Rubie Jones | Gryffindor | First Year

Full Name: Rubie May Jones



History/Background Story:
Miss Jones' ancestors were part of the Peasant Arts Society in Haslemere, dating back to the 1890s, which was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement.

Its membership drew from all the local working class; Miss Jones’ family largely specialized in tapestries for the Sacred Twenty-Eight families as wizarding patrons. A few of these pureblood families decried Muggle industrialization and raised demand for artisan craftsmanship. Thus, some Sacred Twenty-Eight families sought out unique artisans whose stylized Gothic and Medieval art, incorporating nature motifs, proved attractive. During the Arts and Crafts movement, Miss Jones’ ancestors focused on utility and aesthetic appeal. Sometimes, though rarely, they created commissioned art murals for these families, incorporating Gothic-inspired elements.

Consequently, Rubie has a keen interest in the Art Nouveau movement that succeeded the Arts and Crafts movement. She even pays homage to her ancestors for their arts and crafts' services to the wider Wizarding community through her attire and accoutrements. And although she is hesitant to discuss it, her ancestors were complicit in spreading false pureblood supremacist beliefs and ideology. It is a notably sensitive topic for Rubie because of the recent historical developments in which pureblood-Muggleborn relations were marred, tenuous, and fraught with tensions.

Initially, Rubie attended the United Learning institution, where she received her primary education under a Christian ethos, as dictated by the Church of England. However, she is not an adherent of the Muggle religion. Nevertheless, the Global Citizen curriculum strengthened her skills in healthy lifestyle habits and critical thinking. Upon her acceptance letter to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, her parents disenrolled her from United Learning to pursue her magical education.

Rubie developed a fixation and a hobbyist interest in a set of activities, which emphasized her development and interest in learning. Rubie actively used the Haslemere Leisure Center for dance and fitness, and she eagerly watched Muggle cricket and football matches. However, she is not partial to the other offerings, such as rugby and hockey.

Although her parents are fans of the Quidditch team, Puddlemere United, she has been vaguely aware of the ins and outs of the wizarding team. But she has not actually witnessed a Quidditch match, professional or otherwise.

Her parents, Brooke and Jordan, strove to teach the importance of both sciences and arts. So, Rubie often visited Haslemere Hall for music, theatre, and cinema, while also studying the biological, geological, and anthropological specimens found in Haslemere Educational Museum. They guided her to develop an appreciation, for which she was initially resistant, wanting to participate in sports, mostly, and a comprehension of the local history.

A turning point for Rubie came from reading George Eliot’s novel Middlemarch, which she was expected to analyze in her primary school years for a public presentation.

She learned that the novelist lived in Shottermill during the summer of 1871, where the novel was largely written. Rubie began to question life in Haslemere and developed a yearning for something beyond the norms of her small hometown. However, she enjoyed a relatively secure, if not sheltered, life in her timbered, tile-hung house, in which her parents provided for her well, even though she fell ill quite a bit in her earlier childhood.

Rubie developed an overriding loyalty and passion for arts and sciences, which she strongly believes in their equal representation.

Especially, however, she understands that the Arts and Crafts movement was the ‘bread and butter’ of her family’s successes and their history, and that they continue to be involved in niche art circles within the wider Wizarding world of British society.

She adores Art Nouveau because it reminds her to appreciate fluidity and to step away from traditionalism whilst remaining functional; it has influenced her mindset significantly in how she perceives people, things, and objects: in her estimation, it is a perfect blend of the sciences and the arts.

First Instance of Magic:
Rubie experienced an accidental act of magic when she lost a very close friendship at around seven years old, during the summer of 2007. She ended up in a dispute with her friend, a longtime companion with whom she had been friends since they were introduced around their toddler years. Before their irrevocable fight, they had been considered inseparable.

It began when her friend, Darius, tried to convince her to join him in breaking into a neighbor's home down the block to steal from an elderly Squib woman who lived alone and was considered a recluse. Rubie refused, seeing it as improper and wrongful conduct, and, fearing the consequences, tried to convince her good friend, Darius, of the morality. However, it devolved and escalated quickly, and Darius ended up leaving her in the dirt to return home.

She returned home, dirty and despairing, to tell her parents about her lost friendship, but she couldn’t quite communicate verbally well with them. In their confusion and concern, her parents tried to console her and alleviate her sobbing, but nothing seemed to work. Finally, her father, almost giving up, handed her a favorite blue stuffed animal, a color she associated with sadness.

Without conscious thought or intention, the stuffed animal came to life before their eyes in a flash. As she clutched the stuffed toy to her chest, the ears of the elephant flapped, the nose twitched, and so forth. It was a clear instance of magic, and her parents, who were initially shocked, searching each other’s faces to check whether one of them was responsible, quickly realized that Rubie had shown magic.

On the other hand, Rubie was mollified and overjoyed that she discovered a new friend fast – or that her hopes for one transpired in this inexplicable act. She had forgotten even why she was so upset, even if the sting of her friendship lurked on her mind, because she could find respite and comfort in her favorite stuffed animal, which had been her steadfast companion throughout her most vulnerable moments without abandoning her once. She saw this as something of a miracle because she genuinely thought this magical act was a sign of life that proved her stuffed animal voluntarily stayed with her. And some small part of her, at the time, believed even that this was proof of a higher power, for which she had been taught in Muggle primary school years at United Learning.

After her parents sat her down and explained everything, however, Rubie was dispelled of this notion fast. And yet, she discovered an answer to her greater hope–that there was something beyond her small town, in which she could find belonging at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, soon, in the wider Wizarding world. And so, she held onto this hope until it was, indeed, confirmed that she was accepted to the institution at eleven years of age. In a way, this was more comforting to her, since there was definitive proof, according to her parents and later confirmed by outside sources, that she was a young witch.