15 underappreciated ladies of Harry Potter

Andromeda Tonks

Andromeda Tonks appears very, very briefly in the Potter-verse. Characters talk about her, but we don’t actually see her on the page until Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Her first appearance is at her home, which has been provided as a safe house for Harry after the blood protection provided by the Dursleys expires. She looks so much like her Death Eater sister Bellatrix that Harry tries to attack her, then realizes she’s someone else.

Her next appearance is at the end of the series, after her husband, daughter, and son-in-law are all killed in the war. Andromeda essentially loses everyone she cares about in one fell swoop… except for her grandson Teddy, who was born in the middle of the war. She raises him after his parents are killed, despite Harry offering to take him (feeling obligated, as Teddy’s godfather), partially because he’s all she has left… of her daughter, her husband, and her life.

Although Andromeda was sorted into Slytherin like the rest of the Black family (save for Sirius, her younger cousin), she didn’t go the route of her sisters. She married a Muggle-born, which went against everything her pureblood, “Sacred 28” family believed in. Thus, Andromeda was burned off the Black Family Tree tapestry and disowned.

Her bravery partially inspired Sirius to turn his back on the bigoted Black family several years later. And though Andromeda doesn’t appear much in the series, the ripples of her decisions are felt throughout. She is a powerful force in the Potter-verse whose decision to leave behind a life of bigotry is massively important, and it deserves significantly more attention than it gets.