Float? Hmmmm, he was pretty sure he could do that...he was buoyant, right? "Ummm, ok..." he said a tad uncertainly, holding out his arms, just like Karma said to do. When did he start waving them around like Daphne said? He was confusedddd.

"Now what do I do?" he asked. His arms were out but he didn't feel like floating...maybe because he was still touching the bottom? He tried to move forward in the water a bit into deeper territory, and once he thought he had enough room, he lifted his feet off the ground. And, for a second, he was FLOATING! He wasn't sinking!

"I'M DOING IT!" he cried, and without thinking, he started waving his arms around again with excitement, splashing everyone once again. "I'm doing...*cough cough sputter*" he started choking on the water that he was accidentally splashing into his open mouth. He stood back on the floor of the staircase, still rather excited about his successful attempt at floating as he finally caught his breath again.

"GOOD. Good. Now, move to deeper - "

Siiiigh. Boys were so impatient sometimes. Karma watched him cough and spit and yeah. She continued to float, her nose just above the water, enough to breathe.

"... Let's try this again." She moved over towards the end of the staircase. "C'mon. I won't bite, and if any grindylows come I'll kick them in the head for you." Small joke. o__O But it could happen. EEEEP. Cough. "Anyway. Move your arms in small circles, back and forth under the water." She demonstrated what she was saying, so it would make more sense.

Then. Time for the peddling. "After that, we peddle in the water. Try the arm thing first. Then I'll show you." And you won't die.

Plymouth was busy with Evolette and another girl and Daphne sighed. She'd just have to get in the water herself. Testing out the water's warmth once more, Daphne eaaaased herself into the water, careful to keep her head above water level.

There was no need to get her hair wet with not 'too dirty' water. "Yes, you were, doing it Jack," pointed out Daphne with a sideways grin. Ah, this swimming idea was genius. Jack's arms looked even better outside of the school uniform.

Discreet Ogle.



Not so discreet OGLE.

She listened to the girl's instructions and did her best not to giggle. There was something within her that made her believe Jack wasn't going to get that right; which was really fine by her. He was so cute when he was drowning.

Plus, she could just drag him out of the water if necessary. Personally assist in first aid. Hehe.

A bathing suit was not usually in Issy's trunk when she returned to Hogwarts. She often had little time to go swimming and even if she did, the green water of the lake was hardly inviting. Still. Their school was on its way to becoming the lost City of Atlantis, so she might as well get used to it before it was too late.

Instead of donning a bathing suit, Issy had dug out pajamas. A pair of shorts and two tank-tops layered together ought to do it. Everyone else was in there, swimming, and they looked to be having fun... it couldn't be so bad, right? Dropping her towel away from the area, to keep it dry, Issy began to make her way towards the... pool?

As figured, Willow was nowhere to be seen in the water. Not that she'd expected to see her. Still.

Hurrying towards the water, Issy found that the marble was a lot more slippery and her foot hit a puddle of water and bam! She was shooting forward, heading straight for Cameron Karsten.

With a shrill shriek, she collided into the smaller boy, fell to the ground, and the two kept sliding together, straight into the water with a massive splash.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle.

URGH! She'd forgotten to close her mouth!

MMMM. Maybe because she'd been forced into the water against her will? Maybe that had something to do with it? Hmmm.

But, with one look at Plymouth, Evolette rolled her eyes. Fine. She wasn't angry, and she was rather enjoying herself. Afterall, how many other girls had Plymouth tackled. NONE.

.....needless to say, if/when he did, it would bruise her ego a bit.

"I am." she replied, smiling. "SEE?"

THEN, she got splashed by a random first year.

Lovely.

Wiping water from her eyes, Evolette looked for Cope. She needed to get him back for helping Plymouth.

"Peddle?" Jack asked in confusion. He didn't know what that was...maybe they could just stick to the float today and then work on his arm movements some more? That part was easy. Peddling sounded like a lot of work!

He moved into the deep water again, being careful to keep his mouth closed this time so no water could splash into it and start the choking process all over again. He kept his arms under the water too, rather than before when he had been flailing them about near the surface. No wonder he had been splashing everyone!

