Obliviate

I am a thirteen year old German exchange student, starting my third year at Hogwarts. Well, at least that's what my two terms of German knowledge and head of Auror headquarters tell me. I'm really twenty year old and 100% British Nymphadora Tonks, the girl who only learned that much German because she had shown a very vague interest in her fifth year at school and her Muggle Studies teacher got over-excited. At least now I'm being productive. My hair is now in a black braid trailing off my right shoulder, my eyes warm and brown. I am basically masquerading as a younger original me. I'm frantically trying to think of how to act like a German student who's never been to Britain before. I look up at my superior, preparing to say goodbye for a whole nine months.

"Well...g--" Kingsley shoots me a warning look. Right, I'm supposed to be German. "Vell, tschus Kingsley!"

"Goodbye, see you after term gets out."

"Ja, I'll see you spater!" I say merrily. I get onto the Hogwarts Express, possibly even more nervous than when I was in third year. I'm supposed to be following Harry Potter around school, become his friend, to keep an eye out for Sirius Black trying to attack him. For some odd reason, I really hope he likes me. Harry, I mean of course. I already know Sirius liked me at one time...unless he was pretending to do that too.

I sight a mass of messy black hair, and lunge forward, knowing Harry because of how much he reminds me of his father in the appearance department. Oh wow, he's a handsome lad! I lose sight of Harry and his friends among the tumult of the train, but finally manage to board the thing and get to looking. I finally find him with his friends in the very last compartment with a man I can only assume is far too old to be a seventh year. He seems familiar to me, but I can't put a finger on it. I settle myself in the compartment across from them, pulling out a book called The German Witches' Guide to English, part III. Most of my speech is going to be in English, of course, but I have to throw in a few German phrases to make my guise seem believable.

I peek at the three kids out of the corner of my eye, ready to make my first observation as an undercover Auror. Of course there's Harry, I already know what he looks like. Though I never did notice how cool his eyes are, they're absolutely gorgeous. Sitting beside him is a red-headed boy. Oh, most definitely a Weasley boy. He reminds me of Charlie, to tell the truth. Charlie was a wonderful snog back in the day. We're friends now, no sexual tension whatsoever. Across from the boys is a girl. She's not the prettiest, but neither was I when I was her age. Her hair is pretty crazy; I do hope she stays away from electric hair-dryers. Suddenly her brown eyes are meeting mine, and I quickly turn away, bringing my book up to my face to hide my blush. Oh, she just wanted to know what I was reading. Whew, false alarm. Oh no, she's coming across the corridor! What the hell is she doing!?

"Um...hello...are you new?" she asks timidly. I quickly train my eyes to become wide and innocent, pulling my face out of the book.

"Hallo, guten morgen," I say in a small voice. She blinks at me. Good, I've confused her; now go for the sweet naïve card! "Oh...sorry...um..." I rifle through the book's pages. "Hello, good morning," I say slowly, with a deliberately heavy accent. I am so good at this. The girl smiles widely at me. Harry and the Weasley boy followed her. "Ja, I am new hier." The girl's face fills with sympathy.

"Oh, well would you like to sit with us? I'm sure you haven't exactly been welcomed warmly," she said kindly.

"Vell...a blonde boy did look at me all lustig-like," I say with a crooked frown on my face. Comprehension dawned on all three young faces.

"Yes, that was probably Malfoy," the girl said sympathetically.

"Come and sit with us, we'll tell you about Hogwarts," Harry offered with an awkward grin. I give a small smile in return and bring only my rucksack across the corridor instead of my whole trunk.

"Danke," I mutter, forcing a blush to my face. If I'm going to keep this up, I'll have to perfect the art of blushing. Weasley shoots me a confused look. "Oh...I am sorry...I am not so gut vith the English, though Herr Laqua says I am doing quite well!"

"Your English is very good...er...what did you say your name was?" Harry asked. Oh dash it all, I forgot about a name. The one thing Kingsley told me to do, too! Ah well, I'm clever enough for a Hufflepuff.

"Ich heisse Dora Drom," I invent quickly, using the nicknames my dad gave me and Mum as my names. "Ah...I am called...Dora Drom. Tut me lite."

"Ah, no problem," Hermione said brightly. "I'm Hermione Granger, and this is Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. So have you been living in England long?"

"Ach, nein, I have only lived here drei weeks. I learned English back home, as a zweitens language," I invented quickly. They look at me funny. "Er...second...language.... Anyway, I tire of my own voice. Did you have gut holidays?" Good, go for the polite girl, people like that. The trio exchanged a small glance and stifled a laugh. I know what this is about. Harry accidentally blew up his aunt. "Vas, have I missed something?" I ask instead of ignoring the smiles.

