle of the Seven Potters. Tonks became pregnant by this time and Remus began to worry that he had passed on his werewolf condition to their son, though this proved not to be the case as the child had inherited only Tonks' metamorphic abilities. Remus, in response to this, attempted to leave Tonks, but was convinced by their friend Harry Potter to return to her. She gave birth to a son, Teddy Remus Lupin (named after her late father Edward "Teddy") shortly after Easter in 1998 and the couple named Harry the godfather. On 2 May, 1998 Tonks fought in the Battle of Hogwarts and was finally murdered by Bellatrix Lestrange, her maternal aunt and a Death Eater, a devoted servant of Lord Voldemort. Her murder was avenged by her order colleague and friend Molly Weasley. After her death, her son was raised by her mother and Harry.

## Biography

### Early life (1973-1984)

Nymphadora Tonks was born in late 1972 to 1973 to Edward Tonks, a Muggle-born wizard and Andromeda Tonks (née Black), a pure-blood witch and former member of the noble House of Black although she was burned off the family tree after marrying a muggle-born, which was considered a betrayal to the family. Her mother noticed that Tonks changed hair colour on the day of her birth, meaning she was a Metamorphmagus.

### Hogwarts years (1984-1991)

Tonks began her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 1984 and was sorted into Hufflepuff House at the Sorting ceremony. Being the daughter of the ostracised Andromeda Tonks, she was rejected by the pure-blood supremacists of the House of Black.

### Career as an Auror (1992-1995)

> Nearly failed on stealth and tracking. I'm dead clumsy! Did you hear me break that plate downstairs?
>
> Tonks talking to Harry Potter about Auror training, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

After passing a series of character tests that examine practical skills and how well candidates react under pressure, Tonks underwent three years of Auror training under the tutelage of Alastor Moody. Her natural metamorphic abilities allowed her to easily pass the Concealment and Disguise portion of the training without doing any work or study at all. However, Tonks' clumsiness gave her trouble with the Stealth and Tracking portion of the course. She admitted to Harry Potter that she almost failed, as she had a habit of breaking items.

Tonks qualified fully as an Auror in 1994, she was one of the last ones taken on. According to her father, she had been through worse experiences than many of her next battles.

### Second Wizarding War (1995-1998)

Main article: Second Wizarding War

> Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would. Wotcher, Harry!
>
> Tonks meeting Harry Potter for the first time, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

With the return of Lord Voldemort in 1995, Tonks was one of the few Ministry employees to be convinced of the truth, rather than accepting the Ministry lie that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named hadn't returned. She joined the reconstituted Order of the Phoenix, and, alongside Kingsley Shacklebolt, worked as a covert operative inside the Ministry, feeding the Order information. Tonks had to be careful around the Ministry, though, as indiscreet actions would have seen her lose her position as an Auror. She also took shifts guarding Harry Potter's prophecy in the Department of Mysteries, along with other members of the Order. She was considered a considerable asset to the Order.

In the summer of 1995, Tonks was part of the Order's Advance Guard sent to escort Harry from 4 Privet Drive to 12 Grimmauld Place, after his encounter with Dementors in Little Whinging. In order to lure the Dursleys from the house so they could retrieve Harry Potter, she sent a letter via the Muggle post, informing them that they had been short-listed in the "*All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition.*" With the Dursleys out of the way, the Advance Guard arrived to protect Harry during the journey to London. Tonks befriended the young wizard immediately and helped him pack his trunk, although she was not very good with household spells, something at which her mother excelled. She was impressed by his Firebolt broomstick. During the broomstick flight to Grimmauld Place, Tonks flew in the lead of the formation and convinced Moody to land immediately instead of doubling back.

After rescuing Harry from the Dursleys, Tonks was extremely busy at the Ministry, and the situation wasn't helped by Rufus Scrimgeour asking awkward questions, possibly due to her association with Mad-Eye Moody. Still, she found the time to attend the party at Grimmauld Place for Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger to congratulate them on becoming prefects. She was later part of the Order task force, disguised as an old woman, that escorted Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Fred, and George to King's Cross Station, so they could catch the Hogwarts Express.

At Christmas of the same year, Tonks accompanied Harry, Hermione, and the Weasleys to St Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries to visit Arthur Weasley, who had been attacked by Lord Voldemort's snake, Nagini. She gave Harry a miniature replica of his Firebolt as a Christmas present. Tonks, along with Remus Lupin, escorted Harry, Hermione, and the Weasley children back to Hogwarts on the Knight Bus to start the new term.

