Chapter 1

Disclaimer on opening note

The British summer sun shone through Ruby's hotel room window. She slowly stirred and looked at the clock. "It's only ten," she said as she rolled over then sat bolt upright. "It's ten already? Crap!" The Hogwarts express would leave in an hour. "Crap, Crap, CRAP!!!" She quickly dressed and threw her belongings into her trunk. "I should have had Bobby come," she muttered at she foraged for her room key. " 'I can go by myself. It'll just make good bye harder!' What was I thinking." She went to the front desk, paid the bill, and turned in her key.

"Did you have a good stay, miss," asked the girl behind the counter.

"Yeah, uh-huh. Which way to King's Cross," asked Ruby, slightly distracted by the mirror behind the receptionist.

"Just take a right at the next street. You can't miss it."

"Thanks," she said. She turned then took a double take. She thought she had just seen someone in the mirror.

"Problem, miss?"

"Uh.no." Ruby quickly left and dismissed the reflection as nothing.

She made the station with plenty of time to spare. She was glad she picked a hotel so close. She found the station filled with people, but know one she really knew. "Ruby! Ruby Kennedy," she heard someone call in a Scottish dialect. She turned, and sure enough, Oliver Wood was running towards her.

"Hey," Ruby exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around him. "I missed you so much."

"Me too."

"You missed you?"

"No that's not what I meant."

"I'm just kidding," she laughed.

He laughed too. "We better get on the train. So we can get a good seat." Ruby liked all this "we" business. They ran one after the other on to Platform Nine and Three Quarters.

* * *

Ruby, Oliver, Fred, and George all shared a compartment. They all recanted there vacations. Fred and George were busy tinkering with what they could get away with this year at school, while Oliver spent most of his time training for his final year of quidditch at Hogwarts.

"We have to win the cup this year. We will have to practice as if our lives depended on it."

"Hey, just because yours does, doesn't mean ours do," said George.

"Hey what about your vacation, Ruby,"asked Fred.

"Well, I went to dance camp again, worked at the juice bar, and played video games." Ruby then had to go into an explanation of what a Playstation 2 was and the story of Final Fantasy ten.

"Sounds." Fred trailed off.

"Interesting?" asked George.

"Well, all I have to say is if Blitzball was a real sport, it be much better then quidditch."

"Blitz-what?" asked George.

"Better then quidditch?" Oliver sounded surprised. Ruby didn't have time to explain. At that moment, the lights went out and the train came to a hault.

"What's going on,"asked Ruby as she reached in her robes for her wand. "Lumos." The other three did like wise.

"I'll check it out,"said Oliver and he pulled the door open. He didn't even step out for a darkly robed something walked into their space. It became very cold and Ruby found herself pulling her robe around as tight as she could. She closed her eyes and something in her made her hum the Hymn of the Fayth. Seconds later, the room warmed up again.

"What was that," she asked.

"A dementor, I think," answered Oliver.

"But why on the train?"

"Probably looking for Black."

"Who?" Fred answered," Sirius Black, brought out of the wizard prison. He was a big follower of you-know- who."

"Oh." This is comforting, she thought.

"I wonder why that song you were humming scared it so much."

"What?"

"Yeah," said George. "It backed off pretty quickly."

The rest of the trip was pretty quiet. Ruby listened to her head set until they were to close to Hogwarts to get any sound. They left the train and boarded horse-less carriages where they were joined by Lee Jordan.

"Wonder if Dumbledore will talk about the Dementors on the train," said Fred.

"How could he not. Look!" George pointed at some shadowy figures stationed outside the front gate of Hogwarts.

"Did you hear what happened to Harry when the dementor came to his compartment," asked Lee. They all just kind of looked at him. "He fainted and the new Professor had to revive him."

"What," exclaimed George.

"I mean it was bad, but I don't think it was anything to faint over."

"Weird," said Ruby as they pulled up to the castle.

They all went in and sat at their usual spot at the table, Ginny and Ron joined them immediately.

"Is Harry ok," Ruby asked.

"As far as we know," answered Ginny

"Yeah," said Ron. "McGonagall is talking with Hermione and him right now. I wonder what she wants with Hermione?"

Harry and Hermione missed the sorting, but came in time for Dumbledore to give his announcements on the Dementors and Flich's usual rules.

The feast was great, but Ruby was glad when it was time to go up to the common room. Harry had been very moody about what happened on the train, and was not much better in the common room.

"I'm going to bed," Ruby suddenly announced.

"It's not that late," said Hermione.

"Well, I'm tired and I know tomorrow will be busy. Good night."

*Again your basic first chapter. So is something up with Oliver and Ruby???