Oliver laughed naughtily and looked around at what other people were doing. Hmm.. He hoped Trixie was good at DIY because Oliver had never done ANYTHING like this before! 'Note to self: attend the muggle studies workshop sometime for tips on DIY.' He looked back at Trix. “We need a little cannon.. and a pirate flag. Pirates Mwhaha! This was going to be fun.. even if they failed to get their boat to float.

He shook his head. “Only if I'm The Brain and I don't think you're going to allow that somehow.” He stuck his tongue at her. “And I'm, like, the Captain. I should decide.” Who cares if it was of Quidditch! He had the badge... on his robes in his dorm. A Mast! Oooh.. Good thinking. How the hell did you make a mast! He screwed up his face when she said she wanted to build a boat. “Really?” He asked looking at the materials on offer. “I think a raft would be a safer bet – more likely to stay afloat, ya know?” Especially if they were building it. Simple sounded like the best option to Oliver in this case.

Nia had plopped herself down on the ground, drawing a diagram of a suitable raft design in the dirt with a stick. It was quite a detailed blueprint really, and was partially labelled. She would have attempted to fully label it, but stick writing was far too clunky. Apart from that, she thought is was rather impressive. Not too simple, but not too hard to build either.

It was when she stood up to admire her design from afar, however, that Nia noticed everyone else was actually building. And some rafts were nearly finished. Ah. That could be a little problemo. Cos now everyone was grouped up, or nearly finished...and Nia hadn't exactly been paying attention and, well, just ack!

Maybe she could scrap her original drawing, and go for a one manned option. Like a canoe kind of idea? It could work, with a bit of magic. And as a 'Claw, she could totally work out the physics for it to float properly. Cue sitting back on the ground - with writing stick, dirt and some important calculations.

"No... no Miss Professor Lainey!" Becca objected stubbornly. "This is a raft for the strong, superior women of this class!" She shot a grin at Jacob, her Quidditch teammate, to let her know she was just kidding. Well, not kidding about the women part, but about her tone towards him. He was a fellow Claw, so she had nothing against him at all. But she simply had other plans for this flotation device.

Sail. A sail? Hum. After briefly snickering at Raiden and Brinkley, Becca got herself a canvas and brought it back to her pretty raft. Since she wasn't so sure how to set up the mast yet, she figured she would try to decide on a color for the sail. Blue or pink? Hmm... Cela would approve of pink, but blue... well... Ravenclaw pride! With a brief wave of her hand, Becca changed the canvas from a pale white to a very lovely Ravenclaw blue. "Well, that's a start."

Eli had come down to the lake in his swim trunks, with a towel tied around his neck like a cape. He had magicked the towel with one of the few charms he could reliably nail, wingardium leviosa to be exact, and so it fluttered behind him like a superhero cape. Yeah, he was awesome and he was feelin' it!

He had listened to the professor and was ready to get to work, but he felt shy asking just anyone. The first friendly face he spotted was Gold's.

"Hello, Gold!" he scampered over to her like a purple haired superhero puppy which had found his master. "Can I be on your team?"

Grayson made a valid point. Smacking his lips, Brinkley scratched his chest and glanced down at the two hairs living there. Fancy! When had he gotten two chest hairs? "Yeah, well, I think I've accepted my cruel fate," he murmured to the third year Ravenclaw before Lainey was hollering in their direction.

Brink blinked a lot before glancing over at Raiden Kururugi. It seemed like they were in trouble but Brinkley didn't know why. It was either that or Lainey wanted someone to rub her down with suntan lotion. So much for remaining unnoticed until he graduated.

Lazily, he walked over to Professor Lainey and her lawn chair. "Err...yes, ma'am?"

Mina felt extremely out of place at the moment, but she pushed such feelings aside and she looked at the logs before them. Evelyn and Patroclus were already cutting logs and she wasn't about to even try to help with that, it wasn't hard to sense she wasn't probably welcome anyway. Carter and Marie on the other hand probably didn't need her around as well and Kylie, well it wasn't like she had talked to the Hufflepuff in years. That just left Destiny then.

