Andrea LOVED hogwarts. Not the studying part, because duh, but she loved how big it was. There were just soooo many places to explore, inside the castle AND outside. How terribly exciting.

She somehow found herself at the boathouse now, wondering if she could take a boat out onto the lake. Not knowing how to swim miiiight be a problem though. Hmmmm.

There was nothing better than being able to spend the day with your best friends. Living in a boarding school meant that weekends were designated for socialising out in the school grounds and today would be no different. It was a fairly mild Saturday in early March and the sights of Spring were starting to show through the patches where the snow had previously laid itself on the ground. Aurora had practically skipped her way down from the Ravenclaw tower and through the Courtyard following the path down towards the Boathouse where they had intended on taking one of the row boats out onto the lake.

She hadn’t intended on being early which was quite ironic considering that her common room was technically the furthest away compared to the other two who were located down in the dungeons and near the kitchens and therefore only needed to traverse one flight of stairs up. She didn’t mind waiting though, she was sure that Anna and Solly wouldn’t be too much longer. The second year found a little bench to perch herself on for the moment and watched the ripples in the water just in case a magical creature came to visit in the meantime.

She was most certainly on her way down and with, possible, supplies in her bag as well. There was a very real possibility that her excitement regarding hanging out with her two bestest friends would overshadow the plot she had been scheming and dreaming about for a while now. They were also meeting up at the boathouse and there were tons of things that were distractible in their own right - the very premise of taking out a boat on the lake being among them.

Alternating between skipping and running, Anna made her way down as quickly as her fun sized legs could manage and only nearly stumbled three times and of those only one really threatened to knock her completely over so she rolled the rest of the way down. Her balance was improving!

"Auroraaaaaa!" the Hufflepuffle called out, her stride now resembling that of a playful gallop and then jumped the last small distance with her feet together so that her ankles were brushing up against one another. One...two...three...four leaps and she had arrived at the same bench and was collapsing herself beside the blonde with a big beam on her face. "It's such a lovely day today, isn't it? The top of the lake looks like it has diamonds on it sometimes, when the light strikes it just so."

For the LIFE of him, Solomon could not remember what time he had agreed to meet Aurora and Anna, although miraculously he remembered the location at least. With that in mind, he made extra effort to get there early and avoid being late like he often was. He would later be shocked that he would arrive AFTER them both.

It wasn’t too far from his common room but all the steps outside the boathouse made it seem like a massive effort, but he managed to do so despite one of his shoe laces being undone. A detail that he had noticed but had decided to ignore in case the laces were wet from being dragged along the ground. Solomon would rather not touch soggy laces. A soggy anything was not enjoyable.

Upon arriving, a whole FIVE minutes after Anna had arrived, so did the shock that his friends had beaten him here despite his efforts, that I just mentioned above. “Am I late?” Solomon was already distracted by the boats and was eager to get inside one.

Thankfully Auroras punctuality didn’t mean she’d be left waiting for her friends to arrive for too long for whilst she was swinging her little legs back and forth under the bench as they couldn’t reach the ground, the sound of a familiar sing-song type voice rang out through the Boathouse landing right beside her with a hop, skip and a jump. “Annaaaaaaa” the Ravenclaw replicated the Hufflepuffs greeting. Wasn’t it just the coolest that BOTH their names started with an A? It was sometimes just the simplest of things that made that girl happy.

“It DOES look really pretty” she commented looking out at the sun reflecting on the lakes waters. “It looks quite clear too. Maybe we’ll get to see mermaids or perhaps Bartholomew will come and say hello?” The Giant Squid had already showed his face to Aurora at the beginning of term when she spotted him out sunbathing on the shores edge.

The discussion about how beautiful the day was got interrupted by the slightly late arrival of one Solomon Duck. The second year giggled at his hasty entrance looking somewhat disheveled with his undone shoelaces. “Only a little bit but that’s okay.” They weren’t going to hold it against him. “You might want to do your shoelace up before we get in the boats. I don’t want you to fall face first into the water.” As funny as that may be.

It WAS cool. And almost a shame that Solomon didn't start with one as well so they could be all be A's together. But then again, the letter S was a really pretty and fun letter to write so they could be ASA or SAA or AAS. Anna liked ASA herself because it was a palindrome.

"Oh oh that would be AMAZING if Bartholomew Henry made an appearance. Sometimes I hear rumors about grindylows peeking up around here too. Maybe the merpeople with bring their grindylows with them!" Really, meeting any of the lake's creatures would be amazing and Anna did not really have a definitive ranking in mind.

