Painting Up A Storm (OPEN)

Charlotte had decided that she needed to practice her painting magic, the best place to do this was somewhere secluded and away from prying eyes because if anyone caught her they would probably think that she was some sort of...well...freak.

Biting her lip she set up her easel and looked not out the window, but at the old laboratory setting that was within the tower.

With that Charlotte took up a finger letter opener and placed it on her index finger, pricking her finger on the opposite hand deeply Charlotte winced and let the blood plip gently onto the paint.

When enough was in Charlotte mixed it in with the paint and watched it turn a slightly darker colour with the new intake of blood, having already done the sketch Charlotte closed her eyes and channeled her magic through her paintbrush and onto the canvas as she filled in the sketch with paint.

Hopefully she would be able to complete this painting sooner than the others, she was getting stronger.

Hearing someone coming up the stairs Charlotte cancelled out her magic and wrapped a small bandage around her finger to stop the bleeding, to anyone who came up, it would just look as if she had been painting normally.

Parker was doing some exploring of castle, looking around, trying to learn his way around, when he came across an abandoned looking tower. He thought that if he were going to be explaring his way through the castle, he might as well be thorough. He slowly climbed the stairs, keeping his pace so as not to tire down as easily. He began to think of what a wonderful view it must have, having seen the views from the other towers and higher stories of the castle.

He saw that one door didn't look as dusty and clogged as the everything else in the tower and decided to have a look. Peeking in, he startled, creeking the door, when he saw there was another person in there. He spoke rushed and nervous, his Irish accent mumbling his words together. "I'm terribly sorry, I hope I wasn't interruptin' anything. I didn't know there was anyone up here..."

Charlotte smiled softly at the boy who had just come into the tower, she was happy that she was indeed right that someone was coming and she wasn't just hearing things, sometimes a castle as old as this played tricks on you.

Gesturing for the boy to come in further Charlotte put down her paintbrush and continued to smile gently at him.

"Hello there, no no, you're not interrupting anything that can't wait, it's only a painting after all."

Charlotte noted that she had in fact seen this boy in some of her classes and that he was in her house, yet she had never spoken to him before today, and with a happy grin she also noticed that he was Irish. Just like her father.

"I'm Charlotte Smith, I've seen you around, but forgive me I can't remember your name."

He hesitated at the door a moment before stepping in. Painting? He didn't know many people at the school that seemed very artistically inclined, so that was certainly interesting. He took a few more steps, looking around at the room and at what she had begun painting. He then looked at her and recognized her from his classed. "I'm Charlotte Smith, I've seen you around, but forgive me I can't remember your name."

"Oh, erm, the name's Parker Emery." He motioned towards the painting, "So what've you started there? "

Charlotte smiled slightly and wiped her hands on her old jeans that she always wore when she was painting, playing idelly with her lip piercing she wondered just what this boy was doing up here, so far away from the rest of the school.

Obviously he had not come here to paint, maybe he had come up here to explore? It was pretty odd in here with all of the old equipment.

"It's nice to meet you Parker, I'm just trying to paint this room, it's always interested me, so I decided that I would paint it, plus it's an excellent hide away when things get too much. Why are you here?"

She asked with an interested expression.

he saw her wipe her hands on her paint covered pants, which made him smile a bit, she was seemed someone who was really dedicated and ambitious in her interests. "It's nice to meet you Parker, I'm just trying to paint this room, it's always interested me, so I decided that I would paint it, plus it's an excellent hide away when things get too much. Why are you here?"

"I think you sort of answered that for me. It's a rather nice place to hide away. What is this room anyways?" He said as he looked and walked around the room curiously, walking over to stand by the window, which was letting the light in. He creeked it open the rest of the way, wanting a clear view out.

Charlotte nodded her head, she did indeed think that it was a lovely place to go and hide away from the rest of the hustle and bustle of the school, it was very busy downstairs and sometimes Charlotte just needed to get away from all of that for a few moments.

"Well I agree, I think i'll have to come up here more often now that I know that it's here and that it's safe."

