Drive Me Crazy -- Emile

[Irina Rose Krum]

Ripley was in the Hospital Wing, and Irina knew there was one thing she’d want her to do; tell Emile. That of course, would involve talking to Emile, a feat that usually left Irina feeling rather annoyed at the very least. She was sure there was something good about the Beauxbatons Champion deep down, obviously Ripley saw it or she wouldn’t feel that strong pull towards him. She wasn’t entirely sure of their relationship status come to think of it; Ripley had always gotten defensive whenever Irina mentioned Emile in a negative way, but really what had Emile done to change her mind about him? He’d won the First Task yes, but if anything that had only inflated his ego. Irina didn’t really understand how someone so in love with themselves could possibly make room for another person, but Ripley seemed to think it was possible, and Ripley was her main concern right now. It was a change from her broken relationship always being on her mind, and Irina at least was somewhat glad for the distraction, even if it came in the form of her comatose sister.

Irina made her way across the lawn towards the Beauxbatons carriage; it was a chilly day with a rather gusty wind, so she drew her winter cloak tighter to her and threw her hood up over her dark hair. As she reached the carriage, she paused for a moment, mentally preparing herself for the impending interaction. She knocked on the door and asked to speak with Emile immediately. The boy let her in and Irina let her hood fall back as she waited for the other boy to appear.

@emile

[Deleted]

Irina Rose Krum

Just another cold, frigid January day. The last few weeks had been dreadfully boring. Most of it consisted of a few classes here and there from the Beauxbatons professors that had decided to tag along for the tournament, as well as sitting in on some of the Hogwarts classes. As for the remainder of the time? It was spent sitting in the carriage because it was too cold to do anything else outside. There were occasional days where flying around on the pitch was a reasonable idea; he had heard that earlier in the day had been quite nice for it. Hopefully there were a few people that decided to get out and zoom around. Émile, on the other hand, had the sinking suspicion that leaving the carriage during the day would mean missing out on information for the next task of the tournament. He only departed from it when he needed food or wanted to pick up more books from the library, seeing as those were the only things even remotely intriguing enough to catch his interest anymore. Aside from other students, of course.

Émile was just settling down into his favorite chair in the carriage, one that he had laid claim to after becoming their school champion, when he was interrupted by one of his peers. Apparently there was someone, a Hogwarts girl, looking for him and she was at the door. That typically meant it was one of two people; Ripley or Lyla. He wouldn’t mind either right now, since Ripley would be an endless amount of surprise and increasing fun, whereas Lyla always provided a prime subject to poke over and over again. He was well aware of how she thought of him, and it was quite funny to see the frustration continue to grow. The matter with the arraigned marriage didn’t seem to be clearing up as fast as he had hoped either, and he was sure there would be more insistence from both of their families sooner or later.

Setting the book he was reading down on the table next to the chair, Émile swung himself out of the chair and sauntered up to the door of the carriage. To his surprise, it was neither Ripley nor Lyla, but Irina Krum. Now that was definitely an interesting appearance. He hadn’t the faintest idea why she would suddenly show up on his front door step. Unless it was to try and get him to stop seeing her sister. He could see that being a relatively good reason. Looking her up and down, and slightly behind her a little, Émile frowned. “Where’s your Durmstrang friend? Dave was it? I quite liked him, though he was a little clingy if you asked me. Always hanging on to you…” Émile grinned. He was well aware of what happened to Dave. Irina had never given him a chance in the last few months to explain himself, so letting her do so on his turf wasn’t going to happen. “So what can I do for you today Miss Krum? As long as it’s not to ask me to leave your sister alone or throw the tournament for your school’s champion.” He was quick to add, knowing that the former was more possible than the latter.

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina wanted to try and...like was too strong of a word, but tolerate Emile. Really, she did.  Or at least that's what she told Ripley.  Of course part of it was to appease the look her little sister gave her when she spoke of Emile, but part of her wanted to actually try to get to know the other side of the boy who had stolen Rip's heart.  So she held back an eyeroll as he sauntered into the entrance space of the carriage.  "Emile," she greeted stiffly with a small incline of her head.  As he opened his mouth, she wondered what witty snarky quip would come out of his mouth....oh.  Oh, that was a low blow.  But what else could she have expected from Emile.  "His name is Daniel, and when two people share a love for each other they spend time together.  You know, like the time you spend in front of the mirror," she snarked back, narrowing her eyes at him.  "Not that it is any of your business, but he went back to Durmstrang," she told him.   She realized that the statements contradicted themselves, and rolled her eyes.  "Daniel's more in touch with his emotions than most people are; all the hormones running around here were...a lot to handle," she said carefully.  More in touch with his emotions was an understatement of course as Dan was an empath, but Emile did not need to know that, and nor did he NEED to know that.


