James walked from the lake and then fell, not watching what was under him. He fell unto sand. As he raised his head he noticed he was surrounded by a big sand box. He got up and sat on a ledge. It was quite big and seemed very enjoyable. James gathered some sand and started building a sandcastle. It was entertaining!

Dem walked down to the sandbox only to find Sneeze building a sandcastle. "Hey, Sneeze." she went and sat down in the sand. "I heard this was here but I thought it was just a joke." she smiled and ran her fingers through the sand.

Ems was in explore mode. Her usual annual trip around the grounds after the feast to re-familiarise herself with the surroundings of Hogwarts. She had already visited the beautiful lake – sat and lost herself in the reflections from the mountains upon the crystal clear ice cold water for a while; been to say 'hi' to her mate the Whomping Willow; and even all the way to the Bamboo Forest.. which still confused her. Bamboo and Scotland just did not seem to mix.

What confused her even more, however, was this massive sandbox she had stumbled upon. Glancing at the two students in there, she wrinkled her nose as she watched them building sandcastles and play in the sand.. like two year old muggles. What in Merlin's pink frilly knickers would Hogwarts come up with next, eh? A muggle ball pool? A Hogwarts sized bouncy castle? An adult sized playpen to put the disruptive kids in? The ideas the professors were coming up with were getting more bizarre with each passing year.

She looked at the sand for a moment and then shrugged. slipping off her shoes, she stepped in cautiously. The warm sand actually felt quite nice on her bare feet she had to admit. She wriggled her toes. Merlin... Henry would LOVE this! Like a replica of his natural habitat.. only colder and with more children around.

She sighed and sat down on the edge, looking over at the two Gryffindors again. “So which professor do you reckon was mental enough to come up with this idea?” She asked them both conversationally. Course, it could have been the Groundskeeper.. though he seemed kinda normal compared to the professors. Lupa.. she bet it was her.

Dem giggled a bit at the Slytherin who had come to join them. "I don't know. At first I thought it was dumb, but its kinda fun." she told her. Dem sat there writing her name over and over in the sand

Kevin limped over to the sandbox he had heard this was here but had never known that it was accessable smiling at Demetria, the other gryffindor and fellow slytherin he thought more friends to make"

"Hey Kevin." Dem waved.

Kevin waved and said "Hey Demetria thought you would play in the sand as well"

"Come on Reese" Vanessa giggled, as she turned around to smile at her younger blonde friend. She had noticed a little something else as she had moved down to the lake, and she wanted to explore, to see what it was. And who better to do it with than Reese. They had practically spent all summer together, so she was sure Reese wouldn't mind Vanessa dragging her down here.
Smiling, she waited for her friend to catch up with her, whilst she curiously looked ahead, wondering what was there.

Reese followed Vannie down to the lake, waaaaay against her own will. I mean- she was more than happy to hangout with her friend and explore the grounds of Hogwarts. Honestly, was there really going to be anything new this term? Right when she asked herself that, she saw the HUGE sandbox. Ohmygosh. She stopped walking and tilted her head at the sandbox. First, she was NOT a little kid. Little kids only played in sandboxes. Yet, she actually wanted to go play in it.

She picked up her speed and ran after Vannie, who had just recently stopped to wait on her. "Come on," she called out, running past her, "I want to play in the sandbox." She kept running towards the box, flapping her eyes up and down as she went. Who was acting like a little kid now? Reese Upstead, that's who.

"Sandbox?" Vanessa cocked her head to the side, as she now slowly followed her friend down to the sandbox. Woah. They had sand. "Wow." She giggled, running down after her friend. Wow. She really did look like a mature seventh year.
"This is new" She giggled, standing beside it. Would it be too much for her to want to play in it? Maybe she could just lie down instead, because that would be much cooler. Apart from the sand that she'd get in her hair.

"I want...to build a sand castle." She giggled, as she moved and sat in the sand. Ooh it was warm yey. She grinned, as she looked up at Reese. She really didn't seem 17 now.

"Yessssss, SANDBOX," Reese said, cheerfulness in her voice, "You know, this big box full of sand." She finally made it over to the sandbox and jumped over the ledge and scrambled over to the center of the box and plopped down. The was so awesome! She hasn't played in a sandbox since she was like three years old.

Reese picked up some sand and watched it slip through her fingers and drop back into the place she picked it up from. She looked up at Vannie when she said she wanted to build a sand castle. "Let's build one together," she suggested with a smile.

