Amelia really wished that she could use both of her arms to help swim, but it was absolutely impossible when she had to drag her boyfriend up.

Shifting him in her arms, she placed him under her right one as best as she could, wrapping it around her. She started kicking more vigourously now, using her left arm as best as she could.

She swam for the surface as fast as she could.

LuLu closed her mouth slowly and got into action the hour almost up and all and she much prefered living than dying.. obviously.. she looked around, sharp and pointy she mouthed to herself.. One of those mermaid fork things would really come in handy now she zoomed among the pebals and seaweed there had to be SOMTHING? Th.. There, she swam over to a sharp broken piece of glass.. hm? Why was that down there she could possibly mention that to the grounds keeper, she swam back over quickly with the glass she cut through the rope stuff and bit her lip bleeding again WOW she really had to stop doing that! She looked at the other students.. Was that a spell the heard but how? An eyebrow raised up.. hm? How odd?

Her brother didn't seem to go up so she grabbed onto his leg and then his arm and swam upwards

She didn't think she'd actully think nor say it but she had a really good time some action was always nice.. some classes lacked that admittidly

Selena was still flailing her arms, following everyone else wondering what the Giant Squid could possibly be doing there. She continued to flail and kick - her horrible attempts at learning how to swim. However, there was suddenly some sort of creepy- it had fangs! Selena tried not to squeal and let water into her mouth as she flailed crazily. Big fangs. Big teeth. Glowi- Wait...

The music that came with the fish didn't seem to match for the music was quite beautiful. And the sight that she saw wasn't very pretty either. Selena could feel her energy being drained away as she saw her elder cousin, Katrina.

Merlin's beard! Her cousin would flip if she knew wha- wait. What was she here? This was all too familiar to Selena somehow but she couldn't remember what. What she did know was that she had to get her cousin back somehow. Selena's grip on her wand tightened as she opened her mouth to call out "Diffindo!" The ties that held her cousin were broken and Selena flailed her arms some more to propel her forward and grab her cousin. Now where did she go? Her cousin was also heavy. She would need to tell her to cut back on whatever she was eating as well then.

Selena flailed her arms, trying not to let her cousin slip as she attempted to swim with the eithers.

Y'know, the squid would be a lot of help right now with carrying them back instead of letting them swim. Still, Selena tried to flail her arms and kick her legs as quickly as possible without losing her grip on her cousin... who's hair was getting in Selena's face.

TAylor realized how short of time were left and said, "Diffindo" as best as she could at the seaweed that was holding Trinity's body. She grabbed her twin's body and swam to the surface. What the heck is with the professors? Why would they do this to people? How can they get by with it??

She swam up to them, she pointed her wand at Ame,"Diffindo." She pulled the roped away and started to the surface while pulling her as well.

Finally, they were getting it. Scabior quickly moved his arms, motioning for the students to hurry up and go. Got ONLY your hostage? GOOD GO! The quickness in his hand movements showed this.

Swimming AND carrying their hostage back would take so much out of them.

And time was ticking.

OOC: Do NOT save any other hostage but your own

Eino approached the hostage bodies nearly as the same time as everyone else. It was chaotic. People were hurrying left an right, bumping into each other, kicking each other, spells were flying everywhere, but Eino managed to remain calm. He leisurely searched through the victims to find out which one he was supposed to free and return to the surface. Finally, Eino came face to face with his cousin Io. This was very convenient because he was just thinking about sending her an owl this morning. Now he wouldn't have to! He pointed his wand at the chain that was binding her and spoke as clearly as he possibly could, "Relashio." A stream of bubbles came out of his mouth and shortly after a light shot from his wand directly at the chain and freed the girl. Eino wrapped one of his arms around his cousin's waist and made his way to the exit, or up. He kicked his legs carefully not to injure the girl, but her long brown hair was hindering him. Luckily, she was petite so he didn't have any trouble carrying her.

Seeing people move forward and drag things up Quentin looked down. People. There were people tied up. She listened closer to the song, an hour long you'll have to look. She didn't have much time, she swam down to the end of the row.

Quentin had no bloody idea who she was looking for, was it her Mother? Father? Little brother? Owl? They couldn't be more specific?

Swimming down the row she was getting more and more frantic. Then she saw him- her 8 year old brother Daniel. His big blue eyes were closed and his cute strawberry blond hair was all over the place. How could the professors do this to a child? Even it if was only temporary, she turned and gave the two a killer glare before helping her brother "Diffindo" the thing holding him down was cut. She tucked him under one arm and began to swam to the surface.

