Beautiful Mess PV Eugenia

Lives change every day and we don’t know they do. Or we know they do, but not in the degree, or in the way we anticipated. Or we just don’t know. And as much as we may think we know, it is always an issue. This unexpected change. And one day, you learn to live with it. Eugenia had lost family members more than one time. She hadn’t felt the true slap of it until she lost her grandfather. A man of quiet dominance, who did not love openly, but would do anything for his granddaughters. All cousins were viewed as equal, but the girls would swell hearing his praise. One summer, they were together. The next, he was gone.

The old man’s birthday would have been approaching, if he were alive. In just three days, there could have been a large family gathering, celebrating another year to the Karageorgiadis patriarch’s life. Eugenia Smyrnidi couldn’t have possibly thought of the disastrous tangle fate left them in after May the Fourth of 2022. But she had to keep going, and to wallow in misery was not acceptable. From her neck hung the reputation of two grand families of Greece, and if she even wanted to survive, she would be careful not to mess up. The slip up of any pure blood could throw the family in a tabloid, and she had to behave like the perfect pure blood heiress. (Lest they learn about the impurity. If they do, the families are doomed. Dead in days.)

Since the beginning of fourth year, Eugenia had been working herself dry trying to get an early start on the material provided. Should something like last year happen, she wanted to be able to have as much knowledge as possible already, so that catching up doesn’t require as much time and effort as it would have otherwise. But that was definitely not easy. Between the many new books, her intense programme, duelling training, the Patronus charm, other gatherings and her perfectionism, this task was like a steep mountain climb. It progressed slowly and torturously.

Thankfully, some days things were better than others and Eugenia could feel a little more human and a little less like a machine. Today was not exactly one of them, but Eugenia was at least not experiencing an emotional rollercoaster this day. It was extremely difficult for the young girl to keep her mind clear, and she wasn’t really successful. Today though felt less like a drag and more like walking around with a gaping emotional void. She knew her grandfather’s birthday was in around a week and back at her dorm, she was at the middle of crocheting a jacket for him. (What use is giving a dead man presents? Tradition and closure.) She would send one of the school owls to deliver it to his gravesite in a day or two. Greece is far away. The poor owls need to rest.

She had copied down the homework from her lesson and exited the room among the last, taking more time to pack her things to hear the questions students asked after class. If it were about advanced material, maybe she could make use of it. There were no questions this time though, and she couldn’t make her hands go faster. Routines had an important force. Her head was thinking, once again, at lightning speeds, but at least it wasn’t hurtful. Some days, it was. The realisation that she had no more classes for the day struck her suddenly and like a bullet in the back. Time had passed so fast, she hadn’t realised the sun was starting to fall. Mind electric, she strapped her enchanted satchel on her shoulder, her hand stiffening from carrying it like a purse. She had not realised that either.

The hallways felt for once, strangely empty, almost like the own burning hole of her psyche inside. But her head, was full. Not emotions and memories this time, but of some mundane thoughts that were threatening to enlarge and consume her. So she kept on walking.

As opposed to common knowledge, there are staircases in this school that didn’t move. And that was a gift. So, Eugenia reached one of the spots she had found in her thorough exploration of the place three years ago, in a seeming hurry, which completely disappeared once she sat down at the foot of the stairs, head leaning against the polished banister. That was when she noticed a girl, she seemed to be a lioness. And from the familiar feel to her face, she was either from her year or a quidditch player. It was the familiar of having one or two meaningful interactions, but not much.

So, the Greek sat there. She didn’t speak for she chose to wait until she was noticed.
¹: translation:

english - #194935 russian -#9F263E greek - #3E4FA5 french - #B25F5C

@avery gray date: 20/09/2026 place: corridors phantom returned

mentions ; @Eugenia Smyrnidi
notes ; none

abilities ; 1. ’s Grace ; 2. Fearless ; 3. Keen Eye.
statistics ; sta 7 ; eva 8 ; str 7 ; wis 8 ; arc 6 ; acc 10

Some things were, for the Greek, sacred. Love and fallen loved ones were included. In the maze of daily life, they were one of the things she held dear and, subsequently, amongst the topics that triggered most of her recollections. When it danger, it was easier to be brave holding on to those things: those you are meant to protect and those who protect you from above.

