Observing (Aur/Blaire)

Aurelie Bones sat down in the corner of a courtyard and stared around with a bleak look. The sky was gray, and the air was chill, the smell of fresh rain lingering. Tracks of mud were strewn across the courtyard, and hardly anyone else was outside. The damp stone dug into her backside and wetted her jacket. Ah, well it was only a jacket and could easily be replaced.

She heard footsteps: light, easy, footsteps and turned around sharply.

Blaire walked down towards the courtyard, not really paying any attention. She was focused on the sketch book in her hands. Her left hand moved across the page, drawing a beautiful scene that Blaire had seem only once in her life: the Eiffel tower.

"Gli alberi, il tramonto, tutto così bello. Vorrei che potessi tornare indietro, è stato così sorprendente," Blaire said to herself as she looked down at her finished sketch. With a sigh, she closed the sketch book and looked around at where she was. With a jolt of surprise, she recognized one of her students, Aurelie Bones, sitting there, looking around. "Miss Bones, what are you doing out here in this kind of weather? You might catch a cold!"

Italina.

Her teacher was speaking Italian.

The surprise registered on Aurelie's face and she frowned a little bit, wiping the surprise away. "It's fine," she said, tugging on the thick wool of her jacket. "I'm perfectly warm; there's no need to worry."

She saw the sketchbook and the smudges on her teacher's hands. Ah, so her teacher had been drawing. Charcoal, perhaps? Or pencil. And because her teacher was speaking Italian, she could reasonably assume that her teacher was drawing either a scene from Italy or just something vaguely European. The smudges were mainly on her teacher's left hand: she was left-handed, then.

How surprising. Aurelie hadn't noticed.

And Aurelie had been sitting in plain sight, the dim sunlight falling on her. Obviously, her teacher had been lost in thought.

Blaire didn't notice the thick jacket until Aurelie pointed it out. She nodded in approval, then noticed that Aurelie was looking at her hand and sketch pad. Until then she hadn't noticed that the charcoal she was drawing with had made smudges all over her hands. Sighing, Blaire wiped her hand on her jacket in an attempt to clean it off, but it didn't work. Oh well, I'll clean it off later, she thought to herself.

"Why are you outside and not inside with your friends, Miss Bones? It's about lunch time, one would think that a student would be inside washing up or whatever it is that you do before a meal," Blaire mused.

"Oh, I like it out here," said Aurie lightly. "It's all nice and cold. I like the cold sometimes. You were drawing something European, right?"

She frowned at Professor Vandever's question. "Many students are washing up inside right now, and some are in the Common Rooms by the fire."

"Something French, actually. I suppose that's European in a way, since France is in Europe," Blaire replied, holding up her sketchpad with the picture at an angle where Aurelie could see it. "It's the Eiffel Tower. I went to France this past summer break and saw it. It's an amazing thing to see."

"Ah, I see. It seems like so long since I went to Hogwarts, myself. Times are different now, though. Things have changed," Blaire said, deep in thought. She missed being in school, missed her friends and family.

Aurelie never saw the Eiffel Tower, but the drawing was remarkable. As Professor Vandever talked about Hogwarts, she was looking at the drawing.

"I love it," said Aurie. "But shouldn't the light be coming from this way and therefore the shadow should be pointing this way...?"

SHe blushed. "Sorry. Your drawing."

Blaire looked down at her drawing as Aurelie made her observation. She frowned a little when she noticed that what the girl was true.

"I suppose you're right. I'll have to fix that later. You're quite the observant one, aren't you?" Blaire pointed out. "I never would've noticed it. I'm not too observant, unless it's about plants or creatures of sorts."

Aurelie shrugged. "Not really. I just notice things." She shrugged again and looked down at the ground.

"That's what observant means, Miss Bones. You notice things, things that others normally don't," Blaire explained to her. "Tell me, what have you obs- noticed since I've started talking to you?"

Blaire didn't mean to be pushy or anything, she was just curious about the girls gift.

"Uhm."

Aurelie looked around quickly, her eyes taking in everything. It took a matter of two seconds.

"Well, you like to draw and you like plants and creatures, as you've said before. You speak Italian, and perhaps some other languages. You're part Italian as well, and visited France and saw the Eiffel tower, though that's more obvious. You miss Hogwarts, even though you teach in it now, and so I assume that you miss being a student in Hogwarts. Having friends. Nostalgia.

"Since there's some errors in the Eiffel Tower, I assume that you've only been there once in your life. When you're busy, you don't pay very much attention to things surrounding you unless they're quite obvious, like a wall or stairs. Either you're busy, but it's near lunchtime and your room is that way." Aurelie pointed the way that Professor Vandever came. "So...you're going somewhere. Also, you're wearing all muggle clothes, so you're muggleborn, I assume, or someone who's in touch with muggles.

"Also, your jacket isn't very thick, so I'm assuming that you're either very impervious to the cold. Or, you didn't plan to go out in the first place. Underneath the jacket, you're wearing a t-shirt, so wherever you were before was very warm."

Aurelie shrugged. "And, that's all."

Blaire stood there, taking in all of what Aurelie was saying. She nodded at the right parts, not moving her eyes from the girl sitting in front of her. When Aurelie finished, Blaire hesitated a few moments before saying anything.

"I was right when I said you were observant. You have quite a talent, Miss Bones," she told her. She thought for a moment before continuing. "You know, Professor Arterton, the Muggle Studies Teacher, is one of the most observant people I know. He could help you learn how to hone your gift and use it well."

"Professor Arterton?" asked Aurelie. She had a vague memory of him. Dark haired, easy grin, easy laugh. Who also liked to talk to Professor Vandever. A lot. A small smile spread on her face. "Really? Do...do you think you could ask him if I could see him?"

"Don't worry about asking him. Just tell him I sent you and he'll be perfectly fine with it!" Blaire said, and it was true. He wouldn't care if Aurelie went to talk to him. "I think that with help, in time, you could become a great addition to some place or another. Professor Arterton could teach you spells and other things that can help. Maybe, in time, you could even tell the ingredients in a potion by just looking at it."

Aurelie couldn't help it. She threw herself at the Professor and hugged her tightly. "I will! Thank you!" With that, she rushed off.

What a rush.

All her life, it was like she had no talent. And now, this bloody brilliant -- this freaking fantastic professor had just opened this whole new world to her.

God. She officially loved Professor Vandever.

"You're welcome!"Blaire laughed as Aurelie hugged her and watched with a smile as the girl rushed off towards the castle. When Blaire first decided to come outside earlier, she had no clue that this would happen, that she would make a student feel happier.

With a sigh, Blaire closed her sketchbook and headed back towards her office to fix her drawing and maybe draw some more. On her way, she couldn't help but wonder if Aurelie had made it to David's office yet and what his reaction at Blaire sending her there was going to be.