Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns all this, I own Ruth, Gen and the Pepsi I drank while writing
A/N: this is my first Harry Potter fan fic so bear with me, feedback extremely welcome
Chapter 1: It Begins
Ruth Dawson sat looking out the window of the airplane at the Atlantic Ocean. It wasn't normal for wizards and witches to travel by plane, but Ruth was far from normal. She wasn't looking forward to being back in England, she would have preferred to remain in Canada but Dumbledore had made it clear that she was needed and remaining where she was wasn't an option. It was a return that she'd been delaying for some time now, for a few reasons but mostly because of Sirius Black. She was still wary that the Ministry would learn of her return and put her on his trail right away taking Kingsley off the case. Personally she was a little surprised that it was taking Kingsley this long to find Black, she's worked with him before and he was extremely efficient.
'I probably should have taken the Defence Against the Dark Art's position at Hogwarts too', she thought, 'it would be a lot better then that Umbridge woman they had now, though my view is probably slightly bias because she made it impossible for Remus to get a job'.
It seemed like a long time since she'd been at Hogwarts, and she wasn't sure if she was looking that forward to returning. Hogwarts was where she'd been set apart from everyone else and it had started her down this path 23 years ago. 'Actually it had started before I went to Hogwarts', she thought, 'even before I got the letter about being a witch. Knowing it's a long plane flight between Canada and England Ruth finds herself thinking back on how exactly she ended up in the situation she was now….
(A/N: the first bit is going to be flashbacks of Ruth's years at Hogwarts, just to explain stuff, also at this point we switch to her thoughts so it's in first person instead of third person narration like the first bit)
I'd been a little different from the other kids for as long as I can remember, they always thought I was a little weird and tended to tease me about it, then when I got mad at them strange things happened, which of course made them label me as a freak and got me in more then a little bit of trouble. There was another girl like me at school, she moved in when she was seven and I was six, we were in the same grade but she was born in March and I was born in November, her name's Genevieve, I decided that was too long and took to calling her Gen. I think she was secretly pleased about it since she'd never had a friend before with her older sister like she was. Her sister Sara was one of those girls who is always right in style, the leader of the "in" crowd so to speak. I was nothing like that so Sara tended to make me mad and then strange things would happen. I still believe that Gen's mother tried to get Gen to stop being my friend in an attempt to make her younger daughter "normal" but Gen and I had become an inseparable pair.
Then at the end of July of one summer we both received a note explaining that we were both witches. My first reaction was "hey cool" my mom was slightly less amused. Then a witch visited both Gen's family and mine to explain the situation. See Gen and I both lived in Canada and there wasn't a school for witches and wizards in Canada, so if we were to go to a school for witches and wizards we'd have to either go to the one down in the United Sates or over to the esteemed Hogwarts in England.
My dad immediately said he wanted me to attend school in England, he's originally from England so he had a bit of a bias. Gen's dad thought it was best that "the girls are kept together if they're going to go so far away to school" so Gen got to come with me.
In the last week of August both of us went over to England to visit Diagon Alley to get our school supplies, we were accompanied by the gamekeeper for Hogwarts, Hagrid. He tried to explain the wizarding world to us since we both came from muggle families. I was fascinated, by the whole thing, especially the idea of being able to hex and curse people and the sport of Quiditch – "oh great, another sport for her to play," Gen said when we were first told of it. We also found out about the battle between Lord Voldemort and his death eaters and the rest of the wizarding world. It was then I decided I wanted to be an Auror. As a little kid I'd always imagined myself as some kind of super hero with magical powers who fought all the bad guys in the world, and an Auror was just like my childhood dream come alive.
We found out more about Hogwarts – most importantly the four houses – on the train ride there from a third year student by the name of Lily Evans. Secretly before we'd even arrived at the school I was hoping to be in Griffandor.
To this day the sorting sticks out in my mind, I can't tell you exactly what the hat sung, I was too nervous at the time but I remember the ceremony quite clearly. Especially looking out at all the older students sitting in the hall as Professor McGonagall called out our names:
"Alverson, Craig."
Then after a moments hesitation the hat cried "Huffulpuff."
"Black, Regulus."
I don't even think the hat had touched his head when it screamed "Slytherin." Smiling the dark haired boy headed for the cheering Slytherin table. I probably remember him so well because I'd grow to hate him over the next seven years.
"Burger, Catherine."
"Ravenclaw," the hat screams.
"Dawson, Ruth."
The hat slid down over my eyes so I could no longer see the hall. "Hmmm, plenty of talent here. And ambition too, you might do well in Slytherin."
'I'd rather not,' I thought.
"No, well then you'd be happy in GRIFFANDOR."
I grinned and jogged down to the Griffandor table and took a seat next to Lily. Gen would also be sorted into Griffandor, much to both of our relief.
As dinner started a scruffy looking kid with glasses sitting across from me said to his friend, "I guess you'll be hearing from your mom with your brother in Slytherin and all."
His friend scowled, pushing him black hair out of his blue eyes. "There'll be a howler for me tomorrow morning, I'll bet my life on it."
"What's a howler?" I asked Lily.
