In The Same Boat -- Kinsey

[Irina Rose Krum]

Another day, another intensive training course. Irina was pretty sure she may have cracked a rib.  Luckily, she wasn't Potions Club Captain for no reason, so she had small vials of antidote on her that she sipped as she stepped out into the bright June sunlight onto Diagon Alley.  Mercifully, she had been able to avoid Diana Bainbridge during their trainings.  There was of course the fact that they had different mentors, and the Cursebreakers preferred to pair the newbies with their more seasoned people on the job, for better experience. She knew that, inevitably they'd be paired up though, as their trainers were friends and had discussed it multiple times.  Irina was going to have to deal with it, but not today.

Instead, she decided that she was going to treat herself to some ice cream at Florean's.  As she walked towards the shop, she noticed someone very familiar.  A Bainbridge, but not Diana - Kinsey.  She hadn't really spoken to Kinsey in over a year; they had passed each other in the halls at Hogwarts, but other than that, nothing.  She had been on good terms with most of the Bainbridges, until the rift with Diana, where she stopped coming around their house.  She had heard Diana was avoiding Kinsey as well as her, so she supposed they were dealing with the same thing.  What was the harm in saying hello?  "Kinsey?" she called, walking briskly over to the girl.  "Hi," she said, giving her a quick if not slightly awkward hug.  "How are you?" she asked curiously.

@kinsey

[Deleted]

Kinsey was trying to avoid everyone. She didn't really have a reason for that, but Riley was still gone (man, she missed him like crazy) and she'd spent way too much time with her family. She needed some fresh air and time where they couldn't follow her around, even if that meant going into crowds. She still didn't want to be in Diagon Alley in the middle of the day. She'd lose control then, but after the workday was over? That should be fine, right? 

She wasn't entirely sure what she wanted to do in Diagon Alley, but as she made her way through it she saw the ice cream shop and smiled. She could do some ice cream right now. She made her way over, but paused when she heard someone call her name. She turned and her eyebrows furrowed. "Irina?" the girl was in Gryffindor, but was very good friends with Diana. At least, she used to be good friends with her. Come to think of it, Kinsey hadn't seen the two together in a while. She cringed slightly when the girl gave her a hug. Sure, Irina's intentions were fine, but Kinsey didn't like people touching her as a general rule. It made her gift much stronger. "Hi, I'm doing fine. How are you?" she smiled, not really sure why Irina would want to talk to her.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

In an instant, Irina was reminded that Kinsey was not one for physical contact. "Sorry, must have slipped my mind.  I forgot you didn't like hugs all that much," she said with a shy chuckle.  She had learned that quickly one summer while staying over at the Bainbridges; Irina had never been much of a hugger but Diana and she would always get overexcited when they saw each other.  Kinsey happened to be with her once and she had hugged the girl, much to the other ones displeasure.  "I'm doing well, thanks Kinsey.  I just started Cursebreaking....with your sister," she said, her face falling a little bit at the mention of her former best friend.  Kinsey wasn't a daft girl; she probably realized that they had not been seen together in quite some time.  She didn't want to talk about that though, and she doubted the Ravenclaw wanted to either.

"Come on, let's get some ice cream, my treat," she suggested, gesturing into the ice cream store.  They walked in and Irina studied the different flavors of ice cream.  "I'll get....a chocolate fudge sundae, with rainbow sprinkles," she ordered, grinning at the prospect of the mountain of ice cream coming her way.  "And how are you?  How was your past year at Hogwarts?" she asked.  "I'm sorry I didn't see more of you this year....it was a bit of a crazy year, to say the least,"  she added with a wry chuckle.

@kinsey

[Deleted]

It only took a second for Irina to pull away and while Kinsey was relieved about that, she was also a little bit embarrassed about it. She hated that touching people made her so uncomfortable. "You're just fine," she mumbled with a small shrug. She wasn't sure how to respond to Irina, honestly. The girl used to be good friends with Diana, but she hadn't seen her in a while. Basically, Kinsey didn't know what to think. She nodded and smiled while the girl said she was doing well, and then said she was starting Cursebreaking with Diana. Her expression was evidence that things weren't good between the two and Kinsey couldn't help but wonder how long it'd been since that happened. Her eyebrows furrowed and Kinsey spoke before thinking. "What happened with the two of you?" She covered her mouth, blushing from embarrassment. "I'm sorry," she added quickly. "You don't have to answer that. It's none of my business." 

Irina wanted to buy her ice cream and Kinsey nodded and followed her into the shop. "I'll have ... a raspberry sorbet please," she said when it was her turn. Then she turned to face the girl who was treating her to ice cream. She smiled and shrugged a little. "It was good. I mean, the Tournament was interesting and classes went well. There's not really much to say." Except Riley, but Kinsey was positive Irina wouldn't care to know about her love life. The two weren't really good friends, after all. "What about yours? Was your last year all you wanted it to be?"

