AN: Christ, I should have gotten this done a lot sooner. I'm really, really sorry about the (counting fingers) six-seven-ish month wait, but I've had no idea on how to make this different from most GWL fics (besides the canon ships, that is). It also doesn't help that the Superwholock fandom is going crazy on my dash now (I'm Zadi-Zadi-Zadi on tumblr).

The Ron/Harry friendship is one of my favourite things about the series, and I hope that I do it some justice. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping for the best.

I'll be writing about two or three chapters per books, so you guys know what to expect. Thanks goes to WillowBlueJay's fic that has been great inspiration. Feel free to favourite this, alert, or even leave a review to tell me what I'm doing wrong or right. I would appreciate the feedback.

Disclaimer: Just because JK Rowling used a pseudonym doesn't mean that I'm her. Bloomsbury and Warner Bros makes sure of that.

Title: Sun in its Flight: Philosopher's Stone: A Train and a Hat

Words: 3K

Summary: The Girl-Who-Lived, the smartest wizard of his age, and the second youngest girl of seven. What could possibly go wrong at Hogwarts? A take on seven years with a gender-bended cast.

Halley Lily Potter was a strange girl in several ways.

She looked like the opposite of her aunt, uncle, and cousin. While they were all fair-haired and light-eyed, she was dark-haired and had green eyes that were hidden behind clunky glasses. In contrast to her cousin Daisy, she was shorter and scrawnier, making the borrowed clothes only fit with needlework and a good belt.

There were several good examples to use for why she was strange: She once turned her teacher's hair blue. It was an accident, but the teacher had called Halley up for her oral report on whales, and what had caused the accident was the glower that Daisy had on her porcine face. The Dursleys didn't liked it when Halley got better marks than their precious daughter, and Daisy was good at making Halley remember that. All of the dark looks had made Halley go into a stuttering tangent on the colour of whales and then the class went into a frenzy of giggles and shrieks.

Then it was a few months after that was when she somehow ended up on the roof of her primary school. One moment Daisy and her gang of girls were chasing her, and when Halley jumped to scramble onto a box was when her whole world tilted. There was a pulling, twisting feeling that only lasted for a second, and then she was on the roof. No one had any clue how that happened, and the firemen that came to get her down had kept making jokes.

The Dursleys didn't liked that either.

The Dursleys didn't liked it when anything strange happened to Halley, from shrinking sweaters, mysterious people thanking her, to disappearing glass (in which made Daisy sit further away from Halley from then on), she wondered if they were almost relieved to be rid of her when she found out that she was a witch. All of that freakiness that they hated would vanish for a school year with Halley, and she was very happy about that.

"What's Hogwarts like?" she asked Hagrid when they had finished their trip to Diagon Alley. They were getting odd looks from everyone else (muggles, she remembered what the word was) from the hooting owl in her cage, the colours of the bags that weren't normal, and the friendly half-giant that handed her food. Halley fiddled with a limp crisp, waiting for him to answer. Her encounter with the snobby girl at the shop had made her worried.

"It's home," Hagrid answered. His crinkly smile was reassuring. "Yeh get all types there, so don't yeh worry, yer do fine."

"You think so?" Halley looked up to see his face. His eyes were kind under his heavy eyebrows.

"Yeh're the daughter of Lily an' James Potter," he said. "They'll be proud of yeh no matter what."

The girl, Rory, had long hair that was a vibrant shade of red. Her freckled face was pink with excitement. She spoke in a drawling sort of voice that almost reminded Halley of Hagrid's accent. "Are—are you really her?"

Halley nodded and pushed her fringe back. It seemed strange that just a month ago she was fascinated her scar, and now she wasn't sure what she thought of it. "Er, I am."

The girl stared. "I thought Felicity and Georgia were joking, they kept doing that all week and they wouldn't stop. Even said something about giant spiders near the castle," Rory shuddered before changing tracks. "Is that where, you know, he—"

"I don't remember," Halley said. She rubbed her forehead. The scar never gave her any pain, but she always felt hyperaware of it when mentioned. "Only a lot of green light."

"Wow," said Rory. She stared more at the scar, but soon realised what she was doing and looked out the window. Her cheeks were still pink. She fidgeted in her seat and nervously crossed and uncrossed her long legs.

I'm alone, Halley thought suddenly. No Daisy, no Petunia and Vernon—just me. The Dursleys weren't here to slander her in front of someone. There was a much better reputation in the Wizarding World as a hero than going to a boarding school for female delinquents in the Muggle one.