Making her way over, she stopped and looked at all the things. "Would you like some help with the sail?" she asked. Mina had to make herself somewhat useful and for some reason, Destiny seemed to be one of the least liking ones to possible rip her head off for wanting to help or something.

Daisy was about to respond to Carson when out of nowhere Professor Lainey started telling them not to sail the boat. Daisy smiled. "We're not going to sail the boat yet Professor. We were just testing for leaks which was a smart idea becuase the boat CARSON built had a leak unlike the boat I built."She smirked at Carson. "If we had kept my boat we wouldn't have had to rebuild this one." She then heard the word 'mediator' and burst out laughing. "No worries here Professor. Carson and I get along just fine." she then mumbled,"and if one of us goes over the boat who's to say it wasn't an accident."Though she had to kind a heart to do anything to anyone. Yeah, she ws a mature eleven year old. Then raising her voice she smiled. "Can you please check our boat for us then Professor to make sure there aren't ANYMORE leaks?" She was never going to let him live it down.

Errrr? Raiden glanced at the professor upon hearing his name. Him? And... Crabby?

Glancing at the girls, he gave a little shrug. "Be right back, I guess?"

He followed Brinkley over to where Professor Lainey was sitting. The idea of being in trouble hadn't even crossed his mind, considering... well he hadn't done anything particularly troublesome, that he remembered.

"Professor?"

Carson held back a laugh at this. "Yeah don't panic Professor. I'm trying to be a better person." He snickered. "I won't push Daisy overboard or anything. It might be accidental." He laughed joking with her. He understood that Daisy was a first year and had more times coming. The Gryffindor and Slytherin war like attitude was something she could figure out in her second year. The child only need to be overwhelmed by so much. " And we will never know if your boat will be better than mine because I destroyed it." He gave Daisy a crooked smile and had an evil almost victory winning glint in his eye. But he knew she could be mean and she was always going to remind him that there WAS a leak in his boat. So he decided to agree with her. "Yeah. could you please check the boat for leaks Professor Lainey?"

"NUH UH. Do I look crazy?" WELL? DID SHE? Probably, but she wasn't stupid! "YOU two get your happy lil rumps on your own boat. With me watching, supervising, and all that. If you two can both do twenty jumping jack on each side of the boat - and not flip it, sink it, destroy it, or otherwise end up in the water - then you pass inspection." Lainey waved her hand at the naughty pair, waiting for them to go on and hop to it.

Lainey hummed a funeral march as the boys approached. "Boys." She planted one hand on her hip, the other hand reaching out for Brinkley's chin. "The potion you ingested during my class. Do you know who brewed it?"

She shot a look to Raiden - NOT a question for him. Not yet. SHhh.

Professor Lainey either had a sick sense of humor or was completely and absolutely crazy. Brinkley couldn't decide as of yet. Actually, as soon as Lainey touched his chin, Brink decided.

Yes, Professor Lainey needed some kind of mental help.

"Um, well," drawled Brinkley, stalling his answer. He glanced over at Raiden out of the corner of his dark green eyes. "The short answer would be: no. No, I don't know."

Was this a trick question? Just his luck, the one day he decides to cast his paranoia aside and he was being questioned about the source of the potion. It was poison, wasn't it? Oh, Great Merlin and Morgana, he was poisoned. Perfect. Just Perfect. Thank you, Raiden Kururugi. Thanks a lot. We'll leave Sho in your name.

Arya nodded her head in agreement, but inlike her friend, she did not start looking for a tape measure. Pulling out her wand she twirled it between her fingers as she marched around the old log. After a moment, she jumped on top of the log, standing at the edge of one end and aiming her wand at the roots stretching from its end.

They would have need for them that she could think of, she the badger began to cut the roots off. Her eyes briefly flickered to her friend, wondering what she was doing. "What are ya lookin for?"

Chez grinned back, red cheeks and all, as Jack flashed that pretty little smile and skipped off. He'd stalk track her down later.

NOD.

He pressed his lips together tightly as he looked at the boards. "Indeed," about a seven person boat was right. "We should but the sail in the middle to keep a center of gravity." He crossed his arms and stepped back for a moment.

