Disclaimer, I do not own Harry Potter, only Ruby and other OCs belong to me! Note, this chapter takes place during their second year!
Ruby Zeller was having a very pleasant dream, one those really cliché ones where she could feel every breath of air whip through her hair. One where she was soaring above the Quidditch stands, a beaters bat clutched tightly in her first, waving at the scream crowds. Perhaps it was the anxiety of the up and coming Quidditch try outs that had Ruby all in a tither about the game. Either way, her winning streak was cut very short by a shrill voice in her ear.
"Ruby, get up right this insistence! If we are late for breakfast again, I am going to hang you by your toes and beat you to death!" Lily Evans, Ruby's very best mate, cried whacking her sleeping friend over the head with a pillow.
"Bugger off Lils! Jesus. Have you been taking notes from Pringle lately?" Ruby grumbled, throwing the pillow Lily abandoned right back at her. "I was having a really good dream, you know!" She swung her legs over the side of the bed, brushing her mousy blonde hair out of her eyes.
"Oh yeah, you were probably dreaming about Black, again." Lily retorted with a mutinous laugh. Grabbing her own pillow, Ruby launched it across the room at her friend.
"You cow! I told you under strictest confidence that you weren't allowed to mention that nightmare again!" Ruby laughed loudly as the pillow hit its mark on Lily's face and retreated into the bathroom before Lily could retaliate.
Ruby could feel the winter chill starting to set in, despite the fact that it was only two weeks into the new term. The tiles in the bathroom were cold and she had to dance around on the ends of her toes while she brushed her teeth and combed her hair.
"I'm ready, are you happy now?" Ruby demanded, after she pulled her arm through her sleeve.
"Yes, now let's move! Potter probably already ate all the toast by now!"
"Yeah right, he's probably still sleeping." Roo rolled her eyes and marched down the stairs, Lily following close behind.
After a year at Hogwarts, the two Gryffindor girls had a good handle on how to get down to the Great Hall pretty quickly. Pushing through the doors and making their way to the Gryffindor table, Lily made sure to shoot Ruby with a look of contempt at the sight James Potter with two pieces of toast shoved in his mouth.
"Keep your bloomers on Lily, there's still more." Ruby rolled her eyes, dropping down in the empty spot beside her twin brother, Amery. Before Lily could make the move to sit next to her, Sirius had slipped in and stole her seat.
"Sorry Evans," Sirius offered with a smirk, before reaching for the plate of sausage in front of him.
"You're a real git, you know that right Black?" Lily retorted giving him a nasty look before taking a seat next to Mary a little further down.
"You are such a prat Sirius," Ruby rolled her eyes, snatching the sausages from him before piling up her plat. "Lily is my friend and I'd appreciate if you'd stop being a huge prat to her."
"Yeah mate, leave 'er alone." James contributed, with bits of toast flying out of his mouth as he spoke. Sirius said nothing but raised a dark eyebrow very high in his friend's direction. "What? I think she's fit."
"You're a pig James." Shaking her head, Ruby started in on her breakfast.
"So Quidditch try outs tonight, huh James? Think you'll make the team?" It was hard to decipher what Peter was saying, his mouth full of eggs, but James shot him a cocky grin once he figured it out.
"Course! They'd be stupid not to bring me in, probably the best chance at a great chaser they have!"
Feeling suddenly very nauseous, Ruby pushed her plate away from her, frowning. "Do you think they'll really want second years on their team? I reckon we don't have a chance until next year, at least."
"If you're good enough, they won't care how old you are!" James exclaimed with so much confidence, it made her head hurt. "And whaddya mean, we? You didn't say you were trying out?"
Ruby hoped she didn't look at green as she felt. "No, 'course no." She mumbled, quickly reaching out for her glass of marmalade.
"What are you talking about Roo? You talked about Quidditch all summer, you said you wanted to go for the open beater position!" Amery exclaimed, eying his sister as if she were crazy. She stomped very hard on his foot underneath the table, shaking her head slightly, hoping the goblet obscured how red her face was getting. "Ouch! Damnit Roo that hurt!"
James instantly perked up, and leaned across the table, pulling the glass away from Ruby's face. "You really wanna try out for beater? I dunno if they'd take a girl, usually they want the big burly meathead kind of guys for that. Maybe you'd do better if you went out for chaser or maybe seeker when it opens up?"
"Are you kidding me!?" Ruby sputtered, smacking James' hand away from her. "I can play any position I want too, that includes beater! Just because I'm a girl doesn't mean I'm limited! Have you forgotten about the Holy Head Harpies? All witches, including their beaters!" She spat before pushing herself away from the table. "I'll show you James Potter, I'll hit a bludger so hard at your face, and you'll forget who you are!"
