For Whom the Bell Tolls -- Grey

[Irina Rose Krum]

The moment Tatiana had mentioned potentially writing for the student newspaper about Quidditch, the gears in Irina’s brain began to whir frantically. She didn’t mind being the only Krum sibling to not go professional in the sport, but she also heartily believed in the back-up plan. If her vision of Ripley came true, whether now, in a few months, or even when she was on a professional team, she didn’t want either of them to feel helpless if they couldn’t play the game. Tania would want experience in writing of course, just to get her feet wet; in Irina’s very limited experience when it came to writing, practice either made or break your desire to progress in the field. That, and also knowing the right person to get an “in” with, which Irina did happen to know. It had been about a month since she had cured Grey Slater of his frantic love potioned obsession with Ondina Weasley, a state that had confused and befuddled many people. Now, Irina didn’t ever want to think that people owed her a favor. But Grey had a little bit of a fanboy obsession with her father, and she did help him out with Potions. Testing out Tania’s writing skills would also put him in a mentorship spot with the youngest Krum child, which she knew her father would appreciate.

Irina had eaten dinner on the later side, so she hadn’t seen Grey around; after she finished she got up from the Great Hall and made her way up to the Gryffindor Tower, where she was hoping to find her fellow seventh year. Fortunately, to her luck, she spotted Grey sitting by the fire as she crawled through the portrait hole. “Grey!” she called out, making her way over to him with a friendly smile. She sat down and folded her hands in front of her. “How are things with you?” she asked; she figured a tiny bit of small talk wouldn’t hurt too much before she asked for the favor. Besides, she’d seen him dancing away with their former housemate Rai at the Yule Ball, but knew she had also left for some far off country not too long after. She hoped he wasn’t too crushed by that.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

Irina Rose Krum

And he managed to sleep through dinner once again. At least he was getting some kind of sleep these days, rather than none like it used to be. Having realized that dinner was pretty much finished by time he stumbled out of whatever room it was he had napped in, Grey headed back to the common room. Luckily he had snagged some extra food at lunch, knowing that this was a possibility. Free afternoons like today always ended up with him missing important things. Yawning as he stepped through the portrait and into the common room, he was glad to see that he was the only Gryffindor back so far. That meant everyone else was either bust still or eating and he could have the common room to himself. Monopolizing the couch in front of the fireplace, which had been laid claim to by Lily as of late, he kicked his feet up and closed his eyes again. The soft crackle of the fire was lovely when nobody else was around to disturb it. Usually the only time that ever happened was in the wee hours of the morning. Only he and the students that studied like crazy were ever awake at that point, in which case one could bet it was deadly quiet. Just the way he liked it.

The peace and quiet didn’t last long, and he didn’t really expect it to, knowing that dinner was virtually over at this point. A slow trickle of students came in over the next few minutes, most either chatting quietly or moving on to their dorms for the rest of the night. He was thinking of doing the same, at least crashing on his bed until the common room cleared out and he could take the couch all to himself once again. His roommates did a pretty good job ignoring him for the most part as well. Before he could be bothered to go through with that plan though, he heard his name called out. He turned in time to see Irina sit down next to him on the couch. Now he was stuck here for a while longer. “Things have been…good.” He was sure she meant about the love potion thing. As far as he knew, Ondina was done with her game and he was home free. “Should have seen the look on her face when I finally told her about it. I’ll never forget it,” he laughed quietly, so not as to draw too much attention to their conversation. He still wanted to keep all of that to as few people as possible.

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina could tell that Grey was half asleep, the boy did seem to have a habit of sleeping through things, whether it be Potions class or dinner.  "Do you ever sleep through the night?" she asked him, half joking.  When her visions weren't deciding to bother her in the wee hours of the morning, Irina usually woke feeling well rested, and was on time for things.  She laughed at his comment of Ondina's face.  "I heard it all went down at the Yule Ball, she must have been so mad that you got de-Potioned," she said with a small smirk.  She had no idea if Grey had discovered the reason behind Ondina's selection of him over anyone else in the entire school, Beauxbatons and Durmstrang included, but if he had and didn't want to tell her, that was his business.  Still, she had rather wished she could have been a fly on the wall for that conversation, only because she had assisted in curing him.

