Don’t call her Nymphadora, but don’t think you know everything about Tonks, either, if you have only seen her in the Harry Potter films! While Natalia Tena is a lovely actress, she just wasn’t given the time or space to develop into the Tonks readers know and love from the Harry Potter series, a complaint that many fans had of the films. She’s never truly explained and exists more as an Easter egg for readers than a fully developed character.
Introduced in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Tonks is a young Auror who is clumsy, cheeky and has a bit of a punk streak. She’s known for things people would completely miss if they haven’t read the books.
10. She’s A Metamorphagus
Readers of the Harry Potter series have had the ins and outs of being a Metamorphagus explained to them quite well. Tonks can change her appearance at will without spellwork, making her just as much a magical creature as her husband, Remus Lupin. While this is shown in the movies, it’s never quite explained or really explored on a level that gives it merit.
Fans have complained about a similar lack of information in the films about the “Marauders,” Harry’s father and his best friends in their youth, who all became Animagi to frolic around the Hogwarts grounds with Lupin when he transformed into a werewolf each month.
9. Her Trademark Hair Color Is Bubblegum Pink
Tonks with purple hair is cool, but fans dearly missed Tonks’s trademark shade of bubblegum pink, which she transforms in a fun scene when she first meets Harry. Not only did she send the Dursleys away for the “All-England Best-Kep Lawn Competition” award she’d made up in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, but Tonks also went upstairs to assist him with packing.
In the process, she critically looked at her reflection, remarked that purple made her look peaky, and promptly changed her hair to her favorite color in front of Harry’s amazed eyes. This scene is a much better introduction to the Auror as it points toward her skills as well as her personality.
8. She Does Late Night Missions For The Order
It’s obvious if you think about it, but Tonks is a double agent as much as Snape is, putting her life in danger as she works for the Ministry of Magic during the day and moonlights for the Order of the Phoenix. Kingsley Shacklebolt is in the same boat. There are no real links made regarding Tonks’s work in the movies, but there are in the books.
She’s often at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, and there’s at least one scene where Harry witnesses her yawn because she’s exhausted from being up all night. Then she knocks over a chair as she tries to pull it out from the table.
7. She’s Always Doing Things With Remus
They are such small moments that they’re easily forgettable, but there are many moments between Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks in their brief time together. Whether they are carrying Harry’s trunk into the headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix together, sealing locks on doors with one another or doing other nominal tasks, they seem to pair up a lot.
While their attraction is evident in the films since Tonks outright says they’ve married, calling Remus, who’s never been a joker, “My husband, the joker,” there’s a lot of tension in the books speculating who Tonks might be in love with instead. For some Remus/Tonks fans, this is akin to Dumbledore screaming, “Harry, did you put your name in the Goblet of Fire?!”
6. She’s A Klutz
There’s not a lot to say about Tonks being klutzy in the films. We see her trip over the troll foot umbrella stand at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place once, but that’s the extent of it. In the books, she’s given many more opportunities to not only demonstrate how clumsy she is, but that she’s “lousy” with household spells like cleaning.
This is not just a fun fact about the Auror, but a tidbit that’s particularly interesting since she IS an Auror. She still manages to do an exceptional job, even though she says she “nearly failed on Stealth and Tracking. I’m dead clumsy, did you hear me break that plate when we arrived downstairs?”
5. She’s Andromeda And Ted Tonks’s Daughter
In the books, we get to meet Ted and Andromeda Tonks, Tonks’s parents, when Harry and Hagrid escape Voldemort in the final book. When Harry awakens at the safety checkpoint without Hagrid or his wand, he accuses Andromeda of being Bellatrix Lestrange. To be fair, she looks a lot like her older sister.
The Tonks family dynamic is much more important in the books, and they are mentioned many times, from the demise of Ted to Voldemort’s order for a hit on the werewolf and Metamorphagus to Andromeda babysitting Tonks and Lupin’s son, Teddy, when Tonks seeks Lupin out at the Battle of Hogwarts. This makes it even more chilling when Bellatrix, her own aunt, takes her down.
4. She Harbored An Unrequited Love For Remus Lupin
Unrequited isn’t the correct word, since Lupin clearly loves Tonks back but doesn’t believe their relationship to be a good idea, but Tonks experiences such strong feelings toward Lupin that her Patronus changes form.
Tonks is the person who assists Harry after Malfoy’s attack in Half-Blood Prince, a role that went to Luna Lovegood in the movie. After Tonks performs the Episky spell on him, she sends word to the castle that he’s safe. Snape answers the call, sneering that her new Patronus, a werewolf, is weaker than her older one. Remus later explains to Harry, rather haltingly, that a Patronus can change form under great emotional upheaval.
3. She Lost Her Metamorphagus Powers
In the films, there’s no doubt that Remus loves Tonks back, even if there’s not a lot of chemistry there. In the books, it’s quite different, with Remus believing himself to be unworthy of the Auror. While the ex-DADA professor is being stubborn, Tonks becomes depressed, losing her ability to shift her appearance and sporting mousy brown hair when she patrols Hogwarts, something else that’s cut from the films.
It’s not until the end of the book when readers understand what’s happening to Tonks, but they definitely get a completely different experience with the disheartened Auror than film goers did.
2. Molly Gives Her Tea And Sympathy
There are some major behind-the-scenes events happening between the members of the Order of the Phoenix, and readers have to read between the lines to notice that Tonks goes to Molly to discuss her feelings about Remus Lupin, and to notice that Lupin is avoiding Tonks and vice versa. Molly even invites Tonks to a holiday celebration and she declines when Remus attends instead.
Harry, Hermione and Ron speculate that Tonks is so sad because of the loss of Sirius, who was her cousin, even to the point of speculating that she’d been in love with him. It’s not until the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when it “all suddenly became clear to Harry; it had not been Sirius that Tonks had fallen in love with after all.”
1. She Declares Her Love After Dumbledore’s Demise
After the harrowing events at the Astronomy Tower in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, an epic battle proceeds at Hogwarts that fans don’t get to see because filmmakers thought it would be too similar to the final battle of the series. So not only do we not get to see Bill Weasley get bitten by werewolf Fenrir Greyback, but we also miss out on Tonks’ big declaration of love for Remus Lupin.
When Fleur says she’ll still love Bill even with his new scars, Tonks exclaims, in a strained voice, “You see! She still wants to marry him, even though he’s been bitten! She doesn’t care!” Remus insists that he is “too old, too poor, too dangerous,” a refrain that the couple’s shippers often cite in jest as the two do end up together by the end of the book, where we witness Tonks’s trademark bubble gum shade of hair return at Dumbledore’s funeral.
