A/N: Hogwarts, The Wizarding World and select Characters were created by J.K. Rowling and the rights to such creations belong to her. Original Characters not mentioned in the "Harry Potter" works and connected materials have been created by Pepperonian, . As such, use of these characters in any way should be approved by Pepperonian, as a common courtesy.

September 1, 2015

The Casting of Characters

In the Compartment G, in the fifth carriage of the Hogwarts Express, there sat a girl. It is through this girl we will tell a story. It's not a particularly nice story, but nor does it carry the devastation of the story of Harry Potter. No, this is a tale of early morning, a tale of a time when the night still lingers and makes it hard sometimes to see the coming day. But ultimately we must hope that this will be a tale of Daybreak.

The girl in Compartment G, through whom this tale is told, had no clue of what would await her when she got off the gleaming scarlet train in which she was so safely swaddled. Yet, the train had not yet left the station at that point in time, so how could she have possibly known. Her bright blond head was tucked safely in a book. She had no idea of what would happen once her friends joined her on the train for their fifth year of a magical education. But before we begin, let us familiarise ourselves with the cast of this tale.

She, the girl sitting early on the train, was called Penelope Jacobs, a half-blood witch of questionable heritage, and of above average magical talent. Her friends called her Penny and for the most part she was happy with her life. A proud Gryffindor, good friend and astonishingly good transfiguration student (but more on that later) Penny had never had never really wanted for anything in her life. She'd grown up a muggle, with only her single muggle father to look after her, but had been told her mother was a witch at around age ten. She'd made fast friends on her first train trip to Hogwarts, and at the age of fifteen now had a friend base spanning several houses and year groups at school. She was pretty popular, but mainly because she was friendly and pretty with open features, glossy hair and intelligent eyes, yet in the main people tended to glance over her. People would see Penny, but she wasn't noteworthy.

Neither was the next soul to join her in the compartment. At least, people wouldn't know she was noteworthy in the slightest. Perhaps that was because almost everything about the girl who sat herself down next to Penny screamed turn around and run away. Her hair was tatty and wild about her shoulders, with a horrendous fringe covering her forehead and impeding her vision. This girl's eyes were hard, almost battle-weary, though the war had been fought over ten years before, and she had an unfortunate habit of glaring heatedly at almost everyone who dared look at her. The fact that she was a large physical presence, tall and lean, almost savage looking, only added to her lack of, well, friendliness. Of course that was a look that Allison Brown had carefully cultivated. She would have preferred to wear her uniform neatly and tie her unruly auburn hair back, but out of concern for other people, she made them stay away. As for the reason for this, well, more on that later, but it certainly has to do with the mother that Ally never like to mention to people. Ally had opened herself up to only two people at Hogwarts, and she sat beside one of them.

Before the train set off for the school where this tale mainly unfolds, more people joined with Penny and Ally in Compartment G of the Fifth Year Carriage.

The grinning, perpetually good looking son of war heroes Remus and Nymphadora Lupin, Teddy Lupin stuck his head through the door on his way to the Prefects meeting to say hello, and would they be interested in group butter beers down at the Three Broomsticks next time they were in Hogsmeade?

(The answer was yes and they would get back to him about their other friends)

Following closely behind him was free spirited, but rather ordinary Harley Hanson, who asked how their holidays had been and had they seen a guy named Wilfred pass through here.

(The answer was no, but they talked about how Gryffindor was definitely going to smash Hufflepuff this quidditch season, a fact which Harley disputed because he was the Captain of the Hufflepuff quidditch team.)

Drop-dead gorgeous and popular Victiore Weasley popped in for a while, sitting down to talk to them before remembering she'd left her little sister Dominique alone and dashing off but not before asking them if they knew who the prefects in their year and house were.

(The answer was yes, and you can guess who, Vic)

The pair saw others in passing. When Penny got up to go to the toilet, marking the page of her transfiguration text book carefully, she ran into her friend's brother, Arthur Abbott, whose Slytherin tie was loosely knotted around his neck and who was also avoiding his brother.

Matilda Brown, Ally's little sister and in the same year as Dominque, went wildly dashing past when Penny emerged from the loo.

It is worth noting at this point in our tale what Penny saw as she made her way back through the train and her experiences as she went.

The carriage for fifth years was less crowded than usual, but only slightly, with some of their cohort now away at the prefects meeting, a boy and a girl from each house.

As she passed, on her way back to Ally and Compartment G most people saw her and waved, friendly. She would stop to talk to the bloke she'd shared a cauldron with in fourth year potions, a helpful Ravenclaw called George Corner, or she'd be waved into compartment B for a quick chat with Tory Beale and her new boyfriend (Henry?) and their gang of friends, all Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff people chatting together about the new school year, asking if they'd done the homework set by Professor Chang. Penny saw Victoire again, a Gryffindor, kissing her boyfriend, Teddy, a Hufflepuff who'd obviously escaped the prefects' meeting early.

Outside Compartment E, a couple of Gryffindor blokes in her year were scoffing every flavour beans and laughing their heads off about something. "Hey, Penny" they greeted her amiably. They all had class together, they were all Gryffindor, and Penny could call them all by name. Stuart Lethbridge, Mickey Hall, Gary Heyworth, Brendon Brangan and Fred Weasley II, the latter waving his father's latest produce whilst the others all laughed and Stuart spewed into a handy cauldron before chewing the correcting half of the Puking Pastille.

Yet, just before reaching the safety of the quiet compartment she shared with Ally and their friends normally, Penny made the mistake of looking into the adjacent compartment, where the Slytherin students sat in sullen silence, some already in their robes though the train had only just started moving. None of them looked very happy to be back at school, which struck Penny as odd, at the time, because she was strangely ecstatic to be going back to Hogwarts.

It didn't occur to Penny at the time, though later she would reflect on how true this scene was of the Slytherins. How they were always separate from the others, as if walled off in some manner, almost as if they were contagious. What Penny also didn't notice at the time, was none of them seemed to revel in this otherness. In fact, it looked like it depressed them, saddened them.

But, as stated, she didn't dwell on this that September First day, as the autumn leaves began to fall. Instead she returned to her friend, Gryffindor like her, like Victoire and like the heroes of years just recently past.

In a short time another witch joined Penny and Ally. She was the last of their trio, perhaps more noteworthy than most for her academic talent and athletic ability. In any other time Margo Abbott would have been one of the most popular girls in school. She was a beautiful girl, second only to Victoire who was part Veela, with softly waving fawn hair and a vivacious smile. Margo was both fiercely driven and loyal to a fault, possessing also an amount of the stubborn bravery Gryffindor students were well known for. However, for all her many talents and fortunes, even her pure-blood status as an Abbott, Margo could not compete with having war heroes for parents. Occasionally this got to her. She was undeniably talented, but many preferred to associate themselves with members of what had been dubbed one year as the "Phoenix Five" referring of course, to the family lines stemming from perhaps the most famous of the Second Wizarding War veterans. The Potters, any of the Weasleys, the Granger-Weasleys, the Lupins (of which there was only one remaining) and the Longbottoms. As it stood, Margo could claim only a tremulous connection to Neville Longbottom, the snake slayer, through marriage. People preferred to seek out the current members of Phoenix families, instead of the way they might normally gravitate to Margo. The youngest of a somewhat divided family, this lack of attention where she thought it sometimes due resulted in a little bit of an attention complex, and a chip on Margo's shoulder.

Yet, overall, it can be seen that the trio of girls in compartment G were happy. They talked and they laughed together as the train progressed through the English countryside. And so, with most of our cast now in play, we begin our tale of Daybreak in the compartment used by so many over the years, but now resided in by three underage witches of different backgrounds but common house.

September First, 2015

"The Girls in Compartment G"

Penny closed the door of the compartment softly behind her, triumphantly gripping the pile of sweets in her arms. Her two closest friends looked at her from where they were sitting and Penny grinned at them.

"I got them," she said, unnecessarily, as chocolate frogs threatened to spill from her grip. Penny sat down next to her wild-looking friend and emptied her collection into the cauldron she'd removed from her baggage.

