Chapter Five

The green grass of the Hogwarts lawn rippled softly in the wind as Rubith made her way over to the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She reached a large oak tree within its shadows and nestled herself down in one of its roots, pulling her cloak hood over her head, hiding herself from the other students lazing around the grounds.

She could see Hagrid's hut in the distance with Hagrid himself chatting to some young students while he tended his garden. They seemed to be taking notes of what he was saying and also trying to show him pictures from a textbook. Must be either aspiring herbologists or magizoologists, Rubith thought. She liked Hagrid, even if he seemed a bit thick. She remembered in her first year going with Lily near his hut and being greeted by his enormous boarhound puppy, Fang. He had half slobbered them to death before Hagrid came and rescued them. Ruby knew Lily still visited Hagrid often.

Withdrawing a dense book from her backpack, she turned to the page she had dog-eared and began reading: "An immensely difficult art to master, yet no doubt one of the most beneficial, it requires complete control of one's thoughts and emotions. Only the most stalwart and disciplined wizards and witches are able to achieve the blankness of mind required to both use and-"

"She said Mudblood, Remus! Honestly, I can't believe her. She seemed so normal... And not, you know... Like that."

"She is a Slytherin, Sirius, I'm still surprised you asked her for help. I would have thought your prejudices would have stopped you."

"Don't make fun of me, Remus. Isn't it enough I've proven myself an idiot already?"

Startled to her core and frozen in place, Ruby felt her cheeks begin to burn; either with rage or shame, she didn't know. Withdrawing her wand, she held it above her head and rapped it quickly on her skull, feeling the Disillusion Charm sliding down her body.

"She was different, I know it. She had those Muggle things I told you about, those headphone things, remember?"

Now burning with full on rage, Ruby heard Lupin give a chuckle and say, "Are you sure that you're just mad because she proved herself the same as the rest of her group? Or are you angry that she called you an idiot and burned a quill over your head? Without a wand."

A tense silence passed and Rubith could imagine the look Sirius was giving Lupin. Mainly because she herself had a similiar expression on her face.

"Sirius, listen. I'm sorry, that wasn't fair."

"You're damn right it wasn't."

"But you have to admit it is hard not to be impressed. She's damn good at magic and she knows it, yet she doesn't throw it in everyone's face and make a prat of herself. I personally like her; she's got a bit of humility, something that those in Slytherin don't normally have. But it doesn't surprise me that she thinks the same as her friends. But, I know you. You wouldn't be this angry if there wasn't something else bothering you."

"Remus, she's a Selwyn. I know what it means to be part of a family like that. Where it doesn't matter what you believe, only how good you are at magic and on a scale of one to ten how much you hate anything that isn't pureblood. Oh, and what kind of Muggle torture your ancestors committed that was your favourite. You don't understand, you can't. To be in a family like that..."

Ruby closed her eyes and felt something wet trickle down her cheek. She rubbed furiously at her tears, feeling ashamed of her emotions even though no one could see her cry.

"I just hoped that maybe we were the same. That she was someone who could, you know... Understand what it's like."

A long pause followed his words and Ruby thought that maybe they had moved away until Lupin's voice spoke softly, "I know none of us can really help you when it comes to things like family, but don't think you have to shoulder it all on your own. Now, more than ever, we need to trust our friends and you can always trust us, you know that right? Nobody judges you on who your family are. Nobody holds it against you. Merlin's beard, look at me! Look how you treat me and what I am. If you can't talk to me without fear of judgement, who can you talk to, huh?"

Ruby frowned at Lupin's words, what does he mean what he is? What's wrong with him? But her thoughts were interrupted by Sirius's harsh laugh and she heard him say, "Yeah, I suppose you're right. Thanks Moony."

"Anytime, Padfoot. Always here for when you feel an idiot, yeah?"

"Yeah. Let's go find Prongs, he's probably done something to make Lily jinx him by now."

Lupin laughed and said, "I still can't believe she puts up with him. Although, you have to admit, he's getting better."

"Yeah, but he's still got the fattest head of anyone I know."

"Including yourself?"

There was a loud thump and laughing that grew fainter until Ruby could hear it no more. She rose from her spot behind the trees and saw Sirius and Lupin in the distance, still pushing each other as they made their way back to the castle. A lone tear escaped from one of her dark eyes and fell onto the grass beneath her feet. She put her book back in her bag and made her way back inside alone.