Irina cleared her throat; down to business.  "I am not bothering you to make idle chatter, I promise," she said with a small smile.  "I was talking to my sister the other day - Tania, not Ripley.  She was throwing out ideas of post-Hogwarts careers, all obviously involving Quidditch.  She mentioned possibly writing about Quidditch for the Daily Prophet."  She paused, pretty sure Grey would catch on rather quick on what she was getting at.  "Basically, I wanted to see if you'd meet with her about possibly doing some sportswriting for the student newspaper, you know, to get her feet wet.  She has a couple of ideas that I think would be an interesting addition to the paper."  She stopped talking again, and leaned back, crossing her arms over her chest.  "What do you think?" she asked him.


grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

Irina Rose Krum

Sleeping through the night, what a grand concept. If only he had thought about it before. Grey made sure to keep those thoughts to himself though, sarcasm and philosophical talks usually coming out of him when he was deprived of sleep. “Sometimes. But being awake at night means I don’t have to deal with people.” He shrugged his shoulders, stifling back another yawn. “I don’t think I quite shattered the ice queen’s heart, but she’ll have second thoughts about messing with me in the future.” Or she would double her efforts in an attempt to really get back at him. Grey was still positive that this had to do with him breaking the deal with her little pet, Theodosia. In a different reality, Grey would have readily risked expulsion for wiping the smug grin off that girl’s face when she backed him into that. At the rate both Ondina and her friends were going though, maybe he’d have the chance once he became an auror. Revenge would be sweet.

The conversation didn’t stay on his release from Ondina’s clutches though, instead switching to something about one of her sisters possibly writing for the school newspaper. Grey nodded his head as she talked, somewhat making sense of it all as he struggled to keep his eyes open. “I’m just repeating this for my sake – your youngest sister, Tania, is interested in possibly writing and reporting on Quidditch, so you want me to meet with her about possibly joining the paper?” He was pretty sure that was all of it. What a catch that would be, a Krum child writing about Quidditch matches at school and then for the Daily Prophet after graduating, all because he took her on in his final year as editor-in-chief. For the most part, he had been the one to write the articles on matches and passing it on to someone that actually played the game, and had the genes for it, was definitely a plus for the newspaper. “What year is she? Only reason I ask is because I’d need to put her under someone for a while, at least until she gets a grasp on how the paper works. That and throwing her on as the Quidditch match reporter would rub a lot of the current members the wrong way. Seniority and whatnot.”

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina shrugged noncommittally when Grey mentioned being able to avoid talking to people by staying up late at night.  "That works until you need to interview people for the newspaper," she pointed out, raising a brow.  "I'm sure the Champions interview was interesting enough, unless a certain Beauxbatons prattled on about himself," she added, smirking a little despite herself.  For Ripley's sake she really did try and see any good in Emile, but he kept on putting his own foot in his mouth.  She remembered her conversation with him when Ripley had been injured and resisted the sudden strong urge to roll her eyes.  Merlin, did he know how to push her buttons.

Irina's smile widened as Grey repeated back what she said; she knew he was interested.  "Yes, exactly right," she confirmed.  "Tan's a fifth year, so she's still got two years to go here.  Plenty of time for someone to take her under his or her wing and give her some writing pointers," she explained, sounding conversational. She hesitated for a moment, then continued.  "She actually had an idea for an article having to do with the seventh years hoping to be Quidditch professionals after the year is out.  We both attended the tryouts, so she knows who was there.  She likes the idea of interviewing the other school kids who tried out too - to get an international perspective."  Irina stopped speaking and laughed.  "It sounds a lot better coming from her, trust me.  Plus if anything Tania could only cover Slytherin versus Ravenclaw since she really has no personal stakes in that match," she added.   She waited for Grey to answer, watching him expectantly.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