Watching him look out of the window Charlotte bit her lip, sucking on her lip peircing while she thought about it, it looked, obviously, like some sort of old laboratory and she shuddered a little bit remebering the man that had worked here.

"It used to be the old healers laboratory, rumor has it he even made a man here! You know like Frankenstein did? My dad wouldn't tell me if it was true though, although that man was really creepy."

Humphrey Williams was heading up to the old abandoned tower to study for his first transfiguration class. It was by far his favorite class and he enjoyed transforming things immensely. However, he had gotten a mind-numbing headache and required peace and quiet for it to work off. He could have gone to the library, but it was too bright for him in there. This was the perfect workspace, quiet, out of the way, and dark enough not to make his headache worse than it already was. You see, Humphrey got migraines every now and then. Not often, but every once in a while. This was one of the worst migraines he had ever experienced.

He finished climbing the stairs and openhed the door to what he thought was an abandoned tower. Instead, to his complete surprise, there was a first year girl he had seen in the abandoned tower painting with magic. Shocked into silence, he stood still and examined the painting she had done so far.

Eventually, after about two full minutes he recovered his tongue. "Hello, i recognize you. You are a first year slytherin, right? I am in Gryffindor and a first year as well. I was just on my way up here to practice my transfiguration because i have a migraine and expected this place to be empty, quiet, and dark enough not to intensify the pain. Would you mind if I stayed for a while? You really are an excellent artist and it is very interesting seeing somebody paint with magic. I have never seen it done because I am a Muggleborn. And though I can use magic I am not artistic in the slightest. Though, I do admire art and even have a Monet up in my room at home."

Charlotte heard the door open and she blinked slightly at the boy who stood there in front of her, he looked somewhat odd but that was not the reason that she was wondering if he was okay, it was the fact that he seemed to just stand there in silence for a good few minutes.

Sucking at her lip piercing Charlotte got a little bit nervous, was she doing something wrong that he might disapprove of or something?

Then, when he did start talking there was so much detail in his statements that she had to think herself for a moment before responding.

"Hello, I'm Charlotte Smith, yes you're right I am a first year Slytherin, what's your name?"

Smiling softly she nodded her head, she would like to get to know this strange boy a little more and hopefully he wouldn't mind the smell of paint; "Yes of course you can stay! But the paint might not do much for your migrane I'm afraid."

Charlotte stopped sucking at her lip piercing and tucked some of her hair behind her ear, taking it away from her bright red eyes so that she could see the canvas better.

"Awwww well thank you, I have been doing it for some years now, I taught myself because I never had the oppertunity to recieve instruction which I suppose I am glad for."

"Really?!?! No instruction in art whatsoever?" he yelled in complete and utter disbelief. "You, Charlotte Smith, have a talent. You could probably sell your art if what you draw is usually this wonderful and unique. I draw a bit myself, but I am afraid I lack the skill necessary to do this. My name is Humphrey Williams. Would you possibly teach me some art? I know I come across as odd, but I really am interested in art." he explained to the blonde Slytherin.

Spinning slowly in a circle he examined the abandoned tower. There appeared to be some sort of laboratory equipment lying abandoned in one corner. Very interesting, and it appeared that some of the equipment was designed for torture. He examined the painting again that Charlotte had been working on. Humphrey simply could not believe that this was the work of an eleven-year old amateur artist.

"Who would have thought that a Slytherin and a Gryffindor could actually get along to some degree. Truly shocking, don't you think?" he said with a wink. "Maybe you and I can convince our houses to cooperate." he stated. Then, he paused and reconsidered the issue. "Well, actually probably not, but we could give it a try I suppose. But remember if I ever meet you on the Quidditch Pitch it is all out war." he said in all seriousness. This Slytherin wasn't so bad; he wondered if Gryffindors hating Slytherins was simply an old prejudice that had been passed down and currently had no reason other than all the other students before them in their houses had hated each other.

