A/N: I love to illustrate my storys, especially when I'm bored during class. So:
~*~
Ruby spent the following time with learning and revising, talking a lot to the armor in the Entrance Hall, trying out some of Sadie's tricks, getting detention for them, being quite often in the office of Filch and his horrible cat - and quarrelling with Oliver Wood. It had begun during their first tutoring lesson. They hadn't been talking to each other ever since the last Runes lesson though he kept on greeting her on the corridors. Ruby then usually looked away or pretended to be listening to Franklin. She actually had no reason to act like this, she just followed her intuition. Now he came in with three books and many rolls of parchment. They had begun with what he had called "an easy translation for getting warm". After Ruby had tortured herself through two lines he took the quill out of her hands. Ruby rolled her eyes and faced him with a very annoyed expression.
"WHAT?" she asked.
"What do you do there? You need two minutes for one Rune and still tend to get them wrong. I can't understand-" but Ruby exploded.
"You can't understand? Man, there are 50 symbols in that system I'm currently working at! I can't know all these by heart, can I? It's difficult to differ them all! I-" now it was Oliver who cut her off.
"'Course you can't! But don't you know the system?"
Ruby was puzzled. "System?"
Oliver shook his head. "Yeah, sure there's a logical system. Once you got that you can deal with every Rune system! Really, you should've taken Arithmancy instead of Muggle Studies, would give you an insight into reasonable logic... And keep your faces to yourself - I have seen that!" He took the books he had brought with him. "They are out of my shelf. Take these and have a good look into them until next lesson."
Ruby looked at the titles: Ancient Runes - an Introduction, First Steps into Arithmancy and Logical & Magical Fun vol 1 and 2 (Figures and Letters). When she looked up Oliver had written some Runes on the blackboard and now was explaining how they were related.
On Friday they had been discussing why everybody was so excited about their first Hogsmeade weekend (A/N: I made it a bit early, I know). Ruby had told him that entirely wizarding settlements weren't so unusual in the United States where many deserted areas could be found. And she refused to see the specialty of Hogsmeade no matter what Oliver said.
On Saturday they were going on about Ruby coming too late because she couldn't have torn away from the sweets shop Honeydukes and especially Zonko's jokeshop where she had met the Weasley twins who seemed to be worth a good laugh but unfortunately they weren't in her house...
Ruby's only ray of hope was her birthday on Wednesday the next week. She sat as usually all alone in the Great Hall as Oliver entered it, too. They sometimes met at that time in the Hall when he was about to practise a bit before lessons start. But they haven't been together on the pitch again. He just had settled down in his seat as shortly after one another three owls came swooping into the Hall and landed in front of Ruby. She recognized them as Remulus, Carey's owl Blubber (she had been 5 when she had named him) and Hector who was the owl of Christopher's family. They had letters and packages tied to their legs. First she took the one of her parents. They wished her a nice birthday and told her off for her behavior especially pointing out that changing the hair color of fellow students was no fun (obviously they got the first owls from school). The presents were two books, one about Hogwarts another about The Modern Usage of Old Runes. Ruby scowled at them, then took the package of Chris. He had wrote no letter or card but sent the small lily-shaped golden brooch that smelled like a real one Ruby had once gawped at in Merlin Avenue. Ruby loved lilies and pinned it immediately at her chest. Now she had found a way to wear the robes but still be different from the others. Ruby was so happy she didn't notice Oliver observing her intently but silently. Still smiling she took the letter with two small packages and a bigger one from Blubber. First she read the letter.
"Ruby dear,
how are you? Do they treat you right over the ocean? That Franklin guy sounds horrible but your roommates seem to be rather nice. You don't have to ignore them just because we aren't there. We understand your plan, of course, but we want you to have the best time possible! Especially with Harry Potter around! Martin said he wanted an autograph, stupid git!
As the card says we, of course, wish you an ever so happy birthday. It's a shame we can't celebrate it together as we assume the British to be somewhat too reserved for our way of party... But guess what! Edith's parents say we can come to them over christmas! A real Muggle christmas - how does that sound? Please ask your parents."
