Eat Your Greens! PV

A girl was sitting near Remy. She was decently pretty, with brown hair worn in a single braid down her back to keep it off her face, light blue eyes, and pale, unblemished skin. Regarding her height, she was about average, and didn't stand out too much because of that. No, this girl stood out for completely different reasons. One of the most obvious of these might be her air – what she radiated and how she carried herself. She had impeccable posture and so she was always straight-backed, and this contributed to the way she seemed to any onlooker. Her air was one of confidence, intelligence, and sophistication. Not only that, but the power, passion, ambition, and determination she had within her showed too, mixing together to create a kind of blazing fire that shone in her eyes.

This "fire", however, was masked by a cool, calculating stare. She was a girl who had a good memory and was clever, and she knew it. By nature, she was constantly analyzing and calculating in every situation. The first thing she did when she walked into a room or was placed among people she didn't know was analyze them. This information would then be carefully stored away in a section of the girl's brain. Part of what gave her her power was the drive she had to learn and gain new information. Any piece of information could be extremely valuable, and so the combination of her traits provided with this desire for information made her a formidable enemy when crossed. Of course, as a mere eleven-year-old, she didn't know how to wield this power properly, but she knew that something was different about her and that she was extremely capable of destroying people or saving/helping them.

Even so, on most days, the girl was never that intense, but she still never ceased to leap at an opportunity to gain information. Besides all her sophistication, and the grace, smoothness, and fluidity of her motions, this girl often looked for some fun. Most people were so boring. Either that, or really stupid – normally, however, it was a mix of both. Stupid people were often boring, and she supposed that boring people were also stupid in some ways. They were clearly not smart enough to find a way to make themselves less boring, so why bother with them? Ruby valued intelligence. She could put up with many things, as long as a person had a decent brain or the capability to reach a sufficient level of intelligence (what she considered that to be, anyway).

To be perfectly honest, some of the best words to describe the girl's personality were "complicated" and "contradictory". She had multiple sides to her traits that made it so she rarely knew whether she believed what she said or not. For practically any small section of her personality or ideals, there would be another part to counter or balance it. That was one of the reasons why it could get exhausting being her. She didn't know what she stood for and believed in, or who she was, and she didn't know who she wanted to be. Since she was only 11, she still had time and didn't need to figure it all out now, but sometimes it was so difficult to make a decision or perform an action when there were so many other alternatives…

On the topics of personality and ideals, a stranger could assume (just from her air, even) that the girl could be from pretty much any of the houses except Hufflepuff. It was mostly correct, as the girl did, undoubtedly, have many traits from different houses. But the place that she was finding that she belonged in the most, the place that the sorting hat placed her in, the place that she called her house, was Slytherin. Yes, this girl was a Slytherin first-year, and she had many, if not all, of the house traits (not the stereotypes, mind you).

Who was this girl, anyway? Her name was Ruby Cazares. She was a pureblood from England, born to a family comprised immediately – and as far as Ruby knew – of every house but Slytherin. Because of the results of her sorting, Ruby didn't know how she would be received by her parents. They were bound to be angry, that was for sure, but to what extent? That was something that Ruby did not and could not know, even if she wished she did. Ever since she sent the owl answering her parents' letters demanding that she tell them her house, they hadn't replied. Ruby didn't know if she would risk going home for the Christmas break or not, but that was something she would have to decide very, very soon.

Sitting at the Slytherin table to eat breakfast was not something that Ruby usually missed. She came to it as much as she could, and if she sat silently and watched others' actions, that was fine by her, but so was talking to people and interacting. She had analyzed the people here already, and was beginning to get a little bored. Ruby was a lover of mischief, adventures, and fun, despite how serious she could seem sometimes. Maybe she could eventually find someone to have fun with from this table. Ruby noticed a boy near her – Remy, although she didn't know that – clasping his hands together and closing his eyes. That was the stature of someone silently praying, pleading, or giving thanks, and it was easy to recognize. Considering the food in front of them, it would obviously have something to do with blessings such as breakfast. Ruby wondered if the boy was religious or just being grateful, and who he was thanking. However, she had not been staring and the brief glance she had cast him to gain this information was not something that could be interpreted as that either.

