Like Morning Sunshine

by fizban hat

AU 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.

2. First Impressions Matter

.-"‾‾': Like Morning Sunshine :'‾‾"-.

By Fizban Hat

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any associated characters and locales. They belong to Ms. Rowling. I do own the plot, and any characters or things you don't recognise.

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: I'm not really sure about class schedules and what not, so just work with me. Oh, and I've decided to have this story follow the regular years instead, because of an idea I want to work in. If they seem a little mature for their age, err… sorry, I'm a pretty serious person, and I acted that way at age eleven but, I'll try to get them to lighten up. try And serious and formal-like is my err… style of writing, I suppose.

.-"‾‾': Chapter Two: First Impressions Matter :'‾‾"-.

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

THUNK!

Lily awoke with a start, sitting up so suddenly she was almost sure she had given herself whiplash. It took a moment to remember where she was and why she wasn't in her comfortable room at home. She quickly looked about the room, for the source of the noise. On the floor beside her Jania got up rubbing her head. Sighing Lily looked out the window, and saw the grey light of predawn streaking across the sky. There wasn't much point in going back to bed. Lily got up and grabbed her shower things and followed after Jania into the lavatory. Entering a shower cubicle she turned it on, and stood for a minute zoned out under the hot spray.

"Ouch!" Jania yelled from the next cubicle.

"Drop your soap on your toe?" Lily asked yawning.

"No, the water's too hot!" Jania said crossly, turning the hot water tap to low.

Lily showered quickly, when she got out Dawn and Marré were up and getting ready. Lily quickly brushed her hair before throwing it up into a bun. Once all of them were ready they headed out. As they were going down the stairs into the common room, Jania tripped and 'flew' the rest of the way down. Lily covered her mouth to stifle her laughter; Jania had fallen right at Sirius' feet.

"I see you're falling for me already." Sirius grinned as he helped Jania to her feet.

Jania blushed slightly as the others laughed. "I couldn't but help to fall for your charms." She deadpanned.

"Don't fret about it. Everyone falls for me eventually." Sirius said in a mock haughty voice, "Some sooner than others that's all." He finished as he swung his arm about her shoulders. "You ladies will accompany us to the Great Hall?"

"Only because we'll get there faster with you sniffing your way to the food." Jania growled as she threw Sirius' arm off her shoulders.

Lily laughed once again as Jania, in her rush to get away from Sirius, tripped just before the tunnel to leave the common room and ended up falling out. All the way to the Great Hall, which the found without mishap, thanks to Sirius, Lily could hear Jania muttering under her breath beside her. Inside the hall, Lily was once again astounded by the charmed ceiling. She sat down at the Gryffindor table with her friends and helped herself to some breakfast. She pointedly avoided glancing in Sirius' direction and he shovelled food into his mouth, at an unhealthy rate without the slightest bit of decorum. Occasionally he would choke on his food and James would reach over and pound him on the back.  Lily had the feeling that it would become a habit. She smiled slightly as the image of Sirius and James as old men doing the same thing ran through her head.

"Hogwarts to Lily! Hogwarts to Lily!" Marré said, waving a piece of parchment in front of her face. Lily blinked slowly, as she registered that she was still at the breakfast table.

"Oh thanks, Marré." Lily said taking the parchment. "We have transfiguration first."

"So, you are still alive, you pretty zoned out." Dawn said grinning. "What were you daydreaming about? Or should I say who?"

"She was daydreaming about yours truly." James announced arrogantly.

"No, she was daydreaming 'bout me!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No, me!"

"Me!"

"No, me."

"Me."

"No, me."

"Me."

"No, me."

"Me."

"No, me."

"Me."

"No, me."

"Me."

Sirius and James argued childishly. Each punctuating their 'statements' by jabbing their thumb into their chest. Lily groaned as she felt a headache come on.

"Shut it! It was both of you! I was daydreaming of both of you!" Lily exclaimed a muscle in her temple twitching. James and Sirius turned to look at her, surprise written on their features.

"You were?" James asked, hesitantly.

"Oh, I get it. You wanted the two handsomest blokes in the world. Didn't want to settle for just one, eh?" Sirius said wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"No. No. No. It wasn't like that." Lily said horrified, as she realised what she had said.

"You can argue about who did what and why later." Remus said, speaking up for the first time that morning. "We have to get to class."

"But I'm not done eating." Peter whined.

"Grab a muffin and come on. We have to find the class first." Remus said, walking towards the exit.

