"Gryffindor!!!" The hat shouted. No one really knew what to do. The Gryffindors weren't sure they should be happy with someone who was clearly friends with Slytherins, and the Slytherins shocked at her sorting. Lucius and Sev slowly started clapping, and some Gryffindors joined in hesitantly.
Ruby took off the hat and sat down away from both the Marauders and Sev's ex-friend, Lily. The hat moved on to the first years, effectively taking the attention away from Ruby.
Ruby ate little during the feast despite the piles of food in front of her. Her habits were ingrained deeply.
After dinner, she followed Lily to the common room. The common room was nice, warm and homey, with a bright crackling fire, large plush couches and thick rugs. Everything was either red or gold, and everything was bright. It was unsettling after living in the dark, dirty and cold house on Spinner's End.
There was an extra bed in the dorm with her trunk by it. Ruby couldn't sleep. It was strange to be sleeping on an actual bed. At home the siblings had resorted to using the child mattress as a pillow and sleeping on the floor. They were far too tall for it. At home, everything was silent, neither twin daring to make a noise, and their father passed out somewhere in the house. Here, her roommates chatted excitedly, and laughed. It was so weird that Ruby found herself walking silently out of the dorm and out of the Gryffindor common room.
Despite never having set foot in the castle before, she found it surprisingly easy to find the dungeons. She sat outside the portrait of Salazar Slytherin, waiting for someone to come. When they did, she hid silently in the shadows, listening as they said the password.
When all was quiet again, she whispered the password to the portrait, and the wall opened up. She walked in silently, more out of habit than on purpose.
The Slytherin common room was cold, and dark. there were windows that looked out into the Black Lake, but nothing could be seen now, since it was dark out. The green fire provided little warmth, and although the black leather couches looked comfortable, they weren't nearly as welcoming as the ones in Gryffindor.
Ruby took the staircase up to the boys' dorms, and looked for the door that said sixth year. It didn't take long, and Ruby opened the door quietly.
No one was awake, thankfully, except Sev, who sat up immediately.
"Hey, Ruby." He said, when he realized who it was. "Couldn't sleep?" She shook her head, walking over to his bed and laying down next to him like they always did at home.
"No. It's way too warm over there. And I've barely ever slept without you."
"I've been at Hogwarts for years now."
"Yeah, I know." She sighed, realizing her slip-up.
"I'm here now. We should sleep. It's your first day of classes tomorrow."
"Good night."
"Good night."
They drifted off, sleeping soundly until morning, when they were awoken by a shrill scream.
The two sat up quickly, instinctively covering their faces.
Ruby blinked, glaring murderously at the boy.
"Who are you?" She growled.
"Crabbe." He squeaked. "Why are you in the guys dorm?"
"Sev's in here." She motioned to her brother, shrugging.
"Are you his girlfriend?"
"No, you idiot. I'm his sister."
"Oh." He sighed in relief. Ruby rolled her eyes, and got out of the bed.
"I've got to get ready. See you at breakfast, Sev." He nodded, and she left, following the same path she had the night before to get back to her dorm. The other girls stared at her when she came in.
"Where were you? I woke up in the middle of the night and you weren't there, and you weren't there this morning either."
Ruby shrugged. "I was with Sev." She said, pulling her uniform out of her trunk. She felt a little uncomfortable changing in front of the girls, so she went into the bathroom. With a little work, she managed to button up her shirt, but her tie was a lost cause. She shrugged, and put it in her bag. The grey skirt reached mid-thigh on most girls, but Ruby was tall, which made the skirt shorter on her.
Ruby was used to wearing clothes that were too small, not having new clothes since Sev's third year. This uniform was no exception. When she pulled the skirt down a little so it would cover more of her long legs, her shirt came untucked, riding up a little to show her stomach. Shrugging, she brushed through her greasy hair with her fingers, and left the bathroom. She grabbed her denim shorts, and turned them the grey of the uniform's skirt with a spell. She changed into the shorts in the bathroom, and went down to breakfast.