Her ears perked and twitched when Solomon arrived and her smile brightened just a bit more. Was he late? Anna didn't know - she was rarely on time for anything herself - and the only thing she knew for certain was that he had arrived after her. "Doesn't matter," she laughed. "Important thing is that you are hear now." Her eyes drifted downwards as Aurora mentioned something about shoelaces. "Oh, I'll do them!" she offered with her hand raised despite not being in classes. "You probably don't want to get your hands dirty and mine are a little already and don't mind a bit of mud." Solomon HAD been very particular about things when he had told her she smelled terrible, so it was a sacrifice and risk for the team (smelling worse) she was willing to shoulder. Besides, maybe they ALL would fall in the lake and then smell like lake water anyway.

SO, there she was, hopping up from where she was sitting and bunny hopping over to the Slytherin and kneeling down to fix his shoe laces.

Thank Merlin there wasn’t one A and two S’s.

Solly was a little surprised at how fast his shoelace became noticed, followed by some embarrassment that he wasn’t looking tidy, in front of two girls, no less. A problem that apparently didn’t matter at all until he had said company, that could be a good example that he never saw the bigger picture, only what was right in front of him. Anyway… he automatically stuck out his foot a little to allow Anna to tie them, which she kindly offered to do. “Thanks…they’re a little wet. I thought about trying a drying charm, but my mind’s gone completely blank,” he stared at her expectantly.

Looking over the top of Anna’s head, turning his attention to to Aurora, Solly replied, “…eerrrrr… maybe we should take a life jacket each, just in case.” It was a perfectly sensible suggestion, thank you very much. But also… he was a terrible swimmer, despite being a literal wizard.

Even the bubble-head charms would prove no use to Solomon.

ASA was definitely the preferred acronym in Aurora’s opinion. AAS sounded a little too close to a naughty word which was a little funny but they might get into trouble for using it.

Bartholomew was a friendly old squid who liked to have conversations with the students and despite his gigantic size and ancient age he wasn’t intimidating in the slightest. Grindylows however from what they had learned in CoMC were absolutely terrifying and preyed on small children and unfortunately for both Aurora and Anna they lacked completely in height and therefore probably fit into that category. “I hope they don’t think we are dinner then” she bit her bottom lip. Mermaids in the Great Lake were also nothing like the second year had imagined which was extremely disappointing the first time she had seen one. “I wish the Mermaids had pretty long red hair and sat on rocks and sang pretty songs like in the movies.” Sadly reality was a hard truth to accept.

Quickly after Aurora had mentioned Solly’s undone shoelaces Anna had offered her services to do them back up. Ever the helpful Hufflepuff she was. In fact the trio pretty well summed up their houses in that Rora was observant enough to spot the issue and then there was Solly not wanting to do them up himself. As for knowing the drying charm, that was on the two third years. “I don’t think I’ve learned that one yet.” If she had it had clearly gone straight over her head.

Having spent every summer as far back as she could remember holidaying in Greece, Rora was a particularly strong swimmer and didn’t mind going out without a life jacket. The petite blonde giggled just a little at Solly’s reluctance showing exactly why he wasn’t a Gryffindor. “If it makes you feel safer you definitely can.” Aurora meanwhile didn’t feel the need nor the want to wear one and have it get in the way.

AAS made Anna thing of astronauts...like AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAstronaut, because they probably made a bit of an thrilled screaming noise while being launched into space on their metal sausages. She knew they weren't actually called metal sausages, but that was all she could think of at the moment. Oh phials. Phials held things better than sausages did. Metal phials filled with aaaaaaaaaaaaaah-stronauts.

"Oh! I know a Hot Air Charms...and those are practically the same thing anyway," she chirped gleefully while tying his shoes and getting the pads of her fingers all sorts of wet and muddy - bit of mud under her nails as well, though they were quite short so that wasn't too terribly. "I can try if you'd like? I stopped setting paper airplanes on fire when I use it so your shoelaces ought to be okay." Along with his shoes. And his socks. And his feet too.

Turning back to Aurora with a smile, Anna shrugged her shoulders a bit. "It would be nice, but selkies have their beautiful qualities too. Muggles seem to do this thing where magical beings are only considered beautiful if they look something like them...and I am not sure how to feel about that, you know?" It wasn't a knock against the stories Aurora liked really, at least...not her intention...and more a reflection of her personal preference. "Also...they DO have beautiful singing voices but our ears just can't handle it above her on land above the water. OH! You know what we all need to do? We need to take a trip down to Atlantis! We'll see loads of beautiful merpeople and hear their beautiful songs that way. Oh this will be the best summer ever!"