"If I could convince Ripley to not see you anymore that would quite literally make my year, but alas she is far too stubborn for me," Irina said airily, then raised a brow at his second quip.  "I doubt I'd need to ask you to throw anything; you got lucky with that manticore, some day Chevalier your luck will run out."  She rolled her shoulders back a little; Merlin even being around him for five minutes made her tense.  "I heard the manticore got out by the way and is loose in the forest," she added glancing out the window towards the Forest.  She knew her former classmate Finn had been attacked by it the other night, but she hadn't heard if it had been recaptured or not yet; either way it was a nice dangling piece of information for the boy in front of her.  "I could get straight to the point and tell you why I'm here, but I think I'll enjoy a guessing game first.  Why do you think we're here?" she asked him, hands on her hips.


@emile

[Deleted]

Irina Rose Krum

Émile was well aware that the jab he had just made about Irina’s little lovebird friend was going to illicit a negative response. He really didn’t care. He had tried to like her, but she hadn’t really done a good job reciprocating those feelings from the start. The motivation for her viciousness still hadn’t been made apparent to him yet, and he wasn’t too fond of asking Ripley why either. He always assumed that the Krums would be the only ones to really understand what being a champion was like, seeing as their father had been one in both the tournament and on the Quidditch Pitch. “I’m quite aware of what people in love do, though I’m sure you’d like to see that time I spend with Ripley cut back drastically,” Émile responded back rather nonchalantly. Feeding her fire wasn’t going to get him anywhere, only make his inevitable victory drag out. He snorted at the mirror comment. The carriage did have rather nice mirrors. “I prefer seeing my picture in the newspapers. Reaches a wider audience.” As for Dave, or Daniel, whatever the Durmstrang’s name was, Émile still didn’t care at all. “Well I’m glad he figured out what he wanted. And what he didn’t.”

He nodded his head in agreement as Irina mentioned that Ripley was stubborn. That had been made rather apparent from the first time they met. But that was also one of her better qualities. Apparently her own sister couldn’t see that. “Did it now? That’s too bad. He was really the only competition I had in that entire task. Maybe they’ll put him in the next one as well. For laughs, you know?” Émile had desperately wanted to finish the manticore off for good, but that would have wasted time. The first task was still a race, and he had wasted plenty of time taking the beast down. He was positive that the other two champions would have died if they went up against it, considering that they looked like hell at the end of it. What had they run into? Slugs and spiders? Those were rather pedestrian. He climbed a tree that should have sapped all of his magic, ran through a wall of fire, confronted himself, and defeated a manticore. All with relative ease too. “A game? Well I’m pretty good at those, if you haven’t heard.” He smirked, folding his arms across his chest as he thought about what would bring Irina down to the carriage. “It wasn’t to tell me about Dave, and if it was about me leaving Ripley alone you would have said that already. Don’t tell me it’s that?” He said, acting surprised. “You can’t possibly be in love with me too, could you? No, no I don’t think that’s it.” At this point, Émile just wanted her to tell him, but he was sure that would ruin the surprise. “Did your champion off herself on accident? Because I’m sure I could beat Greyback in a one on one, no problem.”

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina didn't bother to hide her eyeroll this time as Emile retorted back that she would like to see them spend less time apart.  "Well at least we can agree on one thing," she said dryly.  His next comment though made Irina's hands curl into fists; she was rather glad that he couldn't see them hiding in her pockets.  He was looking for a rise out of her; Ripley was quick to temper as was Nikolai.  Irina swallowed and took a deep breath.  She felt a little bit calmer, but the sooner she got out of Emiles' presence the better.  "I highly doubt you need a picture in a newspaper to inflate that rather large head of yours," she retorted back, scoffing slightly.  Why hadn't the manticore just stung him and gotten it over with?

"You realize not every Task is going to be a race?  My father had three very different Tasks he had to combat when he was Champion.  Don't expect them to always play to your strengths...or luck, in your case," Irina mockingly warned him.  It was true, the First Task of her fathers' tournament had been sequential; only the Third Task had been any sort of race.  "Anna is fine, thank you very much.  Your Beauxbatons comrade has seen to that actually.  Too bad someone with a soul couldn't have been named Champion of your school," she said, her tone rather smug.  She was happy that Anna had found someone who loved and cherished her like Oscar did, but she highly doubted Emile would understand that.  "You know, five minutes with you feels like an hour so I'll just come out with it.  You can go spend time with Ripley, but she won't answer you."  She paused, letting it sink in for a moment.  "Rip's stubborn streak fought against her yesterday; she was out on the Quiditch Pitch with a Bludger but no Beater, the Bludger hit her."  Irina's tone softened slightly.  "She's in a coma, and I knew she'd want you to know, so that's why I came here to suffer through your insolence," she finally added, looking away from him as she bit her lip from trying not to get upset.


@emile

[Deleted]

Irina Rose Krum

“You know, I’ve noticed that my head has looked slightly larger lately. I think someone may have cast an enlarging charm on it,” Émile mused to himself, purposely deflecting Irina’s attempt to mock him. He knew what his ego was like. He knew himself better than anyone else did. Trying to one up him there was asking for a myriad of self-deprecation just to prove that he wasn’t fazed by any of it. Irina decided to continue on her rant of rather obvious statements, next listing off the fact that the tasks wouldn’t all be like the first one. No kidding. Émile had already spent all his time before the first task researching what the past tournaments were like, and what the chances of repeat tasks would be. The maze definitely hadn’t screamed that it deserved a second shot in the tournament, but apparently the organizers decided it would be worth a shot, seeing as the last one ended with an idiot getting killed. “Really? I wasn’t aware of that. Guess my advisor forgot to mention that before skipping town. Not that she missed much,” he shrugged. It had worried him at first that she left and he wasn’t assigned anyone else, but at the same time he liked to think that he was handling the press and other problems fairly well on his own. Most of the research he had done was basically what she was supposed to be doing anyways.

