An alternative origin for Baby Teddy

[sunnyskywalker]

Because I was re-reading some old recaps in various places, and it suddenly struck me that there's an awful lot of speculation that if someone screwed up/deliberately skipped the contraceptive potion, that someone must have been Tonks. I've wondered about that possibility myself. It seems primarily based on two factors: (1) Tonks was pursuing Remus in the previous book, and he was reluctant for various and possibly-not-all-stated reasons, and (2) that's how the most reliable Muggle contraceptive method works.

Tonks was indeed pursuing Remus. She pressured him by debating the merits of their relationship in public, thus bringing more peer pressure to bear on his decision. But do we know her well enough to know whether she'd force a baby to participate in this drama? Hard to say, really - I'd be open to arguments either way. And since for the most part she only discusses her relationship issues in private with a very few people as far as we know during that whole year - granted Harry isn't around enough to provide reliable observation on that point, but at least she doesn't ever start telling the kids her woes - it's possible that the scene in the hospital wing was a stress-induced lapse on her part, if you want a more charitable reading.

So point 1 could go either way, and as for point 2, we can't rely on magical contraception being a perfect analogue of ours. Why couldn't they have a Spermus Mortalitus potion? (Or an easily-reversable Vasectomus or Fallopius Tie-us spell, for that matter... And yes these are all bad Latin, but so is JKR's.)

Just because Tonks ended up being happy about the results doesn't mean it was her actions that led to them.

And in canon, who is the person we know to have forgotten to take a very important potion at least once before, consequently endangering others and causing himself trouble as well?

Comments

[600ants.livejournal.com]

If only it was any other couple...

But Lupin doesn't want Tonks to like him, he wants to get rid of her. ;) In any case, it would have been easier for him to let *her* take care about contraception, and if there is one character known to consistently choose what's easy.... :-)
Anyway, it's the woman who runs the risk of pregnancy. Would Tonks risk getting pregnant from a random one night stand, or even rape? (after all there's a war going on)

- Tonks "forgot" hers and sabotaged Lupin's, because we're all like Merope in the end, don't you know.

Reminds me of my golddiger!Lily theory. You know, that Harry conceived so promptly was just a way to make sure James's money *will* go her way. :-) Hey, it's not *my* awful sexist prejudice! I'm just trying to think like Rowling. :)

I love the last two! :D Shame DEs and Lupin are too dumb and boring for that.

[sunnyskywalker]

It would have been so easy for them to be less dumb and boring! Why, JKR, why?

I'm sure Tonks wouldn't intentionally put herself at risk, but without a few more years of life history of making and seeing others make mistakes, she just might not have the level of urgency that the situation really warrants. That's when "oops... well, just missing one of the weekly doses by a day won't really make much difference, will it?" accidents happen. A lot depends on what wizarding contraceptive methods are available, though - it would be a lot easier to screw up entirely unintentionally with a daily potion than a monthly spell. And we just don't know. (Though really, they should have easily-reversible magical tube-tying and vasectomies, if they have any brains... which they don't...)

Another thought: could Tonks's metamorphmagery interfere with its effectiveness? If they're really rare as she claims, there might not be enough case history to even know that it is a risk.

[terri-testing.livejournal.com]

Not only that, Tonks is an active-duty Auror. How many active female Aurors do we see?

And she told us she aced her field trials for disguiase, as a Metamorphmagus. Everyone else had to rely on Glamours.

Or, um, Polyjuice.

How many witches out there regularly take Polyjuice, or regularly Morph into an entirely different being?

And when they morph back, what's the effect on that once-a-month steriility potion?

I mean, if I morph back into exactly the same physiological state I was in before the last change, that's one thing. As long as I've been Morphed for only an hour or two.

It would throw my monthly dose off by an hour, no big deal.

If I morph back into what I feel to be my standard (my mid-cycle top-of-the-world best), that's quite another..

From the point of view of a monthly, cycle-dependent potion.

I'm rather suspecting that Wolfsbane, too, might suddenly prove ineffective, if used on werewolves throwing their cycles off with Polyjuice, Metamorphmagicery, Animorphmageri, et al.

[sunnyskywalker]

Now I'm wondering if Neville exists because Alice used Polyjuice a few times too many in the course of her duties. Tonks Morphing into the wrong stage in her cycle sounds like the easiest way to screw things up, but maybe Alice was chugging Polyjuice like there was no tomorrow once the violence ramped up in 1980.

[600ants.livejournal.com]

Sorry for the thread necrophilia. :)

That's stuff people would have noticed. I don't mean metamorphomagi or werewolves, just in general. Most muggles DO know that some medicaments can't be combined with each other (with milk, alcohol, ...), and what side-effects they have. And if they don't know, they go and ask an expert. And we know that wizarding world DOES have potions experts, so what's problem again? They were too lazy and irresponsible to really take care of everything in their power.