Irina Rose Krum

“We would have all been better off if he had been squished by that manticore,” Grey muttered. They hadn’t gotten on with each other during the initial champion interviews in November, and it had only continued to get worse each time another one needed to be conducted. He had to hand it to the guy though, besting a manticore the way he did was rather incredible, and while Grey had initially thought he was all talk, the French boy was certainly capable at completing the tasks. The real question was whether he was actually talented or lucky. Grey was starting to think it was the former, but the real test would be to see if that continued over into the second task, whatever that would entail. “Believe me, being tired means I don’t have to listen to his idiocy as he keeps going on. I’m amazed the Prophet twisted his words to make it seem like he was a decent human being.”

He closed his eyes as he listened to Irina confirm what he had asked about, and then continue on about the plan that her sister had for the paper. They always needed more writers, or at the least, ones with more passion for what they were writing about. Like Lyla with the advice column, or his other members that were better at hard hitting journalism over recounting some kind of event that occurred. Any one could do the simple stuff and original ideas were sometimes hard to come by. This one was definitely unique in its own way, and was a relatively easy concept to repeat year after year. “I wouldn’t be too concerned about recounting matches. A good writer would know to be objective. Obviously the one kink in this is that she plays Quidditch. I’m not opposed to having a player doing this, but the time commitment alone for practice and matches might conflict with playing.” Especially if she wanted to only focus on the sport. It was one thing if she was doing a little bit piece every other week for the paper, but intense interviews and match results was going to take a lot of time on top of playing and school work. “It’s definitely possible to do both I guess,” he added. “Not saying that she needs to do one or the other, just that it’ll be difficult.”

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina chuckled wryly at Grey's quip about Emile. "My sister Ripley would have to disagree with you, she seems quite smitten with the Beauxbatons boy," she said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes.  She had tried to offer an olive branch to Emile after her sisters' accident, and all he had to have done was ask her why she was there.  That was it.  But no, he had to start off with a dig at her ex-boyfriend and then it escalated from there.  Maybe she'd try again if he survived the Second Task.  But that was a very big if, and a very big maybe.  For now, she'd just refrain from saying anything in front of Ripley - if you don't have anything nice to say you don't say anything at all.  "The Prophet probably had to put a positive spin on all champions, regardless of what they said.  It wouldn't look good for any school if their Champion sounded bad in the press.  Plus the French Ministry would have probably gotten all riled up if Emile had been portrayed in a bad light," she reasoned finally.  That was the last thing the new Minister needed; French offense.

After she had told Grey Tanias' plan, she listened to what he had to say.  It certainly made sense; writing an essay was difficult enough, the idea of writing newspaper articles was probably even more time consuming with that.  "I think she understands that; she's aware that she has to be objective in matches, and she wouldn't have had the idea if she didn't understand the time constraints," she told him carefully, after a few moments.  She knew Jamie ran a pretty tight ship when it came to the Hufflepuff Quidditch team, but she wanted Tania to have a plethora of options while still at school.


grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

Irina Rose Krum

It took a solid few seconds for Grey to be able to process what Irina had said about her sister and the Beauxbatons champion. Really? Obviously neither of them could see what the Hufflepuff girl did in him, but that didn’t change the fact that he had an ego the size of an Erumpent. Grey found himself shaking his head slowly. “Good for her then? Sounds like the glory got to her head a little.” Though he knew that probably wasn’t true. They were Krums after all, they knew what being famous was like. It was starting to sound like Ripley had a larger appetite for fame and glory than the rest of them did. “A positive spin is a nice way to put it. They completely twisted his words. I’m not for propaganda, but if he gives me another interview with that same level of arrogance following the second task, he’ll get it from my paper. I’m sure he’d love it too.” That was an understatement. It’d probably fuel is ego even more. Grey didn’t mind being the bad guy in that regard either. There was already enough heat coming at that from students who believed they published the gossip witch stuff. If only. That was the reason they were getting interest in the first place, as much as he hated to admit that.