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina started a bit when Kinsey bluntly asked what happened between her and Diana. She had avoided the topic for so long, that when they had run into each other in the last few weeks of school Irina had almost forgotten why they had stopped being friends in the first place. “She just one day decided she was too good for me, or anyone for that matter,” she finally responded rather stiffly. She sighed a little and sat back. “She just...stopped talking to me; spending all her time with the Ancient Runes professor. She started avoiding me in the halls, not returning my owls over the summer, so I guess I did something that just...turned her off,” she said, taking a tiny scoop of her ice cream and letting it melt in her mouth. “Don’t worry, I would be curious if I were you too. My sisters were certainly wondering why we weren’t hanging out anymore as well,” she explained to her by means of waving off her apology.

Irina nodded; Kinsey had been too young to even enter the tournament, so the year would not have nearly been as eventful for her. “No foreign boy swept you off your feet?” she asked teasingly, then chuckled a bit wrly when Kinsey asked if her year was everything she wanted it to be. “Yes and no,” she admitted truthfully, and busied herself with a bite of her ice cream before deciding how to explain her year to the middle Bainbridge girl. “My brothers best friend came over from Durmstrang to compete for a spot in the tournament, then we started dating, then we broke up and...now we’re back together. But he went back to Germany in January which was...difficult,” she told her, surprised at herself for how much ended up coming out of her mouth.

@kinsey

[Deleted]

Kinsey could tell that Irina was surprised by her question, which was part of the reason she said that the older girl didn't have to answer it. She did though and Kinsey felt her eyes widen as Irina spoke. Diana did that to Irina as well? Why would she push her sister and her best friend away? From the sounds of it, it started happening around the same time, as well. She bit her lip, wanting to say something to let Irina know that it likely wasn't her fault Diana was pushing her away, but feeling like it wasn't her place at the same time. "I ... I don't think it was you," she started, her voice soft. "She pushed me away too. We used to be ... really close, but now she won't even talk to me." And when Diana did talk with her, it was to tell her how annoying she thought Kinsey was. 

Kinsey smiled and shook her head when Irina asked if a foreign boy swept her off her feet. "No, no foreign boy did," she said, trying to not emphasize the word foreign. Then she shrugged, "I'm not really very good at meeting new people," Kinsey admitted, wondering if Irina knew that. She tilted her head to the side curiously when Irina started explaining a bit about her year. Kinsey couldn't entirely hide her surprise, hearing about that story. "I can imagine," she said after Irina finished. "but ... you're back together now? Did he explain why he left?" It really was none of her business, but Irina brought it up, so Kinsey was going to answer her questions. If Irina didn't want to explain it all she didn't have to.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina hesitated when Kinsey asked if he explained why he left. She knew Dan was beginning to open up, and tell people about his empathy, but she didn’t really want to be the one telling everyone about it. That was his secret to tell to whomever he needed to, whenever he needed to. But Kinsey….she had always seemed to know when Irina and Diana were not being entirely truthful when they’d run off together during the summers, so Irina had always been careful to be as truthful as possible around her. “He’s...sensitive to other peoples’ emotions, and he had never been in a relationship before. It just got...too much for him, and he had to go back to Durmstrang,” she explained finally, hoping that that would be enough for Kinsey to understand. “It was...hard, to know he was hurting so much. But he’s better now. We’re betting for it,” she finished, a small smile popping up onto her face. She felt a little silly, but she was back in the honeymoon stage after all. A cautious honeymoon stage, but still honeymoon like.

Irina tilted her head to one side, frowning slightly when Kinsey mentioned Diana had pushed her away too. That was rather odd; Diana had always been close to the middle Bainbridge sister, more than her own twin sometimes. In the back of Rina’s mind, a warning bell was going off, as though something was amiss. “She didn’t get involved in anything dangerous…d’you think?” she asked Kinsey, a wave of concern washing over her. Diana being involved in something that could get her friends or family hurt would explain her behavior over the past year. And she had looked so incredibly helpless that day in the library when she had woken Irina up from her vision. Yes, this would explain plenty, but Irina knew she had to be careful, as she had no idea what Diana was involved in, and just how dangerous it would be.

@kinsey

[Deleted]

Irina didn't want to answer her question and Kinsey found herself slightly intrigued by that. What kind of a secret did she have about her ex-boyfriend? Not that Kinsey was normally so nosy, but she couldn't help it. Irina's story was interesting, especially since she was telling the complete truth. She mentioned that he was sensitive to people's emotions and Kinsey frowned a little bit. That ... sounded very familiar. Actually, she ran into a guy the other day that was an empath ... was there any way he could be the same guy? "Wait, is his name Dan?" she asked. If it was, then it would make complete sense. If Irina was his first girlfriend and he'd still been trying to figure out his emotions ... this made complete sense to her! If it was Dan, that is. "I'm glad things are better now," she said, really meaning it.

