A/N : Here is the promised re-write of chapter one! I have decided this is necessary because there are so many mistakes in the original, it['s simply ridiculous. As I have a huge number of hits and am only re-working this because of that (and my good friend Miss Smith) I have decided I will be accepting ideas for future chapters. The general storyline will be the same and many events you've already seen will appear again however there is plenty of room to add! Message me if you have an idea and it may appear in future chapters.

As a side note at some points I'm required to use temperature measurements and being Australian I work in Celsius. For example I mention"…a balmy twenty-seven degrees…" in Fahrenheit this is 80.6 degrees, at another "…couldn't be more than fifteen degrees!" and this is 59 degrees in Fahrenheit. There are others but if you care that much you can just use an online unit converter - also to any of you who think that fifteen or fifty-nine degrees is not cold, remind me never to visit wherever it is you're from.

Beaches, Broomsticks and Oddles of Weasleys

The waves lapped at Ruby's toes as she walked along the white sand. The ocean was the colour of emeralds and glittered like diamonds in the sun, above the sky was a perfect blue, stretching for miles without a sign of cloud. Ruby sighed, the day seemed determined to be perfect as if her homeland was giving her one last gift before she was exiled to the grey skies and rain of England.

A surge of anger and bitterness hit Ruby at the thought of England. That word reminded her of several unpleasant things: her father's half-British girlfriend, rain and most of all, leaving Australia. Ruby was from the west of Australia and used to constant hot weather, little rain and in her mind winter was anything below twenty-one degrees. Australia to England would not be an easy transition for her, especially as she was the only Sandfields student going on exchange, except that it wasn't just a years exchange. It was a complete transfer.

The taste of bitterness in the back of her throat increased as she was forcibly reminded of the conversation which caused all this.

"SHUT UP! I REALLY DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU!" Ruby screamed storming out of the cottage that served as the fourth year girl's dorm and down to the beach below. The waves were a playful bright blue, foaming as they crashed down on the sun-warmed sand. It was like the weather was mocking her. A perfect day for surfing and hanging around on the beach with Jeremy. It really was the first nice day in forever and she was going to lose it to her misery.

"Ruby, honey, it really is for the best. Hugh has his job to think about, he can't keep coming and going, none of us can. We need a steady place to stay -"

"Oh shut up Mum! It's the best for YOU! What about me? Is being homeschooled the best for me? No!"

"Honey we really have to - there are no reasonable schools in the Caribbean!" Ruby swallowed hard, she couldn't believe her Mother was going to rip her life apart and sacrifice her future - just so she could live with her bloody boyfriend!

"Mum I want a future, a career, a life of my own. I don't want to be a housewife! You never understood that, I'm staying."

"Honey you have nowhere to stay in Australia. Will is still living in Thailand and Matt has no intention of leaving Brazil -"

"Fine."

"Good. Do you want to go after the school term? Or do you -" Ruby looked at the ocean, bracing herself for what she knew she had to do, depressed about leaving Australia already.

"No. I meant fine, I'll move in with Dad."

And of course from that day forward the weather had been perfect, waving her goodbye. Today was the most beautiful of all and today was the last day. Tearful goodbyes stirred in her memory.

"Promise you'll write! Sandfields won't be the same without you!" Jeannie begged, her chocolate brown eyes filled with tears as she held onto Ruby so tightly Ruby could scarcely breathe.

"I promise." Ruby whispered through her tears. "Just don't forget me."

"Forget you? How could I? You're my best friend Rubes! Its more likely you'll forget me with all those sexy British accents around."

"I won't forget you Jeannie. You can come and visit me, at Christmas time - you'll be off for the summer and there is a two week break for Christmas in England."

"Epic! You had better bring some hot British guys to introduce me to, you won't be needing them seeing as you've got Jeremy."

She hadn't even left yet but already she missed the beaches, she missed the chattering girls of her cabin, missed Jeannie and she missed Jeremy.

The thought of Jeremy stirred another bitter memory, Ruby fought to repress it but her recollections flooded back all the same.

Jeremy's expression was one of complete and utter shock. He bit the side of his lip and looked up at her, blue eyes filled with doubt.

"A year? That's a really long time Ruby -"

"No Jez, its not just for the exchange to Hogwarts. I'm moving in with Dad, permanently. But we can still see each other on the holidays right?" Jeremy sighed running his hands through his blond hair.

"I don't think that's gonna work Ruby. Let's just end it here before one of us slips up."