Lily and the others got up and followed him. They went up a couple flights of stairs, around corners and down halls. And fifteen minutes later they still hadn't found the transfiguration classroom.

"Kalten, tie your damn shoes!" James snapped as Jania tripped once again as they were going up a set of stairs.

"I don't know how." Jania muttered, stuffing her shoelaces into her combat boots as the others waited.

"Oh my god." Dawn groaned. "The staircase is moving."

"They do tend to do that." Sirius chirped.

"But why do they have to do it now!?" Dawn shouted, "When we're on our way to class, the one that just happens to be the hardest, with the strictest teacher, who just happens to be our head of house!"

"Well, maybe since she's our head of house, she'll cut us a break." Lily said optimistically.

"Did she look like the type of person to cut people slack last night?" Remus asked pointedly.

"No, she looked more like the type to feed rule breakers to dragons." James said cheerfully as they got off the staircase.

The group walked around for a few more minutes still not finding the transfiguration classroom. Sirius threw up his hands in frustration and stalked over to a laughing painting. "Tell me where the classroom is or else!" He threatened it.

"Mr. Black is there a reason you are threatening the school paintings?" Professor McGonagall asked sharply from behind them.

"No, no reason at all." Sirius said grinning, "Just wanted to keep in practise that's all."

"Well, I suggest you get into the classroom now." She said pointedly, gesturing to the doorway she was standing in, "You are all twenty minutes late."

"Better twenty than thirty." James said cheerfully as he sauntered into the class. The eight of them having to take seats in the back.

"Now, that we've all arrived." Professor McGonagall said shooting a stern look in their direction, causing Lily to sink in her seat, "Let us begin. Transfiguration is one the hardest and most demanding classes studied at Hogwarts. It will require nothing less than your full attention, if you wish to succeed. And, as you all wish to succeed; there will be no misbehaving, daydreaming, note passing, or gossiping in my classroom. Am I clear?"

The class murmured their assent, not particularly liking where this was going. Lily kept her mind solely on the lesson, trying to keep everything straight in her head as she wrote down the complicated notes Professor McGonagall gave them, beside her Jania was doing the same, with less conviction, as was Remus, but James didn't appear to paying any attention at all, chewing on his quill and talking quietly to Sirius, who had leaned back so his chair was balanced on two legs.

"Mr. Potter," Professor McGonagall barked, "would you care to repeat what I just said?"

James leaned lazily back in his chair, emulating Sirius, with an easy grin, and repeated in verbatim what the Professor had just said a few minutes ago. Lily was agog, staring at him until he winked at her cheekily. She felt her cheeks go red as she returned her attention to McGonagall. A few minutes later, the Professor set them to the practical part of their lesson. They were to turn matchsticks into needles.

"I don't see the point of this." Jania commented as she and Lily got their matchsticks. "When are you ever going to need to turn a matchstick into a needle?"

"Well, perhaps you need to mend something, and you find you have no needles." The soft spoken Marré said.

"That's what they have shops for." Jania pointed out, waving her wand ineffectively at her matchstick.

"Well, they could be closed." Lily pointed out, waving her wand at the matchstick to no avail.

"What could you possible need mended so badly that it couldn't wait for till when the shops were next open?" Jania asked.

"Well, if you were getting ready for your wedding and your gown had a tear in it and you didn't have time to go to a shop to buy some needles, it would come in handy." Dawn answered thoughtfully.

"And how often does that occur?" Jania asked stubbornly.

"More often than you think." Lily said, "At weddings everything that can go wrong, usually does, or at least it seems that way."

"Why couldn't you just get married in the torn gown?" Jania said, asking yet another question.

The three girls gave her a frosty look. "You just don't." Lily said.

"I would." Jania announced pugnaciously, "And you still haven't answered my question. Why exactly do we need to know how to turn matchsticks into needles?"

"Because Professor McGonagall said we had to." Remus said from the table beside them.

"That's not a proper answer." Jania began.

"Just drop it!" Lily exclaimed frustrated, as yet again she hadn't managed to turn her matchstick into a needle. "We have to do it, does it matter why?"

"It does to me." Jania grumbled.

By the end of the lesson only, Sirius had been able to turn his matchstick into a needle (Winning Gryffindor ten points), although James had come close. His match had turned into a needle, just not a silver needle, but rather a wooden one. The rest had had similar degrees of success, except Lily whose match had determinedly stayed just that, a match.

"Beginner's luck?" James asked as they headed to their next class, History of Magic.

"Not really." Sirius announced, "I just switched our matches when you weren't looking." He finished smiling cheekily.

