Graveyard

Blaine looked at her. "Something wrong?"

Blaine smiled and held her hand tightly. He looked around and then back at her.

Blaine laughed. "Just a bit."

Blaine chuckled and followed her.

After becoming accustomed, no, almost dependent on Ouriel's presence while she was in the wilderness, it was odd to wander about without his company. And of course, there was also the fact she was wandless at the moment. Alexandra had only just taken her old core to Olivander's an hour or so ago and it would be about five or six hours before she could test it. But he was a master and so she had no complaints on how long it would take. Still six hours without a wand was six hours of near helplessness in the event of a magical attack. Lucky for her that she was not so obsessed with 'honor' that she would stay and fight in an event like that.

So here she was sitting at near Pheollix's headstone. It had been years since she had visited but the grave was fortunately well-tended. Weeds had been pulled from around it and the smooth stone polished, with barely a chip marring it's surface. Her pear blossoms lay neatly at the bottom of the headstone, white petals still crisp from some bushes from her home.

Alexandra sat and remembered.

Alexandra had closed her eyes to enjoy the silence and concentrate on her memories of Pheollix - a young boy with a bright smile for a brief that faded with his teenage eyes that were vacant of consciousness. It shifted between their playing on the beach to his morphing expression from the Dementor's kiss and then the quiet murmurs at his bedside in St Mungo's. Only she and his sister had turned up for his burial and she knew that somewhere in the world, another person was hounded by dark magic, another was succumbing and another lay dead - all nameless to her but the family and friend of others. Having been almost equally forgotten these past months, a new fervor filled her to come here more regularly. She had begun to lose track of why she was fighting beyond her own survival and this was the only place she knew that demanded nothing of her.

The almost meditations of hers were interrupted sharply by some man speaking an Asiatic language. Alexandra's brow furrowed slightly and tried to ignore it. But the wind brought her the reply of a woman - English this time. It was faint but seemed to be getting closer. Before her face smoothed out again, a faint grimace appeared on her face - discontent at the new company. Perhaps if she didn't react, they would go away. Alexandra also hoped 'they' were Muggles.

The footsteps approached ever nearer, slightly muffled by the grass that grew a barrier between them and the bodies of the dead. It was an odd realization that the particles that had once been classified and called 'Pheollix' were not 3 meters from where she sat. Alexandra opened her eyes and gave up on ignoring the newcomers completely - she just couldn't considering that she could hear every word they said. It wasn't like she understood what they were talking about anyways.

Alexandra traced the inscription on the headstone with her fingers gently. Before that day on the beach, he had been the most fearless person she had known. She and Diane - his sister - thought it apt to put a stanza of 'Invictus' by a muggle called William E. Henley there.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

And so she didn't notice the clouds begin to gather or for the woman to present the man with a violin.

Now that violin was impossible to ignore. Though she'd never been much of a musician - the thing that normally touched her heart were words wrought on the pages of old tomes and new novels - this was enlivening. It made her wish she'd made more time for an instrument but now it was a bit late for her to start and as the music reached it's peak, the grinning faces of those she fought for smiled at her from the middle distance she began to stare into upon the beginning of the song. Now she could understand why some people though music was magic - it was almost as much of an adrenaline rush as dueling and feeling power flow through her wand.

Her wand.
Alexandra was brought out of her daze with that thought and the end of the music, eyes closing again. The formerly peaceful silence now brought no calm to her - just a reminder of what she had lost, and not just her wand.

And again, her brooding was interrupted. But this time, it was the start of the rain that did that. Upon feeling it's touch she got to her feet unsteadily, wounds on her legs not completely healed beneath her slacks while her bandaged arms were not even close to concealed by her purple blouse. So as the rain began to pound down on her, she could only walk - with a slight limp - towards the small stone shelter at the center of the graveyard. If she could apparate, she would, but she didn't know if the couple were muggles or not.

