Someone else - Closed

[Karl Dimitrow]

It was a bright day in Beauxbaton as Karl walked along the garden of the castle. Not once had he marveled at the magnificence of the building that held his future. He had never seen the pitoresque Hogwarts castle, where a great big part of the wizard world had received its education, but he thought that this was the best place he could be at that moment. His whole current life was a dream he had never hoped would become true. But there it was, in the face of a great school dedicated only to assuring that he would one day become a wizard of great potential.

Admiring the view of the sea, and watching the small fish jump about on their journey to deep grounds under the water, he noticed a girl drawing nearby, her canvas set on a large rock overlooking the beach. Her hands moved with gallant strokes of the brush, forming what seemed to be a mountain surrounded by the ocean blue. A mountain in the middle of the ocean! That was an overwhelming thought. But to Karl, it was the painting but the moves and the gestures themselves that got his attention. She moved with the grace of an experienced master.

From what he was able to recall, this particular girl had transferred to Beauxbaton academy from Hogwarts after spending a good five years there. Karl could only wonder what had provoked such a decision. He had seen the girl ( he referred to her in his thoughts as simply the girl, for he couldn't recall, or simply didn't know her name ) a few times around the school, but she had never quite caught his attention as much as she was now. " Why not take this chance? " Karl thought to himself as he approached the rock, stepping quietly as to not break her state of concentration. He could see she was lost in the magic that was painting, her eyes a distant blur reflecting her masterpiece.
" That is a truly remarkable chef-d'oeuvre you have there. " he let out a small, yet quiet, remark. He hoped she had heard him.

Out of Character:

Did a couple edits as I realized I had stupid mistakes. Repeating an' stuff.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice was lost in her thoughts. She had been conversing with her old school friend George in the last few weeks and it had been a magical time. She had been so delighted to be remembered and be involved in his life again. They had been such good friends throughout their time at Hogwarts, and he had been one of the people that Alice was most cut up about having to leave. It had been such a hard transition for her, but she had tried to keep that from him. Now she had passed her appiration test though, she would be able to visit New Zealand in her holidays. It was a relief to be able to travel so easily and cheaply, rather than paying for expensive flights across the world everytime she wanted to go and see her old home. Alice was sat in the Beauxbatons grounds, sketching the beautiful sight of the mountains. Ava had first showed her the scene and Alice had decided to paint it. The picture was coming along, but her perfectionist side told her that it wasn't good enough yet. She had no plan for the picture, but hoped that some opportunity would come along so she could give it away as a gift. Her ability to draw had always been something that she hated to keep to herself. It wasn't that she had some sort of amazing, generous nature, it was just that if she kept her work around for too long, she found too many imperfections and ended up getting rid of it. Therefore, she would find someone to bless with it, or just put it somewhere for someone to find. Sketching the scene, Alice found her thought process interrupted by someone talking to her. Looking up in surprise, Alice found herself looking at a boy she recognised from some of her new classes. "Oh hey. Thank you. It's not the best, but I hope it will improve." She smiled and shuffled over on the grass that she was sitting on, as an invitation for him to sit if he wanted to.

 

[Karl Dimitrow]

Karl was startled at the fact that the girl's smile wasn't the same as most of the others. There was something different there. A second later he had thought of the reason - she definitely wasn't a veela, or part that anyway. He was so used to such girls in the school that, it was pretty much all he saw in the corridors, and as magical and attractive as they might be, Karl welcomed the thought of having someone different for a change. He found himself staring too long at her, and, hoping to not make her uncomfortable, answered her gesture that welcomed him to sit down. Or at least that was what he thought. Strangely, he couldn't think straight. And to think he wasn't affected anymore by the aura that the veelas emitted! And this girl had made him unable to move. He calmed himself down, telling himself not to let himself get too lost in those eyes. A simple acquaintance, even a friendship, would be something good to start with. Other thoughts would be left for later.