He nodded his head as Irina pointed out that her sister most likely understood the time commitment. The real issue here was that he could only get her started out in the latter half of this year. He wasn’t going to be here next year, and the schedules of when things needed to be done on time would be up to the new editor-in-chief. All he could do was establish practices that would hopefully be followed in years to come. He had a feeling that probably wouldn’t happen though. “If she can pull it off without it causing any negative backlash with the Quidditch team and her studies, then I’m game,” he confirmed. There were other obvious reasons he’d take her on as a writer too; the name alone was enough to attract interest, and having an actual player writing the articles was more legitimate than having someone else do it.

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina couldn’t help but let out a snigger at Grey’s comment, then immediately felt bad. This was her sister after all, and though she couldn’t imagine exactly what she saw in the pompous French boy that caused her to fall for him, she was happy, at least outwardly she was. She also now knew she wasn’t alone; Lyla, the Slytherin she had been corresponding with over the past few weeks, was in the same boat as Ripley, though unfortunately for her Emile did not return the feelings she had for him. “He seems to make her happy, though how I don’t think I want the answer to,” Irina said finally with a small smile. Ripley had not so discreetly mentioned biting a few times, and that was the most information she would ever need when it came to the two of them together. She didn’t need those images in her head, especially since Daniel had left and she was now single again.

“They probably didn’t want to villainize one of the champions right off the bat, especially since he ended up winning the First Task,” Irina reasoned; it would have made the Daily Prophet look bad if they had blasted the boy who had scored the highest during the maze last November. Calls of bias would have been made, which was not what they wanted to do. She nodded as Grey explained how Tania reporting for the school newspaper would work, her smile widening a little bit. “Sounds good, and I don’t see that she’d get a negative backlash, plus she has two sisters to help her with her studies if she needs them,” she promised, flicking a stray piece of her long dark hair behind her shoulder. “What about you? You’re going to the Auror program I know, but what about writing?” she asked him, curious to know how far his passion for writing would take him past graduation.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

Irina Rose Krum

Clearly they agreed on the level of absurdity that it had to take for anyone to even stand in the same room as the Beauxbatons champion, let alone be in a relationship of some kind with him. That definitely took a special sort of person. He had never pegged Ripley to be that way, but apparently he didn’t know as much as he had initially thought. “Some things are better left unsaid.” Though he was sure Irina was left to imagine quite a bit, and that wasn’t exactly pleasant either. Grey had basically shoved those thoughts away the first time they entered his head when it came to Addi and Edmund. Though with that whole thing on a break, or whatever it was, he had been saved the luxury for a little bit. Was it bad to think like that? He definitely didn’t think so.

“That might be the first time a paper has ever done that…” Grey trailed off. He could think of hundreds of instances where important figures were made to look bad. It could have been because he was a student still, but past tournaments had proven that didn’t always apply. The news was a fickle thing, and it depended on who the journalist was, and for which paper. The Prophet must have sent one of their more sympathetic ones for the selection and first task. “He probably would have won by a lot more if they had made him out to be the asshole that he is,” Grey shrugged. He wasn’t exactly sure what drove the Beauxbatons champion, but that much had been clear during their initial interview. The Gryffindor had no problem saying it as it was.

He was content with meeting the youngest Krum and setting her up with a few assignments. That would be the true test to see how good she actually was. “Good. I have no problem cutting people if it gets in the way.” Though that would be up to the next editor-in-chief the following year. He wouldn’t have much say in a few months. Speaking of the next few months… “Writing is my fall back if I get washed out of training. It happens. Better to have something than nothing.”

