So, a *slightly* more upbeat AU.

Slightly.

Certain character death scenes are changing, to allow this first chapter to happen.

...

The first thing she saw was the ceiling of a classroom. The first thing she heard was movement nearby- but also a strange silence, instead of the sounds of a battle. Was it over? She sat up slowly, feeling confused and a little disoriented.

She remembered- barely- that Bellatrix had managed to hit her with a badly aimed Killing Curse. She had died because a Killing Curse struck her arm. Her arm! She could practically hear Mad-Eye's criticism. If she had moved an inch to the left, the spell would have missed her all together.

"Dora?" A hoarse voice said, and her eyes focused on Remus, who was pale and sitting up close by. "Dora- you- what are you doing here?"

"I couldn't stay home, I tried to find you-"

He dragged himself closer to her, clutching her to his chest. "You shouldn't have been here." He said.

"What the Bloody Hell?" Another voice, and they turned to see Fred Weasley sitting up now. He looked at them, frowning in confusion. "I- are we alive? Or is this the afterlife?"

"If it is, it's a bit more painful than one would expect." Remus said. "I don't think we should be feeling anything, and I can feel where I got hit. If we're dead, shouldn't-"

"Shouldn't we look a bit better than we do?" Tonks asked. "I hate to say it, but you both look terrible and I thought the afterlife was-"

"You don't look the best yourself, Tonks." Fred teased. "Were you both also hit with the Killing Curse? Because I remember being hit just as the wall exploded- I don't know for sure which got me."

Remus and Tonks both nodded. "We should be dead." Remus said, rubbing a hand over his face. "I don't understand."

There was movement and they turned to see a smaller blonde boy sitting up slowly.

"Colin." Remus said, and the boy looked towards them, startled.

"Professor Lupin!" He said. "I- what happened?"

"What do you remember last, Colin?" Fred asked, and Colin's face lit up a little more at the sight of another familiar face.

"I didn't recognise who I was dueling, but I remember a bright green flash- like the one Professor Moody used on the spider a few years ago..." Colin said slowly.

Tonks felt herself tense up, and Remus took her hand gently.

"Is there anyone else, then?" Fred asked, pushing himself to his feet. "Do you see anyone else breathing or moving or...?"

Remus pushed himself to his feet, and held his hand out to Tonks. She took his hand, letting him pull her up as Fred walked over to Colin and helped him up. They looked around, but there was no movement from the other bodies laying there. Fred and Remus even wandered, leaning down to check some of them.

"I think we're the only ones." Remus finally said, exhaling slowly. "So many students..."

"Should we- uh, should we go to the Great Hall?" Fred asked. "Maybe someone's there."

"And what if You-Know-Who won?" Tonks asked. "We're all wandless, if we walk out there and straight into a group of Death Eaters-"

"Wouldn't there be more bodies if that was true?" Colin asked.

Fred nodded. "It doesn't sound like there's a battle going on still, it's got to be over."

"Should we really risk it?" Tonks asked, but Remus was already headed for the door. "Remus-"

"Might as well." He said, shrugging, pulling the classroom door open.

The four of them stepped out into the corridor. It seemed like the entire castle was silent, almost as if it was abandoned. They let the classroom door close, and made their way to the Great Hall. It was shocking how noticeable the damage was now that the sun was up. Entire sections of stairs and corridors had been blasted away, piles of rubble blocking some of the side corridors they passed.

As they reached the Entrance Hall, they could hear voices in the Great Hall. They reached the doors, and it seemed to happen in a wave. The people closest to the doors fell silent, the silence passing over the rest until there wasn't a single sound in the Great Hall.

On the raised platform, the teachers and a few Order members were the last the fall silent, staring towards the group of four.

It was Harry who moved first, standing from a table and practically stumbling towards them. "How...?" He asked, tightening his grip on his wand. "You're all- we all saw your bodies. How are you here?"

"We don't know." Remus said, and Kingsley appeared at Harry's shoulder.

"It's not possible." Kingsley said.

"Ask us anything- it's us." Fred said.