#### Battle of the Department of Mysteries

Main article: Battle of the Department of Mysteries

> Then, high above them, two more doors burst open and five more people sprinted into the room: Sirius, Lupin, Moody, Tonks, and Kingsley.
>
> The Order arrives in the Death Chamber, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

18 June 1996, Tonks was part of the Order force that went to rescue Harry, Hermione, Ron, Ginny, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood from the Department of Mysteries, along with Mad-Eye, Kingsley, her cousin Sirius Black, and Lupin. During the battle with the Death Eaters, she shot a Stunning Spell at Lucius Malfoy and duelled her aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, who proved too strong for Tonks. She was severely injured and knocked unconscious in the fight, to the point that Moody tried to revive her. Later, Tonks was saddened when Sirius died in the fight.

Following the conclusion of the battle, Tonks needed to spend some time at St Mungo's to recuperate. Fortunately, she was released in time to join several Order members at King's Cross station to confront the Dursleys over their treatment of Harry.

#### Protecting Hogwarts

> Harry thought she looked drawn, even ill, and there was something forced in her smile. Certainly her appearance was less colourful then usual without her customary shade of bubble-gum-pink hair.
>
> Description of Tonks' sickly complexion, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Tonks continued to serve the Order of the Phoenix, but she had become withdrawn and depressed. The change in personality — and her seeming difficulties in controlling her metamorphic abilities — was noted by those around her. Her physical changes included her hair becoming mousy brown and lank, while her body became thinner. Some, including Hermione and Harry, thought the change in her mood and appearance was caused by the death of her cousin, Sirius, since she had been fighting his murderer, Bellatrix, and had failed to stop her, and thus might be feeling guilty.

However, there was more than one reason for it and yet another cause of her depression was her love for Remus Lupin, who became her close friend over a year. One night when they lay in hiding outside a known Death Eater's house, she revealed her feelings. However, he felt a relationship with her would be disastrous for her, as he was a werewolf, too old and poor for her, so he started to volunteer in dangerous, long-term missions in order to keep distance between them. Tonks confided her feelings to Molly Weasley, and was often at the Burrow for "*tea and sympathy*". Her feelings even caused her Patronus to change its form to that of a wolf, although its large, shaggy intermediate form only reinforced Harry's "Sirius" theory.

With the news that Lord Voldemort had returned being confirmed by the Ministry, Hogwarts received a team of Aurors to help protect the castle from any threats. Tonks was part of the task force and was stationed in Hogsmeade. On 1 September, she rescued Harry from being sent back to London in one of the carriages on the Hogwarts Express, where he had been incapacitated by Draco Malfoy, then covered with his Invisibility cloak, and escorted him to the school gates. She could do this because she had been watching the students exit the train and immediately went to investigate when Harry had not gotten off too.

Tonks often patrolled the corridors of Hogwarts at the request of Albus Dumbledore, when he knew he would be away from the school searching for information regarding Voldemort's Horcruxes. She also patrolled Hogsmeade and met Harry shortly after he had confronted Mundungus Fletcher, when the latter was trying to sell items from Grimmauld Place to Aberforth Dumbledore. She apparently had abandoned her guard post in Hogsmeade and "*come bursting in to see Dumbledore, if that's really why she was here*". This may have been linked to a werewolf attack on a five year old boy.

#### Battle of the Astronomy Tower

Main article: Battle of the Astronomy Tower

> An extraordinary assortment of people had already settled into half of the chairs: shabby and smart, old and young. Most Harry did not recognise, but there were a few that he did, including members of the Order of the Phoenix: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mad-Eye Moody, Tonks, her hair miraculously returned to vividest pink, Remus Lupin, with whom she seemed to be holding hands...
>
> Tonks and others attend Dumbledore's funeral, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

Tonks was patrolling the school with Remus and Bill Weasley on the night that the Death Eaters managed to invade the castle, via a Vanishing Cabinet in the Room of Requirement, and fought against them in the Battle of the Astronomy Tower in 1997. During the battle, she duelled Thorfinn Rowle, who fired spells rapidly at the young Auror in an attempt to subdue her, though he ultimately failed and was forced to retreat with his companions.

In the aftermath of the battle, Tonks saw the love that Fleur Delacour held for Bill Weasley despite injuries suffered at the hands of the werewolf Fenrir Greyback. In the hospital wing, she publicly told Remus that she loved him, and that was all that mattered. Despite his protests that his and Bill's situations weren't the same, the two started a relationship, since Remus also held feelings for her. At the funeral of Albus Dumbledore, Tonks and Remus stood together, holding hands, and her hair had returned to her preferred bubble-gum pink colour.