Ruby got all excited. That sounded really great!
"We hope you will like your presents. When we met at Merlin Avenue on 1 September we skimmed over a book on Magical Education in Europe. We could get a climpse on a drawing of that ugly black stuff Hogwarts calls a uniform before Mr Listing shooed us out of his shop which is by his words "no library". So we decided to get you something decent: they are new at Rosie's Robesshop. Everybody with pierced ears in school will wear them. We each bought one kind and will mix them up. That you can do the same we got you both."
Ruby unwrapped the small packages: it were two pairs of earrings! One pair star-shaped, the other one looked like half-moons. Ruby sighed, mixed up they'd perfectly match her Salem school robes (which probably was the reason Rosie who provided their uniforms sold them now). She immediately put them into her ears, a star for her left ear, the half-moon into her right one.
"And one thing more! We have decided to braid one strand over the right ear. Do that, too, and we will still be united in spite of the whole ocean! The third present is that you don't forget how we look. Dad took it the day Edith arrived."
It was a picture of them both smiling into the camera, in the background the busy shopping mile. They both wore their Salem robes. (A/N: that's about the picture I gave you the link of)
"Guess who ran into us during shopping? Kylie Morstein! She said she was going to ask Chris to be her study partner now that you are away. Merlin knows how she found out! But don't worry, we saw Christopher going into Magical Accesories. He seemed to have heard you going on about that wonderful lily brooch last year…
Hope to hear from you soon, love'n'kisses Carey & Edith
PS: Prepare yourself for a small surprise this afternoon"
That had been so sweet that Ruby felt tears welling up. How she longed to be together with her friends just now! Suddenly she felt a hand on hers.
"Your birthday today?" Oliver's voice found its way into Ruby's blurred mind. She wriggled her hand out of his and, wiping away the tears, she nodded. He took her hand again and shook it.
"Happy Birthday!" Ruby couldn't help smiling but still didn't look up "That Rune book's good. I have that, too." then he took the picture of Carey and Edith "These your friends?" Ruby nodded "Are they famous or something?"
Ruby shook her head and finally looked up "Why d'you ask?"
"They signed the pict...hey, something wrong?" he had looked into her face and spotted the traces of tears.
"Just a bit overwhelmed." Tears were fighting their way out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Oliver looked rather helpless and tried to distract her.
"You know what helps best?"
"What?"
"Flying!" and with the same enthusiasm he had shown on the morning they had met the first time he grabbed her hand and pulled on it not able to wait until Ruby had packed her bag and was ready to set out. This time she teared away from him in the Entrance Hall to bring her stuff to the dorm and get her broom and scarf. He waited for her in the Hall tapping one feet. Before they went out Ruby winked at the armor in the Hall.
This time he talked a lot about Quidditch because the season would soon start. He told her about the flattening last play against Slytherin last year and that this time it'd be whole different. As Ruby wanted to know why, he got all mysterious.
"Can you keep a secret?" he asked flying very close to her.
Ruby shrugged "Sure."
"Harry Potter'll be our new Seeker - and as McGonagall says he's awful good!" he whispered.
Ruby's grey-green eyes widened. "Harry Potter? ... WOW"
"Ssshhhh, not so loud..." he looked around them if anybody was listening "Amazing, eh?"
"Pretty amazing, yeah! Well, he has the right stature anyway..."
She promised him not to tell anyone and after some more loops and bends (which really cheered her up) Ruby hurried back to the castle. Her dormitory was empty, the others still must've been at breakfast. Ruby looked at her mirror self with the star and half-moon in the ears. She took out her Salem robes and pulled them on. Then observing herself while braiding the strand over her right ear she looked regretting into the mirror when Tracey, Elizabeth, Violet and Myra entered the room.
"Oh no, you're not going to wear that again, are you?" Myra exclaimed but Ruby turned and said
"Don't worry, I'm not. I just tried something out."
Relieved the girls saw that Ruby changed into her Hogwarts robes and scurried off to the library to brood over the Runes translations Oliver had given her to do last Saturday.