"Sirius!" Lily exclaimed shocked. "How could you?!"

"Easy, I reached over and replaced James match with mine." Sirius said.

James laughed, apparently not upset that Sirius had jipped him on the assignment. "And I never even noticed."

"What a horrible thing to do." Lily scolded.

"Oh come on Lil', it's not like it was that bad or anything." Sirius said, eyeing her, "You won't tell McGonagall, will you?"

"I should." Lily threatened. "But I won't as long as you don't do it again."

"Or at least don't tell Lily about it." Jania piped up. Lily rolled her eyes.

The group found their way to History of Magic without too much trouble, only five minutes late this time. Once again they had to sit in the back of the classroom. The most exciting thing to happen in that class was Professor Binns entering the class through the chalk board. Lily would have thought that being taught by a ghost would be interesting, but alas it wasn't. From the moment he entered the class without so much as taking roll call or a head count he began to drone on an on about the Goblin Wars, in the most boring monotone. The class half heartedly took notes as Binns lulled them further and further into a stupor. Beside her, Lily could see Jania carefully folding a parchment aeroplane; on her other side Dawn and Marré were passing notes. Farther down past Jania, Remus was taking notes diligently, while James and Sirius were doing much the same thing as they had in Transfiguration. Lily scoffed silently as she returned her attention to Professor Binns once more.

She had just looked up from writing a point form note about Ulric the Oddball, when Jania's parchment aeroplane sailed right through Professor Binns head. At first he didn't appear to notice this, but after he completed the long run on sentence he had been in the middle of, he turned to Jania.

"Detention, Ms. Kerwick." He said in the same bored monotone. "Midnight, Friday. You will be polishing the trophies."

Jania shrugged as Lily glared disapprovingly at her. Soon after the bell rang and Professor Binns dismissed them. In the hallway, James and Sirius pounded Jania on the back, congratulating her on getting the first detention of the year. 'Only wish I had of gotten it.' Sirius said as the group went towards the Great Hall for lunch. Once they had sat down and filled their plates, Lily turned to Jania.

"And why exactly did you do that?" She inquired severely.

"I was curious." Jania answered, biting into her sandwich.

"About what?" Remus asked.

"Whether or not he'd notice." Jania replied.

"Man, that is so not fair." Sirius complained. "Beaten out of the first detention of the year by a girl."

"You're jealous too, I suppose." Lily said glaring disapprovingly at James.

"Of course." James answered cheekily.

"Fools, all of you." Lily said, throwing her hands up in exasperation. "It's our first day and you are not making a good impression. We've been late for two classes. You got detention. And now I suppose you two idiots will try your damnedest to get detention as well. It's-"

"It's just detention, and I'm the one that got it. Don't see why you're so worked up about it. Yeesh, it's not the end of the world, you know." Jania said with her mouth full.

"Yes, but- Oh never mind." Lily said, picking up her schedule. "We have double Herbology with the Hufflepuffs after lunch and then we're free till dinner."

"Great we have to put up with that bunch of duffers." Dawn said disdainfully. "All they do is gossip."

"You'll fit right in." Jania said, "And don't sell the Hufflepuffs short. There's nothing wrong with them. They're loyal, they don't abandon friends. They're not afraid of hard work. They don't shy away from danger, and they're prudent enough not to go looking for it. They accept everyone, and don't show much prejudice. They learn well and help others without being condescending. They don't prize one thing over another, everyone is equal to them. They're very noble and gracious. I don't see why everyone gives them such a hard time."

"Because they're Hufflepuffs." Peter said.

Everyone gaped at Jania, who shrugged indifferently, and went back to eating her lunch. Lily stood up, briskly brushing the crumbs from her robes. "Come on let's go." She ordered them.

"But we still have ten minutes before we have to head to Herbology." Peter complained.

"Yes, but if we leave ten minutes early, we might just make it to class on time." Lily said, holding up her hand before Peter could say another word. "Bring a sandwich with you."

Peter grumbled as they headed out of the Great Hall. It was of course just their luck that Peeves was in the entrance hall, throwing ink balloons at students. Before any of them could duck one had hit Dawn right in the head, spattering ink over everyone. Lily dragged everyone to the nearest girl's toilet, intent on getting the ink out of Dawn's hair before it stained it black. After fifteen minutes, Lily, Marré and Dawn came out of the bathroom. Dawn's hair was thankfully still blond, for the most part, a few places were still a splotchy black though, but they were now late for Herbology.