" Why is it that you artists always think the worst of your own work? " he asked with a slight laugh, sitting down beside her and gazing into the marvelous view. She had really illustrated the mountain well in her painting. " I'm Karl, by the way. You may have seen me somewhere around the corridors. " he added, smiling ever so slightly, always in the urge to make a good first impression.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice was aware that the boy was staring at her, and so she looked down, slightly embarrassed, to finish her few strokes with her pencil. She made a mistake, a line out of place, and sighed. Turning the picture on its side, Alice stared up at the mountains that she was drawing and back down at her pad. She could turn that line into one of the ridges, and she did so, tilting the pencil to get the widest impression she could. Sighing at the picture, she lay it on the floor, deciding to sort it out later. The boy next to her was demanding her attention and she couldn't be anti-social. "Well, I think it's that artists see every detail and so can find the faults. However, an onlooker only sees the overall picture, and so doesn't see the mistakes or edits. The more I look at my sketches, the worse they become. Art that is renown is only in that status because the artist made sure that however deep you look into the drawing, you never find mistakes." She shrugged, and paused, wondering if she was boring him. "That's why my sketches will never go past simple sketches, because I never get the mistakes out. And that is why I can't keep them." The sentence came to a natural end and Alice nodded, smiling as Karl introduced himself. "Alice. It's nice to meet you! Yeh, I think I've seen you around." Alice smiled, hoping that this was enough for him to take over the conversation. She may have seen him around, but didn't specifically remember his face, due to the busyness of the corridors and how many students went to the school.

 

[Karl Dimitrow]

"A good start of a conversation for sure. " Was the first thing Karl thought after Alice's explanation of the mentality artists often possessed. He had never held any interest in art nor the talent to back it up, so what she was explaining to him was close to a foreign language. He nodded though, trying to show he was trying to get involved into the problem she had lain before him - a advanced understanding of the concept. Frankly, he simply pictured it all on a truly simplistic level. But then again, his passion was sport, not holding a brush and illustrating different objects on a piece of paper. He knew that art was, of course, a much more complicated notion, but he'd never really grasped the meaning of it. Perhaps he never would. Though he did relate it a bit to his quidditch training - whenever he learned a new move, or, as he often did, tried to invent a new one, he paid attention to every single detail of it - the exact angle at which the broom inclined during the motion, the trajectory of the quaffel... He had even used spells to measure them correctly. Basically, he was the perfectionist and critic that Alice was for her paintings - always doubting, always thinking on it. But on different subjects. After all, sport was art in its own way.

All these thoughts passed by him in a heartbeat, and he found himself sitting down beside Alice, carefully looking her over, without trying to draw too much attention to what he was doing. It was a golden rule for him to examine the motions, the behaviour of a person when he met him, more so because it was a girl, and a particularly special one, he felt. Her manner was sort of strict, she didn't let many feelings show, but overall she was friendly, to say the least. All in all, a great first impression to Karl.
" I'm sure that you'll find the perfect balance to your sketches one day. But I guess you have a long road ahead of you concerning that. " he assured her, drawing experience from his own sporting endeavours. " It's not an easy step to make. " he added, making it clear that he himself had had such quiet hours with himself wondering if he was any good at Quidditch.
" Nice name, by the way. Sounds... fairy-taleysh. " he let out that small joke and hoped it wouldn't offend her. He normally didn't pay much attention to what he said - far from intentionally swearing out loud or letting out cynical jokes - but simply losing himself in a conversation and not looking back at what he had said. Here, it was different. Every word was measured and correctly placed in the sentence. Yes, he definitely liked this one.
To continue the conversation, he let out a small sigh:
" So, I heard that you transferred recently from New Zealand. Was it difficult, such an abrupt change of the environment? "
He surprised himself at how formal he sounded.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice nodded at Karl's wise words. Sighing, she closed her sketch book, not interested in the drawing anymore. Someone was there to talk to her, and the Beauxbaton was aware that it may come across as rude by just working on her sketch with him sitting there. She had been new to learning all these etiquette rules, and didn't want to break any that he may be used to. That had been the one class that Alice had actually struggled with in the transition. Etiquette. A lesson where they learned to be 'proper' ladies and learn how to be 'proper' women in society. It was a waste of time in Alice's mind and she was glad that now she was joining the 6th year for the final semester, she wouldn't need to be taking it any more. The school decided that the 6th years had already had a long enough time of learning the subject, and it was important for them to focus on their studies to pass their OWL exams and continue with their beginnings of learning their NEWTs. It was an interesting persepective, but Alice was just glad that they had decided to let the students give it up. No more pointless flower arranging or table laying. Alice's attention momentarily drifted, but she managed to regain it quick enough to hear the question that Karl posed. "Yeh, I moved around this time last year. I went to Hogwarts New Zealand and was a Ravenclaw. I left in my 5th year and was made to retake it over here, but I've just been told that I can remove back to my 6th year. I'm really pleased. But yeh, the move was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. I mean, my friends, my work, my life was in New Zealand, and my family just made me move." Alice paused, catching her breath and waiting to see what Karl thought of her speech. "That's basically it. Obviously there are details and all that, but that is the basics." She smiled, hoping she hadn't completely overtalked in the situation. It was incredibly open of her to be like this, but she was enjoying it. "Tell me about you."