Kinsey sensed a little bit of concern coming from Irina when she mentioned how Diana treated her. She shook her head at the girl's question. "I don't know what Diana's doing now, but she's gone to great pains to make sure I stay away from her. She told my ..." she hesitated for a second and then realized se gave herself away, "my boyfriend to keep me away from her. He asked me to let it go, so I'm trying to." The subject still hurt Kinsey's pride, that Diana would tell Riley to keep Kinsey away, but she didn't really want to talk about that. Hopefully Irina wouldn't have more questions. Kinsey didn't want to talk about Diana. "We had a major fight a bit ago and I don't want anything to do with her anymore." Hard as it was to admit, Kinsey was tired of her sister treating her so terribly.

Irina Rose Krum   

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina had to admit she was not expecting Kinsey to know her boyfriend by name; he wasn’t the most sociable person due to his empathy, so the fact that she knew him was pleasantly surprising. “It is yeah, how did you know?” Irina asked with an intrigued curiosity. Most people who had interacted with him at Hogwarts had known him as Irina’s Durmstrang boyfriend before the person, so she was glad there was someone who had the situation flipped. “And thanks, I am too. The gap between was...difficult, I won’t lie, but in the end it made us better and stronger,” she added with a smile. Five months ago her story would have been completely different as she had been a devastated sopping mess when he had first left. Now? Irina really and truly believed it had helped them in the long run.

Irina listened to Kinsey talk about Diana, and the way her older sister had been treating her the past year. Honestly...she was shocked. The Diana she knew, the one who had been her best friend would NEVER have treated Kinsey this way. Sure, siblings had tiffs and disagreements; Irina certainly did with her siblings, but in the end it came down to the love that they had for each other. The Diana the Ravenclaw was describing was like a stranger to Irina, a shade of a person she used to know. The Diana she knew and cared for was gone it seemed, and it felt strangely unsettling. “I think...your boyfriends right Kinsey,” she said softly. “I don’t know what’s going on with your sister, but if it’s enough to cause her to treat us this way, then maybe taking some steps back will be better in the end,” she explained, shrugging and disliking the feeling of being helpless in this situation.


@kinsey

[Deleted]

Kinsey couldn't help but smile when she saw the surprised look on Irina's face. It was an interesting sort of coincidence that she did meet Dan a few days ago, but Kinsey shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "I ran into him the other day at the Leaky Cauldron. We had an ... interesting conversation." Honestly, he helped her calm down after a fight with Diana, which was something she didn't really expect anyone but Riley to be able to do. Dan was different though. He understood, better than most people could. She nodded when Irina explained the difficulties, but that things were better now. "I'm glad," Kinsey said, unsure whether or not there was anything she really should say.

Now Irina face showed her shock, and Kinsey was a little surprised at how easy it was to see, but at least she was expecting it this time. Out of all the people that were once friends with Diana, Irina knew her sister well enough to know how close the two sisters once were. Her reaction to Kinsey's admission was simply more evidence that something was wrong with Diana, that she changed and not for the better. Kinsey nodded when Irina said she thought Riley was right and Kinsey tensed, waiting for the other girl to ask about her boyfriend, but she didn't. She continued talking about Diana and Kinsey was grateful. "I know and I am distancing myself. It's just ... so weird after how close we used to be. I keep thinking that one of these days she'll go back to the girl she was, but I don't think she will." The Diana Kinsey knew was gone, which saddened her more than she wanted to say.

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina laughed. “I can only imagine,” she said, her eyes crinkling fondly as she smiled. The new Daniel Hoh actually spoke to other people and was more open about his special ability than he ever used to be. Before this summer, Irina was pretty certain he had told….maybe four or five people total throughout the course of his life, and that included his family. She didn’t think anyone had been suspicious, necessarily, but more that he was just attuned to when people were feeling emotional. But now, if he was being more open about it, well then she was glad for him. It wasn’t like his ability was bad, just sometimes difficult to manage. “Thank you,” Irina replied with a nod; there was not much more to say than that.

The former Gryffindor’s heart broke a little for Kinsey as the younger girl admitted she was just waiting for Diana to go back to the way she used to be, but knew deep down that was never going to happen. “Never say never,” Irina told her gently, not in a reprimanding way. There was nothing wrong with holding onto hope, even if it was the faintest glimmer of one. Without hope, what did one really have? Perhaps Diana would be free of whatever demons she was battling in a year, or five, or even fifty; Irina would always have hope that it would one day happen. “So...boyfriend eh?” she said after a few moments, a half smile playing at her lips.

