Nymphadora Tonks
| Character | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Nymphadora Tonks |
| Occupation: | witch, Auror |
| Relationships: | Remus Lupin (husband) Andromeda Black Tonks (mother) Ted Tonks (father) Teddy Lupin (son) |
| Fandom: | Harry Potter |
| Other: | born c. 1973, died 02 May 1998 |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Nymphadora Tonks is a character in the Harry Potter series. She dislikes her given name and goes by Tonks, and her only canon nickname is "Dora," used only by her father, though fanfiction (especially badfic) often uses her full first name or gives her unlikely nicknames.
Tonks is a metamorphmagus, which means she can change her appearance at will. This is a popular topic in fanfiction.
Fan Response & Shipping
Tonks was a popular character to ship after her introduction in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Harry/Tonks was rather popular, as was Charlie/Tonks when fans determined that she was probably in the same year as Charlie Weasley at Hogwarts,[1] and, to a lesser extent, Bill/Tonks, especially featuring an evil!Fleur. Remus/Tonks also was a very popular pairing even before the pairing became canon in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.
She is also a popular femslash character. Some common pairings include Ginny/Tonks, Hermione/Tonks, and Tonks/Fleur.
Gender and sexuality
Some see her character as queer-coded (or trans-coded), despite the author's transphobia.
And so I think for a lot of people, myself included, even though Tonks never actually changes into a person of any gender other than female, the fact that she had the ability to change her body made me—and a lot of other non-binary people and I’m sure trans people—like really, “Oh yeah. That’s my, that’s my character.” You know? “Yeah, that one!”Flourish Klink in Episode 129: Letting Harry Potter Go of Fansplaining
We know that Tonks uses she/her pronouns, we know that she has a very strong opinion about what name is used for her. And we know that she likes to play with her physical form, that that's a form of pleasure for her. All of that is gay as fuck. And so like, what I'm trying to sort of work through in my head, is the relationship between this character who is like, so queer, and so destabilizing of biological essentialism, of the idea that there is like a true singular stable self, of this notion that like, when you look at somebody, you should be able to figure out what their moral character is, and the way that she is, at the same time being constructed in the text as someone who is like, trustworthy, reliable, of good character.Hannah McGregor in Book 5, Ep. 5 - Shapeshifting of Witch, Please from 56:29 (transcript)
Oh, absolutely. And this is when it ties back to thematic feelings rather than, you know, specific physical descriptions. Nymphadora Tonks is often read by trans readers and queer readers to be unintentionally queer and impossibly trans due to the way she can reshape and transform her body at will.Taylor Allgeier-Follett in Book 4, Ep. 5 - Trans Studies of Witch, Please from 28:06 (transcript)
Art Gallery
Tonks by BlackRamu
Tonks fanart by M. Starling.
External Links
- Nymphadora Tonks at idol_reflection
- Métamorphose - a now-defunct Tonks fanfiction archive
- Pre-HBP Tonks Reclist by ashesofautumn
- tonkslove LiveJournal community
- tonks100 LiveJournal drabble community
- works tagged Nymphadora Tonks at AO3
References
- ^ Tonks's comments in Order of the Phoenix suggest that she graduated Hogwarts in 1991 if she started her three-year Auror training immediately thereafter (See Nymphadora Tonks is born at the Harry Potter Lexicon). The FAQs on J.K. Rowling's official site note that Charlie is seven years older than Ron, so he would have also finished school in 1991 (although this is a matter of some debate). Tonks and Charlie appear in the same year in Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery.