.-"‾‾': Like Morning Sunshine :'‾‾"-.
By Fizban Hat
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Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters or locales. The plot belongs to me. Yippee. As well as any characters or things you don't recognise unless otherwise stated.
Summary: AU, a few things were changed. What if Hogwarts had a military slant? Lily Evans' teachers want her and every other student to be able to protect themselves when they aren't at Hogwarts, especially in dark times like these. So they added a few military elements to the curriculum. After all what good is a dead wizard?
Just a few notes: First off the title is based on something I said. My sister had asked me to describe my kitten, who is rather affectionate, especially when I'm sleeping and she thinks I should be petting her. I'm a night owl, so the morning isn't my favourite time of day, so here is what I described my kitten as. "She's like morning sunshine: irritating but still there." In this fiction it applies to James, from Lily obviously. I'm a rather military minded person and the situation in the magical world in this timeframe is conductive of an alternate universe fiction. Hogwarts will still be a school to learn magic at, just with a military angle as well as some classes I added, like fitness and such. The military slant was added because of the rise of Voldemort and what not. I'm going to keep all the characters like Dumbledore as much the same as I can, but there will some minute changes. If I get any details wrong, please feel free to correct me.
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.-"‾‾': Chapter One: To Hogwarts My Dear Lads and Lasses :'‾‾"-.
Lily Evans felt that she surely must be crazy, going to a magical secondary school, one which had recently added some military aspects to its curriculum. She had never in her life been interested in the military but she had been fascinated with magic, or rather the idea of it, which was what, had led her to accept the letter to Hogwarts. Lily was almost sure that she could handle the military aspect of it but she wasn't sure she wanted to. Lily sighed as she looked about the train station once more. She stood between platforms nine and ten at the King's Cross station. Lily had absolutely no idea to get onto Platform 9 ¾ let alone how to find the Hogwarts Express. She looked about curiously for another person with a trolley, one that also had a caged owl on it.
To her right she saw another girl, who looked to be the same age as her, striding purposefully towards her. She too had an owl on her trolley. The girl was tall for her age and lithe, with a mass of black hair thrown casually into a braid. She appeared to be wearing a military uniform of some kind, and had the air of a soldier, young as she was. Walking slightly behind her were an older man and woman in military uniforms. Lily assumed they were her parents.
"Excuse me, but do you know how to get onto the platform? You are going to Hogwarts aren't you?" Lily asked, stepping in front of the other young girl, who was quite a bit taller than her. The young girl turned her intense gaze on Lily before answering. Lily did her best not to shy away.
"Yes, my grandmother attended Hogwarts. Come, we will go together." The young girl said. "I am Jania Kalten. You are?"
"Lily, Lily Evans. Nice to meet you." Lily said, shaking Jania's outstretched hand.
"Jania, you will behave at your school." The man said brusquely. Jania nodded.
"Don't forget to write." Her mother added. Jania nodded once again. Then without any further words, they turned on heel and marched away from Lily and Jania.
"Oh, Lily there you are. Have you found the platform?" Lily's mum, Rose Evans asked.
"Yes, mum, Jania knows how to get to it." Lily said.
"Oh, lovely to meet you Jania," Mrs. Evans said delightedly, hugging the other girl, whose eyes widened, "Now Lily, I'm so sorry but we have got to go or we'll be late for meeting Petunia. You know how she gets."
"Don't worry mum. I'll be fine. You go on now." Lily said. Smiling and waving at her parents as they walked towards the exit.
"Come on, all we need to do is run through that wall." Jania said, in a sombre tone.
"How can you be so serious about it?" Lily asked incredulously, biting back her laughter, "You just said we need to run through a wall, like you were discussing the weather!"
Jania raised an eyebrow, "You mean to say, that running through a wall, and the weather, aren't on the same level?"
Both girls giggled about that as they ran through the barrier. For a moment they both stood in awe, before Jania moved off at a brisk pace, forcing Lily to quickly follow, Jania was the only person she anywhere close to knew. Lily shoved her red hair out her face as Jania proficiently loaded their trunks. The two girls then entered the train and searched for an empty compartment, they finally found one near the rear of the train and settled in. Jania turned her intense gaze once again to Lily, studying her.
Lily, she decided, was not what one would consider soldier material. She was petite and delicate looking, but Jania surmised that it was nothing more than appearance, underneath it she was or could be tough as nails. Lily's red hair indicated a temper to her. She also had starling green eyes, which were too unusual Jania judged for reconnaissance.
Lily for her part tried very hard not to squirm, under the scrutiny, a feat she was proud to have accomplished. "So are your parents always like that?" Lily asked curiously.
"Like what?" Was the abrupt reply.
"Uhm… abrupt." Lily said.
"Yes." Jania said grinning and stretching out on her side of the compartment. "They can be so tiresome and distant, but I love them just the same. Is your mother always so… happy?"
"Yeah, my mum's always like that." Lily laughed, as four boys careened into their compartment. Lily jumped slightly startled, while Jania just raised an eyebrow.
"Err… Sorry to disturb you ladies, but we uh… need a place to sit." One of them said.
"I'm sure there are other compartments." Jania said coolly.
"Not that aren't full." Another boy stated.
"We'd be happy to share our compartment." Lily said smiling; her mother had always taught her to be polite.
"We would?" Jania questioned.
"Certainly." Lily said to Jania before turning to the boys, "I'm Lily Evans, and that's Jania Kalten."
"Pleasure to meet you ladies;" Jania snorted at that, "I'm Sirius Black, that's James Potter, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." Sirius said introducing them.
Lily studied them covertly as they settled into the compartment. Sirius was the best looking of the four, with longish dark hair and deep eyes, he looked like a romantic rogue, Lily decided. James had the messiest dark hair she had seen and hazel eyes which were almost hidden by his tasteful glasses, he like Sirius was tall and lanky. Remus was tall but he wasn't quite as lanky as the other two, and was entirely too pale in Lily's opinion, he looked sickly. His hair was a darkish brown which only stole colour from his face and his eyes were a stormy grey, which looked distinctly wary. Peter, where the others were dark and night like, he was like the day, with pale blue eyes, and rich blonde hair. Jania, Lily thought, would probably consider his chin weak though, and not trust him because of it.
Why was everyone but her, tall?
"So what house do you two want to be in?" James asked suddenly breaking Lily's thoughts.
"House?" She asked.
"Oh, you're Muggleborn aren't you?" He said, "Not that it matters, well some people think it does but not us. Anyway, there are four houses and they put you in one, to take your classes in, you know to sort of be your second family. There's Ravenclaw, known for its smarts, Hufflepuff, known for its… loyalty, Slytherin known for its ev-ambitiousness, and Gryffindor, known for its bravery and nobleness." James explained speaking a mile a minute. "We all want to be in Gryffindor but you never know…"
"I don't think I really mind which house I'm sorted into, I don't think I'm actually any of those things." Lily said. "What about you Jania?"
"My grandmother was a Ravenclaw." She stated. "I'll be in whatever house I'll be in; choosing one only means I'll probably be disappointed."
Lily watched as Jania returned to looking out the window into the rain that had begun to pour. She was sulking, Lily wondered why. It didn't seem to be in character.
"You didn't want to go to Hogwarts." She stated with sudden insight, the boys all turned to look incredulously at Jania.
"Not particularly. I was accepted at the finest 'muggle' military school, but then I got the letter and my grandparents insisted I go. My grandmother is not the sort you disagree with, so my parents packed me off. I'd prefer a gun, to the stick I got at Diagon Alley." Jania said, after a moment's consideration.
"You've trained to be a soldier before this?" Remus asked curiously. "But you're only eleven."
"So?"
"Her parents are both in the military." Lily said, thinking back to an hour ago, "You're grandparents too, right?"
Jania nodded. "It's the only thing I've been trained for so far, the only thing I've considered. The only thing I've been allowed to think about. Why did you come, Lily?"
Lily smiled sardonically. "I certainly didn't come because I wanted to be in a military. You don't think there will be a lot of military stuff, do you? The letter said they'd only recently added elements of the military to the curriculum. I came to learn magic. It's so fascinating, even though I know next to nothing about it."
"You'll learn. And I wouldn't worry about the military stuff; it'll probably just be some basic stuff." Sirius grinned, holding up a deck of cards, or that's what they looked like anyway. "Anyone for Exploding Snap?"
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"First Years this way!" A huge man shouted. "First Years to the boats!"
Lily grabbed Jania's hand and headed in the direction the man pointed, after being assured by an older student that their luggage would be taken care of. They were soon joined by two other young girls. One with heavy lidded eyes and a sensuous mouth and the other looked like a cold, heartless beauty. Lily did not care for the look they sent in her and Jania's direction. It was one that spoke more loudly than words that they considered the two of them beneath them, and would not have deigned to even sit with them had another boat been free. Jania apparently didn't care for the look either, as she growled deep in her throat at the other girls, locking eyes with each until they looked away. Lily wondered if Jania knew how intimating she was. Probably.
The air was filled with a dangerous tension, as they drifted silently across the lake, the silence broken only by intermittent growls from Jania. Lily did her best to ignore the hateful, disdainful looks the two girls were giving them, not understanding what they had done to deserve them. Once they reached the dock, well Lily supposed it was a dock, the other two girls scrambled off the boat as quickly as dignity would allow. Jania jumped out of the boat in a fluid motion turning to give Lily a stabilizing hand.
"I forgot to warn you about them." Sirius said, as the four boys joined them. "They're my cousins. They… err…" Sirius broke off clearly reluctant to speak ill of his family.
"They believe that muggleborns like yourselves shouldn't be allowed to attend Hogwarts or any other magical school for that matter." James explained.
"Oh," Was all Lily could think to say to that.
A dark haired witch of undeterminable age led them into a rather large room, before leaving them with instruction which, Lily was quite sure no one heard. As soon as the witch left everyone started to murmur excitedly. Before long the witch came and led them into the Great Hall. Lily gasped as she looked about at it, it was enormous, and the ceiling was spectacular, it looked so real. Much more astounding than any painting she had seen or heard about. She turned her attention back to head of the room as sturdy four legged stool was brought forth and a ratty old hat placed on it. Lily frowned perplexed. She was absolutely startled when it began to sing, explaining how they would be sorted and what the houses were and their values.
"Adien, Jean."
Lily watched as the young woman walked hesitantly up the stool where she was instructed to put on the ratty hat, after a few moments, it shouted out 'Hufflepuff'. After a few more people were sorted before 'Black, Bellatrix' was called, it was the heavy lidded young woman, Lily's intake of breath was a hiss as she waited for her to be sorted. She sighed relieved as Bellatrix was sorted into Slytherin, along with Narcissa, the heartless beauty, who was sorted directly after her. Lily fervently hoped she was not sorted into Slytherin.
"Black, Sirius."
The Sorting Hat seemed quite perplexed by Sirius and took a long moment to sort him, finally though he was sorted into Gryffindor. Lily grinned, happy that Sirius had gotten what he wanted. It seemed only a moment when Lily herself was called up to be sorted, she gingerly stepped up the stool and put the hat on.
"Lily, where to put you?" A voice sounded in her head, it took her a moment to realise that the hat was talking to her, "Definitely not Slytherin, they would tear you to pieces. You would be smothered in Hufflepuff; they care for the simpler things in life. Ravenclaw would suit you, but you appear to be too headstrong for that house. Gryffindor is the only house, suited to your gifts. Yes, yes, it is GRYFFINDOR!"
Lily almost jumped as the hat shouted the last part; it was quite startling after having to concentrate to hear the words before it. Lily made her way to the Gryffindor table and sat down beside Sirius after he had hugged her quite suddenly. Lily watched the Sorting and a few minutes later Jania was called to be sorted. Lily almost giggled as Jania funeral marched towards the Sorting Hat, if only she knew how ridiculous she looked. The hat had been on her for only a moment when it shouted out 'Gryffindor'. Lily clapped as Jania made her way to the table.
"It said 'There's a fine line between bravery and foolishness.'" Jania muttered darkly as she sat down, after Sirius had impulsively hugged her as well, much to her discomfort.
Remus was sorted soon after, and he too became a Gryffindor. After a while Peter was called to be sorted, the Sorting Hat took a long time to sort him before finally calling out Gryffindor. James was called almost directly after Peter and the hat barely touched his head before it shouted Gryffindor. Lily smiled, they were all together. Once the Sorting was finished, the Headmaster stood and made a few announcements before waving his hand as the opening feast began.
