15 underappreciated ladies of Harry Potter

Nymphadora Tonks

Nymphadora Tonks shouldn’t have died in the final battle. J.K. Rowling wrote Teddy Lupin as an orphan in order to parallel Harry’s story, but surround him with love instead of hate. I’ll be frank: it was a bad decision.

Tonks’ skill as an Auror is well-known. Even Moody respects her ability, and he’s near indestructible until the “Battle of the Seven Potters.” Obviously, several people died in the final battle who probably could have (and should have) survived, but Tonks’ death is particularly horrible.

Tonks is one of the coolest characters in the Potter-verse. She’s a Metamorphmagus, who can change her appearance at will, and she was apparently a huge troublemaker in school. Professor Sprout refused to make Tonks a Hufflepuff prefect because of it. Despite her propensity for mischief, Tonks went on to succeed greatly in her final exams at Hogwarts and joined the Ministry very young.

The narrative underserves Tonks in several ways. Her agony over Remus Lupin not wanting her seems misplaced and out of character, especially in the middle of a war she seems eager to fight. Marrying him and having a son by him in the middle of the war pulls Tonks from the frontlines. Rowling’s determination to create parallels in Teddy’s story unfortunately shoves Tonks’ character development to the side.

Nymphadora Tonks deserved better than to pine over a man twice her age and then die shortly after having his son. There’s no other way around it, and that’s why she’s on this list of underappreciated ladies in the Potter-verse.