Hello Folks. Alina here. Looks like you've made it to this page then :) . Well Thank You.
I takes alot of nerve on my part to actually go ahead and publish something on this website, mostly because I am just scared shitless that someone will hate on me.
What i'm trying to say is that I'm not very self-confident, but I'm working on it!
So anyways this story is about a few characters I made up, everything else is Jo's!
The first two chapters are basically character developpement and also pose alot of unanswered questions. Foreshadowing all the way!
So basically, If you're like me and hate reading all that rubbish about where someone comes from, who their friends are, and just want to read some action involving Draco Malfoy, then just SKIP ON TO CHAPTER THREE! I won't be offended, but I know some people like to read all more about the character, so it is here if you want. You can even just start at Chapter 3 and then come back to this later. Alrighty then! Read on.
xx
Nightingale
Chapter One – I'm a Prefect now.
Ruby Nightingale was casually lying down on her stomach, notebook in front of her and a quill grasped firmly in her hand. The etching of quill point on paper was the only audible sound in the room until a heavenly voice travelled through the corridors of the Nightingale's Estate;
'Ruby, an owl's dropped a letter for you'
At the sound of her mother's voice Ruby jerked up from bed. Letters from friends usually arrived at her window sill so if this letter arrived downstairs, then it must mean that the Hogwarts supplies list finally arrived. Scurrying down two flights of stairs, Ruby finally reached the living room where her mother, Claire who was straightening pictures on the wall, motioned towards the off-white envelope lying upon the coffee table. Ruby picked it up and then sat on the velvet blue loveseat which, besides the bouquet of red roses and the clothing of herself and her mother, was the only thing in the room that was noticeably not white.
The envelope felt heavier this year for some reason. Almost as if something metal were inside it. Anyhow, Ruby carefully opened the signet, pulling out the folded pieces of parchment from the envelope. While she unfolded the paper, something green and silver slipped out from the open end. Ruby gasped.
'No Way' She said under her breathe, a slight smile coming to her lips.
Her eyes darted across the paper she held, she had to read it three times for the message to finally sink in.
'Maman!' She called out. 'Regarde! Look!'
Ruby's grandparents, her mother's parents, were French and so when they moved to England and Claire was finally born, they brought her up speaking French as well as English. Ruby thought the bilingual idea was genial and insisted at a young age for her mother to speak and teach her the language as well, much to the joy of her grandparents. She spoke quite fluent actually, and had quite a riot with her mother every time they had a conversation in which Dad couldn't understand.
Mrs Nightingale turned around slightly teary eyed from the fireplace mantel, her fingers lightly placed on the frame of a moving photograph of a cheerful boy waving whilst riding his first broomstick.
Ruby walked up to her mother and placed the badge in her free hand.
'I'm a Prefect now.' Ruby said excitedly.
'That is magnifique, oh Ruby, I'm so proud!' Claire gave her daughter a tight hug. 'What a special occasion this is! When your father gets home we'll dine out and think about when you want to go to Diagon Alley, we'll buy you something nice when we go there.'
'Okay Mum.' Ruby took back the badge and put in back in the envelope. 'I'll be upstairs Maman.'
Back in her room, Ruby was quite ecstatic. She, the lonely Slytherin, had been made Prefect. She picked up her notebook and finished the poem she was scribbling down prior to the Prefect commotion, finishing with this new line:
Way past curfew we're not allowed
But that don't matter
Because I'm a Prefect now
She just finished the final swirl of her 'w' when there was a tapping on her window. An owl's beak let out a hoot, thinking its presence had gone unnoticed. Ruby went to open the window where the Owl dropped a letter. It seemed like today was a day for letters somewhat. She opened it rather coolly compared with the Hogwarts letter. She read;
Ruby
Finally got my Hogwarts supplies list, did you? Rich, Edwin and I are all going to meet up in Diagon Alley next Wednesday. Thanks for the birthday gift, it's definitely the best pair of drumsticks I've ever played with. I hope you've been writing new material because as soon as we get back to Hogwarts... Band practice every day girl! Send over a reply so we can confirm the day for Diagon Alley. Edwin's over at our place for the weekend and he's got a couple questions concerning the 4th line of the sheet music for 'Beautiful Wizard' you sent him. But we'll go over that later. Other than that he says hello and hopes you're doing well. Rich also told me to tell you that his owl's injured and he hasn't been able to send any letters from home, and has to use the owls from the municipal owlery, which of course he doesn't want to. He makes it sound like such a big deal, Merlin, you Slytherins!