"Well, I reckon you gone and pissed her off mate," Remus piped up after a moment of silence, watching Ruby stomp away. "Good job."
Ruby spent the rest of the day ignoring James, despite his over the top apologies. At one point on her way down to lunch, she heard him shouting down from three floors up about how sorry he was. Lily spent the whole day praising her for not talking to that 'arrogant bully' and it took every ounce of will for Ruby not to snap at either of them.
Tell James to shove off and keep all his sexist Quidditch ideas to himself. Then tell Lily off for dogging on James all the time, because even though he might be a colossal idiot, he was still a good friend of hers. Eventually, she ditched both and spent the rest of her classes sandwiched between Peter and Remus. Ruby couldn't even sit beside her own brother because he plopped next to Sirius who always sat next to James, and two people away was still close enough for him to try and apologize some more.
Luckily, Remus and Peter were plenty of good company. Peter almost always had something nice to say, and Remus was smart and helped Ruby pick up the slack in her less than stellar classes. He took notes while she dozed off in History of Magic, and tried to help her keep up in Herbology.
At dinner, Ruby sat with Lily, Mary Macdonald and Willow Tilt. Willow was a little off the wall sometimes, but the girls liked her all the same. She moved the food around her plate, while the three other girls chattered away. Finally, she pushed up from the table and started to make her way to the Quidditch pitch, her dorm mates shouted various encouragements her way. Just as she was about to push through the front doors to head to the pitch, Amery and Sirius both caught up with her.
"You'll do great Roo!" Amery clapped her shoulder as he fell in step with her.
"Yeah, you'll smash everyone else to pieces. Except me, of course." Sirius added, dropped an arm around her shoulder, pulling her close to ruffle her hair. Ruby turned her head up at him, giving him a sharp glare.
"What do you mean, 'except you'?"
"Well, I figured you'd need a decent partner, and who else better than me?"
"Oh my god, this is going to be so much worse than I thought." Ruby groaned covering her eyes with her hands.
'Why does everything have to go in alphabetical order?' Ruby thought, a frown on her face. She just wanted to get it over with, not watch everyone else go through their trials and know that she wouldn't make it.
"Shut up already, it'll be fine. Radbourne is fair, he won't laugh us off too early."
"Piss of Sirius." Ruby snapped, but felt bad immediately after. She knew he was only trying to make her feel better. Especially given that last year's team was mostly still at Hogwarts, albeit in their last year, but would earn their spots back. She sighed and gave Sirius' hand a squeeze, her way of apologizing.
"Hey Ruby!" James' voice cut through her thoughts and before she could book it to avoid his increasingly more ridiculous ways to apologize, Sirius held her hand tightly so she couldn't run.
"Hi James, look you don't need to say sorry anymore. It's fine, I know you didn't mean to be a bigoted prat." Ruby said quickly before he could vomit up another apology.
"Thanks Roo, I didn't mean it, really." James' looked relieved before he clapped her on the shoulder and turned his eyes back to the ongoing try outs. "Reckon they'll reinstate the team from last year, which really only leaves an open seeker spot." He frowned, realizing for the first time that he probably wouldn't make it on the team this year. It was bad enough that James couldn't even try out last year but now he wouldn't even get a proper chance to play this year.
Ruby and James stood together, watching as each person went through their trials. Sirius did pretty well, but he was definitely out flied by the year's previous beaters. Eventually, James who looked a little green in the face, mounted his broom. Despite being one the few second years that showed up, he flew better than most of the older students.
"Out of all of us, James has the best chance." Ruby commented to Sirius, who was supporting a brand new black eye.
"Oh yeah, he's mad about Quidditch. I got to go to his house over the summer for a bit, and he wanted to play the entire time. His dad taught him, I think."
Too soon it seemed, Radbourne called out Ruby's name. With a grimace in her friend's direction, she shook hands with the captain and grabbed a bat. Like James, he seemed a little skeptical about her aspirations to play beater, but she kicked off into the air anyways. As much as she loved the muggle town she lived in, Ruby really wished she could live somewhere that she could fly all the time. She twirled the beater's bat in her hand, waiting anxious for the bludgers to be released from the box.
With a tight grip on her broom handle, Ruby kept her eyes trained on the ground. She knew that they'd release the bludger soon, let her smack it around a few times before sending someone up in the air with her. That's the part that made her most nervous, keeping the bludger away from someone else. Ruby knew she wouldn't have any trouble keeping it away from her, but doubts crept in when it came to her ability to play as well with others.