Ruby bit her lip in anger and hurt at the memory. Things had been tough since her parents had broken up, nothing had gone right - until she started dating Jeremy. A date with the boy she'd had a crush on since first year and everything started to look up. He was her boyfriend, she was the youngest ever Captain of the Coral House Quiddich team (although Shell House once had a third year Captain) and her grades went from 'Poor' and 'Dreadful' to 'Acceptable' and 'Exceeds Expectations'.

And now he had dumped her. Ruby sighed sitting down on the sand and looking out onto the still ocean. Life couldn't get any worse.

How wrong she was.

Ruby was sitting on her bed looking around her room to make sure she had everything. Four boxes of clothes sat in one corner, a box of books beside them, her shoes took up a sixth and the seventh was full of miscellaneous. But there was something missing…

"MUM! WHERE'S MY BROOMSTICK?" Ruby yelled down the hallway in the direction of her mother's bedroom. Immediately Julia's head popped out to smile at her.

"Broomstick? What do you mean love?" Ever since Ruby had told her mother she would be moving in with her father she had been calling her 'love' and been extra nice. Ruby would love to think it was because her mother was going to miss her but she wasn't so lucky, she knew it was so that Nadia had no way of showing her up as a Mum.

"You know, my broomstick? The one I use to play quiddich?" Her mother gave her a sugary smile.

"Ruby dear, you can't take your broomstick to internationally - its one of the british regulations to do with imports."

Ruby felt her shoulders slump. "So I have to leave it here then?"

"Well I thought it wouldn't get any use here so I gave it to Hugh's son Roger." Her mother said with another of those sugary smiles.

"YOU WHAT?" Ruby burst out, feeling her face heat up in rage. A year! A year she had spent saving for that broomstick and her mother just gave it away?

"Well darling it's really for the best - "

"HOW DARE YOU? I SPENT A YEAR - I - YOU UGH!" Ruby threw her hands up in the air in fury and stormed back into her bedroom, slamming the door so hard she could hear the windows rattling.

"Ruby -"

"GET THE HELL OUT!" Ruby yelled as her mother opened the door. Julia's smile fell to be replaced by pure shock. Ruby had never spoken to either of her parents or even her father's hated girlfriend Nadia that way.

"Now you listen to me -"

"GET OUT!" Ruby repeated and slammed the door once more, this time in her mother's face.

Ruby paced about the room, running her hands through her dark red hair, seething with rage. She couldn't believe her mother. That money had been made entirely by Ruby, she had worked all summer long and during the term breaks to buy that broomstick and her mother had just - given it away.

Ruby pulled up her wand, not caring that her mother would be furious with her for using magic outside of school.

Flicking her wand at her huge windows to open them Ruby looked around, her hot fury subsiding to be replaced by the calm anger she was particularly prone to. The type of anger that didn't go away.

"Reducio." Ruby snapped, wand pointed at one of the seven boxes, repeating the charm until they were all the size of a small paperback novel. Ruby stuffed the seven now quite small boxes into her schoolbag with the Sandfield's logo emblazoned on it in bright orange and royal blue and then swung the bag over her shoulder.

She wasn't scheduled to leave for another hour yet, but Ruby was far to angry to remain with her mother.

"I'M LEAVING." Ruby yelled to her mother hearing a faint. "Have fun love." From her mother's room before stepping carefully out of her floor length window and focusing her will inwards. Then with a crack, she was gone.

"JAMES! WAKE UP! WE'RE GOING TO BE LATE!" James Sirius Potter awoke to the high pitched yell of his younger sister Lily. Sitting up James tried to remember what possible reason he would have for rising early before remembering they were to meet full half the Weasleys at Diagon Alley today.

"James are you dressed yet?" His father called up the stairs.

"Nearly!" He called back pulling on the jeans he wore yesterday but a fresh t-shirt, his mother would have a fit if she thought he was wearing the same clothes twice and you simply didn't cross Ginny Weasley.

"JAMES!" This time it was Albus.

"WHAT?" He yelled back, seriously annoyed now.

"Can I take your quiddich set to Scorp's tonight? He doesn't have any bludgers left because he exploded the other one a week ago." Al explained, coming into James' room.

"Yeah, yeah whatever, just don't explode mine - that kid has serious skill when it comes to blowing up bludgers."

"He says its an art." Al said with a grin, picking up the box which held James' quiddich balls. "Thanks James." Just as Al shut the door someone else yelled for James.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER IF YOU AREN'T READY AND DOWN HERE IN TWO SECONDS FLAT I WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE MY BAT BOGEY HEX! THIS IS YOUR LAST WARNING!"

