A family of outrageously bright red hair made their way through King's Cross station, it appeared as if the two parents were trying to deflect attention. The older two children had very little interest in keeping away from the prying muggles eyes and irritated their parents beyond belief.

A younger girl, around the age of eleven, looked nervous and anxious about the upcoming journey. She stuck out like a sore thumb in her family. She possessed traits unlike the rest of her siblings, instead of ginger hair and brown eyes, she was 'gifted' as her mother told her, with her grandmother's looks. The girl had light blonde hair that cascaded down her back in waves and bright blue eyes that were full of curiosity.

The family passed through the barrier with ease having done it for many years now, this was not their first child going to Hogwarts. The two older boys ran away almost immediately to find their friends, taking only their broomsticks and leaving their father to carry the rest of their belongings onto the train. The older woman chased after her sons to scold them for not saying goodbye to their parents.

"Those blasted boys! They do this every year and every year they get away with it, I'm getting too old for this," spoke the older man, who had wonderfully kind eyes and looked as if he was entering the later stages of wizarding middle age. "My beautiful girl be a dear and carry your trunk towards the luggage area, I'm afraid I can't carry three. You wouldn't want me to do my back in now would you?"

"Of course, dad"

"so dad do you… do you think I'll make many friends at Hogwarts?" the young girl asked curiously whilst passing her trunk over to the train worker.

"I think Hogwarts will be the best years of your life, it certainly has been for your brothers. Your sister met her lovely husband at Hogwarts and enjoyed every minute of it. So, there's no need to worry." The older man said reassuringly "Now hop on the train and find a compartment before it leaves,"

"Have the most wonderful time my love," The girl's mother had returned from seeing off her older brothers and looked at her daughter with pure love and sadness, "I will miss you greatly, my youngest baby finally off to Hogwarts, enjoy every minute off it my darling"

"Thanks mum, I'll write to you every week!" the girl exclaimed

With one final hug and kiss to her parents, the young girl aching with nervousness made her way onto the train in search of an empty compartment. She finds one towards the back of the train and immediately sits down. The girl finds herself hoping that maybe some first-years will join her so that she will have friends before the sorting.

"Ruby! There you are we've been looking for you"

"What are you doing by yourself?"

"Oh, I just, I, I don't have anyone to sit with yet,"

"Well let's find you someone come on, hurry up then" Ruby grabbed her belongings and rushed after her older brothers. She followed them down two carriages until they came towards a stop.

"Well well well, if it isn't Tom Macdonald's little sister," the boy with the slightly larger nose exclaimed to his brother

"eh here you go Rubs, I know she's a firstie and look she's got some friends"

"Gideon, I don't want to intrude,"

"Nonsense Ruby," and just like that he pushed her into the carriage and the two boys wandered back off towards their friends.

The blonde girl looked around anxiously at the 7 people sitting in the carriage, waiting for someone to introduce themselves so she wouldn't have to.

One of the boys with curly brown hair and hazel eyes jumped to his feet, "Hi I'm James Potter and this here there is…"

"Sirius Black, nice to meet you"

"Remus Lupin"

"Peter Pettigrew"

"Hi I'm Lily"

"Severus"

"And Mary Macdonald"

"Oh, my brothers told me that they knew your brother Mary, Tom is it?" Ruby said in hope to start up a conversation. Mary was noticeably quiet in the compartment and appeared just as nervous as Ruby. Mary had dark blonde hair, tied up rather neatly with a yellow bow and deep green eyes. She was used to being overshadowed by her older brother at home and was excited to become her own person whilst at Hogwarts.

"Yeah, he's a sixth year, on the Gryffindor quidditch team, who are your brothers?"

"Fabian and Gideon Prewett"

"Fabian and Gideon?" James interrupted

"Yeah why?"

"They're famous for their mischief and pranks, heard about them on the train earlier! Awesome well you're definitely going to be our friend then, right boys?"

"Yes"

"yeah, awesome"

Just then a knock on the compartment drew the attention to the door, "sorry to interrupt but do you mind if I sit with you? I can't seem to find many other first-years"

"We are a bit full" the larger boy pointed out looking around at the eight occupants.

"oh, not to worry Lily and myself are going to find a new compartment, half the people here aren't really to my taste," The boy with darker hair and a pointed nose explained and then promptly left along with the lovely red-haired girl.

"Oi!"

"You hardly even know us!"

"Out of order"

The boys shouted their disbelief but were promptly interrupted by the new girl in the carriage

"I'm sorry if I caused you all any issues!" she exclaimed "I really didn't mean to,"

"It's alright, it seemed like Severus had very little interest in being our friend anyway" Ruby explained to the dark-haired girl "Anyway my names Ruby and this is Mary, Peter, Remus, and Sirius"

"Lovely to meet you all, I'm Katherine but I hate that name, too dull for my liking so I go by either Katie or Kitty if we're really close friends," Kitty was a rather ordinary-looking girl but was by no means ugly. She had long dark brown hair with hazel eyes and had an air of kindness around her which made her all the more likable to Ruby. Who was looking to form a strong friendship whilst at Hogwarts and appears to have potentially found that in the form of Kitty Waters, a strong-willed and strong-hearted Muggleborn

"We should probably change into our robes now," Remus the quieter of the four boys explained, perhaps like Ruby he was just as anxious to start his Hogwarts journey.

So I just wanted to write a little note at the bottom, I've been thinking about doing a story like this for a while now after having not really found anything too similar. I have planned out most of my major plot points and I'm hoping to show that all my characters have flaws, especially my OC Ruby who as you will read has many flaws and many things to learn. I don't own any of the characters just the original ones I have created. For the moment this won't be rated as mature but it might move into it later on in the story, it just depends on how graphic I write some storylines. Just to be warned there will be mentions of torture, death, sex etc but I will try and place trigger warnings where necessary. Let me know if you like the idea of this story and I'll definitely try and upload more often if people really enjoy it. This chapter is a bit short, but i am hoping to get the next one out later today so hopefully that will make up for it.