HBP Spoilers - Tonks

[Barry Arrowsmith]

I'LL
     BE
         GLAD
                 WHEN
                             WE
                                 DON'T
                                             NEED
                                                         TO
                                                                 DO
                                                                         
  THIS
                                                                         
          ANYMORE
                                                                         
                              WON'T
                                                                         
                                          YOU?


Firstly - commiserations to Richard. One can never have so many  
friends and acquaintances that one can afford to lose any.

I'm a bit surprised at the posts members have put up regarding Tonks.
Where is the steely eyed suspicion, the rampant  paranoia normally to  
be expected from HP analysers? From what I've read on the board  
(again forgive me if I've misread or misunderstood what's been said,  
but these past few days have been a bit frantic to say the least,  
much more than HBP and The Open to contend with) fans seem to be  
pussy-footing around somewhat.

Ever the fool willing to rush in where angels fear to tread, I'll  
come out and say it; if it don't walk like a duck and don't quack  
like a duck, then it ain't a duck.

OK, let's see what we've got.

We all know the Tonks from OoP;  bubbly, clumsy, sociable Metamorphagus.

No  sign of that in HBP. Instead (and this is just after 1.5 read- 
throughs so  there may be more):
Miserable, not clumsy, never metamorphoses (yes, a few minor changes  
that  could easily be accomplished by a minor transfiguration spell  
or two - and note that SFAICR nobody sees her make these changes),  
has a different Patronus (when just a couple of days previously Jo  
stated categorically that each persons Patronus is unique) and avoids  
spending time with groups of people who presumably know Tonks well,  
e.g. a Weasley social evening).

In addition she spends time wandering  the corridors of Hogwarts near  
where the RoR or Draino is presumably up to his little tricks; has a  
fellow Auror in Hogwarts (Dawlish) who is not likely to be friendly  
towards DD, and best of all Slytherin have industrial quantities of  
Polyjuice potion stashed away in the basement. Snape's sharp  
reference to her 'weak' Patronus means something; sending the  
Patronus was breaking her cover and in his own sweet, inimitable way  
Sevvy was giving her a sharp reminder. He knows what's going on and  
therefore DD probably does too.

Other characters keep making excuses for her, too. Supposedly  
mourning for Sirius, then it turns out she hardly knew him.  
Assumptions that she's pining for Bill - but with absolutely no  
evidence offered. Typical JKR  sleight of hand IMO.

Hell's teeth. What more do you want?
T'ain't Tonks. Though the one at the funeral probably is.

The question now is "Who is she and which side is she on?"

Could she be the Order member that Jo says will appear in the last  
book and who we sort of know already? This would be my bet.

Mind you this may not be the case -- to wander off into wildest  
speculation she could even be Cissy making sure that her over- 
confidant offspring doesn't attract too much trouble too soon. Or she  
could fit somewhere in-between - someone who works in the MoM  
covering for Tonks while she's (officially) up to something else -  a  
friendly face for Harry wouldn't go amiss,  he might even confide  
things that he wouldn't tell DD, or a Ministry insider  
surreptitiously  taking advantage of Tonks's fairly innocent  
unavailability to keep a close eye on what DD and young Potter are up  
to.

I'm might be wrong, but I'm not uncertain - the 'Tonks' of HBP bears  
looking at very closely indeed.

Kneasy