Gillyweed? That meant... oh no. That meant they would be going really deep... oh no no no..! Aurora's heart was trying to beat it's way out of her chest. She clutched her wand tight, having practiced relashio before Professor Scabior had called them over. She really really really didn't want to go into the lake... she hated deep water... oh Merlin WHY did they have to do this? Was it even legal to take underage students into such deep water? If she wanted to see under the lake she could just look out of the common room windows... Ach. She was frowning slightly but... oh well. It was a lesson... and she had no choice but to do it. She took a deep breath to calm herself...

Ella looked around at the other students as she mentally prepared herself to jump into the lake. She wasn't sure she was ready to swim with the creatures that lived in there but it was now or never. Stick with the professors, El. Don't wander off.

Laura felt the panic going from her, but until she got offical words from the Professors she wasn't going to let her guard down, maybe it was a challange of some sort. "I hope you are right." The other girl probably was the headmaster probably wouldn't let them go to war, would he, well she'd find out soon enough.

Laura had already changed into her wet suit and she had gone to join the Professor, hopefully she wouldn't get into trouble like the others, but saying that she couldn't see how she could it was a serious question.

Oakey was barely into his suit when Professor Scabior called for everyone to gather around the lake. He scurried over quickly slipping his right arm into the wetsuit. and waited for the Gillyweed to be passed out.

Sky's face said it all. She was Not Amused. At all. Not only did she have to wear the ugly suit, the professor got to wear an uber cool wetsuit. Ugh. The only bright spot was seeing Professor Scabior change one poor sap's outfit into something more hideous for not following instructions. It made her chuckle a little as she waited for Professor Williamson to hand out the gillyweed.

Justin watched as Minerva cast the spell at Harvey. He winced as he saw his friends reaction to the spell. Then Minnie turned her wand on him..... " Ow, Min. That smarts." he exclaimed.

Minerva gathered near where the professor Scabiors said. She had her suit on and was ready. She sat waiting for Professor Williamson to pass out the gillyweed. She was actually excited to get into the water and explore.

Taylor stood waiting for the professor to say when. She was anxious to go swimming. Taylor loved to swim.

Harvey chuckled with her.. and then suddenly points were taken off people.. he rushed to get changed into his swimsuit and came back.. and stood with the other two waiting to be handed some gillyweed..

Emerging from behind the screen in the swimsuit provided, Kurumi hugged her arms tightly around her and tried to make herself smaller. This was so...revealing... Kurumi hardly ever wore a bathing suit and whenever she had she had only ever been in front of her own family or Selina AND she had jumped right into the water. Now she had to stand there, along with everyone else....Kurumi's cheeks blushed, but she remained silent as she waited for Professor Williamson to pass out the gillyweed.

She took a peek at Professor Scabior and, as much as she hated to admit it, blushed just a bit at how great he looked in his wetsuit.

Scabior. Williamson. Wetsuits.

Really, this class could go on forever, and Sierra wouldn't complain at [i]all[/url]. Scabbers was ordering them onto the grass again, causing his hotness factor to go from ten to none in about two seconds. Nevertheless, Sierra headed back to the grass, ancient swimsuit and all.

As Scabbers' talk went on, Sierra began to raise her eyebrows in a slightly shocked manner. Merlin, who put him in such a bad mood, hmm?! Maybe it was all those points he'd had to take earlier. Maybe he was getting older and couldn't handle the stress of misbehavior anymore. That seemed like the most likely case.

Nope, she didn't have any questions, but she wasn't exactly thrilled to have to eat gillyweed again. That stuff was disgusting! She didn't have much of a choice either, it seemed. Scabbers and all his bossing around just left her quiet for now.

Justin quickly changed into a provided suit. Ashamed to have lost 10 points from his thinking ahead. Though he thought it not fair.

SIGH OF RELIEF! They were going to use gillyweed! Alex would NOT have to worry about drowning today...well, unless he took longer than an hour. GASP. So drowning still was a possibility. He'd just have to keep a very VERY close watch on the time, and he'd be fine, yes?

He sure hoped so.

The prospect of being able to breathe underwater had definitely calmed his nerves, and now he was just anxious to get this over with. The sooner he went in the water and came back out, the better.

Hearing professor Scabior talk... and deduct that generous amount of points from her house, Louisa gave Messer a smile- no, really, she DID smile at him because his magic was strong and he was enthusiastic to learn. He was a good boy, she even made a mental-note to be his tour guide if he needed one. By this rate, though, she'd ask Tate to pay for her babysitting this term. Alec, Sam, Lily and now Messer. The firsties of this term were absolutely drawn to wits of Louisa Carter.

