Though Nymphadora Tonks’ Metamorphmagus abilities, like lycanthropy, also focus on transformation, hers were beneficial to the rest of the world and therefore put on a pedestal of sorts. Based on the description of her son as an infant and how she lost control of her powers for much of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, it is safe to say that Metamorphmagi do not always have control over their transformations in the same way that werewolves do not always have control over their transformations. Tonks’ first physical description was given in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, coincidentally directly following a description of Lupin that focused on his “tired and rather ill” appearance, and described her as “the youngest there; she
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When Lupin married Tonks, he was so consumed with guilt that he tried to abandon his family, claiming that he “made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks...and [had] regretted it very much ever since” and that “even her own family [was] disgusted by our marriage” (213). This proved to highlight Tonks’ abilities as something normal, or at least not to be ashamed of, while Lupin’s was something that could tear families apart. In this exchange, he revealed that Tonks was pregnant, that werewolves rarely have children, and that he could not forgive himself when he “knowingly risked passing [his] own condition to an innocent child” and that the child would be “better off...without a father of whom it must always be ashamed” (213). In the context of the HIV metaphor, this is extremely intense: it implies that HIV+ people are to blame for their own condition, yet not once was it mentioned that Tonks also had abnormal, genderqueer abilities and she had just as much of a chance of passing her “condition” to the child as Lupin did. In fact, when the child, Teddy Lupin, was born, he was a Metamorphmagus, but this fact was skimmed over as if it was something entirely normal, as if babies normally changed their hair color and other factors of their appearance …show more content…
Lupin was most relevant to the plot of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as he was one of the best professors Harry ever had. He becomes relevant again in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is when Tonks is first introduced, but after this book, as soon as the organization they are both a part of is no longer as necessary, their story fades into the background. By the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the two are in a hastily-written relationship that ultimately only exists to produce a godson for Harry so that he can reproduce the godfather-orphaned godson relationship he lost when his godfather was murdered at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Within months after Teddy Lupin’s birth, both Tonks and Lupin are killed in the final battle. Though many characters die in this final battle, only three that were very close to Harry were among the fatalities, meaning Tonks and Lupin make up over half of that population. Though they were important earlier in the series, their existence was reduced to nothing more than a twisted plot device when their existence as queer-coded characters with extraordinary abilities had the potential to be a radical force in the
When Lupin married Tonks, he was so consumed with guilt that he tried to abandon his family, claiming that he “made a grave mistake in marrying Tonks...and [had] regretted it very much ever since” and that “even her own family [was] disgusted by our marriage” (213). This proved to highlight Tonks’ abilities as something normal, or at least not to be ashamed of, while Lupin’s was something that could tear families apart. In this exchange, he revealed that Tonks was pregnant, that werewolves rarely have children, and that he could not forgive himself when he “knowingly risked passing [his] own condition to an innocent child” and that the child would be “better off...without a father of whom it must always be ashamed” (213). In the context of the HIV metaphor, this is extremely intense: it implies that HIV+ people are to blame for their own condition, yet not once was it mentioned that Tonks also had abnormal, genderqueer abilities and she had just as much of a chance of passing her “condition” to the child as Lupin did. In fact, when the child, Teddy Lupin, was born, he was a Metamorphmagus, but this fact was skimmed over as if it was something entirely normal, as if babies normally changed their hair color and other factors of their appearance …show more content…
Lupin was most relevant to the plot of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, as he was one of the best professors Harry ever had. He becomes relevant again in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which is when Tonks is first introduced, but after this book, as soon as the organization they are both a part of is no longer as necessary, their story fades into the background. By the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the two are in a hastily-written relationship that ultimately only exists to produce a godson for Harry so that he can reproduce the godfather-orphaned godson relationship he lost when his godfather was murdered at the end of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Within months after Teddy Lupin’s birth, both Tonks and Lupin are killed in the final battle. Though many characters die in this final battle, only three that were very close to Harry were among the fatalities, meaning Tonks and Lupin make up over half of that population. Though they were important earlier in the series, their existence was reduced to nothing more than a twisted plot device when their existence as queer-coded characters with extraordinary abilities had the potential to be a radical force in the