where sinners play as saints

[IRINKA AKSINYA XANTHOPOULOS]

Maybe I'm foolish, maybe I'm blind
Thinking I can see through this and see what's behind
Got no way to prove it so maybe I'm blind
But I'm only human after all, I'm only human after all

April meant that there was only a few more weeks of school left and even fewer till final student exams. The whole year had been building to this time of year. Rinny would be lying if she said she was not stressed. Of course she managed to keep her composure but it was starting to feel like everything was starting to pile up. Between keeping up with Rain and keeping up on all her actual students...well Rinny was sure she wanted to put of parenthood for a number of years that was for sure.

Of course there was much that she enjoyed about teaching, or assisting in teaching. When it wasn't all grading the papers the professor didn't want to read. She wasn't the only intern that year, Caesar Montague was working under the potions professor. It was almost amusing to Rinny actually as they both were only eighteen when they started working as teachers (almost) - both fresh graduates themselves. Except she hadn't been a student there. She found it hard teaching people who only a year before would have seen as a peer - he was literally their peer.

Overall she had found Caesar someone she could talk to, in their own way at least. Coffee, lunch, grading sessions and well intern work. Today she sat with more essays than she cared to number - she had to wonder if she had wronged the dear professor some how to be punished in such a manner. Of course it was due to exam proficiency for the students as to punishing her - Rinny still felt personally attacked with this task of grading though. Which explained why the bottle of vodka was brought along as well.

It was into the evening so it was acceptable...enough. When she had arranged for Caesar to join her in a grading session, so neither of them had to suffer alone you know moral support and all, well she had not imagined she was going to be faced with this much of a task. Hopefully Caesar was ready to endure for a while...

Rinny was a petite witch, she liked to claim her height was average - but even in her home country that was not the truth. What she lacked in height though she made up in confidence and attitude - which could lead her to trouble more often than not. Perhaps she ought to have been intimidated by Caesar, but from the start she had held herself as his equal...or maybe even counted herself to be superior - wasn't she a Xanthopoulos after all? These days though, she was growing comfortable with his company - its hard to think yourself so superior when you're requesting moral support in grading papers.

The smile was obvious on her face when she caught sight of him, she might have been on the verge of worrying her had decided to forget about their grading session. "And here I was thinking it was going to just be this mountain of essays, one excellent bottle of vodka, and myself." Others their age would be getting off their job shifts and heading to dinner, to bars, to clubs, parties - they were teenagers after all. She had only just turned nineteen on the eighteenth of that very month. So, didn't they deserve to at least have a tiny bit of fun - once in a while?

"So, whats the damage for you tonight, you being treated like you have nothing better to be doing as well? Like planning lessons, write mock exams, something far more useful to teaching than grading papers...." Was she bitter? Yes, and she clearly didn't care to hide it. What could she say Rinny liked to teach by action not by paper. This was a nightmare. But Caesar was there now - so he was now going to endure the nightmare as well. At least the way Rinny saw it.

TAG: CAESAR ERIC MONTAGUE
NOTES: I thought this was going to be a serious post...but I guess Rinny had other ideas haha

[CAESAR ERIC MONTAGUE]

EUDAIMONIC DYSTOPIA

The cracking sound that every bone in his body made when he stood up from his desk sent shivers down his spine. Only a couple of hours had passed since he decided to dedicate his day to grading the papers that had begun to pile up on his desk, yet it felt like a thousand years. And a thousand-year-old was also precisely how he felt. His plain black button-down shirt and grey sweater only seemed to add to the hyperbole. Who would have thought grading the first years’ tests could be that exhausting. What an eleven-or-twelve-year-old was capable of writing surprised him quite a lot. He remembered thinking playground duties were dull, and wanting to do ‘real’ teaching in his first few weeks of the internship. Now to him, there was barely any line separating dull and desirable anymore.

Holding the stack of remaining ungraded papers with one hand and his cup of coffee with the other, he kicked the door of Potions classroom close then made his way back to the staff room. His green gaze travelled to his wristwatch to make sure Irinka was not going to have to wait on him to start the grading session that they had been assigned. They were at the same age, working in the same positions at Hogwarts and technically equal in terms of skills; yet, he could not help feeling overpowered right there in Hogwarts – the place where he had grown up – by the newcomer. It was not that the girl outright displayed any sort of authority. She did not need to, the rumours about her had already done it for her. A Durmstrang graduate and a Xanthopoulos, full of mysteries and always looking like she had effortlessly got everything together. Yes, the Montague owned a few grand properties one or two museums and a stadium; but in terms of magical capability, they were not even eligible to be compared with the name Xanthopoulos. Irinka’s presumed superiority had more or less forced him to be as respectable of a human being as he could possibly be in her presence. That, of course, included punctuality. If only she had not been so discreet and outright claimed those impressive reputations to be true, then he would have been able to dismiss her as an empty threat. And if only her personalities had not been so much beyond merely tolerable, he would have had a reason to at least dislike her.

He leaned his back against the door to the staff room after unlocking it, cautiously pushing it open while keeping an eye on the warm black liquid in his cup. His back was in her direction when he heard her voice. “Oh, come on, Xanthopoulos. I’m only four minutes behind schedule.” He replied, smiling as he turned to face her. “But you should have told me that there was going to be vodka. I would have got here four hours early!” His tone went playful and was accompanied by quick wink.