[Irina Rose Krum]

Irina just looked at him, slightly bemused, then laughed at the comment. “I’ll say,” she said, chuckling with mirth. It wasn’t exactly a hidden secret that Irina disliked the Beauxbatons boy, but on the flip side she was sure he wasn’t her number one fan as well. She’d put up with him until Ripley realized the kind of person he was, or he broke her heart. While she didn’t want her sisters heart broken, it would give her a reason to lay into Emile without feeling all that bad about it. “I don’t like to think of it whenever possible, I have enough of my own issues going on in that department to be stressed that my sister is dating an egomaniac,” she said with a mix of a snort and a chortle. It was the first time she’d verbalized her breakup and Dan leaving without feeling like she wanted to start crying, which she believed was a step in the right direction.

“I think perhaps the writer, Emily something, probably has a higher moral code than some people,” Irina suggested; she didn’t know the woman personally of course, but she had read the Rita Skeeter articles of her fathers tournaments, and they had gotten rather nasty; not to mention Lily’s dad had only been fourteen years old at the time. “He does seem driven by negative feedback though, but I suppose we’ll see how he does the next two Tasks,” she added with a small shrug. She was hoping that Anna would surpass the boy in the Second Task; Merlin even if Elias won she wouldn’t mind, he seemed nice enough. “Any clues into what the Second Task will be? Or do you have another one of your sleuth writers investigating?” she asked curiously. Anna had mentioned they weren’t really allowed to seek outside help with the Task, but it had been spread around that the Task would be dealing with Magical Creatures. She wondered if Grey had found anything else out.

grey xavier slater

[grey xavier slater]

Irina Rose Krum

An egomaniac. Why hadn’t he thought of that word? It was the perfect descriptor for the Beauxbatons champion. And here he was supposed to be the one more versed in words. “Don’t we all? It’s bad enough that we’re forced to watch his antics during the tasks.” Though following the first task, Grey had trouble that he had to admit the kid was good. Compared to the other two champions, Chevalier had put on quite the show, and actually backed up all the stupid shit he spat out. That was by far the scariest part of the first task; not the fact that the Durmstrang champion had almost been eaten alive, or that Anna wandered around half the maze blindly, but that the Beauxbatons was actually as good as he said he was. Nobody could have expected that. He had a feeling the other French students knew but weren’t willing to share that information. From his view, Grey was positive that they hated him more than the other two schools did.

“Depends. The Prophet could do with articles that aren’t all about people dying.” That was all the past year had been about, after all. “Personally, I would have published exactly what he said. I couldn’t with the school paper because of rules, but the Prophet isn’t as strict when it comes to that stuff,” he shrugged. “Whatever gets the readers, right?” Grey shook his head when Irina asked about the second task. So far there was nothing. Which was kind of a disappointment. Any kind of lead, outside of what had been granted as public knowledge, would have been nice. It was almost here too. “Not yet. Honestly, I don’t think we’ll get any leaks this time around. Whoever they have working on this thing is doing a damn good job keeping it hushed up.” Any kind of slip up would hopefully mean his people would break the story first. The Prophet and other papers couldn’t spend the money to have a reporter on the school grounds every single hour of the day between tasks. That was absurd. The school paper, on the other hand, was always there and most certainly available to report at all hours of the day. There was a reason he didn’t sleep sometimes.

“Well, let me know what she thinks of that proposal, at least for the start,” Grey said. “A lot of my people use the club as a way to prepare for the future, so if that’s her goal, then it’s the place for her.” There wasn’t really another way to put it. The club had a decent track record of sending its more motivated members off to various news outlets. In his opinion, they were creating better, hard hitting journalistic stories than previous years ever had. Now was the time to join and take advantage of it. “I think I’m going to try and grab some food before they clear the tables,” he said as he stood up from the couch with a stomach growl. “So just send her my way once she’s ready,” Grey nodded as he headed towards the common room door. Hopefully there was something left down there.

[The End Because Tania Is Dropped?]