 

[Karl Dimitrow]

It came as a great relief to Karl that Alice wasn't one of those "talk to the hand" type of girls, that tested guys for their capability to hold a conversation and just kept answering with a curt yes or no. He hadn't been particularly worried about that in Alice, but he calmed down anyway. Shuffling a bit to find a more comfortable place on the grass, he remarked: " Wow! It must have been a strange experience! I've never been to New Zealand, but I guess it's a lot different that it is here. " he felt like he was stating the obvious, but his mind went blank for a second as he watched a rather large fish seemingly gallop on the waves of the sea. An amusing sight, no doubt. He regained his wits quickly. " I can't imagine what could have made your family do such a drastic change in their life. " he added, sincerely showing his surprise and a hint of sympathy in his voice.
" Me? I'm not an overly complex figure, to be frank. I've been in Beauxbaton for six years now, and it's definitely become a second home to me. I don't think i'll be able to handle what you've gone through, I'm not a very adaptive person. Basically, what you need to know is, I like Quidditch. It's my whole life. " he let out a laugh at that, though his tone was all but comical. It was the truth. " I like to speculate a lot is another fact that you might find strange. Those words about art weren't something unusual. My friends are sometimes amazed by what comes out of my mouth. " The laugh this time was longer, as he remembered a particularly funny situation he had been in a couple of years before. " You know, it's not difficult to adapt to Beauxbaton - people here are quite welcoming, don't you think? "

Out of Character:

Definitely should add talking random stuff to my biography.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice laughed softly, slightly confused at what had caused this boy to come over and speak to her, but pleased none-the-less that he had done so. He seemed nice company, and Alice was open to making friends. At first, she had been completely closed to the idea, but it had been Ava and Meera that had helped her with the transition and making it work. They had supported her, and no matter how many times Alice spoke to them, she couldn't convey her thanks enough. They had made the whole of the last year bearable, and given her the confidence that she had needed to get talking to people. Resultingly, Alice had become good friends with Felix and other people in her year group or the year below. Ages weren't of a huge concern for her, as she was an older on in her year, but she still valued her friends in the 5th year. Alice smiled at Karl's openess about not being able to move. His ability to admit this made Alice believe that he could and would be a good friend. "Well, I am English, but went to Hogwarts New Zealand rather than Hogwarts Scotland. Why? I don't know, but it was where I was invited! I'm muggle-born, so my parents had no ties to New Zealand. It meant that I lived out there for the whole year, and just returned to England for the summer time. It was interesting, the constant travelling, but now I have passed my appiration test, hopefully when I go back in summer, it won't be too expensive! So it was all going smoothly. I would go out there for the year and return for the summer months. Which basically meant that I avoided winter whereever I went. Clever, I thought! But my dad is a doctor, and he had a huge career opportunity to move to the South of France. He had grown up partly in France and partly in England, and wanted to move out here. Anyway, my mum decided that because they were moving their lives, and it was all big and important, she didn't want me on the other side of the world anymore. Or something like that. So, they made me upturn my life and move over here." Alice came to an end, taking a deep breath to make sure that she remained calm and tried not to get too worked up about it in front of the boy next to her. Last summer had been interesting, to say in the least. There had been continued arguments in the house and there had been little peace for any of them. Alice had grown up in her opinions and was able to leave her parents stumped for words. It was something that triggered pride inside her - finally being able to vaguely match her parents' intellect. The topic moved on and Alice smiled, finding that Karl's life that he described as 'not overly complex', was infact the sort of simplicity to life that Alice wished she had had. "That's awesome! I'm not a fan of sports or quidditch myself, but I enjoy watching it, and I admire anyone who can fly higher than 5 feet off the ground." A tinkle of warm laughter followed this statement and Alice nodded as he continued. "Yes, Beauxbatons has definitely grown on me the longer I have been here. It's nothing like HNZ, but it definitely had its own awesome qualities!" She smiled, pleased that her opinion had developed since she had been here, so that she could weigh up both places in a balanced way.

 

[Karl Dimitrow]

Karl laughed heartily at Alice's comment about flying. It was quite common among other students to not be able to fly, or to not like it for that matter. Few enjoyed the distinct art of hovering over the ground on a broomstick. Some Quidditch players were even considered ludicrous for ever pursuing such a career.

He listened carefully to her story, leaning back and admiring the view. He had never even heard of Hogwarts Scotland! How limited he was! It struck him as odd though that she had been invited to New Zealand. Everything had its reason, he assumed. He was about to ask why her parents hadn't sent her straight to Beauxbaton, but she probably wouldn't have an answer for it, and who was he to go so deep into her personal affairs? He let it go.
" You must be used to travelling. " he remarked. " I have never been to a foreign country, and frankly I have no intention of doing so in the near future. " He had never been especially interested in travelling or in visiting any other part of the world. He had created his own world here in France, and that's where he intended to stay. For the time being. " But you must also be good at adapting to foreign environments, it seems you're handling yourself well here, finding friends and all. I've seen people that transfer here and never get used to the place. You're in luck, to say the least. " He was kind of making hints that he wasn't intending to, but he felt a strange connection appear between the two.