Finally, Radbourne lifted the crate and the bludger came zooming at her. She pulled her arm back and whacked it with a solid crack and sent it clear across the pitch. Ruby faltered on her room, nearly losing her balance, surprising herself that she hit it with such force. Re-positioning herself, Roo pushed forward and hit the bludger head on again, rather than sit and wait for it to come back at her. She lost her positioning again and the next shot after but after a few trial runs, she didn't slip back too much. Ruby never had a chance to play with an active bludger so it was still a little new for her.
Sooner than she would have liked, Radbourne himself kicked off and soared high above Ruby. The bludger had found it's next mark and took a sharp turn to fly straight at him. Luckily Ruby was already flying towards him, she did not want to be remembered as the girl who let their captain fall to his death. She sent the bludger flying again, losing the grip on her broom a little before determinedly flying after Radbourne. He let her have a few more shots before touching down on the ground and tackling the bludger as it came hurtling after him.
"Not bad Zeller." He clapped her on the shoulder before sending her to stand with the other hopefuls.
"That was awesome Roo! You hit that thing clear across the pitch!" James said with enthusiasm which Ruby suspected was to make up for breakfast. She grinned at him, as he draped his arm across her shoulder, talking about how they and Sirius were basically shoe-ins.
However, after several minutes of debating with his co-captain, Ruby's heart fell into her stomach as Radbourne listed off last year's previous team members with the exception of a new chaser…James Potter.
She shared a defeated sigh with Sirius but hugged James none the less. "You really were great up there, mate!" Ruby said, happy for her friend but said for herself. She was just about to make her way off the pitch with Sirius when she heard Daniel call out their names.
"I just wanted to say that I think you both did really well today," Once he caught up with them, Daniel's face was a serious one. "Zeller, you need to work on handling your broom and a bludger but other than that, you really surprised me. If you both keep up practicing, there's no reason you can't be on the team next year. It was a matter of last year's beaters out flying you both. I hope I see you both at next years try outs." He said with a hard glint in his eye.
Ruby and Sirius shared a smirk before turning back to Radbourne and saluting him. "Yes sir!" They called in unison before breaking out into laughter.
James joined them in the common room, an hour later, greeted by loud whoops and claps on the back. Amery offered in protest of Ruby not making the team, to ignore James completely but his sister had rolled her eyes at him. No use in being mad at James for being good enough. Although Ruby wasn't looking in her direction, she knew that Lily was rolling her eyes heavily, most likely whispering to Mary about James' increasingly growing ego. After picking on James for prancing around the common room, Ruby fell onto the couch with a thump next to Peter.
"I knew I should have gone to watch try outs! James sounded amazing!" Peter huffed, clearly awed at James' boastful retell of how try outs went.
"Radbourne keeps the pitch closed so no one can, would have been useless to try. He kept those burly reserve beaters on look out the whole time," She shrugged. "Plus James is definitely embellishing a bit. He did fly really well, but he did not hang off his broom one handed to avoid a bludger." Ruby rolled her eyes, listening to James' excited babble. Peter glanced at her, his eyebrows high on his forehead, clearly untrusting of her account of try outs.
"Dunno Roo, it sounds pretty legit. I'm gonna go ask him!" Pete jumped up from the couch and hightailed it over to James who was surrounded by giggling eleven year olds.
"Prat."
"You're telling me, you don't have to share a room with him." Remus' quiet voice filled her ears as he took the seat Peter vacated.
"True, but I do sleep next to Lily who exclusively complains about James. I'm not sure if that's better or worse." Ruby grinned, turning her head to Remus. Her smile faltered a little bit, taking in his appearance. Remus was always sort of peaky looking, but he looked especially worn and pale today. "You feeling alright Remus?"
"Oh, I'm fine, just tired. My mother isn't feeling well, so I'm going to visit her in a few days." His voice was solemn, causing Ruby to frown even further. His mother had been sick since he started at school, and he often left to visit her. She thought it was really kind of Dumbledore to let Remus be with his sick mum when time allowed for it.
"Well, I hope she feels better. Maybe you should give her some of your chocolate stash, makes everyone else perk up pretty quick." Ruby said with a smile, her little hand wrapped around Remus' and gave it a squeeze.
"Thanks Roo, I appreciate it." His voice was sort of strangled sounding, but Ruby just leaned closer to him, her head dropping down to his shoulder with a soft sigh.
"No problem Remus."
Not as long as the last chapter, but I hope you enjoy it all the same! Again, this is unbeta'd so apologize for any mistakes. I have chapter 3 finished, and I might be inclined to post early if I get some reviews! Either way, expect chapter three (aka how Ruby got her red hair) sometime next week. Thank you so much!