March 26th, 1891 — Urquart Home

Ruby had known for almost two months now what she was going to do after Hogwarts. Her favourite professor had offered her a position in her fortune telling business, something that Ruby was very passionate about. She would devote herself to the arts of Divination, the only magical discipline she seemed to have a talent for.

She had waited to tell her father in person. Not because she expected him to be opposed, but rather because it was the sort of news you didn't enclose in a letter. This was her future, she wanted to hear her father's opinion on the matter.

She and Sebastian had arrived home the day before and had been welcomed by their father and siblings. She found a spot for solo time with her father the day after. They had enjoyed a cup of tea each and, at some point, Ruby made the comment:

"I could give you a reading, if you want. You should take me up for the offer, while it is still free!"

She rested her face in her hand and smiled shyly, wondering if her father would get the cue, or simply think it was a joke.

Balthazar Urquart

  

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set by MJ

There were many who scoffed at the very thought of divination, who saw it as frivolity at best and predatory falsehoods at worst. Balthazar Urquart, who had spent much of his life in the Department of Mysteries, was not one such person. He had spent time in the Hall of Prophecy, had investigated the nature of time, of love, of the universe itself. While he may not have understood it, he did not discount it—fortunate, for it had become one of Ruby's greatest joys.

"Oh?" he asked with a smile. "Have you decided to drop out of school and pursue a life of fortune-telling on the strets of Magical London?"

He would not have dared ask if he believed the answer could be anything but a resounding NO.

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   Ruby Urquart

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— mj makes pretty things! —

Ruby laughed softly. "I confess that this was a tempting thought before I returned for my seventh year." It had been hell at Hogwarts for the longest time, especially after Delight's graduation, when Ruby was left all alone. (She loved Sebastian, but they had never been close.)

"But I am glad I did, for I would have never met Professor Shacklebolt." Her father had heard all about her over Christmas break. "Papa, she offered me a position in her business. As a fortune teller, an astrologer... A practitioner of our arts. She says that she sees potential in me, she thinks I am sensitive to the divine, even though I am not a seer."

  

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Though offered in jest, her words had an air of truth about them. Balt's heart sank slightly; he knew that none of his children had had an easy time at Hogwarts since Topaz's turning, but for Ruby—Topaz's twin, and identical no less—it had been hardest at all. He had been incredibly proud when the Gryffindor had chosen to continue with her schooling, but while he might have allowed her to bow out after her O.W.L.s, dropping out in the midst of a level of study would have been an entirely different matter.

As to the proposition, well! Balthazar was vaguely surprised at how...unsurprised she was.

"Well," he replied as he mulled over this offer, wishing his teacup weren't empty. Though the wizard knew that the life of a debutante was unlikely to be in the offing for any of his daughters, he had not yet had cause to picture Ruby in any one particular area. "Why don't you read for me, then, and let us see if you are truly up to the task."

  

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Her father's answer wasn't an unquestioned yes, which Ruby supposed would have been too easy. Fortune tellers and the like had a bit of a reputation in society, that they stole people's money by telling them lies. Her father probably wouldn't be so supportive of Divination being her best class at Hogwarts if it wasn't for Topaz.

She saw his request as a test of sorts. She nodded her head and picked up his cup and then looked at it with an experienced eye. A part of her still felt silly when she did readings for people who weren't her friends, or Mr. Zabini. A little voice would fill her with doubt that her father didn't truly take her seriously but he listened to her readings out of pity, because their life had been ruined.

"I see a cross," Ruby said. "Right here, see? Crosses signify success, so I suppose whatever you are working on these days will be succesful. Oh!" A certain symbol had caught her attention. "There's a letter inside! A J, but it could be a U, I can't tell." She set the cup down, unable to contain a cheeky smile.

  

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"But what, Balt asked, a wry smile of his own, "does the letter signify? I suppose it must have a different meaning as a U than as a J?"

  

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"Well, not really," Ruby replied. "I suppose - have you met anyone significant with either of those letters in their initials? Otherwise, it could mean that you will meet someone with these letters in their name."

  

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He pondered the question for a long moment. Balthazar did meet quite a lot of people; it was a side effect of working for the Ministry og Magic in a senior capacity. Still, no such recent introductions or acquaintances stood out to him as significant, and so he answered his daughter's question with a shrug before posing one of his own.

"So what, precisely, would this job of yours entail?" he inquired, genuinely curious and doing his best to ensure Ruby did not feel as though she were under a magnifying glass.