Ruby decided she didn't want to sit at the Gryffindor table, and sat down next to Sev at the Slytherin table.
"Where's your tie?" Lucius asked, noticing the lack of one immediately.
"Couldn't figure out how to tie it, so I didn't. It's in my dorm."
"You're wearing shorts." Narcissa, Bellatrix's little sister who was in the same year as Ruby, gaped.
"Skirt was too short." Ruby said, before putting the last bite of a small piece of toast in her mouth.
Ruby swallowed her food and pulled out a beat up copy of Advanced Potion making. She pushed up her robe sleeves to her elbows, and began reading. Suddenly there was an explosion, the food at the Slytherin table exploding all over the table's occupants.
A shimmering protective shield appeared around the twins on instinct, leaving the two unscathed. Severus however, fell backwards off the bench. He groaned rubbing the back of his head as he sat up. Ruby was by his side instantly, focusing her magic on healing the lump that was forming on his head.
"Thanks, Ruby." He mumbled as he picked himself up from the floor.
Satisfied, Ruby turned to Narcissa, who was trying to pick food off of her uniform.
"Who did that?"
"Stupid Marauders, again." Ruby glared at the Gryffindor table, and their food suddenly exploded. The raucous laughter coming from the Gryffindors was cut off suddenly by the explosion covered them in food.
Narcissa looked between Ruby and the explosion, gaping. "Did you do that?" Ruby shrugged, and Severus nodded. "That's so cool." She squealed, before sobering. "We should get to class."
Ruby was nervous as she stood outside of Dumbledore's office. She was going to take her OWLS today, going only on her what she had learned from the books. She had been able to do a few spells with her wand, but didn't have enough time to try all of them.
First was Charms. The written portion was easy, but Ruby was more worried about the practical aspects of the lessons. For the practical part they started with simple charms like Lumos, Nox and Windgardium Leviosa, before moving on the more difficult spells. Although Ruby had been expecting it to be much harder than it actually was, it wasn't easy. She frequently found herself performing the spell with her mind, and only pretending to cast it with her wand. For the last spell she had to summon a book from across the room, and silence a singing parrot.
"Silencio!" She shouted, performing the correct wand movement. The parrot's voice was immediately silenced, although it was still singing.
Ruby had only performed the Accio charm a few times, and they had all been difficult. She knew she couldn't afford to fail, and forced the book to float to her waiting hand, only performing the spell as a facade.
Next was Defense against the Dark Arts. This was surprisingly easy. Although Ruby didn't think she would be able to identify a werewolf unless it was attacking her, she did know the signs to identify one. The other questions were just as easy, since Ruby knew the book by heart.
The defensive spells were simple, since she had been making protective shields since she was little. She just added a little wand waving and spell shouting to make it believable. The counter jinxes were much more difficult, and they were often stopped by protection spells instead of the proper counter spell.
Ruby knew what a boggart was, but had never faced one. She didn't really want to know what her boggart was, so as soon as it began to take form, she shouted the spell, forcing it to take the form of her father's grave. She didn't let it sit there long enough for most people to read the text, and forced it back into the cabinet.
Ruby knew she could cast a patronus charm, although she had never tried. She only had a couple happy memories, and her magic was powerful.
"Expecto Patronum!!" She shouted. A white mist shot from the tip of her wand, and took the shape of a huge wolf. The beast stood opposite her, and nodded its head. She nodded back, before waving her wand. The animal disappeared.
Potions was a little difficult, because Ruby had trouble remembering what root of asphodel was, and she felt rather nervous when she accidentally dropped in an extra drop of Willow sap, but when she finished it didn't turn out horribly.
Transfiguration was difficult. She had surprising difficulty with turning a pidgeon into a snuff box, and had to perform the spell several times before she finally succeeded.
Astronomy was rather difficult too. Ruby had only seen stars a few times; the sky above Spinner's end was almost always covered in thick clouds, and smog from nearby factories. And Ruby had usually spent the nights unconscious on the living room floor.
