Ruby sat at the Ravenclaw table with her head bowed down as she studied a little. After she had finished her dinner she'd decided to tackle some of her homework pile. She had got so caught up that she'd hardly noticed the tables clearing and people starting to leave. She glanced around the room now and saw only a handful of people were left, all working like she was. She sat in silence as she wrote the last few answers down before letting out a relieved sigh and placing her quill down. She wasn't ready to go back to the common room yet, she was quite comfortable where she was.


After a few moments as she mused over what to do, Ruby decided she wanted to do a little research of her own - 3 years in advance. Fishing in her bag, she pulled out a book on animagi and started to read through it, this was something she'd wanted to do for years and she was taking the chance to learn a bit more so she could have more time to decide. It didn't take long for the Ravenclaw to get completely immersed in the book - one she decided was a new favourite of hers.

@cecilia

Mail was supposed to come at breakfast—that was how it bloody worked. It was because of that that she’d had a pretty damn good day, having not received a letter from her father. Since he’d been consistently writing her once a week for over a month now, Cecilia was convinced that she was about to get a new missive to bring down her mood for the entire day. But she hadn’t gotten a single letter that morning, signaling to her that she was going to have a good day for once. It had seemed like some kind of good omen, if she believed in shit like that. And the day had been just that… good—not particularly exciting, of course, but after the last school year, Cecilia would take an uneventful day when it came her way. She’d been able to hang out with Isabella and Evan for a bit after classes, which always proved to be a good time, but then the Slytherins had went to go flying ad obviously Cecilia passed on that invitation.

But then, like some kind of cosmic joke on her, Cecilia had received a letter from her father at dinner, though she hadn’t yet opened it. She was starting to believe it might actually be easier to not even read them anymore, and just immediately throw them away. Cecilia hated that a part of her was curious what he had to say, but she certainly wasn’t going to act on those thoughts and write back. She had been so distracted by the letter that she hadn’t even realized that the Great Hall was quickly clearing out. By the time she did notice, nearly everyone was gone, and she was wondering if she should attempt to hunt down Roman, as she was in desperate need of a good distraction. Instead, though, she saw a familiar face that she hadn’t talked to since at least before the Easter holidays.

Getting to her feet, and stowing the letter into her bag, Cecilia headed over to the Ravenclaw table, dropping down onto the bench next to her friend, “Long time, no see,” she stated, an amused smile on her lips. Her eyes flickered over to the book Ruby was reading, “You are so perpetuating house stereotypes right now," she said, jokingly, "What are you reading?”

Ruby looked up from her book and smirked at Cecilia, "Well I have to keep up appearances." She said in a mockingly posh voice and pretending to push glasses up her nose before laughing. She shut her book and showed her friend the cover, "I'm just reading up on animagi and different people who have them. Did you know that you can choose anything but it only really works properly if you have some sort of shared personality trait. And sometimes people know what they'll be able to learn easily because of their patronus." She gushed, her excitement evident.


"Anyway you, I know it's been a while but you've been getting friendly with Roman. You need to spill! How long have you been together, who asked who, that sort of thing?" She said, turning to face Cecilia and a playfully serious look on her face. "You know if I had a light, I'd shine it in your face like detectives do in those crime shows." She said with another little giggle.

Cecilia could scarcely remember this time last year when she hadn’t had any friends at all, apart from dating Roman. It had certainly been a hell of a lot easier, she mused, having no one around to care about. She had figured that she’d had more than enough drama with her family to add more people to the list that would more than likely just leave her like her father actually did—or just leave mentally like her mother did. All her mother cared about now were appearances, reputation and preparing Cecilia to be the perfect wife, which was apparently all she really needed to concern herself with. Friends had simply seemed like something she didn’t need to bother herself with, but it had been surprisingly easy for her to make an effort this year. Cecilia found it really didn’t take all that much of an effort, really, as she had some friends now. Granted, more than half of the school still irritated her on a daily basis, but it was a start, “Animagi are rather interesting,” she conceded, finding that transfiguration was actually an interesting subject. At least the Ravenclaw hadn’t been reading some sort of dusty history book, she thought, smiling slightly.

She raised her eyebrows at the younger girl, her smile widening slightly. Cecilia knew that Ruby didn’t have the same classes as them, and the like, but people seemed to talk about their relationship enough that she’d thought everyone was well aware of it. The damn gossips in this school made sure of that, “Well, now I know you need to get your head out of those books more often,” she teased, shaking her head, “We’ve been together since last year,” Cecilia told her, lifting a shoulder in a shrug. What was it, she mused, a year and three months now? She didn’t even know what day it had been, as she really wasn’t one to keep up with that sort of thing, but she at least knew it had been February, “Crime shows?” She asked, a slightly confused look on her face, assuming that was some aspect of the Muggle world that she didn’t know about. Perhaps she would if she’d ever paid the slightest bit of attention in Muggle Studies, she contemplated, but she really found herself drifting off quite often in those lessons.

"I like having my head in my books." She retorted with an innocent smile, Ruby didn't hide the surprise when Ceci explained that she'd been with him over a year. "I've heard gossip. I just don't pay any attention. Same with Zeke, he was pretty jealous at first - he told me so for a few weeks - before I zoned out and then, well now he's looking for girls. So I just assumed you were single or whatever." Ruby admitted sheepishly, she sat upright and started to fasten her hair into a ponytail whilst she spoke.

