You Can Never Be Like Me (Lena)

Ksenia walked slowly along the path of the garden, enjoying the sun and the warm weather. Cleo stayed nearby, sometimes jumping into the bushes to chase something, or climbing a tree. The leopard was always climbing it seemed. The witch wrapped her arms around her own stomach and let a small smile slip onto her lips. It felt good to take the time and just enjoy herself now, without so many burdens hanging over her shoulders.

Mazes were a perfect place to get lost in thoughts, and that was a perfect reason to explain why Lena was roaming around the maze gardens like this. Well, to be honest, it wasn't exactly roaming; she had been stalled onto the same spot for hours now, simply staring at the same thing. She didn't know what she was staring at; she just needed to stare at something to make her feel normal.

From the corner of her eye, she saw someone she did not want to see right then, and she gulped as quietly as she could before quickly darting her eyes away from her to continue staring at her object.

Ksenia walked ahead spotting Lena standing ahead on the path she was walking right now. The Slushatel raised her eyebrow as she made her way closer to the other girl. Cleo came down to walk beside her, curious at the sight of the stranger. "What on Earth are you staring at, Lena?" she asked, amusement clearly heard in her voice.

"I'm starin' at nothin'," Lena replied emotionlessly, barely turning from her object of choice. She did not want to talk to her right now, because she was mad at her. Why she was mad at her? She didn't know. But jealousy probably had something to do with it. Yes, it was jealousy. But there was no way Lena was telling Ksenia that.

"If you say so," Ksenia said almost sweetly with a smirk as she walked past the girl, Cleo pausing for a few moments to study her further. "Oh, how is your clumsy boyfriend going, Lena dear?" she said as she turned to face the girl again, almost as an afterthought. She couldn't resist torturing her soul just a little after what happened in the arena.

Lena narrowed her eyes and turned towards Ksenia, arching an eyebrow until it was at the top of her forehead. "Since when do you care about him? What happens to him none of your business, and none of mine either," she spat, her eyes then moving onto the leopard. "Oh, I like your kitty," she chuckled emptily.

"Oh, I do not cre about the boy who can't walk two fee without stumbling," Ksenia said as she walked slowly towards Lena. "I simply wanted to fin out how you were faring after that brake up of yours. Must bee difficult. What with being in a pretend-relationship with him for almost three years," she noted.

"Why thank you," she said with a smile. "She has very sharp claws."

"You know nothing about him," Lena spat, narrowing her eyes. "And it was a real relationship, I tell you. Not like you would know anything about that. I bet you a Galleon nobody in Durmstrang fancies you." She flicked her hair to cover her eyes so she couldn't see the tears flowing out of her eyes. Why did she always hit her in places that hurt? Then again, it wasn't like Lena didn't do the same to her...

She chuckled. "And I have cared since... when?" she questioned.

Ksenia laughed lightly at the girl's comment. It seemed so easy to hurt her in that state. And she was driving the knife right through the girl's heart. "I do not need anyone to fancy me, Lena dear. Real relationships cannot be built on those fleeting love-at-first-sight feelings that people think will last forever, but die out so quickly that they wouldn't even be remembered as anything significant ten years into the future. Fools like yourself follow their hearts and end up in deep depressions like you are in right now, because they though that those happy emotions were much bigger then they actually are. Congratulations, Lena dear, the rest of your life will be spent exactly like this, crying over every man you lose because you are a fool who only interprets the blurry images on the surface as love," she stated.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, as if she was dumb. She was not asking about that, however, she was asking about all of the statements she had said about her and her first love. For one, she did not fall in love with Rhys at first sight. At first it was just a simple obsession, but it was clear by the time third year came around yes, she was in love with him. "You know nothing about the nature of our relationship. Or how my mind or my feelings work. And even if you do, it's none of your business," she snapped, tears falling down onto her cheeks. "Besides, I have never cried about anyone like this before, Sokol. I doubt I ever will, again." Of course not. There was only one person she had ever cared for as a lover and she lost him. Perhaps for ever. And she couldn't be bothered to move on.

Ksenia cocked her head slightly, continuing talking with her emotionless voice. "You are right, I do not know what you are thinking or how your relationship was like. But what I do know is that it was the kind of relationship that you see around you every day. You do not take it seriously enough, like many other people. That thing you call love is just a school fling. Because you treat it that way," she stated simply.

"We are all human, Vorstenbach. It is in our nature to cry. The only way to become stronger is to admit your own weaknesses and deal with them. But than again, why would I give you advice on how to better yourself?" she said, a tone of disgust evident in her voice.

Lena narrowed her eyes at Ksenia, and she resisted - with a little difficulty - all urges to scream at the other girl that she was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. "I take everything that is personal seriously, Sokol," she snapped, "and how would you know if I took him seriously or not? Of course I take him seriously. I still do." She had to stop herself from laughing too. "Fling? What sort of fling lasts for three years?" she asked, spitting out the words as if they were dirt. "And flings are just emotionless relationships made to satisfy the mind for five minutes. This is no fling. I really care about him. You know that!"

After a loud snort, the Uchitel rolled her eyes at Ksenia's remark before she looked the girl directly in the eye and smiling an accomplished smirk. "You just did, stupid," she replied in a smug tone.

"If you took it seriously you would still be in a relationship right now," Ksenia stated bluntly. "That is the truth of the matter, Vorstenbach," she said glancing up into the tree, where Cleo still sat, watching the two girls.

"Good for you than, isn't it?" she snapped back at the Uchitel.

"Of course I took it seriously!" she snapped, trying everything she could to disprove Ksenia's point, which she knew in deep in her heart wasn't true, "it was just that something serious happened to us that made us not be together anymore."

The Uchitel took a swift glance at Ksenia's tiger and shook her head. "I shouldn't spend so much time with such trash," she announced, starting to walk away.