“Who’s Anna?” Émile asked, fully knowing who the girl was, but still hoping to get more of a rise out of the Krum girl. “As for other potential Beauxbatons, well,” he looked around to make sure his classmates weren’t within earshot, not that he cared anyways. “There was only ever one choice, and we all knew it was me. Why do you think they cheer for the other schools? Because they’re mad that they were wrong and I was right,” he raised his arms up as he shrugged again. “Truth hurts, unfortunately.” Their attitudes definitely hadn’t been encouraging in the slightest since the announcement was made about the tournament. Émile knew he was right though: he was the only potential champion from Beauxbatons. The rest failed on fundamental levels of competiveness and sheer willpower. And that was exactly why they were mad. That and because he was right once again. Having to admit that he knew what he was talking about severely drained them of support. Émile didn’t need it though because their hearts wouldn’t be there.

Irina’s next slew of statements didn’t really make sense on their own, but by time she finished talking, Émile found himself silently seething at her. It wasn’t because of how she explained it, but rather that she had decided to play this little game of personally attacking him instead of getting to the real issue at hand. “That’s disgusting, you know that,” Émile found himself saying before thinking any of it through. “Using your own sister’s injury to find time to try and mock me.” He was fine with the fact that he completely contradicted himself with the earlier statements, but he also didn’t know about Ripley’s state. Irina did. And here she was, wasting time criticizing him for being himself. She should have known better than that. “At least you had the decency to come and tell me, in all my insolence.” Émile pulled his wand from his pocket, silently summoning his jacket. He was going straight up to the hospital wing as soon as Irina moved out of his way.

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina's eyes darkened at Emile telling her she had some 'nerve' to play games with him before telling him about her sisters injury.  Was he for real?  Was he actually accusing her of playing on his insolences before telling him the real reason why she was here?  Did he not realize that all he had to do was ask why she was there, no insults involved, and she'd already be back in Gryffindor Common Room and he by Ripley's side.  Or wherever he wanted to be, frankly at this point she didn't care.  "You want people to do the right thing for you Emile?  Maybe you should stop acting like a prat and then they will," she snapped at him, uncrossing her arms to place her hands at her hips.  "What do you expect Emile?  You enter the room like you're the King of the Universe and take a shot at my ex-boyfriend, yet you expect me to treat you with respect?  You need to earn that before you get that from me," she retorted, her voice rising ever so slightly.  She scoffed, shaking her head as she looked away.

When she finally looked back, her eyes were still blazing but she was just a smidge less angry.  "I sometimes question Ripleys' judgement, especially when it comes to you.  You come here to Hogwarts, thinking that you own the place, and the Goblet selecting you champion really didn't do much for that ego trip.  You're rude and incosiderate of other peoples feelings.  And still, Ripley sees something on you.  She is the reason I granted you this courtesy visit today Emile.  Don't think for a second it's because I like you."  With that, Irina spun on her heel and exited the carriage.


@emile

[Deleted]

Irina Rose Krum

Émile stayed silent, staring at Irina as she went on insulting him for who he was. Not like he could help that. It was too late to make a complete personality change to what people wanted him to be like. At that point, he was just another zombie to society, exactly like everyone else at this school. He had managed to reason with himself that those that had fun and did what they wanted to were the only ones that seemed to draw negative comments from others. What was so wrong with doing what he wanted to and being his own person? Apparently his ‘personality’ and ‘ego’ were both negatives in everyone else’s eyes, but Émile failed to see that. It wasn’t his fault that he was great; he just was. Getting hung up on his greatness meant that others would fail on their own fronts. If only they could realize that. Constantly trying to bring him down and beat him wasn’t going to benefit them in any way. At least the other champions seemed to understand that philosophy, which was practically the only positive trait he could attribute to them.

“I don’t need your respect,” Émile finally stated. He didn’t need it, nor did he expect to earn it from Irina in the first place. He knew the Krum family dynamics from talking to Ripley; he understood what they were like. Irina’s monologue only served to prove what Ripley had told him, how there was a lack of trust from her older sister. How could Irina expect Ripley to grow and be who she wanted to be if she was constantly criticizing her for the decisions she made? It was like she was one of those hover parents. Émile let it go for now though, because there were more important things at hand. By the time his summoned jacket reached his hands, Irina was already turning to leave, lashing out her distaste for him one last time before walking out. “The feelings is mutual,” Émile muttered to himself as he pulled the jacket on. Stepping out of the carriage, he broke into a jog so that he could get up to the hospital wing as fast as possible. Irina had only slowed him down from his current objective.

[THE END]