Professor Sprout looked up at them as they burst through the door to Greenhouse One. "Peeves?" She asked taking in their ink splattered appearance. Lily nodded. "Take a seat at the table in the back; you'll have to pull up a couple chairs. We're short on tables."

The group crowded around a table as Professor Sprout outlined the year's curriculum, stated a few rules, and began to quiz them on various plants around the room and their properties. Seeing how much studying they had done before they arrived. By the end of the double period both Gryffindor and Hufflepuff had been awarded a fifty points for answering her questions correctly.

"You eight stay back a minute." Professor Sprout called as the dismissal bell rang. The group trudged up to her desk, hoping they weren't in trouble. "Okay, where you sat today is where you'll be for the rest of the year. Try not to be late again. It disturbs the plants. Oh, and you all might want to wash up using this tonight." Professor Sprout handed them a bottle, "It's a solution to dissolve ink. I use it quite often myself when I work with some of the plants."

"Thank you, Professor." Lily said, before they left the greenhouse.

"So what do you want to do now?" Remus asked, "We have a couple hours before dinner."

"We should go back to the common room and do our homework." Lily said, leading them towards the common room.

"Nah, that's boring, let's explore instead." Sirius suggested. "We could always do our dumb homework after dinner."

"No," Lily said firmly, "If we do our homework now, we know we have enough time to get it done properly. Instead of handing in some rushed half-assed assignment."

"But come on, we don't have to hand in our homework till next week." James complained.

"James, our schoolwork should come before anything else." Lily stated, "You heard what McGonagall said."

"And do you always do what people say?"

"Yeesh, why don't we do our homework now and explore after dinner when everyone else is in the common rooms." Jania suggested peaceably.

"Sounds good to me." Remus said, "It's better to explore when no one else is around anyway."

"Jania, we aren't supposed to leave the common room after dinner." Lily pointed out.

"So?" James asked.

"We could get in trouble." Lily said sharply. "We aren't supposed to break the rules."

"We're only breaking the rules if we get caught." Sirius said with a winning grin.

"But-"

"Oh fine, stay if you want to." James said, waving his hand dismissively, "You won't be any fun anyway."

"Canis Major." Marré said to the Fat Lady.

They entered the common room and sat down at one of the tables. Lily and James still arguing.

"Do you think they'll be like this often?" Remus asked, as beside him Lily and James fell back on childish name calling.

Jania shrugged, "We all just met yesterday. Who knows?"

Towards seven they left the common room and headed back down to the Great Hall for dinner. As the others ate dinner, Lily and James continued to argue between bites. Finally toward the end of dinner, James threw his hands up exasperated. "It's not like you'll spontaneously combust if you break a rule." He hissed, then his eyes lit up deviously as he added, "Besides, exploring the castle tonight will help us find ways to make it to class on time tomorrow."

Lily ate silently as she considered this, finally she said. "Okay."

"Alright, now who else is coming?" James asked, rubbing his hands together excitedly.

"Not me." Peter announced. "I want to eat a full meal, plus I'm dead tired."

"I've got to get the rest of the ink out of my hair." Dawn said grimacing. "Marré's helping me."

"So just the five of us then." Sirius said.

The five of them left the Great Hall, following James. When he led them into the Library, Sirius spoke up. "What the heck we in here for? This isn't exploring."

"Chill, Sirius." James said, as they sat at a table in a far corner out of the librarian's sight. "We're just going to stay here, till it's after hours and everyone's abed."

Lily got up from the table and few minutes later returned laden with books. She passed them out, one to each of them. Sirius gave her a very dirty look. "What?" Lily snapped, "I doubt the librarian will let us stay in here for two or three hours, if we aren't doing anything. Studying gives us a legitimate reason, and it won't hurt us."

"That's what you think." Sirius muttered darkly.

"Don't forget to take notes." Lily said, passing out parchment and quills. Sirius groaned loudly, earning a kick in the shin from Jania.

"Just shut up, before she decides to test us on it or something." She hissed from across the table.

The group obediently took notes on the books Lily had shoved at them, while she queened over them, making sure they weren't slacking off. Sirius kept shooting her dirty looks to no avail. Finally though after a couple hours, James decided it was safe to start exploring. They left the library as inconspicuously as they could with Sirius nearly tripping over himself with excitement.

The first thing they did at Lily's insistence was find shortcuts to all their classes. As that took till nearly midnight, they decided to call it a day, and do some real exploring tomorrow.

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

Lily was up before the other girls the next day and enjoyed a leisurely shower before waking the others three to get ready for their morning classes.

