Ruby Cherrytree

Ruby Cherrytree
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Magical Status	Witch
Gender	Female
Hair Colour	Black
Eye Colour	Brown
Occupation	Student Witch
Actress	Joanna Dyce (1998 TV series)

Ruby Cherrytree is a witch and a student at Cackle’s Academy, and one of Mildred’s group of friends. Ruby has an inventive personality, and is the mad scientist of the group. She invents a number of whacky inventions that almost always go wrong. She is very loyal to her friends and keen to learn at Cackle's Academy.

Story

1998 TV Series

In her first year, Ruby helps Mildred pass her flying test. Ruby communicates with Mildred via radio, so Mildred can fly with eyes closed (she’s scared of heights) However, things go awry and Miss Hardbroom discovers their plan and subsequently foils it, But Mildred manages to save herself at the last second, and passes the test.

When Mildred is looking after 'Bonzo', who is Ruby's cyberpet, she forgets to feed it for so long that it dies. During a potion lesson to make the elixir of life, Mildred drops Bonzo into her potion, In an attempt to bring it back to life, which causes the potion to overflow onto the desk and floorboards. They then come to life as trees and destroy the potion laboratory. Bonzo then connects up to the computer system and uses it to hypnotize everyone, to try and help him enslave the world when the system is connected to the Internet. Mildred, Fenella and Griselda save the day with a spell that works on Ruby and Miss Hardbroom and, in the nick of time, Miss Hardbroom saves the day, by fighting Bonzo via computer and destroying him before he can go online.

In her third year, Ruby created a time machine and accidentally brought two Dark Age witches forward in time, who resumed their historic battle in the Academy. It was left up to Mildred and Miss Hardbroom to save the school. She also makes a transportation device which gives the wearer the equivalent of the power Miss Hardbroom has to appear and disappear at will, Except that Hecketty Broomhead tried it on and it went so wrong that she was temporarily paralysed / sent into a trance to use up all the time she saved whizzing about the spells classroom.

For her third year witch project, Ruby teamed up with Jadu and Maud, making a project about finding lost items, and getting them to come to you once you've found them. After some discussion, Mildred joins up with Ruby, Jadu and Maud. For Art week, Enid, Ruby and Jadu create the Heart Detector, which they use to turn Mildred back from a statue. Ruby also competes for Cackle’s team on the Witchy Hour radio show.

Physical Appearance

Ruby is depicted as a very tall African girl with frizzy black hair worn in pigtails.

Ruby with her friends

Abilities and Skills

Ruby is the mad scientist of the group. She invents a number of whacky inventions that almost always go wrong. She is heavily addicted to all kinds of “electronic contrivances” and is therefore a thorn in the flesh of oldfashioned Miss Hardbroom. The amount of headphones, music players, Walkie Talkies, gameboys, cyberpets etc confiscated (and presumably evaporated) by her formteacher is quite impressive. When Ruby first rode a broom, she said that it was like a video game, and that it needed a joystick.

As she gets older, Ruby makes her own mechanical and magical inventions - including a light machine for the Christmas pantomime and a time machine. She also makes a transportation device which gives the wearer the equivalent of the power Miss Hardbroom has to appear and disappear at will. In later years, her matter transportation device becomes successful as one of the evacuated Pentangle students during Hettie's time at Cackles has one.

Ruby enjoys dancing; in A Pig in a Poke she is seen dancing on a table, In Secret Society she leads her friends in dancing, and in Cinderella in Boots she does a dancing act (which Miss Crotchet forbid her from doing earlier).

Relationships

Ruby is friends with Mildred Hubble, Maud Moonshine, Enid Nightshade, and Jadu Wali. Like Jadu, she is often dragged along on whatever crazy crusade Mildred and co. are going on, though there are times when she and Jadu are absent (in the episode The Inspector Calls she and Jadu are completely absent when Mildred, Maud and Enid are trying to stop Mistress Hecketty Broomhead from closing the academy down and the two have only minor roles in the episode Power Drill when Mildred, Maud and Enid are trying to give Miss Drill magic powers).

Trivia

• Ruby Cherrytree, along with Jadu Wali, is a character who doesn't appear in the books, but is introduced in the TV series.
• Ruby Cherrytree’s name in other languages:
   

French: Rubie Cerisier
German: Ruby Kirschenkern - Ruby Cherrystone
Dutch: Rozie Kersenpit
Latin-American: Ruby Cerezo
Czech: Ruby Třešňová

Appearances

• The Worst Witch (1998 TV Series)