"I...well...I accidentally blew up my aunt," Harry said, turning a bit red. I make my eyes widen drastically.

"You...you mean...?" I made a gesture of a fake explosion with my hands in front of my stomach.

"No, no, like a balloon!" Harry corrected hurriedly.

"Really?" I ask interestedly. Hm, maybe I could make this a bit more fun. "Could you teach me? It's only that I have a Tante who is sehr argert!" The three eyes me nervously for a moment, looking torn between amusement and desire to wake the sleeping man in the corner of the compartment. "That...vas a joke..." I mutter. Harry immediately started laughing. I smile at him appreciatively; he really is a sweet kid. I dunno why the Minister acts like he's got the boy wrapped around his little finger, because he doesn't seem too extraordinary. He's just...a kid.

Hermione then goes into her trip to France, and Ron his holiday in Egypt. I noticed that Harry looks a bit glum, hearing about his friends going on all these trips with their families. My heart goes out to him. I know what it's like without my parents. I always tell people I have much more confidence and peace of mind, but I never mean it. I am lost without them, and I'm guessing that's how Harry feels about his own life. He's just wandering, being repeatedly thrown into danger and barely escaping with his own life, let alone the lives of those who are fighting with him.

"So, what about you Dora? Did you do anything fun with your family over holiday?" Hermione asked me. I snap out of my thoughts, glad I wasn't staring at Harry as I thought of him, and decide to become even closer to the Boy Who Lived.

"Nein, Mutti und Vati are with God. They were too good for me," I say quietly. Hermione's eyes widen with sympathy. "You know the Autobahn?" Hermione's the only one who nods. Surprise, surprise.

"It's a highway in Germany, where there are parts that have no speed limit, right?" Harry asks tentatively. I nod, feeling my throat tighten.

"We were going on holiday when I vas a kleines Madchen, only drei Jahre alt. Mutti and Vati usually avoided the schneller parts of Autobahn for my sake, but we were in a hurry to get there.... I was in the hospital for drei Monate." I scratched by eyes, not really acting anymore. My parents had actually died five years later than when I told the kids, the same day Harry's parents had died. No one knew that there had been two other wizards killed in the blast Sirius Black shot at Peter Pettigrew, besides the ten muggles. I have a huge scar on my shoulder as a reminder. I had been pushed out of range by my father, bless him.

"I'm sorry Dora, I didn't realize..." Hermione said apologetically. I wave it off as nothing.

"Es ist OK...I don't remember them much," I said vacantly, turning quickly to look out the window. It was true; I could hardly remember what my parents looked like anymore. "Oma und Opa raised me, they are kind people. Opa likes to wear lederhosen, though. He's sehr altmodisch."

"What're lederhosen?" Ron asked. I smiled.

"Well it can be translated zwei ways. One way is...leather pants, but that is not what Opa wears. They are traditional clothing, green overall shorts, with those fancy designs. I think Muggle Filme put them on people yodeling in the mountains?" Comprehension dawns on all three faces, even if they hadn't seen any of the films.

"Can you yodel too?" Harry asked curiously. I felt a blush creep up my face. The Muggle Studies teacher had taught me more than just the language.

"Ja, I can," I mutter. "You don't want to hear, do you? I only haven't done it in zwei Jahre." Why did I say I could yodel? Now they look interested! Dash it all! "You want to hear, of course you do..." I pull in a deep breath, as do the kids, and I let it out in a long loud yodel (the key to yodeling is being loud). The sleeping professor in the corner lets in a sharp intake of breath and turns his head, and we all gasp suddenly.

"Oh, I shouldn't have been...so...loud..." I fade off, finally seeing the man's face. He was still asleep, and so familiar to me. His light brown hair was graying in places, and there were worry lines and scars scattered across his face, but he was the same man I had known twelve years ago. "Oh my," I whisper, thankfully keeping my German accent up.

"What?" Hermione asked, looking from me to the professor.

"I know him," I whispered again. "...Remus...Lupin..." Before any more words could be said, the train shuddered so violently I fell forward, banging my forehead on the edge of Ron and Harry's seat painfully. Instead of getting up immediately only to fall down again from the sparks in my eyes, I remain on my knees on the floor, clasping my hands to my aching head.

"Dora, are you alright?" Harry asked as the lights in the train went out.