"Like this?" he asked, moving his arms around just like she told him. It actually felt kind of cool, moving his arms through the water. He wasn't used to being in water--he felt like a merman or something. A really cool merman who wasn't all green and stuff.

That was when he noticed Daphne staring at something around his arm. Or maybe it WAS his arm, hard to tell. ZOMG had she spotted a Grindylow? OH NOES!

"Daphne, what is it? There isn't a grindylow around me, is there?" he asked in slight panic, lefting his right arm out of the water to stare at the dark water below. If there was one...he was jumping out of here and never going in the water again!

Just then, there was a slight commonation as another girl joined their little group, someone he had never really seen before. To his horror, he watched as she fell into the water with a splash, and she didn't come up right away. AHHHH! She could be DYING!

"She's drowning! Someone help her!" he cried, arms flailing around again. Maybe he changed this mind...this water thing didn't seem all that fun when people kept having near death experiences.

She had been busily admiring Jack's floating skills when a whizzing sound caught her attention. Slowly, she began to peddle, swishing her arms gently to turn herself on the spot only to see a horrible wave of water rising rapidly towards her.

SPLASH.

Gasp. Gasp. Gasp.

"M-M-My...." she stammered and blinked repeatedly, trying to get the water droplets off her golden lashes. "You ruined my hair!" Daphne kicked underwater at the culprit (whoever it was) not knowing if her hits were connecting or not. "I'll get your Grindylow, Jack! I'll kick it right on the head!"

KICK. KICK. KICK.

Eeeeeeeep.

Cam just down-right stared at everyone playing in the INFESTED water--euguhuh, there were probably weird things down there that were flooded. It wasn't clean. People were bathing in unclean water. It was like bathing in your own dirt--and everyone else's which was EW much?! He wasn't much of a clean freak but eh, he actually CARED about his own safety. He glanced at the fellow Gryffindor Captain and snickered. Inability to swim? HEHEHE. Well, it wasn't like HE could swim either, but no one knew that right?!

...well maybe some did. No wait... He mentally poked his memory. "You know, I don't think you should--," then some FLYING SLIPPING HUMAN PROJECTILE came STRAIGHT AT 'IM, "OIII!!!"

ZOMG. I'M SLIPPING. SLIPPINGGGG. "GRINDYLOW, I'm ATTACKED BY A GRINDYLOWWWWWWWWW." He started slapping his hands at the water, trying to get out and when his head started going in, flailing his arms that were still above the water. He opened his mouth (which CLEARLY wasn't a good idea at all), accidentally swallowing the water that was FILLED with other people's dirt.

EW-MUCHHH.

With eyes closed, he reached for the closest thing and felt a... foot? A KICKING FOOT?! EEEEEEK it started kicking but he totally wasn't gonna let go. Cam clanged for dear life, pulling the kicking foot down in process.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Colley ♥

MMMM. Maybe because she'd been forced into the water against her will? Maybe that had something to do with it? Hmmm.

But, with one look at Plymouth, Evolette rolled her eyes. Fine. She wasn't angry, and she was rather enjoying herself. Afterall, how many other girls had Plymouth tackled. NONE.

.....needless to say, if/when he did, it would bruise her ego a bit.

"I am." she replied, smiling. "SEE?"

THEN, she got splashed by a random first year.

Lovely.

Wiping water from her eyes, Evolette looked for Cope. She needed to get him back for helping Plymouth.

"I see, Evolette. I so see." Plymouth sawwwwww and he was HAPPY and.... he pulled Evolette's hair for no apparent reason before she started looking around for .... someone.

Plymouth's eyes wandered back to Daphadil, too, when Evolette moseyed that way. She was... hm. Plymouth readjusted the band of his speedo and just watched Daphne. What WAS she doing? Plymouth never really knew what she was doing, but it was always so ... interesting. Almost like a zoo. Plymouth loved the zoo.

Quote:

Originally Posted by krazypenguin

Dani kicked Plymouth hard. But as she kicked her feet she noticed that she wasn't falling below as much. But if he let go... Well he'd learn how hard she really could kick. "Like this?" Maybe she should have as the Headmaster to conjure her a floaty ring thingy to go with her bathing suit. Probably would have been safer.

