It was a quiet summer day in Diagon Alley, although there were couples walking hand in hand together just visible through the windows. The brown eyes glanced at them and a small sigh escaped her lips. In the bookstore, Ruby was choosing the titles she would need. It was better to buy things now, before the rush that always came the last few days before school would begin. This was also an important year at Hogwarts: Her Fifth. She’d sweated and studied, and tried to figure out the right path for what she wanted to do, but nothing had jumped out at her. She knew she had talent for magic. Should she try to get her grades to the point where she could be an Auror? It seemed like something she was interested in. She was good at figuring out clues, and she was good at the core subjects: Defense Against Dark Arts, Transfiguration; Charms; Potions, and she was more than able to take on the rest. The question was, did she want to do it? Ruby had family that worked for the Ministry in the MIMC, and she thought she might have some talent for diplomacy. She’d long since given up the idea of being a Quidditch pro, but being a skilled flyer was good in any number of professions she might pick.

All these thoughts and more were bouncing around like ping-pong balls in her blonde head as she slowly walked down the aisle, and pulled out this book and that. The Standard Book of Spells: Year Five was a thick volumealmodst twice the size of any prior year, and also heavy. She put it into the basket, and used her wand to put a locomotor charm on it so her shoulder didn’t hurt so much. Then she passed on to Herbology, and plucked out the Goshawks Herbology volume she needed, and added it to the pile. She heard the bell on the door to the shop ring a couple of times. At present she’d been the only student in the store, but she saw some others come in with their parents. The summer holidays were still strong within her psyche, so she pushed aside any further thought of books, and headed to the counter to buy the load she had already. The next thing she needed to do was to buy a new bathing suit. She jingled the coin she had in her purse, and found that she’d nearly exhausted her fun fund by buying all the books. As the clerk rang up her purchases on the big brass cash register, she looked around and tried to think of where to go to get some beach clothing. She might have to go to some muggle shops. 

On the day that Ruby was supposed to meet Courtney for a jaunt into Hogsmeade, it looked like anything but a summer day. In fact, it was raining when she got up, and waiting for her friend near the front doors of the castle so they could walk together into town. Some students were checking with their Prefects as usual, to have their names set down as going to town for the day. Ruby found one of the Seventh-Year Prefects whom she rather liked, and gave her name to him. It wasn't raining very hard, but just enough to be annoying. The shopping trip had been planned for so long, and she wasn't about to abandon the idea, as she wanted to get some summery things for the trip to Bournemouth this coming July. The paving stones in the courtyard looked wet and shiny, and people walked slowly on their way to the covered bridge. The surrounding hills and clouds were refelcted imperfectly in the surface of the wet stone. She walked forward and tried to catch a picture of herself in a puddle. One of the Professors had told her that music and paintings and sculptures and books of the world are like mirrors in which people see themselves. Ruby agreed. It was a more certain sort of vision that the distorted one of herself she saw in the water. She looked thinner and taller even in the imperfect mirror. A couple of girls laughed as they walked past, as they saw Ruby standing their gawking foolishly into puddles. She didn't mind.

In Noyant, the small French village she'd live in up until this year, rain kept people indoors, and things would be still, and it reminded her of that. The empty streets, and her parents asleep upstairs in their small house. She would stare out at the rain from her window like that, at the empty streets, and the glowing numbers of her alarm clock reflected in the water glass near her bed. The puddle by her feet had tiny bubbles in it, just like her glass would on those mornings. Like this morning. She looked up at the sky and at the roof of the school, with the water sliding down the tiles. The school looked different to Ruby, and she expected that Hogsmeade would too: The shops would be crowded with kids trying to get out of the rain. The windows bright with lanterns even on the June morning. A girl walked past Ruby with a miniature poodle -- white -- tucked inside her raincoat. Next year Ruby made a pledge to get a pet, since it seemed like Hogwarts was going to be home for a while. Ruby saw the girls' profile as she peeked up at the sky and then stepped gingerly across the courtyard. She could distinguish the girl's profile, but the details of the girl remained a mystery. She walked with the poise of someone very young, but with the caution of an older student. She watched her until she disappeared across the courtyard. The water came down more regularly now, the splashes making music in the puddles. She took out the list she had for summer and waited for Courtney as she read it. The umbrella she had borrowed leaned against her leg as she stood under the overhang of the arched entrance to the school.

She was liking the eye shadow now. It had taken a little while in front of the mirror of the Girls Bathroom on the Fifth Floor to get it right, but Ruby was happier now that she'd had some peace and quiet. No one used this bathroom much, it was one of the 'unimproved' bathrooms from before the wars, and although everything worked, it wasn't the most luxurious. The brass fixtures were polished, but everything else was old. Even the mirror that she gazed at was slightly wonky; and the stalls behind her gurgled occasionally when some tired mechanical piece leaked or creaked. She wondered why the caretakers didn't fix this one, but it had served its purpose. She'd only seen two people the whole time she'd come in, small First Years that left quickly after they were finished. Ruby had her pack laid across the space between two of the sinks, and on top of it was a selection of new makeup, as well as some tissues and creams for her face. Her own dorm room was far too noisy to do such delicate work, and she didn't want people borrowing her new makeup kit with its little burgundy bag.

