A/N: No reviews still…but I'm listening to a new CD at the moment so I'm too much in a good mood to cry… And I won't give up! Perhaps some day one will read it and leave a (hopefully nice) review. I know I made a lot of mistakes in the previous chapters. Believe me, they're all typing-caused… ::smiles::
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Ruby woke up very early in the next morning. She needed some time to realise where she was and why she already was awake: Witty was tugging at her ear! She gave the fairy a gloomy look through squinted eyes.
"Why the– ?" just then she noticed how shaken Witty appeared and her gloomy expression changed into a concerned one.
"What's wrong?"
"There...there was a GHOST flying through the room!" Witty whispered with big scared eyes "It ... looked like a monk!" her lower lip trembled with fear.
"Oh, that's it...yeah, I know." Ruby was relieved though still concerned about Witty "You must've been sleeping when we met the ghosts yesterday evening. Well, Hogwarts Castle has ghosts. You don't have to be afraid of them I think. You have probably seen the Fat Friar, the ghost of Hufflepuff House. That Franklin guy has mentioned him yesterday."
"They have ghosts here? Well, I hope we won't have too much contact with them..."
"Believe me Witty, I hope so, too."
The fairy was calmed down now and laid down again. Ruby did so, too, but soon realised that she couldn't sleep anymore. And the quiet snores of Witty next to her didn't help very much. Ruby envied her fairy pet who could sleep everywhere at every time of the day. Her wristwatch told her it was 4.30. Ruby sighed and heaved herself out of the bed. After a long bath and careful tending of her tortured hair ("Damn charm!" she muttered) Ruby was back in her dorm. After a short hesitating she finally pulled on her Salem robes woke Witty up and quietly left Hufflepuff Gardens to set out for breakfast. That was at about quarter past six. Ruby soon realised that there were more new things to learn than History of Magic or Ancient Runes: the castle was old – and naturelly it held the usual stuff to entertain itself: trick steps, secret passages, fake doors and other things like that. She had known her Salem ways but Hogwarts was of course totally new for her. She felt like a stupid first-year while Witty was so bored that she crept into the wand pocket in Ruby's left sleeve to take a nap again.
"Oh, thank you!" Ruby muttered insulted.
Her first success (after two dead ends) was finding the painting of the woman in her patch (she slept with her head in the cabbage). Ruby passed it delighted, turned left – and stood in front of a solid wall again. Frustrated she turned – and came face to face with a ghost. Ruby gave a small cry of fright then backed away, right against the wall. There was no way of escape. The ghost had a nasty glitter in his eyes though smiling sweetly.
"Lost?" he asked with a voice of hardly suppressed delectation.
Ruby merely nodded.
"Oooooh, no problem. Let dear Peeves help you!" Ruby didn't know if she could trust him. There was something in his expression that made her suspicious.
"Just go back the way and turn left on the first opportunity, then right and after this straight on – can't miss it then." And with that he flew away cackling quietly.
Ruby shook her head still disbelieving this meeting. She went back but at the crossing she hesitated, left he had said but Ruby decided to try straight ahead first – which was the right decision she noticed as she shortly after this entered the Entrance Hall. It was 7 sharp. Sighing she went into the Great Hall which was completely empty – well, not completely. There was a ghost sitting at Hufflepuff Table – obviously the Fat Friar. Ruby sat down some seats away from him but he turned to face Ruby – looking remarkably joyful – and glided over to her. In his hands he held a stack of parchments.
"Hello, new Hufflepuff!" Ruby didn't feel addressed. However the Friar didn't look upset at all.
"Up so early in the morning?" she didn't reply "Name and year?" he asked still over-excited.
"Huh?" Ruby looked up from her disappointing empty plate.
"Name and year?" he repeated and then it burst out of him "This year I'm allowed to hand out the Hufflepuff timetables!" his chest swelled with pride but Ruby wasn't interested at all.
"Ruby Riders, fifth year." she just answered dully hoping to shut him up. She wasn't in her usual good-morning-mood and tried to show this expressively.
He searched through the stack and soon found the wanted piece of paper. She muttered a "Thanks." Then studied it carefully. She started with Study of Ancient Runes and Transfiguration today, and double Potions in the afternoon. Damn! She hadn't yet time to revise the Melting charm. Tuesday she had Astronomy in the afternoon and at midnight – she hated that lessons. It was so difficult to remember all the names of the stars and such. Well, at least first lesson on Wednesday morning was free – hopefully that wasn't a library lesson. Ruby was so concentrated on valuing the timetable that she didn't notice anything around her. However suddenly she sniffed something – bacon...she looked over the rim of her paper and saw – breakfast! Some bowls around her were full with porridge and eggs with bacon and cereals and there were two cans with milk and orange juice. She was astounded – it was clearly just set for her – she HAD to find out how this worked!
She had nearly finished when the first other students entered the Hall, one of these – Franklin Abbott. Broadly grinning and with a "G'Morning!" he sat next to her. He gave the Friar some more attention than she had done and received his timetable bearing a cheery smile. Ruby couldn't stand so much happiness just now and tried to ignore him – but he gave her a hard job on that.
