The Woes of Nymphadora

When did Tonks lose her Metamorphing ability?

It must have been during the weeks between the end of OotP and the beginning of HBP, obviously, but I want to know exactly when.

If I had to guess a time, I'd say right after the battle at the Ministry, when she was in St. Mungo's. She would be at a low point there: possibly feeling guilty that she didn't disable Bellatrix (hey, I think Hermione had a good idea!), grieving that she would never see her cousin again so soon after getting him back from quasi-death in Azkaban, and in shock after the in-her-face reminder of mortality and suddenly really feeling that Remus was in danger as a spy rather than just knowing it intellectually. And oh yeah, injured. And it appears that Remus rejected her sometime during those weeks, so it might as well be while she was in St. Mungo's too. All that is plenty to get a person depressed. And this way, Remus's rejection is just the final straw rather than the sole cause of her depression, which is just icky.

Furthermore, I think it's plausible that the initial loss of her Metamorphing ability further depressed her, thus suppressing the ability even more strongly. Tonks's identity is very wrapped up in her Metamorphmagery: she entertains people by making funny noses at the dinner table, she uses it in her career, and she tests out new hair colors and styles regularly to see what she likes.* It's something she uses every day. So I bet suddenly losing this ability would be devastating.

Then Tonks would have all those issues, plus the loss of her ability, to depress her. Maybe she found working for the Ministry while it pursued questionable policies stressful as well. She's supposed to be out there catching Death Eaters, but she's not finding any; people she knows are turning up dead regularly; her colleagues are arresting possibly innocent people for PR purposes, and her bosses may want her to do the same. And all the while she's working for the Order of the Phoenix too, and so is juggling two bosses and lying to some of her coworkers. It's not surprising that she doesn't manage to pull herself out depression, given all this.

Unfortunately, there is hardly any support in HBP for these hypotheses. Most of the issues aren't even mentioned, and Tonks gets her ability back once Remus holds her hand. It sure looks like her only problem was that she didn't have her man. Yes, there's the Harry-filter issue, but the narrator does sometimes include things Harry doesn't notice or even remember (like that dream Harry forgot in PS/SS), so it's not like we couldn't have gotten another clue or two about how Tonks is feeling. I think this is what really frustrates me about Tonks in HBP. It isn't what she does. It's the almost-completely-lacking explanations for why she does it. It's like trying to figure out why Crabbe and Goyle are willing to Polyjuice into little girls for Draco (fear? Deep friendship? Too stupid to protest? Who knows?) - there just isn't enough information. And it's even more frustrating because it really wouldn't have been that hard to drop a couple more tiny clues, and JKR didn't do it.

For instance, I think that a sign of weakness from Tonks at the funeral would have made me feel she was a stronger character. It sounds weird, I know. But if she had been teary, or given Harry a shaky smile, or if she and Remus had looked like they were clinging to each other for support in their grief – you know, something – then I would have thought, “Well, she still has problems, but being with Remus broke her out of that vicious cycle of depression, and she'll be able to work on those problems better now that she's gotten a boost.” I would have seen a Tonks who had had a bad year, but was strong and fighting to recover. Some such sign would be quick, simple, and something Harry might even notice. But we don't see that – just that she is holding Remus's hand and that her hair is pink again. It's still possible that my scenario is true and the narrator just doesn't mention it, but the omission means that it might not be true. As far as I can tell, it's possible that Tonks really was just pining over Remus, and that dating him magically made her whole again. Yuck.

This is also why I'm not surprised so many people suspect Tonks of being someone else or having Ever-So-Evil motives or what have you. Harry is so carefully maneuvered into ignoring or simplifying Tonks's behavior that it looks like JKR is trying to hide something in plain sight yet again. Of course Scabbers is ill – that cat keeps trying to kill him! So that's why Tonks was acting funny – it wasn't survivor's guilt or mourning for Sirius, it was unrequited love for Remus! Who needs hints that she has other issues too when we have the perfect solution to the mystery? It's suspiciously simple.

The far-out crackfic idea: Or maybe swythyv is right and Remus was actually Polyjuiced!Peter all year. If that's the case, then maybe Tonks's problem was that she knew something was very wrong with Remus. Maybe she even knew he wasn't really Remus, and she was stressed because she had to pretend she didn't know and was worried about what might be happening to him wherever he was. That kind of stress might be enough to make her lose her ability. Then at the funeral she would be recovered because somehow they'd found the real Remus (as we'll find out in Book 7) and she didn't have to worry anymore. Maybe she didn't really lose her Metamorphmagery, but was pretending to try to put Peter off his guard!

ETA: Except that she's perky and pink-haired at King's Cross after she gets out of St. Mungo's. Oops. Back to square one.



*Tangent: I wonder if the real reason Tonks showed Harry her ability right after they met is because she wants to make people feel like she's being up-front and open about it – maybe she's gotten some bad reactions when she revealed it later on in relationships, people feeling tricked or lied to.