-Melody Hawes
Melody, Richard and Edwin are Ruby's best friends. They've known each other since before Hogwarts and are all a year older than her. They're known for being musical. Back in Ruby's Third Year and her friends' Fourth Year they started a band with Melody on the Drum Set, Edwin on Rhythm Guitar or Keyboards, Richard on bass and Ruby on guitar and vocals.
She laughed slightly at the memory of them trying to figure out a band name.
1994 :
They were all inside an empty classroom, on the lower floors, near the dungeons. Most of these classes weren't in use, except for Professor Snape's potions class.
'What are we going to call ourselves?' asked Melody, twirling a drumstick between her fingers.
'What do you mean?' replied Edwin. He was probably the least bright out of the group. You could tell by the tone of his voice, that he honestly had no idea what she was talking about.
'We're in a band Edwin, bands have names you know.' said Richard rather impatiently. He folded his arms and plastered an annoyed look over at Edwin, as if to say You dumb bloke...
'Oh right!' said Edwin, 'I'm down for calling it Four Phoenixes!' he continued.
The friends tried to chew on the suggestion but barely a few seconds passed by when...
'Too lame' said Rich 'How about the Killing Curse' he expanded.
'You mean Avada Kedavra?' asked Ruby, kind of scared at such a horrific suggestion. Richard nodded. He always had an interest for the odd and creepy.
'Oh that'll go down well!' Melody's voice shrieked, dripping with sarcasm. 'Imagine that, we'll be rocking out on stage and while people are freaking out, screaming our name, it'll turn into a massacre!' She continued.'
'Wow! I never thought about that! People dying at our concert! Well... how about we call it "Nightingale" ' Said Edwin.
Ruby looked up at the others immediately, with a kind of fearful and bewildered look.
'Hey, it sounds good' agreed Melody.
'No! No way are we naming the band after me!' said Ruby, now standing up from the amplifier she was sitting on.
'Why not, you're the singer so obviously you'll be the focal point and all...' tried Edwin to convince her.
'I don't think you should be talking about what's obvious, Edwin...' smirked Richard.
'Knock it off, Rich!' said Melody. Richard gave her and Edwin a look that said I was just kidding!
'Look you guys, using last names might have worked for bands like Santana and Van Halen but there is just NO WAY it'll work here.' Declared Ruby
'Van what?' asked Edwin
'Muggle Band' replied Melody
Rich let out something have way between a cough a laugh. 'Muggle...' he said under his breath while shaking his head.
'People will start called me a jerk if we name the band after me. Imagine it, I'll be known as Ruby Narcissist.' The others let out a laugh. 'Seriously, would you want your names across a giant banner behind our set?'
'Well no, obviously! But 'Rosier' and 'Cromwell' don't sound nearly as cool as Nightingale!'
'How about we start actually thinking about some good names?' Ruby suggested, as she sat back down.
'New Ministers' Someone shot up, it was impossible to tell who.
'Nah' said someone else.
'The Pure Bloods' this time it was easy to tell it was Richard who came up with that one.
'That'd be great if we all actually pure blood' said Melody looking unamused.
'You guys, it needs to be the definition of now.' started Ruby.
'Oh, so like... Azkaban Breakout... or... Dementors?' asked Edwin
'No! Not recent like that!' scowled Melody and Edwin looked down at his feet. Embarrassed, most probably.
'Like... the something... students... or Hogwarts something.' Ruby picked off where she started.
'Yeah Hogwarts is a good way to start it...' agreed Edwin.
'Well we need a word that sounds good with Hogwarts. Maybe something that starts with 'H'.' added Richard, liking where the conversation was going.
'Harmony?' asked Melody.
'Harmony... Hogwarts...Harmony... Hogwarts...Harmonics...' Ruby said rather to herself than anyone else.
'Ruby you're brilliant!' interjected Edwin.
'What' said Ruby, it wasn't really a question.
'Hey Edwin, tell me what harmonics means' threw Richard. There was already a smile on his face, he knew he wouldn't be able to.
'Uh... well. Harmonics... it's uh... hey Ruby, a little help here?' Edwin said. Rich tried really hard to not laugh at Edwin's struggle. Definitely not the brightest guy you could meet, that Edwin.
