Tonks a traitor?

[Cathy Drolet]

No: HPFGUIDX 109960

Miz Storge' said:
"We know half-breeds can be as vicious as full-bloods since we have
Tom Riddle's example and dear Tonks is half-muggle on her dad's side
and a Black on her Mum's side"

DuffyPoo:
Half-blood, not half-breed.  I can't see it is the same thing.  Just because one half-blood (Riddle) is off his nut, doesn't mean they all are or that Tonks has any reason to be.  She's been raised in a family that doesn't buy in to the purist pure-blood fanaticism, after all.  She believes LV is back, what he stood for before, and what he stands for now.  I just can't see her joining up of her own accord.  


Miz Storge'
"We know she's a metamorphmagi and that would certainly come in handy
for being a traitor."

DuffyPoo:
Granted, but it would come in handy for the good side, as well.   A little spying for the order while in disguise?  The OotP has only been back in place for about a month and already Tonks has been convinced to join and work as a spy for them within the ministry.  Metamorphmagi or not, she's still a half-blood and wouldn't be wanted as part of the DEs.  Yes, yes, I have a very naive view of things. ;-)


Miz Storge' said:
"-The best evidence, however, is the battle at the Ministry of Magic.
Tonks shoots one spell, and it goes over the head of the target. Then
she has a brief scuffle with Bellatrix and conveniently falls down
several tiers and conveniently hurts herself enough to get out of the
fight."

DuffyPoo:
I can't see anywhere, in my OotP, that Tonks shoots a spell that goes over anyone's head.  She shoots a Stunning Spell at Malfoy, Sr. that HP notes he did not hang around to see if it hit the mark. Then we see "Tonks, still halfway up the tiered seats, was firing spells down at Bellatrix" then "across the room Harry saw Tonks fall from halfway up the stone steps, her limp form toppling from stone seat to stone seat and Bellatrix, triumphant, running back towards the fray."  Bella would have to be in on the double cross for this to work, but she seems genuinely triumphant, to me.


charme
"I noticed in OoP JKR
doesn't write *anything* about him fighting anyone in DoM. He simply jumps
in front of Malfoy while Malfoy is aiming at Harry at the last minute -
everyone there has detail surrounding who they're fighting, when they fall,"
etc."

DuffyPoo:
There's precious little about Moody, either.  Just that Harry saw the "magical eye spinning away across the floor", and "the owner lying on his side, bleeding from the head" then his attacker, Dolohov, comes at Harry.  It seemed to me, that the Death Chamber is quite a large place, and I think it quite simply that they all weren't in Harry's line of vision at the same time. "Harry, take the prophecy, grab Neville and run!" Sirius yelled, dashing to meet Bellatrix.  Harry did not see what happened next; Kinglsey swayed across his field of vision..." Not to mention Harry was a bit busy himself keeping control of the prophecy, fight off stray DEs and trying to get Neville moving.  

We've already had one Pettigrew-type spy, I'm not sure we're going to see another one in those same lines.  At first I wanted to put Percy in this position, but I really don't think he's going to go back to his family, at least not in HBP, so I don't think he's a prime candidate for the spy position.  However, I do think Mundungus is, not because he is the most obvious, but because he is an idiot.  I don't think he will be a Pettigrew-type spy, but I think he is quite capable of getting caught up in something due to his crook nature.  Loyalty to DD will not prevent him saving his own neck, IMO.

The following is complete speculation, based, very loosely, on canon.
- Harry, listening to the evening news hears this, "then a helicopter that had almost crashed in a field in Surrey."
- We already know that Umbridge sent the Dementors, but why send them if she doesn't have some idea HP is going to be out and about where the Dementors are?  The Dementors aren't going to be able to get into the Dursley residence, I don't think.
- We find out that the crack HP heard was Mundungus disapparating to go looking for a load of stolen cauldrons.  Who informed Mundungus about the cauldrons?
- It's quite conceivable that if the members of the Order know Mundungus is a crook, the Ministry knows as well.

What if the helicopter had almost crashed because the pilot saw someone on a broom?  Someone on a broom with a load of cauldrons or dropping a load of cauldrons? Umbridge has to have been keeping an eye on HP, or she wouldn't have known when/where exactly to send the Dementors.  Like she's watching the Potter-watchers. What if Umbridge set the whole thing up (not the helicopter, obviously) for Dung to hear about the stolen cauldrons - informed him herself or had someone else do it, Willy Widdershins perhaps - and knew he would go off to get them?  It's not a stretch for me to hear him tell his informant, "I'm watching that Potter kid now, Willy, oh well, Figgy's still here, I'll just go and get those cauldrons."  Mrs. Figg is off Umbridge's radar because she's a Squib, so Umbridge wouldn't know Figg's also watching HP.  Now, Umbridge's plan has gone awry, HP didn't get soul-sucked, didn't get expelled from Hogwarts or otherwise taken out of the picture, but she's still got evidence of Mundungus buying up stolen cauldrons.  Information she can blackmail him with; in exchange for a bit of info Dung, you can stay out of Azkaban.  I've said before the reference to "DUNG" and "UMBRIDGE" from the Quibbler poster jumped off the page and nearly strangled me one day when reading OotP "Seen and Unforseen."

Of course, the biggest problem with this speculation is that we don't know what is going to become of Umbridge. Have we seen the last of her?  Will she show up back at the Mininstry after a rest at St. Mungo's?  Will she stay on at the Ministry in some other capacity - easy enough for her to say that Fudge put her up to all that she did (nobody official yet knows about the blood-sucking pen).  He certainly was her enabler writing Educational Decrees every few weeks. 


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