Ruth is the youngest of the Ash triplets. Born only three minutes after her sisters, Ruth has always been the odd one out.
She's been invisible all her life.
She's been stuck in the shadows of her sisters throughout her five years at Hogwarts. She...
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The end of the first term came and went and Ruth went home for Christmas as she did every year, with the exception of the previous Christmas.
Fred's random disappearance had weighed on her mind every since the night in the Astronomy Tower. She couldn't conjure any explanation for why Fred left the school so abruptly, along with the rest of his siblings, and to saw she was worried was an understatement.
Ruth was awoken on Christmas Day by a cat pawing her arm. Cinder, the Ash family cat, purred softly as Ruth reached sleepily to stroke his black fur.
Cinder meowed softly and jumped onto Ruth's lap as she sat up and looked around her room, which was small and simple, like its owner. Ruth's eyes landed on the window above her dressing table. Snow patted against the glass softly, making Ruth smile.
Pushing Cinder off her, Ruth jumped out of her bed and rushed down the stairs, where her entire family were already gathered in the kitchen.
"Ruth!" Shane Ash exclaimed happily, dressed in red checkered pajamas identical to Ruth's. "Merry Christmas!"
Ruth laughed as her dad hugged her tightly. He had a chef's hat on and was holding a plastic spatula. "Allie stop eating the marshmallows!" he said loudly as he looked back over to the kitchen counter.
"If you're going to just leave them out in the open, I'm going to eat them," Ruth's mother pointed out, shoving another mini marshmallow into her mouth.
Shane let go of his daughter and went to wrestle a marshmallow out of his wife's grip, which was difficult due to the small size of the sweet and the strong grip Allie had. "You're as bad as the children," he tutted, finally over powering his wife.
"The children are eating the strawberries," Allie argued, pointing at Poppy and Katrina (who were, in fact, eating the strawberries) "Why don't you tell them to stop?" she asked cheekily.
Shane shook his head in amusement. "I've learnt to only argue with one woman at a time in this house, or else I'll be outnumbered," he said, moving to check on his pancake that was cooking on the stove. He flipped it expertly, having done this for every Christmas since he got married. He cursed when he realised he had burned his breakfast.
Ruth chuckled and joined her sisters in eating the pancake toppings, earning a playful glare from her father.
Breakfast was served within the next ten minutes and was decorated with whatever toppings hadn't been eaten yet, which was mostly coconut shavings, which only Shane liked.
"Can we go check our stockings now?" Ruth asked once everyone's plates had been cleared. When her mother nodded, she (along with her two sisters) raced to the living room.
A fire was still smouldering in the fireplace from last night, when the family had roasted marshmallows while wearing matching pajamas. On the mantel hung 6 Christmas stockings, each one with a name messily stitched into the fabric. That was Allie's work, and she still got teased for it by her husband to this day.
Ruth watched as her sisters stuffed their hands into their respective stockings. Poppy pulled out a quidditch jersey of her favourite team, The HolyHead Harpies. It had her name written on the back and was signed by the entire team. Katrina retrieved an expensive looking perfume that had been advertised by Gwenog Jones, Katrina's quidditch idol.
Ruth's mother had pulled out a locket necklace and was hugging Shane, who was holding a shiny new watch. Ruth finally decided to find out what her present was, teaching into her stocking and pulling out a small picture frame.
The frame itself looked very valuable, with small gems gleaming on the silver background. Although the gems caught the eye easily, they didn't take away from the photograph inside the frame of a little girl getting a piggyback ride from an older boy.
Ruth felt a hand rest on her shoulder, and knew it was her mother immediately. "It's been 13 years this week," she whispered in Ruth's ear, not sadly. "That's my favourite picture of you and Carson."
Poppy took the picture frame and examined it, smiling. "Look at your face!" she exclaimed pointing at 4-year-old Ruth.
"He was running really fast!" Ruth defended. "I was scared!"
"Well what did Carson leave in his stocking for us this year?" Katrina asked before moving to the sixth stocking. She reached in and pulled out a box of sweets. "Liquorice? I think Carson favourited you this year Ruth."
Katrina threw the box to Ruth, who was laughing like the rest of her family. Ever since her brother, Carson Ash, had died during his first Christmas break as a Hogwarts student, Shane and Allie had been putting a present in his stocking for the entire family ever y Christmas. When they were young, the triplets truly believed Carson was leaving the gifts, but as they grew older they understood it was their parents. The traditional still continued nonetheless.
The Ash family had many traditions for Christmas. Roasting marshmallows on Christmas Eve, wearing matching pajamas, pancakes for breakfast on Christmas Day and Carson still buying them a present after being gone for 13 years. Despite all these, the stockings were Ruth's favourite tradition.
The stocking usually held the smallest present for each person, while the larger ones lay under the tree. The stocking presents were always Ruth's favourite, for they were sentimental and thoughtful.
Christmas Day flew by in a blur of laughter, food and snowball fights. As dusk settled, the family of five sat in the living room, sipping hot cocoa (Another tradition.) A pecking noise interrupted their cheery conversation, and the family turned to see an owl outside of their living room window.
"I thought that owl was a huge snowflake!" Allie exclaimed, having had a bit too much mulled wine.
Ruth stood up while her family continued their conversation. She opened the window and let the snowy white owl into the room. She took the letter from the animal and fed it some gingerbread after it has shook the snow from its feathers.
"Who's it for?" Poppy asked, approaching her and looking at the envelope, which held Ruth's name. She gasped. "That's from Fred!"
"Fred?!" Katrina piped up, quickly joining her sisters by the window. "He wrote to you?"
"Wait who's Fred?" Shane asked suspiciously, holding up his hands.