Ruby was mentally running briefly through what she had learned so far today, and she ate while she did so, appreciating the food they were given here. Her gaze swept around the table another time, skipping over the ones she had already completely analyzed (for now, at least), and she listened idly to some of the conversations among friends. A movement from the boy that had been giving thanks caught her eye. He raised a newspaper slightly and started speaking, and Ruby watched, listening carefully to what he said. He made a comment about not being able to understand it, which Ruby supposed could be fair enough. Either it was a difficult article or the boy wasn't so skilled in reading and comprehending, and, as she couldn't see the article, she would have to reserve judgment. Obviously, it was in English, but that almost certainly wasn't a phrase meant to be taken literally, and would probably just be long words or something.

His snicker at the end almost made Ruby smile, as snickers were familiar sounds to her, and so she let the corner of her mouth twitch upwards into a smirk. “Newspaper articles can often seem like they aren't English. Do you need help?” Ruby's tone had a small hint of being teasingly mocking, and although it made her seem like she wasn't entirely kind when she did this, she was far from seeming unkind either. She had no malicious intent whatsoever. “I'm fluent in multiple languages,” she added jokingly. Although she was multilingual, Ruby seriously doubted that it was actually in a different language, so she was obviously joking around.

He eyed the article once more, words bustling in front of him and making him feel dizzy. Remy blinked slowly a few times, eventually rolling his eyes from frustration. First of all, he was missing the usual gold-rimmed specs of his that helped him navigate through heaps of text like this. He didn't really enjoy wearing them. First of all, glasses, in general, were sort of uncomfortable. They kept sliding down his nose bridge and he would constantly have to push them up. Second of all, he would get teased if he would wear glasses. Third of all, they would always get fogged up whenever he stepped a foot outside of this castle. Not fun, not at all.

Remy might have been very witty and used the aforementioned wits to cause lots of mischiefs and trouble, but he had always been slightly slow in his own way. Reading had proved to be a slight challenge to him. While other people his age would breeze through content and hard words, he would always lag behind. Remy liked to blame the fact that English was a secondary language to him. He would similarly breeze through the hardest words as long as they were in Portuguese. That was what he spoke at home with his siblings and parents. He'd often catch himself talking in a mix of those two languages of his. He'd also switch the languages in his dreams and thoughts. It was amusing to see the boy try and figure out a word when he only remembered the same word in another language! Translating idioms didn't really go well either, they'd always sound a bit awkward.


Remy looked back on his time at Brazil. It was a blessing and a curse. He'd give anything, sacrifice one of his brothers maybe to feel the sun kissing his cheeks. He'd do anything to see the same sunrise whenever he fluttered his eyes open. The weather and the food in the United Kingdom were definitely not his favorites. Blech, beans and toast. Never! One thing he liked though was the peace and quiet in here though. People were not as loud and always screaming, unlike in Brazil. Well, except for their angry Irish neighbor that would always scream at Remy. Granted, Remy did play the electric guitar at three in the morning once. Maybe he did deserve it. Nevertheless, this man was the one to initially teach him English. One reason why Remy always would sound a bit bitter, cold, and used old slang while talking to others. One example was him always calling girls 'doll' or 'sunshine'. Some people found it rather creepy, his old man talk. It was a truly odd mixture of all kinds of influences.


What else did he remember about Brazil? Oh, the terrible school! Remy had always had a goofy streak to him. His ideas of fun often clashed with the nuns that ran the school. He'd always mimic their outfits and demeanor, receiving many complaints and detention sessions. He was a rebel at his core who would wreak havoc just because he could. All authority was in his opinion bad. He hated the uniforms in there, blech. Even more boring than in Hogwarts. He would always wear his tie in a messy way and his collar was a mess. This still showed these days as he had troubles to keep himself tidy. Remy would always pull his sweater over the top of his head to clown the nuns and waved his silver cross around, singing his Gregorian chants and disrupting classes. Needless to say, he did not learn much about manners prior to Hogwarts (he still has a lot to learn and a long way to go).