"Security questions, right." Kingsley said. "Tonks, if you're really Tonks-"

She focused on lengthening her hair and turning it dark blue. Kingsley gave a brief nod, and Tonks let the morph drop.

Kingsley turned to Remus. "Last time we spoke, before I summoned you yesterday, what was it about?"

"It was on the ninth of April, you were the first Order member I went to after Teddy was born." Remus said as the Weasleys, Neville and Hermione approached.

Kingsley nodded, and Harry was the one who turned to Fred. "What did you give me in my third year, and where did you get it?"

"The Marauder's Map, we nicked it from Filch's office in our first year." Fred responded.

"Colin, where were you and your brother hiding this year?" Neville asked from beside Kingsley.

"Oliver Wood's family took us in, near Aberdeen."

There was another silence, and Harry spoke again. "It's really you...?"

The four nodded, and Harry broke into a grin. Kingsley was the first to hug Tonks and Remus, Harry embracing Remus next, Neville clapping Colin on the shoulder as Oliver approached as well.

"Fred-" George said, stepping forward and embracing his twin tightly. Molly was next, wrapping her arms tightly around Fred and George.

After most of the Order members and their friends had approached and greeted them again, Madame Pomfrey pushed her way through. "I want you four in the hospital wing." She said sternly, even though there was a small smile on her face. "Kingsley, if I were you, I'd contact their families."

"Wait." Remus said, as Madame Pomfrey tried to lead them to the hospital wing. "What happened? Obviously, the battle is over, but-"

"Voldemort's dead." Harry said. "The war's over."

The next few hours weren't any less confusing. A few Healers joined Madame Pomfrey in thoroughly examining the four, and no one could answer the question of how they had survived.

Finally, Madame Pomfrey decided that they were simply lucky- perhaps she said, despite the very obvious green light and the fact they were definitely dead when they were found, that it was merely a very similar curse.

That didn't change the fact that they had heard the spells being cast, but who were they to question it? They were alive, they had survived the war. Wasn't that what mattered?

The next few weeks proved even harder. The Ministry and the Order- now one and the same- were rebuilding Hogwarts and reforming the government, arresting rogue Death Eaters and investigating potential Death Eater supporters.

By July, Remus was hired as the permanent Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor.

By August, Tonks was made a Senior Auror, although she wasn't allowed on raids or missions for another year(a decision made by Dawlish and Kingsley behind her back due to Teddy), she would help train the new recruits. The new recruits were a group of eight, a surprisingly small group considering Kingsley had waved the usual requirements.

Only three other Aurors had been cleared to do training- Savage, Proudfoot and Williamson- because it had been found some other Senior Aurors had been actively working with the Death Eaters. However, Dawlish had decided he still needed at least one Senior Auror free from trainees at all time, so Williamson had been taken from training.

It had been just over a year since she last wore her scarlet Auror robes, and couldn't help but feel as excited as she did the very first time she had put them on. By ten in the morning, she was standing in one of the training rooms with the two other Senior Aurors and Dawlish, facing the group of recruits.

"Alright, in normal circumstances, it would be one trainee assigned to one Senior Auror." Dawlish explained. "However, as you can see, we don't have enough Senior Aurors. Because of this, while your training will be shortened from the usual three years and instead take two, the days might not be the regular scheduling the past trainees may have gotten. In the past, our Aurors were trained during the days- five hours in the morning spent on the book studies involved and five hours in the afternoon spent on the physical training. I've already given schedules to each of the mentors, and they'll give them to you after I assign you to them."

Dawlish unrolled a short roll of parchment. "Auror Savage, you'll be training Finnigan, Weasley and Thomas." He read out. "Auror Proudfoot- Wood, Patil and Spinnet. And that leaves Auror Lupin with Potter and Longbottom."

So the idea behind this story was simply that they 'somehow' survive- that will be explored more later- and have to continue on as normal.

I had this idea(of their survival) and the idea of Tonks being in charge of Auror training as well(and training Harry) so this is just a combined version of those.