Andromeda as good Slytherin WAS: Disappointment

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 177576

Alla wrote:
> >
> > I do not know about you, but **I** know enough about Andromeda to
convince me that she is one of the examples of good Slytherins. For
the secondary character of course.
> >
> > She, the daughter of pureblood family, child in Slytherin ( I
agree with Robert, I never doubted that it means that all Sirius
cousins were in Slytherins for same reason as he, IMO of course) left
home and married muggleborn.
> >
> > This action tells me a lot about Andromeda right there. That she
puts love ahead of any pureblood values.
> >
> > And she brought up Tonks. Seems to me that mother who brought up
daughter like that cannot be bad as a person either.
> 
> Magpie:
> Sorry, hit send too soon.
> 
> That's the great thing about characters you write yourself. They can
be whatever you imagine them to be.
> 
<snip>
> Andromeda could have been a nasty Slytherin who turned out to have a
heart of gold different from any other Slytherin we've seen before, 
or even a flawed person who was still just as good as other heroes. Or
she could have been somebody thoroughly unlikable who had a passion
that ruled her and she was willing to leave her family over it while
still never being somebody Harry would actually like the way he likes
her husband and daughter right off. And that's assuming she's
Slytherin based on Sirius' comment. 

Carol responds:

True, we do have no evidence that Andromeda was a Slytherin other than
her cousin Sirius's comment, but there's no counterevidence. As for
"characters you write yourself," we don't have to do that with Andromeda.

We know from OoP that she married a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks, and was
burned off the family tapestry for doing so, that she was Sirius's
favorite cousin (therefore, probably, more likeable than Narcissa and
Bellatrix and certainly not so firmly entrenched in her prejudice
against Muggle-borns). We know that she was good at what Tonks calls
"householdy spells"--in contrast to her husband, who's "a right old
slob." Okay, not much to go on, except that Andromeda was willing to
defy her family and their values by becoming what they would consider
a "blood traitor" and that, like Molly (and Petunia!), she seems to be
the domestic type. Still, defying your family for love takes courage,
so even without knowing her, we can assign to her, tentatively, the
two virtues JKR prizes most highly, love and courage, putting her in
the same company as Snape and Regulus. Also, as Alla points out, she
produced Tonks, so she seems to have done a pretty good job as a
mother (unless we count giving her the name "Nymphadora," which Tonks
vehemently rejects).

In DH, we learn that Bellatrix and Narcissa stopped speaking to
Andromeda when she married "the Mudblood" and that they don't regard
her "brat" (Nymphadora) as part of the family. (Matters go further
downhill when the "brat" marries a werewolf, and Bellatrix is quite
ready to kill Tonks to trim the family tree.) In contrast to her
sisters, and particularly the fanatical Bellatrix, who is willing to
murder her own niece and sacrifice her nephew ("Spinner's End") for
Voldemort's cause, Andromeda (and her husband) have provided one of
the safe houses for the polyjuiced Harrys and their escorts, the one,
in fact, which has been chosen as the destination for the real Harry.
It's unclear whether they're actually members of the Order, but they
are certainly trusted not only by their own daughter but by Mad-eye
and the others who arranged the protections for the polyjuiced Harrys
and their escorts. 

And then, finally, we see the real Andromeda. You said in an earlier
post that our first glimpse of Andromeda shows her as "haughty," but
you're forgetting the context. 

"'You!'' he shouted, and he thrust his hand into his pocket, but it
was empty. 

"'Your wand's here, son,' said Ted . . . . 'And that's my wife you're
shouting at'" (DH Am. ed. 63). 

Harry has just mistaken Andromeda for Bellatrix, whom she somewhat
resembles, but her hair is lighter and "her eyes were wider and
kinder" (63). No wonder she's affronted, but the reaction is temporary
and her real concern is for her daughter's safety:

"'What happened to our daughter? Hagrid said you were ambushed; where
is Nymphadora?'"

When Harry can't answer, Andromeda and Ted exchange looks. Their
expressions are not described, but they cause Harry to feel "a mixture
of fear and guilt" and a sense that it would be his fault if Tonks (or
any of the others) died. He wants to apologize to Andromeda "for the
state of fear in which he left her" but can't find the words. Ted
tries to reassure "'Dromeda" that "Dora" will be okay, the nicknames
speaking for themselves about the level of affection in that family
(66). And the choice of kind, genial Ted (who later gently reprimands
Dirk Cresswell for suggesting that Harry may be dead) as husband
speaks well of 'Dromeda, too.

Before we even see Andromeda, Ted tells Harry that his wife is tending
to Hagrid (64), which suggests that, like Fleur and Molly (and her
fellow Slytherin, Severus Snape), she has some skill at healing, as
does her husband (who mended Harry's broken ribs and arm and even
replaced his tooth). Healing seems to be a skill associated with good
guys. I don't recall a healer who is genuinely loyal to Voldemort.
(Healer!Snape was, IMO, a clue to Snape's loyalties in HBP.)

We don't see Andromeda again, but we know that she provides a safe
house for her daughter "Dora" and her husband Lupin after her own
husband, Ted, is murdered and that the baby, Teddy, is born there.
Since Teddy survives to be the happy, healthy orphan of the epilogue
and he does not actually live with his godfather, Harry, despite
spending quite a bit of time at his house, it seems more than likely
that he was raised by his grandmother, who lost a husband, a daughter,
and a son-in-law to Death Eaters despite being a pureblood and a
relative of Death Eaters. We don't see it, but she must have
transferred all of her love to Teddy and all of her domestic skills to
raising him.

The Andromeda that we see in "Fallen Warrior" and can infer from the
other tidbits of information we have about her is a loving wife and
mother who has abandoned any vestiges of pureblood supremacy and is
doing her part in the fight against Voldemort even though she doesn't
fight in the battle. (Surely, staying home to watch Teddy is at least
as important as duelling Death Eaters. And after the battle, she is
all that Teddy has left (except a very young godfather), and he is all
that she has. I see nothing in canon to suggest that Andromeda is a
"nasty" person or "thoroughly unlikeable." Sirius liked her and Ted
loved her. She raised both Tonks and "our Teddy," who seems to be a
perfectly well-adjusted young man who will probably end up as a
Weasley by marriage (with a family of Veelalike daughters who can
change their hair color at will. :-) )

Carol, glad that Andromeda and Teddy had each other and viewing
Andromeda as without question a good Slytherin who suffered greatly
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