He loved Hogwarts very much but he couldn't wait to spend the holidays with his family. Yes, even all of his six brothers and one sister were greatly missed. All the shenanigans, arguments and loving moments included. He missed mom the most, her hugs were very needed right now. She was the only one who could initiate physical contact and the boy would not flinch or dodge for his dear life. He was usually fine with physical contact (shown when Remy would shove around Hufflepuffs who 'annoyed' him), as long as he was the one that initiated it. If not, he'd blush and screech like a possessed banshee.


His eyes lazily shifted toward the girl sitting not that far away from him. She looked rather familiar and there was a good reason for that. She was another fellow first-year Slytherin. Remy had never really cared for houses, he believed that it was impossible to cast someone in a box and tell them that this was what their true desires and attributes reflected. Yes, he still had his house pride and would always wear his emerald green and silver scarf. Yes, he'd always go out of his way to tease Hufflepuffs whenever he had a chance and a teacher was not looking. Still, he did not like this odd system. Scratching his temples, he shamelessly stared at the girl. Cold beauty, a nice way of defining her looks.

Remy too was rather cold. Quite literally. His body temperature would always fall below the normal. He loved to freak out others by placing his cold and frail hands on someone's neck. His hands were always blueish due to too many trips to the decked-someone-in-the-face land. Besides, he bruised and blushed very easily. Oh, the cons of having porcelain pale skin. He tried running his fingers through his hair, but they got stuck in his tangles and he had to give up. Remy was one of those special people who despite having straight hair had a very frizzy texture. It was of great trouble for him to brush his hair every morning. He'd rather pass, thank you very much!


She seemed to reciprocate his interest, answering his pleas and prayers. He could detect the little teasing tone but dismissed it. He didn't care that much, it was just her probably being fun in her own ways. He couldn't judge his housemate just yet! He nodded and passed the newspaper to her, wondering how well she would do. She radiated that 'I really could have been in Ravenclaw' energy. There was something sharp in her gaze, something the two of them had in common. Remy's dark brown, almost black eyes would often scan every room and person and had an intimidating but playful glimmer to them.

"Thank you, missy," the latter nickname was not malicious. Usually, he gave out nicknames to tease people, but this time the word did not hold the same sickly sweet, honey covered tone. He was feeling friendly this day but anything could turn him into the hothead he was. There was something foreign in the way he spoke. Perhaps it was the intonation or the way he rolled his r's. Remy refused to drop his accent, it was one of the only things he still held from before. It was an important part of him that he would love to not let go of so easily.

Ruby let her mind wander for a short period of time. After all, wasn't there a sort of… art… in that? Besides, letting a mind wander could tell a person a lot about themselves. What someone got distracted by, where their mind went, that was something to pay attention to. It could reveal passions, fears, stresses, boredom, parts of personality traits, motivations, what to fix…

Really, if people paid enough attention to where their mind went when it wandered, they could help themselves have a happier life by correcting what bothered them or what they unwittingly thought about – where their mind naturally went. Ruby really needed to pay attention to it more, as it could help her greatly. However, her life was busy (well, sort of) and she didn't seem to have the time to focus on that. Why when there was so much to learn and so many people to meet?

She allowed her eyes to drift across the tables of the other houses. Her three favorite cousins – the ones that she had grown up with – belonged to other houses. Two of them were from Gryffindor and one was from Ravenclaw. Ruby really needed to make a point of seeking them out again and organize a schedule of meetings – maybe once a week or every other day. Now that they were all in the same school, it would be easier to see them more often during the school year.

These cousins had taught Ruby so much and spent a lot of time with her throughout the years. They had also taught her the ways of mischief-making and pranks, which was something she now enjoyed immensely. Even if her parents disapproved of it, it wasn't like they were actually around enough to stop the learning process, and after that, the damage had been done and she had found a new passion. After a year or two, she was around the same level as her cousins, and she had become more of an equal to them in their group. They had continued to teach her, but they did more things with her and let her have a bigger say in things after that.