'It's the science of musical sounds.' Stated Ruby
'The Hogwarts Harmonics' repeated Melody. 'Haha! I always wondered how a smarty like you ended up in the same house as Rich over there. You should be a Ravenclaw like Jasper was...'
'So Rich, what do you think?' added Edwin quickly to avoid the awkwardness of the subject of Ruby's brother. It wasn't something they liked to talk about.
'I think...' Rich started 'It'll work.'
Everyone gave high-fives to each other. Maybe one day they'll be on the WWN themselves! Maybe they could even open for The Weird Sisters!
It was a funny memory because all their voices were higher and they were so short. Nowadays Edwin Cromwell was the tallest. He's just a bit over six feet tall. Ruby's pretty tall herself, second after Edwin. She and Richard Rosier are just about the same height. Poor Melody however only reaches Ruby's shoulder.
Ruby just remembered how much she missed her friends; she glanced at the group photo they took of themselves on the last day of school last term.
She missed Edwin's comical behaviour. Sometimes he was so clueless it was just funny. But he's very brave. He looked the cuddliest in the group; being so tall, rounded nose and brown hair that lay flat against the side of his head and ended just above his shirt collar. Almost like Professor Snape, she thought, though a lot cleaner.
Richard's dirty blond hair flowed into her mind as well. He definitely looked the most destined to be a Rock Star as it spiked in every possible direction. He had a wicked cool looking guitar too; Shaped like a battle axe. They were in the same house; Slytherin, so at Hogwarts, Ruby saw Rich the most, as the others were in other houses.
Melody was very dark. She was the only person Ruby knew that had hair that was lighter than their skin. She wondered if it was even natural. Anyways, Melody was definitely the nicest out of all of them. So always stuck up to her friends and never let them down.
Ruby wondered how weird they must look together; A Gryffindor, two Slytherins and a Hufflepuff. The group of friends must have looked better when Rich, Mel and Ed were in first year along with Jasper. That would have been one member from every house.
The fact that they all knew each other before Hogwarts helped to keep their friendship whilst in school. Knowing Richard, he probably would have never considered being friends with Melody and Edwin had he met them after being exposed to the Slytherin lot.
'Blood-Traitor' was a common name used for people like Richard and Ruby, yet they never heard it directed towards them.
Ruby picked up a fresh parchment, seeing the owl rustle impatiently at her window sill. 'Okay, okay, I'm writing'
To Melody and Edwin
I'm glad you liked the gift! I'm even happier that you've been rocking out. Stay practiced!
I just remembered, referring to Edwin here, that I made a mistake on that line; yes, it's actually supposed to be a D7 chord, not a D. Sorry. And remember to tune down to E flat.
I'll be glad to meet you all in Diagon Alley on Wednesday! Florean Fortescue's as usual, right? I'll be there at noon.
I can't believe we'll finally be seeing each other after over a month! By the way, I have some news to share with you all! You'll have to wait until Wednesday though!
You don't need to reply, I know the suspense is killing you.
Yours Truly
Ruby P. Nightingale
She folded it up, scroll style, wrapped a ribbon around, and handed it to Beaky, the Hawes' owl. It immediately took off into the setting sun.
On Wednesday, Ruby woke up bright and early to the sound of chirping birds in the courtyard below, outside her window. It was lovely spending the summers at home because her favourite thing in the world was to wake up, walk to her window and see the white cliffs of Dover right from her window sill. The crashing of waves on the shore and the sun making the cliffs even whiter was the norm for Ruby, yet not a day went by in the past four years where she ignored its beauty.
Today was the day she'll go to London, to Diagon Alley. Dressing into her favourite Weird Sisters T-shirt and putting a black cloak overtop, she read the supplies list for what must have been the millionth time.
The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 5) by Miranda Goshawk
Defensive Magical Theory by Wilbert Slinkhard
She darted down the stairs, black hair flowing freely behind her.
'Maman! Papa!' She greeted her family in the kitchen. 'Dad' she said immediately after.
'Oh, I know what Papa means! I'm smart you know! I was a Prefect too, for Ravenclaw.' Mr Jewell Nightingale teased and gave her a half hug with his tall slender body.
'Will we be travelling by floo powder?' asked Ruby
'You know it' Mr Nightingale replied.
After an exceptionally well prepared meal from her mother, Ruby went upstairs to get her bag. 'Alright, I'm ready to go.'