The numbness in her mind didn’t stop and she was glad for it. It was usually the predecessor to happiness and glee, maybe the pure unfiltered sound of her laughter when she was alone. Death was something difficult to cope with, and she knew that. It seemed that a death was fate’s choice of a catalyst of events meant to leave you broken, begging for help to breathe and live, and for unlikely and unfortunate reasons only Lachesis knew, Eugenia had to experience it.

Sitting on that cold, stone step of the staircase, nothing came back flooding to her, thankfully. The constant floods were tiring and for once, she felt like she was doing progress. Her head low, she was practicing the pronunciation of an elder year spell she could use in her dueling matches. Waiting for the Gryffindor to notice her and speak, if she wanted to. The space between her and the opposite banister was large, and the lioness could easily fit through if she wanted. There was no reason for Eugenia to obstruct one’s way, even now. Her head still against the ornate banister, she began fiddling with her hands, soundlessly saying the incantation over and over again, until the feel of it rolling of her lips felt right and natural.

The other girl took a moment and then stood up. Hearing the slight tap on the ground, Eugenia looked up slowly, her mind subconsciously starting to analyze the girl in front of her. She seemed shaky and the locks of hair falling in front of her face seemed to paint a more messy picture than a memory threatening to surface. The heavy breathing of the girl did not match the image that flooded the badger’s mind. The same girl with a vibrant red dress walking in a pure blood mansion, the annual summer pure ball, if Eugenia could remember correctly. The expression on her face seemed to be confident, but she was far away. Oh, but it didn’t seem like the same girl. She couldn’t place the name, but from the significance of the memory, Eugenia deemed the had maybe talked to each other that night, a night that marked one of the first nights of heavy public pretense. Or was it from that match against Gryffindor that they had won, but she was barely fine? She didn’t know. Only that a surname matched to her, one she was uncertain of and didn’t utter subsequently. Gray.

In her mind, she tried to remember, if anything, any recent news about the Grays, but her mind had given out. Massaging her temples, she tried to remember if anything had happened to the family that she had missed, but nothing specific came up, though something must have definitely happened for them to be generally absent from her mind. Weird logic, yes, but valid.

When the girl actually spoke to her, her mind wasn’t clear yet as it had been before, when she was simply numb, but she did listen. She was questioning her, as if she had been blocking anything. Eyes hastily blinking back to where the girl had been standing before, the Greek couldn’t find a way she could be blocking the passage of anyone. The girl had been sitting against the wall, unlike her, actively resting on the staircase.

With a twitch of her lips, Eugenia opened her mouth. “Well, I should be asking that, as I am the one sitting on a staircase. But no, you were not. I’ve found a non-moving staircase and decided to take a break.” Again, she surveyed the lioness and it seemed that something was plaguing her mind. She seemed wary of things and on her face was a hint of red. Was she embarrassed? Eugenia couldn’t really tell. Her own expression was polished and didn’t betray any specific emotion mirroring her own internal numbness. She made a note to finish her homework before ten thirty, in hopes of making progress on her crocheted jacket, hoping to finish the first sleeve before falling asleep.

Something in her prompted her not to end her comment there. The words struggled to leave her mouth; would the remark be imprudent? But a simple question, so open-ended, couldn’t be perceived wrongly. Even if the lioness was angry at her, she hoped it wouldn’t provoke her. “Long day today, hm?”

¹: translation:

english - #194935 russian -#9F263E greek - #3E4FA5 french - #B25F5C

@avery gray date: 27/09/2026 place: corridors phantom returned

mentions ; @Eugenia Smyrnidi
notes ; none

abilities ; 1. ’s Grace ; 2. Fearless ; 3. Keen Eye.
statistics ; sta 7 ; eva 8 ; str 7 ; wis 8 ; arc 6 ; acc 10