@kinsey

[Deleted]

Irina laughed and Kinsey shrugged a little. It made sense that Irina could imagine the kind of interesting conversation she'd had with Daniel, but at the same time it didn't, but that was because of Kinsey's ability. Very few people knew about it, so there was no idea that Irina would know she and Daniel had talked about that, among other things. Still, maybe Daniel often had strange/interesting conversations with people and that was what Irina was talking about. She had no idea, but didn't really want to talk about it. Talking about her conversation with Daniel would bring her close to talking about her ability, which she didn't want to do.

Kinsey bit her lip when the older girl told her not to say never. The thing was, Irina couldn't sense Diana's intentions. She didn't know how dangerous Diana felt that day when Riley kept Kinsey from going to her sister. That was not the Diana that Kinsey knew and she had a feeling that she'd lost her sister. A part of her wanted to fight that and believe in Diana, but how was that possible when all Diana wanted to do was push her away? Still, Irina was just trying to help and Kinsey forced a smile and nodded. Then Irina's tone was curious as she echoed Kinsey's mention of her boyfriend. Kinsey started to blush furiously and she nodded. "Yeah. His name is Riley Fudge," she watched Irina's face, trying to see if the girl recognized the name. "We started dating in April." She didn't know how much she was supposed to tell the other girl. Honestly, she'd never been in a relationship before and didn't know how to talk about it with others, period. 

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Hm, Fudge; that last name sounded familiar to Irina, and it wasn’t because it was a type of chocolate. “Riley Fudge, any relation to the old Minister Cornelius Fudge?” she asked curiously. She was quite sure that Fudge had had children, but there wasn’t much mention of them in the history books. He had after all gone down as the Minister who refused to acknowledge Voldemort’s return for a full year before being fired for suppressing it. “Hang on, I think I remember him a bit, Ravenclaw like you, right?” she added onto her initial question. She hadn’t had much interaction but she had spotted him in the library a fair few times, if her assumption was correct.

Irina felt that the conversation wasn’t heading in a direction that Kinsey necessarily wanted to go; they were trailing perilously close to Diana and whatever had happened between the two sisters. She assumed it had happened after Diana had broken ties with her as she would have heard about it before now. “So you’ll be the eldest Bainbridge this coming school year, yeah? That must be an odd realization,” she said. She knew she needed to head back home shortly; she had made dinner plans with her sisters. She just didn’t want to seem rude towards Kinsey, whom despite their limited interactions she did like.

@kinsey

[Deleted]

Irina was asking a little bit about Riley and Kinsey didn't mind. She liked talking about him, though she sometimes wondered if she was grinning like an idiot when she did. It's just ... Riley made her happy and so did talking about him. "Yeah, I think so ... his grandfather, maybe?" Kinsey wasn't exactly sure, but she did know he was a pureblood and so was the old minister, so logically she assumed he was. She smiled and nodded when Irina said she might remember him. "Yeah, he is in Ravenclaw. My year. We never really talked or anything before, but this spring we just kind of connected." Kinsey shrugged, hoping Irina wouldn't judge her for it. She didn't really expect the girl to, but was on the defensive. She felt like that a bit lately, though she didn't really have a reason for it.

The older girl changed the subject and Kinsey exhaled a relieved sigh. She didn't mind talking, but she didn't want to talk about her sister and was glad Irina didn't seem to want to either. She nodded, "Yeah, I'll be the oldest at school." Kinsey thought a moment and then shrugged, "I mean, I knew it was coming. I guess I'll see this fall how different it is, you know? Are you ready for work and training for Cursebreaking and everything, now that you've graduated?" 

Irina Rose Krum

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina nodded when Kinsey confirmed Riley’s grandfather had been Minister; that was why she had heard of his name before. She noticed Kinsey light up as she talked about her boyfriend, and she couldn’t help but let a small smile sweep across her face. Merlin could she understand what Kinsey had gone through with Riley this year. “Funny enough, I completely understand that,” she said, cocking her head to one side. “Daniel is my older brothers’ best friend, so I never really thought of him as much else. That was, until this summer when we started connecting again. One thing sort of led to another and…” Irina spread her arms out, palms facing up and shrugged. “Things always happen for a reason, and although my brother was...not exactly throwing us a congratulatory party when he found out, eventually he came round.” She didn’t know how Kinsey’s hoard of siblings felt about Riley and had a feeling she shouldn’t ask; she knew how some of them could get. “Dan and I are soulmates; nothing that makes me feel the way I do with him should stop that,” she said simply yet firmly, truly believing what she said.

Noting the change of subject, Irina went with the flow. “I am yes, I have a great mentor in the Cursebreaking program, Karen Dunstan. I’ve wanted to do this for years now so the fact that it’s now a reality…” she trailed off, not being able to quite find the right words. “It’s everything I imagined and more,” she finally said with a smile. “Have your thoughts turned toward what you’d like to do in a years time?” she asked in return, looking curiously at Kinsey.

@kinsey