"How have you found the way? Good? Wanted to go with you and the other girls of your dorm. But they said you weren't there anymore so I set out earlier. They'll be coming soon, also. Got your timetable, too? Great for the Friar, don't you think? By the way we'll have the same lessons, except Muggle Studies. I have Arithmancy instead. I'll give you companionship, ok?" Ruby wanted to shake her head but he gave her no chance to do so. "Great! We will get along rather well, I guess. First is Ancient Runes, taught by Professor Babble. Easy that one. But be careful of McGonagall, she gives Transfiguration and is rather strict. She's head of Gryffindor house. Better be prepared for Potions this afternoon. Professor Snape, head of Slytherin house, can be really mean. He's said to prefer his own students. Thanks god, we're with the Ravenclaws." Ruby was annoyed but nevertheless fascinated with him being able to talk endlessly (apparently without breathing), eat breakfast and read his schedule, all at the same time. How could somebody like him get an important position just as Prefect? Now her roommates and some of the first-years sat down around them. Franklin and Hannah immediately began a talk. The fifth-years looked strangely at Ruby's clothes and were about to say something so that Ruby suddenly rose muttering something about getting her books and left the fastly filling Hall. Franklin called something after her that sounded like "Wait! D'you know the way?" but Ruby wasn't paying attention to him. She was sure she could find the way very easily – she just had to follow the constant line of students backwards. But suddenly she heard a slight panting behind her. She didn't have to turn around – it must have been Franklin and sure enough he was walking next to her in a second.
"Didn't you hear me?"
"Didn't you eat breakfast?" she asked pretty annoyed. But he didn't seem to have got it.
"I don't need much in the morning...but you should see me at lunch!"Grinning he walked next to her making sure that she didn't get lost. Which would have been rather difficult because there were many Hufflepuff students on their way to the Great Hall now. Ruby caused still some amount of attention.
If she had been annoyed of Franklin in the morning it was nothing against what she felt at lunch. She couldn't often get rid of him during the whole day – or week. He was eager to explain her everything about the castle – it was good for learning the ways but really bad for getting some rest. Ruby never had met somebody who could talk that lot. She was really thankful for lessons for then he was quiet – and Ruby noticed why he was Prefect – a whole teacher's favorite boy he was. Always the first to help when teachers needed it, always the one who sat in the frist row (which meant that Ruby now was sitting in the first row, too).
All her teachers have given her some parchments with the topics what they would expect her to master for the christmas exams. On Friday evening she at last had peace enough (Franklin was at a Prefect's meeting) to see them through and ponder about her new teachers.
Defence Against the Dark Arts was strange. Her teacher, Professor Quirrel seemed to be afraid of his own shadow – and the turban he was wearing smelled disgustingly. He probably frightened she could hex him as revenge for a hard test, for he hadn't given her many topics. And these few were also rather easy..
Ruby's Muggle Studies Professor was delighted about her holidays at Edith's house last year. He even had given her extra homework: "Make a report for the class about your experiences with the Muggle way of living."
Potions would be an awful lot of work. Professor Snape was some dark and cold wizard – threatening (and obviously not in possesion of shampoo). And Ruby wasn't allowed to use at least ingredients-lists as she had been at Salem Institution. Well, she would have to practise a lot then she would hopefully remember the right ingredients. But after ten minutes of her first Potions lesson she had abandoned her plan of using the Melting charm she had learnt from Carey's older brother Martin (how she had adored him in first class!) – it wasn't worth being killed by this teacher. For that she was expecting as "detention" from him.
Next paper was Transfiguration. She wasn't on very good terms with Professor McGonagall. In her first lesson on Monday she had asked why Ruby still wasn't wearing Hogwarts robes (Snape was the only one of the other teachers who also had enquired during the whole week). She had answered something about having them accidently put into the suitcases of her parents but that didn't work. McGonagall had suggested to borrow some from one of her roommates who have been eager to let her but she had refused. They met again on Thursday on the corridor – 5 points from Hufflepuff. Next time was Double Transfiguration at Friday. Ruby still was wearing her Salem robes – 15 points this time. Now her roommates were somewhat more annoyed than they had been already (Ruby hadn't been very eager to accept their friendship offers).
She didn't care. It worked all rather fine for her. Soon she would be out of here. Ruby didn't want to take the exams. Even if she would work hard for the other subjects she would never be able to pass History of Magic. She was miles behind the class. The only non-American witches and wizards which were important in history she knew were Megan Fiery the first British witch to come to America, He Who Must Not Be Named and Harry Potter of course whom by the way she had barely seen during the whole week (but she had sent a school owl to Carey's place to tell her and Edith that she was at the same school with famous Harry Potter!). Additionally the teacher was a ghost (Ruby didn't like him at once) and so boring Ruby had been fast asleep after twenty minutes, Franklin had woken her up with a disapproving expression.
But History of Magic was even topped by Study of Ancient Runes. It wasn't just a letter-for-letter-transforming of Runes to normal letters as Ruby had expected. There were different Rune systems each containing about 50 – 350 Runes, looking quite equal but being very different. There were runes which belonged to only one system, others could be found in more than one (but in each system they had another meaning). The first lesson Ruby had understood nothing and the second on Wednesday hadn't been any better.The exam on that would finish her off – first-year standard in History of Magic and third-year standard in Ancient Runes – she didn't want to be placed in a lower year! It would be a disgrace – and spoil the triumphant leaving she was planning to have.
Runes and History were the only bigger problems. The other subjects were possible with working – for at least it was just revision for them.... She had no chance for History of Magic – so she HAD to pass Ancient Runes! Until now they have mostly just learnt the symbols. Their translations resulted in normal English words. But last term they also started the languages belonging to the Rune systems. Ruby wasn't starting that yet. Professor Babble had given her some homework over the weekend which she really tried to do but wasn't quite able. She refused Franklins offer of helps and kept staying in her dorm. For this (and the girl's bathroom) was the only place where he didn't follow her. Bebe, Wendee and Delilah (Ruby had finally managed to remember all the names of her dorm gang) were in the room, too, but just shortly looked up to her then turned back to what they've been doing. They didn't understand and also not forgive that Ruby didn't want one of their robes – or their friendship. But they also didn't want to avoid her completely. They weren't as friendly as at the beginning but just one word of Ruby would be enough to renew their offers.