It seemed that the Asian couple had the same idea as her. She watched them yell to each other in the rain, musing over why the man had played the violin in a graveyard of all the places. But then again, Alexandra had heard interesting things of late particularly of her fellow-Ravenclaw graduate Aimee having performed in a spectacular concert recently with some foreign celebrity. She wondered how that was going for her, Aimee had never seemed to desire the spotlight at Hogwarts so the press must have been a sudden change for her. Funny how things in the present trigger memories like that.
But then that could just be the cold talking. At this moment, Alexandra would have given galleons for a drying spell. To be fair though, she was technically giving that to Olivander.

Her lips twitched slightly watching the man go into the corner to sulk after the woman had glared at him. Maybe not a couple then. Siblings?

"Alexandra Leoine. Lovely to meet you too." she was tickled by the irony of this all. They had sought to visit the dead yet ended to speaking to the living.
Ah, right, etiquette. Alexandra turned to the man briefly. Considering that his earlier English was heavily accented, she judged that he was not fluent as could be. "Great playing by the way." she smiled politely before turning back to the person who did not look like they wished to be anywhere but in her company. Though considering how odd she must look in her combination of heavy bandages and expensive clothing, Alexandra could understand.
"Do you come here often?"

She supposed his accent was charming in its own way, but his sullen expression drowned any potential interest in him. His physique was not shabby at all though, she supposed he got his share of attention and thus did not feel guilty about reserving her focus for Yuri. Never the less, Alexandra quirked a brow at his stripping down. Sensible but still amusing. If only Cazz or Vanity were here... Especially Vanity. She'd always wanted to get him a stripper and see his reaction.

Nodding in affirmation as Yuri began to speak, Alexandra was surprised to say the least when the woman tore the man's coat jacket to replace her currently soaked bandages. "No, you really don't ne-" the sound of ripping cut her off and the man exclaimed in alarm.

"Oh," she really didn't know what to say. Pink suffused her cheeks as she tried desperately to figure out what to say without annoying either of them. "Uhm, thank you but you really didn't need to tear his coat. When it stops raining, I was planning to walk to-"
Not to Diagon Alley. No such place existed in muggle London. Where where where where-
"A corner store to buy some new bandages."

Yuri was very gentle whilst replacing the bandages on her arms. Most of the wounds had just been scratches from vegetation as she had been climbing and hiding in the forests of Scotland and England but the woman had dealt even with the wolf bite without batting an eyelash. She was either very used to taking care of injuries or made of sterner stuff than her brother. The man rather reminded her of the people she used to encounter attending parties with her family: wealthy and unused to having to settle for anything less than perfect. Alexandra had been lucky in her parents there. But then Yuri seemed to have turned out well enough.

"Mhmm, an older brother. He's not particularly picky, but I used to have to nag him occasionally." she murmured. It was a better idea not to get involved in an argument between them in a confined space. Spoiled children - even as adults - threw the worst tantrums and she was in no way eager to see the brother do so.

She smiled vaguely. To be honest, she had not had much contact with her brother in a long time. Robert had moved out of the Estate for the most part and she walked the halls of her home alone. Where her mother used to play the harp for them and force the whole family through dance steps, silence reigned. It was probably why she was more comfortable than most in a grave yard - the atmosphere was not much different to her home.

Her reminiscence of a happier time coincided perfectly with the man's choice in music. For such a shallow man, he played with such passion and skill that Alexandra was rendered mute while he played. Ah, so they too had lost someone they loved. Perhaps that was why the brother - Seung Pyo - seemed to have such opposing elements of himself. It was easier to lose yourself in the music and then forget afterwards and not face your grief. She had done very much the same with her work in the Order.
It was a brilliant solution right up until it started to isolate you and hurt others. It was why she was here now. It was time for her to grieve.

Alexandra bowed her head briefly, "I'm sorry for your loss." Normally empty words, but she meant them sincerely.