It was a blizzard like Ruby had never seen in her life. Outside the school it was a winter wonderland and really cold. It was a little ridiculous to be on Prefect duty for the Christmas party and still be dressed in a party outfit, but Ruby managed it. The short dress was something she bought specially for the party before she’d been given the onerous task for keeping order for the evening. This got more difficult because the students soon heard the announcement from Professor Kelly that the late train home was cancelled, and this caused people to drift to all kinds of corners of the school. For this reason, Ruby was patrolling an area not near the Great Hall, although she wandered back later in the evening. She looked around for Beth Jameson, her Prefect friend (who was not on duty – lucky her!) but didn’t find her at all. She spoke with Cerise Valassion, a younger Ravenclaw Prefect who was helping out that evening, but there was nothing serious to report, so she went back to patrolling the area of the landings on the staircases and a few corners that were often used as trysting points for students. Ruby didn’t really care what the students did in dark corners, as long as no one was in distress or needed help. Girls could get themselves into all kinds of trouble on nights like this. She did break up a fight over a boy between two Slytherin girls, but it was nothing more than a minor jinx or two being used. It was rather funny,a ctually. The two ditzy blondes had hexed each other and their hair had turned into snakes. She didn’t know what the boy thought, but Ruby thought the two girls looked better as Medusae than as dates for a party!

She circulated around in the upper halls and heard two kids in the Trophy Room en deshabille behind one of the display cases, but she simply hoped the girl was on a potion and closed the gate to the Trophy Room to give them a bit more privacy. Ruby wandered back downstairs to the Great Hall to get something to drink, and checked in with her fellow Prefects while she watched some of the dancing. There was a crazy conga line snaking around the room, and Ruby secretly wished she could join in, but with no date, and more of the school to patrol, she wasn’t able to. She did notice something strange as she was exiting the hall: A group of students suddenly left the conga line and dashed to the other end of the Great Hall, and exited through the portrait that led to the Kitchen level. There was plenty of food and drink, and it was more than just a couple of students. Ruby stopped in her tracks, and wandered back into the hall and went over to the portrait hole. She spotted a couple of people idling near the food tables. “Does anyone know where those guys were going?” she said to a couple of groups standing near.

Ruby’s Holiday Dress

  Seat 24
 
Since taking her OWLS last year, Ruby had rolled back a lot of choices of her classes for Sixth Year, including most of the Divination classes, but she held onto Astronomy, which was more like self-study for students of her level, and she liked doing work on her own. It also kept the questions in her mind about the mysteries of the universe, and she’d always like star-gazing with her mum or dad in the evenings, and making up stories about the star formations. She also knew that it was a good class to have to keep your mind open to the science of magic, so she decided to continue it for credit. She might even take it as a NEWT-level course and it was always good to have more skills on your resume than required. She climbed to the tower and entered. Tonight’s lesson was about comets, which was a little different. These wayward objects in the sky had always been associated with prophecies and portents in the old days. The two that the Professor had chosen to observe weren’t really in that class, but they were hard to spot, and that took skill. That’s what she thought he was after, and she knew the Professor pretty well by this time of her school life.
 
She set down her bag and things, and when a telescope came free, she sat in the little stool and observed. She swung the telescope in an arc, following the directions in the Journal and book on where they might find theses small, dim objects. Against the massive gas giant Jupiter, it was hard to see anything. Even the moons were very dim objects. However, she knew that these objects moved, and however slow that appeared in the lense, she knew how to build a search pattern. When she thought she had the first comet in the lense, she got one of the film canisters and began taking pictures. The comet had a very faint tail, but she could see it, and she noted in her Journal what time she had spotted it, and the heading, and coordinates that she could work out. Then it was time to try to find the other one.

New clothes always made Ruby feel happier, and she’d gotten a mail order parcel that very morning via owl with some warmer fluffy sweaters and some new leather, fur-lined gloves that her parents had sent her. Although she had class all day, she took the gloves along, since some of the classrooms were very chilly at times, and her fingers would get cold while she waited for class to begin. Today was no exception. Defense Against the Dark Arts was run by Professor Drummond now, but the classroom was cold as they waited in their groups for the lesson. She had just enough time to greet some of the older students that she knew before they were off and running. Today, it was the Combustum curse; which she had heard of, and read descriptions in books about how it had been used in the past. The Professor was right, this kind of spell could bring any sort of conflict to a quick conclusion if successfully used. She watched impassively as the Professor demonstrated the spell; and then she watched for a long while as others tried it out on the dummies. The results were varied, but when it was her turn, she closed her eyes for a moment, and tried to imagine herself in a defensive situation like an Auror might have.
 
She drew herself up, and pointed her wand, and uttered the curse, while she aimed at one of the dummies whose wand was menacingly pointed at her. Some of the other targets were already burning or blasted into splinters. The first attempt Combustum! let off only a weak cone of light that struck the target and made it smolder a little, but nothing else really happened. She silently did the incantation a few times; and then she did the wand motion again without saying the spell. The second try was better, and she could actually feel the force of that blast, and the heat from it, however, her aim was not as good, and it clipped the tip of the wand that was aimed at her, but did little damage otherwise. The third time she got it right, and the entire mannekin went up in flames and pieces. She was surprised at the result, it was really horribly destructive. However, that was what they were supposed to do. She felt a little better in a moment, and stepped aside to let others try.

NAME: Ruby Tucker
HOUSE: Gryffindor
YEAR YOU WILL BECOME: 6th
OTHER: Request already done!

COMPLETE