On Monday morning Ruby still wasn't ready with her Runes homework. At 6.30 she sat in the Great Hall (she had kept on eating so early) brooding over the translation. The result should have been some English sentences but all she had was stuff like "ghe hose drums ploft far hens mold" Frustrated she stared at it.
"Looks wrong doesn't it?" Ruby dropped her quill in fright of the sudden voice behind her and caused a big blue blotch on her paper. She didn't look around and just answered
"Oh thank you very much, you git!" She put out her wand but the one behind her was faster. A black-sleeved arm with a wand appeared at her left side and with a small flick removed the blotch. She turned around. There was a tall burly fifth-year standing behind her. He was Gryffindor and best-of-class in Study of Ancient Runes. Franklin had told her about him. What was his name? She couldn't remember just now.
"Oliver Wood!" he held out his hand but Ruby didn't take it.
"Fine you don't have to, Ruby, or shall I call you Ms Riders as you obviously stuck up your nose against us normal mortal Hogwarts students." Ruby glared at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, you just seem to feel uncomfortable here." How right he was! "Or else you wouldn't still wear that blue and golden stuff – makes you rather outstanding by the way, and I don't mean it positive."
"What's wrong with my robes?"
"In these one can spot you at once wherever you are, d'you like to be in the centre of attention everywhere?"
"No…" Ruby said thoughtfully. She didn't like to stick out, at least not here. But on the other hand she didn't want to look like everyone else… Oliver was again looking at her homework scrunching his nose.
"Sure you have the right dictionary? I could help you with that stuff."
"No, thank you!" Ruby answered rather harsh "I can cope on my own."
He shrugged and went over to Gryffindor table opposite Ruby. She way of regretted it. That had been the first conversation she had had in days. Last thing she noticed before she leaned over her paper again was that he had a red-golden scarf and a broomstick with him. After some time she felt as if someone was staring at her. She ignored it…one minute…two minutes…she couldn't stand it anymore and looked up: Oliver was leaning over his plate eating and there was nobody else. She must have been imagining. Now he looked up, too, and noticing her look he asked
"Do I have egg on my jumper?"
Ruby blushed "No…" she thought about a possible reason for her staring "Um…I just thought about how this with the food works. I mean you have some stuff just for you, too."
He shrugged "Hogwarts has House Elves I guess."
Ruby was annoyed again "I know that, too. But how do they make the food appear?"
He shrugged again "No idea." He stood up and walked over to her. She noticed that the food behind him disappeared again.
"But I advise you to ask the Weasley twins. Somehow they threw a small end-of-term-party for Gryffindor last school year. With food from the kitchens! They probably know…"
"Weasley twins…the red-heads, right? Hard to imagine they're related to Prefect boy." Ruby had met Prefect Percy Weasley on Tuesday when she had been trying to force her way past a painting of a fat woman in a pink dress assuming she was blocking the way to the Muggle Studies class room. The woman had been rambling about a password and common room but Ruby hadn't been listening. She thought it was a trick as the paintings in Salem Institution loved that kind of entertainment. After some time Percy Weasley had come from behind the painting and scolded her off for trying to force her way into Gryffindor Tower – 5 points from Hufflepuff. Later Ruby found out that she had Muggle Studies together with him – all the way through the lesson (and Herbology the next day when Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were together again) she had sent daggers over to him but all she earnt were pink ears and ignorance. Oliver grinned.
"Percy's ok. A good friend once you are on good terms with him" and on Ruby's look he added "what you aren't as I see…you sure you don't need help on that?"
Ruby shut her books. She was too fed up to keep on working at it.
"NO. I hand it in as it is."
He seemed to be about to say something against it but she sent him a cold be-silent-or-else…-look so he just asked "Wanna walk?"
"Huh?"
"I'm on my way to the Quidditch pitch, some first-of-term flying around, d'you want to come with me?"
"No…I mean I don't have my broom with me…why do you ask at all?" she was confused. He was the first one who got her talking though he still somehow annoyed her with his boldness.
"Well, you appeared so gloomy, so I thought you could need some distraction. You can summon your broom outside. Come on." And with that he took her books, quills and parchment, stuffed it all into her bag then grabbed the bag and Ruby's wrist and dragged her up and out of the Hall.
Ruby didn't know what she was doing but flying sounded good so she let him drag along out of the castle. At the bottom of the stairway she noticed that he still was holding her wrist and bag. She wriggled both out of his grasp and looked into the bag to make sure he hadn't accidently squashed Witty who was in it. Then she was walking right next to him pondering why she didn't hate him. Well, having ONE person to talk to can't be so bad at all. So she didn't refuse his further attempts of starting a conversation. He was perplexed that she never had played or even seen a game of Quidditch.
"We play Quodpot at my school." Ruby explained.
"Oh, right, I read about it in 'Quidditch through the ages'. There are eleven players, right?" he got all excited "Can't see why someone wants to play with exploding quaffles, though."
"Do you know the excitement of a game of Exploding Snap?" he nodded "It's the same – but in the air. Watching a game is damn fun."
"So you aren't in your house team?"
"No. And we don't have house teams." Ruby explained their floor system at which he shook his head in rejection. She chose to ignore it and went on "We have school teams for every year. But they don't compete against each other. I mean, you can't first-years let play agianst seventh-years." Oliver looked like he hadn't had a problem with that she noted but spoke on "But they all train together. And before summer holidays there are school tournaments. The teams travel to the providing school then. This year it's my school's turn…" she added with a cheery smile. She was sure to be there again at that time.
