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

[dracasadiablo.livejournal.com]

Oh, I do think that the fact that every wizarding family is not .... as prolific as Weasleys shows that there must be some kind of contraception in use.
But I'm not sure that, if she was asked, JKR wouldn't just shrug and say something like "the magic decide when a child will be made" or something just as silly.

Yes I think this is very likely, but they're both (supposed to be...) educated adults, they should know. And if they can't be sure, they probably shouldn't take any chances. No matter how I look at it, they always come out as irresponsible idiots.
Agreed.
But it's not like Lupin would ask anybody about it. And Tonks might have just assumed that Lupin is old and experienced enough to know what kind of potions he should drink.

Although, I don't rember - is anybody else apart from Lupin affraid that the child might be a werewolf? Perhaps lycanthropy isn't a hereditary disease at all, he was just wangsting about nothing and their irresponsibility was no worse that anybody else's. (I personally see a big difference between a "normal" child, and a horribly afflicted child + dangerous dark creature.)
For all we know it's even possible that werewolves are mostly infertile and only because Tonks was metamorphmagus they were able to make baby Teddy.

[oryx_leucoryx]

She would ask how old the questioner was. The response you gave is the response to the under 12 crowd.

[600ants.livejournal.com]

I'm not so sure. If literally everything else is magic, why not reproduction. :-)