Title: Shine of a Ruby

Disclaimer: This story is based on the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling, who is not the same as Sparks, i.e. me

Author: Sparks (the-sparky-scribblings)

Rating: PG-13/Fiction T

Summary: Life is never easy. Especially when your little brother defeated the most powerful Dark wizard in history. And you're also dealing with growing up, singlehandedly raising said younger brother, and trying to keep track of your love life which may or may not exist.

A/N: I edited this thrice. Majorly unprofessional, I know, but it had to be done. I've got the worst judgment in Fanficland


The station was large and unfamiliar, though not in an unwelcoming way.

Ruby turned to her godfather, disguised as an oldish man with greying hair. Sirius smiled reassuringly and ruffled her hair. "You'll do fine," he said. Her face turned serious. "Promise me you'll protect them," she said, her face filled with the kind of worried expression that did not belong on the face of any eleven-year-old.

Sirius sighed. Trust an eleven year old to put into perspective everything he was worrying about - and also trying to make him promise something she very well knew neither of them could do too much about.

"I don't trust Peter," Ruby began, the third time she'd voiced her thoughts in that week. Sirius sighed again, now exasperated, and repeated his words. "You and I both know that there's nothing we can do about it now. It's too late." He paused to look at his watch and continued, "Look at the time. It's nearly ten-fifteen. People are coming in now. I'd better go now. Have fun!" With that hurried farewell, he hugged her and rushed out of the platform.

Ruby grinned and waved, all worries about her parents pushed to the back of her head. They'll be fine, she told herself. With all worries and preoccupations out of her mind for the moment, she was left wondering what to do for forty-five whole minutes.

It was only then that she noticed the goodbye present Sirius had pressed into her hand moments ago. The latest Nancy Drew book lay in her hands, and when she opened it, she found a hastily scribbled note tucked inside.

Dear Ruby, it read,
I know you loved these muggle "detective" stories, so I asked Padfoot to give this to you for me. I hope you'll forgive him for breaking your new bicycle!
Love, Dad

Ruby grinned after she finished reading the note. At least now she'd have something to do besides twiddling her thumbs. And Padfoot was already forgiven. She just liked to hear his endless apologies and how he'd never try to do a wheelie on the 'darned flimsy thing' ever again.

However, she'd barely read the first page before another, noisier family turned up at the station. Nine people, all with flaming red hair, had just entered the station. The mother — who Ruby vaguely recognized, though for the life of her could not remember the woman's name — was struggling with two infants, both bawling their heads off. A small red-headed boy with glasses followed her, trying to act mature.

The father was trying to keep the other children in line, failing miserably. It was a truly chaotic sight, and Ruby had always been drawn to chaos. She smiled sweetly at the woman, offering to help. The woman, Molly Weasley, pointed to her toddler twins and heaved an exhausted sigh as she passed one cacophonic infant to her husband.

The twins, seeing a new person, forgot about running and promptly accosted her.

"I'm Gwed"
"And I'm Fowge!"
"And we're the bestest pwanksters of all time!"

Pranksters? Ruby loved pranks. A wicked glint shone in her eye.

"But we can't do pwanks..." continued Fred.
"Without the stuffs!" ended George, rather loudly.

"FRED! GEORGE! STOP HOLLERING THIS INSTANT!" shouted a red-faced Molly. Amidst the chaos, Ruby noticed two more boys standing next to a trunk. The older one looked around her age. He was arguing with his younger brother, and as she approached them, she heard snatches of their conversation.

"It's not fair, Bill, why the hell do I get stuck at home babysitting the squirts while you go running off to Hogwarts?"

"Cause I'm older than you, Charlie-poo"

"SHUT UP AND DON'T CALL ME THAT! Though I bet I'll be wading through shit by summer. Shit that you'll have to clean up!"

"Language, brother!" Bill tutted, though he was grinning.

"You've got away with worse, but Mum loves you, 'cause you're older and supposedly 'mature'"

Charlie stomped off, perhaps to sulk about the imminent mountain of baby crap which was in store for him, leaving a laughing Bill behind.

"Hi."
She startled him, causing him to jump and knock over his trunk.
"Oh, er, hi" he stammered, diving to retrieve something which had fallen out of his bag.

Ruby snickered, which earned her a glare and an indignant "Oi!" from the subject of her amusement.

He scrambled to his feet, cursing. "I'm not always that clumsy, y'know."

"Are you a first year?"
"Yeah. You?"
"Me too. Which house do you wanna go to?"
"Gryffindor. Slytherin's a definite no-no, and I don't think I'm suited for the other two. You?"

"Well, seeing that I'm not Death Eater material, nor am I hardworking, and I'd rather use my smarts for pranks than for the good of humanity, Gryffindor is pretty much the house for me. Not to mention my sheer badass-ness which guarantees me a spot there."
She said all this with a cocky smile, almost as if she expected him to challenge her "sheer badass-ness"

They were interrupted by a shrill shout of "Mummy! Bill's trying to do things with that girl over there!"

The train had arrived at the platform in all its scarlet glory. There was chaos everywhere, last goodbyes, hurrying students, and disgruntled students trying to shake their younger siblings off.

