The Blink of an Eye

Moody was not a suitable way to describe Elijah’s current disposition. He stared directly ahead, his fingers absent mindedly rubbing circles into Fauve’s forearm. Thierry was sat across from his father, his nose buried in a book and Fauve was folding origami cranes like Lorelei had shown her. No one was really paying attention to what they were doing though. Everyone who had gathered in the foyer was listening to the argument going on in the parlour between the head of the family, Elijah’s father, and some of the elder members of the Krum family. Out of the corner of his eye, Elijah was watching Irina as she arced her hands across her stomach that was barely concealed by the robes she wore. It was now common knowledge she was pregnant and that had pushed the Harrows even further away from their family. Yet, Adric was in there, arguing with Elijah’s father just like everyone else was. Over what though? Well, that was simple. Hogwarts, the Ministry and whether any of those who attended would be going.

They were all sort of sat in a round, a few making bets while the rest rolled up some cigarettes for the trip. Elijah sighed heavily, having had enough of the arguments, and rose to his feet. He grabbed Javier by the back of the collar and hauled the Spaniard to his feet. He did the same with some of the other lads and moved his hands, making swift signs to them that they seemed to comprehend. They nodded and Elijah pinched the bridge of his nose before leaning over and kissing both of his children. He whispered his goodbyes and looked at Stelladora, begging with her to look after them. She gave a nod and Elijah straightened up. He ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his fluffy jaw before turning and ascending the staircase to get his trunk. Few protests were made as it was as if they already knew.

It didn’t matter who was in charge. No one would save the heirs of the various branches of their family. No, they simply had to go.

When they made it to the platform they all went their separate ways. Dejectedly, Elijah gave Ziva to the porter by the animal compartment and lifted his trunk off of the trolley he’d taken. He braced it on his shoulder and ducked a little as he climbed onto the train. He moved slowly down the corridor, his mind muddled and the world around him bursting with colours that did not blend as perhaps they should have done. Overwhelmed with the need to just disappear, he found himself trudging up to the older part of the train, the darker part of the train where the walls pealed and ghosts crackled in the air.

Finally, Elijah came to a compartment and pushed the door open. He dropped the trunk down on the floor and nigh on collapsed into the seat. He blinked, staring down at the trunk that bore his initials on it in the obnoxious way that was classic to his family, and wondered what Hogwarts would be like. He remembered so little of the school yet the people he’d met registered in his mind. Selene had but she...those kisses had come back without her help. Elijah didn’t know about this. It was all so grotesquely unfamiliar and the poster he held in his hand leant to the change that was to come. It may well have been one of the better years to be Slytherin but he couldn’t think of anything worse than going to Hogwarts under Grindelwald’s law. There was nothing worse. All he could really do was drift. Push off from the dock and hope for the best.

It was the first year that the Delacour siblings had to make their way to King's Cross without their mother. She was still with the rest of the Delacour clan in France, still in the extravagant French Château that had housed Delacours for a long time now. Julien had woken up on his own, in the London flat that Gabrielle Delacour and her husband had bought just a few years into their marriage. Little did the flat know that it would lose its male owner as quickly as it was bought. Julien was early. He was always early to wake up. It was something his body was trained to do biologically, to make time for the grooming that he would need before he could bear to step out of the house.

Just a day ago, an owl had arrived for the Delacour siblings, which Julien had recognised to belong to his mother. Gabrielle Delacour and her Majesty (the grandmother) had written to them, sending love and well-wishes, demanding owls to be sent from Hogwarts if they were permitted. The news of Grindelwald had shocked the adults in the Delacour clan. The majority of them who had sent their kids to Beauxbatons were, once again, glad that they did not have to worry about the safety of their offspring at Hogwarts. Some even tried to persuade Gabrielle to transfer Julien and Gisele to Beauxbatons instead. She would have none of it. Her late husband had wanted a Hogwarts education for his children, and she would see that his wishes were not denied. Still, she demanded that she got regular owls for updates, prepared to have to take her children out should the situation at Hogwarts threaten their lives.