"I'll meet you three in the Great Hall for breakfast." Lily said cheerfully as she left the dorm room.

"Sah." Jania muttered turning over in her bed and going back to sleep.

"Jania, we're going now. You better get up." Marré said softly as she and Dawn left the dorm.

"Where is Jania?" Lily demanded as Dawn and Marré sat down to breakfast.

"She was still sleeping when we left." Dawn told her. "I don't think she's a morning person."

"That doesn't matter. If she doesn't get down here soon she'll miss breakfast." Lily said, buttering some toast.

Half an hour later they were in Charms and Jania had still not joined them. Lily sighed resigned as Peter sat down next to her. Fidgeting she checked her watch, five minutes till class started. Jania came tearing into the classroom and plunked down beside Remus two minutes before the bell went.

"Where were you?" Lily demanded.

"Not here." Jania yawned.

"I got you up at six. You had plenty of time." Lily hissed.

"Yeesh, Lils', I'm the one who's late not you." Jania said shrugging.

"Yes, but don't you want to make a good impression?" She asked.

"Not particularly. What I want is something to eat." Jania said as her stomach growled hungrily.

"Got that covered." Remus announced, producing some toast.

"I love you." Jania shouted, as she greedily grabbed the toast and started to eat it.

"Ms Kalten, please save further declarations of love, till after class." Professor Flitwick said as he entered the room and climbed onto his stack of books. The class tittered at this, causing Remus and Jania to blush.

"Lily, the world's not going to end if I don't show up on time or do my homework right away." Jania said after class.

"Yes, but just because you don't want to be here doesn't mean you shouldn't make an effort." Lily said, sniffing disapprovingly.

Jania opened her mouth to say something, but Remus stopped her. "Let it lie, she's just nervous."

"But that doesn't mean she should take it out on me. She could just as easily pick on Sirius or James." Jania hissed.

"Hey! I heard that!" Sirius said.

"Your point?" Jania grumbled as Lily led them their next class.

Lily found Defense Against the Dark Arts to be a very interesting class. She liked almost as much as she had like Charms, which was so far her best subject. As she looked about the class, she saw that it was also the only class in which everyone more or less paid attention. Even James and Sirius weren't goofing off.

Once they were set their homework and dismissed, they went down to the Great Hall for dinner. Jania was still rather put out with her nagging about making good impressions and showing up for class on time.

"I just don't see why you're making such a big deal about it." Jania stated. "It's just school."

"But that's just it. It's not just school. If we don't make a good impression, it could affect our grades. And if we don't get good grades we won't get good jobs." Lily pointed out.

"No, the only thing that affects our grades is our schoolwork." Jania said stubbornly.

"What planet have you been living on?!" Lily shouted, "Not everyone's fair and not everyone marks you just on what you write."

Jania looked dubious at this and Lily sighed exasperated. "Come on, we'd better get to Potions." She said. The others rolled their eyes, used to Lily's bossiness, after about a week of it.

They entered the Potions classroom and quickly found seats in the gloomy and cold dungeon. Lily looked about, furtively scrubbing the desk she and Jania were sitting at. It was covered with a dried green substance, which at one point was probably quite slimy.

"Great, we have it with the Slytherin's." James muttered darkly.

"It could prove to be fun." Sirius said, grinning maliciously as he looked over at the Slytherins.

Lily sighed at James and Sirius' conversation. She didn't think it would be remotely fun. The Slytherins for the most part had a mean look about them. Like they were all little kids who tore the wings off flies.

"This is one creepy classroom." Lily said,

"We are in a castle dungeon." Jania whispered back, as the Professor swept into the room. "I think it's actually rather homey, the manacles after all were removed from the walls."

Lily grinned at Jania as the Potions Master began to speak. Potions sounded like a very interesting class. And despite James' dire warnings that the Potions Professor would hate them because they were Gryffindors, he seemed quite fair. Awarding points equally to Slytherins and Gryffindors for correctly answering questions.

By the end of the class Lily was heartily tired of the malicious glares sent at the Gryffindors by the Slytherins, as they seemed like empty threats to her. You'd think it would kill them to get along with the other houses.

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

"Oh yeah," Sirius exclaimed, "We got the rest of the day off. Now we can do some serious exploring."

"No, we can't." James said.

"What!? Have you gone all Lily on me?! Are you suggesting we do homework!?"

"Hell no! I'm just saying, if we go exploring we'll miss flying lessons."

"Flying lessons?" Jania asked, in a slightly breathless tone.