He rose an eyebrow and looked to Legend, did he not know ANYTHING on boating? Most likely on of those puuurebloods. "Flat on the bottom is never smart. You always need a slight curve." Why was this? Chez wasn't SURE.

HAHA! And he had a knife too... probably to hurt Chez himself with. But... yeah. He wasn't going to ask. "Maybe you do have some use Chosen," the Hufflepuff mused as he shook his head. "Now this wand can come in handy." FOR ONCE.

With a flick. the knife worked over the board, chopping finely in some directions and softly in others. After a few minutes of Chez' wandwork there were some nicely carved boards. Perfect for a large sized, canoe shaped vessel. "Now we just need to put it together. Think you can handle that?" Chez said with a small wink, offering Legend his knife back.

He looked around for a partner. He didn't want to sail alone and it looked like he had missed out on all the other partners. Not that he didn't want to work with Selena. "Want to be partners?" He wanted a boat like the Black Pearl.

SPOILER!!: Ahoy There!

Quote:

Originally Posted by destinyjazzhands

Sweet Merlin.

They were actually going to sail the thing that they built?

Destiny took a look around at her group and frowned. Right now, since her LIFE was on the line, she didn't trust any of them. Maybe Evelyn, but even that would be pushing it. Besides, she didn't think Evelyn would be the one to actually build the thing..which was a good idea..letting the BOYS do all the work.

Especially if they needed muscle power, like Patroclus said. Destiny was muscle-less.

Okay..Patroclus was touching Evelyn demonstrating a raft with her hand. Destiny STILL had no idea what was going on, and that little demonstration just left her even more confused. One thing she wasn't confused about was how Patroclus had given HER orders. What did he think he was, the Captain? Pshaw! "I'll start working on the sail while you all," she pointed to each person, "work on the raft."

Adjusting her duckie floatie, she turned around to look for the things she would need for a sail before calling over her shoulder, "Make sure the raft has no HOLES!"

She did NOT want to sink.

Quote:

Originally Posted by individual

Patty? Who in the world was Patty? Bahaha! Did Kylie just call Patroclus...Patty?

Wait, she gave him a nickname? glare!

If she wasn't already in a grumpy mood already, she would've definitely had been in one now. Patty. Pfft. Sounded like a girl's name, and the Gryffindor most definitely was not a girl. Staring at Kylie, the Slytherin had not noticed or heard her ask a question or even say her name. Hmm?

Shield? Oh. "Umm, no." Just that you are creeping me out. "I mean no, nothing is wrong, and I'm not using her as a shield." At least, now she wasn't using her as a shield anymore.



However, all evil thoughts she was mentally throwing at Kylie disappeared when Patroclus spoke. Mmhmm. Spoke to her. Not Kylie.

AND he took her hand. HA! Yea, take THAT Kylie.

But, back to more important matters. Hand holding Instructions on what they were actually doing with these logs. Watching intently on what he was doing, since not only was he in her personal space at the moment which she was trying to not think about, but well...yea, the obvious, he was also semi-holding her hand. And...of course, demonstrating what they were going to build. Yea, the last one was pretty important. Mmhmm.

Oh wait, he was done talking? Crap. What did he say again? Perhaps she should just...watch. Or, give moral support on all of this. Meh. "How many logs are we cutting?" she asked, already piecing things together on what they were supposed to be doing. If there was one thing she was good at, it was observing and piecing things together.

Glancing over at Destiny, Evelyn smirked before shaking her head. Perhaps naming Destiny the captain wasn't such a good idea. Aw well, it'll definitely bring a more amusing atmosphere to task at hand. And speaking of atmosphere, it was seriously hot out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DH Vixen

Mina felt extremely out of place at the moment, but she pushed such feelings aside and she looked at the logs before them. Evelyn and Patroclus were already cutting logs and she wasn't about to even try to help with that, it wasn't hard to sense she wasn't probably welcome anyway. Carter and Marie on the other hand probably didn't need her around as well and Kylie, well it wasn't like she had talked to the Hufflepuff in years. That just left Destiny then.

