On Andromeda
Dec. 11th, 2005 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mari4212Okay, this reflection/meta came about because of two things. One being the fact that I've become Andromeda in Quidditch club, and the other is a rather fascinating essay on the Black family that was just posted up on ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
hp_essays. And as a side note, if you are in any way shape or form interested in the Black family, go read that essay now. There was one character from the current set of Blacks that was pretty much ignored in that essay, Andromeda. Really, that's not so suprising, given how little we know about her.
So what do we know about this most mysterious of the Black sisters? Looking at the tapestry in Grimmauld Place, we see that the names of the sisters are arrayed as follows: Bellatrix, Andromeda, Narcissa. Using the logic of most family trees, where names are listed from left to right in order of their birth, the understood birth order has Bellatrix as the eldest, Andromeda as a middle child, and Narcissa as the baby of the family. We also can assume from Slughorn's comment that if Sirius had been in Slytherin, he would have had the complete set. That implies, if not outright states, that Andromeda was a Slytherin. The next thing we know is that she married a muggleborn, Ted Tonks. Familial outrage most likely ensued. It can be assumed, given the time constraints on the Harry Potter timeline and Nymphadora Tonks' age, that this happened very quickly after her graduation from Hogwarts. We then have Nymphadora's comments about the fact that Andromeda insisted on her name, and that Andromeda is good at domestic charms, like packing.
That's pretty much it on direct canon. There's still a lot left unknown about her. Everything from her looks to her personality, to her career after Hogwarts, it's all unknown.
So what assumptions can be made? Well, for starters, she was a Slytherin. That does give us a starting point on her personality. She's more likely to be goal-oriented, cunning, and selectively loyal. She's more likely than not to be able to see shades of gray in moral issues. It's likely that she would know how to manipulate the situation for her own goals. She could have any one of those personality traits that Slytherin encompasses. And of course, she could always have been a borderline Slytherin, with traits from another house equally prevalent.
We can assume that she loves her husband very much, considering how much she was willing to abandon to marry him. She gave up her family and all of their ideals on blood purity to marry a muggle-born. We can also assume that she was a loving mother, given that Nymphadora Tonks is reasonably well adjusted, apart from a few naming issues. We could even assume that Nymphadora gets her more romantic ideals from her mother. Both love their chosen man very deeply, without regard to societal issues. That and any woman who voluntarily names their child Nymphadora must have a bit of the romantic at heart in them.
One could also assume, given her talent with household charms, that Andromeda might have had an aptitude for Charms in general. And given Slughorn's evident enjoyment of the entire Black family, it's rather possible that she was good at Potions as well. After all, we have yet to see a member of the Black family not be intelligent and talented. Okay, so Bella's psychotic and talented, but still.
So that's what I have on Andromeda Tonks. Opinions?
hp_essays. And as a side note, if you are in any way shape or form interested in the Black family, go read that essay now. There was one character from the current set of Blacks that was pretty much ignored in that essay, Andromeda. Really, that's not so suprising, given how little we know about her.So what do we know about this most mysterious of the Black sisters? Looking at the tapestry in Grimmauld Place, we see that the names of the sisters are arrayed as follows: Bellatrix, Andromeda, Narcissa. Using the logic of most family trees, where names are listed from left to right in order of their birth, the understood birth order has Bellatrix as the eldest, Andromeda as a middle child, and Narcissa as the baby of the family. We also can assume from Slughorn's comment that if Sirius had been in Slytherin, he would have had the complete set. That implies, if not outright states, that Andromeda was a Slytherin. The next thing we know is that she married a muggleborn, Ted Tonks. Familial outrage most likely ensued. It can be assumed, given the time constraints on the Harry Potter timeline and Nymphadora Tonks' age, that this happened very quickly after her graduation from Hogwarts. We then have Nymphadora's comments about the fact that Andromeda insisted on her name, and that Andromeda is good at domestic charms, like packing.
That's pretty much it on direct canon. There's still a lot left unknown about her. Everything from her looks to her personality, to her career after Hogwarts, it's all unknown.
So what assumptions can be made? Well, for starters, she was a Slytherin. That does give us a starting point on her personality. She's more likely to be goal-oriented, cunning, and selectively loyal. She's more likely than not to be able to see shades of gray in moral issues. It's likely that she would know how to manipulate the situation for her own goals. She could have any one of those personality traits that Slytherin encompasses. And of course, she could always have been a borderline Slytherin, with traits from another house equally prevalent.
We can assume that she loves her husband very much, considering how much she was willing to abandon to marry him. She gave up her family and all of their ideals on blood purity to marry a muggle-born. We can also assume that she was a loving mother, given that Nymphadora Tonks is reasonably well adjusted, apart from a few naming issues. We could even assume that Nymphadora gets her more romantic ideals from her mother. Both love their chosen man very deeply, without regard to societal issues. That and any woman who voluntarily names their child Nymphadora must have a bit of the romantic at heart in them.
One could also assume, given her talent with household charms, that Andromeda might have had an aptitude for Charms in general. And given Slughorn's evident enjoyment of the entire Black family, it's rather possible that she was good at Potions as well. After all, we have yet to see a member of the Black family not be intelligent and talented. Okay, so Bella's psychotic and talented, but still.
So that's what I have on Andromeda Tonks. Opinions?