Ruby really regretted not letting her mother owl her the packet of fudge and chocolate mousse which served as her going-away present. Her skinny arms were ready to snap after hauling her trunk (how many tons was that thing?) into the train and dragging it into the nearest empty compartment.

Hardly a minute had passed since she'd collapsed, when another person entered the compartment. Her hair was frizzy and dark and she had a shy voice.

"Is anyone else coming here?"
"Nope, just me."
"Mind if I join you?"
"In dying?"
"You don't need help to die, y'know."
"Shut up."

The girl took a seat. Till now, Ruby had made no attempt to lift her head off the seat and look at the person seated opposite her.

The door slid open again and Bill Weasley entered, accompanied by another boy. This boy was round-faced and chubby, with a mop of curly brown hair.
"Hi, I'm Bill and this is Timothy."
"Call me Biscuit, everyone else does," said the chubby boy. He smiled widely at the other three.

"I'm Jules," said the seemingly shy dark-skinned dark-haired girl. "That girl's dying, apparen—"
"I'm not dying now, I'm starving."
"Hi Starving, I'm Biscuit. Nice to meet you."

Ruby looked up and stuck her tongue out at the people around her. "Biscuit is a weird nickname. Speaking of which, do you have any biscuits with you right now, mate?"

The food trolley arrived at that very moment. "What do you guys want? It's on me," Ruby said, grabbing ten chocolate frogs and a packet of Bertie Bott's for herself. She paid the woman fifteen sickles and dug into her food, satisfied.


A few hours and many games of Exploding Snap later, the train finally pulled up at Hogsmeade Station. The four children fell silent at the breathtaking first glance of Hogwarts Castle.

"Firs' years, o'er here!" called a gigantic man.
The four children — who now seemed to be inseparable — caught one little boat for themselves just before they set sail across the Black Lake.

"Say, do any of you know about the Giant Squid rumored to live in these waters?" asked Biscuit, leaning over the edge of the boat.

"His name's Squidley Squart the Second. And, Biscuit, if you lean over the edge like that, we're all going to fall in. I can swim just fine but I'm not going to save your lousy drowning arses!" answered Ruby.
"OI!"


All the first years were lined up, waiting to be Sorted.

Jules Parker was a Muggleborn, and her mum, a college student. She'd always wanted to do things like climb trees and have adventures of the type in Enid Blyton books, but she'd never imagined an adventure of this magnitude and... surreality.

She was a little scared, but she thought of her new friends, and suddenly, she was a little more reassured.

Gryffindor. Hmm. She had always had a preference for red...


Timothy Anderson liked to think of himself as Gryffindor material. He had nothing against the other houses, but he did have a particular preference for the 'brave' house.

His father had been in Ravenclaw, and his mother, in Gryffindor, and he knew that his parents would be perfectly happy with any house but Slytherin. Both his parents were Muggle-born, so the odds of getting into Slytherin were highly reduced anyway.

But, when the hat cried Gryffindor, he let out a relieved breath he'd had no idea he was holding.


William Weasley was slightly nervous. Slightly being the operative word here. When they were alive, his uncles Fabian and Gideon had told him long, extremely scary stories of Sortings past. The scariness factor was upped by the story his uncle Bilius had told him, about what would happen, should anyone with Weasley blood be Sorted into Slytherin. The results were not pretty. Neither were his uncles when Molly Weasley had finished thoroughly hexing her brothers and brother-in-law for feeding her oldest child "disturbing and untrue stories which are not things acceptable for an innocent child's ears!"

He wished that he could convince himself not to believe the rubbish stories. But every time he tried, a nasty little voice in the corner of his head would slip doubts in, making his efforts counterproductive.

It was very relieving to only have to put on an old hat and wait till it decided where to put you, though, and he did think that some of the old curse stories could be spiced up a little to make them the horrifying elements of little Charlie's nightmares.


Shut up, you stupid thing, you won't go to Slytherin and you know it. Ruby Potter had first thought these words as a means to reprimand herself for being nervous, but as the minutes passed, she kept repeating the line to herself as a sort of confidence mantra.

By the time her name was called out for Sorting, she'd repeated her mantra exactly five hundred and eighty-one times (yes, she had counted).
The cool darkness of the Sorting Hat surrounded her, blocking everything from view.

How could Godric Gryffindor have worn this hat and still been able to see? she wondered.

His head was larger than yours, answered a voice which was definitely not hers.

Are you the Sorting Hat? Can I not go to Slytherin, please?

The Sorting Hat answered almost immediately.

You are far too reckless to be in Slytherin, not nearly kind or hardworking enough to go to Hufflepuff, but you could go to Ravenclaw. You've certainly got the wit.
I sense recklessness. Hmm. Maybe you are not suited to Ravenclaw at all. You're James Potter's daughter, aren't you? He was the same as you. And he did fabulously well in...

The last word was shouted to the whole Great Hall.

"GRYFFINDOR!"


Nearly six pages and more than two thousand words long. Longest thing I've ever written. Hope you guys like it!

P.S. Tell me if you think Ruby is Mary Sue-ish. I'm pretty new to the world of character development.

P.P.S. Check out sparky-scribblings on tumblr