Making her way over, she stopped and looked at all the things. "Would you like some help with the sail?" she asked. Mina had to make herself somewhat useful and for some reason, Destiny seemed to be one of the least liking ones to possible rip her head off for wanting to help or something.

Patroclus cried "Aye Aye Captian!" to Destiny, as he saluted to her instructions. Gah! this was so much fun!!!!

Returning the the logs, Patroclus rolled more down the embankment, to where his crew mates were working. Standing up from his hunched over position, Patroclus wiped the sweat from his forehead, as he went to reply to Evelyn, "Considering there is -" quickly did a head count "-Seven of us, I think 10 whole ones as a base, and 6 half ones, as braces" Patroclus visualised the raft in his head, making sure the way they were going so far was going to work, and meet with their Captain's approval!
"Deffindo!" Patroclus callled as another log split down it's centre. Looking around Patrclus counted they need a few more split logs, oh and also a mast to attach the Destiny, and Mina created sail!

Patroclus could not wait to get this baby onto th water! And with the increasing work load, a swim would be quite nice too!

Selena was proud of herself. Hahaha. She had managed to make two oars... without magic... and without hurting anyone. She looked up from her work and saw Diggy. Selena gave him a bit of a sheepish smile. "Well... I'm already in a group," she said as she motioned at the people around her, "but if they all don't mind, I'm sure you can join us," she said with a smile as she glanced at everyone else. Yes??

..oh.

That was... what it was about? Were they going to get in trouble for it? Raiden bit his lip and looked from the professor to Brinkley.

Of course it had been Raiden who had brewed it. He would have immediately said so, but the professor had given him that look, to stay quiet. So he bit his tongue while the professor inspected Brinkley's... er... face.

Jacob wasn't listening to Lainey or Becca. He had heard his name... and now Becca seemed to be getting angry. But as long as jacob didn't take in words, his feeling couldn't be hurt... thus his confidence in himself couldn't be crushed, and in the long run, His self-esteem couldn't be smack down below zero. or as to what was going on in his head... 'Jacob no hear word, Jacob no feel badly of self' So Jacob just continued to do what he was doing.

Jacob took the canvas back to his boat... raft... thingy that will float. He laid it down,and sat on it's coner in case any wind was to roll through. Which, knowing his luck would be the only sail to be caught in the draft. Jacob then too the last log... the onle with the two holes. One bigger than the other, which was just how he needed it. Jacob Probably should have done this first... But his brain isn't working, so it's just an 'oh well'. Taking the first rope, Jacob put it throught the bigger bottom hole. He then put the log against the middle of the middle log of the flat side of his floatation object. Since it would take him longer to take it apart than it did to assemble it, with all the knots he did. Jacob decided to just tie it to the ropes that bound the entire floatation object. Less time and it was was probably safer. Jacob made sure the knots were secure, he looked up the mast. Jacob took the canvas and climbed the tallish... shortish mast and locked his legs. Deciding it was both quicker and safer to cut and reinforce the holes with magic. He took out his wand and cut two holes in one corner and then two holes in the opposite corner. tieing it to the top jumping off the mast and tieing it to the bottom of the rast.. it made a diamond. It would catch wind better... well actually it wouldn't, but thats not the point. He need to make it pretty. The thing would still catch wind but he was going to take an oar anyways... steering and saftey precautions. Even his parents beleived in the 'better safe than sorry' thing. And they were pirates, they lived for danger, and risk.

Jacob stepped back and looked at it... Saftey!!! He jumped back at the raft and started frantically checking the knotes to make sure they were completely secure.

Abbi was playing with the glue Professor Lainey set up front, she for one wasn't sure how to build a boat. She was definitely short of experience there, but on the up side all she had to do was glue wood together. Now how bad is that? No wand, no beating each other up and she had the sun to play under! Just like a crafts class. FUN! .. Helmet placed safely on her head, Gryffindor bathing suit on and no shoes... and if it didn't work she could always hitch a ride with the older kids?

So far, she only glued two pieces of wood together when she heard Dillon close by...


