Study Room

Twelve Cards  PV Invited 

Saying that it had been a while since Elena had last had a birthday party could only be classed as a lie. Not even an understatement, just a blatant untruth, the girl had never had a birthday party in her life.

So she’d written a little list of all the people she enjoyed talking too: Bella, Ruby, Hugh, Elena, and even Professor Risa, and sent out a stack of happy looking invitations with silly little cutout stickers she’d found in an arts and crafts box hiding backstage at the Rehearsal Room. Granted, she hadn’t actually expected anyone other than Bella to join in the festivities, and so was extremely confused when almost all the invitations came back agreeing to come.

‘Is this what Griffith was meant about real friends?’ Elena thought to herself as she put the plate of sandwiches out, the house elves had decided that there was no way the girl was just serving cake and had showed up with a couple of plates of food earlier on. As well as some chairs that she was extremely thankful for, she hadn’t managed to think that far ahead.

The setup was finished, the guests were set to arrive soon, and so Elena sat down in one of the comfier chairs and curled up with a rather interesting book on dragons.

Twelve Cards  PV Invited 

She trodded down the corridor walking towards the study room, invitation clasped in hand. She was smiling as she got closer thinking over the past few days. Elena had agreed to come, she didn't know why but the Gryffindor was beginning to feel like she was getting somewhere with the other Elena. Perhaps it was the fact she happened to be the only one the prefect thought was a genuinely good person.Her and Hugh.The girl thought to herself stopping before the doors. How old was she turning anyways? She looked down where in her hands, she held a small box, wrapped in some holiday gift-wrappings. She had decided to get something for the girl, though she didn't know her that long, it was the proper thing to do. It wasn't nothing too fancy but something simple. Hopefully, the girl would like it, she pushed open the doors and strode in looking around nodding in approval. T

There were a couple of tables laden with food along with some chairs upon one which Elena sat reading some book. She walked over placing the gift-wrapped box on one of the tables."Hi. Happy birthday."She said smiling snagging a chair. The box happened to contain a smoothly-polished flute, with patterns running down its side and gave off a sort of glint. She knew the girl was the musical type so Elena had decided to invest in something of that category. "So, how old are you turning?"She asked pushing away the thought of gifts.

Twelve Cards  PV Invited 

Elena was lost in one of the page illustrations, it was hard to read about stuff like dragons without getting distracted daydreaming, that's probably why she didn't immediately notice when Elena Jangleton entered the room. The blue haired girl managed not to jump when the Gryffindor spoke, Jones shut her book and beamed at the prefect.

The blue haired Elena had taken a liking to Jangleton, they'd only met once before in the trophy room, it was surprising how many other people liked the peace and quiet that less populated places could bring. That was another odd thing about this school, she'd made two friends by accidentally meeting while they were both looking for somewhere nice and quiet. Both of them were Gryffindors too, maybe it said something about the impulsive house's residents that some of their students had actively sought out the quietest places on campus, Jones assumed that their dorm-mates must be rather noisy, why else would you leave a tower that gorgeous?

Jones just had a deep hatred for her common room's location and interior decorating, seeing the giant squid was great and all, but there was such a thing as moonlight, and weather, and you know, the actual sun, that are nice to see from time to time.

"Hi Elena! Thanks so much for coming, I'm turning twelve today!" Jones closed her book and put it away in her backpack, "How are you doing today? How's prefecting going?"

Twelve Cards  PV Invited 

Ruby approached the door to the room a little warily. She could hear voices inside, so someone was definitely here already. Fine – that was fine. She gently reminded herself that others would be here and that there was bound to be people she didn't know from those "others". Who else is coming? How many people will be there? Ruby wondered. She didn't know who Elena was friends with, but she liked the blue-haired girl enough to make an effort to be friendly to anyone Elena valued, despite anything Ruby might end up thinking about them.

Ruby had decided that she wanted to get Elena a gift. However, when she had started figuring out what she wanted this to be, she found that she didn't actually know a great deal about specifics of Elena's interests. Eventually, she decided to buy her two books and give her some of Ruby's own drawings/sketches. The second part was something that Ruby was a bit unsure about. She couldn't actually recall showing others her art, and didn't realize how good it actually was. Her sketchbook was full of various sketches and other drawings, ranging in skill level from bad to impressive bordering on stunning. Of course, this talent hadn't just come overnight. Ruby started to practice art more seriously around the age of 6, when she was alone a lot and got bored easily. Ever since then, it became one of her passions and her skills developed a lot, showing the incredible progress that she made over time.

The pieces Ruby had selected to give to Elena were some that she liked the best and thought were good, even if she didn't really have anything to compare it to. One was of a wolf, drawn with only a few basic pencils, so it was in shades of black and gray. It was incredibly detailed, and it really had two wolves. The left hand of the paper was taken up with the first image of the wolf. It appeared to be peaceful, majestic, and confident, yet the eyes seemed to show emotion – it seemed secretly scared and lonely. The right side of the page contained the second image, which was the same wolf but snarling, showing the vicious, dangerous side of itself. Ruby could connect pieces of this drawing to herself and greater themes or messages, but she just hoped that Elena would like it even half as much as Ruby did herself. These sketches were a part of her, every single one, in some way, and they meant a lot to her. Elena might not have known that Ruby hadn't shown anyone before, and she might not have known that giving some of these as a gift was monumental, in a way, but at least there was the possibility that she could appreciate the art.

The second drawing was a human, a dancing female. The dancer had her hair loose and was drawn in the air, apparently mid-leap. She wore an outfit that made it clear that she was a ballet dancer. This drawing reminded Ruby of when she took ballet classes for a little while when she was very young, and a professional ballet performance she went to see once. The final drawing was of another human girl – a teenager – this time from a back view. The rest of the picture was an explosion of color. It incorporated parts of nature and the elements that clearly seemed to be wielded by the girl. There was a roaring fire, lightning striking nearby earth, a vine and other similar plants curling and snaking up around the girl's body, orbs of water in a pattern, and more.

Ruby stared at the package in her hand that contained these things one more time and then walked into the room. Ruby had her hair in a fishtail braid, and she wore dark blue jeans and a long, olive-green cardigan with a pristine white shirt underneath and a long golden necklace (like in this picture but without the bag and watch).

When Ruby entered the room, she was straight-backed and had the same air about her, as always. This air that she gave off was one of sharp intelligence, confidence (yet not necessarily arrogance), sophistication, and something else – passion, power, ambition, or all three. She was extremely analytical and observant, with a good memory and the apparent need to calculate as much as possible. The first thing she did after she walked in the room was look around and absorb all the details with the one long glance. This included the girl who was talking to the other Slytherin first year. Time to analyze… where to start, where to start… Ruby pondered.

After a moment’s contemplation, she decided to delay the analyzing for once and speak first. “Hi, Elena!” she said to her friend, making sure that there was a break in the conversation and that she had been noticed before she spoke. Of course, she didn't know that the other girl's name was Elena too, but she glanced at the stranger and directed her a friendly smile anyway. Ruby had become a master at acting and deceiving, but it didn't require a huge amount of effort to attempt to be friendly to Elena's friend. It could benefit Ruby, too, which was always a good incentive for her to do something. She waited briefly for a reply.