Across from them Margo beamed. "I can see that, Penny." She'd changed into robes whilst she was gone, Penny noted, and her new prefect badge was on prominent display, gleaming against the dark school uniform. Other friends might have been annoyed with Margo's enthusiasm to inform the world of her new position, but Penny ignored it. Margo was one of her closest friends, and deserved the role. Besides, Penny was happy to use it as a reason to celebrate.

Ally sat silently by the window, staring moodily at the passing landscape. Penny stuck a straw in a carton of Hephzibah's Finest Pumpkin Juice and gave it to her.

"Cheer up, Ally," She admonished. "It's a brand new school year and we have reason to scoff our faces."

She raised her own juice carton, "Congrats on Prefect, Margo."

Margo beamed again, and Penny noted that at least one of her friends was in a very good mood. It wasn't however unusual for things to be off with Allison the first day of school. She and Margo tended to ignore it. Especially if, like today, there had been one of her monthly cycles just a few days before.

Ally managed a weak smile, probably to placate Margo, and raised her juice box too.

Margo grinned in reply and grabbed one of the chocolate frogs from the floor, tossing it to Ally.

"Come on, Brown, eat up. Wizard's Chocolate's meant to be one of the best restorative foods in the known world."

"Trust you to know that," But despite her harsh tones, the raggedy girl was already in better spirits.

Penny leaned into her friend to get a better look at the card. "Who'd you get?" She asked, craning to look past the enchanted frog to see the celebrity card underneath. "Is it someone remotely interesting?"

Across from them Margo grimaced at her own card, "can't be worse than who I got, Runckip Smith," she said with distaste. "It says here he was a Slytherin."

Ally grunted her approval of Margo's assessment around her mouthful of chocolate.

"What'd good old Runckip do, Margo?" Penny asked.

Margo frowned, "Typically Slytherin." She said, disdainfully, "killed some poor goblin and was an advocate for the continued enslavement of elves." She continued on in a tone that suggested she was completely above any kind of Slytherin activity.

"History appears to have reached a consensus." Margo announced to the compartment, "Slytherins are not good people."

Penny frowned a little at that, something about the statement seemed a little off. Admittedly, what her friend was saying was very true. Even looking at recent history, Slytherin house had produced some of the most despicable wizards and witches of the time. Yet, still the words tugged at her conscious.

"Well," said Ally, having finally swallowed her frog in its entirety, "I got Ronald Billius Weasley."

Penny shook herself clear of her thoughts, "oooh." She said, excitedly, recalling a moment in the holidays where she'd found herself in Diagon Alley. "I saw him in the holidays."

Then she was instantly caught up in excited conversation with her friends about the famous war hero, Ron Weasley, forgetting entirely the house of Slytherin, at least, for the time being.

By the time the crisp autumn evening had started to fall, Penny and Ally had changed into their robes and the conversation had turned from Ron Weasley (Did you see Hermione Granger, too?) to Defence against the Dark Arts and their Professor of the subject, Cho Chang.

"Did you do that homework she set over the summer, Penny?" Margo was asking. Penny knew from experience that Margo would have had hers done for at least a month, neatly printed on her best parchment with her huge eagle feather writing quill.

"Yeah," said Penny, leaving out that she'd rushed it the night before after locating half of her uniform that had somehow gone missing over the holidays. "Dementors sound terrifying, don't you agree?"

"Oh yes," said Margo excitedly, and Penny felt particularly tactful after avoiding the other essay subject Professor Chang had asked them to write on, Werewolves.

"I really found writing the section about repelling Dementors the easiest to write about, because the Patronus Charm is just so interesting." Margo was saying.

"You know where Chang learnt it from, don't you?" Ally joined in for once. "Harry Potter, himself, you know, when she was in Dumbledore's Army with my…." But she trailed off.

"Really?" said Penny, interested. Dumbledore's Army was pretty famous, like the Order of the Phoenix, knowing a member was pretty cool, at least that was what Penny thought.

Unlike Penny, Margo was nodding knowingly, "yeah, I know, cool, right?" She paused for a second, thoughtful, "Her Patronus is a swan."

"It's amazing, isn't it," Penny said, "A group of students banding together to fight oppression. We could go generations without anything like that ever happening again at Hogwarts."

Ally snorted, "That's a good thing." She said, almost scathingly. "There not being a reason for students fighting, that's good." Penny thought her friend looked almost wistful, "It's peaceful."