Glancing at himself in the mirror, James met his own brown eyes with a rueful grin at his hair. There was no point whatsoever trying to tame it, he was unlucky enough to get the Potter hair. Grabbing his wand James sprinted down the stairs, well aware that his mother would make good on her threat.

"Coming Mum! Calm down!"

"James Potter don't you tell your mother to calm down!" Harry ordered as James walked into the kitchen.

"Sorry Dad." James said, grabbing his jacket from the back of a chair and following his father into the lounge room where Ginny, Albus and Lily were already waiting.

"Merlin James how long does it take?" Lily demanded, running a hand through her ginger red hair which she had braided in some intricate hairstyle. Ginny just gave him the look as if daring him to try and excuse himself.

"Sorry."

"Alright then." Ginny said her expression softening instantly. "Are we all here?"

"Yes dear, all here and all late." Harry said with the soft smile he reserved for his wife, Ginny returned the smile before ushering Lily towards the fireplace.

"Quickly now Lily, your father's right, we're very late."

"What's new?" Al whispered to James with a grin.

"Diagon Alley!" Lily said in her strong clear voice, careful not to make their father's mistake and choke on the hot ashes. Then with a strange whirling movement she was gone.

Al and Ginny followed and then it was James' turn.

"Hurry up." Harry said. "We wouldn't want to be late." James grinned at his father before hopping into the fireplace, floo powder in hand.

"Diagon Alley!"

"Now Miss Jones, remember whilst in the Northern Hemisphere you are not allowed to apparate until you are seventeen years of age, there is to be no magic used outside of school until you are seventeen years of age. The three unforgivable curses are indictable offenses, even for a minor and according to the International Statue of Secrecy you are not allowed to use magic in front of muggles."

"I'm aware of this." Ruby said, still fuming at her mother and barely able to maintain a civil countenance, the reminder that she would no longer be permitted to apparate only causing to make her more irate.

"Excellent, then welcome to England." And with a half-bow the guard opened a door leading Ruby into the terminal in general. London's international travel center was crowded with anxious and bored looking people waiting for their portkey to take them to their destination or for their papers to be approved. The terminal was not heated. Ruby was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, having left a balmy twenty-seven degree day knowing that it was summer in Europe but it was cold.

Ruby shivered slightly in the freezing air, it couldn't be more than fifteen degrees! She wished she had thought to bring a jacket with her, especially considering she couldn't see her father anywhere. Probably shacking up with the stupid hoe. She thought to herself bitterly.

"Ruby Rose!" A familiar voice said from behind her and Ruby spun, bitterness and anger momentarily forgotten, to hug her father tightly.

"Dad!" It had been nearly a year since Ruby had seen her father, the custody battle had ended with her mother winning sole custody of her and Julia was still furious that her husband would dare leave her - especially for another woman - so she got back at him by keeping Ruby, Will and Matt as far away as she could.

"Oh Ruby, I'm so glad you're moving in with us. I've missed you!" He looking down at her with a broad smile, his dark green eyes alight with happiness. Ruby felt a pang of guilt for her earlier thoughts but pushed them aside, she would make it up to him. She would be polite to Nadia, after all they did have to live together.

"I missed you too Dad." Ruby said, watching as her father's smile broadened as he noticed the goosebumps on her arms.

"You're not cold are you?" He laughed.

"It's freezing!" Ruby protested punching him lightly on the arm.

"It's summertime Ruby Rose. Mid-summer in fact!" John looked at her eyes crinkled in mirth and Ruby realized her father was wearing a jacket.

"It's like this every summer?" She asked hopelessly.

"You get used to it." He said with shrug. "Come on now, its warmer in the car and Nadia is waiting -" He stopped looking at her in thinly disguised alarm. Ruby took a deep breath and bit the inside of her cheek, to calm herself before giving her father a smile. A fake smile but one that she had perfected after she grew sick of the constant stream of sympathy from her friends after her parents divorce, seeming to move on was the only way to stop it.

John gave her another dazzling smile which made the effort more than worthwhile, so Ruby kept the fake smile plastered to her face, as she walked out of the terminal with her father towards the car park and her father's pride and joy. A red chevrolet of some form or an other, although Ruby was pretty sure from the ravings she got that it was from the seventies, Ruby didn't really care one way or another. It was red, it looked nice and she liked to drive better than traveling by floo powder.