He wasn't particularly heavy but it was still hard swimming with only one arm. But she would make it, she had to, granted she really hated her brother, he was always getting into her stuff, and getting her in trouble, and he had broken her wand and almost hurt her owl, anyway the list could go on for days- but the point was that he was family. And even though they were constantly fighting they kinda had to love each other.

But she was so writing to Mom when she got back to the castle.

HOW to get back over it took a good hour to swim over HOW? AGH! IT was very stressing indeed she sighed but yet again bubbles came out, she then also realised she was wearing that ugly swimsuit and that her brother was quite heavy not as heavy as she thought though.. AND she was freezing cold! She kicked her legs faster? Was there any possible way to get there in time her face now covered in a thick layer of worry

Alyssa immediately recognized the singing. It was the Merpeople. As she listened to their song, she realized that they had hostages. She couldn't recognize who they were but she knew that they must be running out of air soon. So she looked to the Professors for guidance.



Alyssa looked to see that Professor Scabior was still debating as to what they should be doing. It must have been because he knew that they themselves were also running out of air themselves and so every minute that passed was precious. Alyssa decided that she couldn't wait any longer. She had to go and help whomever it was. She quickly swam up and realized that the hostages were her fellow students. But as she looked closely at the one nearest to her, she got the greatest shock of her life. It was her twin, Claudia. But what was Cody doing here? She was supposed to be back home in Salem. All those thoughts raced through Alyssa's mind before she realized that she could ask Cody all those questions later. Right now, she was most likely running out of air and Alyssa needed to get her back up to the surface.

Alyssa looked at the ropes that bound her and knew that there was no way she was going to be able to untie them before Cody ran out of air. So Alyssa
took out her wand, pointed it at the ropes and said,"Diffindo" using the severing spell that she had learnt in Transfiguration Class last year. The moment the ropes were severed, Alyssa grabbed hold of her unconscious twin and with strong strokes, quickly swam her way up to the surface. As she swam up, she took a quick glance down looking at all the other hostages that still needed to be saved. She wished that she could go down and help rescue the others but for now, her only concern, selfish as it may be, was to save her twin.



As Alyssa quickly made her way up to the surface with Claudia, she looked down to see Professor Williamson trying to communicate with one of the merpeople. She assumed it was the leader. Alyssa wished her all the luck in the world, because if the merpeople didn't agree to release the remaining hostages, they would soon run out of air.

Minerva had a hold of her mom as she could see the top of the lake. She swam faster and faster. Her energy was beginning to drain and she didn't know if she was going to be able to make it, but she wasn't giving up.

Amelia thought that she was going to burst. She was utterly exhausted, and worse yet, her gillyweed was starting to wear off. She was afraid she might not have enough time, but she still had to swim. She couldn't let anything happen to Zayden, it was unthinkable.

She could see the sunlight now, but would she make it in time?

How much further did she have to swim? Jezzabelle's eyes were threatening to burst with tears and she couldn't stop looking at her grandfather in her peripheral vision. Every time she did he looked so peaceful and almost like he was about to laugh about something. Anything. Everything. She kept kicking and hoped she was close and didn't have too much far to swim.

Amelia stopped dead as she noticed who her hostage was. There was no way it could be him, he lived in Wales for Merlin's sake. But it was... They had her brother, her baby brother taken hostage for some stupid trip into the lake. Who cared that he would most likely be alright by the end of it?

As Amelia swam closer she realized an important thing though. They couldn't say much under water, and if she messed up the incantation, or the wand movement, she'd be more likely to harm her brother than to save him. Where was something sharp around here??

Amelia looked around frantically for something to cut the ties with. Anything at all would be great right about now! And then she spied it. A broken shell... It just might work. Giving another look to her hostage Amelia dived and grabbed the shell before returning to saw through the bindings with it. She just hoped it worked in time.

Light? She was near the top REALLY? She grinned in delight it was about time to her fish like powers wereslowly vanishing by the minute! She pushed her brother up, excpecting him to float at the tip, which he had done! Oh she couldn't wait to speak to him face to face it was quite exciting for her she grinned and smiled at the other students reaching the top aswell! LaLa hm hm...

As the group reached the 'destination' Lily could see bodies. Lots of them tied with seaweed or something like that. Scanning quickly, Lily paused to see her baby brother. What the heck are they doing with my baby brother! Lily thought as she rushed up to him and ripped the rope/seaweed grasping him in her arms before returning to the surface as fast as possible. About halfway back to the surface it dawned on her. What if they were trying to replicate what had happened years ago in this very same lake. But why would they take our family and stick them down here... This made Lily furious and made her swim even faster.

