Thine Face Is Not Worth Sunburning

-Henry V

Dumbledore was making jokes.

They weren't particularly funny, at least not to Tonks. But here she was, leaning against the Ravenclaw table, listening to Dumbledore telling them. McGonagall looked like she wanted to smack Dumbledore on the head with a water goblet, and Snape had disappeared from the Great Hall as soon as Dumbledore had begun about the Mimbulus mimbletonia.

"And then the ghost said to the sorcerer…" Dumbledore continued.

"Boo," muttered Tonks in a bored voice.

She was spending the entire year at Hogwarts to protect the students and staff from Sirius Black, the notorious mass murderer who was now on the loose. It was widely accepted that he was after Harry Potter, the thirteen-year-old who had garnered much attention from the entire wizarding community for having defeated Lord Voldemort as an infant.

"Tonks!" called Gawain Robards, one of the other Aurors who was stationed at Hogwarts. "D'you know where the Hogwarts Express is?"

"Is this a joke?" she asked, walking towards him. "On the train track?"

"No," he growled. "I mean, it's supposed to be here by now!"

"Oh." She quickly glanced at her watch. Huh. It was supposed to be there by now. "Maybe they're on their way?"

He shrugged. "We'll give it ten more minutes."

"I'll tell Dumbledore," she suggested. He nodded.

"I'll be waiting out for it. In case it arrives."

"Okay," she agreed. "Let me know if anything happens."

"Yeah," he said, and he marched out to the entrance of the castle as Tonks turned to Dumbledore.

"But the sorcerer…"

"Professor!" she interrupted brusquely.

"Yes, Auror Tonks?" asked Dumbledore, smiling serenely at her.

Even though she wasn't fully an Auror yet, Robards had insisted that they all call her Auror Tonks, something she was exceptionally grateful for. She still had authority, just like any of the Aurors did.

"Professor, do you have any idea where the Hogwarts Express is? It's late, it should've been here by now," she informed him.

"Ah," Dumbledore said wisely, "I was told that they had a run-in with some Dementors. They were searching for Black, you see."

"Dementors?!"

Okay. Calm down.

"Dementors?" she repeated, more softer.

"Not to worry, Auror Tonks, everyone is unharmed. I have not been told much more, but I daresay you'll be able to hear the full version of the encounter from the students. Though I'm sure there might be some embellishment added in there…" He trailed off, humming.

Oh, Dumbledore could get on her nerves sometimes. How was she supposed to figure out what really happened if the students were going to make up stories and Dumbledore wasn't going to tell her?

A silver raven soared into the Great Hall and delivered a message to Tonks in the voice of Robards. "Tonks, the train has just arrived. The students are saying something about Dementors. Everyone's making their way up to the castle."

She nodded, conjured her own Patronus, a jack-rabbit, and sent it back with a default reply.

Soon enough, the Great Hall was a sea swarming with students, black robes, with flashes of blue, and red, and green, and yellow. People started to seat themselves at their House tables, and Tonks smiled in reminiscence of her years at Hogwarts.

Magnificent, they had been. It had been a home, and she had been devastated to leave it behind. Now, however, she was back, back to this welcoming atmosphere, of bustle and warmth and cheer.

Robards rushed back to where she was standing, against the wall to the far right of the Great Hall, just as the Sorting began. "All taken care of."

"No Black?"

"No Black."

She nodded. "Did you hear anything else about the Dementors?"

"People were saying things all over the place. I heard someone screaming that Dumbledore himself had come to vanquish them."

She snorted. "What rubbish. Dumbledore's been telling jokes about sorcerers and Mimbulus mimbletonia the whole time."

Robards shook his head. "There was someone who was shouting that the Dementor was just Sirius Black in disguise."

She snorted again. "Even more rubbish."

"And, the worst of them all, a small, blonde girl was insisting that the Dementors were nothing more than humans with big, black cloaks."

She burst out laughing. "I don't know what to tell you, Gawain, but that just might be wrong."

He laughed alongside her.

"Any new staffing arrangements?" asked Tonks. "I didn't get a chance to ask this morning."

"I think Kettleburn's retiring," sighed Robards. "I'm not sure, though. And I don't know who's taking his place. And, of course, there'll need to be a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Naturally," Tonks mused. Now that that moron, Gilderoy Lockhart, was in St. Mungo's for long-term memory damage.