Lily piled her plate with food as her stomach rumbled conspicuously. All too soon it seemed they were led to their dormitories by Prefects. Lily drug herself up the stairs after Jania. Lily entered their first year dormitory, a bit hesitantly, expecting to find it Spartan, it wasn't, thankfully. The beds were canopied and had soft mattresses. The floor was covered in a thick carpet, and the windows, thankfully had thick drapes on them. This was a castle after all and keeping out the cold in the winter would be important. Lily flopped gracelessly into the bed which her trunk was in front of.
"What do you think, Jania?" Lily asked curiously.
Jania snorted in disgust before turning to the door as two other young girls walked in. "And who are you?"
"I'm Dawn Star, and this Marré Mendambar." One of the girls said cheerfully.
"Your mother was a humorous woman." Jania deadpanned.
"She thought she was too." The blond haired young woman said cheekily. "Marré here was more fortunate with her name."
"May-ree, is more fortunate?" Jania asked, "I can think of several ways to mangle that already."
"Jania, have you ever tried to get along with people?" Lily asked smiling slightly.
Jania grinned, "This is getting along with people."
Dawn threw a pillow at Jania's head, "So, who were those hot guys you were sitting with."
"If they were hot, why didn't they take off their cloaks, or shirts?" Jania asked seriously. The other girls giggled at her, she just glared at them.
"Oh them, that was Sirius Potter, James Black, Remus Pettigrew, and Peter Lupin." Lily said, mixing up the names.
"Sirius Black, James Potter, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew." Jania corrected, still glaring.
"So, how early do you suppose we'll have to get up?" Marré asked, after they finished 'reviewing' the guys, something Jania had taken no part in.
"Early, so I suggest you four get to bed now." The severe looking witch from earlier said from behind them. Lily jumped startled, not realising she had come into the room. "But first there are a few things we have to go over. One, I am Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House, if you have any questions, or concerns; you come to me with them. Two, you are to put your studies before any 'infatuations' you may suffer from, not excluding boys and Quidditch. Th-"
"But Professor, girls don't like Quidditch as a rule." Dawn pointed out, earning a severe look from McGonagall for interrupting, and perhaps for implying that Quidditch wasn't for women.
"Everybody likes Quidditch." The Professor said in a voice which broke no argument. "As I was saying, three, there will always be a store of feminine hygiene products in the dorm lavatory, not that any of you need to use them yet, any other concerns or items you may need will have to be acquired through Madame Pomfrey." McGonagall paused here, "Yes, I think that's all we need to go over." She said after a moment, "Oh, you will get your class schedules tomorrow at breakfast. I suggest you eat up, lunch is quite late, and dinner later. Skipping meals serves no good. Trust me when I say we will work you hard enough that you won't gain weight if you eat hearty meals."
"Rather brisk isn't she?" Lily said after Professor McGonagall had left. The other girls agreed with her as they unpacked their trunks before getting ready for bed.
"It could have been worse," Marré pointed out, "She could have been the grandmother type and mothered us, while giving us sex-ed again."
Jania groaned as she flopped onto her bed, "That would be horrid."
"Good night." Dawn said as she pulled her bed curtains shut.
"Night." Lily called to the other girls as she followed suit.
"Night." Marré called as well. Jania snored; she'd already fallen asleep in her day clothes, half on half off her bed.
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.-"‾‾': END OF CHAPTER ONE :'‾‾"-.
Post Script: This came to me a while ago and I developed it to this when I was supposed to be doing school work and working on the third chapter of my other story. Oh and I just now realised, that Narcissa and Bellatrix couldn't possibly have been in the same year, as they are most likely not twins. So to explain this I'm going to say this; Narcissa and Bellatrix are ten months apart, born in the same year, one in the beginning of January and the other in late September, making it possible for them to be in same year. Narcissa is the elder. Err… Sorry about that. I'm just to lazy to edit it now… ;;
IMPORTANT: Well, not really but… If anyone knows how to centre the chapter title and what not, could you please tell me? FF.net keeps stripping the center tag. I use MS Word XP and save it as a web page. It just doesn't work. Any help or tips on putting in the tags manually or a way to save it so it retains it's formatting would be really helpful. You can e-mail me at fizbanhatyahoo.ca