As soon as Julien got out of his morning bath that Burry the house-elf had prepared for him, he walked out to the smell of the breakfast tray that Burry had left in his room. His sister was probably enjoying hers at the same time. Julien was too lazy to find out. He merely sat on his bed to feed himself before finally going about to pull on the clothes that he had decided on the night before. And then the hair. While still working hard at it, Gisele's voice was sounded from somewhere outside of his room. "Coming!" Julien answered before he proceeded down the short flight of steps from the bedrooms to the living room. The house-elf had already done the packing for the children. Being at school was only hard because one could not bring his house-elf along, and every holiday, he looked forward to how pampered he could be with the presence of them. Gabrielle had only brought one over to the London pad, though. Stretching, Julien had grabbed his trunk and followed his twin sister out of the flat and onto the street, before they hopped into a cab to head to King's Cross.

Once there, Julien found a trolley for both off them before leading the way through the pillar, and onto platform nine and three quarter. The sight that greeted her was the ugliest he had seen ever since his return. France was the epitome of beauty itself, London had her good days, but this ... this grey mess of a scene was horrid. Posters were everywhere, so were guards. Julien frowned as he read off one of the posters. Thankfully for him, he believed that he owned no muggle artefacts. It was not that he was against them. No, far from it. It was just that the Delacour family was simply not accustomed to them. "As if the clothes that most wizards are not sufficiently troll, they had to make the train uglier than a troll now." Wrinkling his nose in disgust, Julien remarked to Gisele before pushing his trolley to the animal compartment to drop Chanel off. He opened her cage to pet her before shutting it again, handing her to the porter, and then going off on his way to board the train, checking to see if Gisele had followed him.

Julien made his way through the train corridor, eyeing each compartment cautiously. It was going to be a long ride, and he was certainly not prepared to sit in one with ugly people in it. At the same time, of course, Julien was looking for the familiar face of Nerissa Hatts. She had not sent a single owl to him over the holidays, despite his double attempt at it, and it had worried him. All this while, the boy had tried to find out what had made a girl who started off as bright and cheery, quickly into someone who looked consistently troubled. His efforts to help her with that had, so far, been in vain. And then Julien thought of Sevastian Krum. The few days that the other boy had spent at the Delacour Château had made Julien wonder more about him. He had to be cautious, though. Anything worth a little more sentiment than was necessary was definitely something to be avoided. Seeing many people was much more fun than just one. It was all very unnecessary if one was still so young.

Julien was about to continue spying at the next compartment when he stopped, almost abruptly. His eyes had landed on someone more agreeable than he had bargained for. Not bothering to ask Gisele if she wanted to be in this compartment, Julien gave a slight knock before sliding the door to it open. "Bonjour. May I share this compartment?" The boy that had caught his eye had eyes that looked distant, and so, Julien decided to merely greet him in a customary way first. No cheeky business, not that he was planning one. Still, he did not wait for an answer. Instead, he walked right in, maintaining his polite smile, and pushed his trunk under the seat he had decided to take -- opposite the fine specimen of a boy. An introduction was needed, whether the other boy welcomed it or not.

"Julien Delacour," he pronounced, loving his name. With that, he stretched a hand for a friendly gesture.

Larko Abercrombie rolled up to Kings Cross on his bike, having previously cast a spell that would camouflage it and make most people not park there. For wizards, since most of these spells were directed at muggles, he wrote simply on a piece of paper: "I wouldn't steal this if I were you. It's got a tracker,." What he didn't write was that whoever touched it besides him and those he gave permission would be sprayed by Undiluted Bubortuber Puss, and he would laugh when he heard of the incident. Anyway, he grabbed his trunk from the back of his bike where it was in a tray and lugged it into the station.

Loading it onto a trolley, simply because he was lazy, he pushed it towards the barrier before leaning against it and sliding through. When he came out the other side, he nearly walked into a group of stupid third years grouping outside the door.

"Clear off, you're gonna get hit by some first year running through!" Larko told them angrily, and they scattered. Today, he wasn't exactly in his best mood. He was wearing his usual biker attire (boots, jacket, cargo pants, and black tee shirt). When he lugged his trunk onto the train, he saw some boy just barge into a compartment and looked in. Everywhere else seemed pretty packed, so he slid the door back open and realized that he somewhat knew one of them.