The redhead chuckled a little when her friend asked what crime shows then. "Just think like what muggle police do with murders and such and then glorify that a little so you can make a good TV show. If need be I'll tie you to a chair and force you to watch them if I have to. They're quite good, to be honest." She admitted.

“You wouldn’t be a Ravenclaw if you didn’t,” she said, teasingly. It had certainly been odd for Cecilia to go from as under the radar as she had been the first five years at Hogwarts, to all of a sudden becoming interesting to the gossips simply because of who she was dating. Of course, she didn’t really pay much attention to what the hell they blathered on about. Since she supposed Ruby also didn’t give a damn about gossip, it wasn’t too odd that she didn’t realize Cecilia was dating Roman—well, still a bit oblivious of her, but understandable when everyone had their own shit going on. Cecilia raised an eyebrow at her friend, unsure if she had misheard the Ravenclaw, “Why was Zeke jealous?” Cecilia asked, as that was the first she was hearing of any type of jealousy.

From what she knew of the Muggle world, their police were comparable to their Aurors. Ruby’s statement about murders seemed to solidify that reasoning, and she supposed that work would be interesting. Cecilia did recall having some kind of lesson of these ‘televisions,’ so she did recognize what a TV was. The device had programs, she supposed, with Muggles that performed on them. So she figured they must pretend to be these police officers for … entertainment? The concept was still a bit odd, as she didn’t fully understand why anyone would want to sit and stare at some box, “You don’t have to tie me to any chairs,” she replied, laughing. It seemed intriguing enough to look into sometime, even if she really didn’t understand why that would be an enjoyable way to spend time.

"A true Eagle, through and through." She said with a smile. When Ceci repeated what she'd said about Zeke being jealous; Ruby paled and cursed inwardly, she hadn't wanted to let slip about her brother, "Oh no reason... He's just protective over his friends." She lied, hoping that she would sound convincing. She rubbed the back of her neck a little and gave Cecilia a small, albeit guilty looking smile.

Ruby grinned and laughed, "Good to know that. Some time over the Summer we'll have to meet up and watch some TV together. I can educate you." She said with a smirk that was almost identical to her older siblings.

Personally, Cecilia couldn’t imagine really just reading a book for fun. It wasn’t something she did all too often, finding herself more interested in more physical activities. The closest she really got to the Muggle world was when she had checked out their gyms, but that hadn’t lasted long at all. Namely, until her stepfather found out about it and that had ended her brief foray into the Muggle world. Now, she mostly just enjoyed running, as it got her out of the house—though at this point, Cecilia was surprised that he even allowed that, “There are certainly worst things to be,” she said, jokingly, though of course she didn’t judge her friend at all for enjoying reading. People’s hobbies differed, after all. She nodded slightly at her friend’s explanation, supposing that made enough sense. She couldn’t fault Ezekiel being concerned, especially with the change in Roman over the past year. He certainly wasn’t making many friends anymore, “Understandable,” she stated, nodding.

She smiled at the idea, which sounded interesting even though she had no idea if it was something she’d ever be able to actually do, “Sounds like a plan,” she said, before wrinkling her nose, “Of course, I’ll have to ask, and my stepfather is sort of anti-Muggle anything, so we’ll have to see,” she told her friend, figuring that she might as well know the truth of the matter. Normally, she didn’t really discuss her stepfather’s viewpoints on anything, but it wasn’t like she thought Ruby was going to tell anyone.

Ruby let a relieved expression cross her face when Cecilia accepted her explanation, "Aye, well I think all your friends are protective over you just like we all are each other." The red head explained with a warm smile. She gave Cecilia a thoughtful look when she said about her stepfather being anti-muggle, "Lie to him then. He doesn't need to know you're going to do muggle stuff. Just ask him if you could go and stay with your friend over the summer and come up with some super magical thing so he can't have an excuse to stop you." She suggested with a slight, "It's worth a try and you can come and do anything muggle related at mine." She offered.

The younger Ravenclaw could tell that not many people were likely to know about that, she knew from her friendship with Cecilia that she was a very private person when it came to her homelife or anything for that matter and Ruby respected that, "We could have like a weekend or something together, me, you and Iz." She said thoughtfully.

Cecilia nodded in agreement to Ruby’s statement, though it caused her thoughts to momentarily wander. Friends were supposed to be protective over each other, especially when it came to whom they were dating. However, the unfortunately poor friendship—or lack thereof, between Isabella and Roman was taking that to a new level, though that had little to do with protectiveness, and a lot to do with something else entirely. But that was obviously something to think more about at a later time; after all, she’d dealt with nearly an entire school year still dating Roman and still being friends with Isabella, even if it was a bit complicated. “True enough, that’s what we’re here for,” she replied, grinning. Any bloke who was interested in Ruby would certainly have to pass her not-to-subtle interrogation, obviously. That was how she’d become friends with Evan, in a way, so it was a tried and true method in making sure a bloke was worthy of any of her friend’s time.

She thought through the idea, deciding that it was probably worth a shot. It seemed as though her stepfather knew just about everything and Cecilia wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that he was a legilimens or something—as clearly, Klaus had to be doing something suspect in order to be so well aware of what was going on. But it sounded like a rather good option, and something that would not only get her out of the house but also get her away from any potential run-ins with her father, “Definitely worth a try,” she agreed, finding herself also curious about these shows and a hell of a lot of other Muggle things—as she was rarely ever in the Muggle world. “Sounds good. I know she’ll be itching to do just about anything, though oddly enough I think she knows more about the Muggle world than I do,” she said, shaking her head.