Hey im hoping to join the role-playing community but i want to put my own spin on a character much like you did with your dark tonks. My question is how did you go about with her development and creation?
(( OOC: Dark!Tonks is a funny story, which started when I bought a new wig wanting to try out a revised look for Tonks, but didn’t feel as though it fit my portrayal of her. Not wanting to waste a perfectly good wig, I had the idea of creating a darker version of the character.
Then came the challenge of creating a solid “dark” backstory for what is arguable one of the most vibrant and positive characters in the HP universe.
To start, I had to think about why regular Tonks is so upbeat and happy. For me the answer to that would be her upbringing and the people she had around her growing up, particularly her parents. Andromeda I see as feisty and strong-willed, and Ted has a very sweet, endearing nature – all qualities I try to emulate when I play Tonks. So to me, a Dark!AU featuring a Tonks that didn’t have those qualities meant one thing… I had to get rid of her parents.
From that point it was working out how and why Tonks grew up without her parents. Once I had decided that it was her Aunt Bellatrix who was responsible for their deaths, her story snowballed from there. The key to developing her character (as is the case when developing any character) was working out the motivations behind her actions, and the thought process behind all the decisions she made. If you want to try a similar thing, those would be the main elements I would keep in mind.
Something else important to consider was the butterfly effect – what impact would altered events have in this world? For example: the fact that Tonks was raised by Death Eaters meant that there was one person who could possibly prove Sirius Black’s innocence – and that’s how that storyline came about.
I could go ranting about the couple of AU worlds I’ve made forever but we’d be here all day. If anyone had any specific questions though, feel free to ask! ))
“Why on earth would anybody listen to you? Some street girl raised by death eaters? What argument or evidence could you present us to convince us that you do not have alter-motives for wanting the prisoner released? Maybe together you believe you can bring back He Who Must Not Be Named?”
The Chief of the Wizengamot sat back in his chair looking triumphantly down at Tonks.
It took every ounce of self-control that she didn’t know she had not burst with self-righteous fury.
“Whatever you say,” she started slowly “Whatever you say I’ve done. Whatever you say I am, your fiction will never be as horrible as the truth was my life.”
She takes a deep shuddering breath in an effort to steal her rapidly beating heart.
This is what will convince them, this is the part she has to tell them, however much it hurt her.
She straightened her back and fixes the Chief of the Wizengamot with a hard cold stare.
He will look at her when she tells him her story. He will look into her eyes and even then will only be able to imagine in the darkest corners of his mind the reality of her existence.
“You have all seen Bellatrixes methods on her enemies, what makes you think she is nicer to her friends?
When you're a child, you don’t mean to scream and cry when you want something. It’s your natural instinct, you don’t know how to communicate. most parents, most adults would understand this. Not Bellatrix.
You will not scream in her house unless it is from pain. She will not tolerate disobedience or inconvenience on your part, doesn’t matter how young you are or how much you don’t understand.
She will cut you open just the same.
She will leave you bloodied and bleeding on the bathroom floor until you associate crying and screaming with being in pain, associated the scars on your chest you with punishment. You learn that obedience is silence.
The things I saw in that house are things you can only imagine. Things that should only happen in the darkest pits of hell but that was the reality that was my life as a child...”
Tonks takes another deep shuddering breath, clenching her hands into fists at her side to stop them from shaking so violently.
She slowly lets the breath out.
She must keep going, the next bit as important.
“In that house, I also saw many people. Bellatrix was The Dar... He Who Must Not Be Named right-hand woman. Her house was like a base of operations.
Any Death Eater who had any sort of dealing with You Know Who walked over the threshold of the house at least once during the First Wizarding War.
And I saw all of them, even saw Him,” This last bit she says more to herself.
“When Mad-Eye... I mean, when Alastor found me, he told me about Sirius Black. He is the only family I really have left.
So yeah, I get why you’d think that I have ulterior motives when it comes to Black, but I went to see him. I sat in front of him and I looked into his face. Azkaban does terrible things to a person but it does not change natural features of their face.
I knew from the second I saw him, that I had never seen this man in my life. I’ve never even heard his name. To tell you the truth, I have no idea who Sirius Black even is.
I was there, I saw all of it, I saw all of them.
I’m telling you I don’t know who this man is.”
