A Change of Pace

The courtyard was one place many students sat between classes and talked to their friends before rushing off elsewhere for more important things. Usually people just passed through on their way from one side of the castle to another. Phoenix's last class of the day had just ended and she had a free period before dinner, it was a perfect opportunity for her to take up her favorite spot on a bench and do some light sketching.

People watching was something Phoenix regularly sat and enjoyed, though usually with ulterior reasons in mind. She enjoyed the casual conversations, the whir of activity and the feeling of being surrounded by people, but being completely alone at the same time. No one seemed to glance into the corner where a bench sat, a girl sitting on it in her school robes and a sketch book planted on her lap. Only occasionally would she glance up towards the people around her, but she used these tiny glances to influence what she was doing.

Sometimes, at random it seemed, she pulled her wand out (well, pulled it down for she kept it behind one of her ears), and tapped the drawing. A small flash of color would appear and she would either smile slightly or frown and tap it again, before storing it back up behind her ear.

The picture, if anyone were to look at it, didn't make much sense. It was sketchy lines thrown across the paper, occasionally smudged and there was only one or two distinct figures, but even those were sketchy and smudged at best. It was her own interpretation of the tiny glances up she took. The blur of figures moving about their day. A few splashes of color wound throughout it, a sparkle of blue, a hint of red, but overall it was black and white, just a simple sketch with a pencil (A muggle one she'd brought with her). She enjoyed these exercises as they helped her to take in the world a little bit at a time, while still managing to not be cooped up in a corner of a tower. Plus no one ever bugged her here, and she liked that.

Katherine was feeling lost again. Some days, she wandered more than walked, stared more than saw, and existed rather than lived. She found excuses for things, found reasons why it made more sense to keep to herself than burden people by taking up their time. She wasn't what one might call depressed. She would fervently refute that claim if it were made. But she wouldn't deny that she felt like she was just drifting.

She lacked the ambition Slytherins had, the eager spirit that Hufflepuffs felt, and the bravery to deal with what was coming for her in the future that her red-and-gold classmates seemed prepared for. But, then again. They didn't have to deal with the same things she did. They didn't have the same knowledge that things could only last so long for them. Kit knew. She knew more than she wanted to.

Oh, but she was tired of pouting so much. Tired of feeling so down on herself. That irritation is what brought her out of her slump rather suddenly, and she found herself standing in the courtyard, leaning on one of the walls and staring out over the Hogwarts grounds. Merlin, she wished her mother was there. Or her eldest brother. Not eldest by much of course, but the holder of that title nonetheless. They would've had the proper advice for her.

But her brother was off doing what he was supposed to. Suffering through an engagement to a woman he hated because they were part of a prestigious family and that was what was expected of them. Katherine knew that she would find a fate similar to his, but she just wasn't sure that she would make it that far. Not now that she was getting sick again.

Glancing around the courtyard, she caught sight of a girl who seemed to be drawing, and Katherine recognized her as one of her fellow Ravenclaws, and one from her year at that. Perhaps it would be seen as rude to interrupt, but Kit needed to get back to feeling a bit more like her old self. The sort that wasn't afraid to do things because she only had so long and it wasn't worth worrying.

So she pushed off of the wall and walked over carefully, leading with her toes as she stepped, and stopped in front of Phoenix, bringing her feet together beneath her and her hands together in front of her. "Hi," she greeted gently. "What are you drawing?"

Phoenix was intent upon her drawing. She was doing a bit of trickery with her wand to make some of the lines flash on and off which gave the picture a sense of movement in that it was actually moving. She sat silently staring at her drawing, her wand pointed at it, but nothing being said. She had to admit, she was getting good at non-verbal, they were required to use it in classes now, but it was just now starting to come to her. This was good practice anyway.

Her concentration was broken by the sound of a voice and it made her jump out of her skin. Her wand fell to the ground, and her sketch book almost slid off her lap if she hadn't of grabbed it quickly. She looked up to see a girl in her house looking at her with her hands folded in front of her. Phoenix stared up at her blankly for a few seconds, seemingly having to come back to the real world. Unconsciously she bent down and picked up her wand, pushing it behind her ear again and a small smile flickered over her face.

"Er, hi... Um... I was just sketching." She smiled and looked down at the sketch which had gone still after she'd lost concentration. She had to admit, it still looked good, a blurry outline of a person walking fast across the courtyard, almost hard to tell what it was showing, but it took a squint to make out the color of people bustling by in the background. It was almost chaotic in how much movement was portrayed in the picture.

"It's uh, practice, I was just sketching whatever I saw when I glanced up." She looked back up at the girl with a more genuine smile and scooted over on the bench, giving the other girl space to sit down. She knew the girl's name but it was lost somewhere in the jumble of her own thoughts. She'd been around this girl since she started Hogwarts, had classes with her, sat in the same common room, but normally people left her alone, so she'd never really spoken to her one on one. She turned her sketch so the other girl could see it better and looked up towards her. It wasn't usual for her to get actual feedback on what she did, so she eagerly awaited what the girl might say about it.

Katherine was vaguely surprised when the girl offered her room, but she sat down regardless. How bizarre that she would have finally get a chance to make friends so close to the end of the her sixth year. Of course, it was hard to fit in when people knew she had been missing for a year. Most everyone seemed to have figured it out or poked around enough to know that she had been away for her illness. It had certainly made taking her OWLs the year before something of a nightmare.

Kit's eyebrows lifted in pleasant surprise when Phoenix asked her for feedback, and although she felt fully unqualified to answer, Kit liked to believe that art was best judged by those merely wanting to enjoy it. So she looked over, offering a little smile.

"I am hardly someone you'd want to trust on this," she admitted, "but it looks quite nice. I'd never be able to draw something like that," Kit added with a self-depricating laugh.

Phoenix smiled when the girl sat down and she tugged her bag over to the side so it wasn't under their feet anymore. Phoenix wasn't really one to know much about the people around her. She vaguely remembered names of her classmates, and even more vaguely remembered any details about them. This girl was a sea of many faces that Phoenix hardly remembered. She had spent six years with these people and hadn't made so much as a gesture of friendship or even vague interest in any of them. So the fact that this girl hadn't even been there for a year was something Phoenix didn't even recognize.

"Oh nonsense, art isn't magic, you don't need to be an expert in it to understand it. Besides, you get good at something by practicing it. I'd like to think drawing.. or painting, or any other form of art is only about five percent talent, the rest of it is just sheer obsessive practice." She smiled and glanced down at the picture again. She lifted her pencil and added a tiny dash to one side, and another to the other side, before sighing and glancing up at the people going past. "Most people don't notice me over here." She smiled and glanced at the girl she should have known already.

"I'm Phoenix.. by the way... I'm not... I'm sorry if we've met, but I can't remember your name." She laughed lightly in an embarrassed sort of way and stuck her hand out to shake Kit's before pulling it back awkwardly. Her hand was covered in charcoal and graphite, and would leave a mark on the other girls' hand if they shook. "Sorry... I'm a bit messy when it comes to drawing." She laughed and held up her hand to show her the ink.