"A pity you can't see it." Oliver said - she frowned but he didn't notice "Were you in your year's school team?" he asked her eagerly. Obviously they were speaking about a topic he greatly enjoyed.
"Merlin, no! I'm not good enough. But with some friends I founded the Flying Club. We are students from every year. We do inofficial Quodpot plays, races and freestyle and the likes. Y'know, just having fun on our brooms."
He looked honestly interested. "You could start such a club here, too."
She avoided his enthusiastic face "Erm, no, I don't think so." A Flying Club at Hogwarts would've been fun – but she wasn't supposed to have fun. Salem Institution was fun – not Hogwarts!
"Why not?" but she didn't respond as they have reached the pitch meanwhile.
She took out her wand and shouted "Accio Air Swish 50-4."
He gave her a look with raised brows. "An Air Swish 50-4? You haven't won the races in your club very often, have you?" he grinned cheekily, and suddenly Ruby was annoyed again.
"No, but you should see my freestyle!" she answered angrily. Who was he to make fun of her broom? He had spoiled the whole atmosphere. Ruby had been lucky to chat with someone at last. To act quite normal again. He seemed to be someone who wouldn't go around and tell it to everybody. Why else would he be out on the pitch – alone – on that time of the day?
"No reason to be insulted." he said "it was mere observation." and as the sound of a flying broomstick drew nearer he added "I'd like to see your freestyle."
Ruby blushed and was happy that at that moment her Air Swish came around. She mounted it and kicked off the ground at the same time Oliver did. They were high in the air as she noticed that the wind was rather chilly up here. Too chilly for her taste. She landed again followed by Oliver with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Why are you landing again? We've just started."
"It's too cold." she snapped but was taken aback by him unwrapping his neck and handing over his scarf.
"Take this, it will help. Summoning your stuff would take too long. I want a start at last." Ruby was bewildered but nevertheless wrapped her neck with the scarf. Wait, it smelled like… "Cinnamon?"
He blushed. "Erm, yes…my room-mate, Kyle…um…"
She smiled "You don't have to make up excuses. I like cinnamon." And with that she rose up into the air to give him some time to get rid of his blush. But he followed her immediately. It was a great feeling: the feeling of the wood in her hands…the excitement in her stomach…the wind in her hair…knocking off her hat as she was performing a looping…damn! But Oliver was already diving for it. He managed to pick it up from the ground without even touching the grass – rather impressive as Ruby had to admit. When he was on her level again he gave her a bewildered look and began to stutter.
"Um…please, don't be offended…but…er…does your hair naturally…um…grow like THIS?" it earnt him a disapproving look.
"No, to your information, it doesn't." she grabbed her hat out of his seize and flew away. He followed her.
"So why does it look like this then?"
"Charm." She mumbled
"What?"
"I'm trying to learn a curly-hair-charm, ok?" she burst out.
"Oh! Why don't you use a potion?"
"I would have to rebrew it now and then. The charm's easier…as soon as I can master it."
She did some loops (holding her hat tightly) and artful curves. He clapped then did some of his own. After this he came to her side again.
"How do you stress it?"
She flew high into the air then came down again in elegant pirouettes. As her surroundings ceased spinning around in her head she said the spell to him. He listened frowning then said
"No wonder it doesn't work. You have to put more emphasize on the o's and the a's are spoken rather short."
Ruby gave him a bewildered look and Oliver smiled excusingly. "When I was first year my cousin was learning that charm, too. She didn't want to try it out on herself. So being about double the size of me she took me as testing object…my hair had been longer then." Ruby stared. She could hardly imagine the tall Oliver with his short brown hair as a tiny first-year with curly braids. She snickered and he looked embarrassed but also insulted. "I've cut my hair off then and I grew a lot during second year…so do you want to learn the right way of pronouncing the spell or what?"
Ruby nodded still snickering slightly.
By half past eight Ruby had her light brown hair curly at last and also knew how to do it properly the next time. In reward she had taught Oliver some of her more thrilling movements and they both were rather exhausted now as they set back to the castle.
They entered the entrance hall at the same time as Franklin and some other Hufflepuffs were coming out of the Great Hall. Franklin looked at her flabbergasted.
"WHAT are you wearing?" he asked looking quite appalled.
Just then Ruby realised she still was wearing Oliver's Gryffindor scarf. Quickly she pulled it off and handed it back to Oliver. Franklin took her arm and tore her away back to Hufflepuff Gardens annoying her with questions about what she had to do with Oliver Wood.
"He's a maniac! I've played Quidditch against him last year. When he's on the topic of Quidditch he completely freaks out!"
"I wasn't under that impression. He was excited about that topic, yeah, but freaked out? And he didn't mention he played Quidditch at all!" Ruby answered briskly.
"He didn't? Must have been first time ever. He's Gryffindor keeper. And since last year he's also captain. That gave him the rest! Great Expectations."
They had reached the ivy (Ruby had been walking briskly and fast). Inside the common room Ruby went to her dormitory without any further word. Franklin annoyed her whenever he opened his mouth. She packed her bag then caught a glimpse of her own in the mirror. She removed her hat looked intently into the mirror and smiled. She KNEW she would look neat with curls. Franklin hadn't say a single word about it. He was too busy with rambling about Oliver. He had leant her his scarf revealing it smelled like cinnamon AND he had explained her the long wanted spell although she had laughed at him. So he can't be so bad after all. But he had sneered at her robes. Ruby looked to her trunk then again at her Salem self in the mirror. She pondered. Hesitatingly she opened the trunk and took out her Hogwarts robes. She held them in front of her, then – very slowly – she changed into them and quickly left the room.
