My experience with a dementor
Author: TraScully
Rating: K
Summary: So... how would our favorite Harry Potter characters react to the dementors? Or, how did they react to them?

Note: I took crazy mad personal liberties when describing the inside of Azkaban and visiting rights and the wards, etc. I have no idea what Azkaban is like, because we're never really taken there. So I tried to make it plausible... it made sense to me that they'd want some wizards there at all times, not just the dementors. It just seemed like something could go wrong and it's not like dementors are going to jump up and help... so yeah. If you have any better ideas for the prison, review and tell me because I'm trying to make it believable. Thanks!

Chapter 5: Nymphadora Tonks
The first time I saw a dementor was during my Auror training. I was two years into it when we started doing our practicals. You know, dueling, stealth tracking, that sort of thing. It was a Wednesday and we were outside on the lawn dueling. I had just been hit by Kingsley's expelliarmus and my wand now rested in his hand.

With an annoyed sigh, I levitated it back to me and we started again. After about an hour of being hit from behind, stunned, frozen, jinxed, and knocked off my feet, Mad-Eye called us over and announced that we would be taking a little trip.

"The Minister requested you be taken to Azkaban, because none of you have ever been," he told us heavily, "and you need to know where you're going to be sending people." I glanced up at Kingsley and he shrugged, but I was already frightened. I had heard so much about the wizard prison since I was a little girl, and I dreaded the trip that was to take place the next day.

So I went home, found Sirius and his friend James at my kitchen table with my mom, and told them about the trip to Azkaban. Sirius and James exchanged a meaningful look and then approached me, shoving me into the next room.

"You're going to Azkaban tomorrow!" Sirius asked me, as if he hoped it wasn't true. I nodded.

"Professor Moody says it'll help us if we know where we're sending people," I replied, already wanting to do my share and rid the world of those creepy Death Eaters everyone was talking about. There were so many rumors flying at the moment, about some Dark Lord rising and getting up a bunch of wacko followers to rid the world of mudbloods. Nymphadora didn't really understand what was happening, but she knew it sounded wrong and she wanted to stop it from growing.

"Have you ever seen a dementor?" James asked, jolting me from my thoughts.

"No, but we've studied them a lot," I replied, trying to figure out where this was going.

Sirius and James exchanged looks again. "Well, just go in there prepared for the worst," Sirius told her, and then they got up and left the room. I was sitting on the couch, wondering what on earth they meant. Dementors were supposed to make you relive your worst memory or memories... but I wasn't going to be seeing any of them tomorrow, was I? They guard the gates, so they couldn't possibly come into contact with any of us on our field trip... I hoped...

But I was wrong. Because we apparated to the bridge leading out over the water to the front gate, and as soon as I saw the famed jail, I knew something terrible would happen inside. No one noticed my shudder because the wind picked up and we couldn't even hear what Moody was saying. I followed the group out over the moat to the front gate, and we walked through. Passing through a stone courtyard, we entered through another gate and came to two gigantic doors. Moody did something weird with his hands and then knocked three times on a spot just to the right of some words on the door, and they opened. Everyone had to jump back so they wouldn't be knocked down by the huge doors, and then we hurried inside. Everything was silent.

We all huddled together in the entryway while Moody went and spoke to a wizard in black robes standing across the room. He pointed to us and the wizard nodded, then they talked for a few minutes. Moody returned and led us down a hall to the right, and up some twisting stairs. This is where my memory stops. For as we came to the top of the stairs and started down a hall of cells, I saw a dementor float toward us. Kingsley and some other people ducked out of its' way but I wasn't quick enough.

It hovered in front of me and I felt my stomach sink down to my feet as everything went cold. I couldn't move and suddenly all I could think about was that night when I was sixteen. It had been a cool summer night and I was driving back from my boyfriend's house listening to some dumb bubble-gum song on the radio. I pulled up to my house and decided to park on the street, as Sirius' car was in the driveway and he'd probably need to leave first in the morning. And the fact that his car was at my house probably meant that his friends James, Peter, and Remus were here too! I was excited and I hurried up toward the door, anticipating all the stupid stuff we could do until the wee hours of the morning.

But then I heard something over to my right, some leaves rustling or something. I glanced over, I was almost to the door, and then I saw it. It was a huge wolf, and it was growling at me. Taken aback and startled out of my mind, I backed away from the beast, which was also in a direction away from the door. The wolf bounded toward me and tackled me hard, pinning me down on the ground. But just before it hit me, I realized that it wasn't a wolf at all. It was a werewolf. And seeing as I was all alone on my street and I was about to get bitten or killed by this thing, I did the only thing I could do: I screamed. As loudly as I could. The werewolf rolled me over and I slammed into the sidewalk, now face up again, and he raised a menacing paw but just at that moment, the front door flew open and two boys shot out of it with a big black dog. The dog was on top of the werewolf in a second, and Peter tackled him too as James ran over to me.

"Are you okay?" he asked simply, while gathering me up into his arms. I think I nodded, I can't really remember, but as he carried me into the house I looked back and saw the werewolf was changing. He was changing back into his human form! I gasped and, when James shut the front door, I hurried over to our big bay window looking out on the yard. I saw the pain he went through, the torment. Blood was everywhere, and at last he fell down and whimpered from the strain. I still couldn't tell who it was, but as Sirius changed back from his animagus form and clothed the man in a t-shirt, I caught a view of his head.

"REMUS!" I called just a little too loudly, and James shot me a menacing look. The kind of look that says 'Shut up and we might explain later.' So I did. And as they helped Remus in the door and through the living room, his eyes caught mine and I read them. Really read them. He was hurting, and he was sorry, and he was angry at himself, and he was in terrible pain, and he needed someone. My heart felt like it was breaking, as I looked after them once they had gone into the bathroom. But I felt like I understood him.