Finished Doctor Dennis: Love Guru Ruth Fairchild

22/02/2025

𝓔ver since returning from Beauxbatons, Ruth found herself wondering if her concept of love was truly right. What...was love to her?

Such a tricky question for absolutely no reason, Ruth mused to herself as she stepped into the outdoor corridor, hands still clutching the letters she had received. It seemed that the letters had been returned to on the 14th of February, just in time for Valentines' Day, but she had been one of the many students away on the trip to France. She shuffled through them steadily, each clearly labelled by those who had given her letters. Three wasn't a bad number--it seemed to be the average received. Ruth was satisfied with the result and felt the spring in her step as she made her way towards her common room. At least, that was her presumed destination.

Looking up from her letters, she gazed to her right, out at the courtyard. She hadn't expected much--merely a pristine fountain and winter flora decorating the cobblestone beneath the pillars. Yet, what she found herself gazing upon caught her attention and she stopped momentarily, backtracking to take a closer look in surprise.

Where there had been an empty space in the clearing now stood a table propping up a sign that wrote...What on earth? She thought in wonder, blinking thrice as though processing what she had just read. "Love guru?" she uttered aloud, bemused by the idea of a love adviser. In a place of education, nonetheless? Ruth shook her head, reminding herself of the couples she had seen flitting around back at France. She supposed several people would make use of this occasion to get as much tips as possible.

She lowered her gaze, finding herself looking upon a boy of ginger, his pale green eyes finding hers and gesturing Ruth over. Doh. Caught it was. Ruth creased her eyebrows, frowning down at him from where he sat, then sighed, moving closer to him in curiosity of what it is he wished to say. "Just so you know, I'm twelve," she said, folding her arms, letters still in her hand. Ruth had hoped that the statement would bring about some reluctance in him to spill some love advice. She was simply too young to want to know such mature business.

OOC: Slight godmodding of @Dennis Tumberton was permitted.

𝓣o her utter surprise, Dennis–as he had introduced himself, and Ruth had only just realised his name was already on the sign anyways– seemed delighted to hear that she was twelve (and barely), already motioning her to take a seat whilst pouring her a cup of tea. The smell of its sweet wafted into her nostrils. Unconsciously, she breathed it in deeply, as though relentlessly grasping for wisps of what might take her back to the past. The trip had made her happy. She wanted some of that ‘happy’ again.

The so-called Doctor interrupted her reminisce by pointing at the letters. “I see you got a nice haul.” Ruth blinked, at first confused at what he was saying, then glanced down and barked out a laugh. “Oh, these?” She giggled despite herself, taking a seat and placing the letters on her lap, “I doubt they’re what you think. Though, I haven’t read them yet.” Ruth took another glance at the names on the notes and shook a head to herself. She couldn’t imagine any of them being truly ‘love letters’. After all, one she may have almost punched, one she broke a rule with, one she bothered to bits. Platonic notes. Yes, that must be what they are. Ruth turned away from the letters, raising her hand for a shake. It seemed rude to remain anonymous, especially towards such a poppy persona. “I'm Ruth, and I’m not sure what you can do for me today…ah, I mean–” Ruth abruptly felt a twinge of awkwardness. She was no expert on such business. What was she supposed to ask, or even say?

Still pondering that in her head, she reached for the cup of tea, thanking him in the process. “Ah…and, I didn't hear much, or anything at all.” The cup was warm, hinting that there was a possibility of scalding her tongue in the process. “Maybe tell me some.” Why not? Bringing it to her lips, she blew at the surface of the drink, then gingerly took a sip, then another. The familiar spice of France tickled her taste buds and her eyes widened with glee, resisting the urge to gulp it all down. “This tea, did you recently go to France perhaps?” There was little possibility that he managed to pinch some of this brew from here.

𝕯ennis, to Ruth, seemed to have some form of alliance with charisma. As he teased in a compliment of her name, she couldn’t help but blush, as though grateful and embarrassed all the same. The truth was, Ruth had mixed feelings about her name. It felt…tomboy-ish, rough.

It made the nickname, “Ruthless”, fit real nicely.

She scalded her tongue just then and sputtered, almost spilling the contents all over her lap, the table, her letters, potentially Dennis too. As though in slow motion, Ruth watched in horror as the drink lurched. To her relief, it curved at its vertex, sliding back into the cup. She let out a sigh, then placed the cup on the table, safe out of her reach for now. Before Dennis could attempt to pester her, if he even thought of it, she waved a hand, thumping slightly at her chest to expel the remaining coughs. “I–I’m fine,” she wheezed, quietening down after a moment. “Just something stuck in my throat.” Ruth didn’t mention the true reason, there didn’t seem to be a need to. Such solemn thoughts, sparked by something as innocent as a compliment.

“I suppose, you’re right,” She pondered aloud to Dennis’ cheeky comment, then pfft, laughed at his ridiculous command. This ceased when she realised that he was serious. Dead serious. “You’re…not joking?” Ruth’s eyes widened as he proceeded to say that a wrong attempt would result in cooties. She shuddered, then stopped. Wait, did cooties even exist? Aaron and Rita used to talk a lot about it…Ruth remembered vaguely, but that was ages ago. The talk of this ‘germ’ had been passed down to Ace, who proclaimed one to gain cooties every so often whenever one attempted to touch his pet pebbles. Darn she was getting sidetracked.

