Nymphadora Tonks

Nymphadora Tonks (born c. 1973) First appeared in Order of the Phoenix (2003).

Tonks (who despises her first name) is a vivacious young woman in her twenties who is an Auror and Order of the Phoenix operative, as well as a Metamorphmagus. She can alter her appearance at will and makes heavy use of this knack, not only as a phenomenal gift in the art of disguise but for the lighter purposes of experimenting with her appearance and entertainment. She is not good at household spells and is also notoriously clumsy.

By heritage Tonks is a half-blood, being daughter to pure-blood Andromeda (née Black) Tonks and Muggle-born Ted Tonks.

Tonks will be played by actress Natalia Tena in the movie adaptation of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, due out in 2007.

Prior to 1995
Tonks was not a member of the original Order due to her young age. She schooled at Hogwarts, and must have been a fairly good student to meet the standards required for her later profession - although she was not made a prefect due to her inability to behave herself. She subsequently underwent three years of Ministry of Magic's Auror training, where she's known to have passed Concealment and Disguise effortlessly, but met trouble with Stealth and Tracking.

1995
Tonks is introduced as an Order member and secondary character in Order of the Phoenix. At the time, she and her fellow Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt were covert spies in the Ministry (the two also helped Harry escape from the Dursleys). Indiscreet action would have cost them their positions due to the prevailing (and misguided) anti-Dumbledore policy, but they were able to supply intelligence.

Tonks fought the Death Eaters in the Battle at the Department of Mysteries together with Alastor Moody, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Kingsley Shacklebolt. She was injured by her aunt, Bellatrix Lestrange, and despite Moody's ministrations had to be taken to St. Mungo's hospital. She was fully healed and released, and a short time later got together with Alastor Moody, Remus Lupin and some of the Weasleys to confront Vernon Dursley about Harry's treatment at Number Four Privet Drive.

1996
During Harry Potter's sixth year, Tonks was stationed at Hogsmeade and assigned to guard Hogwarts. Harry observed her behaving uncharacteristically: she was constantly depressed, rarely smiling or being friendly as she had previously been. Her hair had reverted to a mousy brown, her apparent natural colour, suggesting that her metamorphosing had been disturbed, and her Patronus changed some time after the Battle of Hogwarts from an unknown form to a large, hairy, four-legged creature. Such changes were held to be evidence of extreme shock or strong emotions. It was presumed that this was due to the death of Sirius Black, her cousin, that she felt responsible for as she had failed to finish off Bellatrix Lestrange, whom she had dueled with and been incapacitated by prior to Lestrange's murder of Sirius. Harry even speculated that she might have been in love with him - not the least since her Patronus resembled Sirius' Animagus form. However, at the end of the Half Blood Prince this is theory is discovered to possibly be wrong. When in fact she may have been in love with an Order of the Phoenix member, just not her cousin, but Remus Lupin. This would explain her hair colour and her changed Patronus, since Remus Lupin is a werewolf.

Name
Nymphadora literally means "Gift of the Nymphs". Nymphs are guardian spirits 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. Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream sees traditional English elves like Robin Goodfellow alongside Greek nymphs as servants of Diana (Titania). 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. The metamorphic Tonks could be described as a "changeling".

'Nymph' is also the name of the immature stage of a dragonfly or damselfly before it molts, metamorphosing into a winged adult.

Relationships and family
She gets on well with Harry, Hermione, and Ginny. Many fans have concluded that her (and Hermione's) role is in part to act as an older sister for Ginny, the only girl in a family with seven children.

Her parents are Andromeda (Black) Tonks and Ted Tonks. Ted is a Muggle-born while Andromeda comes from the pure-blood Black family, who greatly valued blood purity and therefore disowned Andromeda for marrying Ted. Andromeda is considered a blood traitor for this reason, her daughter a half-blood. The Black's family house-elf, Kreacher, refuses to take orders from Nymphadora. Fanfiction writers often portray Andromeda as being sorted into another house instead of Slytherin, though this is not canon.

Neither of her parents have appeared in the novels so far, and almost nothing is known about their personalities. Nymphadora mentions that, while Andromeda had a talent for cleanliness, Ted was "a right old slob". Andromeda is also responsible for naming their child Nymphadora, a name the latter utterly detests.

Andromeda was Sirius Black's cousin, making Sirius Tonks' second cousin, and her his first cousin once removed. Andromeda's sisters, Narcissa Malfoy and Bellatrix Lestrange are Tonks' aunts. Draco Malfoy is her first cousin.

In Half-Blood Prince, Tonks revealed that she is in love with Remus Lupin.

After Albus Dumbledore's death, it was revealed that her strange behaviour was due to Remus Lupin refusing her love. She did not care that he was a werewolf, which meant that he was not only potentially dangerous but unable to find work because of the extreme prejudice against werewolves, and consequently was poor. Nor did she care he was much older than she was. He, however, believed that she deserved someone younger and safer and able to provide her with more. It is now believed by many that Tonks' patronus was a werewolf and also that her hair had turned mousy as a reflection of Remus Lupin's grey-streaked brown hair. At Dumbledore's funeral at the end of Half-Blood Prince, they are seen holding hands and her hair is also once again pink, indicating that her depression has passed.