"Well. I would never have guessed." Vanessa giggled, with a smile as she watched Reese. It was fun, and she got to spend time with one of her friends, so that was awesome. Maybe they could all come up here later on in the year. Before she had to leave. "This is so cool." She giggled, sitting opposite Reese, and grinning.

"Oooh...but we've got no buckets." Vanessa frowned, although they could probably conjure some up, that would probably be easy. "And how big shall we build it?" She giggled. She was enjoying.

“It's kinda weird though, dontcha think?” Emily said thoughtfully as she picked up a handful of the dry sand and let it flow slowly though her fingers. “Having a massive sandpit in the middle of the grounds.”

She watched the girl for a moment as she kept writing her name over and over and over and over, and noted whist watching that she was called, Demetria. She looked away, racking her brians as to what other purpose, other to play in, a giant sandpit could be used for. Hmm...

Her train of thought was interrupted as a young Slytherin who appeared to know Demetria limped over to them. Kevin - the Gryffindor called him. "Hey Kevin." She echoed and gave him a small smile wondering what he had done to cause his limp... but thought it a bit rude to ask.

Emily squinted over at another couple of students, one of which she knew as Reese, who was a fellow Slytherin student, though she had only ever spoken to the girl in passing. She smiled slightly at the two. The smile soon slid off her face as Reese excitedly scrambled past and sent sand-a-flying in all directions. “Oi! Watchit!” She protested in her Scottish brogue as sand blew in her face... and eyes. She blinked them rapidly as they began to water. Gah.. it was kinda painful.

Kevin smiled at the older slytherin and said "Hey"

"Psh ofcourse!" she smiled at Kevin. "I haven't played in the sandbox in forevers!!!!" she giggled. Dem picked up a pile of sand and let it run through her fingers, grain by grain. She immediatly took off her socks and shoes and let the sand tickle her toes. Two other older slytherins came and joined them. It was kind of fun to act 5 again.....

Reese smirked, then crossed her legs and looked at Vannie. "No-buckets?" She said, looking around the sandbox. She crossed her hands and hmph'd a little bit. This wasn't cool. If someone was going to make a BIG sandbox, they might as well conjure up some buckets while they were at it. Did they just think the students would be smart enough to bring their own buckets? Heck, she didn't even know there was a sandbox. If she did, she would have brought a bucket with her. "It should be a BIG castle, then afterward, we can have fun demolishing it," she told Vannie, looking back at her friend. Demolishing stuff was fun, right? Right.

She heard someone's voice, for some reason it sounded like it was directed towards her. she turned her around and spotted Emily, then bit her lip. Opps. She didn't really think about when you run across a sandbox, you sent sand flying in all directions. Next time she needed to see if anyone was around before she ran across a sandbox. "I'm sorry," she said, "I didn't mean to send sand coming in your directions. My bad, Emily." She really did feel bad about that since she probably got sand all in the girl's eyes.

Cassadee was over the moon. A sandbox?! Okay, so she was eleven now. But did that mean she couldn't enjoy any harmless fun in building a nice castle to stomple on?

"I think not." she muttered to herself, before flopping down on the sand, staring at it hard, wondering what kind of castle to build. Settling on just a few mounds of decorated sand, she started to sculpt her little castle. If only she knew a spell to shrink herself and live in that castle...

But then again, she'd probably get squished.

She started with a long tower. A tall, spindly tower, with a cone top and a little square window in the side of it, imagining it being white with a red, shingled roof. Then came a bulky, square building next to it. It looked like a little bulky man next to the thin tower, like her mum and dad. Her dad was short, balding, bulky with a slight pot-belly. Her mum was thin to the extreme, tall like a giraffe on steroids. She wondered what to build next, and paused, chin in hand, frowning.

Maybe a little damsel-in-distress, hanging out from the side of the tower?

Now that the Start of Term feast was long gone and already getting tired of being inside the castle, Seth Paton had made his way to the grounds. If he hadn’t had been so sick of being all cooped up within the castle walls, the seventeen year old would have made sure to lock himself up in his dormitory. However, he had chosen the mere grounds over being left alone in his dormitory. If you ask me, that is rather strange for this young man with the most perfect hair in all of Hogwarts. Anyone else would say the exact same thing.

Taking in a breath of fresh air every few moments, the Hufflepuff walked through the grounds with his hands placed right inside his pockets. He himself was even wondering if he had fallen ill over the past few hours because he too was shocked that he was being caught alive being in the outdoors. Shrugging off that thought simply because he was a high-class wizard and never ever got sick, Seth continued on with his little walk — this time he was heading right for the lake. Or so he had thought…

SCRUNCH!!

