Nymphadora Tonks bio

Name: Nymphadora Tonks.

Age: dies at age 25

House: Unknown.

Distinguishing Features: Pale heart-shaped face and dark twinkling eyes. She is a metamorphmagus, which means that she can change her appearance at will, although for day-to-day use she generally confines this ability to altering the colour of her hair. She thought that violet made her look peaky, and so stuck with bright bubble-gum pink for the majority of 1995-1996.

Heritage: Half-Blood. Her father, Ted Tonks, is a Muggle-born.

Family: Daughter of Ted Tonks and Andromeda Black. Hence she is the niece of Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy, and the first cousin once removed of Sirius Black.

First Mention: Chapter Three of Order of the Phoenix.

General: There is somewhat more to Nympadora Tonks than meets the eye. At first she seems like any young and slightly rebellious witch – she wears Weird Sisters t-shirts, has patched jeans and brightly-coloured hair, and she greets you with a carefree “Wotcher!”. Beneath the cheery exterior, however, lies a dedicated and fiercely moral woman and a highly-talented young Auror.

Nymphadora despises her first name and prefers to be called by her surname. Initial introductions aside, everyone refers to her simply as “Tonks”. She even goes as far as to refer to her “fool of a mother” who gave her the name, although it seems unlikely that she has any other major issues with her immediate family. She has, after all, chosen a career as an Auror which means devoting her life to fighting against Dark Wizards. Her mother Andromeda was one of very the very few people strong enough to reject the Black family, their pure-blood fanaticism and their Death Eater connections, and for that at least Tonks must be very grateful.

Tonks formed part of the Advance Guard that rescued Harry from the Dursley’s house in 1995. She immediately struck up a relaxed relationship with Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, and she gives the strong impression that she can do this with virtually everybody. She was quite happy to discuss her time at Hogwarts (she left in the summer before Harry started) and the fact that she was never made a Prefect due to an inability to behave. Despite her flippancy on the subject, however, it is clear that she was a very gifted student even if she did mess around a lot.

Upon leaving Hogwarts, Tonks took Auror training (excelling in Concealment and Diguise, and nearly failing Stealth and Tracking due to her natural clumsiness), qualifying in 1994. It is not known when she was recruited into the Order of the Phoenix, but it is clear that as a newly-qualified and inexperienced Auror she is taking a number of risks. She has already been involved in a scheme to disguise the whereabouts of Sirius Black, and her Ministry bosses would take a very dim view if they knew what she was keeping from them.

Tonks fought at the battle in the Department of Mysteries, arriving with the other members of the Order. She lost her duel with Bellatrix Lestrange, however, and was badly injured. By the time Harry went home from Hogwarts in June 1996, she had recovered enough to greet him off the train at Kings Cross station, and seemed restored to full health and spirits.