"Dillon!" she called the Slytherin, "want to work together?" she asked squinting her eyes from the sun.

"Hmmmmmmm. And are you quite sure of Raiden here? Are you sure HE even brewed the potion? That's trust, Brinkley. He IS a Slytherin, you know." Lainey bopped her finger off of Brinkley's nose and turned those penetrating eyes to Raiden next.


"What did you give Brinkley, Raiden? And DID you brew it yourself....?" Lainey took his chin next. It was awkward on both counts with both boys being quite a BIT taller than herself. She needed some platforms.

Ahhhh. Professor Lainey touching his face. Raiden's eyes widened slightly in surprise and he fought the immediate instinct to lean back.

"Calming Draught, Professor. And... yes, I did." He would have nodded, as well, but the professor touching his face prevented that. "I always have one on me, for... personal reasons..."

It was a long story, and he didn't really want to explain it in front of Brink. Hopefully the professor didn't make him? It wasn't as if it was really a problem anymore, after all. He was just... overly cautious.

Were all those rhetorical questions? Brinkley rubbed his nose where Lainey had touched him self-consciously. "Stereotypes," he mumbled unhappily. Really, he had people in his own house that he wouldn't trust. House placement had very little to do with anything. "If he was planning to poison me, or whatever--if, then he's doing a very lousy job at not being found out."

Assuming Raiden was out to get him, then he was being very stupid about it all when everyone and their housemates saw him hand over the phial. Yes, Brinkley had taken a chance with drinking the Calming Draught. Why was Lainey torturing him with suspense?!

"There you have it, he brewed it," he interjected once Raiden spoke. "And I haven't dropped dead yet. Is that alright?"

Marie felt really lost here as she watched for a few more minutes what was going on with her group. It was really hard to concentrate on anything with Destiny adjusting that duck around her waist all the time. She would probably be able to work a whole lot easier if she took the thing off. "You know Destiny, you should probably take your floatie off while we are on LAND. I would hate to see it get popped while you were working on the sail." Not to mention it wouldn't be a distraction if she didn't have it on. "If that happened you wouldn't be able to wear it once we were actually on the water." She then looked over at Carter, "You wouldn't have to feel obligated to wear those either..." she said pointing to the bright orange rings around his arms, "...if Destiny took that silly duck off". Because you know, they did make him look rather silly.

She then watched a Patroclus rolled some more logs down to the group. "So what should I do, help with splitting logs? Or maybe I can levitate them over here for you guys to split," she said looking between Carter and Patroclus. Yeah, she was good at levitating and moving things.

Rex needed this class. Rex started to build his sail boat. Rex could not hide his tears well. The break-up with Kay had been hard. She would not even accprt his apology.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The1HBIC

Marie felt really lost here as she watched for a few more minutes what was going on with her group. It was really hard to concentrate on anything with Destiny adjusting that duck around her waist all the time. She would probably be able to work a whole lot easier if she took the thing off. "You know Destiny, you should probably take your floatie off while we are on LAND. I would hate to see it get popped while you were working on the sail." Not to mention it wouldn't be a distraction if she didn't have it on. "If that happened you wouldn't be able to wear it once we were actually on the water." She then looked over at Carter, "You wouldn't have to feel obligated to wear those either..." she said pointing to the bright orange rings around his arms, "...if Destiny took that silly duck off". Because you know, they did make him look rather silly.

She then watched a Patroclus rolled some more logs down to the group. "So what should I do, help with splitting logs? Or maybe I can levitate them over here for you guys to split," she said looking between Carter and Patroclus. Yeah, she was good at levitating and moving things.

As Patroclus continued to split logs, he laughed as he heard Marie talking to Destiny about her floaties! Personally he thought they were great, but agreed with Marie as to the likelihood of them popping!

Patroclus turned to Marie, as she posed a question, "Marie if you wanted you could start levitating and lining up the whole logs, the first ten, so when Evelyn and I finish cutting these ones we can place them on top!" Patroclus remembered to add some, "But only if that's ok with the Captain,!" as he saluted to Destiny once more!
Yep! Team work, it was great!!