#### Marriage

> *Harry, guess what*?" said Tonks from her perch on top of the washing machine, and she wiggled her left hand at him; a ring glittered there.
>
> Tonks happily showing Harry Potter her wedding ring, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Tonks and Remus married in a quiet ceremony in July, 1997, shortly before the Order operation to spirit Harry away from the Dursleys ahead of his seventeenth birthday. Both Remus and Tonks were unhappy that Harry was unable to attend their small wedding, as he couldn't be allowed to leave the protection of his relatives' home, since it was linked to the power of his mother's loving sacrifice when she willingly died for him.

Pius Thicknesse, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, had made it an imprisonable offence to create a Portkey near Harry's home, and as he was underage he could be Traced if he Apparated, and hence could not leave to attend without endangering his life. This did not leave Harry nor the Order a lot of options.

Tonks had unexpectedly become pregnant sometime after the wedding and presumably tried to tell Harry before the Battle of the Seven Potters, but was interrupted by "Mad-Eye" Moody.

#### Battle of the Seven Potters

Main article: Battle of the Seven Potters

> Bellatrix... she wants me quite as much as she wants Harry, Remus, she tried very hard to kill me. I just wish I got her, I owe Bellatrix. But we definitely injured Rodolphus...
>
> Tonks recounting her airborne fight, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

The Order ultimately decided that they would break the charm around Harry several days before his birthday on 31 July, so that they would have the element of surprise; as Voldemort apparently expected them to wait until he was seventeen to attempt to whisk him away. Tonks, along with a dozen members of the Order and Harry's friends, travelled to 4 Privet Drive, where they were to escort Harry to safety. Tonks took the role of a protector, flying on a broom with Ron Weasley (disguised as Harry). It soon became clear that Voldemort had expected such a move, as at least thirty Death Eaters were waiting to engage them in battle. During the flight from Little Whinging, Tonks and Ron were chased by Bellatrix as they headed to Ron's Great-Aunt Muriel's home. Tonks and Bellatrix engaged in a mid-air duel, whilst Ron stunned one of her fellow Death Eaters straight to the head. Bellatrix seemed as determined to kill Tonks as she was to rid Voldemort of Harry, though Tonks ultimately escaped from her and gravely injured her husband, Rodolphus Lestrange.

They made it to Muriel's, but missed their Portkey to the Burrow. Muriel delayed them further by fussing over them, but they appeared to Apparate into the sky above the Burrow and perform a crash landing into the garden. Remus was grateful and relieved that she was alive, but "*sounded almost angry at Tonks*" when he demanded what kept her so long and what had happened to her. As she told what happened; "*A muscle was jumping in Lupin's jaw. He nodded, but seemed unable to say anything else.*" Mr and Mrs Weasley ran outside when they got the news of Tonks and Ron's arrival, and thanked Lupin and Tonks repeatedly for bringing back their sons alive. The moment was sobered by Bill Weasley's revelation that her mentor, Mad-Eye Moody, had been murdered by Lord Voldemort. Tonks openly cried in front of her friends at the news that her beloved mentor had been murdered, as she was Mad-Eye's favourite and protégée at the Ministry of Magic.

#### Wedding of Bill and Fleur

Main article: Wedding of William Weasley and Fleur Delacour

> *Wotcher*" said a familiar voice as he came out of the marquee again and found Tonks and Lupin in front of the queue. She has turned blonde for the occasion.
>
> Harry Potter remarks upon Tonks' appearance at the wedding, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

In the days following, Tonks was over the moon and radiant, although she didn't reveal why. She briefly attended Harry's birthday party before leaving at the imminent arrival of Rufus Scrimgeour. Tonks later was a guest at Bill and Fleur's wedding the day after. She was talking to Charlie Weasley when the wedding was disrupted by Death Eaters, following the Fall of the Ministry and death of Scrimgeour. Tonks was seen with Remus preparing for the battle and casting a Shield Charm. It is unknown if she escaped or if she was questioned by the intruders, along with some of the other guests, before being released.

