Winter and the Jewel PV December Faust Closed

December was almost sure that she was set up to have the worst luck of the day. In fact, she was on edge because she felt at any minute, anything could go wrong. And yet, even with her bad luck on her shoulders, her jog was light and airy as she felt the relief of leaving the main campus. She was going to make the best of today. Her red hair bounced as she made her way across the lake, feeling the delicate strands brush against her freckled cheeks. She had finally found a break in her day that allowed her to gather some of the important herbs and flowers she needed for class.

She held her robes a little closer to her body, the chill wind biting at her ears. It was never anything that she couldn't handle, given that the winter months were some of the best in her own opinion. In fact, she enjoyed this kind of weather the best. She was almost sure that it was going to snow today before it just ended up chilly, but that wouldn't have stopped her from coming down to the lake either way. It was a serene place where she could always gather her thoughts.

She had finally slowed down coming to the edge of the lake, seeing a girl nearby looking at the waters herself. If she was lucky, she wouldn't need to bother her. After all, she never liked being a bother to others, and mostly kept to herself. She could make an exception for this assignment if need be.

She had started picking the flowers, her actions delicate and careful. She put them into her bag, doing her best to keep track of the time while she worked. Only a few minutes had passed before an unfortunate breeze passed by, snatching one of the stapled assignments from her bag and carrying them past Ruby, just out of her reach.

"O-oh no," her voice wavered as she watched the papers sit at the edge of the lake in front of Ruby, the wind dying after its small tantrum. This was not going to be a terrible day. She was not going to let her assignment get ruined and have a bad day. December needed a good day. She head over, her jog a stead pace as she managed to lean down and snatch the paper away from the waters, giving a sigh of relief. Thank god, that's one less embarrassing moment to avoid this week.. she breathed a heavy sigh of relief as she put the papers back in her bag, raising her eyes to the other girl. "U-um.. h-h-hello," she stuttered quietly, her voice was soft as she politely addressed the girl. She noticed the colors of the girls robes as she wasn't sure whether to feel excited or scared.

The last few Slytherins she had encountered hadn't been the kindest and... well... it didn't help the pit that sat in the bottom of her stomach as soon as she realized what she was in for. "I-I'm sorry... t-to bother..." her nervous attitude was clear across her body as she took a preliminary step back, ready to flee in the slightest moment of trouble.

Reducio

Thank you for understanding my absence! I finally got through finals, finished all my classes (and passed) as well as settled down for the holidays so I'm finally good!

Ruby had returned to gazing out at the lake, deep in thought. The calm, sparkling waters and the coolness of the air provided a nice atmosphere for thinking. The first year watched her breath as it came out in small clouds, spiraling around her, and almost laughed as she recalled a memory from when she was younger. Her cousins had been with her, and it had been a particularly cold day, one of the first where Ruby was able to see her own breath. They had teased her affectionately, like normal, and one had made a comment that he was a dragon and in the winter he couldn't make fire any more but the clouds that billowed out of his mouth were dragon breath. He had then proceeded to overexaggerate breathing out deeply, making as much "dragon breath" as he could. Of course, Ruby had known that it wasn't actually that, but she had thought that it was a rather nice idea and from then on they had said "dragon breath" in the winter and any one of them would understand.

With her robes wrapped around her and enough protection from the cold, Ruby felt like she could stand out here for hours. She was quite happy to just stand, smiling and recalling memories while listening to the cheerful sounds of others' laughter and friendship in the background. It wasn't that Ruby didn't have friends she could be with, but she felt like she needed proper alone time and time with nature. Humans had managed to destroy so much of the world, but at least there were still places like this, which Ruby was immensely grateful for. There were also the trees that she could go climb in, but water had always reassured her too. Watching the waves gently lap at the land with a steady rhythm but a certain amount of unpredictability made the young Slytherin feel quite at ease.

After several minutes had passed, Ruby remembered that she had been intending to look for someone new to talk to. As fate would have it – or perhaps it was merely a coincidence – Ruby realized that a fellow first year (judging from the looks of the student and the way they acted) was, in fact, alone nearby. The other girl seemed to be occupied with collecting flowers, probably for assignments they had – either that or maybe to give to someone. Ruby appreciated being prepared for class, but she hated when they had to so directly take things from nature. It just felt wrong. However, Ruby didn't have much time to deliberate on that, as one of the girl's assignments blew away from the fellow student and over near to Ruby. She was so unprepared for it that she didn't have time to reach down to get it, but at least the girl had managed to make her way over and grab it herself, even though Ruby would have helped had she been ready for the small event.

When the girl stood up again and started to speak, Ruby got a better view of her and noted that she was a fellow Slytherin. Maybe they could get along well. However, Ruby realized that the girl was so obviously nervous, scared, and worried about bothering others, and that wasn't something that she looked for in a friend. Was this the type of girl who was very fragile and that Ruby would have to constantly be careful with just so they could hold a conversation? Ruby hoped not. She could never be herself around those people, but she didn't necessarily want to hurt and completely crush them by accidentally acting in a way that the other person couldn't handle. Ruby was used to the company of boys and often preferred them, but sometimes it ended up so that she would just unintentionally impact some fragile girl when she tried to talk to them.

Ruby noticed that the girl started to back away from her slightly and become even more nervous after a look at the color of her robes. What, this girl was scared of her for being a Slytherin when the girl herself was a Slytherin? Ruby could see why some other houses wouldn't understand, but what about this girl, who was from her own house? Oh. It took long enough, but Ruby realized that the girl might not have met the Slytherins with the pure hearts and kind smiles. She might have met the ones who didn't come across as kind at first and had their own problems, with their hearts shrouded in shadow because of the troubles they had to face. Some of those kids were bullies, but Ruby knew that they were still just misunderstood and many of them were rarely as bad as they seemed to be or act. Honestly, people just needed to give every member of Slytherin house a giant hug and love them for who they were. What was wrong with all these people who had biases against some poor kids just because of their house?

Anyway, by now, Ruby had decided that she would form the energy-draining act of kindness, gentleness, and acceptance. Okay, maybe she was exaggerating just a little bit. She wasn't a bad person, but she didn't know where she stood yet. She wasn't even inherently unkind. It wasn't all an act, but it was just hard for her to genuinely care about someone that much and be so sweet before she even knew them, especially if she had to be gentle as well. This girl seemed like she needed it, though, so Ruby would make the effort, even if she didn't keep it up in future meetings. Besides, once she started it as an act, it became a lot easier to make it into genuine feelings and kindness. She didn't feel the opposite, so that was a good start.

Ruby smiled at the girl warmly, making her light eyes and pale skin suddenly not seem as cold as they normally did. It was surprising, how much difference a smile backed by kindness could change the way a person looked, dispelling any notion of unkindness, cold apathy, or distrust. “Hey, it's okay. There's no need to worry. Is your assignment alright?” Ruby began, still with the warmth that spread into her tone and the kind smile. “My name's Ruby Cazares. What's yours?” Ruby, being a pureblood, had a name that some would know. However, she didn't want to talk about that at the present moment and simply wished to attempt to help this girl relax a little.