Disclaimer: Oh believe you me, if they were mine I wouldn't be sweating my little undergrad buns about my student loans, please adopt me JK. Not mine, not mine, all hers blah blah blah…
Harry Potter could not help, even after the events of last year; to be delighted at the prospect of returning to Hogwarts. As painful and menacing as the outside world had become; his school had become that much more comforting and felt that much safer in his brief absence from it. No Ministry gunning for his reputation or Dumbledore's; no more villainous, tyrannical Umbridge to deal with. Harry was looking forward to the return of a sanctuary. For while nothing could make him forget the war, the terrors he had seen or the painful loss of Sirius; Hogwarts had a way of distancing his mind from his troubles which he more than ever sorely needed.
"Harry…. Harry are you paying attention?" He was jolted out of his private thoughts by Hermione who was looking at him with an impatient glance; he knew by now this meant he'd missed something important. All summer at Grimmauld Place with Hermione had earned him a lot of these glances. "Ron and I were just discussing the new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor."
"What about him?" Harry asked seating himself at the Gryffindor table, "Dumbledore was thinking of hiring back Professor Lupin wasn't he?"
"Exactly what I said mate, now can you leave it be Hermione the feast's about to start." Ron had if possible outdone himself in the growth spurt he'd experienced, a direct result of which being a constant demand for food. Hermione had lamented it as "yet another obstacle to thinking with his brain." Leaving Harry and Ron to speculate on what the original obstacle had been.
"I would be more than happy to let it be, if Professor Lupin were sitting at the staff table." Harry and Ron both jerked their heads in that direction to find that Hermione was quite right in saying that the chair that should have been Lupin's was occupied by someone they had never seen before; and it would have been a trick to forget it if they had. There was a middle sized witch with short spiky red hair sitting where they had expected to find their friend. She looked very young probably in her early to mid twenties, not ten years older than themselves. This however was not the striking part about her, she was incredibly pale, paler than Harry had ever thought you could be with your heart still beating, she made the Malfoy family look positively rosy. Despite this however she was strikingly beautiful, Harry had a strange feeling that she reminded him of someone though he couldn't place her. And there was something odd about her eyes, though he couldn't really tell from where he was sitting, what it was exactly.
"She looks….odd." was Ron's only reaction.
"She looks dangerous. I don't trust her." Was Hermione's.
"Well she's definitely not Lupin." Was Ginny's who had overheard. The other two turned toward her with incredulous looks. Ron shook his head, and Ginny made a rude hand gesture at them both; turning back to her conversation with Neville.
"What's your take mate?" asked Ron. But Harry would not get the immediate chance to answer as the Sorting Ceremony began. He clapped along with the others for every new Gryffindor, including another Finnigan and what appeared to be Blaise Zabini's younger sibling. As Professor McGonagall removed the stool and Albus Dumbledore stood to address the hall, everyone forgot the events of the summer, the fear that had been rife in the wizarding community at the return of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named was momentarily far away; Albus Dumbledore was the personification of safety.
"I believe that you all expect some sort of speech from me on the recent developments in the wizarding world." The whole hall which had been abuzz with chatter fell eerily silent, Harry surprised himself by tensing as well and so it was all the more surprising when Dumbledore's benevolent features formed a warm knowing smile, "However I am sure you will all agree with me that those developments are not nearly as important as indulging in this splendid feast. Tuck in!" Nothing pleased Harry more than Dumbledore's refusal to acknowledge anything out of the ordinary in this first day back, and he believed judging by the relieved and happy faces of those currently following the Headmaster's orders that he had done the exact thing everyone needed to take the edge off. Not even Hermione, who had grown if possible even more serious over the last few months laughed with the others and dove into the food with abandon. After everyone was satiated and talk had begun to resume, Dumbledore stood again with a more serious look on his earlier mirthful face. And as he stood waiting the hall resumed its earlier silence.
"Welcome back to Hogwarts, I'm sure you have all anticipated the start of the new year as eagerly as I have. As per the usual we have some new faces to become acquainted with. And it is with great personal satisfaction that I introduce our new Defense Against the Dark Arts professor, Professor Valeria Novotny." The entire hall turned towards the seat to Snape's right, including the teacher's it would appear Harry and his friends were not the only ones to have taken an interest in their odd looking new professor. The woman stood and bowed deeply before lowering herself back into her chair, she had a stoically calm unshifting expression on her face, as if she were underneath it all perpetually bored. At the mention of her name Harry had noticed Hermione's visible start and made note to ask her about it later. But as he watched her settle it looked for a moment as if she were looking directly back at him, though he couldn't be sure. For whatever reason; it made him uneasy.
Dumbledore now more seriously continued, "As you know we live in dangerous times. Doubtless you all have kept abreast of the news this summer regarding the return of Lord Voldemort and the atrocities his followers have already begun to perform. I regret that I cannot assure you that these will do anything other than increase both in number and severity. However in the face of this growing threat I take pride in assuring you that you are safe here at Hogwarts. In reality I can think of few places where this would be as true. In addition to our standing magical guards against attack; the Ministry of Magical Law Enforcement has agreed to lend to us some of its finest Aurors to patrol and protect Hogwarts. It is my privilege to introduce to you Messirs and Madams, Shacklebolt, Dawlish, Nott and Tonks; our protectors and therefore deserving of the utmost respect and obedience from us all."
