[HPforGrownups] Re: Lupin and Tonks - What about the baby?

[Maeg]

No: HPFGUIDX 173301

Rahel wrote:

> Well, dear, people are different. Take it from another parent of a  
> 1 year old (and of a 3 years old). Under the conditions life  
> presented to the Lupins, I would have not hesitated but acted just  
> like Tonks did. I would have left my child under the best care I  
> know it would get, and went off to protect the loved one who was in  
> imminent danger - my husband.

Thanks for the different point of view. I never would have believed a  
parent would do this (and I'm not saying this to denigrate your  
parenting skills, I really do mean that it never would have occurred  
to me that parents would trust the saftey of their infant to another  
under these circumstances).

I suppose for me it comes down to the fact that by choosing to have a  
child, the duty to protect him/her that rises above everything else.  
Love has something to do with it, but there is something inalienable  
about the need to protect those who cannot protect themselves.  
Biologic imperative, and all that.

Now, if you could argue that Tonks believed her son would be better  
protected if she left him with someone else, then I think she did the  
right thing in leaving him. Tonks is shown as somewhat incompetent,  
despite being an Auror. She's continually clumsy and has done nothing  
in all her years to try to correct that (at least, nothing in canon);  
this can't be good in battle. She's also emotionally immature (lots  
of wailing at her own faults in the early books, her inability to  
keep it together when Lupin rejects her, her total blindness to  
Lupin's descending gloom after marriage).

On the other hand, she is an Auror and a member of the Order. She's  
got to have something more than just her metamorphmagus status.

Here's the kicker for me: Tonks knows she's being hunted. It's  
explicitly stated in DH that her family is a target. And the reasons  
behind it would definitely be passed down to her son; not only is he  
the son of a werewolf (a dangerous half-breed), but he's the grandson  
of a blood-traitor! If Tonks doesn't see that that's painted a huge  
bullseye on his back, she's a idiot. (Unless I'm remembering wrong?  
If so, please correct me.)

If she wasn't confident of her abilities, she could have left her son  
with someone who was better able to protect him. (Of course, she  
could have stayed with him, too, and there would have been even more  
protection for him.) Maybe that's what she was doing? But then why  
did she think her poor abilities would save Lupin? That doesn't wash.  
She simply was selfish enough to want to be with him. This is totally  
in character with her earlier lovesickness. And a major reason why I  
despise what the character became after OotP.

And perhaps it's kind of a practical thing: if the existing kid dies  
but my husband still lives, that's OK because I can have another  
child with him. Utterly practical, but icky. And not very Gryffindor- 
ish, either.

Regardless, it kinda disgusted me that JKR praised the orphaning of  
another child. But with two parents like that (both too self-absorbed  
to be good parents), he's probably better off without them. On that  
cynical note, I end.

Maeg

My mind isn't always in the gutter -- sometimes it comes out to feed.