Ruby threw her school bag into the back seat and slid into the familiar car, the scents of polished wood, leather and something that she could never quite describe but knew to be her father's scent instantly surrounding her. As these familiar scents registered in her mind she caught an unfamiliar one, the traces of lingering perfume as well as fresh, in short she smelt her.

Nadia Price was a thirty-something woman who was of mixed European heritage her father being French and Russian and her mother English. The unusual mix resulted to give Nadia a very beautiful, glamourous appearance, beauty of the sort that contrasted starkly with her own mother's good looks.

Where Julia's hair was a tumble of scarlet colored curls, Nadia's was sleek, long and black. Julia's eyes were so dark as to appear black while Nadia's were an enviable baby blue. Julia was deeply tan, Nadia very pale, Julia was very tall and Nadia was slightly less than average height. Everything between the two women was at odds with one and other and it was something that bothered Ruby.

Nadia gave Ruby a nervous smile, before looking at John, eyes full of uncertainty.

"Nadia." Ruby said with a nod, trying to ignore the smell of Chanel No. 5 that intruded on the familiar smells of the old chevy.

"Hello Ruby, its nice to have you with us." Nadia said, sounding genuine but still looking unreasonably worried.

"Thanks - can we turn on the heater?" Ruby asked. "It's like fifteen degrees out there."

"Seventeen actually." Nadia said with a faint smile. "Nothing to Australian standards but perfectly normal for England. It's hot weather for around here." Ruby looked down at her shorts and sandals thinking of the rest of her wardrobe which consisted of short skirts, shorts, spaghetti strap tops and the occasional thin cardigan.

"I think I'm going to need some different clothes." She said ruefully.

"Don't worry Rubes." John said from the front seat, as they drove onto the freeway. "Perhaps you and Nads could go shopping together later today - you can have as much money as you want." Ruby felt a brief flicker of annoyance at her father but seeing his hopeful look relented slightly.

"Yeah, yeah we could do that." She agreed with another of her convincing false smiles. Nadia's responding smile was dazzling, giving Ruby another pang of guilt, it seemed if she wanted to survive with a clean conscience she would have to keep her earlier resolution to get along with Nadia.

"That's great." John said. "Besides you'll need something to wear tomorrow night."

"What's tomorrow night?"

"We're going to visit Nadia's best friend - Ginny Weasley. I think you've heard of her." Ruby could see her father was grinning in the rear-view mirror, Ruby definitely knew who Ginny Weasley was. Her bedroom had at one point been covered in posters of her.

"You know Ginny Weasley?" Ruby said in a squeaky voice, her anger at Nadia dissipating momentarily. "Ohmymerlin she is amazing."

"We went to school together." Nadia said with a smile, then she bit her lip and the smile disappeared for a moment. "Well, until sixth year."

"Why, did you move?" Ruby asked curiously.

"Uh, bad things started happening the summer before sixth year, Dad took Mum, her parents and I back to Russia to stay with his parents and homeschooled me for the next two years. I have a citizenship for England and Russia, so we were left alone." Nadia said and Ruby realized she was talking about what was known as the Second War.

"Wow, Ginny Weasley." Ruby breathed.

"Well she's Ginny Potter now Ruby." John commented.

"Yeah I did hear that she married Harry Potter and they have three children." Ruby said nodding her head.

"James is about your age, a little older I think."

"Cool." Ruby said, trying to envision a mix of Harry Potter and Ginny Weasley that was her age. An amazing quiddich player clearly, probably quiddich captain, who was insanely good at defense against the dark arts with red hair and green eyes? Or perhaps black hair and and brown eyes? Ruby leaned her head against the car window, vaguely listening to Nadia and her father's conversation. James is a nice name. Ruby felt a brief twinge of sadness, those thoughts reminding her of Jeremy but thrust him to the back of her mind.

"There will be two other kids your age there as well Ruby." Ruby looked up at the sound of her name.

"Yeah?"

"Delilah and Nate Thomas. So you'll have people to talk to."

"Awesome." Ruby said with a smile.

"They're Harry's cousin's children." Nadia added.

"It should be fun then." Ruby agreed, Nate's an even nicer name.

James climbed out of the fireplace in the Leaky Cauldron and dusted himself off. The common room was already filled with Weasleys, red hair, freckles, loud laughter and the Weasley grin surrounded him on all sides. James grinned, a Weasley grin, it was good to be around his family.

"James my good fellow." It could be no one else. Freddy Weasley ran down the stairs, stopping as he reached the bottom to bow in the most ridiculous manner humanly possible.