Well, he just knew the name of Elijah Krum, so knowing him was a bit of an overstatement.

"Room for one more?" he asked curiously, leaning against the door and moving his trunk away from the center of the aisle.

In hindsight, perhaps he should have just taken a year off. Perhaps he should have drunk wine like water and inhaled cigarette smoke like he did oxygen. Perhaps he should have done that again. Perhaps he should have focused on making money for the year before setting out on his own. Elijah had a feeling, as much as he would have loved to stay in Paris where he truly felt he belonged, that one more year there surrounded by his vices and it would kill him. But then again, he was sure a year in an establishment that had been taken over by Grindelwald would kill him also. It was on the horizon and he relished the idea of it. He relished the danger. It wouldn’t be a decent year if he didn’t fall out of a window, spent night after night in the Hog’s Head and slept with his stalker(s). But then again, it could be a truly terrible year. Either nothing would happen or he’d be married to the wicked witch of the west by the end of it. Deep, deep unadulterated joy.

Elijah picked Twist out of his pocket and chucked the ex-Death Eater onto the seat beside him. The animal mewed and pawed at his jeans before nudging his shirt up with his nose. As if on cue, Ali slunk out from underneath and shook herself out. She was getting bigger by the day and Elijah was having trouble holding her in boy of his hands as a result. Nachash was sleeping on his stomach, as ever, and the others had gone to various members of the family. Ali, the little slithery witch she was, had decided to stay with him and her mum. He didn’t mind as much as he liked to make Ali think he did. The snake was hyperactive, as ever, and upon discovering twist waiting at the other end, she promptly slipped back to wherever she’d come from. Elijah sighed heavily and tossed a treat onto the floor for Twist before tipping his head against the window. It numbed his mind, at least for a little while.

At least until the compartment door was pushed open.

Elijah looked up, lifting his cheek from his hand, and cocked an eyebrow at the entrant. Elijah narrowed his eyes a little in an attempt to remember who it was but a name just didn’t spring up in his mind. Something else did though. Something did immediately. He could tell the way the room changed. Veela. Perhaps now he understood why Daniel was so bloody goddamn useless around Veela. This one, Elijah could tell, had very little to show for but there was enough there to make his bloody flow a bit faster. Elijah could at least pride himself on one thing - he wasn’t bloody useless at all with either sex. Admittedly though, his attempt at ‘teaching’ Dan had gone down the drain pretty fast. Within six hours they’d already fallen into bed together. There was nothing else to do after that. He’d never actually gotten around to teaching him how to handle Veela. He had tried but he’d gotten distracted...faster than intended.

“Well, you’re already in now...” Elijah remarked slowly as he came out of his thoughts to find the Veela had already come into the compartment. Elijah reached forward and shook his hand. “And what would you have said if I had told you ‘no’, eh? Elijah Krum, at your disposal.” Elijah smiled a little and released Julien’s hand before sitting back against the seats. He looked up again at the sound of the door opening and his eyes narrowed. “Sure...why not? Let’s add to the insanity shall we? Maybe I’ll go as far as to ask one of you how your summer was - or both, even better.” Elijah shook his head and pulled his sketchbook out of his bag. “Ignore me,” He told the entrant. “Come, sit. Julien, which is your best side; I’ll draw you?”

The touch of hand to hand, as friendly as it seemed, effected the tugging up of Julien's lips. As useful as his quarter-veela blood could be at any time and place, this time, Julien was drawn to the other party. His eyes adjusted themselves to take in just the very art of the other boy's face. The other boy continued to speak. Just as Julien was about to return his question with a potentially witty comeback, he felt both of his eyebrows raise in surprise. Even when Elijah withdrew his hand to lean back against the seat, Julien was still studying the face, now doing so with new-found knowledge. Gradually, the surprised look on his face softened, and his lips formed a smile. It was enough staring without talking for now.