"It's a letter of sorts, pretty much who ever sent it voice booms across the hall so it's impossible not to hear it. You send them when you're mad at someone." She paused, "Sirius gets them all the time from his mother so you'll get used to it."
"Why's he get them so often?"
Lilly snorted, "Cause he's a Black, and all Black's are sorted into Slytherin, except him, he ended up in Giffandor. No one knows why. His mother actually came to the school and demanded he get re-sorted. You can't be of course, but it was something else to see. But Giffandor or not, I'd stay clear of him and his friends because they're the biggest gits in the school."
It might have been good if I'd bothered to heed her advice, but that proved to be a little harder then you'd think.
It was the second week of school and already I'd developed a reputation of being able to do anything teachers asked me to do, even in potions with the head of the Slytherin house Professor Tragally. I swear if she could she'd take off house points for me getting my potions perfect. In any case everyone seemed to know who I was, a first year with a little too much talent to be withstood.
This was probably why Regulus tired to curse me at the start of the second week after potions. I say tried because he never got the whole thing out before I put him in the full body bind. I'd only known the kid for a week and a half and already I hated him – not as much as I would, but for only knowing someone a short while it was pretty intense hate. Part of it was because of our first flying lesson that day, Madam Hootch had us flying not too high and not too fast – much to the disgust of Regulus who said he'd been flying his whole life and could fly better than his brother – in any case Gen's afraid of heights so she fainted and had to be taken to the hospital wing. We were told to stay on the ground but Regulus insisted on making fun of Gen calling her a "stupid Mudblood". I had no idea what that meant, but it was an insult and no one insults my friends. In order to escape me he flew up and told me to come get him. I don't back down from challenges like that, so I followed him. I caught him too and dumped him off his broom. End result, we both lost house points, he was sent to the hospital wing and I was sent to the Griffandor common room.
I was there reading when the marauders walk in. Not exactly strange since kids had been trickling in for the last five minutes. However James walks straight over to me.
"Whatcha reading for, I mean you already know everything."
I ignored him trying to focus on the book.
"Actio book," James said pointing his wand at my book, which flew from my hands.
I pulled out my wand and get him with the jelly legs hex, which caused him to fall over. The other kids in the common room laughed, including his three friends.
"You bested the great James Potter," said Sirius sounding amused.
I shrugged and smiled, "Looks that way." Sirius laughed before taking the hex off his friend.
Half the times I saw the marauders around school James and Sirius were hexing a Slytherin boy by the name of Severus Snape, who they called Snivellus, with good reason. I thought it was funny. Gen didn't and tried to stand up for him only to get called a 'Mudblood' by him for her troubles, which really made James and Sirius angry with him. We found out what it means from Lily later, and I was inclined to hate Snivellus too. Gen still seemed to take pity on him though, saying he just needs a friend. Coming from the position of a kid who's always been the butt of everyone's jokes you think I might agree with her, but I didn't.
There wasn't much else of interest that happens in that first year now I look back on it, though Gen and I had fun that summer pretending to practise magic around her sister. If we were allowed to we probably would have hexed her.
Going into my second year my dad gave me enough money for a broomstick and I proceed to win myself the position of chaser on the Giffendor Quiditch team. I was told by Christen (the team captain) that "I'm a lot better then the chaser I'm replacing" and that I "should get the position on seeker after Potter graduates". I told this to Gen who simply said, "just don't get big headed about it".
The thing that made me happy was Regulus didn't make the Slytherin team because they didn't have any openings that year. Though he walked around acting like it was just fine because he was going to get the position of seeker next year when Lucious Malfoy (who was the current seeker, in his seventh year) is gone.
It didn't take long for me to like Malfoy about as much as I liked Regulus. Who ever decided that Malfoy was a good choice for head boy needs his head examined. Unfortunately that's Dumbledore, and Dumbledore, despite his oddities, most certainly does not need his head examined.
Malfoy seemed to have decided that he personally must make life difficult for Sirius, though he had a hard time because you never saw Sirius without James, and hardly ever without Remus or Peter. I succeed in hexing him good once and then we rubbed salt in the wound by clobbering Slytherin in the Quiditch match.
"And you thought he was mad at you after you'd hexed him," said Gen after the match. "He's going to be furious now."
I shrugged, "Not much he can do about the match and as far as hexing him goes I only did it because he was going to hex Sirius from behind."
"So you hex him from behind. How does that make things better?"
I grinned, "He's a Slytherin."
Gen just rolled her eyes.
I'd really grown to like Sirius over the year, he was a really nice guy who I found a lot more tolerable then James. They were both a lot of fun though and caused me to look forward to Quiditch practises. Gen didn't think that much of them though, she actually heeded Lilly's advice and tried to stay away from them. Me I liked troublemakers, to be completely honest I still do.
So there I was at the end of the year, pretty much friends with the marauders who I'd been warned to stay away from (actually I don't think I've really ever heeded anyone's advice in my entire life, if I had I would have a very different life right now). I think the first sign I got that my feelings went deeper then friendship was on the train ride home when I saw Sirius sitting with his arm around a fourth year girl. The amount of jealousy I felt surprised me, after all Sirius and James always seemed to attract a crowd of girls at school.
A/N: that's all for now, R&R