"Hey Freddy." James said with a laugh as his red headed cousin came up to give him a rough hug, attempting to crush him with the strength that made Freddy an irreplaceable beater.

"James." Chase stepped out of his adoptive brother's shadow with a smile. Chase always seemed to be standing in Freddy's shadow and it seemed that somedays Freddy was as exuberant as he was to purposely draw attention away from Chase, usually when people decided to talk about their families but that was unsurprising, the circumstances of Chase's adoption were not pretty.

"How's it going Chase?" James said as Chase gave him another crushing beater hug.

"Not bad, not bad at all." Chase said with a mischievous grin, exchanging looks with his brother.

"What are you up to?" James demanded instantly suspicious.

"We just have some interesting news." Chase said with another grin at Freddy.

"What?"

"This year Hogwarts is playing host to the exchange program." Freddy said unhelpfully.

"I know."

"And we fully expect Louis to return from his year at Beaubaxtons with a lot of hot French girls, preferably of the Veela variety." Chase added.

"I know!"

"A few Durmstrang lads."

"Some kids from Florecci"

"Arcadia"

"The United"

"Will you get to the point?"

"Salem and Sandfields joined the program!" The two of them chorused with grins.

"Who?"

"Salem is the girls only school in America. So now we have two American schools and the Australian school!"

"Awesome, more girls to go around." James said with a grin at his cousins.

"Agreed." Said a familiar voice that James hadn't heard for several months.

"Louis!" Freddy said with a grin, punching their blonde cousin in the arm.

"Hey guys, did I hear you talking about girls?"

"You did." Chase said laughing.

"I brought us some excellent ladies this year, especially after I convinced Marie' to come." Louis said with a satisfied grin.

"Marie'?"

"A hottie with a mind." Louis clarified. "Who happens to have half the female population in love with her, which therefore means several of them had to follow her to England."

"Sort of like my sister except our age?" Freddy asked, rolling his eyes at the mention of Roxanne.

"Exactly like that. All the stupid ones follow her around because she's rich, pretty and uh - opinionated."

"A bitch?" James guessed.

"A little bit, but we're good friends. Good enough that she agreed to move to Hogwarts anyway."

"Friends or friends?" Chase asked eyebrows raised. "Don't tell me you're settling down!"

"Don't be weird, that's never happening."

"Until you get someone pregnant, how many are you up to now? Six? You aren't normal Louis." James said shaking his head.

"It's the Veela - they let me do whatever I want." Louis said with a grin. "Besides our entire generation is terrible, I think our parents all waited for marriage!" The four of them all laughed.

"You boys are disgusting."

"Oh get over it Rose." Freddy said with a sigh as he looked down at their little red-headed cousin who was glaring at them fiercely. "You're just a girl, Al gets it don't you?" Al who was standing behind Rose talking to a blonde haired boy that James vaguely recognized as being Scorpius behind them, looked up.

"Yeah, I agree with whatever Rose said." He said before resuming his conversation. Rose grinned.

"You have him well trained." Chase said with a laugh.

"Scorp, Nick, Jessica and Mickie are all the same. They're used to being called to answer a question in class and say, 'whatever Rose thinks is my opinion too'." She said with a laugh. "But I didn't come here to discuss how much smarter I am then you."

Freddy rolled his eyes, but he was grinning. "So what did you come here to talk about?"

"I know about the Australian exchange student."

"Oh?" Louis said with interest.

"Yes, she's John's daughter. As in Nadia's John."

"For real?" James asked in surprise.

"You sound illiterate when you talk like that." Rose said with a sigh. "But yes, 'for real'."

"Awesome. I'll meet her tomorrow night then - I'll let you know what happens." He said with a grin at Louis, Freddy and Chase.

"UGH! You boys are so immature!" Rose yelled, stomping off to talk to Lily who was sitting in a corner beside Hugo. Nearby Harry and Ron started laughing as they nudged Hermione who glared at the pair of them, apparently they found Rose's behavior reminiscent of Hermione.

"Louis I 'ope you are be'aving yourself." Fleur called over to them.

"Always Mum." Louis called back with an angelic smile.

"Mummy's boy." James laughed.

"I don't see you disobeying Aunt Ginny. I'm no stupider than you are."

"Touche' my friend, touche'."

A/N : Next chapter is titled : Dinner With a Hero Who Married a Legend.

James and Ruby meet for the first time, Nate and Delilah make an appearance and too any of you who have read 'Holding my Tongue" their mother Andee!