During their tutoring lesson in the afternoon (Oliver said birthday was no excuse) he pointed out the lily on her chest blushing a bit.
"The brooch's beautiful. I love lilies. Who gave it to you?"
"Christopher."
He gave her a short examining look "Your brother?"
Ruby's expression darkened as she answered "No, my would-be study-partner and perhaps boyfriend if I wasn't stuck up here."
"Oh!" he looked as if about to say something as a short Hufflepuff first-year with bright green hair (Ruby grinned - he seemed to have drunk the hexed pumpkin juice she had placed in the common room) stumbled into the room panting.
"Frank ... sent me ... come ... quick!" Ruby looked confused from the tiny boy to Oliver who stared baffled at the boy's hair then irritated at Ruby.
"You've done it again, haven't you?" he muttered to her. Ruby grinned.
"It faints in some days!" then grabbing her stuff she added "See you later then!" and followed the boy back to Hufflepuff Gardens before Oliver could give her any task for next lesson. She didn't know why she has been called but was sure to soon find out. And everything that cut her tutoring lesson was good.
However when she entered the rather packed common room everybody was looking at her strangely. Franklin stood near the entrance and gave her a cheerful but also stern look.
"You could've told us y'know..." Ruby didn't know what he meant but soon found out as she discovered two heads in the middle of the fireplace, one with reddish curls and sparkling green eyes, the other one with smooth black hair and dark brown eyes: Carey and Edith! With an excited squeal of delight she ran over to them and could only hardly prevent herself from having a try to hug them. They both grinned and cried pompously
"Surprise!!!" then they sang her a birthday song. Ruby was overwhelmed forgetting that nearly whole Hufflepuff house was standing and sitting around her.
"Thank you so much! But how-?"
"Dad said it was time to test how the fire networks work together. By the way happy birthday from my parents and Martin, too." Carey explained "So you were having tutoring they said?"
"Yes, but I skipped it for you of course!"
"That's our good girl!" Edith grinned. "By the way, your hair looks great. Mastered the charm, at last?" Rubby nodded as the heads suddenly got all blurry and with a worried expression on their faces and a 'pop' they were away. Ruby didn't understand.
"What happened? Why are they away?"
Franklin placed his hand on her shoulder.
"What d'you expect? They could at least hold up the connection for more than 40 minutes - that's something!" then he congratulated her for her birthday ("Really! Why didn't you tell us?") like everybody else in the room did after him, too. In no time it was a real little birthday party with sweets they all were bringing up from their dorms. It was the first time Ruby had some kind of a chat with the lot and she enjoyed it - though she couldn't get rid of the feeling somebody was missing - and it weren't just Edith and Carey.
From this evening on she got along with her fellow Hufflepuffs much better though this was the only improvement.
This Mrs Harrington kept on writing to her. She said she wasn't the one to tell her about her grandfather but begged her to try and make contact between her and Ruby's Mom.
Ruby made just small progresses with the armor in the Hall though it seemed to take slowly a small liking on her: she was the only one it didn't laugh at when they stumbled over a step. And the other tips Sadie had given her worked fantastic! Ruby was careful to get caught every time. So her days were full of lessons, tricks, detention and tutoring lessons. She did hardly get better on Runes which at least partly could be blamed on Oliver who refused to talk with Ruby any more word than on his tutoring. Somehow his secret weapon Harry Potter wasn't a secret anymore. And he blamed Ruby on having it let slipping through seeing that she and Franklin being Hufflepuff Chaser spent a lot of time together. That was true. Ruby had got a letter from Carey saying (amongst other school news) that Kylie and Chris now really were study partners and having a PS: "Sorry, the fire place connection had crashed down so soon. By the way that Franklin guy was nice - and damn cute! Well, he really seems to like talking - but you aren't that different, so think your opinion over, ok?" Ruby had done so and finally started listening to him. She found out that he had a lot to say and got along with him rather well. In fact she HAD told him about Harry Potter being Gryffindor's new Seeker, but only accidently and she had tried to apologize for that several times. But Oliver wouldn't listen.