BAHAHA.

Ahem. Anyways.

Hastily, Louisa grabbed a swimsuit from the bag, gave herself time to eye, sniff, and make faces at it while she headed behind the screen and changed. How a single slate of wood was keeping them modest while all the other directions were still open was beyond her. She just followed directions. Basically because Scabior was around, and the other one was... wearing daisies behind his ear.

Once she got out from behind the screen she headed to where the professors stood and crossed her arms waiting for the gillyweed thing.

Selina looked at the swim suits provided and very nearly rolled her eyes. She had to restrain herself because the outfit was so Merlin awful she could not even function. But Selina was really clever at hiding her distain for certain things so she kept her mouth shut, went to change and re-emmerged in what they were all distributed. The redhead floated over to Kurumi and stood beside her best friend. She could tell that the girl was slightly uncomfortable with the whole outfit thing. Eh, she would be fine. BRING ON THE GILLYWEED!!

Alyssa got really excited when she heard that they would soon be going into the lake. She gathered around the Professors as instructed and sat on the grass, as Professor Scabior told them what they would be doing next. Wait for the gillyweed to be handed out, eat it and then get into the water because they only had an hour before the effects of the gillyweed wore off, and most importantly she had to follow the Professors closely once the entered the lake. As she took the weed, she raised her hand, "Professor what happens if we get grabbed and lose sight of both of you. I know that we're supposed to use the Revulsion jinx to escape but then how do we find the rest of you?" Alyssa asked.

Silvia stepped out from behind the screen after having put on the suit. Luckily there seemed to be some sort of spell on the suits so that they adjusted themselves to fit the wearer, because she didn't think they would have a suit small enough otherwise. She had gotten a few minutes to practice the Relashio spell, but she was still very nervous. She knew that gillyweed was supposed to help her swim, but she wasn't so sure how it would work for someone who didn't even know how to swim in the first place. Her friend had agreed to stay next to her in case she needed help, but it still didn't help her nerves.

She took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself and walked over to where everyone was gathering, pulling her hair up in a ponytail as she walked.

Violet was absolutely ready to swim in the lake. Though it looked murky and dangerous, she had been done practicing the jinx and it was going to be nice to swim underwater with the gillyweed and not needing to breathe real air for an hour. This was going to be fun, but she had a question:

"Professor, what do we do if we get lost and we cannot find the group to catch up with?"

Kennedy was a BIT hesitant about changing into THAT. It was worse that his grandmother's pajamas. After changing into the very ANCIENT swimming attire he gathered around Professor Scabior. Did he have any idea how silly Kennedy felt in the swim suit. Salazar Slytherin probably wore the same one when he swam.

Pssh.

His attention was drawn away when Gillyweed was mentioned. He's read about that, but has never had the honor to ingest it. Cool.

Aw, these swimsuits weren't that bad... It just made the hips look a little funky was all, especially on the boys. Hehe. Oh well! Kimalia had already changed into them discreetly and wasn't going to risk losing points by making alterations... Even though those wetsuits looked much cooler, especially on the handsome Professors. SIGH. But now they were going to swim! Sweet!

Now this Gillyweed... not so sweet looking. Eyeing it unsurely, she wasn't going to eat it until submerged that way she can stay in the longest. But she did have a question, "Er, Professor.. Is it going to hurt.. getting webbed feet and everything?" Experiencing impact pain was one thing, but having a body transform was something she hadn't experienced.. Hopefully it wouldn't end badly.. right?

Quote:

Originally Posted by tomewitch

Then..hearing the exchange of answers and question between the CoMC Professor and the Ravenclaw Prefect, she also decided to ask. "So..we really are going underwater Professor?" That was pretty obvious, she just wanted to confirm. "And--are we errr--going to be working alone?" She frowned and shook her head. "No, let me rephrase that. Are we.." she was pertaining to them students. "going to perform the jinx on a grindylow alone? Like a one on one duel against the creature?" If so, they'd have a grindylow as a partner, how wicked is that?

"No," William shook his head at the young Ravenclaw with a chuckle. "I taught you the jinx JUST as a precaution, so that in case you DO run into a grindylow," or something worse, "you'll know what to do."

