Disclaimer: you know the drill. No, we don't own half the stuff we write about. Or with, come to think of it.

All the students who had been selected for special training were up in Dumbledore's office, watching a middle-aged fellow in Auror's robes pace the floor. Finally he turned to face them.

"I suppose you're all wondering why you've been summoned here today," he said. Lily yawned and settled herself more comfortably on the floor.

"We have received intelligence that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has decided to continue his plans for world domination from Canada. We have discovered a camp of Death Eaters situated in the Canadian Rocky Mountains." Ron raised his hand.

"Um, aren't all mountains rocky?"

"No, Ron, some are just glorified hills. Besides, the Rocky Mountains is the name of an actual mountain range in North America."

"Oh."

"Because we technically aren't supposed to be acknowledging the existence of You-Know-Who, we do not have clearance to dispatch a contingent of Aurors to Canada to clear out this Death Eater Youth camp." Here he was interrupted.

"Death Eater Youth? And here I was thinking he'd think up something original."

"This man had the entire wizarding world terrified of him and his Death Eaters!" Lily snorted derisively.

"Insolent wretch!" Here the Auror moved to strike Lily, only to find himself lying flat on his back with her foot firmly planted in his stomach. His gaze traveled up 30 inches of razor-sharp steel to her face; her expression was cold while her eyes blazed fiercely.

"Take care, little man. You don't want me as your enemy." Her voice was dangerously soft. Then she lifted the sword away from his throat and sat back down, ignoring the awed expressions of the other students. The Auror rose and readjusted his robes indignantly.

"Lily … you're embarrassing the locals." Kait hissed. Beside her, Siri had hid her face behind her hand and was looking the other way. Lily just looked oddly at them.

"Do you have any idea who I am?" She glanced up at him for a moment, then set her sword over her crossed knees.

"No. I have absolutely no idea who you are. For all I know, you could be the most powerful man on this planet."

"Well, I'm not. I am General Sipla, Chief of Defense for the Ministry of Magic."

"We're sorry, general. Lily will shut up now. She's just a little weird right now or something, but she'll be good now, really!" Siri said this, smiling innocently. Kait and Airinne were unobtrusively sitting on Lily, who was snarling and struggling a bit. Siri quietly put her hand on Lily's shoulder, softly saying "relax, let Lily have the body". Lily (whose face had been sharp, old, and distinctly feline while threatening the General) blinked and calmed down rapidly, her face softening and seeming to get younger. The General nodded.

"I'm glad to hear it. You, my friends, will be trained as Aurors. This will take work, it will take dedication. You will become the Few, the Proud, the Noble Defenders of the Wizarding World. You will be all that stands between us and total annihilation!" He paused, to a lot of worried looks and very scattered applause. "Erm … sorry to have to put this on you kids. But your classes will be integrated with your new Auror training, you'll just have that."

He paused. The students looked at him.

"We've brought in a new teacher for you. Mr. Moody is the most informed man about World Affairs and MagiWar that the Commonwealth has to offer. Tomorrow, you'll be meeting him. Now, I suggest you all get some rest."

The class dazedly looked out the windows, realizing that, indeed, it was after dark, stars were shining bright, and the moon was alarmingly high in the sky. The trundled off to bed, rather startled that the day had gone by quite so quickly. "Well, it is a magic castle" someone pointed out, and after that everyone took it for granted that there was some reason this day really didn't seem to have the whole 24 hours in it.

A/N: Please ignore all loose ends (we know there's a lot of them) – the explanations will appear in the chapters to come. If you decide you don't want to bother waiting for us to write them in, you can e-mail us (muggleborn@hotmail.com or midknight_22@hotmail.com) for them.