Charlotte giggled a little bit and nodded her head, Charlotte thought more than ever that this man was very odd, he talked a lot but she didn't mind after all she didn't really talk all that much in the first place, he made up for her being so quiet.

"Really, no instruction at all, just lots and lots of spare time on my hands it was all about trial and error, and, over the years I got better and better."

When he asked if she could teach him some art Charlotte nodded with a happy grin on her face, she would love to teach someone how to draw, it was one of her greatest passions besides potions making and weapons training.

"Oh don't worry about Quidditch, I'm afraid of heights so I won't be joining the team, I've not even signed up for flying lessons."

Giggling a little bit Charlotte really did think that Hogwarts had changed, she had only met ons horrible person since coming here and it seemed as if she had mellowed.

"One of my best friends is a Gryffindor! His names Airen. He really is wonderful, and he wants all our houses to get along just like you and I do."

"You'll reall teach me?! Awesome, thanks Charlotte. I will try to be the best student I can be. Airen is great, he shares a room with me and two other Gryffindor guys. By the way, feel free to laugh at my drawings, because otherwise I will be laughing by myself and that just makes things awkward." he said with a wink.

Charlotte smiled happily at Humphrey he really did seem like a lovely guy, really friendly, and also he seemed really quite smart so she wondered why he would be in Gryffindor not Ravenclaw.

"Of course I will, it's no bother at all, when would you like to start?"

Really quite overwhelmed that someone would like her drawings so much to want to be tutored by her Charlotte felt a warm glow of pride within her and she bit her lip as she noted her finger was bleeding out of the bandage.

"Oh shoot," she said looking at it "I cut too deep, now that's going to take ages to stop." tightening the bandage Charlotte smiled.

"I will never laugh at your drawings, they will all be beautiful in their own way, you should keep all your drawings, there's a saying everyone has 5000 bad drawings in them, you just need to get them out the way."

"Well you are in for a long tutorship then." he said jokingly. "Hopefully I can set a new record for worse drawing ever, maybe get a trophy for it that looks like a disfigured house elf. But hey, if it takes 5,000 bad drawings to get one good one I am all in. I would like to start right now if you are willing to start."

Just then he looked down and noticed the cloth on one of her fingers was turning from white to red. Soon the white cloth was dyed a deep crimson and Humphrey tried to recall whether he had read in any of his books how to heal a wound. Checking his memory banks, he realized that healing was one subject not referred too. He wondered why that was, seemed to him it would be an important skill to learn. "Your finger is bleeding Charlotte. Do you have a bandage?" he asked her. "He moved closer and grabbed the hand with the bleeding finger. He carefully unwrapped white strip of now red cloth and examined the wound. It was a small cut in a precisely siced horizontal line on the end of her fingertip. He realized it was too neat to be an accident and must have been self-inflicted. Deciding that it might be a touchy subject to ask about he decided to avoid it. Pulling out his wand, he decided to use a cleaning spell to clean up the wound and the cloth. Then he would wrap it tighty enough to keep pressure applied on the cut. "Tergeo." he said softly and moved his wand over the strip of red cloth. It turned bright white. He then turned his wand on her finger and said, "Tergeo. There, now it is clean and if i tie the bandage it will keep pressure on the cut and stop the bleeding." he stated. He took the white cloth and carefully placed it over her cut. Then he wrapped it around her fingertip once, twice, three times and tied a square knot to hold it in place.

"There, all done now." he examined the knot and tightness of the strip. Everything seemed to be in order. "Better?" he asked.

Charlotte giggled softly, hopefully it wouldn't look like a disfigured house elf, Charlotte rarely did modern pieces, she wanted things to look like what it is they were supposed to look like, she enjoyed looking at Picasso but didn't understand his works.

"I'm sure it's not that bad, and even if it is, you can pass it off as a modernist or cubist work and then it could be anything."

Smiling a little awkwardly Charlotte blushed as Humphrey took hold of her hand and took the bandage off, exactly as she thought she had made the cut too deep, but as he cleaned and redressed the bandage she realised what this must have looked like.