Her idea inspired by Professor Hernandez? Forgotten currently. C'est la vie.

"We probably all should wear one," Anna considered thoughtfully while patting her cheeks with either hand - which also meant she was staining them with mud - and collecting one for herself which she immediately slipped on.

“That’s the charm I was thinking of!” Solomon said excitedly, not immediately worried about Anna performing such a magic upon him. (Said worry came a few seconds later when she mentioned setting airplanes on fire.) “Uhhh… on second thought… I think I’ll be okay.” Once she had finished tying his laces, he gently kicked each foot to get rid of any excess drops, which were barely there anyway.

Solomon was quite baffled that Aurora didn’t feel it necessary to wear a life jacket, all the while questioning his toughness in front of Anna. (She probably wasn’t intending on it, but that’s the way Solly took it.) He was pleased that Anna took his side, though. “Right.” He agreed. “Can’t be trusting the currents,” he said unknowingly, in his head comparing the lake to the Pacific Ocean. “… or that giant squid.” But if Aurora would rather DIE then wear a silly jacket then FINE.

#dramatic

He picked two up and tossed them towards the girls before finding one for himself. Time to stop dilly-dallying and get on the boat.

Anna wasn’t as engrossed in the fairytales that Aurora loved which did make the Ravenclaw a teeny bit sad. Whereas Aurora wanted to meet a certain red headed princess, Anna was more inclined to want to meet the genuine Selkies that graced the lake. “But aren’t they a little scary?” she whispered. Perhaps it was the greyish skin or the yellow eyes or those pointed teeth? As for visiting Atlantis that did sound like a great idea. “Can we?! Who else lives there? Is there a coral reef and fishes and dolphins?” she asked excitedly. Her knowledge of Atlantis was clearly lacking.

Solly obviously didn’t know Bartholomew as well as she did as he wasn’t likely to cause any harm to the students, at least not intentionally anyway. “BARTY wouldn’t hurt you silly!” she giggled. “And there’s no tides in a lake.” Of course Aurora wasn’t intentionally questioning her friends manliness, she was simply telling the truth.

How was she, the youngest, smallest and the Ravenclaw and therefore supposedly be the most sensible the only one brave enough to not wear a life jacket. It seemed like the other two were in agreement and suddenly a life jacket was tossed in her direction which had she been pre-warned about she might have been able to catch. Instead the life jacket smacked her in the face and fell onto the floor by her feet. Instead of making a fuss like some girls would, the second year snorted into a giggle.

Anna positively beamed at Solomon, her smile not faltering even a little when he changed his mind about needing dried off. "Okay, but if you change your mind just let me know! I'd be more than happy to help you try off and keep warm." she smiled and gave him a pat on his shoulders with both hands. Which sort of meant that a little bit of mud from her fingers likely came off on his shirt but it was surely no big deal. Just a little dirt and they were out on the grounds which was only to be expected.

Twirling on the spot to look back at Aurora, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster who had packed too much in its little cheek pockets. She was thinking about what Aurora had said, about them being a little scary, but decided pretty quickly that she did not agree with that statement but could totally understand why her friend and others might think so. "I think they probably seem that way because they are unfamiliar to you," she whispered back. Aurora did have the muggle fantasy version of what merfolk looked like and they were quite different. It wasn't just magazines that created unfair and unrealistic beauty standards! "I'm not sure...but I bet there are loads of flyers and information we can find. Probably a tour book or something in the library...I've only ever seen some pictures here and there in the Prophet, but there is a whole coral garden and hippocampi that you can RIDE!" If Aurora really wanted to get her mermaid fantasy fulfilled, she HAD to ride a hippocampus.

This seemed like a silly sort of debate going on between Aurora and Solomon regarding life vests. Sure, they hadn't worn them as first years while crossing the lake to get to Hogwarts, but they had also been supervised by the groundskeeper so...this was a little different. While Anna was ALL about adventure over the high seas, she also wanted to make sure everyone was safe and comfortable and Solomon clearly wasn't going to feel very safe without lifejackets. That really sealed the deal, didn't it? "No...but there are grindylows and other creatures that could surprise us...and maybe Bartholomew Henry will accidently stretch he tentacles out and give us a bit of some troubled waters. I personally would be very upset if either of you were to get hurt or drown so ... let's just wear the lifejackets. We can pretend they are a part of our explorer uniforms."