The rules were so unfair, Ruby thought bitterly. They were designed to help students from violence by not allowing it -- what happened when using violence was the only way to protect yourself, though? The rules didn't take into consideration girls whose sisters were turned into werewolves and who received their classmates' verbal abuse for that fact. Words hurt just as much as jinxes, yet they were seldom punished by the points system.

After Topaz's attack, Ruby felt like she'd matured to the unfairness of the world. Handsome Whitledge, or the other hand, was a naive fool. Ruby gave a loud nasal exhale.

"My father can't really do anything more than ask my professors to tuck me away in some guarded classroom where my bullies may not enter." And that wasn't a solution, not a long-term one, at least.

"You can't help me," Ruby concluded with a sigh. She stood from the desk she was sitting at and waved her wand so the pieces from her destroyed painting would fly to a bin at one of the corners.