  

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The gears if insecurity started moving in Ruby's brain, crafting an assumption that her father was asking that because he didn't believe her future career to be an actual job. This was, in truth, Ruby's own insecurity speaking.

"For starters, things like these," Ruby explained. "Guide people with the tools of our craft - crystal balls, the tarot, tea leaves, astrology. Also - help people better understand themselves by looking into their birth chart. I truly believe that I can help people, Papa. Help them understand themselves, why they are in pain. Why their soul is in pain, if you will." She wanted to be a therapist, basically. "Divination has greatly helped me in understanding myself and my soul and why I was in pain."

  

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He pondered that for a moment.

"I think," Balt corrected himself thoughtfully, "that I rather meant how the job would be executed moreso than what it might entail. For example, I cannot provide the mechanics of my job in the slightest, but as you're aware, I visit the Ministry of Magic each day that I report to work, and as a department head, am also tasked with a certain degree of...of social necessity."

Really, Balt wanted to know if his daughter would become some sort of forest hermit, would be out and about in society, or would risk her reputation by entering the homes of strange men at all hours, but it seemed rather a frank thing to ask outright.

  

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Ruby was somewhat confused of her father's question, though she got the general gist of what he was trying to say.

"Professor Shacklebolt runs her business through her home. Many people who seek her services visit her - kind of like how you'd go to a healer at the hospital if you needed his expertise. I did tell her I want to introduce her to you, so we could pay her a call one of these days? Also-" she paused, fidgeting with her fingers awkwardly. "I have already been offering people postal services, under a pen-name. I made enough to not need my pocket money for my last Hogsmeade weekend, you know." She smiled, visibly proud at herself.

  

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"And would you, too, be working from her home," Balt asked, tone concerned now, "or from ours? I do not think I need to explain my worries towards the latter."

That this was a professor offering home-based services did not escape him: clearly, this Shacklebolt woman must conduct most of her dealings after dusk, which was not a position he relished for his daughter, however gifted she might be in the art of divination.

  

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She had expected for him to be shocked about her offering Divination services via letter, but not for him to not pay attention to it at all. She was washed with disappointment - her father hadn't even noticed that she had made her own money.

"Her home, Papa," Ruby replied somewhat curtly. "As if anyone would come to the werewolf house for a tea leaves reading."

Now she was being snappy and unkind, but her insecurities and her father's seeming lack of support was making her tense.

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   Juliana Ainsworth

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set by MJ

Balthazar pursed his lips. He knew that living with Topaz's shadow over her—and face upon her shoulders—was not easy for Ruby in the least, but he had hoped for a bit more maturity from someone in a discussion about her future.

Especially someone who had seemingly been running a mail-order business for some time without his awareness which seemed, in this moment, a more desirable plan long-term.

"I am only trying," he stated calmly, "to understand fully the nature of the opportunity that has been offered for you. I would ask the same of Sebastian, and indeed did question Delight similarly when she set about joining the Ministry of Magic—though at least in her case, I did understand the nature of her work more readily."

  

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Ruby sighed, which allowed her to calm down a bit. It was understandable for her father to have his doubts about her chosen career. Divination wasn't the most highly esteemed magical art and fortune tellers were considered liars who made their money by selling people bullshit. There had been some notable seers over the years, but they had the exceptional gift of the sight and they lived in time periods where their gifts were more appreciated, like the Pythia in ancient Greece.

"I know that it sounds ridiculous and not like a real job and that a great many deal of people don't take the art seriously," Ruby said. "But that's what I am passionate about and since I'm already knew deep in scandal and ridicule, I might as well allow myself to sink doing what I love. Think of the job as any... Consultational service. People would come to me and pay me so I could give them a service, similarly to how you may go to a solicitor or a healer. As for the people that would make my clientele - I imagine that it will be mostly women, for it is natural to women to seek such silly and frivolous things." She resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "Women who would want to know if the gentleman they set their eyes upon had favourable Venus placements to make a future husband, or who need help naming their child, or who need guidance before making an important decision."

  

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"I do not question the value of your work," he reassured his daughter, "nor your aptitude for it. Perhaps if it had been a service I myself made use of, I would be flubbing this discussion less," Balt conceded with a wry smile.

"You say you will work out of this professor's home. What sorts of hours would you keep? And is this something you would be happier doing then continuing with your mail-order programme?"

  

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