There was a stir from the court high above her. Mad-eye was watching her intently, beside him a man with the slightly less scarred face and mousy brown hair that was turning grey, had gone white.
It looked as if through the Chief of the Wizengamot was going to interrupt, but Tonks wasn’t done.
“I know, you are never just going to take the word of as you put it ‘Some street girl raised by Death Eaters‘, so I went looking for the true spy.
I know we had one the same way that the Order of the Phoenix had Snape. They may not have had a name but I knew there was a spy and if they ever entered Bellatrixes house, I would have seen them.
There is a house in London called Number 12 Grimmauld Place, it where Sirius Black was raised. Mad-Eye... I mean, Alastor, took me there so I could understand a bit more about my family. There is a tapestry of the family tree he wanted me to see, but I was more interested in the rooms.
A room can tell you a lot about the person who lives there, it can tell you their priority life possibly even tell you something about the motives.
Sirius Black’s room stood out against everything else in that house, I like to imagine the same way he must’ve done. It was bright, covered with gold and red so contrasting with the rest of this dark house filled with silver and black. There wasn’t much left. But there were posters, muggle posters stuck to the walls with permanent sticking charms, mostly of girls and motorcycles.
There was also a photograph.
A photograph of four boys.
One I know to be Sirius Black, the other Alastor tells me was James Potter, he had glasses and hair below I have crows nest, there was another boy with scars and brown hair who Alastor said was Remus Lupin.
And there was a fourth boy.
Dirty blonde, fat.
His face I had seen before.”
In response to this, there was, even more, stirring from the court. Shocked faces looked down at her, faces filled with disapproval and contempt shook their heads at her.
How dare she try and throw shame onto Peter Pettigrew who they all knew was a hero of the First Wizarding War, who was the wizard who had stood up to Black. The Death Eater, the traitor.
But Tonks wasn't finished.
They could call her whatever they liked but she was going to say her piece, she was going to finish.
“I saw him,” she practically had to yell over the hubbub in the courtroom. “I saw him, on September 15th, 1981.
I will never forget the last months in that house.
Never.
I remember him, I could smell the stench of sweat looked terrified the whole time he was there shaking. His features reminded me of some sort of rodent,”
At this particular comment Remus Lupin’s head jerked up his eyes wide with something that looked like almost sudden realisation and fixed on Tonks, she only half-acknowledged this out of the corner of her eye before continuing on.
“I had never seen him before which was rare. Almost all death eaters traipse through at least once a month to check in with Bellatrix and the higher ranking members of the Death Eaters. That’s the only time I ever saw him.
When preparing for this trial I went through scores of old photographs of the Order of the Phoenix trying to see if I recognised any of the members to see if any of them could have been the spy. Apart from Severus Snape, Peter Pettigrew is the only face I know.
Sirius Black was never the spy, Pettigrew was.”
On this last statement, the whole courtroom burst into outrageous screaming. almost every person in the room was turning to another trying to find some sort of evidence that would prove her wrong, anything. The Chief of the Wizengamot was hammering his gavel hard on his desk calling for order and silence.
The only eyes that remained on her were Remus Lupins.
He was staring at her in shock and horror his face white and gaunt. It looked as though in the last five minutes he had aged 30 years.
But Tonks didn’t see any of this she didn’t even hear it. There was a ringing in her ears, a triumphant ringing. She knew at that moment that they could not prove her wrong. There was a long and harsh road ahead of her but she had taken the first step on it.
She could handle the rest.
This was a pleasure to right, @sirussly has created this incredible alternate universe with Dark!Tonks and I loved looking into this character and thinking about how this particular scene would go.
I am really proud of this piece of writing and I hope you guys did too. Please go and check out all of Jess’s work and especially the Dark!Tonks series to find out more about this character. Thank you to Jess for this character and for letting me use her GIF at the top of the post.
Werewolf Tonks: Oh, fuck all! I think I broke a claw.
Werewolf Tonks: Don’t call me Tonks!
Werewolf Tonks Nymphadora: It’s Nymphadora.
Gia: Thank you to @masksofmickey for making me this Fenrir gif! Werewolf Tonks will be back someday and you can call her Nymphadora. Why would a Werewolf stolen at birth go by her Muggle father’s name?