Just then, Harry Potter and a bushy-haired girl snuck into the Great Hall, sticking to the opposite wall, obviously trying to go unnoticed. They sat at the Gryffindor table next to a red-haired boy, and the three of them started whispering furiously.

Finally, the Sorting was finished, and the Sorting Hat was stowed away, and Dumbledore began his speech. He explained about the Dementors, why they had been on the train, and he expressed the fact that they would be guarding the school the entire year. He explained what they did, and how to avoid them. The entire hall was quiet.

She could swear that as Dumbledore mentioned Invisibility Cloaks, he was looking right at Harry. And she could swear that one of the unfamiliar men at the staff table was gazing at Dumbledore with a pained expression on his face.

Then Dumbledore finished his speech about Dementors and introduced the staff members: the old gamekeeper, Hagrid, had taken over Care of Magical Creatures, and there was a new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.

And then the noise started up again, as food and drink appeared on the table, and talk and laughter soon reverberated throughout the hall as eager students started eating and shouting, laughing and pointing, whispering and giggling.

"I'm going to go see if I can figure out anything about what really happened with the Dementors," she told Robards.

"Okay," he assented. "I'm going to be patrolling the corridors."

She nodded, and she walked over to the Slytherin table to see what information she was going to get from Draco Malfoy.

Draco was her cousin, and though their mothers hadn't gotten along, Tonks had met Draco before, and they had surprisingly gotten off on good terms.

She found him, flanked by two exceedingly large boys who were devouring their chicken hungrily. They were guffawing and shrieking, and pointing to the Gryffindor table rather smugly.

"Hi, Draco," she sighed.

It probably took him a second to recognize her, for he stared at her for a second, following which his features relaxed. "Oh. Hi, Tonks."

She crouched down next to him. "I need to know what happened on the train."

He grinned. "It was hilarious! Potter got attacked by one of those foul things, he's so sensitive…"

"Potter?" she asked. "As in… Harry Potter?"

"Yeah. Harry Potter, the boy who lived. He fainted, you know that? He fainted!"

The tone of his voice was so gleeful she knew immediately that the two were on bad terms.

"Wow," she said distractedly. "Cool, I'll leave you to enjoy your feast. See you."

"Wait," he called, frowning. "What are you doing here?"

She smirked. "If Sirius Black marches into the castle, who's going to protect you puny students?"

He scowled, and she waved and walked over to the Gryffindor table. Thankfully, nobody noticed when she lost her balance at the corner of the Hufflepuff table, and as she managed to regain her balance, she completed the rest of her journey carefully.

"Harry Potter," she announced, as he whipped around.

"Who are you?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously.

"I'm an Auror. Magical law enforcement official," she explained, noticing the confused look on his face. "I work for the Ministry of Magic."

"Oh."

How insolent these students were.

"You can call me Tonks," she told him. "Look, I'm sure this is overwhelming, Dementor attacks aren't pretty. But I need to know what's going on. It'll be helpful to protect you in the future."

He seemed to be contemplating it, staring at the pudding in front of him. "Okay," he said finally. "We were on the train when that thing- the Dementor- came into the compartment. Everything went cold, like ice. And… I dunno, I felt like I could never be happy again. And before I knew it, I was on the ground, and it was… like it was sucking the happiness out of me."

"And you fainted?"

He nodded.

"I'm sorry," she said. "How did you get rid of it? Like, how did you get it to go away? Do you know how to conjure a Patronus, or something?"

"A what?"

"Apparently not," she mumbled. "Never mind. Er, so how did it go away?"

"Professor Lupin," Harry said, his voice immediately taking on a tone of admiration. He pointed up to the staff table. "He cast some sort of silvery charm, and he made it go away."

"Defense?"

"What?"

"Is Professor Lupin the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher?" she asked, gritting her teeth. This was a thirteen-year-old boy, not an Auror. She was going to have to be patient with him.

"Oh. Yeah."

"Okay. Er, was Professor Lupin in the compartment when it happened? Or was he passing by, or something like that?"

"He was asleep when the train started, but by the time the Dementor came in, he had woken up. Ron and Hermione were there, too, and a few others ended up in there at some point."

"Sorry?" Who were Ron and Hermione?

"Ron," Harry introduced, gesturing to his right at the red-headed boy, "and Hermione." He indicated to his left at the bushy-haired girl who had entered with Harry in the middle of the Sorting.