Silence descended on the carriage, and Penny cast around for something to say.

"So…"

She was interrupted by the opening of the compartment door, allowing the entry of three others. Victoire Weasley folded herself gracefully in beside Margo, flipping sleek blond hair over one shoulder.

"What's up Gryffindor losers," Said Teddy Lupin, sauntering in behind his girlfriend and accompanied by Harley Hanson, grinning like the egg he was.

"Sup, Ally, Margo" He said, nodding at them amiably, before seating himself next to Penny. "Wotcher, Penny," he said by way of greeting.

Allison glared at the boys, but managed a nod to Victoire, who was her roommate. "What are you doing here, you Hufflepuff gnomes?"

If Penny didn't know her as well as she did, she would have thought that Ally genuinely didn't want them here, but she knew that Ally actually liked Teddy, and maybe even Harley, though she thought that a little bit of a stretch.

Teddy replied to Allison's barbed comment in kind, "Checking in with you, Ally, to see if you've got the balls to try out for the Gryffindor Quidditch team this year."

Ally's eyes flashed with menace, but she responded evenly enough. "Nah, Lupin, I wouldn't be challenged playing your sorry lot."

This was a conversation had annually between the two, ever since one summer get together where Teddy had seen Ally lay waste to an entire team, a team which included two of the Gryffindor chasers and the Hufflepuff seeker after scoring eleven goals against the Ravenclaw keeper in about half as many minutes before Victoire, who'd been playing seeker on Ally's side for a laugh, caught the snitch (an enchanted golf ball, painted gold) after charming it to fly right into her hand.

Mackenzie O' Dwyer, known as Mack, and a beater on the actual Gryffindor side alongside Margo, had asked her to try-out the following year, saying that the captain would surely pick her, but to Teddy's utter surprise, Ally had declined, a choice Teddy had pestered her about ever since.

Harley shook his head slowly, "You're bloody mental, Brown," He said, "But I'm glad to hear it, we lost our seeker when Charlton left last year, we wouldn't stand a chance against Gryffindor if you joined the side."

"That's right" said Ally significantly, "I'm being a good sport, giving you an even chance."

"Not bloody likely!" Cut in one half of Gryffindor's renowned all-female beater pairing, Margo Abbott.

Victoire grinned, joining in. "There's nothing even about it! Gryffindor will waste your sorry arses."

Teddy kissed her on the head, cheekily, "Of course, poppet."

Teddy Lupin was rewarded with a smack upside the head for his troubles.

The Great Hall was decked out for the start of term feast, welcoming back those students who were returning and greeting those yet to arrive. Penny sat amongst her year at the table draped in gold and red, waiting for the first years to join them.

Margo had wandered off to chat with Mackenzie O' Dwyer, probably about something Quidditch, and Victoire was down the table a bit with her cousin Fred. Penny assumed they were waiting to welcome Dominique, should the latest Weasley be sorted into the house they historically belonged in.

"Do you think the latest Weasley will make Gryffindor?" Mickey Hall was asking a general question.

Penny frowned thoughtfully, "It seems to be a pattern, doesn't it?"

Raye Brocklehurst, a witch with very short brown hair, piped up, "Well all the Weasleys the generation before were Gryffindor," she said, before reciting from memory, "William, Charles, Percy, Fred and George, Ronald and Ginevra"

"Yes," said Penny slowly, "And Fred and Vic are both Gryffindor, but Lucy isn't"

This was, of course true. Lucy Weasley, a fourth year girl and the eldest daughter of Percy Weasley, a ministry official, was in fact in Ravenclaw.

The others mumbled agreement before turning to other subjects, but Ally instead looked faintly green.

"Do you think if family members have a history of ending up in the same house, there's more chance the pattern will break?" She asked, anxiously, gripping suddenly at Penny's sleeve.

Penny was shaken, Ally's sister was starting this year, of course, but why should she have any worries about what house she'd end up in?

"Tilda will be fine, Ally," Penny settled on saying, 'no matter what house she ends up in." Both of them ignored the obvious unsaid words of that statement, and then they no longer had to talk about it as Professor McGonagall, the Headmistress, stood to address the assembled second through seventh year students.