The night before Halloween the lesson had been extraordinarily nasty and they ended up quarrelling again. Quarrelling over their lessons was normal but this time it was different. He said she wasn't concentrating, she said he was drilling. He said she spent too much time with Babble-Franklin, she said that hadn't got anything to do with her school work, grabbed her things and fuming left the room.
In Hufflepuff Gardens she immediately went to bed grumbling "Who needs Oliver Wood?" and decided to skip tutoring for good before she dozed off into a hunted dream.
On Halloween there was a feast again. The decorations were great! About two thousand living bats were flying around in the Great Hall, lit pumpkins replaced the hovering candles. The food was excellent but disturbed: suddenly the ridiculous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, came running into the Hall looking terrified. The whole Hall fell silent and everyone stared at Quirrel who had reached the Great Table and Professor Dumbledore meanwhile. Ruby could hear him gasp
"Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."
Then he sank to the floor and wasn't moving any more. Everybody screamed. Ruby who had been sitting nearest to the Great Table was out of her wits. Was he dead? Did he really say something about a troll? She could see Hannah run over to her big brother clutching his arms. He was terrified himself but still tried to soothe her. Ruby suddenly felt the urge to feel two strong arms soothing her, too. She felt tears of despair welling up as she abruptly got aware of sparkles coming out of Dumbledores wand. He ordered the Prefects to lead their houses back to the dormitories. Alice and Frank (who every fifth second made sure that Hannah was safely at his side) had quite a hard job on bringing the Hufflepuffs into order and then leading them back to Hufflepuff Gardens where they shortly after got food sent up. It took a long time until everybody had discussed enough about the event to go to bed.
The next days nobody spoke about anything else. Quirrell turned up again so he wasn't dead. There were rumors that Harry Potter and friends of him had struggled with the troll in the toilets. But Ruby blamed that on his fame. FIRST-YEARS struggling with a TROLL in a TOILET!!! Could hardly be more ridiculous...
~*~
So much for now. What d'you think, eh?
~*~
Ruby spent the following time with learning and revising, talking a lot to the armor in the Entrance Hall, trying out some of Sadie's tricks, getting detention for them, being quite often in the office of Filch and his horrible cat - and quarrelling with Oliver Wood. It had begun during their first tutoring lesson. They hadn't been talking to each other ever since the last Runes lesson though he kept on greeting her on the corridors. Ruby then usually looked away or pretended to be listening to Franklin. She actually had no reason to act like this, she just followed her intuition. Now he came in with three books and many rolls of parchment. They had begun with what he had called "an easy translation for getting warm". After Ruby had tortured herself through two lines he took the quill out of her hands. Ruby rolled her eyes and faced him with a very annoyed expression.
"WHAT?" she asked.
"What do you do there? You need two minutes for one Rune and still tend to get them wrong. I can't understand-" but Ruby exploded.
"You can't understand? Man, there are 50 symbols in that system I'm currently working at! I can't know all these by heart, can I? It's difficult to differ them all! I-" now it was Oliver who cut her off.
"'Course you can't! But don't you know the system?"
Ruby was puzzled. "System?"
Oliver shook his head. "Yeah, sure there's a logical system. Once you got that you can deal with every Rune system! Really, you should've taken Arithmancy instead of Muggle Studies, would give you an insight into reasonable logic... And keep your faces to yourself - I have seen that!" He took the books he had brought with him. "They are out of my shelf. Take these and have a good look into them until next lesson."
Ruby looked at the titles: Ancient Runes - an Introduction, First Steps into Arithmancy and Logical & Magical Fun vol 1 and 2 (Figures and Letters). When she looked up Oliver had written some Runes on the blackboard and now was explaining how they were related.
On Friday they had been discussing why everybody was so excited about their first Hogsmeade weekend (A/N: I made it a bit early, I know). Ruby had told him that entirely wizarding settlements weren't so unusual in the United States where many deserted areas could be found. And she refused to see the specialty of Hogsmeade no matter what Oliver said.
On Saturday they were going on about Ruby coming too late because she couldn't have torn away from the sweets shop Honeydukes and especially Zonko's jokeshop where she had met the Weasley twins who seemed to be worth a good laugh but unfortunately they weren't in her house...
Ruby's only ray of hope was her birthday on Wednesday the next week. She sat as usually all alone in the Great Hall as Oliver entered it, too. They sometimes met at that time in the Hall when he was about to practise a bit before lessons start. But they haven't been together on the pitch again. He just had settled down in his seat as shortly after one another three owls came swooping into the Hall and landed in front of Ruby. She recognized them as Remulus, Carey's owl Blubber (she had been 5 when she had named him) and Hector who was the owl of Christopher's family. They had letters and packages tied to their legs. First she took the one of her parents. They wished her a nice birthday and told her off for her behavior especially pointing out that changing the hair color of fellow students was no fun (obviously they got the first owls from school). The presents were two books, one about Hogwarts another about The Modern Usage of Old Runes. Ruby scowled at them, then took the package of Chris. He had wrote no letter or card but sent the small lily-shaped golden brooch that smelled like a real one Ruby had once gawped at in Merlin Avenue. Ruby loved lilies and pinned it immediately at her chest. Now she had found a way to wear the robes but still be different from the others. Ruby was so happy she didn't notice Oliver observing her intently but silently. Still smiling she took the letter with two small packages and a bigger one from Blubber. First she read the letter.
"Ruby dear,
how are you? Do they treat you right over the ocean? That Franklin guy sounds horrible but your roommates seem to be rather nice. You don't have to ignore them just because we aren't there. We understand your plan, of course, but we want you to have the best time possible! Especially with Harry Potter around! Martin said he wanted an autograph, stupid git!
As the card says we, of course, wish you an ever so happy birthday. It's a shame we can't celebrate it together as we assume the British to be somewhat too reserved for our way of party... But guess what! Edith's parents say we can come to them over christmas! A real Muggle christmas - how does that sound? Please ask your parents."
Ruby got all excited. That sounded really great!
"We hope you will like your presents. When we met at Merlin Avenue on 1 September we skimmed over a book on Magical Education in Europe. We could get a climpse on a drawing of that ugly black stuff Hogwarts calls a uniform before Mr Listing shooed us out of his shop which is by his words "no library". So we decided to get you something decent: they are new at Rosie's Robesshop. Everybody with pierced ears in school will wear them. We each bought one kind and will mix them up. That you can do the same we got you both."
Ruby unwrapped the small packages: it were two pairs of earrings! One pair star-shaped, the other one looked like half-moons. Ruby sighed, mixed up they'd perfectly match her Salem school robes (which probably was the reason Rosie who provided their uniforms sold them now). She immediately put them into her ears, a star for her left ear, the half-moon into her right one.
"And one thing more! We have decided to braid one strand over the right ear. Do that, too, and we will still be united in spite of the whole ocean! The third present is that you don't forget how we look. Dad took it the day Edith arrived."
It was a picture of them both smiling into the camera, in the background the busy shopping mile. They both wore their Salem robes. (A/N: that's about the picture I gave you the link of)
"Guess who ran into us during shopping? Kylie Morstein! She said she was going to ask Chris to be her study partner now that you are away. Merlin knows how she found out! But don't worry, we saw Christopher going into Magical Accesories. He seemed to have heard you going on about that wonderful lily brooch last year…
Hope to hear from you soon, love'n'kisses Carey & Edith
PS: Prepare yourself for a small surprise this afternoon"
That had been so sweet that Ruby felt tears welling up. How she longed to be together with her friends just now! Suddenly she felt a hand on hers.
"Your birthday today?" Oliver's voice found its way into Ruby's blurred mind. She wriggled her hand out of his and, wiping away the tears, she nodded. He took her hand again and shook it.
"Happy Birthday!" Ruby couldn't help smiling but still didn't look up "That Rune book's good. I have that, too." then he took the picture of Carey and Edith "These your friends?" Ruby nodded "Are they famous or something?"