He took the seat across her, slowing placing the stack of paper and his cup down on the table. Even when sitting down, his eye level was still a few inches above the top of her head. Her small figure often amused him. While her family name usually suggested intimidation, her appearance always suggested otherwise. “Well, I guess I do deserve this sweet torture,” his eyes landed on the ungraded test papers again, his smile faltered a little, “I may still have the bad habit of procrastinating until the last minute from the schooling years.” It sounded so far away when he spoke of his time as a student that way. Sometimes, he forgot that only a year earlier, he, too, had been amongst those he now referred to as ‘kids’. Of course, the older kids constantly reminded him of it by not taking him seriously in the few rare occasions they were in class with him. For that reason, he learned to appreciate the easily scared first years that he was assigned.

Irinka’s blunt expression of bitterness made him almost laugh out loud. Her enthusiasm for teaching reminded him of how excited he had been at the start of the internship. “Welcome to the British world, where things don’t get any more exciting than the people.” A playful smile spread across his face as he ironically made the joke with his English accent. He could not help it, the stereotype was too on point to ignore, and he figured he liked the light-hearted direction their conversation was heading. “How is it going with your work anyway? Finishing anytime soon?”


tag: IRINKA AKSINYA XANTHOPOULOS
notes: i love how casual they are!

TEMPLATE BY ELIZA @ Delusional & SP

[IRINKA AKSINYA XANTHOPOULOS]

Maybe I'm foolish, maybe I'm blind
Thinking I can see through this and see what's behind
Got no way to prove it so maybe I'm blind
But I'm only human after all, I'm only human after all

"Montague - I'm Russian - there is always vodka." It was a stereotype, but stereotypes had to came from somewhere didn't they? Well when it came to vodka it was a stereotype she embraced whenever possible. In many ways it was amusing to Rinny the way Caesar could act and talk as if he was already a well seasoned man - yet she was technically older than the lad. So much about him though made him seem much older at times...the way he dressed didn't help - at least if you asked her. She felt he was trying to hard to show his former peers that he was respectable or something along those lines. Not that her approach was much better - sticking with her own style and her personality to keep the students in line. Again though she had the upper hand of being an imported teacher.

In some ways Rinny was a little surprised to hear Caesar's confession about his procrastination. How did that work when it came to being a teacher? Rinny was never really allowed to procrastinate - not when your life was planned out. Literally. Nor when there was a very large shadow you had to stay within completely and yet not become absorbed in. The expectations had been high, and the standard as well. It was hard not to think about how she got to this point - all because of the nostalgia in his tone. "Procrastination never amounts to anything good...its so tempting though when the deadline is no longer yours." It was different now that they were grading the papers and not writing them. Still some habits were just too ingrained to break. "Regardless though, at least you - somewhat - punctual." Rinny had to snicker a little and smirk at her companion. She didn't care that he had been a few minutes late...maybe if a quarter hour had past he would have dealt with her mood.

Rinny's had to wonder Would she be working to become a teacher if her parents hadn't decided that she was to come here to teach Rain? In many ways even she could point out the flaws in her personality and drive to be an excellent teacher. She'd always been the student - at home and at school, yet now she was expected to know how to be a teacher with no experience. Instead she was forced to push her wants and dreams down and do what was best for the family. In many ways she almost tried to forget that there was things she actually wanted to do - ideas that were her own. Besides it wasn't as if she was ever allowed to voice her wants and dreams. No one in the family had ever really asked them to begin with. So she never spoke of her dream to travel the world seeking treasures with Dmitry - or even her sister Lesya. Rinny was here for Rain, because she had been chosen - for reasons she still wasn't sure she understood. It was best she try and forget all about what she wanted.

The look that crossed her face at his words was almost fearful. "Don't say that - I could be here a while and that - there is only so much vodka can do, understand?" Rinny craved adventure even if she didn't admit it aloud it was hard to contemplate the idea of settling - in so many ways. But even if he had been joking there hadn't been too much exciting since she had come - and only a handful of people did she even think to be close to the term. "Besides, I'm sure you're very very very exciting - under the the sweaters, and that tense face you make when the students are in the halls. And you're clearly the poster boy for British people for me so what ever you are everyone else must be too." It was a bad joke but she was trying, and she hadn't yet gotten to open that vodka so, she wasn't to blame for her humor being dry.

"This? This....mountain," A gross over-exaggeration, but this was typical of Irinka when came to paperwork, "These fourth years seem to have found that lovely ratio in their writing where they circle the subject just enough you almost forget they have no idea what they are meant to be writing about...so, I can dream that this will be over soon." She guessed it really was all about will power and determination to complete the task.

"I think I offended him some how, it feels like a trick when he asks me to take the extra papers off his hands. 'Two people can complete one task in half the time' - but than I get all the papers? I don't know Montague but if you ask me, something is not adding up." Even though she was very serious about not understanding what she did to get such a workload her statement was more in fun. "At least I won't suffer alone tonight." She offered up a friendly smile, yes she was actually happy for his company - now she just needed her drink. Reaching beside herself she grabbed the bottle that she had brought along and a short glass cut - it was one of those nights for her. It was a healthy amount she poured for herself but these essays were needing it.

TAG: CAESAR ERIC MONTAGUE
NOTES: can't wait to see what these two get up to haha also sorry I rambled oops