"Uhm! I don't do that! It's um...I do blood magic to infuse it into my paint, it's a long story, but no no I wouldn't ever do that!" she said, flustered.

Nodding Charlotte sucked at her lip piercing, to try and stop herself being so embarrassed at what she had just said:

"Much better, thank you. You want to start your lesson now then? If you do go into my bag and get the sketchpad and pencils, you've got to start small before working on canvas."

"I had been thinking that you had cut yourself actually. Very glad to know that I was incorrect. It is a disturbing trait, and very sad when people intentionally hurt themselves because of emotional pain." he told her. It was simply his opinion on the matter of cutting.

"Of course I would love to start now!" he yelled. He rushed over her to her bag, and grabbed the sketchpad and pencils. Hurrying over, he planted his rump next to her and asked her, "So what do you want me to draw first?" He wondered if it would be a bunny, or a hippogriff, or a sunset, or simply a stick figure. "Oooh, can it be a portrait of you?" he asked her, thinking it was a brilliant idea.

Charlotte smiled a little nervously, her back began to itch a little bit where a few old injuries were still prominent, they were healed now but the scars were still there, hopefully she would be able to get rid of them soon, but she wasn't one to hide who she was.

"They just need someone to talk to and to make sure that theyre okay, so that they don't do anything silly."

Giggling a little as Humphrey seemed a little too excited to begun sketching but she was glad that he was enthused, although the idea wasn't bad Charlotte would need to correct his drawing, but she could always do that in stages.

"Okay you can draw me if you really want to, you give it your best shot and then I'll help you after youve done with the outline of me, is that alright?" she asked kindly.

"Sounds excellent, Charlotte. My first attempt to draw a portrait. And of a cute girl too." he said playfully." Ever so slowly he began to sketch the outline of Charlotte Smith. He began w at the neck and worked his way up. His first error was when he reached the point where her jawline flawlessly slanted up to meet the bottom of her ear. Very tricky, he could not get the angle right on it. He tried again, but another failure. He decided to move on and drew a rough outline of her face. Just the neck and above. He would draw the rest of her body in another piece. He knew that the face required the most detail and attention of a work of art.

"There we go, what do you think of yourself? Portrait-wise?" he asked her, showing her his rough outline of her neck and face. It honestly looked like an eight year old had attempted to draw Charlotte Smith's face. "Well, how did I do?" he asked since she had not yet responded.

Charlotte flushed as she heard him say that she was cute, it was very rare that people actually complimented her especially on how she looked, and she was glad that someone thought she looked pretty, that was more than enough for her.

"Thank you Humphrey, I never get called cute, it makes a rare treat for me."

Making sure to stay very still Charlotte looked out of the window and to the grounds while she was sketched, it was quite a nice day, but she was getting quite cold up here and because of the blood loss her hands were quite cold.

"Let's see! I'm sure it'll be wonderful."

With a small smile Charlotte took hold of the top of the pencil that Humphrey was holding: "See you might want to make straight lines and then curve them out like this..."

Charlotte drew the line of her neck straight and then added the subtle curve along it to make it look more like a face rather than a block.

"And you'd do the same for all of the curves that need to be done, sketch the curve with straight lines then smooth them out, a long curve will need more than one line, like my cheek for example."

Humphrey tried to pay attention to Charlotte as best he could. But when she said you will need to do this for all of the curves that needed to be done he completely lost focus. "Okay, you lost me when you said sketching curves that needed to be done. My stupid brain thought of something else entirely." he said.

He winced in anticipation of a scolding or slap to the head. Instead she remained silent. "What? No scolding me for my mind drifting to thoughts not related to drawing your face." he teased her. "I expected a slap to the back of the head or something." he told her honestly.

"Okay, let me try it again." he stated. Snatching the sketchbook and pencil from her hands. This time he did what she said and cheek went from way off to pretty close. He did the same with the curves of her ears, and the neckline that she had shown him. After he finished he examined it with a critical eye. "I suppose it is slightly improved. Here it is." Humphrey said, handing her the portrait.