"Yeah, they teach us how to fly on brooms. It's loads of fun." James explained.

"Do we have to learn to fly?" Lily asked.

"Yeah of course, who wouldn't want to learn to fly?" James said looking at Lily oddly, like she had been dropped on the head one to many times as an infant.

"I'm terrified of heights." Lily said defensively, "I definitely don't want to fly."

"Don't worry Lil', it won't be so bad once you get in the air, just don't look down." Remus said comfortingly.

They arrived in the courtyard where Madam Hooch was, looking very much like a raptor given human form. Lily was relieved that they only had flying lessons with their house. Less people would make fun of her for being a complete failure at flying.

"Good, we're all here." Madam Hooch announced after a few minutes, "Now stand beside a broom," She paused here for people to do as she instructed, "and say 'up'."

Lily felt quite odd ordering a broom 'up'. "Up." She said as forcefully as she could. Her broom just flopped over. Beside her Jania's broom had answered on first try. Dawn and Marré were having trouble with their brooms too, but managed to get them up after a few tries.

"Up." Lily demanded, quite put out with the broom. It came 'up' quite fast and she didn't manage to catch it before it hit her in the nose, hard.

"Good, now mount your broom like this," Madam Hooch instructed, "and push off with your feet. Level your broom off at about three feet."

The class did as instructed, Lily nervously pushed off with her feet. Please don't let me crash, please don't let me crash.

"Lily, it works better with your eyes open." Jania said, grabbing Lily's ankle before she rose to high.

"Err…. Yeah, I suppose." Lily said opening her eyes, and glaring at James and Sirius who, across from her and Jania, were laughing at her.

Lily didn't know how she made it through the lesson. Her broom had tried to buck her off, take her flying with the birds, and plough her into the ground. All things considered, Lily decided she didn't like brooms and would much prefer to keep her feet on the ground where they belonged.

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

"You know," Jania said, "maybe learning magic won't be so bad."

Lily looked up from the transfiguration homework the two of them were doing. "What changed your mind?"

"Flying. I didn't know there was going to be flying. I thought it was all going to be boring books, magic spells, and potions." Jania explained, "But since there's flying…"

"You like flying?" Lily asked incredulously. "Why?"

"I love flying." Jania announced. "Ever since I was little. I was born on a plane. Mum went into labour early when they were flying to visit her parents."

"But flying is so dangerous."

"Just being alive is dangerous." Jania said, reverting to her sullen self, "But you still do it."

"Yeah, I suppose, but I don't like flying."

"Why not?"

"Besides being afraid of heights, I'm no good at it."

Jania looked at the clock, "Damn I have to go to detention. See you later."

Lily watched as Jania left the common room before returning to her transfiguration homework. Half an hour later James, Sirius, Remus and Peter came scrambling through the portrait.

"Hey Lily-bills," Sirius said cheerfully, as he plunked down across from her. "Why didn't you and Jania come exploring with us today?"

"It just might have had something to do with the fact that you couldn't stop making fun of me." Lily said scathingly.

"But come on Lils', it was funny, I've never seen someone have more trouble with a broom before. If Jania hadn't been there to grab you by the ankles, you would probably be halfway to the moon."

"It wasn't funny, Sirius. I was terrified."

"Your face was all scrunched up and you flew like you were drunk and the best part was-"

"SIRIUS!" Lily screeched, grabbing up her and Jania's homework and stalking up to her dorm.

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

What seemed only a few minutes after she fell asleep, she was awoken by someone holding her nose closed.

"Jania!" She hissed, sitting up in her bed, "What are you doing?!"

"I have an idea. Get dressed."

Lily hurriedly got dressed while Jania rummaged in her trunk for something. Lily looked out the window; it was the darkest part of the night. And worse the sky was mostly clouded over.

"Jania, what are we doing up?" Lily whispered, so she wouldn't wake Dawn and Marré up.

"Not here." Jania said, standing up and closing her trunk quietly, "Follow me."

Lily followed Jania as she led her down the stairs, through the common room and out the portrait. "Jania, we could get in serious trouble if we're caught." Lily hissed.

"Then we'll have to make sure we aren't caught."

The two carefully wended their way down the stairs and out the front entrance. "Jania, what are we doing?"

"You're going to learn to fly."

"What!?"

"Well, I thought that since it's so dark you wouldn't be able to notice how far off the ground you were, so you couldn't be afraid of being high up, 'cause you wouldn't notice. And I want to fly again."

"Okay, I'm willing to try that, but just one problem," Lily said hesitantly, "How are we going to get the brooms out of the cupboard? We don't know any spells for that."

