Ruby stopped at the corner of Privet Drive and frowned. There was a car in front of Number 4 that didn't belong. On the one hand it was black and regal looking, and most certainly cost a fortune, which meant her uncle might have approved of it. On the other hand though, it had two little flags on either side of the front-black with a green dragon, and the grille was shaped like fangs. These two things made it far too unusual for the Dursleys, which was a good thing as far as Ruby was concerned.
She continued forward, then stopped and frowned again. She could feel the familiar buzz of magic emanating from the car. Ruby gulped. The car was now far too official looking for her taste. After discovering her magic when she was eleven, she hadn't spent much time at home. She'd somehow managed to slip through the American magical government's system unnoticed, but she'd been 'adopted' by one of the wizard gangs that wandered the streets of Savannah.
It pained her to admit that she had not been a very good older sister to Harry, who was three years younger than her. She'd left taking care of him to their father, a solemn, quiet, Muggle man who didn't seem to know what to do with her. She'd gone to great lengths to hide her magic from her family, not so much out of fear of rejection as fear of being sent to a magic school. She had enough problems at Muggle School without adding a second school. After their dad died in a car crash though, she'd resolved to do better.
They'd been sent to live with the only relatives of theirs the Muggles had been able to find-the Dursleys. Their uncle and aunt had reluctantly taken them, telling them that one would get the spare 'toy' room and one would get the cupboard under the stairs. Ruby had taken the cupboard, shutting down Harry's protests. Yes, he was smaller than her, but there was no way her ten year old brother was sleeping under the stairs. Now though, it seemed like he'd performed a big enough feat of accidental magic to get noticed by the British Ministry.
One minute later-The Dursley Home, Britain
Snape scowled. He hated Muggleborn retrieval missions, and this one was worse than normal. The only bright spot had been the look of horror on Petunia's face when she recognized his name. He didn't know what was worse-the fact that Harry looked so much like his father and not Lily, the fact that he did have Lily's eyes, or the knowledge that Lily's son had been raised as a Muggleborn in America of all places. What had James been thinking, not even telling his children about magic? Even if he'd wanted to hide from the magical community, he should have at least told them.
As it was he'd spent the last half hour alternating between explaining things to the boy and threatening his aunt and uncle into silence. He'd just barely convinced the boy to pack up his trunk and was getting ready to leave when the older sister arrived. "What are you doing?" She demanded, glaring at him. Snape sneered at her. Not only was this another complication, but everything about the girl upset him. Not only did she have the unmitigated gall to have both Lily's eyes and hair, but as she was fourteen and had not gone to any of the many American magical academies, she was clearly a squib. And as irrational as it was, he hated the idea of Lily's child being a squib.
"Out of the way girl." He growled. Snape reached into his pocket and grabbed his wand, casting a silent confounding charm on Harry to keep him quiet and unresisting. He could have cast the Imperious, which would have given him complete control over the boy, but it would have kept him from casting any other spells. Besides, Voldemort would throw him to the wolves if he used an 'Unforgivable' on the Boy Who Lived.
"Not until you tell me what you're doing with my brother." Snape fought back a wince. The boy had a slight American Southern accent, and the girl's was even more pronounced. Neither of them had used any slang yet, thank goodness, but hear that abominable accent coming out of the mouths of Lily's children was painful.
"It's none of your concern. Your aunt and uncle can fill you in when we leave." Snape knew that they wouldn't, but that wasn't the point. He placed a hand on Harry's back and directed him towards the door, but Ruby stepped in front of them.
"Like hell they will. Where are you taking my little brother?" Snape sighed and grasped his wand again, then silently cast a wind charm, knocking the girl back into a wall. Satisfied that he'd scared the little squib into submission, Snape continued on, pushing Harry forward. Just as they were about to reach the front door though, a fireball went flying over Snape's shoulder, fizzling out right before it hit a wall. Snape whirled around and his eyes widened.
The girl had a wand out, and it was pointing directly at him Snape's scowl turned into a puzzled frown, then back into a scow as it hit him. There was so much latent magic in America, and it was so big, that their government's system of tracking underage wizards and witches had more holes than Swiss cheese. But she had clearly gotten some training, or else the whole house would be on fire. He glanced at her left forearm and suppressed a groan as he spotted a black fleur de leis tattoo that shifted to gold and then purple as he watched. Of course she'd joined a gang before she was fourteen, she was James Potter's daughter.
"Now, where are you taking my brother?" Ruby growled. Snape considered. Technically he had been sent just for the boy, but the girl clearly had magic. And if he left her to her own devices she might end up starting a gang, which was something Britain definitely didn't need. He calculated. Judging from how quickly the boy had been able to pack, and from how long he remembered it had taken Lily to pack each year, he decided that two minutes was fair.
"Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry." Snape told her. "If you can pack a trunk in two minutes, you may come as well." Ruby glared at him suspiciously, then slipped the wand back into her pocket. She turned around and opened the cupboard under the stairs, crawling inside it. Thirty seconds later, she came back out, hauling a trunk behind her. Snape raised an eyebrow. "May I ask why you chose to store your clothes in a trunk in that cupboard?"
"She sleeps in there." Harry said miserably before his sister could answer. Snape looked down at him in surprise. He'd shaken off the confounding unusually quickly. Then the boy's statement registered. "They tried to make me sleep in there, but Ruby insisted that she take it instead."
