April 7th, 1890 — Flourish & Blotts

It was the last day of Easter break and Ruby had gone to London with her aunt and McGonagall cousins for some shopping. She really wasn't looking forward to returning to Hogwarts. Her last two days before the break had been eventful. First, it was the prank with the fake letter then, the next day, a bludger almost hit her in the face. Ruby had this dreadful feeling that tomorrow something new and terrible would be awaiting her at Hogwarts, to welcome her to a new round of petty pranks and hurtful words from racist, classist and anti-werewolf people. She really saw no point in returning to Hogwarts. She wasn't a talented student. She was squandering away her Papa's money so she'd learn advanced Divination when there were people who could become healers or Aurors, unable to pay for their tuition. She was such a waste of space.

At least she could be useful to Topaz, who had given her a list of books for Ruby to buy for her from Flourish & Blotts. Poor Topaz preferred not to go out and about. It had been the full-moon some days ago and she had had to spend it at one of the Ministry's special prison cages for werewolves, so Ruby imagined that she was shaken. She could do this at least to make her happy.

All of the books were about advanced magical topics. Ruby felt so useless, once again. She never really stopped feeling useless but sometimes she was distracted by her feelings of self-hatred when something made her happy.

There were a lot of students at Flourish & Blotts, so Ruby couldn't find an employee to help her find the books Topaz had asked for. Some of them were easy because they were stored in obvious sections. 'Advanced Transfiguration', 'Charms', etc.

At some point, she spotted a man who struck Ruby as a bookstore employee. It was probably because he seemed really thoughtful in front of a bookshelf and he looked like someone who'd have to work for a living. She approached him, awkwardly and said: "Excuse me, sir, can you help me find this book?" She brought up her list and pointed at the book's name with her finger.

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Kieran Abernathy

  

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set by MJ

Kieran had no transformation tonight, thank fuck, so after trudging out of Jude's apartment he was off to work. Then, he remembered that days ago he had decided he needed a new book for one of his longform pieces - so. Off he was to Flourish & Blotts, to try and find the latest book on vampires. He had already found it, and was ready to leave, when the girl spoke to him.

"I don't -" Kieran started, then stopped. This was - this girl was an Urquart, and she could be the girl. She looked better than he did, but that didn't mean she wasn't the girl. She was the girl or the twin, and Kieran felt sick either way - he had ruined both their lives, just the same.

"I think that one might be by genre. Follow me," he said, and started walking towards the Magizoology section.

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Ruby noticed that the man had become somewhat uneasy to see her. She assumed that he simply didn't want to assist one of the Urquart girls. He was probably one of those people who thought that talking with a werewolf could turn you into one. He might have been a racist too, and dislike her just for not being as pale and European-looking as him.

She followed him awkwardly, her negative thoughts making her feel more unwanted than she probably was. "Thank you for your help, sir," Ruby replied in a weak tone. He started looking for the book and she awkwardly said: "Y-you don't have to look for it for me, you must be really busy!"

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set by MJ

"I'm not busy," Kieran said easily. He tried a smile, although it was certainly an awkward one. He wished that he knew which one she was - if it was Topaz, then she certainly looked better after the full moon than he expected. But that tracked, right? The Urquart children were well cared for.

"You have a lot of theory books on your list - who's doing all the research?" Kieran asked. He finally found the runic theory section; it was at the top of a shelf, and definitely out of her reach. Kieran stood on his toes and still found the books out of sight.

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Ruby was so caught up in her 'everyone-hates-me' narrative that the shop employee could give his life for her and she would still assume that he disliked her. She felt an awkward pinch to her stomach at his forced smile. He only did that because she was a customer and because he was supposed to be polite to her.

His next question made her feel even more terrible. Her judgment was too clouded to see it as a simple, innocent question, free from any intention to attack her in some manner. He had to be asking because he could see that Ruby wasn't the sort to read such books because she wasn't as smart as her twin. Ruby felt so guilty for not being interested in complex academic subjects like her twin did. There were plenty of academic works on Divination, but since it was her favourite class and the one she was the most accomplished at, Ruby didn't view it with much respect. She wasn't good in real academic subjects, like ancient runes and advanced transfiguration. Everything she was good at was fluffy and easy, anyone could be good at them. Unlike advanced transfiguration, which really interested Topaz.

"My sister," Ruby replied. "She is very bright, even though she studies at home." She felt the need to prove something to the man. Everyone thought of her sister as a beast. Ruby wanted them to see that she was, in fact, a very bright person, smarter than them. Smarter and brighter than Ruby, too.

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set by MJ

If she studied at home, then she had to be the other one - the twin. Which meant that Topaz - Miss Urquart, really, but once you ruined someone's life you thought of them by first name - was sending her sister out on errands, and reading advanced magic books. That was - good? That was probably good. Kieran didn't know how people with security handled this; he had worked because he had to work, and eventually that meant he had more or less gotten on with it.

"Nice," Kieran said mildly, because he had nothing else to say about it. "Can you pass me that stool? I can't quite reach this book."

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Ruby registered Kieran's tone as dismissive. He clearly didn't care about how smart or hard-working Topaz was. Ruby felt like a kicked puppy, she also felt somewhat annoyed, that another person would dismiss her sister.

"Yeah, sure," Ruby answered awkwardly and handled him the stool. "Thank you. You really didn't have to help me." She didn't want people to think that she was begging for their help. She didn't want others to think that the Urquarts wanted other people's pity.

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set by MJ

Kieran climbed up the stool and plucked the book off the shelf for her. He climbed back down. "Why wouldn't I help you?" he said, holding out the book for her. "Don't worry about it."

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Only then did Ruby get a hunch that maybe the employee wasn't that bad. His words had been genuine and she felt somewhat ashamed with herself for all the negative assumptions she had made about him in her head. He had gone all the way to get the book down from the self from her when he could have easily vaguely gestured to the section where the book was located and left her to her own devices.

She felt very conflicted. She found it difficult to trust well-meaning people, after the accident.

"I-uh-thanks," Ruby murmured sheepishly. "I don't want to keep you from your work any longer. Thanks sir."

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set by MJ

"All right," Kieran said easily, "Have a good rest of your day, Miss Urquart."

Had she always been like this, he wondered? Or had he broken her, when he bit her sister? Kieran wanted to know, but of course there was no way to ask. Perhaps she didn't even know herself.

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