Ruby shook her head and finally looked up "Why d'you ask?"
"They signed the pict...hey, something wrong?" he had looked into her face and spotted the traces of tears.
"Just a bit overwhelmed." Tears were fighting their way out of her eyes and down her cheeks. Oliver looked rather helpless and tried to distract her.
"You know what helps best?"
"What?"
"Flying!" and with the same enthusiasm he had shown on the morning they had met the first time he grabbed her hand and pulled on it not able to wait until Ruby had packed her bag and was ready to set out. This time she teared away from him in the Entrance Hall to bring her stuff to the dorm and get her broom and scarf. He waited for her in the Hall tapping one feet. Before they went out Ruby winked at the armor in the Hall.
This time he talked a lot about Quidditch because the season would soon start. He told her about the flattening last play against Slytherin last year and that this time it'd be whole different. As Ruby wanted to know why, he got all mysterious.
"Can you keep a secret?" he asked flying very close to her.
Ruby shrugged "Sure."
"Harry Potter'll be our new Seeker - and as McGonagall says he's awful good!" he whispered.
Ruby's grey-green eyes widened. "Harry Potter? ... WOW"
"Ssshhhh, not so loud..." he looked around them if anybody was listening "Amazing, eh?"
"Pretty amazing, yeah! Well, he has the right stature anyway..."
She promised him not to tell anyone and after some more loops and bends (which really cheered her up) Ruby hurried back to the castle. Her dormitory was empty, the others still must've been at breakfast. Ruby looked at her mirror self with the star and half-moon in the ears. She took out her Salem robes and pulled them on. Then observing herself while braiding the strand over her right ear she looked regretting into the mirror when Tracey, Elizabeth, Violet and Myra entered the room.
"Oh no, you're not going to wear that again, are you?" Myra exclaimed but Ruby turned and said
"Don't worry, I'm not. I just tried something out."
Relieved the girls saw that Ruby changed into her Hogwarts robes and scurried off to the library to brood over the Runes translations Oliver had given her to do last Saturday.
During their tutoring lesson in the afternoon (Oliver said birthday was no excuse) he pointed out the lily on her chest blushing a bit.
"The brooch's beautiful. I love lilies. Who gave it to you?"
"Christopher."
He gave her a short examining look "Your brother?"
Ruby's expression darkened as she answered "No, my would-be study-partner and perhaps boyfriend if I wasn't stuck up here."
"Oh!" he looked as if about to say something as a short Hufflepuff first-year with bright green hair (Ruby grinned - he seemed to have drunk the hexed pumpkin juice she had placed in the common room) stumbled into the room panting.
"Frank ... sent me ... come ... quick!" Ruby looked confused from the tiny boy to Oliver who stared baffled at the boy's hair then irritated at Ruby.
"You've done it again, haven't you?" he muttered to her. Ruby grinned.
"It faints in some days!" then grabbing her stuff she added "See you later then!" and followed the boy back to Hufflepuff Gardens before Oliver could give her any task for next lesson. She didn't know why she has been called but was sure to soon find out. And everything that cut her tutoring lesson was good.
However when she entered the rather packed common room everybody was looking at her strangely. Franklin stood near the entrance and gave her a cheerful but also stern look.
"You could've told us y'know..." Ruby didn't know what he meant but soon found out as she discovered two heads in the middle of the fireplace, one with reddish curls and sparkling green eyes, the other one with smooth black hair and dark brown eyes: Carey and Edith! With an excited squeal of delight she ran over to them and could only hardly prevent herself from having a try to hug them. They both grinned and cried pompously
"Surprise!!!" then they sang her a birthday song. Ruby was overwhelmed forgetting that nearly whole Hufflepuff house was standing and sitting around her.
"Thank you so much! But how-?"
"Dad said it was time to test how the fire networks work together. By the way happy birthday from my parents and Martin, too." Carey explained "So you were having tutoring they said?"
"Yes, but I skipped it for you of course!"
"That's our good girl!" Edith grinned. "By the way, your hair looks great. Mastered the charm, at last?" Rubby nodded as the heads suddenly got all blurry and with a worried expression on their faces and a 'pop' they were away. Ruby didn't understand.