Stacy quickly swam toward her best friend to save her. Stacy quickly ripped up the seaweed and quickly grab her best friend and start to swim toward the surface.

Some of the students were successful in their attempts to rescue their loved ones; others..... not so much. Many struggled with the heavy, dead weight of the body beside them, but most were making it to the surface alright.

Time stops for no one, however, and tick-tock went the clock. Ten minutes remaining for the hour long power of the gillyweed.




ooc: This thread will be closed in 12 hours. Make your final posts IN the lake and then return to the original class thread with your "loved one."

It was getting closer and closer. She could even feel the sun on her in the water now. It was still cold, but after being down in the depths, it seemed warmer. She was also noticing that the gillyweed effects were wearing off more and more by the minute.

She needed to make sure that she got to the surface at the right time, that she'd be able to breathe underwater until she was close enough to the shore. She also didn't want to suffocate on the air if she surfaced too soon. But she had a feeling that it wouldn't be too much of an issue since her lungs were burning more and more. Surely it wasn't all due to being exhausted.

What seemed like ages later (in actuality only a few minutes), Amelia broke the shore with Zayden. Gasping for air, she settled herself as best as she could then started swimming back towards land.

Finally she saw the light! Jezzabelle was so close. A couple more kicks and she would break the surface and find herself back on dry land. She could almost fell the effects of the gillyweed wearing off ever so slowly. Kick. Kick. Kick. She would break through the surface any minute now.

Oh it was so close she could feel it she had no idea how much she dissliked swimming well the bit wherr she had to swim... she looked up slowly getting out of the water and laying her brother at the side of the lake she took serious breaths, almost panting but was out "Finally," she panted

Most of the kids had been able to grab the "hostages". So most was alright with Scabior. The rest could just....deal with the effects....and drown.He had told them that the Gillyweed only lasted an hour.

Making a motion for William to cut his conversation with the Merperson he quickly began to swim up toward the surface, with surprisingly with more energy than he had coming down.

Alyssa broke to the surface and breathed in a breath of fresh air. She placed Cody in front of her, placing an arm around her neck and shoulders and slowly swam backwards. Cody was still unconscious and Alyssa was worried about that, but she would only be able to check her breathing once they were back on dry ground. So kicking backwards with Claudia in front of her, Alyssa made her way back to the shore.

After a somewhat heated discussion with the merfolk, in which William had to promise an arm, a leg, and his firstborn child, the man succeeded in talking them out of gifting him one of their lobalugs. He did also have to agree that everyone he had ever spoken to in his life would die horrible drowning deaths if he did not return it within a week, but hey, it was worth it. The merpeople hadn't even attacked him when he'd stunned the creature and put it in a soft mesh sack! Heh. Just THINK of the opportunities they would have to study the lobalug up close! OH! And harvesting the ink from it! It would be a real useful gem.

He was just turning around to check on the students when he noticed Dash motioning for him to get the heck outta there, as the hour was almost up. But but but the students! There were still students down here! How was Willy supposed to just leave them?!

Even as he debated with the decision to flee or play the hero, William could feel the gills on the side of his neck closing up.... and that sealed the decision for him. He was more of a use alive than dead and the Slytherin in him was NOT going to let him go Gryffindoring around the lake right now.

With one last sad, pitying look at the students still attempting to rescue their loved ones, Willy made an urgent gesture to show them all that NOW was the time to leave. Then he started kicking upward toward the surface, his long legs propelling him to the surface in no time at all.

Best of luck to those left behind. He'd be down to collect the bodies when he returned the live lobalug.

Desiree had been swimming for what felt like forever, and by now she couldn't even see her own hand in front of her. They had to be getting close..

Finally they were there, but it took her a minute to figure out where "there" was. Suddenly the place was lit up, merpeople! They were singing. She stared in awe at them (although they were kinda intimidating) before her face fell into a look of pure terror. Was that..? But how..? She was in France, no, no she had most definitely gone back to France..

Desiree was panicking, "Liliana!" she tried to yell out, but it simply came out as jumbled up sounds and bubbles. She swam over to where she was. She looked in horror at the row of people, but tried to calm herself down. They aren't hurt, the Professors wouldn't hurt anyone, they aren't even in real danger..

Seeing other students grabbing their person, she held out her wand "Diffindo!" she managed to get out, suprisingly it worked and the ropes fell off. Her sister began to fall, but Desiree caught her. Desiree struggled under the weight, but immediately began swimming up, she didn't have very much time, hadn't Professor Scabior said the gillyweed only lasted an hour? She shuddered at the thought, and swam faster.