Dealing with the Facts (Ino and Richy)

Ingrid lay down on her back, which might have been a really big mistake, because she didn't know if she was going to be able to get back up again now that she was laying down on the ground, sighing she plucked a daisy from next to her head and looked at it, it was so pretty and yet, it's lifetime was short, almost over.

Sighing she attempted to roll over but all she could do was look up at the darkening sky, the thunderclouds rolling across it, and she wondered just how long it was going to take it to rain, and just how long it was going to take her to be able to get up again now that a stiffness had settled in her limbs.

"Just great." she sighed softly

Richard had been following his nose again.

It was a trait most commonly associated with wandering dogs, the inability to ignore scents in order to continue on with what he was supposed to be doing. But with his enhanced nose, Richard was prey to this as well. So here he was, trekking through the forest and following the unmistakable scent of dead flesh. Of course he hadn't gone looking for that scent, he'd been on the trail of an alchemist's scent when this had distracted him. Since he'd purposefully let the other alchemist run away after he'd torn a large chunk of his stomach out with a blasting curse and broken his wand, Richard was sure that he could find the source of the smell and, most likely, get rid of it as the powerful scent was overwhelming that of the other alchemist.

As he was nearing the scent the thunderclouds that had been looming overhead decided to burst, the rain coming in quick and heavy. It was really a blessing to Richard because he'd had a liberal amount of the other alchemist's blood all over his front and this way it was now running off quicker. He moved into a clearing and frowned a little.

The source of the scent appeared to be a girl, no more than fourteen. She looked to be most definately alive but she still had the scent of dead flesh on her, strongly since it seems to also be close to living flesh. With a wave of his wand, a nearby twig turned into an already open umbrella, which he used to shield the girl from the rain as he knelt down beside her,

"Hello little one, do not be afraid. I mean you no harm." he promised her quietly as he looked her up and down, sniffing a few times. He frowned a little and looked up at her, "Can you tell me something little one? Can you tell me... why is there a strange scent about you? Have you encoutered anything dead recently?"

Ingrid felt the rain plop on her and she sighed softly, letting it drench her for a few minutes, the cold feeling no different on the decaying parts of her body, the brusing had spread entirely down one leg and she had to put new bandages on this morning, so they were visable. One longer down to the knees.

"This is wonderful, even more rot." she whispered quietly.

Unable to stop a very loud squeak and an attempt to roll away when she saw a very dubious blood soaked man standing above her Ingrid strained her legs to get up and she whimpered as her muscled protested.

"W-what?"

Did she really smell that bad? She asked herself and as Ingrid stood up her legs felt shaky, as if they were on fire, steadying herself she smiled slowly and shook her head, nothing that she knew told her to tell this odd man anything about her.

"No sir. Excuse me sir." Ingrid bowed, her Russian accent thick

Richard watched as the girl tried, and failed, to roll away from him. Her knees and legs were obviously a point of great pain for her if the wincing was any indication. He focused on sniffing, trying to narrow down where the smell was coming from. It was obviously coming from the girl but, strangely, only from parts of her,

"I apologise for being blunt." he told her as he thought about it, "This is quite confusing to me. I have never encountered this problem before."

He watched her struggle to her feet with difficulty, and pain, and frowned a little bit. Focusing his magic a little more, he sniffed once. Healthy flesh. Decayed flesh. Dying flesh. Dead flesh. Wood. Treated wood. Opening his eyes again, Richard smiled slightly,

"You are russian?" he asked her with a small smile, "I am from Germany. My name is Richard Romain, I'm a professor at Hogwarts. I have a very sensative nose and I was just wondering... are you alright?"

Ingrid looked at the man and she stood wavering on her feet, the scars at almost ever joint in her body clearly visible from where he was standing, wavering away from him she wondered if it was possible for the man to know already what was wrong with her...from his nose?

"Uhm...I'm not being a pain am I? I mean, I can go avay if you vant me to."

She gestured to the way she had come and she smiled softly at Richard, she knew him, she had signed up for his class, and he was a very powerful wizard in his own right, notorious. Standing with her hands clasped in front of her Ingrid bit her lip.

"Sir, I am sure that you don't want to know about my problems, I assure you that I am dealing well with my condition, well, for now anyway."

The bandages on her leg slipped slightly to show the bruising and she hurriedly bent to correct it.

Richard looked her up and down and immediately came up with some problems. She had scars on her joints, it was unclear to him whether they were surgical scars or not but the fact that they were on every one of his joints was, in itself, cause for alarm. And the smell was still there, stronger now that she'd stood up,

"You're not being a pain at all." he assured her, "Just a bit of a puzzle. I think I need to brush up on my medical knowledge though."

