"And now that I've given you guidance, I'd like for you to return the favour, Papa."

Her voice had been trembling at the second part of her sentence, for all that she had tried to pass it in a joking manner. She kept her eyes on her hand-painted Tarot deck, which she had spread to give a reading to her father. It was a small father-daughter bonding activity and Ruby was sure that her father didn't think highly of her hobby, being a scholarly man himself. He probably wished she had more academic interests, like a passion for magical theory or advanced human transfiguration. Instead, he had a daughter who squandered away her opportunity of seven full years at Hogwarts, only for her best class to be Divination.

It should have been Topaz, out of the two twins, to finish Hogwarts with NEWTs.

"I'd like to do something... useful, like Delight*. I couldn't possibly do something like this" she gestured at her cards. "Seriously... When I am out of Hogwarts. How did you know what you wanted to do?"

She kind of wished that Balthazar wasn't the sort of progressive father to allow his daughters to seek professions and do something more than marry and raise children, if they wished to do so. She didn't deserve to have such a father. She deserved to have a father who would see her for the useless person that she was and marry her off, because Ruby felt that was all she was good enough for.

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set by MJ