"What happened? Why are they away?"
Franklin placed his hand on her shoulder.
"What d'you expect? They could at least hold up the connection for more than 40 minutes - that's something!" then he congratulated her for her birthday ("Really! Why didn't you tell us?") like everybody else in the room did after him, too. In no time it was a real little birthday party with sweets they all were bringing up from their dorms. It was the first time Ruby had some kind of a chat with the lot and she enjoyed it - though she couldn't get rid of the feeling somebody was missing - and it weren't just Edith and Carey.
From this evening on she got along with her fellow Hufflepuffs much better though this was the only improvement.
This Mrs Harrington kept on writing to her. She said she wasn't the one to tell her about her grandfather but begged her to try and make contact between her and Ruby's Mom.
Ruby made just small progresses with the armor in the Hall though it seemed to take slowly a small liking on her: she was the only one it didn't laugh at when they stumbled over a step. And the other tips Sadie had given her worked fantastic! Ruby was careful to get caught every time. So her days were full of lessons, tricks, detention and tutoring lessons. She did hardly get better on Runes which at least partly could be blamed on Oliver who refused to talk with Ruby any more word than on his tutoring. Somehow his secret weapon Harry Potter wasn't a secret anymore. And he blamed Ruby on having it let slipping through seeing that she and Franklin being Hufflepuff Chaser spent a lot of time together. That was true. Ruby had got a letter from Carey saying (amongst other school news) that Kylie and Chris now really were study partners and having a PS: "Sorry, the fire place connection had crashed down so soon. By the way that Franklin guy was nice - and damn cute! Well, he really seems to like talking - but you aren't that different, so think your opinion over, ok?" Ruby had done so and finally started listening to him. She found out that he had a lot to say and got along with him rather well. In fact she HAD told him about Harry Potter being Gryffindor's new Seeker, but only accidently and she had tried to apologize for that several times. But Oliver wouldn't listen.
The night before Halloween the lesson had been extraordinarily nasty and they ended up quarrelling again. Quarrelling over their lessons was normal but this time it was different. He said she wasn't concentrating, she said he was drilling. He said she spent too much time with Babble-Franklin, she said that hadn't got anything to do with her school work, grabbed her things and fuming left the room.
In Hufflepuff Gardens she immediately went to bed grumbling "Who needs Oliver Wood?" and decided to skip tutoring for good before she dozed off into a hunted dream.
On Halloween there was a feast again. The decorations were great! About two thousand living bats were flying around in the Great Hall, lit pumpkins replaced the hovering candles. The food was excellent but disturbed: suddenly the ridiculous Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Professor Quirrell, came running into the Hall looking terrified. The whole Hall fell silent and everyone stared at Quirrel who had reached the Great Table and Professor Dumbledore meanwhile. Ruby could hear him gasp
"Troll - in the dungeons - thought you ought to know."
Then he sank to the floor and wasn't moving any more. Everybody screamed. Ruby who had been sitting nearest to the Great Table was out of her wits. Was he dead? Did he really say something about a troll? She could see Hannah run over to her big brother clutching his arms. He was terrified himself but still tried to soothe her. Ruby suddenly felt the urge to feel two strong arms soothing her, too. She felt tears of despair welling up as she abruptly got aware of sparkles coming out of Dumbledores wand. He ordered the Prefects to lead their houses back to the dormitories. Alice and Frank (who every fifth second made sure that Hannah was safely at his side) had quite a hard job on bringing the Hufflepuffs into order and then leading them back to Hufflepuff Gardens where they shortly after got food sent up. It took a long time until everybody had discussed enough about the event to go to bed.
The next days nobody spoke about anything else. Quirrell turned up again so he wasn't dead. There were rumors that Harry Potter and friends of him had struggled with the troll in the toilets. But Ruby blamed that on his fame. FIRST-YEARS struggling with a TROLL in a TOILET!!! Could hardly be more ridiculous...
~*~
So much for now. What d'you think, eh?