This is a Hisana reborn as fem Harry story. If you don't know who that is, Hisana is the older sister of Rukia who died before the 150 years before the series began, and was married to Byakuya. As such the pairing is going to be FemHarry/Byakuya once the Bleach aspect really kicks in. Enjoy~
As Hisana breathed her last, she honestly did not expect to wake up as a squalling infant complete with cooing parents. The last thing she remembered was seeing her husband's tear-stricken face and knowing her little sister would be safe once he found her. He had promised after all.
Her bewilderment turned to realization that she had died...and apparently it was her turn on the reincarnation cycle that Byakuya once mentioned. It was uncommon, but occasionally souls would be reborn into new bodies after death. Generally after a considerable amount of time had passed, so odds were that she would either see her husband again. After all, the dead aged slower than the living did and something told her it hadn't been that long since her death.
A couple of hundred years had possibly passed, but that was nothing to a soul reaper.
To that end Hisana took stock of her situation. She was born to two loving parents by the names of James and Lily Potter, and had two uncles she liked by the name of Sirius Black and Remus Lupin. There was one other man who sometimes came by, but she knew straight away she didn't like him at all.
Especially when he turned into a rat. She hated rats and made sure to memorize him so she could avoid him later. Something about him gave her a skeevy feeling.
She quickly learned that her new name was Lilianna Cerridwen Potter, or "Anna" for short in order to avoid confusion.
She had the same black hair as before, only this time she had deep green eyes that reminded her of deep jade. She had aristocratic features, and a hint of Irish decent from her mother's side. She had pale skin and a sneaking suspicion she was more likely to burn than ever tan properly.
All in all she was a rather adorable child, though she was rather surprised by the 'magic' her parents and family used.
She loved Padfoot though. He loved to let her ride on his back in canine form and was really fluffy to sleep on.
Any assumptions she might have a peaceful childhood this time around died one night. There was a loud explosion, and she could hear her father yelling for her mother to run and take their daughter with her.
Her mother burst through the door, looking terrified, but at the same time determined.
Anna could feel the odd kido that her parents used waking up, as a rather cruel looking man came into the room with a sneer on his face.
She watched her mother die in front of her, and something inside woke up.
She vaguely recalled how her husband once mentioned how soul reapers communicated with their Zanpakuto.
Words came to mind unbidden, and considering she would almost certainly die a second time if she did nothing, she whispered them.
"Bloom among the frozen wastes, Yukino!" she said in Japanese.
The room turned ice cold in an instant. A green spell flew towards her, only to be rebuffed by a hidden shield that sprang forth. It looked like an ice flower to be honest, though one of the petals broke off and cut into her forehead.
She would only later find out that the cut looked like a crescent moon.
Eight years later...
If it wasn't for her experiences living in Hanging Dog, she might have balked at the idea of leaving her 'home'.
However she wasn't some sheltered child. Far from it. At this point living on the streets would be an upgrade to the living situation she was in, though she had spent a considerable amount of time looking up information on how to camp out and what plants were edible.
Anything had to be better than her so-called aunt.
There was one small glitch in her plan. The watcher on the household would almost certainly alert whoever it was keeping her in this house once she was gone for a sufficient amount of time.
It took her some time, but she was able to narrow down who it was.
Mrs. Figg lived alone with far too many cats, and she was one of the rare few who never seemed to take the lies Petunia came up with for the neighbors about her to heart.
That alone made her suspicious.
To that end, Anna decided she would have to 'deal' with Mrs. Figg. It wasn't anything personal...but she needed to leave Surrey.
It took some tricky doing, and a few white lies, but the old woman with far too many cats suddenly had bigger problems to deal with instead of keeping an eye on Anna.
The inhabitants of Little Whinging never needed a reason to gossip badly about one another, and Mrs. Figg was an 'oddity' considering she lived in the nice house with no husband and so many animals. Several of which were not fixed in the least and no small number had gone feral. If lying to the cops about her running a cat-mill and selling drugs meant she would be gone from their nice, clean neighborhood, then the gossipy old women in the area would happily do so without hesitation.
Anna hid inside Vernon's car, and was very happy that she had her Zanpakuto Yukino to talk to. Though it wasn't very pretty, her abilities were beyond useful...especially in creating illusions.
The fat pig never saw her hide in the backseat, and drove off to work as usual. He worked in the main office in London, and while staying crouched down in the well behind the passenger seat was painful, it also meant she had a free ride to a large city she could disappear in.
It took her an hour to work out the kinks, but when she did she had to hide a massive smile on her face.
She had learned rather quickly that strange people would pay inordinate amounts of attention to her odd scar, so she had decided to wear her hair the way she had in her past life.
Petunia had only tried once to cut it, and it had grown back overnight to her horror.
For the next few days, Anna took stock of her new situation. Returning to that house wasn't an option, not that the Dursleys would have reported her missing anyway.
It was a good thing she was used to difficult living situations from her past life, though the cameras made things difficult.
Anna didn't mind living on the street. However there were adults who did pay a bit more attention to the fact that a girl who barely looked six was wearing the same clothing and didn't appear to have adult supervision.
Only one couple decided to actually do something about it though.
Hermione knew about the homeless girl who lived in the park. It was hard not to, with how concerned her parents were about it. However the girl was entirely too adept at spotting well meaning adults and hiding from them effectively until they gave up and left.
So you could imagine the shock her parents had when Hermione dragged said girl home after coming to the realization that the strange girl had a lot more in common with the bushy-haired brunette than Hermione did her own classmates.
Anna was strange, but had excellent manners and was very polite. She also liked classical books and took studying seriously, which was a vast improvement over the vapid idiots Hermione was forced to deal with on a daily basis.