"This." Jania said, holding up a lock picking set.

"Why do you have that?"

"I wasn't a good kid at my boarding school. I got it from the school black market."

"That's bad." Lily admonished. "Do you have something against school?"

"I never said I was good. And I don't have anything against school, except I don't like it if there's no flying." Seeing Lily's disapproving look, Jania added, "I only used it for breaking into the room with the flight simulators that the older students got to use. And the kitchens."

Lily sighed and was about to say something before Jania interrupted. "You are way too serious for being eleven."

"And you aren't?" Lily asked. Jania grinned at her.

Lily watched the grounds for signs of movement while Jania unlocked the broom cupboard took out the two best school brooms and locked the broom cupboard. "So if someone checks they don't notice someone unlocked it." She explained when Lily asked.

"I can do this." Lily said as they mounted their brooms.

"Of course you can."

"On second thought I can't." Lily said panicked, as she shot up ten feet.

"Straighten out. Lean forward 'til your broom's level with the ground." Jania ordered.

Lily leaned forward too much and shot towards the ground. "Lean back, lean back!" Jania shouted. Lily immediately leaned as far back as she could and shot once more towards the sky. She closed her eyes tight as she rose higher and higher. "Lean forward slowly!" Jania called.

In her panic Lily once again leaned forward as much as she could and headed towards the ground. "Quit overcompensating! Lean back ten degrees and bring your hands closer to your knees. And do it slowly!"

Lily slowly leaned back a bit; she had no idea what ten degrees was, and slid her hands closer to her knees and miraculously her broom levelled off. "I did it!" She exclaimed.

"About time." Jania muttered as she brought her broom up beside Lily.

"How come you're so good? We both just got on brooms today."

"I dunno," Jania shrugged, "Maybe it's just 'cause I'm good at flying planes. A broom's not that different, well, it is but not really."

"You make no sense."

"I know."

"Well are we done? I can fly now."

"No, we're not done. Let's do a couple laps around this stadium thinger."

"I guess."

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

"Wake up you two! Or you'll miss breakfast!" Dawn yelled as her and Marré shook Lily and Jania awake.

"I'm awake, I'm up already." Lily said tiredly rubbing the sleep from her eyes.

"Jania, wake up!" Marré said, getting no response from Jania.

"Just push her off her bed." Lily suggested.

"What!?" Dawn exclaimed.

"It'll wake her up." Lily said, Dawn and Marré just looked at her. "Oh fine. I'll do it."

Lily got out of her comfy bed, pushed up the sleeves on her nightgown and pushed Jania, who was already at the edge of her bed, off it.

CRASH!

"Ugh… Is it time to get up already?" Jania asked rubbing her head.

"Yeah, we're almost late for breakfast. So get dressed." Dawn said cheerfully. "Chop, chop."

"Uh… Jania, your shirt's inside out and your socks don't match." Remus said as the girls sat down at breakfast. Jania shrugged as she added half a bowlful of sugar to her oatmeal.

"Eww… Jania that is so gross." Dawn screeched.

"Huh? What's gross?" Jania asked, now adding honey to the oatmeal.

"Putting all that sweet gunk into your oatmeal." Dawn said, shuddering as maple syrup was now added.

"No what's gross is plain oatmeal." Jania said, as she poured cold milk to nearly overflowing. Grinning at Dawn she stuck a spoon into her bowl and ate it with a relish.

"I want to try!" Sirius exclaimed, sticking his fork into the gooey mass of oatmeal. "Yummy." He declared.

"You two are outrageous." Remus said, shaking his head. "How can you stand that much sweet stuff?"

"Lack of taste buds?" Jania shrugged.

"We have that military training stuff in the afternoon." Lily said brightly, carefully not looking at Sirius and Jania. Jania, who was so sullen, had her moments of childishness.

"Yeah, Sebastian Kalten, an Auror is teaching us." James said.

"Sebastian Kalten?" Jania asked, hesitantly.

"Yeah, why?"

"Great. Just great. That's my uncle." Jania said surly.

"Why don't you sound excited about it then?" Lily asked.

"We don't speak of him." Jania said shortly.

"Why not? Because he's a wizard?" James asked.

"If that was the problem, I wouldn't be here." Jania pointed out, "No, it's because he... well my dad and him had a falling out, over what they wouldn't tell me. Had something to do with my mum though. But that never stopped them from shunting me off there when I wasn't at school. And well, he's… Don't worry you'll see."