"I'm sorry, I thought I heard a Krum in your name. Elijah ... Krum?" He wanted to make sure. "I wonder ... Sevastian never mentioned you." Julien almost wanted to shake his head. Why did Sev not share the existence of this ... kin, with him? And why did it look like Krums were entering his life, only to take his breath away? A voice reminded Julien of his unshakeable value. It reassured him. No, he did not allow Sev to take his breath away. Never. It was a contradiction, then, that he had to work on that conviction. Shrugging to himself, Julien directed another question at Elijah. "What's the relation to Sevastian Krum?" Julien assumed that there was, since Sevastian had told him how impossibly extensive the Krum family tree was.

The door slid open, and Julien did not turn to look at who entered. He was too caught up with thoughts of the discovery of another Krum, musing about himself, in a room, with the two Krums now. A foreign voice prompted Julien out of his daydream. He turned and found himself staring at a blonde boy that he felt sure that he had never seen before. Elijah was the first to answer him. He was the last too. Julien merely offered a faint smile. "Bonjour," he added, with a nod.

When the voice of Elijah sounded again, Julien grinned, letting his eyes go slighter along with it, before letting them size up to its fullness again. It seemed as if he was going to be a model again. It was lovely, really. He was definitely eager. "Well, I wouldn't be picky about my side." Because, he thought, they were all good. "If I had to pick a side ... I would have said the side that you like. But, since we just met, I'd choose a random one." It was not random, really. Nor was it a side. Julien stared at Elijah straight in the eye, before letting his tongue take a slow glide along his lips, stopping to rest in a cheeky touch to the other end of the top set of his teeth.

After sufficient lingering moments in that position, Julien chuckled before he turned slightly to eye the blonde boy. "Julien Delacour," he introduced, although only turning his head slightly, as if he was very conscious that he was meant to be in a sketch that Elijah had offered.

Vela blood, he thought scathingly to himself. They may have the attraction thing, but in his eyes vain was definitely a turn off. It didn't matter, though, so he shrugged slightly and sat down after stowing his things away. Ah well, gotta deal with all kinds at bloody Hogwarts.

"Larko Abercrombie," he said, nodding to the other two. "Well, how was you're summer, Elijah? I think we had a class together at some point. I don't know. And-Julien, right?-how was yours? Mine personally was fun, made a few new friends and gained a girlfriend. I'll have to write her tonight, since she graduated last year." For some reason he was feeling happy and giddy with thoughts of Alexis. Surely, it had something to do with the influence Julien had on the entire compartment. However, the thoughts weren't lies whatsoever. It was also making him talkative, though, which he normally wasn't.

OOC: Oops wrong charrie. Oh well.

Sevastian. Oh, of course. Mentally, Elijah rolled his eyes. There were enough Krums spread across the globe for everyone to at least one or two. Elijah figured out of all of them to meet Sevastian was probably the best. The boy was harmless and beautiful enough to charm the socks off of anyone if only he knew how to use his good looks to his advantage. He didn’t, though, and more often than not Elijah was privy to some of the vented frustration that went on at his home, pouring from the fireplace in Viktor’s study as Pavlo continued to complain about his disappointing children. Elijah would have thought Pavlo would have been more upset with Mikhail but apparently the son that looked like a daughter was more of a problem for him to stomach.

“Why would he?” Elijah replied, raising an eyebrow as a smirk dipped onto his lips. “Though, we might be more alike than he would like to think,” Elijah continued as he flipped through the book in search of a clean sheet. “Clearly we both like to skirt over our relationship with each other.” Elijah chuckled and shook his head before looking back up at Julien. “Our great-great grandfather’s are one in the same. Bulgarian, before Alastor and Basia took their lot off to Russia for ‘safety’ purposes. Hedonism does not sit quite as well with them as it does with the Spanish, the Austrians...etcetera.” Elijah waved his hand dismissively before pointing his pencil at Julien. “So you with your Veela charm would be swallowed like a lead balloon. Speaking of which, how much of that gorgeous little gene have you got? You must be a half at the very least.”

Elijah brought his pencil to the page and smirked a little before bringing his eyes back to Julien’s. That gaze was held as Julien spoke and Elijah’s eyes fell to the boy’s lips as his tongue slid across the lower one. Elijah swallowed and his grip on the pencil tightened ever so slightly before directing his eyes towards Larko who had said his name, thereby breaking the haze of the Veela allure for a moment or two.