Ruth eyed Dennis suspiciously, then glanced back down at her letters, picking the one written by Pamela, then imagined a romantic relationship with her. Er, no. She couldn’t imagine it. As she was about to open up the letter to read it as she normally did, Dennis’ precaution forced her to go rigid. Golly, I am really getting sidetracked. Still, just to be safe…Ruth repeated what Dennis had told her, placing the letter on the table and leafing it open with her left, her right fingers crossing. Giving the Doctor one final glance, she shuffled her seat closer and read, aloud, “‘Dear Ruth,’” she began, “‘I’m so lucky to have you as my friend…’”she breezily muttered through the rest simply because she wasn’t sure if Pam would have wanted her to read it to some stranger, but ended with, “‘I hope we stay friends for as long as we can.’”

Looking up, a wonky smile was brought to her face as she looked back at Dennis, nodding at him slowly. “You were right,”she whispered. A warm course of happiness spread through her and her cheeks grew rosy as she re-read the letter, chuckling slightly at the postscript and shaking her head as she did so. At that point in time Ruth hadn’t considered how much of a fluke it could have been, that Pamela had simply written to Ruth as a friend from the start anyways. Still, she gave Dennis the benefit of the doubt and began listening to him more attentively.

When her question was thrown back to her, Ruth smiled, following him and proceeding to take another sip. In the cold, the tea had gotten lukewarm, and she drank in gulps rather than daintily. “I did go. Wonderful time, I had. A bit disappointed they didn’t serve trifle, though. But hey, it wasn’t England.”

"𝕽ight. Of course A Love Guru would never give bad advice." Ruth echoed after Dennis, though she cocked her head and raised her eyebrows at the sound of his hesitation to continue his sentence. "Other?" She pressed, narrowing her eyes. "Do you perhaps mean romance?" She found it incredulous that he was unable to bring himself to say it when he, after all, was the Love Guru. Shouldn't he be confident enough to have such a term slip past his lips casually? Ruth found it suspicious but didn't have enough time to mull about it when Dennis' gushing about croissants caught her attention.

She chuckled low, shaking her head at his naivety. "Croissants aren't made with spells," Ruth replied, drinking the remainder of her tea. "And they use a specific type of flour for the quality. Regarding its size..." Ruth paused for a moment, as though for suspense, then dropped her voice to a low whisper. "My mother tells me the secret is European-style butter. Better lamination, or something along those lines. Oh, and pre-ferments." Ruth nodded knowledgably. All those times working side by side with her mother during baking sessions truly paid off after all.

Ruth cleared her throat, tipping her cup upside down and shaking it almost comically. Not even a single drop Ruth thought sullenly, then placed her cup back down onto the table, closer to Dennis and the teapot as a form of nudging. While she wasn't too sure how willing the Doctor would be to supply his ration of tea, it wouldn't hurt to try. "I'm not here to talk about France," Ruth said abruptly. Leaning back in her chair, she tucked the rest of the letters into her robe and asked. "How experienced are you with the knowledge of love, Doctor?" She hoped it was enough to get him talking.

"𝓘f you say so," Ruth answered him. What a quick save, though the way he said it brought a smile to her lips. Aren't you twelve too? She didn't push it as he hurriedly scrambled back into croissant conversation, another wave of exclamations washing over her. Surrendering, she uttered, "Hold your horses, I'm no expert." His golden exuberance was overpowering. Is he always like this? "I just help my mum out in the kitchen. She doesn't bake much croissants. But..." she hesitated, then gave him a small beam, "baking with you sounds like a deal." It'd be fun to bake again. The last time she'd done it was back in December in the Room of Requirement. The last morsels of the meringue were gone, devoured by her just shortly before the trip. She hadn't had much left for herself anyways, having split the servings between @Avery Gray, @Kim Sato, and her family back in Bath. The rest she sealed away and ate through day by day, often consuming them at night. This, of course, proved to be a terrible idea as she began rather hyperactive for at least a half hour into curfew, to which she spent the time studying by the fire. So...not that bad.

"And thanks," she added, eagerly accepting her cup back, now brimming with hot tea. Ruth sighed contentedly to herself, inhaling the scent yet again and drinking it in simply from the smell before tasting it with her tongue. "You're very generous."

Ruth almost had a second choke attack when Ruth heard what it was he said. "No, no...that's not what I meant..." she managed to say carefully, placing down the teacup at the same time. "I mean, you're the Love Guru, so we should be talking about...I mean, you should be giving me advice. Talking about France can happen another time right? Maybe when you're off duty, or something." Truth be told the more she talked about the trip she more she yearned to go back and experience it one more time. Ruth had left the school with the trauma of that mysterious potion engraved in her head, and had came out at peace. Now, back at Hogwarts, Ruth had unexpected paranoia every once in a while, the distress she felt demanding to flood back. If she kept hoping, wishing for some things, the feeling grew worse.

Instead, Ruth had resorted to allowing the Dennis to do his job, only for the Ravenclaw to assume she had someone she 'fancied.' "I told you, I'm only twelve," she interjected again, pouting. "I know little to nothing of these...things. I don't have anyone I fancy. " Then again, Ruth mused to herself, imagine how useful the information would be in the future? That is, if Ruth even got to experience romance. She couldn't imagine it, and Ruth would say that she had a pretty good imagination. "But even if I don't, will you still tell me some tips? I'm curious." She proceeded quickly before Dennis shooed her away for having no request.