She could make friends without being afraid.

It was a nice, warm feeling but was ruined by her next thought—how do I make friends?

"Is everyone in your family magical?" Halley asked, thinking about the family of redheads.

Rory looked away from the window. "Well, Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but he doesn't like to come over much. His son is several years above us."

"You must know a lot of magic already." She wondered how much she was going to struggle to keep up with her classmates.

"I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Rory. "What are they like?"

"Only my aunt, uncle, and cousin are horrible, though. Wish I'd had three wizard sisters."

"Five," said Rory. Her countenance became gloomy for some reason. "I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts, my little brother is coming next year. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Beatrice and Charlotte have already left - Beatrice was head girl and Charlotte was captain of Quidditch. Now Priscilla's a prefect. Felicity and Georgia mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first. You never get anything new, either, with five sisters. I've got Beatrice's old robes, Charlotte's old wand, and Priscilla's old rat."

There was a defeated sigh as Halley's head was spinning as she was trying to imagine having five sisters and a little brother. The only image she could conjure were several copies of herself doing various activities. Small parts of her thought what it would be like if her parents would be alive and had a family just as large. She thought it would be even nicer to meet other Wizarding children when growing up.

She then squashed the idea and called herself foolish.

Rory reached inside her worn pink jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep. It had long, drooping whiskers and stubby little toes. The fur was thin with age, but overall the rat looked well kept and loved. " He hardly ever wakes up. Priscilla got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff- I mean, I got Scabbers instead." Her ears went pink. She seemed to think she'd said too much, because she went back to staring out of the window.

Halley didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, she'd never had any money in her life until a month ago, and he told Rory so, all about having to wear Daisy's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Rory up.

"... and until Hagrid told me, I didn't know anything about being a wizard or about my parents or Voldemort."

Rory gasped.

"What?"

"You—you said his name. You-Know-Who's!" Rory sounded more shocked than impressed. "Why you do that? No one says it."

"I'm not trying to be brave or anything, saying the name," said Halley. "I just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn... I bet," she added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying her a lot lately, "I bet I'm the worst in the class."

That fear was quickly changed later on the train ride. So far Halley was half-explained what Quidditch was (she still had no clear understanding of the game except that the Chudley Cannons needed more luck). She wasn't feeling so afraid of going to Hogwarts now.

What she also noticed so far with Rory Weasley was that the girl looked completely different when explaining things to Halley. She looked more confident and sure, and happy to be talking to someone. She was also very enthusiastic on several topics and tried her best clarify what shows on the wireless were good and which sports teams were the best. In turn, Rory was equally curious to learn about the Muggle world and would get just as confused as Halley when told her about shows on the telly and their sports teams.

They had moved on from trading and comparing Chocolate Frog cards (several Dumbledores, two Agrippas, and a Circe) and were adventurously trying Every Flavour Beans. After some disastrous attempts with socks and dirt, Halley had got toast, coconut, baked bean, strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny grey one Rory wouldn't touch, which turned out to be pepper.

"You gotta look out for a colour like that one," she explained. "Nothing pleasant those things are. One time I got charcoal and it wouldn't leave my mouth for ages.

"Do you have a favourite flavour?" Halley asked.

"Bacon." Rory smiled and gave a little laugh at Halley expression. "See? Told you they got every flavour. Here, let's go find one for you to try."

There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced girl Halley had passed on platform nine and three quarters came in. She looked tearful. "Sorry," she said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"

When they shook their heads, she wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"

"He'll turn up," said Halley.

"Yes," said the girl miserably. "Well, if you see him..." She left.

"Don't know why she's so bothered," said Rory. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could—they don't do anything 'cept hop away. Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."

"What's wrong with him?"

"He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference," said Rory in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work. I'll show you, look..." She rummaged around in her trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something glittery and white was glinting at the end. "Stupid unicorn hair is poking out. Mum says it wouldn't do that as much if I would stop playing with it. Anyway—"

She had just raised her wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless girl was back, but this time she had a boy with him. His Hogwarts robes looked very new and clean. "Has anyone seen a toad? Nellie's lost one," he said. He had a bossy sort of voice, bushy brown hair that fell over his eyes, and rather large front teeth.

He briefly reminded Halley of a beaver.

"We've already told her we haven't seen it," said Rory, but the boy wasn't listening, he was looking at the wand in her hand.

"Oh, are you doing magic? Let's see it, then." He sat down.

Rory looked taken aback.