He raised an eyebrow at her and tilted his head to the side slightly as he continued to look at her. It clicked a few seconds later; she was a transfer student who was going to be joining his forth year class. Richard smiled a little and held his hand out to her, using his wand to chanel an unseen spell into his offered hand so that he could know what component elements she was made up of,

"Well miss, you seem to be joining my class this year so I'd say it's something I'd like to know." he smiled a little more, "Although your name escapes me at the moment."

Richard saw the damage to her leg and frowned a little bit as he thought about it with the smell,

"Your problems... are medical in nature, yes?"

Ingrid didn't know if being a puzzle was a good thing or not, after all it didn't seem like he was upset by it so maybe she should let him figure it out, then again maybe she shouldn't and just stop herself feeling like a lab specimen.

"Vell, is zat a good thing sir?" she asks softly

Biting her lip Ingrid looked at him and saw his expression changed, she wondered if it was something to do with how annoyed that she had made him, so perhaps she should just tell him what was wrong.

"Oh! Oh I'm sorry! My names Ingrid, Ingid Valenska, you know me? Zat makes me happy! I hope it is for nozing bad."

Ingrid fixed her bandage and she felt a little less self conscious but she knew the teacher had seen it, how could he not? And she found herself left with not a lot of choice but to tell him.

"Okay you promise to keep it a secret?"

To be honest, Richard probably did see it as a problem but not in the way she was thinking. No, he saw it as a problem to be solved and not a problem with her personally. Richard shrugged a little bit and gave her a small smirk,

"Well little one, it a step up from being a pain isn't it?" he teased her lightly before shaking his head, "No, it's not a problem. Just something for me to be curious about I suppose."

He saw how she tensed up, even biting her lip, and saw it as a sign that she had something to hide. It wasn't a problem of course, he had more than his fair share of secrets from everyone but Briony,

"Nice to meet you Miss Valenska. As you know, my name is Richard Romain but I insist you calll me Rich. Richard at a push." he told her in a friendly tone, "I just saw your photo in my reports for new students. You're a smart girl."

Richard raised an eyebrow before nodding,

"I promise to keep it a secret. I know the value of secrets, you don't have to fear me telling anyone."

Ingrid was glad that she wasn't being too cryptic for Richard and she knew that soon the answers be was looming for would become totally clear to him. Picking at the large black stitches on her elbow she smiled softly.

"Anything is better zan being a pest or a pain, so I'll take puzzling as a good zing."

With that she stepped a little closer to Richard, the informality was new to her and it felt forgein in her mouth to speak to a teacher so informally.

"Richard, it zounds veird to me...but I shall do as you vish."

Ingrid smiled softly and tilted her head to one side pulling the bandage on her leg off so that Richard could see the large blossoming bruise that lay underneath it, quickly she covered it back up and winced as her nails cut the skin.

"I have necrosis, and parts of my body have been replaced by my grandfazer, he vorks vith dolls and he is making me a full body replica zoon."

Richard shrugged a little with a small smile. Personally he didn't really have a preference but she was right, it was probably better to be a puzzle than a pain,

"Well I'm known as all three, depending who you ask." he told her with a smirk, "Puzzling is probably one of the better things I'm called by some people."

When she stepped closer to him, Richard had to shut down his enhanced nose because the scent of dead flesh grew stronger the closer she got to him. But his spell told him everything that made up the girl who shook his hand. He blinked once, a longer blink than usual, in order to process the abnormal aspects. When he opened his eyes again, he knew there was dead cells in her body,

"Rich is prefered." he told her with a smirk, "But I'll work you up to calling me Rich. For now, Richard is better than Professor Romain."

Richard frowned, concerned when the act of putting her bandages back on seemed to hurt her more. The frown deepened when she told him her condition. He didn't know what the medical condition actually was but after analysing her body with his spell he could tell the effect of it. At the mention of her grandfather's plan, Richard frowned deeply,

"Your grandfather plans to replace the dead parts of your body with doll parts?" he asked, incredulously before he thought back to the smell of wood, "He's already started... hasn't he?"

Ingrid laughed lightly as he told her that he was called a puzzle by some people and it was one of the nicer things he was called, grinning softly she looked down at her knees and bit her lip softly, the rain was doing nothing for her at the moment and her legs only got weaker.

"Well rest assured Richard zat I vill alvays treat you vith zee upmost respect zat you deserve."

Nodding her head slightly Ingrid smiled and shook her head, it would be impossible for her to be able to call a higher person than herself such an informal title, it just wasn't done at all! Richard was already pushing it, it felt like taboo.

"Ve shall see. I look forvard to my virst year of school, I regret zat I am a first year, I veel stupid."

Ingrid nodded slowly and looked into Richards eyes with a soft, slow smile, she didn't know what really to say in response to this, after all it was correct.

"Yes, vhy? Is zat vrong?"

Richard noticed that Ingrid was wavering on her knees so pointed his wand at a nearby rock and concentrated. The rock changed into a chair and he helped her into it. He raised an eyebrow and looked jokingly shocked,

"Respect?" he teased, "I don't think a student I've taught has held any of that for me for a long time now."

Seeing that she really deadset against it, he shrugged a little and gave a fake sigh before smirking at her a little. Behind his smirk he was thinking through various ways in which to help the girl in front of him with her condition. First choice would be to cut the diseased parts out of her and replace it with healthy tissue. As an active alchemist this was easy to him but it would be painful and possibly traumatising so it was something to be avoided,

"Ah it's alright." he told her with a smirk, "Did you know... that I was so bad at Charms that I was held back a year in Charms during my school career? And look at me now! No, the world can expect great things from you Ingrid."

Richard frowned a little bit before shrugging,

"It's not wrong to replace the diseased parts." he looked at her sadly, "But becoming a human doll is nothing to be glad about. If you want... I could try a different approach."

Ingrid saw the chair and gratefully hobbled over to it but looked at it forlornly for a moment before whimpering as she bent her knees to sit down in it, this wasn't the best way to do things, she could tell things needed to change and fast.

"Vell. I vind zat disgusting. Students should respect zeir teachers at all times! Ze difference from Russia to Britain is larger zan I had thought."

Shaking her head Ingrid smiled softly at Richard and placed her hands on her knees, each of her fingers having been cut off and replaced, then the whole hand at the wrist, it was obvious to her the difference, but was it to Richard?

"I know...but zat is vone year! I am behind four, and I zink I vill not do very vell...but I must try yes?"

Ingrid bit her lip and she reached inside her pocket, pulling out a peice of paper and handing it to Richard, this was the doll she was going to have to move into as soon as possible.

"I don't know, it is scary, I do not know if it vill vork but...I am not sure about your solution either...my mama has it too but she is getting fixed in Russia, I know she vill be okay."

At least that's what she had been told, and Ingrid held to that, like a comfort blanket.

Richard frowned at his forgetfulness as Ingrid struggled to get into the chair, her knees in pain whenever she bent them apparently. He sighed a little and flicked his wand a little, turning the chair into a recliner once Ingrid was in it so that she didn't have to bend her knees,

"Well you'd think that but it seems british school children come without respect." he shrugged a little bit, "In Germany it was different as well. In Germany, students respected their teachers and each other. I suspect it's the same in Russia."

He glanced down at her hands, his attention drawn to them by the placement of them on her knees. Frowing a little bit, he sniffed once. As far as he could tell, the hands were either entirely wooden or just mostly wooden,

"You must always try little one." he told her with a smile, "Besides, necessity is the mother of invention and power. If you have a need to grow in strength and knowledge then you will. The more you want it, the more you need it, the faster you'll get it."

Richard raised an eyebrow but took the paper from her. Opening it up, he frowned a little as he looked at the little diagram. It seemed like a sound idea, magical wise, but practically and ethically? It was barbaric even to him,

"Magically, from what I can see on this disgram and my own knowledge, it should be possible." he admitted relectantly, "But I'm still not sure about it. It just seems... wrong. I don't know why. Perhaps it's because I know I can do a better job without turning you to wood, I don't know..."

Ingrid smiled, she didn't expect Richard to accomodate her needs but as he changed the chair to a recliner she smiled softly, her legs now they were streched out were much more comfortable and in less pain. The joints had not yet fused properly.

"Thank you Richard." she grinned

Clicking onto the frown that Richard wore Ingrid wondered if he didn't approve of her grandfathers work, they had been master doll builders for decades now and there was another aspect to his creation, that she simply couldn't tell.

"I zink zat it is very important to try, I mean, I have zee passion to be a danzer, but I know I vill only get zere with practice."

With that Ingrid held her hand out for the paper, now a little hurt that her Grandfathers idea had been critiqued so, but she supposed, to a powerful wizard like Richard, there was an obvious alternate.

"It's vrong? Vhy is it vrong? He is helping me..."

Richard smiled faintly as he saw that being in a reclined position did much for Ingrid's joints, not hurting her knees nearly as much if her lack of vocal pain was to be believed,

"Don't worry about it Ingrid." he replied before smirking, "Thanks for calling me Richard."

He still didn't like the idea that her grandfather had come up with. Sure, there was magic to allow a person to use wooden parts as if they were a part of their body but it wasn't the same to him, the sensation would be totally lacking for one,

"It is incredibly important to try. If you don't, your dreams will turn to regrets." he told her quietly before ruffling her hair with a smile, "You keep practicing and working and you'll be a dancer yet Ingrid."

Seeing how much he seemed to have hurt her with his critique, Richard smiled a little and ruffled her hair again,

"Well Ingrid... it's not so much wrong as not right. If that makes any sense." he sighed a little, "Your grandfather sounds like a wizard who is very good at what he does but what he does is not connected to the body. Ingrid, what I do is connected to the body. I could make an entirely new body for you. That is impractical though so I will tell you this... I can make any part of your body that you want to feel again. I can give you hands of muscle and bones and not wood."

Smiling softly as Richard thanked her for using his name, not his title Ingrid smiled softly as she looked up at him, happy to at least have someone that she could talk to about the way that she felt.

"I vill do it..I hoped when I become my doll, zat I could dance so easily, almost like ze puppet on strings yes?"

Ingrid had thought about becoming a doll a lot.

She wanted it.

For the first time in her life she thought that she would be absolutely perfect, she would be so beautiful that everyone would love her, she would be clever to outsmart all her old bullies and she would be a graceful dancer, the best in Hogwarts, the country even!

"I don't vant zat...I vant to be perfect...I just vant to be beautiful..."

Seeing her smile, Richard was glad to see that the girl had a happy smile, showing that she was a happy person. He could see her eyes sparkle lightly when she smiled lightly,

"That's in Ingrid... believe in yourself and you'll go far girl." he congratulated her but at the same time felt a little sad that the girl was so focused on her disease that she was willing to become a doll, "Well just make sure your wires don't get crossed okay?"

Richard looked into Ingrid's eyes for a long time, trying to find some hints of uncertainty. There were some but they didn't seem to be about the plan to turn herself into a doll so much as being beautiful,

"You want to be a doll?" he asked her quietly, closing his eyes for a few seconds. The concept of deciding to become a doll was alien to Richard, who was the only person in the world who could perhaps tell her how it felt to be made entirely out of wood, "You would become nothing but wood right?"

Ingrid smiles softly up at Richard she knew that it was hard for someone who hadn't lived like this to comprehend the reason she wanted to be a doll, but she knew she wouldn't feel like wood as her limbs now didn't.

"I vouldnt actually have vires silly!"

Giggling softly Ingrid looked up at Richard, he gazed at her for a very long time and she didn't know exactly why, at his question, she shook her head her small shy smile still in place as she proudly pointed to the drawing.

"No no! Even zough zee base material vill be wood, it vill feel nothing like it, just like zee skin vould feel, my grandpapa vill use magic to make my body sensitive to touch, like a real vone. And finally, I vill be perfect!"

Ingrid smiled happily, closing her eyes to imagine how she would be like when the change was made.

"I vill be able to do so many things...I vill be able to valk properly and to play outside and on zwings..."

He chuckled lightly at her joke and held up his left hand. Taking his wand with his right, he pointed it at his left hand and began to mutter bellow his breath. Immediately, his left hand glowed and became a dull brown colour, now completely made out of wood but otherwise unchanged. He waved the fingers at her, showing the same freedom of movement,

"I know you won't need strings." he smiled a little, "Because I can do it too."

Richard poked his wooden hand with the end of his wand, causing the wand to spark. The wood of his left hand singed but he felt nothing. It was strange, even to him, to imagine that a person could feel anything when their hand was made out of solid wood. Magic or not,

"Now that sounds like a very complicated piece of magic. Your grandfather must be quite the wizard." he ruffled her hair again, smiling at the little girl who reminded him of himself in many ways, "You've said you want to be perfect a few times now. Do you know what a perfect person is?"

Richard looked down at the girl, deprived of such basic measures of childhood and couldn't help himself. Kneeling down beside her, he hugged her lightly, being careful to avoid her joints,

"Soon you will be able to have all of those things Ingrid." he muttered quietly, "Whether by your grandfather's hand or my own, you will experience those things. I promise you."

Ingrid turned up her nose at Richards altogether crude attempt at making a wooden hand, tilting her head to one side she touched it gingerly, it was smooth but besides that it was completely impractical for puppet making.

"Thats pretty cool Richard, but, you haven't obviously had experiences in making dolls like ve have."

Smiling as he turned his hand back to normal Ingrid moved hers away, so she was no longer touching him, and Ingrid nodded enthusiastically, very few people knew of her grabdpapas craft and so couldn't fully appreciate it.

"He iz. A very great vizard. Zo...you should stop zee vorried face, I'm going to be just fine, and zen all vill be good."

Ingrid shrugged her shoulders before thinking a moment: "Everybody has an idea, of vat perfect iz to zem, I just vant to be pretty and to be able to move around, zat, in itself vould be perfection to me."

With that she smiled, the sudden but gentle hug making her surprised but oh so delighted to have one:

"Zank you...you are very kind..."

Richard chuckled a little as the little girl in front of him seemed to analyse how he'd made his hand wooden while keeping a full range of movement. It was quite odd to see a girl her age stick her nose up at one of the hardest elements of transfiguration, self-transfiguration. Concentrating for a second, the hand turned to metal as Ingrid touched it,

"Well it's mainly for defence to be fair." he told her with a smile, "Not many attacks can get through living metal. And if they do? Well I don't feel a thing."

He looked up at her, his worried face falling away into a small smile, as he ruffled her hair away,

"Was it that obvious?" he joked before shrugging, "You're grandfather has a craft that few enter. He must be only of the few masters right?"

Richard looked down at his feet while she answered his question. It was clear to him that Ingrid was a scared little girl who just wanted to feel pretty and fit in like every other teenage girl. To his understanding this made her perfectly normal to be fair, only she actually had a problem she needed to overcome to feel both normal and pretty,

"You sound like my other students." he told her with a small smile, "You sound like every other girl your age. Except you actually have to work hard, and against something, to be normal, to be pretty, to be able to run after cute boys and alike. You'll get over your barrier and you'll be better than them I can tell."

Richard gave her a very light squeeze in the hug and pulled away slowly,

"You don't need to thank me Ingrid." he smiled faintly, "I haven't done anything yet."

Ingrid thought about the living metal that Richard could turn himself into and she wondered just how powerful he was, after all, that was no small feat, but in her opinion if you were going to do it, best do it right, and not just turn into any old metal.

"Vell zen, zat is a very good technique to use zen...you find yourself under a lot of attacks?"

Tilting her head to one side Ingrid nodded her head slowly, most of her grandpapa's friends were now dead, leaving him the only master. Of course he had many people wanting to become apprentices but he was intent on teaching Ingrid alone.

"Yes, he is zee only vone loeft now, but he is teaching me to do it too...zo if zomezing happens to me, and he izn't here, I can fix myself."

Ingrid didn't like it when Richard told her that she was just like every other student, she liked to think besides the disease she had other things that defined her as different, but, she didn't know if she did now.

"I guess, zen, zats kind of okay...but I don't vant to be boring..."

Staring up at Richard she squeaked and tried to move her arms around him, to keep the hug in place, she didn't often get to have them.

He could see how much his trick of turning his hand into metal had impressed Ingrid, even if most of the reaction was confined to her eyes, those most expressive orbs of hers. At the question if he found himself under attack a lot, Richard shrugged a little,

“Not so much anymore.” He admitted before frowning, “Used to be every other day it felt like… hunting isn’t much fun when you’re the ‘prey’.”

Richard nodded a little when Ingrid agreed with his assessment of how many other puppet masters there were with the same level of competency as her grandfather. He knew how that felt because he was one of perhaps three people in the world who could perform active alchemy anywhere near his own level,

“Well it must be quite an honour to be learning from the last master of the craft right?” he asked her, trying not to get drawn into the morbid topic of Ingrid having to replace her own body parts with wood, “Does he want you to take over his position as a master once he decides to retire?”

He chuckled a little and looked up at the sky. Being normal was not something he himself had ever had the luxury of being. It took regular parents to be normal after all,

“Well I wouldn’t really know much about being normal.” He admitted, “But what I do know of it is connected to my wife and daughter. I have a normal family life… and it’s not boring, it’s beautiful.”

Richard looked down at Ingrid in the hug and smirked a little bit,

“Did you just squeak?” he asked with a chuckle before hugging her again, “It’s kind of cute.”

Ingrid wondered just what Richard had done in order to get him chased like that throughout the last period of his life, she hoped that he would be okay in the future and he wouldn't have to be chased ever again.

"I doubt it vould be..."

Her voice a whisper Ingrid smiled as she looked at Richard, she was so very happy to be learning from her grandpapa and she hoped that in the future she would be able to use his craft as well as he did.

"Yes, it iz a huge honour, and it's easy because it iz my grandpapa zo he knows how to teach me."

Ingrid nodded her head, it seemed as though Richard had a tough life and now he is through the other side of it, and she hoped this would happen to her too and that she could be normal too. Blushing softly as he asked her if she squeaked Ingrid looked at the floor.

"I may have done. But it iz not cute!"