Show Me A Hero & I'll Write You a Tragedy

This is for my Aries mates 😉

It’s winter where I am. Is Harry in Hagrid’s coat? Probably. 

Well, no, actually, because it's been eons since I read the book and don't remember it very well. 😅

But okay, exaggeration aside, I had very serious issues with Lupin's, Tonks's and Snape's arcs.

Lupin disappointed me SO MUCH. He's so...flaky. Getting into the relationship with Tonks, getting married immediately, then getting cold feet and practically leaving his pregnant wife behind, then they're back together and happy? IDK that's not the vibe I'd gotten from him during the previous books. He's avoidance personified. I expected that even after getting in a relationship with Tonks, he'd be dragging his feet about it, not get it all done whirlwind style. I think the idea is that this was a bit how he was with the Marauders as well - thought their shenanigans were a bad idea but let himself be convinced time and again - so it's not that it DOESN'T make sense at all, it's just not how I expected it to go. And the fact of the matter is that, let's face it, this was all done to lead to Lupin dead for the Stone scene and an orphan Teddy, and while yes, it's a book, plot devices abound and *should* be there... eh. I feel like this was a cheap shot overall.

Same for Tonks. I am absolutely an advocate for the early marriage and kid when it comes to Jily, but Tonks is absolutely NOT in the same position as Lily. She is older, she is educated, she is actively in the workforce in a career that puts her in the frontline of the war, she is from a different generation... she should not be the person who gets married and pregnant immediately just like that. Again, you can twist it to work but it was done for the ending's sake and not with the characters in mind. (Side note: how much more intriguing and realistic - and truer to their characters - would this whole situation have been if they'd gotten pregnant without getting married? Have Tonks devastated, thinking Remus had been serious about their relationship, Remus being like 'I never wanted this to happen' and fucking off to find Harry. Just one detail that would have made all the difference. But we can't have a child out of wedlock, JKR, can we?)

And then there's Snape. A complex, mysterious character who has been a source of doubt for everyone and a source of grief for Harry, our central character... and turns out to have done it "all for love". PLEASE. Another super cheap shot. Presumed love for someone when he can't even see her child with the minimum of sympathy, and that turning out to be his whole purpose in life. For something that was supposed to be the plan all along, it wasn't even particularly well done. It was, again, part of a larger theme, which you can see, and it makes sense in the structure of the story, and Snape is a flawed person and he hated James even though he loved Lily blah blah blah - but I think a complex character like him merited a more complex background and motives.

All that said - DH is part of canon and of the characterization of these characters, and the fun of fanfiction is trying to work with what you have. Besides, characterization is not a strict route - people are complex, and they surprise you, and they respond differently to different circumstances and a good writer can twist the circumstances so that the characters end up doing what the writer wants. So my complaint that "everyone is OOC in DH" is more about the fact that, however justifiable all the characters are and how explainable their actions, it carries too much the mark of "this happened for plot reasons" and not because it was the natural progression of the characters' arcs.

But Anna's post had me thinking. Because I love the idea that Teddy would have been born out of wedlock. I think that could solve a lot of issues. I also maintain that Tonks shouldn't have died, but been the one to defeat Bellatrix. She and Bellatrix have a history of duelling one another since the OOTP. And I think it makes much more sense for Tonks' arc. In HBP, she pretty much loses all will to do anything but exist, desperately worried for Remus. Her happiness is at this stage tied so strongly to Remus it's painful for her to exist without him. I made a post about this before, but Bellatrix taunt to Molly about what's going to happen to Ginny if Molly is killed alongside Fred makes zero sense. Ginny is nearly of age, and she has a huge family who can take care of her. Tonks, on the other hand, has a newborn baby, and the taunt makes a lot more sense if it had been "What will happen to Teddy if Mummy goes the same way as Daddy?"

Tonks choosing life when we've already seen how miserable she is without Remus would be such a powerful choice and would kind of close the loop or explain why we had to go through the Tonks that we saw in HBP. I also think it is a really nice mirror to Lily's choice. Lily has to give up her life, so it would be nice if Tonks had to give up the luxury of dying. Especially since we've already had Harry lay out the fact that sometimes living is the tough choice.

All of this I've written before, but what Anna's post made me think about was that I kind of feel like Tonks should never have been injured in OOTP. She could have been stunned or somehow gotten out of the way so that Sirius had to duel Bellatrix. Instead, Tonks should have been the one to be injured at the end of HBP. Whether you'd go as far as to have Fenrir be the one to attack her, or if it's just another Death Eater, I really don't know. (Because the narrative would be quite different if she was injured in a way she recovers from, or a way which leaves permanent scars. I'll write the post on the basis of it being the former--ie not Fenrir).

Remus pretty much abandons Tonks in HBP for her safety, for the fact that she deserves a better life than what he is able to offer her, and that she deserves to be loved by someone whole and unbroken. The thing is that they're at war. Even if he never marries her, that doesn't necessarily mean that she is suddenly going to be able to live out a full life, something which Arthur pretty much explains to Remus at the end of HBP, pointing to his own son and what he suffered. Except Arthur's point is that young and healthy men don't necessarily stay healthy. But what if instead Tonks was the one to have been grievously injured?

The only reason why Bill wants to be injured is so that Molly can accept Fleur, and I feel like there are other ways to achieve that. If it's about the reader accepting Fleur's love, then I think it goes back to the point many people have made, which is that maybe Bill and Fleur are the ones who should have died. I stand by that she should have chosen between Bill and Fleur, and Remus and Tonks, and decided which one she was going to pour the narrative into. As it were, she poured the love story into Bill and Fleur, but the death of the parents to Remus and Tonks.

If Tonks had been the one injured, we would have seen a very heartfelt moment of love and regret from Remus's side, who would absolutely be by Tonks' side in the Hospital Wing. We do lack tender moments between the two in canon. We're meant to believe that Remus loves Tonks, and we're shown it through the fact that they get married and she gets pregnant. We don't see the wedding, and we don't see any of the moments of love that JKR afterwards had to put on Pottermore.

Harry’s First Birthday

the girls