"I see," she mused, running a hand through her hair. "So you two are Harry's friends?"

They both nodded.

"Cool. Okay. Thank you, Harry, I hope you feel better. Oh, and I'd suggest that chocolate gateau, it's really tasty."

He nodded, looking slightly bemused, as she smiled at him and walked over to John Dawlish, another Auror, who had just slumped into the Great Hall, drenched.

"Hi, Dawlish," she greeted cheerily. "How's it going?"

"Terrible," he grunted. "Something about Dementors?"

"Harry Potter was involved," she informed him. "But he's really overwhelmed right now. I got some information out of him, and I have a few more people who we could ask about it."

"Sirius Black is such a menace," sighed Dawlish. "Our lives were going so well without him."

"Oh, well, it's our job to catch him," she pointed out. "Besides, at least we get to come back to Hogwarts."

He nodded and stifled a yawn. "I'm going to go to bed, if you don't mind. I really need a shower and some sleep."

"Go ahead. I'll cover for you."

"Thanks."

She smiled as he exited the Great Hall, presumably heading to their private quarters.

When the food on the table had finally cleared, and Dumbledore had dismissed the students to bed, Tonks debated whether or not she should catch the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor now or talk to him in the morning. She observed him from the other end of the hall, talking to Professor Sprout. He looked a fair bit older than she was, with light brown hair and amber eyes. His robes were noticeably shabbier than those of the rest of the teachers, but he had a lovely smile.

Very lovely smile, a part of her thought.

Tonks shook herself. Get it together.

Robards poked his head into the Great Hall. "Tonks! Help me out here."

She nodded, walking over to the hallways and directing unattended first-years on where to go, keeping an eye out on all of the doorways. Robards was making sure that everyone was going to the right place, since a pair of red-headed fifth-years seemed adamant on sneaking around the corridors.

After the entrance hall was cleared, and all of the staircases empty, completely devoid of straggling students, Tonks nodded to Robards, and the two of them walked back into the Great Hall.

The staff were still deep in conversation at the staff table; Dumbledore was telling jokes to a very unamused Professor McGonagall, several of the other teachers were in conversation towards the far center of the table, Professor Snape was sitting silently at the far left, glancing around the Hall with disgust, and Professor Lupin was congratulating a very flustered Hagrid on becoming the new Care of Magical Creatures Professor.

"Where's Dawlish?" asked Robards, eyebrows raised.

"Asleep," she answered truthfully. "He went straight to bed halfway through the feast."

Robards huffed. "He's not supposed to be deserting his post."

"There are other Aurors here, Gawain, it's okay," she yawned, glancing up again at Professor Lupin. On second thought, his eyes were chocolate brown...

Just then, the door burst open again and Jared King, yet another Auror, marched in. Tonks hated him, and he hated her. Not only was he not receptive, he was a selfish brat and was extremely biased. Someone who believed that her only skill was being able to change her appearance at will, being a Metamorphmagus. Of course, he was only an Auror because his father was one, and, well, nepotism.

"Did you hear what happened with the Dementors?" he snarled to Tonks and Robards. She felt Robards stiffen beside her. No doubt he hated King as much as she did.

"We did," Tonks replied coldly. "Why?"

"It's our responsibility to protect these darn students from them! Why did you slip up?"

"Excuse me?" Robards asked. "We slipped up? We've been at Hogwarts all this time! What could we have done? Besides, I thought the Dementors were under Larson's control, anyway."

Richard Larson was another brat at the Auror Office. Tonks hated him too, and worse, he didn't hate her.

King sneered. "I'm not answerable to that question, Robards. If Larson can't handle it, that means you need to take it up. Get out of here."

If Tonks didn't value her position so much, no doubt she would've slapped him then and there. But she needed to calm down. Deep breath.

She glanced up at the staff table to make sure that none of them were watching this little spat. Thankfully, they were either laughing or rolling their eyes at Dumbledore's latest joke. Snape glanced in their direction briefly, but then turned back to Dumbledore without any acknowledgement towards them.

"Okay," she replied, surprised at the calmness in her voice. "See you tomorrow."

And she strode out of the Great Hall, Robards at her heels.

A/N: So, here it is! Part one of my Remadora POA fic! There are going to be 12 chapters in all.

Hope you enjoyed it! Please leave a review!