Ruby had studied the Herbology textbook enough times to recognize the plants, and although the problems for Arithmancy were difficult, she managed to solve them a few minutes before time ran out. Study of Ancient Runes, a subject Ruby had studied thoroughly when Sev had decided to try a year of it in fourth year, didn't seem to advance much from one year to the next, much to her relief. Ruby had decided not to take Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies, since neither seemed interesting.
Ruby yawned as she walked to the Great Hall after finishing her last OWL. She was exhausted, and decided not to bother with her house, instead sitting at the Slytherin table again.
"How do you think you did on your OWLs?" Lucius asked.
"I might have flunked out of Astronomy and Transfiguration, but other than that I think I did okay." She ate little, and Narcissa raised an eyebrow at her food.
"Aren't you going to eat more than that?"
"No." Ruby said.
"You'll make yourself sick from eating so little." Narcissa said, seeming rather worried.
"I've been eating less than this my entire life." Ruby mumbled, pushing her empty plate away so that she could put her book on the table.
"How are you not sick?" Narcissa gasped. Ruby didn't know, so she just shrugged.
She went with them to bed despite Narcissa telling her it was rather strange to sleep in her brother's bed. Ruby replied that she didn't know what was weird about it, and ignoring her.
Ruby woke at dawn, and got ready in the boy's bathroom, having brought over her clothes the night before.
Ruby's very first class, Potions, seemed to descend into chaos the moment the door slammed open fifteen minutes after the class started. Four boys trudged in, not a single one looking happy to be in the class.
The first boy was one Ruby had already developed a very deep hatred for. It was James Potter. The second one had long black hair and dark grey eyes. The third topped the other three by several inches, and had golden brown hair, hazel eyes, and numerous scars that looked recent. The fourth was the least imposing of the four. He was short, pudgy and had large front teeth that made him look rather like a rat. They were all clearly Gryffindors, although only the tallest was actually wearing his tie correctly.
Potter grinned, waving to the class before taking a seat in the second row, his friends following. Professor Slughorn looked at them disapprovingly but did nothing.
At first, it was a paper ball that sailed over her brother's head. Then it was a plane that would have hit him in the ear if Ruby had not caught it, burning it to ashes. The it was an outstretched leg as Severus went to get the ingredients. Then a firework exploded his cauldron, and it was the last straw.
Ruby had been trying to stay calm and not attract attention, since her brother was pleading her with his eyes not to do anything. However she couldn't stand by and watch as they hurt her brother.
She growled, lunging at Potter. She had slammed him into the floor, punching him numerous times before anyone could blink. People were yelling, but she couldn't hear them over the sound of blood rushing in her ears. Pain exploded in her stomach as the boy tried to get her off of him, but it did nothing. She was far too used to pain.
Someone tried to pull her off, only to be punched as well. She didn't know who it was, but she did know it wasn't her brother. He always knew to stay far away when she got like this.
"You." She hit him again. "Never." She slammed him back into the floor. "Hurt." She stood, throwing him into the wall. "My." He fell limply to the floor. "Brother." She took a deep breath, trying to calm down, if only because she could hear her brother whimpering.
She marched up to the grey eyed and punched him in the stomach, satisfied when leaned over clutching his stomach. Her knee came up breaking his nose. She moved to kneel next to her brother, who was clutching his left arm. She gently pried away his fingers, gasping when she saw that his arm was badly burned, with a small piece of his cauldron embedded in his arm. That wouldn't heal well.
Ruby put her hand over the burn, transferring his wound to herself. She gritted the teeth at the pain, but didn't make a sound. She moved away once it had healed completely. She smiled and helped him to his feet.
"Are you okay?" He nodded. "Good. Class is almost over anyway. Let's go." She turned to the Professor. "I'm really sorry about the mess, Professor, but it had to be done." Professor Slughorn nodded shakily, keeping his gaze firmly away from the unconscious James Potter. Ruby pulled her twin out of the Potions classroom and the two made their way to Transfiguration.