~*~
Please tell me what you think, ok?
~*~
Ruby woke up very early in the next morning. She needed some time to realise where she was and why she already was awake: Witty was tugging at her ear! She gave the fairy a gloomy look through squinted eyes.
"Why the– ?" just then she noticed how shaken Witty appeared and her gloomy expression changed into a concerned one.
"What's wrong?"
"There...there was a GHOST flying through the room!" Witty whispered with big scared eyes "It ... looked like a monk!" her lower lip trembled with fear.
"Oh, that's it...yeah, I know." Ruby was relieved though still concerned about Witty "You must've been sleeping when we met the ghosts yesterday evening. Well, Hogwarts Castle has ghosts. You don't have to be afraid of them I think. You have probably seen the Fat Friar, the ghost of Hufflepuff House. That Franklin guy has mentioned him yesterday."
"They have ghosts here? Well, I hope we won't have too much contact with them..."
"Believe me Witty, I hope so, too."
The fairy was calmed down now and laid down again. Ruby did so, too, but soon realised that she couldn't sleep anymore. And the quiet snores of Witty next to her didn't help very much. Ruby envied her fairy pet who could sleep everywhere at every time of the day. Her wristwatch told her it was 4.30. Ruby sighed and heaved herself out of the bed. After a long bath and careful tending of her tortured hair ("Damn charm!" she muttered) Ruby was back in her dorm. After a short hesitating she finally pulled on her Salem robes woke Witty up and quietly left Hufflepuff Gardens to set out for breakfast. That was at about quarter past six. Ruby soon realised that there were more new things to learn than History of Magic or Ancient Runes: the castle was old – and naturelly it held the usual stuff to entertain itself: trick steps, secret passages, fake doors and other things like that. She had known her Salem ways but Hogwarts was of course totally new for her. She felt like a stupid first-year while Witty was so bored that she crept into the wand pocket in Ruby's left sleeve to take a nap again.
"Oh, thank you!" Ruby muttered insulted.
Her first success (after two dead ends) was finding the painting of the woman in her patch (she slept with her head in the cabbage). Ruby passed it delighted, turned left – and stood in front of a solid wall again. Frustrated she turned – and came face to face with a ghost. Ruby gave a small cry of fright then backed away, right against the wall. There was no way of escape. The ghost had a nasty glitter in his eyes though smiling sweetly.
"Lost?" he asked with a voice of hardly suppressed delectation.
Ruby merely nodded.
"Oooooh, no problem. Let dear Peeves help you!" Ruby didn't know if she could trust him. There was something in his expression that made her suspicious.
"Just go back the way and turn left on the first opportunity, then right and after this straight on – can't miss it then." And with that he flew away cackling quietly.
Ruby shook her head still disbelieving this meeting. She went back but at the crossing she hesitated, left he had said but Ruby decided to try straight ahead first – which was the right decision she noticed as she shortly after this entered the Entrance Hall. It was 7 sharp. Sighing she went into the Great Hall which was completely empty – well, not completely. There was a ghost sitting at Hufflepuff Table – obviously the Fat Friar. Ruby sat down some seats away from him but he turned to face Ruby – looking remarkably joyful – and glided over to her. In his hands he held a stack of parchments.
"Hello, new Hufflepuff!" Ruby didn't feel addressed. However the Friar didn't look upset at all.
"Up so early in the morning?" she didn't reply "Name and year?" he asked still over-excited.
"Huh?" Ruby looked up from her disappointing empty plate.
"Name and year?" he repeated and then it burst out of him "This year I'm allowed to hand out the Hufflepuff timetables!" his chest swelled with pride but Ruby wasn't interested at all.
"Ruby Riders, fifth year." she just answered dully hoping to shut him up. She wasn't in her usual good-morning-mood and tried to show this expressively.
He searched through the stack and soon found the wanted piece of paper. She muttered a "Thanks." Then studied it carefully. She started with Study of Ancient Runes and Transfiguration today, and double Potions in the afternoon. Damn! She hadn't yet time to revise the Melting charm. Tuesday she had Astronomy in the afternoon and at midnight – she hated that lessons. It was so difficult to remember all the names of the stars and such. Well, at least first lesson on Wednesday morning was free – hopefully that wasn't a library lesson. Ruby was so concentrated on valuing the timetable that she didn't notice anything around her. However suddenly she sniffed something – bacon...she looked over the rim of her paper and saw – breakfast! Some bowls around her were full with porridge and eggs with bacon and cereals and there were two cans with milk and orange juice. She was astounded – it was clearly just set for her – she HAD to find out how this worked!
She had nearly finished when the first other students entered the Hall, one of these – Franklin Abbott. Broadly grinning and with a "G'Morning!" he sat next to her. He gave the Friar some more attention than she had done and received his timetable bearing a cheery smile. Ruby couldn't stand so much happiness just now and tried to ignore him – but he gave her a hard job on that.