Yes, she was homeless but she at least attempted to stay clean, always made sure to eat regularly even if she had to steal food, and tended to spend a large amount of time breaking into the library...which had Hermione's parents a tad concerned when they saw the gleam in their daughter's eyes over the idea of being able to read in peace without the adults restricting you from whatever subject caught your fancy.
Dan and Emma had a choice to make. They could either turn the odd girl into the authorities or find a decent orphanage, or...and this was becoming an increasingly more likely scenario considering how Anna's presence was tempering Hermione's less social behavior...they could adopt her and give Hermione a slightly younger sister to dote on.
It took several months, and many visits from officials who specialized in that sort of thing, but in the end the decision was simple.
Anna was adopted by the Granger family and the matter more or less dismissed as she refused to give the name of her 'aunt and uncle' for fear that someone would attempt to drag her back out of some misplaced belief that she needed to be around her blood kin.
Anna was very good at sneaking around, and while the cats did see her reading Mrs. Figg's diary, they couldn't exactly tell the woman what she was doing. And it was unlikely she had picked up on what she had done herself as Anna was always careful to replace the book exactly how she found it. She didn't know who this Dumbledore was or why he was so hell bent on her living with the Dursleys, but she refused to be subjected to living as a slave just because they were her 'blood family'.
Petunia had made it perfectly clear she did not and would likely never consider them family, and Vernon detested her existence in his home simply because of something she had never had any control over.
Namely the fact they were forced to 'raise' her and were never given any choice in the matter otherwise.
At the very least she got a sister out of this arrangement, so everyone was more or less satisfied.
Though if she ever found this Dumbledore who had apparently left her on her aunt's doorstep, she would happily punch him in the face.
Anna politely listened to Professor McGonagall, and the second she heard that Dumbledore was apparently the headmaster of said school decided to curtail any enthusiasm Hermione might have had at going there.
"Pardon me, Professor...but exactly what sort of curriculum does this school have?" asked Anna rather politely.
Hermione might be the older of the two, but the Grangers had always considered Anna the 'big sister'. It didn't help that she could get Hermione to follow her lead using simple logic that even she had trouble refuting.
They still didn't understand Anna's fascination with swords, but it was a harmless enough hobby and it was good exercise to boot. Even if she wasn't a particular fan of fencing and she was more interested in Asian swords over European.
"There is transfiguration, potions, charms, astronomy, defense against the dark arts, and history of magic for the first years. After second year you have the choice of certain electives such as divination, care of magical creatures, arithimancy, ancient runes and if you show a particular aptitude towards a subject, advanced lessons," recited McGonagall.
Anna was not impressed in the least.
"What about science, maths, English literature, and the regular basics at any decent school?" asked Anna.
"I'm afraid we don't teach muggle subjects at Hogwarts, and the closest we have that comes to it are muggle studies...though I believe they focus more on blending in with current culture," said McGonagall.
"What about extracurricular clubs, or sports?" asked Anna.
"The main sport at our school is Quidditch, though we do teach flying lessons for first years. Although you are only permitted to bring your own broom starting your second year."
McGonagall could sense she had erred, but for the life of her couldn't explain why.
She decided to try her luck by bringing them to Diagon, in the hopes of showing the two girls the sort of culture they would be introduced to.
It was rather odd the goblins honed in on the younger one, or that she disappeared for a full thirty minutes. She dismissed it when the Grangers admitted Anna was adopted. It was likely she was a half-blood who simply had an account already present. Considering the number of families wiped out in the last war, it wouldn't be that odd for one to slip through the cracks.
It was only after they returned that Anna spoke up.
"I think we need to find an alternative magical school. I don't think Hogwarts would be a very good fit for either of us."
Considering the amount of backstabbing and doubletalk she had to deal with as Byakuya's wife, she had some skill at detecting the truth of things hidden from casual view.
And what she picked up from their brief trip through Diagon was that Hogwarts was a complete mess. Never mind the lack of normal subjects, which were required to pass A-levels and obtain a decent paying job without magic...there was an undercurrent of 'old blood' versus 'new blood' that had been present during the entire trip.
Anna hearing was rather sharp, so she heard some rather worrying words like 'mudblood' and 'filthy muggles' from the more well-to-do people in the alley. It didn't help that she also caught the condescending looks of pity that were without any real explanation at all.
It was amazing the little details you could pick up if you actually paid attention to your surroundings and stayed quiet.
Hermione, once she got over the culture shock of finding out there was an entire society of people with abilities like her, listened to Anna's well reasoned arguments.
It was hard to argue against her sister when Anna's reasoning was quite sound.
Regardless of how 'ancient' Hogwarts was, there was no indication that they had technology past a simple radio, and the books openly admitted that they still used candles for light instead of incandescent bulbs. In fact looking up the school online provided a litany of complaints from past graduates who had great difficulty making it in either world because the 'old blood' as Anna called them, refused to give anyone from the real world a chance to make any decent living.
To all appearances it seemed this Hogwarts was simply bilking the most cash they could make off of those who didn't come from established magical families before tossing them out to sea and expecting them to swim without any real instruction at all.
Hermione was appalled, and her parents were less than pleased at this information. It made them wonder exactly how many innocent children they had swindled over the centuries and how many lives they had ruined with their lies.
A week later...
Anna was rather pleased that the Japanese magical school had accepted their application. Asking the goblins for a certified list of the top magical schools had been a brilliant move, and to no one's real surprise Hogwarts came almost dead last scholastically.
The one in Japan appealed to her the most as it had a diverse range of subjects, offered supplemental lessons in normal subjects like maths, sciences and technology, and had a wide range of extracurricular lessons.
Including one that held the most appeal to Anna, which was kendo lessons.
More importantly the yearly cost of attending the Japanese school was cheaper by a considerable margin, even if they would be living abroad for nine months each year.