After stepping on something rather soft and squishy, Seth looked down at his feet almost instantly. Instead of standing on the familiar grass that seemed to cover the majority of the grounds, he noticed that he had managed to step right in sand. Glancing around, the blonde noticed he had stepped right inside a … a giant sandbox? It sure looks like Masterson had outdone himself once again! Nevertheless, let’s not forget to mention that his right foot had ended up smack dab in the middle of what probably had been someone’s sandcastle masterpiece. Whoops.

Cassadee was pondering what to build, debating between a moat and a huge wall, concentrating hard on her castle. It was pretty good so far, but maybe a large moat with miniature alligators could help...

When all of a sudden, a big foot smooshed her castle.

Covered in speckles of sand, Cassadee blinked, frowned, scowled... And looked up. A big boy stared back down at her awesome creation which was... de-awesome-ified at the moment, because his big, fat foot was shoved smack middle of her castle.

"Oi!" She shrieked, hopping up. "I was planning on smashing it later, you get the drift?!" She asked, pushing the rude intruder over to the and standing on top of the rubble sand that was her castle...

Before starting to stomp on it, herself.

What?

Evolette stood beside the large sandbox, staring at it, as if it carried a disease. What was this doing here? Why a sandbox? She didn't even play in the sand when she was little. She certainly was not going to do it now.

Crossing her arms, she sniffed, dragging her eyes away she looked around her, to see who else was there, and if they were actually enjoying themselves.

To make things clear to all of you out there, standing in a giant sandcastle was a little weird for the six foot blonde. Okay, it was VERY weird. Even though Seth had spent the entire summer practically living on the beach with tons of sand surrounding him, it had been years since he had actually stood in a sandbox. Actually, the last time he could even remember playing in a sandbox was when he was a little guy at five years of age (still with the most perfect hair ever) when his little home on the countryside only miles away from London seemed so huge. However, that was twelve years ago when everything was simple and easy, this was the present and he was being caught alive in the middle of a sandbox for Merlin’s sake!

Just when he was about to skedaddle away from the scene of the crime, the blonde suddenly was getting his bootie chewed off by a little girl. BUUUSTED! Looking down at the girl with those blue eyes of his, Seth raised an eyebrow when the little midget girl hopped up and instantly mentioned to him that she was going to smash up her sandcastle without his help. Rolling his eyes at the girl and looking away for a moment, the blonde noticed that he was only a thirty step walk away from the lake. So close, yet so very far.

SCRUNCH! … SCRUNCH! … SCRUNCH!

Looking back at the little girl that had apparently made the sandcastle he had squished, Seth’s eyes widened quite a bit at the sight that was before him. Instead of fixing what had been destroyed like any other child out there, the girl was happily destroying the rest of her still intact castle. Taking a few slow and quiet steps away from her, Seth said, “Well … erm … have fun with that then. I guess I’ll be seeing you around.” Hopefully not so soon.

At first, Dominic had to do a double take upon his arrival to the lake. Well, more likely that he was meant to go the lake and enjoy some fresh Fall air before his NEWT level classes begun. But his golden eyes instantly averted to the new addition that was some thirty steps away.

A sandbox? What were they . . . five?

Frowning, the sixth year surveyed inside the box to determine who was there playing in the sand. Just so long as it wasn't Willow.

Speaking of Willow, also appearing to be surveying the new addition was Willow's slytherin friend who had totally been staring at him in Florean's just a few weeks prior. What was her name? Evelyn? Whatever. He spoke to her once and that was enough for him . . .

Evolette practially groaned out loud when she spotted none other than Dominic Denton. Ewwwwww. Why her? Why was it always her? Why did she always end up in these kinds of situations.

Ignoring him completely, Evolette contemplated leaving. There was no point in sticking around here with a stinky sandbox and Prefect Denton watching her like a hawk.

She really had no idea what Willow saw in him.

Dominic blinked all startled at hearing the conceited Slytherin girl groaning loudly. Frowning, he turned to look at her frowned, as he tried to interpret her expression.

She was completely ignoring him. Which would have been fine by him, except that she was doing it again.

"Quit looking at me like that." He said flatly, as he looked away and tried to distract himself with something else. Like the fact that the tall blond boy looked very familiar; as if he met the kid ages ago and never spoke again.