Out of Character:

You should reply to the topic with Khushi.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice smiled, watching the boy as he watched the view. He seemed nice, and friendly. In fact, he seemed to care about a stranger, which was nice. A lot of the Beauxbatons students seemed self-obsessed, and whether that was because of the sheer amount of veela blood in the school, or because that was what they were taught, Alice didn't know. She had made friends though, and secure friendships at that. She was surprised when Karl explained that he had never been abroad. "When you pass your apparation test, I'm sure you will be going everywhere!" She smiled, recalling that she hadn't seen this boy in the exam that she had taken not a week ago. It was a strange experience, apparating, and one that Alice needed more time to get used to. She didn't doubt though, that when she got the hang of it, she would be going everywhere - delighted at how easy and free she was, and released from using conventional muggle transport such as planes and trains. "The world is an incredible place, and I have made it my mission to travel as much as I can before settling down. I want to see things!" Her passionate side was beginning to show, the desire to see the world evident in her manner. Concerned that she was going to get overwhelming with her ache to be free, Alice retreated her confident side and waited for Karl to make some more conversation. He did, and about her transfer, which was an easy topic for the ex-Ravenclaw at the current time. "Well, some people here are just lovely. And some aren't. It's easy to tell the difference most of the time. People who are nice, are just really easy to spend time with, and grow the friendship." She smiled at him again, shading her eyes from the sun that was shining into them. Shuffling back on the grass, she moved to a shady spot where she turned to look at him again, wondering if he was going to make any more conversation or if social politeness required that it was her turn. "So apart from quidditch, what else do you like to do?" She asked, her tone polite and welcoming, friendly and open. Etiquette lessons had taught her that these were good conversation starters, and many people would be pleased with the openess of the question posed, and able to carry the rest of the conversation for a short time. Hoping that this was the case, she leaned back onto her elbows, looking at the beautiful view.

 

[Karl Dimitrow]

As he had expected from the first few words they had exchanged, Alice was an adventurous soul. She loved the open world, traveling from one place to the other, exploring. Karl had always enjoyed the company of such people, mainly because of the fact there was always a good story to be heard from them and it was never boring. To travel from England to New Zealand several times a year and to end up in France! And seeming perfectly happy! It took quite a bit of adventurousness to feel at home in so many places at once. Amazing.

Concerning apparition, Karl had never been overly fond of it. He had watched his parents constantly apparating in and out of the house, using it as their main means of transportation. Karl dismissed the thought whenever somebody brought it up. He would take the exam, but later on, for when the last exam had passed, the one Alice had passed, he had had other things on his mind. It was the student's choice, after all. He could always take it if it interested him. According to him, the spirit of travelling consisted in exploring different places while travelling, on the move, and not settling down somewhere and going out for six to seven hours a day and returning in the evening, tired as can be. That's why he spent most of the time on trains and cars looking out the window and drawing imaginary figures and worlds in his mind connecting the views he came upon.

Alice's question caught him off guard though. To be frank, he had never thought of anything else to do in his free time except Quidditch. It was his constant occupation, and he sometimes spent entire days on the pitch. Well, there was another thing he liked to do.

" Other things? Well, few occupations can really replace Quidditch in my free time, but I guess the closest one to it would be fishing. When I was young, my father used to take me to this lake in a forest near our house and we used to spend hours in a boat there trying to catch something. And we often did, my father knew quite a lot of tricks to make the fish come to us. Though sometimes we didn't like what got caught on our fishhooks - the lake was often used as a dumpster for people living nearby, something that drove me and my family crazy. But till today we haven't done anything to try to stop it though, I guess we haven't found the guts to stand up to others. " he added the last sentence with a great sigh. It was truly one of the weaknesses of his family, and he had heralded from them - not knowing when to stand your ground. Often did they find rubbish and debris at the bottom of the lake. The people in their neighbourhood didn't pay any attention to nature, to the land around them - they didn't care that they caused diseases and pollution by throwing out the trash in the forest - they were that inconsiderate.