"That's enough Harry." Ruby said quietly. Snape's scowl deepened, partly from annoyance but mostly from pure rage. The annoyance came from the fact that he had to readjust his opinion of the girl again. Considering how much taller than her brother she was, taking the cupboard had been a purely Lily thing to do. The rage had been slowly simmering as he learned more and more about what these Muggles had done to Lily's children for the past year. He drew his wand, pointed it up above his head, and summoned a very hungry, very grumpy anaconda into the master bedroom of the house.
"Time to go." He said curtly, pocketing his wand and turning to the door. The Potter children followed him, neither looking back as they climbed into the car. Snape paused to cast two spells-one to shut the door to the house, and the other to make the anaconda disappear in twelve hours. No need to torture the poor creature after all. Nodding, he climbed into the back of the car, which drove away as soon as he closed the door. He looked at the Potters and smirked.
The two were looking around in awe, as well they should. The rear interior of the car looked nothing like a car after all. The roof was taller than it should be for one thing, being tall enough that Snape could stand up comfortably. For another, the floor was covered in plush carpet and the car seats had been replaced with four dragonskin armchairs. "Set your trunks down and sit, we have a long ride ahead of us." He told them. The two sat down and Harry looked at Ruby.
"Why didn't you tell me you were magic?" He demanded. He didn't sound angry surprisingly enough, just hurt that she'd kept such a big secret from him. Ruby squirmed.
"I was never around when you did accidental magic, so I just assumed you were a Muggle like Dad." She said weakly. As much as it amused Snape to hear James Potter be called a Muggle, he decided it was best to correct her, lest someone else do it and they accused him of lying. He'd been instructed to gain Harry's trust so as to help Voldemort mold the Boy Who Lived, and that's what he intended to do. Unfortunately he got the feeling that Harry would stop trusting him if Ruby didn't share that trust, so he needed to be on her good side as well.
"Actually, your father was a wizard as well." Snape told them, enjoying the shocked looks the two children gave him.
"What?" Ruby yelled.
"Why didn't he ever tell us?" Harry demanded, sounding even more wounded now.
"I have no idea." Snape said honestly. "Your father never was the brightest of men." He looked at Ruby. "That still doesn't explain why you never told your family however. I know that plenty of Muggleborns live with their families in America and tell them all about magic. It used to be like that here in Britain as well." Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you take Muggleborns from their families here? What changed?"
"It's safer and more efficient. And don't change the subject girl."
"You didn't answer my second question."
"An answer for an answer. You first." Ruby sighed, then shrugged.
"I was struggling in Muggle school as it was. I didn't want to add a magical school's workload to the work I already had to do." Snape smirked.
"Whoever told you that was lying." He said dryly. "Young witches and wizards like yourself are withdrawn from the Muggle school system when they begin attending a magical school system." Ruby's eyes widened, and she let out a low growl.
"I'm going to kill them." She muttered, glaring at her tattoo, which had settled on a jewel blue for the moment. Snape nodded slightly. He'd figured as much. In all likelihood the gang lied to all their young recruits so as to make sure they didn't leave the gang for school. Snape grinned inwardly. Ruby was sitting there fuming and seemed to have forgotten about his promise to answer her question, which was rather convenient for him.
"You haven't answered Ruby's question yet." Harry said, causing Snape to mentally curse.
"Very well. What changed? Everything. Twenty-two years ago a wizard named Dumbledore declared war on the rest of Britain. The Ministry fought him, but they couldn't defeat him. Then the current Lord Protector of Britain, Lord Voldemort, formed the Legion of the Dragon. After Dumbledore was defeated, the people placed Voldemort at the head of the government and he made several much needed changes. One of them was removing Muggleborn children from Muggle society, for the safety of the children, their families, and the continued secrecy of Wizarding Society at large."
Harry nodded, but Ruby seemed somewhat skeptical. No doubt she'd noticed how abbreviated, simplified, and somewhat romanticized his telling was. Oh well. Someone else could fill in the blanks for them. That was all he was authorized to tell them as their retriever. And even if it wasn't, there was no way that he'd be the one to tell Harry that he was currently tied with Voldemort for the most celebrated wizard in Britain.
The rest of the ride was spent in silence until they arrived at the Integration Center. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me." Ruby snorted in disbelief as they stepped out of the car. "Disney World isn't that cheesy!" She was staring at the statue in front of the Integration Center that depicted a handsome man leading two smiling children by the hand. Snape privately agreed. He hated the statue, and he was certain that if Bellatrix hadn't been posted in Ireland it would have been destroyed by now. It was far too…unrealistic. The very idea of Voldemort frolicking with little children was absurd. But Narcissa had said that it would help comfort the younger children that were brought to the Integration Center. And since she was the Minister of Propaganda, it had been built despite the way almost everyone despised it.
"Hello Professor." A young woman said from behind the desk as they walked in. She looked at Ruby and raised an eyebrow. After all, the girl was far older than ninety percent of the children who came into the center. "And who is this?"
"Ruby Potter." Snape said curtly. "Older sister of Harry Potter." To her credit, the young woman barely reacted to the name, her eyes merely flickering briefly to Harry and then back to Snape. "The records were wrong. She's not a squib, she's merely gullible." Ruby glared at him, but he ignored her.
"Very well. I'll see if I can find someone to do her orientation."
"Very good." Snape said, nodding slightly. He then turned around and left without another word. Voldemort had wanted a report on Harry's retrieval, and he'd need to be informed of the extra twist that was Ruby.