sometimes the best way out is through [irina]

[Deleted]

Xan had spent the first month in the hospital wing counting how many days she had been inside of it. Somewhere around day 45 she had given up; it was more depressing than it was helpful. Instead, she had started counting the days since she had last received a visit from someone other than Hugo or a member of her family. Right now, the total was at eleven. Xan understood, she really did - most of the people she knew were busy with class, and since the Champions for the Triwizard Tournament had been announced two days before, a lot of people were busy congratulating Hugo's cousin and offering to help her and the like. Xan regretted that she hadn't been able to interact with many of the foreign students, but considering that her excursions outside of the hospital wing were to go to club meetings or, occasionally, the library or Muggle Studies class, Xan didn't have much of a way to run into anyone. She didn't have much of a way to talk to other people in the school, either, since she felt ridiculous writing a letter to someone she could just as easily walk to. Well, could have just as easily walked to if she wasn't sick all the time. Instead, Xan had to rely on other people to come to her, which wasn't working out so great.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina had a spontaneous free period - the Transfiguration professor had been taken ill, so she had a full hour before her next class. She wandered the halls, knowing everyone was in class still, and as she walked past the Hospital Wing, she stopped. Xanthippe Meagle, the girl who she’d met at Madam Malkins over the summer had been taken ill earlier in the year and was currently housed in the Hospital Wing. Irina knew that Hugo had obviously been to visit several times, as well as her siblings, but she wondered if anyone else was visiting her too. Thinking it must be lonely in there, Irina found herself pushing open the door to the Hospital Wing. She walked towards Xan’s bed and stopped, giving the girl a small smile. “Hi Xanthippe, I don’t know if you remember me, we met in the robe shop earlier this year? Irina,” she said.

@xanthippe

[Deleted]

Xan heard the door to the hospital wing open, but she was no longer able to make the assumption that she was the one that someone would come to visit. There were other beds in the wing that were occupied. Not that she minded, of course, but Xan knew that even when everyone else had vacated their beds, she would still be there. The Ravenclaw was pleasantly surprised to find that the visitor came to her bed. Irina Krum, who Xan had met over the summer, seemed to have decided to come visit her. “Yes, of course I remember.” Xan said, giving Irina a winning, if not somewhat tired. “How have you been? Are you looking forward to making some use of your dress robes, now that you know what they’re for?” The Yule Ball would be happening as a celebration for the Triwizard Tournament, and Xan assumed that the older girl would be going. Xan couldn’t go, unless she made some miraculous recovery before Christmastime, but that didn’t matter. As long as everyone else had a good time, she’d be happy.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina smiled with a sense of relief as Xan confirmed she remembered her. She wouldn’t blame the girl if she didn’t of course; she’d been through Hades and back the past few months. She couldn’t imagine just how awful it had been for her. But she doubted Xan wanted to talk of her illness; she was sure everyone else talked about it to a point that drove the younger Ravenclaw crazy. “I am yes. My boyfriend was very sweet and officially asked me to the Yule Ball the other day,” she said, with a small laugh. It was still exciting to call Dan her boyfriend, even though when they started dating it had felt like the one thing she’d been missing in her life was finally hers.

“Speaking of boyfriends, Hugo was the one to let me know you were back. He said you’ve been painting again?” she asked curiously. Xan had mentioned her painting at Madam Malkins, but she imagined her illness had possibly caused a snag in her muse. “What do you like to paint?” she asked her.


@xanthippe

[Deleted]

Xan smiled at Irina when the older girl said that her boyfriend asked her to the Yule Ball. That was so nice of him. It was wonderful to see people in love, and know that they could make it to Christmas together, and maybe even the rest of their lives, if that was what they both wanted. What had started out as a happy thought had somehow morphed into something that made Xan unbearable sad, and she continued to prop the smile on her face when Irina continued on to say that Hugo had told her she was painting again. Irina asked what she liked to paint, and Xan shrugged. “I used to like to paint the world.” She said. “But now that kind of makes me sad, because I spend my time wondering if I’m ever going to get to see it all for real.” Copying photographs from books with her own stylistic twist was all well and good, but Xan yearned for something like her family vacation to New Zealand, where she hadn’t been able to stop painting because everything was so beautiful. “I paint people now, mostly.” Xan said to distract from her melancholy. “I could paint you, if you’d like.” Xan had enough pictures of Hugo to fill a house, it felt like, so having a new model would be a welcome change.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina gave the girl a sympathetic smile. She didn't know too much about the disease of course, Hugo was far too much of a gentleman and good boyfriend to divulge that information to anyone.  That was Xanthippe's story to tell when she wanted to.  "Portrait painting can be therapeutic I think, because you only need to focus on one person, capturing their features on canvas as though to preserve them as they look in that moment forever."  Irina was not an artist; her specialty was stick figure drawings.  But art history, though it did not consume her like regular history, still held a point of fascination to her.  "What kind of portrait work do you do?  Do you go for the classic paint as you see them or do you give maybe a Dali or a Warhol-esque spin to them?" she asked, curious to learn more.  She'd sat for a portrait of the Krum family when she was younger; their mother had wanted a lovely oil canvas painting to hang in their formal living room and her father had relented.  While the painting itself was beautiful, Irina remembered the day clearly; she'd skinned both her knees playing tag with Nikolai outside and had to wear a longer dress to cover it.  She had been so fidgety because the cuts were itchy from the medication put on them that she'd almost ruined the painting.  But now her eight year old self was preserved behind thick oil paints on top of the mantle.


@xanthippe

[Deleted]

Xan nodded when Irina said that she thought portrait painting could be therapeutic. Xan wasn’t exactly in agreement, considering that she spent a portion of her time wondering how many times she had left to see Hugo’s face, but when she forgot about her sickness, it was nice, sometimes, just to have an excuse to stare at Hugo and capture him forever in a world of paints. “I started just doing the classical paintings, but since I have a limited number of models, I’ve started experimenting a little more.” Xan answered. Her first few paintings of Hugo had been him in a variety of poses, but eventually she had exhausted her repertoire of ideas, and had decided to try do a more abstract version of her boyfriend’s face. It wasn’t the best painting that Xan had ever done, since she was just learning the style, but she wouldn’t be averse to trying it again. “You didn’t answer my question.” Xan pushed, even if it had been more of a statement than an actual question of any sort. “Do you want me to paint you?” Realizing she probably sounded a bit abrasive, Xan tried to soften the blow with a few more words. “It doesn’t have to be now – I know you’re busy – but…maybe some other time.” Xan ended lamely. She sounded absolutely desperate for attention, which she felt bad for. Hugo gave her as much of his time as she could, and now she was just being greedy.

Irina Rose Krum