Harry, Ron and Hermione all immediately turned to the back of the Hall where aforementioned Aurors had gone quite unnoticed in the appraisal of their new teacher. Tonks smiled back at the three delighted Gryffindors and gave a wave and a wink from behind a shock of neon orange hair.
"However even with these protections it is my request that should you come across anything out of the ordinary or hear anything you feel may be threatening you should immediately report it to a staff member or one of the Aurors directly. With that business out of the way I bid you goodnight and wish you a safe and prosperous year at Hogwarts."
Harry, Ron and Hermione rose from the table and were beaten to the back of the hall only by Ginny who was currently berating Tonks for not telling her that she would be at Hogwarts. The Auror was laughing and decently holding her own even before Hermione rushed in to give her a hug and save her from the youngest Weasley. "If I had known Gin I would've told you but Amelia was very selective and how awful would it have been if I'd told you and then not gotten the position?"
As she said 'hello' to Harry and Ron however a tall thin witch which black hair came storming up behind her, "Really, Tonks it's bad enough we have to baby-sit the little brats, must you undermine our authority by being chummy with them? Although I suppose it's nice for you to have intellectual equals around." She had a smug smile on her face that told Harry this was a long standing arrangement of torture, but Tonks only grinned slightly as she turned and stood with a kind of forced grace, facing her attacker.
"It really is Morgana you should try it sometime I hear Snape still has that primordial fungus growing in his office why don't you two go catch up?" Ginny had to bend over in half to keep from giggling. Morgana opened her mouth ready to retaliate but was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder, Harry was surprised to see a very weedy looking Slytherin boy from his own year, though he couldn't at present remember his name.
"What do you want? I'm busy." Was her only reply. Harry all of a sudden noticed a striking family resemblance; they had almost the exact same features.
"Yes my dear sister, obviously, and what is it you were doing exactly besides humiliating yourself? I'm sure father would be very proud."
"Ted I'm not in any mood to put up with this sibling rivalry crap, you're a bloody prefect aren't you? Go lead some first year brats to the dungeons or something." She positively spat at him as he turned on his heel and stalked away.
"Well that was sweet Morgana I had no idea your ickle baby brother was still at Hogwarts, and what a darling little ferret he is. You must be very proud." Intoned Tonks with every air of sweetness possible.
Morgana was again on the verge of replying when Kingsley Shacklebolt arrived just in time, "That's quite enough childish squabbling, we have enough hotheaded teenagers to look after without having to referee you two. Now c'mon you get first patrol aren't you lucky." He turned quickly away to join Dawlish and head upstairs, the two witches looked at each other with extreme dislike before Morgana turned and headed in what Harry could only assume was the direction of her patrol route. Tonks sighed and turned back to them.
"Sorry bout that Nott's always had a right cob up her rear with regard to me, what a lovely "opportunity for growth" I'll have to thank dear Amelia for it at some point. In the meantime you'd best get off to bed, if you thought curfew was enforced before you've got no idea now, so," she said with a pointed look at Harry, Ron and Hermione, "why don't you three leave the midnight wandering to me and behave yourselves?" she said with a cheeky grin on her face which obviously meant she'd been briefed on their normal nocturnal activities. And without even a goodbye she rushed off after Nott to no doubt spend the remainder of the night in a nostalgically adolescent shouting match.
"Why would Shacklebolt put those two together?" asked Hermione on their way upstairs.
"Well s'obvious isn't it? He doesn't want to deal with her so he sticks her with Tonks." Replied Ron, "Besides it's gonna be awfully entertaining." He sniggered along with Harry thinking of the spats they would be privy to all year.
"Entertaining isn't an issue Ron how are they to effectively protect the school if they don't trust or even like each other? And I mean you know I love Tonks it's just that she can be so childish sometimes…"
"Y'know 'Mione you're beginning to sound more and more like my mum, I don't reckon you should ever be allowed to see her again." Harry laughed at the violent shade of red Hermione's face took on at this statement.
"Well someone has to be serious, you'd think with what's happened you two would care about what's going on…"
"Hermione we do care." Harry interrupted, "It's just we can't care all the time or we'll go crazy, besides Tonks knows better than anyone what's at stake. She wouldn't risk that just to get one up on Nott." Hermione seemed to buy into this a little bit and nodded uncharacteristically willing to accept this logic.
"Hey Hermione," Harry began remembering his earlier observation, "Have you heard of that Novotny before or something? You seemed a little twitchy when Dumbledore brought her up."
Hermione seemed a little uneasy at this question, "Well it's just when I visited with Viktor last summer…." She began but Ron interrupted.
"Oh so what is she Vicki's ex girlfriend or something honestly Hermione does everything have to do with that overstuffed …"
"Oh shut it Ron! It's nothing like that it's just she's very famous over there, in Eastern Europe I mean, she's a Vampire hunter, one of the best according to Viktor."
"So what's to worry about?" Harry replied.
"What's she doing here? Why would we need the world's greatest Vampire hunter at Hogwarts?" Harry grew silent for the rest of the way up to Gryffindor tower, after they'd parted and headed to bed Harry had to admit to himself that Hermione had a point. But as he settled into his four poster Harry was determined not to dwell on it tonight but to allow himself to enjoy his first good night's sleep in a while. Nothing could disturb the ultimate feeling of security he had at Hogwarts. Even though the last thing which caught his attention before he slept was Professor Novotny's pale, intense face staring at him from behind the staff table.