"Er - all right." She cleared her throat. "Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow, Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."

That didn't sound like any spell that Halley had read so far.

It didn't worked if there was any question. Matters only became worst when the boy, who was later called Hector Granger, gloated about all that he read and how prepared he was for his studies. Rory and Halley shared a forlorn look and both were positive that they were going to be sharing the bottom of the class together.

Even after Hector Granger left Halley's head was still reeling. "Do you think your sisters can help us with getting good marks?"

Rory snorted and slumped further in her seat, ignoring the candy next to her that could help. "The twins are just going to mess with us, and Priscilla will be reprimanding me on anything that I do wrong." She bit her thumbnail, looking worried. "Wonder how my brother will go through this next year…" She looked down at her worn brown plimsoles and sighed again.

"What House do you think you'll be in?"

"Well, everyone in my family's been in Gryffindor." The glum look reappeared on Rory's face. "Bollocks, the twins are going to give me hell if I end up in Hufflepuff."

"What's your family like?" Halley asked, hoping to distract her. She would try not to think of what house she was gong to be in. Frankly, anywhere with Rory sounded nice. She could need a friend.

"Big and loud," Rory said. "My two older sisters are living on their own, and they're adventurous like that, and my mum and dad are really proud of them because not many witches have jobs like them. Priscilla wants to go into the ministry because she only likes boring stuff, the twins—" she made a noncommittal noise. "You've seen them. Mum's just glad that they haven't blown the place up yet. I got a little brother, too, Gabriel. He's going to be such a pain next year. Poor thing is all alone now."

It seemed to have worked, but Rory then said in a softer voice: "I'm going to miss my parents." The girl's forehead crinkled and she looked out the window.

Halley tried. She really did tried, but she never felt that way towards the Dursleys. It must be nice to have a family to miss, people with good memories of. "Do you want to explain Quidditch to me again?"

Rory turned her head, a small smile on her face. "Sure!" It became wider, but not reaching her eyes.

She was just taking Halley through the finer points of the game when the compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Nellie the toadless girl, or Hector Granger this time. Three girls entered, and Halley recognised the middle one at once: it was the pale girl from Madam Malkin's robe shop. She was looking at Halley with a lot more interest than she'd shown back in Diagon Alley. That look was all cold and judgemental, but now she was looking at Halley as if she was an exhibit at the zoo.

"Is it true?" the girl said with her pointed chin tilted up. "They're saying all down the train that Halley Potter's in this compartment. So it's you, is it?"

"Yes," said Halley. She was looking at the other girls. Both of them were rather tall and had sullen faces. Standing on either side of the pale girl, they looked like bodyguards but smaller.

"Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale girl carelessly, noticing where Halley was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Daria Malfoy."

Rory gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger. Halley would be doing the same if the situation didn't felt so prickly.

Daria Malfoy looked at her. "Think my name's funny, do you? No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford." She turned back to Halley. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potter. You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort. I can help you there."

"Oh! You really got her mad," Rory whispered into Halley's ear. They were waiting with the other First Years for their Sorting. "She's still glaring at you!"

Halley looked quickly and saw Daria Malfoy sulking. She was shooting more glares at their direction. "Well, she insulted you, after all. And I didn't like what she said at Malkin's."

"Thanks," Rory said. She was smiling widely for the first time. "You're pretty wicked, Halley Potter."

Halley mumbled something, blushed, and pushed her glasses up her nose, feeling rather glad that she met the redhead…

The last thing Halley saw before the hat dropped over her eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at her. Her stomach swooped at the realization that everyone was going to be looking at her now. Next second she was looking at the black inside of the hat. She waited for her fate and tried not to feel sick.

"Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "Difficult. Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, my goodness, yes - and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting... so where shall I put you?"

Halley gripped the edges of the stool and thought, Not Slytherin, not Slytherin. Slytherin had Daria Malfoy who probably hated her. It had the dark wizard that killed her parents. She shouldn't go there.

"Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that - no? Well, if you're sure - better be GRYFFINDOR!"

Halley heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall. She took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. She was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, she hardly noticed that she was getting the loudest cheer yet. The entire table was a chaotic blur of laughs and cheers as she joined them.

Priscilla the Prefect got up and shook her hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"

Stunned, Halley sat down and trying to comprehend what was going on around her. She turned her head and saw Rory standing with the smaller crowd of their year mates. The redhead gave her a shaky smile and held her thumb up. That was when Halley really started to believe Hagrid that she was going to do fine at Hogwarts.