DISTRACTED DISTRACTED DISTRACTED. Poor Dani. "Ohh... um... rihgt..."

.... Plymouth got kicked. Umm. Hard. Hard. Plymouth sunk below the water to his knees. Coughed a few times, choked a little. Generally drowned some.

He was going to need a minute. Maybe two.

Hopefullly Evolette or someone else was feeling particularly watchful and/or motherly and would save Dani.

Oh my. Jack had certainly created a mess of things in a few short seconds. Apparently there WASN'T a grindylow--but then what had Daphne been staring at? It confuzzled him--and now legs were flailing about and water was flying everywhere. If there really WAS a grindylow there, it had no doubt run away from all this chaos by now.

"Owwwww! OWWW! Stop! You're kicking ME!" he exclaimed as Daphne's foot started repeatedly hitting him in the leg. "I'm sorry I messed up your hair!" he added, just in case she was mad at him for that an taking out her anger on his appendages.

Dani flopped around wildly. "Heeeeee leeeeetttttt goooooo!!!! I'mmmmmm Goooooonnnnnaaaaaaa Diiiieeeee!!!!" She started to sink below again and kicked her feet really hard. She was getting tired now. "Somebody heeeeeellllpppppp meeeeee!!!!" As her head broke the surface she looked around for someone wo might be able to help her before she went under again. This was not good. She floundered around a bit in attempt to stay above.

The water was nasty. Gross! Urgh! Warm and dirty and surely saturated with other people's dirt and grime and it was in her mouth and down her throat and ahhhh she couldn't breathe! Sputter sputter cough hack eeww ouch it hurt she couldn't breathe ag flail flail flail Cam on her must push ag can't foot?! Something's kicking! Can't breathe can't breathe going to die flail flail must reach surface oh it huuuuurt so baaad!

Issy flailed about dramatically in the water, kicking the water in attempt to break the surface. But with Cam weighing her down atop her and something kicking towards them, it was awfully hard. Deciding to save herself, Issy began to use Cam as a rope or sorts and shimmied about, grappling at his arms and torso to climb towards the surface. She tried to push off him and wound up doing a few spins in the water, flipping upside down and by the time her head bobbed up, she thought for sure her lungs were ready to burst.

Gasp gasp wheeze wheeze wheeze choke breaaathe deep breath.

Gulping in deep breaths, Issy wheezed and panted, trying to make her lungs stop burning. Her legs tread the water and still now and then, her head kept bobbing.

CAMERON!

Where was he where was he was she a murderer?!

Taking a deep breath, Issy dived back under the water, grappling for Cameron. Was that him? Hair, hair, hair, eyeball, nose, foot... foot?! Grab the nose, there's an ear come on come on get up, head out of the water!

KICK. KICK. KICK.

"It's okay Jack," spat the blond through gritted teeth, water droplets clinging to her face. "I've--" ACK! Something just grab her foot. Was it really a Grindylow? Giving a loud shout, she grabbed the nearest person (poor Jack), wrapping her arms around his neck, she tried to puuuull away from whatever was grabbing her foot. Unable to release herself she returned to her previous activity.

KICKICKICKICKICK!

"I'm sorry I kicked you!" she replied with an apology to his apology. It was true! She hadn't meant to kick him. Except there was something trying to drown her and pull her down with it! Clinging tighter to Jack. She held back the instinct to stare at his hair. It was wet, but still pretty.

"But if I don't get whatever is on my foot to let go--we're both going to die." Truly. Because there was no way she was letting go now.

She'll never let go, Jack. She'll never let go.

Ohmigosh, someone was choking him! THE GRINDYLOWS HAD ATTACKED! No, wait...it was a person, not a grindylow. Not just any person, it was Daphne. And ZOMG A GRINDYLOW WAS ATTACKING HER! It was a full on attack by these little creatures, wasn't it? If only he had his wand, he'd blast them all to Jupiter!

"What is it? A GRINDYLOW?" he asked, feeling around her leg with his own foot to see if he could feel something down there--like the slimy grossness of a grindylow. Instead, his feet connected with another person...ZOMG ANOTHER PERSON! A DEAD BODY! INFERI!