They quieted for the sorting, watching as Professor Chang, who was this year in charge of the process, led in the smallest students of the school.

They shuffled in anxiously, and Penny remembered briefly her time just before her sorting, staring nervously as the assembled houses looked up at you. Two kids in the line stood sopping wet, and Penny recognised Tilda Brown, Ally's sister as one of them.

The Head Boy and Girl brought out the stool and hat from the chamber behind the staff table, setting it down for the first years to be sorted.

The hat began its song, and finished it to wild applause.

Professor Chang stood behind the stool, a list of names printed on Parchment.

Armand, Jenny was the first to be sorted, the hat taking no longer than thirty seconds to place her into Ravenclaw, her tie and crest on her robes subtly changing as she sat down at the table into the blue and bronze of her new house.

Atwell, Jefferson became a Slytherin and Barnette, Constance another Ravenclaw before Tilda took her turn on the stool.

Penny glanced around at Ally, who was watching intently as Chang said,

"Brown, Matilda"

The hat had barely touched the girls head before it screamed, "Gryffindor!" to the thunderous applause at the Gryffindor table. Penny saw Ally grin as her sister became the first new Gryffindor of the year.

The little, shaggy haired girl, still dripping wet craned her neck from where she sat down the table to look for her older sister.

Ally gave her thumbs up and Tilda grinned, returning the gesture.

"You had nothing to worry about, you egg." Penny told her friend during the sorting of Spencer, Jackson as the hat took a long time to decide on Hufflepuff.

"Yes," said Ally, looking a little abashed and slightly happier than before, "But she's a right terror sometimes… I didn't really want to see her in Slytherin."

And Penny's subconscious niggled again.

"She's a Gryffindor, just like you." Penny affirmed, as they watched Vic's little sister take the stage.

"Weasley, Dominique" said Chang, smiling at the girl as she made her way past, towards the ancient black hat.

The hat took quite a while to consider Dominique. Penny wondered what it was swaying between. Was it considering Gryffindor for this Weasley? Or was she likely to break family tradition.

At three minutes and thirty-seven seconds Dominique Weasley's plain black Hogwarts tie changed into yellow and black.

"Hufflepuff!" Proclaimed the hat, as Dominique, her hair far more ginger than her sister's, left the stool for the Hufflepuff table, which was applauding their newest member.

Penny noticed Victoire and Fred seemed to be clapping the loudest. Fred stuck his fingers in his mouth and wolf-whistled.

As the evening progressed, and some of the younger students started drooping a bit, Penny found herself thinking about Tilda and Dominique and their families. Vic and Fred seemed perfectly fine that Dominique was not in Gryffindor, but Ally had seemed to think it was Gryffindor or bust. Not for the first time that day, she found herself considering the Slytherin table, wondering if, like Ally, the Weasleys had the same prejudice against the house.

Author's Note:

Hello there, and thank you so much for reading this first Chapter. I'm sure more will be on the way shortly, as soon as I can get around to it. Living in the Southern Hemisphere and being a high school student, I am on Summer Holidays so I should be fairly active. I've had a long hiatus from this site since officially retiring from writing Warriors Fanfiction after, how do I put this, growing up somewhat.

I sincerely hope you enjoy this story and all follows, favourites and especially reviews are very welcome. I will at this point say that coming from New Zealand I favour the way of spelling some words that I grew up with, I believe this differs somewhat from American Spelling (eg, I spell Color, Colour, etc.). I am a huge fan of constructive criticism of my work, but please refrain from pointing out these spelling differences.

On another note, this is a story with an open SYOC for minor characters. I have already written most of the Gryffindors in Penny's year, but most other year groups and houses have ranks that need filling. I'm not too fussy with what information you give me, name, house and year group will do nicely. I can promise that if you submit a character they will most likely appear or be mentioned in a chapter, but please restrict your submissions to just one or two! :)

Next Chapter: Classes start and Margo's brothers enter our tale with a bang. Penny learns more about the Wizarding Wars and the significance of Slytherin and Gryffindor in the conflicts and Allison struggles with a "family issue" that won't stay hidden for much longer and Matilda and Dominique make a unique friendship with another student.