#### Childbirth

> Don't you understand what I've done to my wife and my unborn child? I should never have married her, I've made her an outcast! And the child — the child... my kind don't usually breed! It will be like me, I am convinced of it!
>
> Remus Lupin explains why he thinks marrying Tonks was a grave mistake, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Shortly after the wedding, Tonks and Remus split up. Remus feared for the child Tonks was carrying, worried that the child would be a werewolf like him. All of his old fears over his relationship with Tonks resurfaced, and he withdrew from her rather than hurt her. Tonks moved back in with her parents. However, their split didn't last very long. Remus, after arguing with Harry at 12 Grimmauld Place, finally saw sense and reunited with Tonks sometime before Christmas.

Before Easter in 1998, Tonks learnt that her father had been murdered by Snatchers. She ultimately gave birth to a son, Teddy Remus Lupin, just after Easter and named him in honour of her late father. Tonks and Lupin both felt that Harry should become Teddy's godfather, and he accepted. To the relief of Remus, Teddy inherited Tonks's metamorphmagi abilities, which he demonstrated mere hours after his birth, and showed no signs of lycanthropy.

#### Battle of Hogwarts and death

Main article: Battle of Hogwarts

> Harry had a clear view of the bodies lying next to Fred: Remus and Tonks, pale and still and peaceful-looking, apparently asleep beneath the dark, enchanted ceiling.
>
> Description of Tonks's and Remus's lifeless bodies, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

When Neville Longbottom had raised the call to arms for Dumbledore's Army and the Order of the Phoenix to fight against the Death Eaters in the Battle of Hogwarts, Tonks initially didn't answer the call. She was staying with her mother Andromeda and her infant son Teddy. However, she couldn't stand not knowing what was happening while Remus was fighting.

Tonks Apparated to the Hog's Head and travelled through the makeshift tunnel in the bar and into the Room of Requirement. She then joined the battle and fired spells down at Death Eaters from a window of the castle, along with Ginny, before asking Aberforth Dumbledore if he had seen Remus. He replied that he was duelling Antonin Dolohov and had not been seen since, so she rushed off to find him. It is unknown if she ever did.

During the battle, Nymphadora was finally killed by her own aunt, Bellatrix, in the third of their duels, probably and partially because she had just recovered from childbirth.Tonks' body was laid out, pale and peaceful looking, in the Great Hall next to her husband, who had died at the hands of Dolohov. Her death was avenged by Molly when she in turn killed Bellatrix.

### Legacy

Tonks', Remus', Fred Weasley's and Colin Creevey's deaths caused Harry great pain before and after his ultimate defeat of Lord Voldemort. Teddy would be raised by Tonks's mother, Andromeda, though he would dine at Harry's and the Weasleys' homes three or four times a week. Her son seemed to have a close relationship with Bill Weasley's daughter, Victoire Weasley, making it possible that he could become an official member of the family Tonks herself had been so close to.

## Etymology

* *Nymphadora* literally means "Gift of the Nymphs." Nymphs are nature spirits and minor deities in Greek mythology who rule trees, sacred groves, streams and the ocean. During the Renaissance, northern Europeans equated the classical nymphs with their own legends of elves. If we therefore read "gift of the nymphs" as "gift of the elves", this echoes the ancient myth of babies stolen by elves and replaced by hideous monsters called "changelings". 'Nymph' is also the name of the "immature stage of a dragonfly or damselfly before it moults, before metamorphosing into a winged adult". Both meanings could be references to her metamorphosing skills.
* A 'Tonk' literally means, 'a fool or idiot', 'a powerful hit or strike'. This could be related to Tonks's clumsiness and ability. The name *Tonks* may have been taken from notable British painter, art teacher and surgeon Henry Tonks, who combined his artistic and surgical background to record exact images of the various types of facial injuries that occurred among soldiers during World War I. His emphasis on recording, drawing and painting facial features may have led Rowling to choose this surname and more specifically used it to refer to a specific individual who had the ability to change her facial features at will.
* Her husband's surname, Lupin, is quite fitting for Tonks: As a Metamorphmagus, she was noted for her ability to change her appearance to adapt or blend in in her work as an Auror, as wolves are one of the most adaptive mammals on the planet. It is a fitting name for someone whose occupation is capturing dark wizards/witches, as wolves are known to serve the needs of their pack above all else, making Tonks somewhat wolf-like herself, not to mention her rebellious personality and that wolves are extremely wild animals. Further similarities between her and wolves include her having been sorted into Hufflepuff (whose dorms and common room are subterranean) much like the dens of wolves, and that she is a relative of Sirius Black (whose Animagus form is that of a dog, a distant cousin of the wolf).