Out of Character:

Major edits to the biography will follow this topic.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice listened carefully to Karl's story about his family. She smiled weakly, hiding her pain behind the mask of social politeness. It was nothing to do with his story, just the thoughts of home and parents were so painful to the young adult. She didn't get the whole close family thing, and the idea of being 16 and having a good relationship with her dad was almost inconceivable. But she smiled, and she needed to be polite. However, as the story went on, Alice found herself wondering about her own family more and more. It had been a long time since she had been able to spend good time with them, and the last meal she had eaten with them had been cold and a tense atmosphere. She had suffered the evening for Grace's sake, but once she had gone to bed, Alice had left quickly. It pained them all for their relationship to be so fraught and tense, but the young witch had no idea how to change that. It was her parent's fault, and they needed to be the ones to make it up with her again. They had tried, she recognised that, but they hadn't known how she had been feeling at that time. But now, she was ready, and she just wished, hoped, prayed with all her heart that they would see that and come to make it up with her. Maybe she would go back in summer and see them, to make it up. She had planned to take Grace on a day-trip to meet Felix's siblings and she hoped this was still possible. Grace had ended up like a child between two divorced parents due to her and her parents falling out. It wasn't fair on Grace and Alice made the decision to in that moment, arrange to see her parents and make it up with them. Refocusing her full attention to Karl's story, she nodded, blinking back the film of tears that were making her eyes shine in the sun. She nodded, thinking that although it hadn't ended well for them with the fishing because they hadn't stood up for themselves, they still had that memory and that friendship to carry with them. However, Alice had missed the opportunity to make memories with her parents through her mid-teen years. The realisation saddened her, but she smiled, nodding to the end of the story. "That's a really nice story!" She said, before realising that Karl would probably pick up on her teary moment. "I wish I had memories like that with my parents..." She offered as an explanation, tearing up some grass and shredding it in her hands. She looked up at him before back down at the grass, waiting for some conversation to be started by him now.

 

[Karl Dimitrow]

A feeling of sympathy and sorrow overtook Karl as he saw Alice's eyes sadden at the mention of families. He regretted it instantly. Although having mentioned it inadvertently, he reprimanded himself for telling the memory. It was a mistake he often made. Family was a casual subject, but it was usually tied to bad as well as good memories and relations. It seemed that Alice hadn't been on the same page as her parents in recent years. And Karl grew all the more frustrated when he realized she must have been furious with them for making her travel half the world and move to a completely new environment and to start a different life. A difficult step to make, even seeming practically impossible to Karl. One thought calmed him though - they said that making such a dramatic change in your life transformed who you were. If Alice was this friendly and amiable now, the move definitely hadn't been such a horrible experience for her.

Holding on to that speculation, he tried to apologize, though rather clumsily, but all the time showing that sincere sympathy that was driving his movements now: " Oh, I should've been more tactical. I imagine it's not easy for you to maintain the best relations with your parents given the unnatural circumstances - your move and all that. Forgive me. " he added that formal apology at the end to really emphasize what he was trying to say. He hoped she wouldn't take it the wrong way. After all, her attitude towards his story, that had for sure broken her spirit for a bit, was perfectly friendly. She never seemed to want to show any negative feelings. A challenge for him, but definitely a good thing. The way he looked at her now had become one of sheer admiration and gratefulness that luck had arranged this meeting between them.

 

[Alice Hills]

Alice shredded the last handful of grass before looking up at Karl. She smiled softly as he began to outwardly evaluate his mistake in the situation. That was sweet of him, and she recognised that he was trying to make her feel better. "You did nothing wrong. You didn't know, and you had no reason to know." She smiled, before adding an extra "I'm fine." Leaning back on her hands, the Beauxbatons girl looked up at the sky above her. It was beautiful, and fresh, and sunny, and magical. Something about Beauxbatons was so special, so magical and so pure. It was refreshing. Shaking her long curls out, Alice jumped up, brushing off her jeans from the loose grass that she had been playing with. "I heard the kitchen staff earlier, discussing that they would be making fresh croissants in the afternoon. I don't know about you, but I am still trying to find a food to rival their chocolate croissants." She paused, waiting to see if Karl was catching on. "Would you care to join me as I attempt to woo them into sharing their delights with me? I can promise the reward of chocolate croissants!" A soft laugh escaped, dancing through the air as she picked up her bag, hoping that Karl would join her. Their conversation had come to one of its inevitable endings, but Alice was enjoying the company of her newfound friend, and wanted to increase the time they had together for this short time. Her thoughts switched to the point where she was suddenly aware that she hadn't spoken to Felix recently. That saddened her, as they had also had a lovely day together and Alice was sure that a great friendship had begun to form there. But he hadn't made contact since their falling out, and she wasn't going to make the first move. Confused at the change of direction of her ever-moving thoughts, Alice smiled again, waiting to see if Karl would join her.