"There's someone grabbing onto you!" he exclaimed. "Don't worry, I'll save you!" he assured her--cause if he was going to go down with her when she died, he was not going to let that happen. Neither of them were ready to dieeeee. He hadn't won a Quidditch Cup yet! Or gone to the moon!

"Shake your leg, maybe it will--fall off or something!" he suggested. You'd think the Captain would consider moving to shallower water, but no--he was rooted to the spot with fear.

Cam continued with the clinging--so desperate to live, he would actually cling on someone's gross feet. OMG WHUT it started kicking again. Was this a plan to get him killed?! So. Hard. It was like he couldn't hold on any longer. But he TOTALLY wasn't going to give up, he was only 12. There were SOOO many things he hadn't been able to do! Getting murdered by a foot underwater was a strange way to die, and yet WHY THE HECK DID THIS PERSON KEEP ON KICKING? His lungsssss felt like they were gonna KABOOM and he pretty knew he was soon gonna lose consciousness.

More kicks. MOAR KICKS! But Cam WASN'T gonna let go. NO he wasn't because obviously he cared very much about his life at the moment! Ugggghhh this person could kick. He wondered why he was always caught in situations like this. Was it some bad luck he had?? Was he cursed?! Too many questions, yet so little time--he was at the point of hugging the foot.

But ew... he was desperate however. Suddenly he felt something hairy. Another foot? A HAIRY MAN FOOT? EWWWWW. Cam very much liked clinging onto this hairless foot instead. So he smacked that other foot away from him.

AND OMG OMG he felt something on his noseeee. A GRINDYLOW?! It didn't feel like a grindylow (even though he never really even felt a grindylow before) but who knows, it could've been anything! Cam was gonna die--trusting the foot instead of the nose-pulling thing. Well he knew which one was human!!!

Bleh.

If her leg wasn't under attack, Daphne was sure that primal fear would have forced her to wrap herself around Jack Fritzera however possible. It was a good thing that adrenaline and the will to survive was blocking out all thoughts about impropriety and personal barriers. "No, I don't think," she began with some effort, she reached down into the water with one hand, her other arm still draped around Jack's neck.

As she patted, touched, grappled whatever was attached to her LEG NOW, Daphne tugged at some hair. There were arms wrapped around her entire leg. This didn't feel like a grindylow. And the EAR she had just pulled on was definitely human. "There is a...a..." she stammered and felt a naked shoulder. "A boy! Hugging my leg!"

......This was much worse than a Grindylow! Blushing furiously, Daphne shoved at the shoulders before grasping at the boy's hair. "What are you doing? Are you trying to DROWN?! If you don't come out I'll pull you out by the hair!"

Merlin, help her! She didn't need a dead boy attached to her thigh! A BOY ON HER THIGH! Feeling a little faint, she tightened her grasp on Jack, shaking her leg as he instructed her (not that she wasn't doing it already.). "Pull him ouuuut! He's going to drown! While still attached to me!"

Ew. Ew. Dead body on her person!

Laughter, accompanied by shouts and splashing water, echoed along the corridor. Kiri, who'd been about to slouch off up another staircase on the long journey to the common room , stopped and turned around. This part of the castle was supposed to be flooded now, wasn't it? Not that the sounds she heard sounded much like Grindylows or anything similar. They were more like something she'd hear at a crowded pool.

She decided to investigate. Turning around a corner, she saw... well, it was like a crowded pool, really. The corridor was flooded, but a big group of students (and one or two teachers as well, apparently) were enjoying themselves in the water. Most of them were even wearing swimsuits. (Some of those could only technically be called swimsuits. If their makers had used any less fabric, they needn't have bothered at all.)
It looked... fun! No one seemed about to drown, either, so it had to be safe, too. Kiri wasn't much of a swimmer, especially now; she'd thought that if she never had to look at water again in her life, it still would put her off swimming, but she found herself wondering whether to join in.
Not that she had a bathing costume. Hers had been lost months ago with most of her possessions when the Slytherin common room had been flooded.