The door swung open again, and Ruby gazed at the skinny girl from Ravenclaw that entered, gave her a nod, and returned to her pillow wand work. She was going to have the whole day to study but she wanted a little 'me' time; this was rare at Hogwarts. With another few expert strokes, she completed the eye shadow, and went to the magical thickener for her eyelashes. She examined the little tube with its colorful lettering, and went to work again. The girl washed her hands a few sinks over, and smiled in a vague sort of way at Ruby, and then departed. There was no special occasion coming up: No dance or dinner, but possibly tomorrow she could fit in a trip to Hogsmeade. She was still working on her right eye when a moth fluttered nearby and startled her and she dropped the applicator. With an expletive, she dove after it. Nothing worse than contaminated makeup. It had rolled under one of the cabinets that stored hand towels and soap, and Ruby got down on hands and knees to fetch it back. She took her wand and poked around under the cabinet, and tried to get her skinny hand and arm underneath it to grab it. Instead, her wand touched something -- the wall, something -- and the whole cabinet began to pivot, and nearly clocked her in the skull as it peeled itself away from the wall like a door. Behind the cabinet was a door! Ruby took a quick look around to see if anyone had noticed. No one was there. She snatched up her applicator, and waved her wand over it with a cleaning charm, and then fell to looking at what she had uncovered. She could see the button under the cabinet that he wand had touched, and she poked it once more. The cabinet swung back into place without a sound. The door to the bathroom squeaked open, and she could hear footsteps. She quickly resumed her position and picked up her makeup. She'd have to investigate the door when the person was gone.

The babble of voices in Diagon Alley sounded strangely foreign to Ruby now, and she almost turned back for the Leaky Cauldron because the experience was so strange. Nevertheless, you never forget your first sight of the Alley, and its buildings nestled so comfortably between the buildings of muggle London, and after ten more seconds of fidgeting, plunged straight into the crowd with no turning back. No one recognized her, for she'd been gone a long time. No one spoke to her, for she was just another witch in casual dress, even if she was had a lsightly different style than the majority of the girls now walking back and forth across the cobblestone street. Only the sreet hawkers took any noticed of Ruby as she passed them, and smiled at them if their wars were interesting, or gave a casual wave of 'no thanks' if they weren't.

What money she had was for the things she'd need in the new term coming up, and she was early for shopping. Most of her old friends that might have been in Diagon Alley today would probably wait until August. It was all right with Ruby to begin early, for she was replacing every blessed thing in her school wardrobe, now that she was returning to where she had began at Hogwarts. Her old uniforms, packed away a long time ago, didn't fit her any more, and they were a bit worn anyway from those rambunctious early days before she'd gone to school overseas. However, Ruby was going to do this rapidly today, and not dawdle or gaze longingly at the brooms or the expensive cauldrons: She was after the basics. Textbooks, uniform, lab supplies, and maybe she'd treat herself to ice cream and see if it was still the best she'd ever tasted. With a happy smile, she swung her shopping bags to and fro and quickly made the rounds of the shops, including the Apothecary; Flourish & Blotts; Madame Malkin's; and then she paused at the Pet Emporium. Her cat needed a new collar, for she was the one constant since she'd left England; the one thing that tied her to her homeland. She entered the store and bought not only a new collar but also a new pillow and little basket for she was forever wishing to curl up in the sunshine. She'd been in plain dorm in her old school, and now she would be back in Gryffindor. If she was lucky, she'd get some decent roommates this time, for she'd abhorred her old ones. At least they were no loss. Then again, Ruby was learning to forgive them, for she was sure to run into some of them again. The 'new girl' wasn't so new. The impression you left behind wasn't much, but it was all you had when your returned. People only remembered the bad, not the good.

Her shopping complete, it was time to head for the station. The magical taxi that conveyed her was swift, and she was soon going through the magical barrier and back into her old magical world. The train looked the same, if the crowd was nearly non-existent because of the time of year. She had to report to her Head of House before the term began -- heaven knew why -- but there it was on the letter from the Headmaster himself: Auril Spriggletuft. There would be very few people at the school, mostly Professors, or maybe a few students who studied there over the summer holidays. When the term started, maybe she'd feel more like seeing people again. For now, she didn't really, although there were a few people she wondered about. As she boarded and the train pulled out the station, sh wandered through the nearly empty cars and took a seat in the club car where the Prefect normally rode. It had the best windows, and sometimes there were cookies.