They spent the morning doing their homework, and soon it was time to head to the Quidditch Pitch for defense class. Jania slowed as they reached the Quidditch Pitch.

"What do you think the chances he won't see me are?" Jania asked.

"It's Gryffindors and Ravenclaws." James said, "So he might not see you."

"Good, good everyone's here." A tall, fair haired man, with a good natured look about him said. "I'm Sebastian Kalten, but you can all just call me Uncle Sebby. Now on to roll call."

Lily looked at Jania, whose face was steadily gaining colour. She looked positively mortified.

"Kalten, Jania. Well, Johnny where are you?" He said looking about. Jania cringed, and then she squared her shoulders and stepped forward. "I'm here… Uncle Sebastian. And my name is Jania."

"You'll always be little Johnny-ah to me." Sebastian said cheerfully, ruffling her hair. "I remember when you were just a tyke, playing in the mud with your cousin, both of you naked as the day you were born, and covered head to toe in the blackest mud I've ever seen. You were always refusing to wear clothes. Always went starkers if you could." Lily glanced at Jania, she was a bright red, and her hand was twitching. "But enough of that. Since we're all here, we might as well get started. First things first, well…" He paused and scratched the back of his neck. "Well, I guess we'll start with running laps. Off you go."

Jania took off like a shot out of hell, sprinting halfway across the pitch before the others were able to catch up.

"Not a word." Jania gritted as they caught up.

The good thing, about having 'Uncle Sebby' in charge of the fitness course was that in between exercises and drills they had plenty of time to catch their breath, as he regaled them with embarrassing stories from when Jania was little. He told them of how she jumped out of a tree on a board to try 'windsurfing', before he remembered they were supposed to be doing push-ups.

"Well, it's almost dinner. You're all dismissed. Oh, Johnny-ah stay behind a minute, want to talk to you." Sebastian said as the class left, calling 'See ya, Uncle Sebby' and 'Bye Uncle Sebby' as he beamed after them.

Lily was at the steps when Jania caught up. "What did your uncle want?"

"Tell me that I'm staying with him over summer break, but I have to stay at school for Christmas break, since my parents are going to be Uganda."

"But you said your parents didn't like your Uncle Sebby-astian."

"They don't, but I still have to visit him every so often for some reason. Beats me. Come on let's eat, then go exploring!"

"We still have a Potions essay to do!"

"It can wait."

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

"Well, well, this certainly isn't the way to make good first impressions." A soft voice hissed behind them. "My, my detention to the lot of you and ten points from Gryffindor."

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

"POTTER, I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" Lily Evans shouted as they entered the common room.

"Do you think she's mad?" Sirius whispered to Jania.

"I think she's mad." Remus answered.

"Feh." Jania shrugged.

"IT WASN'T ALL MY FAULT!" James shouted just as loudly. "IT WAS SIRIUS' IDEA!"

"Hey!" Sirius said, holding his hands in front of him. "Leave me out of this!"

"Calm down Lily," Remus said trying to placate, "Professor Vendicta isn't one of our teachers at any rate."

"CALM DOWN! WE'VE GOT DETENTION! AND LOST POINTS FOR GRYFFINDOR! I KNEW I SHOULD NEVER HAVE AGREED TO GO ANYWHERE WITH YOU!"

"What say we sneak off to bed?" Sirius suggested. He, Remus and Jania left to their dorms.

"NO ONE MADE YOU COME!" James shouted, then thought, Oh, wait I did.

"PFFT! WHY I OUGHT TO-"

"BED! BOTH OF YOU NOW!" Burly Seventh Year Seamus O'Riley shouted from the foot of stairs. "OR BY THE FOUNDERS I'LL TURN YOU OVER MY KNEE AND SPANK SOME SENSE INTO YOU TWO! BED! NOW!"

Lily and James both scooted up to their respective dorms at top speed. The next morning Lily woke up with a knut magically stuck to the tip of her nose, and all hell broke loose.

.-"‾‾"-. ':' .-"‾‾"-.

.-"‾‾': END OF CHAPTER TWO :'‾‾"-.

Post Script: For those of you that don't know, birds of prey are also referred to as raptors, and that's what I mean when I say raptor, not the dinosaur. Oh, and did I mention I like to torture characters occasionally?

Laura E:

First Light of Eos: Thanks, for pointing out the errors, I think I caught them all now. I like Jania too, especially picking on her. I'll try to update often.

jadore: Thanks for reviewing. I hope you update your story soon. I really like it. Marré is pronounced like the Marie, the French way.