Nonetheless, she dropped her bag and struggled out of her shoes. There was a heap of clothes a little way away, out of reach of any water. She put her bag there along with her shoes and her black school robes. Then she pitter-pattered closer on naked feet (the stone floor was a little cold) until she stood close to the water, watching the other students swim and bounce about, a little indecisive and uncertain of what to do.

Stupid Barry was being a conspirisy theorist standing up one floor watching the water and writing down some bizare ideas of how the flood had started when he should have been having fun.

But.................. Something was making Celas freind, the clean freak- he couldn`t recall her name and this was hardly the time- There was a hand on her foot. Why would someone grab her foot? That was weird. He had to help, but how? Maybe he could...... too late, he had slipped on the stair and fallen in and his school shoes had fallen to the bottom of the floor, oh his sister was going to kill him, if his mother didn`t get there first. But it wasn`t like he going to die.

He then held his breath and went underwater, was he that dumb? How was supposed to save the person if his eyes were closed? But he felt around and he felt a boy and he started pushing/pulling, doing something to get the boy out of the water, even if he couldn`t see them

Cela watched, in mild alarm at first, followed by outright horror at the Grindylow claims and finally realisation.

Teehee.

There were no Grindylow.

Cela tugged the top half of bikini and started easing herself down the stairs, finally taking a seat where the water hit her waist. She leaned back on her arms and let the rest of her body float up a bit, suspended by the water.

She watched all the mucking around and lifted one arm to make a grabby gesture at Daphne. Of course she was trying to indicate that Daph should grab Jack's arm.

Teehee.

She lifted one foot out of the water and waved her painted toes at Plymouth.

Giggling insanely, but this time more like a real kid having fun than a child that needed to be locked up, Jake took a running jump at the water and cleared the heads of several students. "BONZAAIIIIIIIII!" he yelled, before splashing down and managing to avoid hitting anyone in the process. How awesome?! Indoor pool! Jake always loved swimming, especially underwater. He ducked down and began doing his own personal deep-floor diving, before coming back up, pink hair plastered to his head.

And there was the headmaster. He was cool now, in Jake's eyes. He was helpful. "Hi, sir!" Jake beamed, blinking the water from his eyes; darrrrrrrrn memory, always forgetting to close them. "Ow," he muttered, frowning and rubbing the eyes, treading water, before smiling brightly again.

Robert laughed as he heard Liz protest to his, in his opinion, brilliant plan. "And what better way than to show that you aren't afraid to get wet." He looked over his shoulder and smiled brightly at Dani but didn't stop walking over toward the water. As he reached the edge he threw himself and Liz into the water after making sure to check that no innocent bystander was liable to get crushed by his weight. He didn't loosen his grip on Liz until after he had resurfaced laughing.

"See not so bad," he said with a smirk before ducking under the water to avoid any retribution. He resurfaced behind her again and hugged her tightly. "Nice bathing suit by the way. Didn't really see the point since I was already soaked." Though he had taken off his shirt, shoes and socks so maybe he did see the point. Or maybe he just wanted to show off his muscles again.

The headmaster thoroughly enjoyed the dramatics and left the kids to it. As long as no one got hurt, it was all in good fun. He took a few more dives off the diving board, finished up with some cool down laps and then made his way back through the crowd to his towel draped over the railing. It was soaking wet now from all the splashing, but he was the headmaster of Hogwarts and wasn't about to let a soggy towel stump him. It was dry in a jiffy. Once he patted himself down he draped the towel across his shoulders and gathered his shoes and robe, then performed the sonorous spell to make an announcement.

"Everybody out! It's thirty minutes to curfew!" he pointed out and then performed the counterspell.

He waited for a long time for all the students to finally trickle out of the water and back to their common rooms. He probably should have given them more time to get back in time for curfew, but they managed. Before leaving, Headmaster Bontecou cast some spells to be sure all the students made it out of the water and to return the castle and water to their former states: diving board-less and wicked cold. With a grin, he turned on his bare heel and started wandering the halls to look for his office.


ooc: Unfortunately, all things must come to an end. Thanks for playing and I hope you had a great time.

As Arethusa said, the water was drained out, the injuries healed, and everything was restored to normal.