"How have you found the way? Good? Wanted to go with you and the other girls of your dorm. But they said you weren't there anymore so I set out earlier. They'll be coming soon, also. Got your timetable, too? Great for the Friar, don't you think? By the way we'll have the same lessons, except Muggle Studies. I have Arithmancy instead. I'll give you companionship, ok?" Ruby wanted to shake her head but he gave her no chance to do so. "Great! We will get along rather well, I guess. First is Ancient Runes, taught by Professor Babble. Easy that one. But be careful of McGonagall, she gives Transfiguration and is rather strict. She's head of Gryffindor house. Better be prepared for Potions this afternoon. Professor Snape, head of Slytherin house, can be really mean. He's said to prefer his own students. Thanks god, we're with the Ravenclaws." Ruby was annoyed but nevertheless fascinated with him being able to talk endlessly (apparently without breathing), eat breakfast and read his schedule, all at the same time. How could somebody like him get an important position just as Prefect? Now her roommates and some of the first-years sat down around them. Franklin and Hannah immediately began a talk. The fifth-years looked strangely at Ruby's clothes and were about to say something so that Ruby suddenly rose muttering something about getting her books and left the fastly filling Hall. Franklin called something after her that sounded like "Wait! D'you know the way?" but Ruby wasn't paying attention to him. She was sure she could find the way very easily – she just had to follow the constant line of students backwards. But suddenly she heard a slight panting behind her. She didn't have to turn around – it must have been Franklin and sure enough he was walking next to her in a second.
"Didn't you hear me?"
"Didn't you eat breakfast?" she asked pretty annoyed. But he didn't seem to have got it.
"I don't need much in the morning...but you should see me at lunch!"Grinning he walked next to her making sure that she didn't get lost. Which would have been rather difficult because there were many Hufflepuff students on their way to the Great Hall now. Ruby caused still some amount of attention.
If she had been annoyed of Franklin in the morning it was nothing against what she felt at lunch. She couldn't often get rid of him during the whole day – or week. He was eager to explain her everything about the castle – it was good for learning the ways but really bad for getting some rest. Ruby never had met somebody who could talk that lot. She was really thankful for lessons for then he was quiet – and Ruby noticed why he was Prefect – a whole teacher's favorite boy he was. Always the first to help when teachers needed it, always the one who sat in the frist row (which meant that Ruby now was sitting in the first row, too).
All her teachers have given her some parchments with the topics what they would expect her to master for the christmas exams. On Friday evening she at last had peace enough (Franklin was at a Prefect's meeting) to see them through and ponder about her new teachers.
Defence Against the Dark Arts was strange. Her teacher, Professor Quirrel seemed to be afraid of his own shadow – and the turban he was wearing smelled disgustingly. He probably frightened she could hex him as revenge for a hard test, for he hadn't given her many topics. And these few were also rather easy..
Ruby's Muggle Studies Professor was delighted about her holidays at Edith's house last year. He even had given her extra homework: "Make a report for the class about your experiences with the Muggle way of living."
Potions would be an awful lot of work. Professor Snape was some dark and cold wizard – threatening (and obviously not in possesion of shampoo). And Ruby wasn't allowed to use at least ingredients-lists as she had been at Salem Institution. Well, she would have to practise a lot then she would hopefully remember the right ingredients. But after ten minutes of her first Potions lesson she had abandoned her plan of using the Melting charm she had learnt from Carey's older brother Martin (how she had adored him in first class!) – it wasn't worth being killed by this teacher. For that she was expecting as "detention" from him.
Next paper was Transfiguration. She wasn't on very good terms with Professor McGonagall. In her first lesson on Monday she had asked why Ruby still wasn't wearing Hogwarts robes (Snape was the only one of the other teachers who also had enquired during the whole week). She had answered something about having them accidently put into the suitcases of her parents but that didn't work. McGonagall had suggested to borrow some from one of her roommates who have been eager to let her but she had refused. They met again on Thursday on the corridor – 5 points from Hufflepuff. Next time was Double Transfiguration at Friday. Ruby still was wearing her Salem robes – 15 points this time. Now her roommates were somewhat more annoyed than they had been already (Ruby hadn't been very eager to accept their friendship offers).
She didn't care. It worked all rather fine for her. Soon she would be out of here. Ruby didn't want to take the exams. Even if she would work hard for the other subjects she would never be able to pass History of Magic. She was miles behind the class. The only non-American witches and wizards which were important in history she knew were Megan Fiery the first British witch to come to America, He Who Must Not Be Named and Harry Potter of course whom by the way she had barely seen during the whole week (but she had sent a school owl to Carey's place to tell her and Edith that she was at the same school with famous Harry Potter!). Additionally the teacher was a ghost (Ruby didn't like him at once) and so boring Ruby had been fast asleep after twenty minutes, Franklin had woken her up with a disapproving expression.
But History of Magic was even topped by Study of Ancient Runes. It wasn't just a letter-for-letter-transforming of Runes to normal letters as Ruby had expected. There were different Rune systems each containing about 50 – 350 Runes, looking quite equal but being very different. There were runes which belonged to only one system, others could be found in more than one (but in each system they had another meaning). The first lesson Ruby had understood nothing and the second on Wednesday hadn't been any better.The exam on that would finish her off – first-year standard in History of Magic and third-year standard in Ancient Runes – she didn't want to be placed in a lower year! It would be a disgrace – and spoil the triumphant leaving she was planning to have.
Runes and History were the only bigger problems. The other subjects were possible with working – for at least it was just revision for them.... She had no chance for History of Magic – so she HAD to pass Ancient Runes! Until now they have mostly just learnt the symbols. Their translations resulted in normal English words. But last term they also started the languages belonging to the Rune systems. Ruby wasn't starting that yet. Professor Babble had given her some homework over the weekend which she really tried to do but wasn't quite able. She refused Franklins offer of helps and kept staying in her dorm. For this (and the girl's bathroom) was the only place where he didn't follow her. Bebe, Wendee and Delilah (Ruby had finally managed to remember all the names of her dorm gang) were in the room, too, but just shortly looked up to her then turned back to what they've been doing. They didn't understand and also not forgive that Ruby didn't want one of their robes – or their friendship. But they also didn't want to avoid her completely. They weren't as friendly as at the beginning but just one word of Ruby would be enough to renew their offers.
On Monday morning Ruby still wasn't ready with her Runes homework. At 6.30 she sat in the Great Hall (she had kept on eating so early) brooding over the translation. The result should have been some English sentences but all she had was stuff like "ghe hose drums ploft far hens mold" Frustrated she stared at it.
"Looks wrong doesn't it?" Ruby dropped her quill in fright of the sudden voice behind her and caused a big blue blotch on her paper. She didn't look around and just answered
"Oh thank you very much, you git!" She put out her wand but the one behind her was faster. A black-sleeved arm with a wand appeared at her left side and with a small flick removed the blotch. She turned around. There was a tall burly fifth-year standing behind her. He was Gryffindor and best-of-class in Study of Ancient Runes. Franklin had told her about him. What was his name? She couldn't remember just now.
"Oliver Wood!" he held out his hand but Ruby didn't take it.
"Fine you don't have to, Ruby, or shall I call you Ms Riders as you obviously stuck up your nose against us normal mortal Hogwarts students." Ruby glared at him.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"Nothing, you just seem to feel uncomfortable here." How right he was! "Or else you wouldn't still wear that blue and golden stuff – makes you rather outstanding by the way, and I don't mean it positive."
"What's wrong with my robes?"
"In these one can spot you at once wherever you are, d'you like to be in the centre of attention everywhere?"
"No…" Ruby said thoughtfully. She didn't like to stick out, at least not here. But on the other hand she didn't want to look like everyone else… Oliver was again looking at her homework scrunching his nose.
"Sure you have the right dictionary? I could help you with that stuff."
"No, thank you!" Ruby answered rather harsh "I can cope on my own."
He shrugged and went over to Gryffindor table opposite Ruby. She way of regretted it. That had been the first conversation she had had in days. Last thing she noticed before she leaned over her paper again was that he had a red-golden scarf and a broomstick with him. After some time she felt as if someone was staring at her. She ignored it…one minute…two minutes…she couldn't stand it anymore and looked up: Oliver was leaning over his plate eating and there was nobody else. She must have been imagining. Now he looked up, too, and noticing her look he asked
"Do I have egg on my jumper?"
Ruby blushed "No…" she thought about a possible reason for her staring "Um…I just thought about how this with the food works. I mean you have some stuff just for you, too."
He shrugged "Hogwarts has House Elves I guess."
Ruby was annoyed again "I know that, too. But how do they make the food appear?"
He shrugged again "No idea." He stood up and walked over to her. She noticed that the food behind him disappeared again.
"But I advise you to ask the Weasley twins. Somehow they threw a small end-of-term-party for Gryffindor last school year. With food from the kitchens! They probably know…"
"Weasley twins…the red-heads, right? Hard to imagine they're related to Prefect boy." Ruby had met Prefect Percy Weasley on Tuesday when she had been trying to force her way past a painting of a fat woman in a pink dress assuming she was blocking the way to the Muggle Studies class room. The woman had been rambling about a password and common room but Ruby hadn't been listening. She thought it was a trick as the paintings in Salem Institution loved that kind of entertainment. After some time Percy Weasley had come from behind the painting and scolded her off for trying to force her way into Gryffindor Tower – 5 points from Hufflepuff. Later Ruby found out that she had Muggle Studies together with him – all the way through the lesson (and Herbology the next day when Hufflepuff and Gryffindor were together again) she had sent daggers over to him but all she earnt were pink ears and ignorance. Oliver grinned.
"Percy's ok. A good friend once you are on good terms with him" and on Ruby's look he added "what you aren't as I see…you sure you don't need help on that?"
Ruby shut her books. She was too fed up to keep on working at it.
"NO. I hand it in as it is."
He seemed to be about to say something against it but she sent him a cold be-silent-or-else…-look so he just asked "Wanna walk?"
"Huh?"
"I'm on my way to the Quidditch pitch, some first-of-term flying around, d'you want to come with me?"
"No…I mean I don't have my broom with me…why do you ask at all?" she was confused. He was the first one who got her talking though he still somehow annoyed her with his boldness.
"Well, you appeared so gloomy, so I thought you could need some distraction. You can summon your broom outside. Come on." And with that he took her books, quills and parchment, stuffed it all into her bag then grabbed the bag and Ruby's wrist and dragged her up and out of the Hall.
Ruby didn't know what she was doing but flying sounded good so she let him drag along out of the castle. At the bottom of the stairway she noticed that he still was holding her wrist and bag. She wriggled both out of his grasp and looked into the bag to make sure he hadn't accidently squashed Witty who was in it. Then she was walking right next to him pondering why she didn't hate him. Well, having ONE person to talk to can't be so bad at all. So she didn't refuse his further attempts of starting a conversation. He was perplexed that she never had played or even seen a game of Quidditch.
"We play Quodpot at my school." Ruby explained.
"Oh, right, I read about it in 'Quidditch through the ages'. There are eleven players, right?" he got all excited "Can't see why someone wants to play with exploding quaffles, though."
"Do you know the excitement of a game of Exploding Snap?" he nodded "It's the same – but in the air. Watching a game is damn fun."
"So you aren't in your house team?"
"No. And we don't have house teams." Ruby explained their floor system at which he shook his head in rejection. She chose to ignore it and went on "We have school teams for every year. But they don't compete against each other. I mean, you can't first-years let play agianst seventh-years." Oliver looked like he hadn't had a problem with that she noted but spoke on "But they all train together. And before summer holidays there are school tournaments. The teams travel to the providing school then. This year it's my school's turn…" she added with a cheery smile. She was sure to be there again at that time.