“Absolutely thrilling,” Elijah deadpanned. “Spent most of it drinking, having fantastic sex, and making a small fortune. Oh yeah,” Elijah stood up momentarily and took a packet of cigarettes from his pocket. “Had a monumental row with my current fiancée over my ex-fiancée. My father married his whore. Said whore is now something like six months pregnant. What else? Oh yeah, and whatever time I had left after the boredom, rows and the rest of that rubbish...I spent it with my children. So, really, my summer has been the best. So much variety...so much diversity. It’s thrilling -- see, thrilling?”

And with that, Elijah rolled his eyes and sat back down again. He brought one of his legs up onto the seat and rested the book against his thigh. He returned his pencil to the paper and brought his eyes back to Julien as he began to sketch out the young man before him. It was impossible to tell whether Elijah was serious or not. More often than not he was but he knew he wasn’t to be believed - hence the reason why he said it.

“I offer my heartiest congratulations to yourself and your other half. You’ve joined the club of young gentlemen who have a tendency to go for elder women. So far, that taste hasn’t served me very well. Let’s hope your one isn’t a crafty little cow, shall we? Congrats.” Elijah smirked and shook his head as he corrected some of the shading he’d been doing on the jaw line that was already forming on the page. It was so easy to draw Julien. Elijah didn’t know whether that was because of the Veela genes or just because drawing was something he could do while he was asleep and still get a good result. Knowing Elijah’s luck, it was probably a mix of both.

Of course. Sevastian had mentioned the terribly complicated Krum family tree. More accurately, he merely gave an idea of it being incredibly difficult to explain, rather than move into details. As unfortunate as this Elijah Krum was not mentioned by Sevastian, Julien could only grin at the privilege of this encounter. Perhaps he had been too absorbed in his circle of acquaintances, to not have learnt of the name of Elijah Krum. Julien watched the boy wave his hand, delighting in the beauty of it. It was really as much as human beauty could offer, and it was good to Julien's eyes. At what he took to be the other boy's compliment of himself, Julien smirked in a delighted manner, before shaking his head, conscious of how some of his hair swayed along with his action.

"I've merely a quarter of this gorgeous little gene. I'm impressed you could tell it so quickly." Of course, Julien knew that any decent Wizard was going to be able to tell. Or at least, he thought so. After all, he never considered people who were less astute, assuming that intelligence was possessed at least even at a basic level. So Julien was merely fishing for compliments, possibly. He licked his lips and continued to admire Elijah, especially looking now at the boy's hair. Too many Hogwarts students had dreadful hair. This one had hair that Julien almost wanted to run his fingers through. Speaking of hair, he thought about Nerissa. All summer, no owl came back from her. He was worried about his supposed best friend. How was he going to get through the term without her? She had become incredibly reclusive, of course. But he did not think she would just disappear. Perhaps her problem was a lot more crucial than he had imagined.

Julien felt the other boy returning the gaze, and he enjoyed it, willing his gene to work some magic for him. And then, suddenly, Elijah looked away. Julien had to stifle a pout, since he liked the attention, and could get intolerable over that subject. It was a wonder how Gisele tolerated her brother. Still, he loved her so, so perhaps, it was mutual. Replacing the alluring connection of a gaze was a story that Julien had raised his eyebrows at. It was a colourful story, alright. But he was skeptical about the truth of it. After all, he always had questions for a lot of things, always rather doubt than believe.

"Great story, Eli." Julien had taken the liberty to shorten the other boy's name, as if assuming familiarity already. After all, he had intentions to deepen the familiarity, what little it was of now. He did not care even if the story was real. Rather, he thought the one about children could not be real. Julien did not know anyone who had children at their age, or at Eli's, for that matter. Besides, he had barely a clue about the reputation that Elijah had at Hogwarts. All Julien could think about, was to be drawn by Elijah, and then to find that chance to run his fingers through the boy's hair. Silently, he approved of his own intentions. What a great way to start the term, in the Hogwarts Express. It almost made up for how ugly they had painted that train to be.