A Breath of Fresh Air

[Ruby Fairleigh]

Ruby Fairleigh decided it was time to get away from the crush of students in the castle. She'd grown up in the Southern Alps, in the manor her parents had built to isolate themselves from the rest of the world, and she'd never had friends her own age. In fact, she'd only ever known adults, apart from her cousin. She'd had to learn to live in a world of solitude, with only her hawk, Felicia, for company. And now that she has here at a school that teemed with people, Ruby was feeling claustrophobic.

She'd enjoyed the silence and loneliness of the mountains. On a clear day she could see for miles, she could hear birds everywhere. She had no interruptions to her paintings or her thoughts. She could just be. But here was a different story. Here was chatter all the time, a constant buzz that filled her ears. She needed to escape. So she'd headed for the biggest piece of space she could find. The lake.

It stretched out to the horizon, glittering in the morning light. Winter was basically over and the spring sun, though white and sharp, soothed her as it warmed her face. Ruby sat down and closed her eyes to enjoy the peace around her.

 

[Bradley Larton]

Bradley Larton had decided to walk down to the lake. It seemed less crowded than the other places of the castle and school, which were filled with students brandishing wands. He could feel his own wand in his pocket, and it was freaking him out. That thin stick was like a bomb, timed by the pulse of his heart rate, ticking faster as he thought about the thing. Yeah, he'd been excited at the Sorting, but now time had slowed down again and he was in the uncomfortable between time, just waiting for all the accidents to happen.

His mother had sent him an owl that morning. She was proud of him and again, she couldn't stop going on about how great it was that he was here at the school, and how much he was going to learn. Brad frowned. Maybe he didn't want to learn some of this magic stuff. He didn't know much about what was going to happen in his classes, but he'd seen his schedule for the first semester and the only practical ones sounded like Charms and Herbology. And that Transfiguration class just sounded like silly magic for the sake of it. It was just stupid.

By now, Brad had reached the lake. It was nice to know that, even here, a lake was the same thing as it had always been. And he was right about it being quiet. He couldn't see anyone at the moment. Until he rounded a bend and almost stumbled over a blonde girl sitting almost in the middle of the pathway. "Oh, whoah. I'm sorry." He smiled and some instinctive sense of chivalry made him stick out his hand to help her up. "But what exactly are you doing sitting where unsuspecting people are walking?"

 

[Ruby Fairleigh]

Ruby didn't know how long she'd been sitting by the lake, but she'd certainly got a lot of thinking done in that time, something that she hadn't been able to do properly since the first step she'd taken onto the grounds. She'd been exploring the conversation that she could have with her parents about the house she'd been sorted into. That one was going to be a shocker for them. Ruby Fairleigh, daughter of a Slytherin family, had been sorted into Gryffindor. The irony. But it made sense to Ruby. She'd never been as driven to succeed as her parents were, and she didn't seek power. The trouble was that her parents refused to acknowledge that about her. They stubbornly continued to insist that she was a Fairleigh; she had to carry on the responsibilities that came with the name, she had to work to better the family all the time. It had bothered Ruby before, but never this much. She didn't think her parents would be able to make the school staff move her into Slytherin, and this was what worried her the most. The situation was completely out of their hands, and she didn't like to think of how they would react to that utter powerlessness.

She'd almost finished revising the letter she would send them when she sensed a shadow fall on her. She turned her head up just in time to see a dark haired boy almost trip over on top of her. She braced herself for the impact, but he balanced himself gracefully and came to a stop in front of her. Only now did Ruby realise that she had been sitting in the middle of the path. How can I always be so completely oblivious? The boy asked her the exact same thing, but he had apologised first and smiled, so he didn't seem to angry about the situation. He'd even reached out his hand to help her up, which Ruby took. As she stood up, the light moved onto his face where before it had been shaded. Oh, wow. She suddenly became a little flustered and quickly let go of the boy's hand. "Sorry, I don't think a lot about that stuff." Inwardly she winced. Brilliant. "I mean, there seemed to be no one around." Maybe I'll just stop blabbing. She shut her mouth and waited for his response. Would it be confusion, awkward, or would he just ask her if she was insane? She hadn't heard that last question for a while, but that just probably meant that it was due.

 

[Bradley Larton]

Brad had noticed the girl looked a little puzzled about the entire situation. Like she couldn't figure out exactly why someone else would be walking around out here. She muttered something about just not thinking, and Brad had to agree that that must have been exactly what had happened. She had the dizzy blonde look about her, enhanced by the eyes that didn't quite seem to focus on him when she answered his question.

"Well, I guess I wasn't exactly thinking anyone would be out here either." He smiled again, hoping she would be persuaded into talking a little more. He hadn't exactly made any friends here yet, and he didn't like being a loner. He just couldn't deal with only himself for company for sustained periods of time. "I'm Bradley Larton, but you should just call me Brad."

Why did I tell her that? 'Call me Brad'. You sound like a ****. Maybe she just wouldn't think anything of it. He quickly blurted out something else to try and distract her. "So, what are you doing out here? Enjoying the view? Escaping? Planning world domination?"

 

[Ruby Fairleigh]

Ruby was surprised that he hadn't mentioned anything about her being crazy. Yet. She thought that was quite good. The boy - Brad - was smiling at her again, and she felt a little off balance. This wasn't how she'd expected her morning to turn out. She'd wanted to explore the lake down here and get away from people. Now that was ruined, and she was slightly annoyed. Was it too much to ask for a little bit of quiet? He asked her a question and she distinctly heard the word 'escaping' above the rest.

"Oh, I was just... trying to get away from all the people. I, um, I'm not used to it." She nervously started twisting her hair, trying to think of a way to leave. She didn't know how to interact with people her own age."I should actually get back, now that I think about it... I mean, I've kind of got stuff to do, and I'm sure you want to get back to what you were doing...um, so, bye I guess." She turned around and began walking away, cheeks flaming at the painful way she'd got out that last statement. She didn't know why she was being so weird about this, but she guessed she just wasn't ready to make friends with anyone yet.

 

[Bradley Larton]

Brad watched the girl walk away, a little disappointed that they hadn't talked longer, but he was unwilling to call her back when she so clearly wanted to leave. It wasn't until she had gone when he realised that she hadn't even said what her name was, which he thought was a bit rude. He resumed his walk and realised just how much he wasn't enjoying it here. He still wasn't comfortable with all the magic around him, and even though he was enjoying some aspects of a couple of his classes, others just made him feel incredulous at wizards' attitudes, and one class had even made him feel physically sick. He knew his mother wanted him to be here, but surely once she learned how miserable he was she would understand that he really just wanted to go back to his normal life, at a normal school. One where he actually had friends, and the things you learned actually had a purpose.

He couldn't wait for the end of this semester, when he would be able to go home and spend some time with his father. He would leave his stupid wand at his mother's house and just enjoy being able to do things the proper way. And he would have his Xbox. Man, he was missing that. No technology worked in this place, which he'd learnt the hard way when he'd tried to play his iPod on the first week. The thing had just crackled and died and Brad hoped it would return to normal when he returned home. He knew that he was really homesick, then. This place was just too weird for him. If he was honest with himself, he really just wanted to leave this place, actually leave it and just continue with his life as it had been before. He knew his mother would be disappointed, but he guessed he just wasn't cut out to be a wizard. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea.