— CHILDHOOD — 1863 - 1875Irene Crawley was born to a rather peaceful childhood to a working-class family just outside of Bath. Her mother was a witch, and her father a muggle, but they made it work; unsure if their daughter would end up showing signs of magic and content to send her off to a muggle school when the time came. It was through her father that she grew up observing most Muggle painters such as those in the Baroque and Rococo eras. It was the elegance and lavishness that she knew they could never have that attracted her; museums became something she would beg her parents to take her to on special occasions. Anything that could serve as fodder to daydream about living in a palace or castle. While the Crawleys were by no means struggling, they simply did not have enough to live exorbitant lifestyles. While her mother and father didn't mind their child growing up loving what they did, her dreams far exceeded that of their means, and oftentimes Irene's father would end up distracting his daughter with little magic tricks. One day on her 8th birthday, she was treated to a visit to Louvre in Paris and took her mother and father by surprise when she stopped to watch a muggle magician in the courtyard outside. As Irene clapped with delight at the magician's performing act, her parents could see the man becoming more and more perplexed. It appeared he was pulling off the best magic act of his life. Real flowers were produced from his thin sleeve in the form of a large bouquet that would never actually be able to fit there. A real snow-white rabbit that was obviously supposed to be fake was produced from his hat (they were clued in on something going wrong because the magician started sneezing). The final straw was when he pulled out a rather large painting from behind his cloak and placed it on the easel. The act was ventriloquism, however, the painting subject immediately sprung to life and started talking to little 8-year-old Irene congratulating her on her birthday. It wasn't until the painting started chattering animatedly about the magical world that the Ministry had to be called to obliviate the entire crowd much to the bewilderment of Irene. — HOGWARTS — 1876 - 1881 Hogwarts passed with little consequence. Irene was sorted into Gryffindor where she made perfectly fine grades and perfectly fine friends. She'd never expected to make any sort of outstanding marks or find a career. It wasn't until her third year that she realized she had a talent for portraiture. From then on, most of her pocket money came from teaching students artistic techniques and completing portraits for them to send to their families back home. Though it came across as quite serious work, Irene found classes rather boring at times and passed the time pulling harmless pranks on her classmates such as transfiguring quills into certain objects like potion ingredients, and misplacing her friends' books were common tricks of hers. One day in a study session when a student saw a doodle in her sketchbook, he suggested she take a course by a professional in France. Though she wasn't able to afford the next year, the year after that was when the stars aligned and she was able to collect enough from her commissions and private lessons that she was able to go. The course turned out to be everything she'd wanted and more, resulting in her newfound passion to become one of the greatest painters in the world. Her 5th year was her final year. OWLs would only help so much, and she felt satisfied enough by her magical capabilities that there was truly no point in continuing Hogwarts. She knew she wanted to be an artist, and that didn't require two more years of magical schooling. — TRAINING — 1880 - 1883 Through a connection from her professor in France, Irene was able to gain an internship under a prominent artist in London. While she was found talented in her artwork, Irene discovered that painting as a job was rather tedious. She wanted to paint what she wanted, not be commissioned and be fussed at by Mr. or Mrs. Whatsit complaining she'd made their nose too big. That the portraits could talk to her was equally frustrating - while she would understand the portraits complaints, their owners doubling down on such criticisms was often too much to take. It was suggested she move into art restoration as a profession instead, which Irene much preferred to commission work. The paintings were content to chatter to her, and she was willing to listen and talk. In restoration, she soon discovered that her favorite works to restore were ones of scenery. They were also the most difficult given their constant movement, but she forgave them because they provided her with escapes to places she’d never been to before. Though she wouldn't be able to physically be there, if she sat and closed her eyes, she would be able to almost smell the forest floor beneath her feet, or the sand between her toes on a beach. Magical galleries provided such escapes for her, but she also enjoyed traveling to various muggle museums, finding their still work fascinating. Some of her favorite lunch breaks were taken in muggle museums where she would be able to sit on a bench and admire the still artwork. Her sketchbook was filled with images of the different positions she would place the subjects in should they have been able to move. It was during one such sketching session sat at her easel, completely absorbed in her work that someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned around to see a man standing at her shoulder observing her work. When asked what she was doing, Irene explained as much as she could given that she was in a muggle gallery: "I like to imagine what they would be like if they moved." — FRIENDSHIP, ENGAGEMENT...DISASTER; not necessarily in that order — 1883-1887 Colin had always been interested in art since he was a young lad, but it wasn't until he met Irene that he started to see the world through her eyes - canvases and subjects sprung to life as she described for him what they might look like or say if they talked. Her humor and mind left him speechless - all his experiences as an artist amounted to plenty of lunches taken in stuffy rooms with men who thought they were better than the working class. Colin had come from a modest background, with encouragement from his family and late father to pursue the arts. To have found Irene whose family all but encouraged the same of her was rare in his world, not to mention refreshing. The two began as friends, their similarities drawing them close. Irene thought it was best to keep a distance at first. Though her father was a muggle and her mother a witch, she knew the risks of exposing the magical world to someone who wasn't ready. Sure enough, it became difficult for Irene to discuss the day-to-day specifics of her job with Colin. It was always "oh, this painting is giving me trouble" but there was never more clarification than that. Eventually, he found it odd and asked her, but she skirted around the topic. 1884 saw the disaster of the Laughing Plague descends upon the wizarding community and Irene and her family are confined to their house. Her mother succumbs to the illness while her daughter and husband survive. Not being able to tell Colin the specifics of the Plague that hit her family and countless others nearly tore their relationship apart. The closer they became, the more he insisted she was hiding something from him and the more it killed her to lie. After realizing that he'd almost lost her to a Plague, Colin realized his feelings for Irene to discover she returned them in kind. Their courtship wasn't enough for Irene to reveal the magical world until 1887 disaster struck again and Irene's father was killed by a flying tiger. Having lost her family, devastated, Irene fled to Colin and immediately revealed to him that there was a world beyond his that she came from. Shock would have been kind to describe how Colin reacted, though in light of the circumstances, he kept strong and did his best to support her through her grieving. Time came when eventually, Colin proposed and Irene accepted, though their engagement would only last so long. Soon after his proposal, Irene sought out more information on marriage. Her search led her to discover that Colin's late father had been murdered by a wizard - something he had witnessed as a child and been made to think his father had died in a factory accident. His re-entry to the wizarding world wouldn't necessarily reverse those charms, but Irene felt it only right to explain to him the true reason for his father's death. — I'M A GODDAMN FOOL BUT THEN AGAIN, SO ARE YOU — She should have revealed it to him sooner - she knew that now, but fear kept honesty at bay and Irene sorely paid for it. Tradition dictated that the bride and groom not see each other the day of the wedding, but it wasn't something she could wait for him to discover on his own. She had never seen him so furious before - it wasn't something she would later be able to put into words, only into her work. And in the end, she had no one to blame but herself for waiting so long to tell him. The morning came and saw her begging for him to stay with her and to keep what they had, but normalcy was never something that could be achieved after that. Her walk down the aisle felt more like a walk to certain death as he refused to look at her. Only when it came time to say their vows did he meet her eyes and she had her answer as to what their future would hold. In the end, he couldn't be with someone from the magical world knowing that they had been responsible for not catching him sooner. Any attempts to tell herself that his father's death wasn't her fault were cut short as she berated herself for simply not telling him soon enough. But it wasn't over yet. They planned a time and place to meet for her to give back the ring. Eventually, they decided on the Louvre - a cruel twist that fate had decided to bestow upon her once more, for there was another reason for her to give back the ring. Once she'd handed it over, they found themselves surrounded by Ministry wizards. Colin couldn't know about the magical world again, that much was clear; and so the last she'd seen of him was his figure being restrained by Ministry officials, knelt on the ground as he screamed for her. — LIVE THROUGH THIS AND YOU WON'T LOOK BACK — The image of the betrayal and rage on Colin's face has haunted Irene for both too long and not long enough. Eventually after giving the ring back and handing Colin over to the Ministry for obliviation, she moves back to Hogsmeade and purchases a small flat in Pennyworth where she now lives. She eventually gets a job as a conservator and restorer, occasionally going on freelance jobs to restore both magical and muggle paintings. Though her family left her generous (but not wealthy) savings, she occasionally keeps the restored paintings she works on and sells them on the black market, while giving the family the copies. She only resorts to this if she's strapped for cash, or perhaps in the mood for it. — THE SAME DAMN THING THAT MADE MY HEART SURRENDER —