"A pity you can't see it." Oliver said - she frowned but he didn't notice "Were you in your year's school team?" he asked her eagerly. Obviously they were speaking about a topic he greatly enjoyed.
"Merlin, no! I'm not good enough. But with some friends I founded the Flying Club. We are students from every year. We do inofficial Quodpot plays, races and freestyle and the likes. Y'know, just having fun on our brooms."
He looked honestly interested. "You could start such a club here, too."
She avoided his enthusiastic face "Erm, no, I don't think so." A Flying Club at Hogwarts would've been fun – but she wasn't supposed to have fun. Salem Institution was fun – not Hogwarts!
"Why not?" but she didn't respond as they have reached the pitch meanwhile.
She took out her wand and shouted "Accio Air Swish 50-4."
He gave her a look with raised brows. "An Air Swish 50-4? You haven't won the races in your club very often, have you?" he grinned cheekily, and suddenly Ruby was annoyed again.
"No, but you should see my freestyle!" she answered angrily. Who was he to make fun of her broom? He had spoiled the whole atmosphere. Ruby had been lucky to chat with someone at last. To act quite normal again. He seemed to be someone who wouldn't go around and tell it to everybody. Why else would he be out on the pitch – alone – on that time of the day?
"No reason to be insulted." he said "it was mere observation." and as the sound of a flying broomstick drew nearer he added "I'd like to see your freestyle."
Ruby blushed and was happy that at that moment her Air Swish came around. She mounted it and kicked off the ground at the same time Oliver did. They were high in the air as she noticed that the wind was rather chilly up here. Too chilly for her taste. She landed again followed by Oliver with a puzzled expression on his face.
"Why are you landing again? We've just started."
"It's too cold." she snapped but was taken aback by him unwrapping his neck and handing over his scarf.
"Take this, it will help. Summoning your stuff would take too long. I want a start at last." Ruby was bewildered but nevertheless wrapped her neck with the scarf. Wait, it smelled like… "Cinnamon?"
He blushed. "Erm, yes…my room-mate, Kyle…um…"
She smiled "You don't have to make up excuses. I like cinnamon." And with that she rose up into the air to give him some time to get rid of his blush. But he followed her immediately. It was a great feeling: the feeling of the wood in her hands…the excitement in her stomach…the wind in her hair…knocking off her hat as she was performing a looping…damn! But Oliver was already diving for it. He managed to pick it up from the ground without even touching the grass – rather impressive as Ruby had to admit. When he was on her level again he gave her a bewildered look and began to stutter.
"Um…please, don't be offended…but…er…does your hair naturally…um…grow like THIS?" it earnt him a disapproving look.
"No, to your information, it doesn't." she grabbed her hat out of his seize and flew away. He followed her.
"So why does it look like this then?"
"Charm." She mumbled
"What?"
"I'm trying to learn a curly-hair-charm, ok?" she burst out.
"Oh! Why don't you use a potion?"
"I would have to rebrew it now and then. The charm's easier…as soon as I can master it."
She did some loops (holding her hat tightly) and artful curves. He clapped then did some of his own. After this he came to her side again.
"How do you stress it?"
She flew high into the air then came down again in elegant pirouettes. As her surroundings ceased spinning around in her head she said the spell to him. He listened frowning then said
"No wonder it doesn't work. You have to put more emphasize on the o's and the a's are spoken rather short."
Ruby gave him a bewildered look and Oliver smiled excusingly. "When I was first year my cousin was learning that charm, too. She didn't want to try it out on herself. So being about double the size of me she took me as testing object…my hair had been longer then." Ruby stared. She could hardly imagine the tall Oliver with his short brown hair as a tiny first-year with curly braids. She snickered and he looked embarrassed but also insulted. "I've cut my hair off then and I grew a lot during second year…so do you want to learn the right way of pronouncing the spell or what?"
Ruby nodded still snickering slightly.
By half past eight Ruby had her light brown hair curly at last and also knew how to do it properly the next time. In reward she had taught Oliver some of her more thrilling movements and they both were rather exhausted now as they set back to the castle.
They entered the entrance hall at the same time as Franklin and some other Hufflepuffs were coming out of the Great Hall. Franklin looked at her flabbergasted.
"WHAT are you wearing?" he asked looking quite appalled.
Just then Ruby realised she still was wearing Oliver's Gryffindor scarf. Quickly she pulled it off and handed it back to Oliver. Franklin took her arm and tore her away back to Hufflepuff Gardens annoying her with questions about what she had to do with Oliver Wood.
"He's a maniac! I've played Quidditch against him last year. When he's on the topic of Quidditch he completely freaks out!"
"I wasn't under that impression. He was excited about that topic, yeah, but freaked out? And he didn't mention he played Quidditch at all!" Ruby answered briskly.
"He didn't? Must have been first time ever. He's Gryffindor keeper. And since last year he's also captain. That gave him the rest! Great Expectations."
They had reached the ivy (Ruby had been walking briskly and fast). Inside the common room Ruby went to her dormitory without any further word. Franklin annoyed her whenever he opened his mouth. She packed her bag then caught a glimpse of her own in the mirror. She removed her hat looked intently into the mirror and smiled. She KNEW she would look neat with curls. Franklin hadn't say a single word about it. He was too busy with rambling about Oliver. He had leant her his scarf revealing it smelled like cinnamon AND he had explained her the long wanted spell although she had laughed at him. So he can't be so bad after all. But he had sneered at her robes. Ruby looked to her trunk then again at her Salem self in the mirror. She pondered. Hesitatingly she opened the trunk and took out her Hogwarts robes. She held them in front of her, then – very slowly – she changed into them and quickly left the room.
~*~
Please tell me what you think, ok?