Charlottes eyes widened and her cat ears popped out as she blushed with what Humphrey said, after all, she was a girl but she was only eleven so she didn't really have that many curves to draw just yet...or if anyone would be drawing them at all.

"Oh my Humphrey you really are something, please do try and control yourself next time I say curves, I mean in the face, not anywhere else."

Lightly Charlotte tapped him on the head with the pencil, she was flattered of course but she didn't really know how to respond, especially considering she barely even knew Humphrey they had just met.

With a smile Charlotte tucked a strand of hair behind her cat ears and looked carefully at the drawing, it was much improved!

"Well done! That's so much better than before don't you think? Do you reckon you can draw some eyes or features in now?"

"I will try to keep my mind from wandering to dirty thoughts like that in the future, Professor Smith. It is just difficult to ignore the fact that you are very pretty. I will attempt to keep my mind focused on the art though." he said.

"Well, I figure the drawing can't get any worse. I'll give it a try!" he exclaimed and took the grabbed the drawing and pencil. He began sketching the cat ears hat were currently sticking out prominently. He made a slightly rounded triangle. It didn't looked to be bad so he then sketched some wavy lines around her ears, trying to make it look like hair. He then drew in her eyebrows and the ovals that would be her eyes. He sketched in the bridge of her nose, and then continued it down to the end of her nose. Then he looked up at her again, examining her mouth. He pictured them solidly in his mind and tried to keep his thoughts fromw ondering what it would be like to kiss her. He sketched in a horizontal line and then the wavy lines on top and bottom that formed her pink lips. The right side of her mouth was lifted slightly in a small grin. He then drew in the pupils and colored parts of her eyes. He tried to accent her face with shading to capture the set of her cheekbones, her jawline, and her neck. He succeeeded in his efforts and once he decided he couldn't improvbe on it he handed it to her.

"Well, that is the best I can do. Hope you appreciate my attempt. Even though it doesn't even come close to your actual face." he said.

Charlotte flushed slightly more and her hair turned pink with the blush that she was currently sporting, however she calmed down quickly and merely smiled shyly at Humphrey while he continued to sketch her.

"Sometimes it's best to lose yourself in feeling when it comes to art, it makes everything seem so much more passionate."

Watching with interest as Humphrey continued to sketch her Charlotte smiled softly, it didn't look too bad now that things were getting slowly filled in, she could see that his work on hair and eyes needed improvement, but his lip structure and his nose was wonderful.

As the portrait was finished, Charlotte allowed herself to move around to see it properly and was very glad to see that he had done a good job, now it was just down to practice.

"That's wonderful Humphrey! Much improved well done! I'd give you a sticker but I don't have any, how about a Bertie Botts?"

A very short time after the Humphrey boy had walked in, Parker had stayed in the shadows of the room, making his way around and out of the room silently, carefully shutting the door behind him. They didn't even realize he'd gone.

Although he knew he shouldn't , Parker waited outside of the door a while, curiously listening to what they were talking about. Certainly interested when they had brought up the whole 'painting with magic' part of it. He really wanted to see how it worked, and carefully tired to peek in to watch, not hearing nor caring about what exactly they were saying.

He'd only seen the boy sketching and Charlotte's hair changing colour. That part freaked him out a bit, how could someone do that? He'd never seen such a thing. He figured when he got the chance he could ask her about the painting and her hair. Though his ignorance was a bit embarrassing to him, so he figured he would just look it up instead.

He didn't think he should stay much longer,so he then turned and made his way down the stairs, creaking as before.

"Wait, you actually like it?" he asked her in disbelief. "But, I mean the hair is terrible, and th-the eyes are, all wrong. I suppose the mouth and nose are okay and the ears aren't too bad. But, even if I was the best artist in the world I would not be able to draw you as beautiful as you really are." he said, trying to let her know how beautiful she was in his opinion.

"I would love a Bertie Botts every flavor bean. I heard they have every flavour, even bad ones, like bogeys." he shuddered at the thought. "Hope I don't get a bogey flavored one." he stated.