The Ravenclaw still continued to do most of the planning while the Gryffindors did more of the risky things, but at least the Ravenclaw had eventually come out of his shell and joined the Gryffindors. Because Ruby was able to help plan as well and the Gryffindors understood planning enough by then, all the roles were able to be shared equally. By the time that the boys had started to go off to Hogwarts, Ruby was left to cause mischief on her own, which she also had become skilled in. She didn't really need them any longer, but it was more fun and she could do more advanced things with them. Over the years, these boys had become close friends to her and practically her brothers because of the amount of time she spent with them.

Eventually, Ruby brought her gaze back to the Slytherins. She still didn't know so many of her housemates and feared that she would miss opportunities by not reaching out to them. She was trying! She wanted more friends in her house, though. Several of the ones that she had met were quite easy for her to get along with, and she felt like something was just right about them, even though they may not have felt the same way about her. Okay, maybe as much as she said that the house system had many, many flaws, it did allow for her to easily meet people who bore some likeness to her. Maybe the house system wasn't all bad, even though it was certainly a bit weird. Maybe this boy struggling with the newspaper could even be a friend eventually – maybe he was somewhat similar to her as well.

When she looked at the boy, she found that he was staring and seemed to have been even before she had noticed. Oh well, no matter. People staring didn't intimidate her or make her uncomfortable in the slightest, she attracted way too many odd looks to not be used to it by now. However, she also picked up on something interesting that was revealed by his eyes. She instantly recognized it, as it was something familiar – the type of glimmer in the boy's eyes was very similar to part of what her own eyes showed, and she relaxed a little upon seeing the playful gleam that many of her favorite people shared.

Admittedly, Ruby had been a little surprised when she had initially seen the sharp part of the gaze and the… whatever it was… that was intelligence and analyses in her own version of it. At this school, there were other people who were particularly intelligent and observant, and that pleased Ruby as well as giving her another cause to be wary and prepared for any situation. It wouldn't do for her to become like the average person, even if that average was better, smarter, and more successful within Hogwarts – especially in the house of Slytherin.

When the boy spoke again, Ruby listened a bit more carefully. She apparently hadn't noticed that he had a different accent to many of the Irish, Scottish, English, and Welsh ones that could normally be heard around Hogwarts, and she silently reminded herself to pay attention to things like that, as that could reveal information about a person's identity and past. The boy's use of the word "missy" had made her question a bit, but she had decided that he didn't mean it in any particular way that would cause her to be offended or feel any other emotion. She snapped out of her thoughts as he passed her the newspaper.

What information did it hold? Scanning the article on the front page that the boy had been looking at, Ruby quickly lost interest. It was quite boring and nothing that seemed able to entertain any others their age, or any age somewhat close to theirs. No action, nothing particularly out of the ordinary, nothing really new, not even a bit of gossip similar to what so many people seemed to enjoy spreading. She saw why the article might have been confusing – there were lots of long and fancy words, but nothing that Ruby thought was actually worthy of being there. A very slight sneer curled her lips as she realized that whoever wrote the article seemed to be using "complex" words just for the sake of it and to show off rather than to actually enhance the meaning of the phrase or sentence that the words were used in. She could think of plenty of words that were much more simple and could even give more meaning to the text and work better. Besides, at least then there would be no more of confusing readers that had a slightly less advanced vocabulary. The reporter could even lose readers because of it…

Ruby shook her head slightly in disapproval and then looked back up at the boy, realizing that he would be waiting for a response. She quickly flicked through some of the rest of the newspaper and placed it back on the table when she saw that there wasn't much improvement, even pages later. “There's nothing that I think would be of much interest to you or others I know, unless I've seriously misjudged you. There's no content that's even particularly substantial, and it looks to be quite repetitive, really. It's not very well put-together in general. However, I see where you might have struggled. There are a lot of "fancy words" and "complex sentences" that the author threw in there.”