"Ja...I'm fine..." I said slowly, moving my hands away from my forehead to look around for the course of the power-outage. "Warum bin die Lichter aus? I am going to look." I push myself up and move into the corridor, leaving the compartment door open. "Do you think we're going to break down?" As if in answer to my question the train lurches again and I fly nearly ten feet forward in the train, other students looking for a problem landing on top of me. Perfect.

I double-checked that my wand was tucked into the waistband of my skirt as I dug myself out from under at least three seventh year boys. Damn those guys are heavy. I don't stand immediately, though it feels as if the train has indeed stopped.

"Dora, are you okay?" I heard Hermione calling down the corridor. Before I even opened my mouth I felt an overwhelming cold envelope me. Though I'd never experienced it before, I knew what was happening.

"Go back into your compartments, schnell!" I shout at all surrounding students, pulling out my wand. "Hermione, go, I know what to do, you do not!" I said quickly, pushing Hermione back into the compartment before following and locking the door.

"What is it, what's out there?" a new voice asked. I stiffened considerably. Remus must have awoken when the train jerked the second time.

"A Dementor," I whisper as the door begins to open, despite my locking it. My hair had long since fallen out of its braid as I found my way reluctantly to the floor again, weak under the horrifying cold. My wand is still tightly clasped in my left hand, and I aim it half-heartedly at the Dementor. Kingsley had promised that I wouldn't have to deal with these until I was at least a third year Auror, so I had grown lax in my self-training of the Patronus Charm. Dash it all. My right hand goes behind me so I'm steady and balanced, confirming that I'm near the farthest point from the creature. I push myself against this wall, beneath the window.

Oh Merlin, Harry's collapsed. I grab his arm and quickly pull him near me. At least I can say I lost my soul protecting Harry Potter's. White fog is ensnaring my vision; I can hear the screaming women and Sirius Black's maniacal laughter as if I were there again. I was so sure I was going to die that day, but instead I'm going to be converted to a soulless vegetable. I don't realize I'm sobbing until silver light shines through the fog, and the cold disappears. I quickly wipe my eyes on the gray cloth covering the knees that are drawn to my chest before looking up at my rescuer.

"Is everyone alright?" Remus Lupin asked, looking mostly at me. It's no wonder, seeing as I'm still trying to control my breathing and make it sound like I wasn't just crying. I'm also clutching Harry in my free right hand, every inch of me shaking. I forced a nod; closing my eyes and feeling more tears creep down my face. Before anyone could say anything else I opened my eyes and shook Harry's shoulder lightly.

"Harry...Harry, wake up," I say gently, making sure to keep my accent in place. His awesome eyes slowly open and meet mine. I let out a relieved breath; he's alright, I won't be fired. Well that's not true, I could still be fired for being unable to fight off a Dementor on my own. "Are you OK?" I asked him, my eyes honestly wide with worry. I had come extremely close to passing out myself, but Harry had collapsed almost immediately.

"I'm...I'm...what happened?" Harry asked weakly, pushing himself up. I quickly removed my hand from his arm.

"It was a Dementor, one of the dementors of Azkaban prison. They were looking for Sirius Black, no doubt," I supplied quickly. "Harry, are you OK?" I asked again, more insistently this time.

"Yeah, I think so," he finally said. I then realized we were still on the floor and pushed myself up only to fall back onto my knees, drained from the dementor's attack. Remus helped me and Harry up onto the seats before handing each of us a bit of chocolate. Harry, Ron, and Hermione looked at him oddly, but I quickly accepted it.

"Danke Professor," I said quickly. The trio looked at me oddly. "It's OK, chocolate helps for after-effects of a dementor-attack," I assure them. I made sure to read that part of Dementor Defense Handbook: Will you be Ready? It was chapter fourteen: The Importance of Chocolate. Of course I read it immediately. It was quite informative; I made sure to eat plenty of chocolate afterwards (not that I needed persuading).

"You're welcome, Miss...I'm sorry I didn't catch your name," Remus said, though I'm quite sure he knows perfectly well who I am.

"Professor, this is Dora Drom, she's an exchange student," Hermione informed him. Remus met my eye and smiled in that same way I'd grown accustomed to as a child. Merlin, I'd had the biggest crush on him, and it seemed to be reawakening now.

"It's very nice to meet you Dora, but if you'll excuse me I must speak with the driver." I watched him walk away. I haven't been back for more than four hours and I'm already in over my head.

I am a German exchange student, I am a German exchange student, and I am a thirteen year old!