Quote:

Originally Posted by Starbreeze

That was awfully rude of them, to intrude, disturb their peace, then harm them. Eino would most likely let the creature break him before hurting it. He didn't agree with barging into someone else's home, then attacking them for trying to protect it, and protect themselves. It was not fair to the creatures, no matter how dark and dangerous they were, and Eino would not do it. If anything, this man was a dark wizard for wanting to hurt creatures for no reason! Aren't they supposed to be learning how to care for magical creatures, and not do the opposite? This was the very thing Eino did not want to do, and stop others from doing. Sighing heavily, with nothing but disappointment in his tone, he spoke. "I understand." But, not, he did not understand. Not this, not why all house elves looked a hundred years old, and especially not why all the pumpkin juice was always gone when the came down for breakfast. With zero motivation to continue his participation, he thanked the professor and made his way to screens to change clothes.

William thought he could sense the disappointment coming from the Ravenclaw who was convinced that grindylows were still magical creatures needing protecting and he just sighed to himself.

"Grindylows are wizard-created WATER demons," he called after the boy, "and if you willingly put your life at risk by refusing to fight one off, I'm not so sure you should go into the lake at all!"

Merlin, now he was as grumpy as Scabbers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grangerfan8

Arya KNEW IT.

She KNEW the new creatures professor wouldn't disappoint, how could they not be going in the lake with a lesson like this? A wide grin was stretched across her face, and she listened to the spell they would possibly be using. Relashio. Sharp jab. Did she have to practice it now, though? No. Now she was going to get dressed.

Into one of those laughable swimsuits.

The prefect rose to feet with a bounce and picked one of the offending objects with two fingers. Arya wasn't one to care too much about appearance... but why did the professors get awesome wet suits and they got these? "Professor Williamson," She raised the swimsuit towards the man, waving it around a bit. "If we know how, could we transform our... swimsuits into wetsuits?" Arya looked at him a bit hopeful.

"Absolutely NOT," Williamson answered curtly, crushing Arya's hopeful expression with a hard look of his own. "Sorry, but they're the Hogwarts standard." No ifs, ands, buts, alterations, or substitutions.

SPOILER!!: The 'I Can't Swim Wells'

Quote:

Originally Posted by SilverDragon

They were going into the lake?! Oh no, thought Silvia, this isn't good at all. She hated going underwater, especially when there were fish in the water with their creepy eyes, but she might be able to handle that if it were not for a bigger problem.

"Um, professor?" she said, very nervously, hoping not too many students would hear her as they went about getting their swimsuits on, "what if we can't swim very well? And what does gillyweed do, will it help make it easier to swim?"

Silvia had never properly learned how to swim; she could move around a bit in water, but she was a very weak swimmer. Maybe, if gillyweed would help, she would be able to stay close to one of her friends in case she needed help. After all, she really didn't want to miss the lesson.

Quote:

Originally Posted by iBeJenn

Wh-what? Swimming?! No one had told her anything about having to swim till now. "Professor!" Selena's hand shot straight into the air, eyes wide. "What if some of us... don't... know... how... to... uhm... swim?" Selena asked. And are deathly afraid of DROWNING in the lake even with the bubble-head charm and all?! Because... y'know, Selena was kinda one of those people.

And Gillyweed? Selena didn't even want to try morphing into a fish. Fishes were weird. Some were even flushed down the toilet.

Quote:

Originally Posted by CassiopeiaAKTF

Hearing that they were going in to the lake to swim, Daichi froze in place. Not because the water dripping from his clothes were so cold but because of fear. He had almost DROWNED last year and now he had to swim in the lake?! He couldn't even swim!

He was about to say this when he heard someone else voicing his question. Looking around, he found their Prefect looking rather uncomfortable. Turning back to face the Professor he too raised his arm. "I-i was wondering the same thing...Professor"" he said as he felt his cheeks blazing fire from embarrasment.

"GILLYWEED," Williamson bellowed, already annoyed with the people hating the swimsuits he and Scabior had sadistically picked out and VERY annoyed that students were NOT listening to him when he said GRINDYLOWS WERE EVIL CREATURES.

Right, finishing his sentence. "GILLYWEED will give you webbing between your fingers and toes and gills on the side of your neck. IT DOES NOT HURT. For all intents and purposes, you will become half-fish for an hour after you eat gillyweed. THIS WILL ENABLE YOU TO SWIM without a problem." He stared down those who had asked that questions specifically. "If you get lost, well.... woe be you." Not really. "Look, you're not going to get lost. One of us is swimming in front and one is bringing up the rear. We have a task for you which Professor Scabior is about to explain. ADDITIONALLY," he continued bellowing, "I'll ask Bartholomew Henry to keep an eye out for any lost lambs. GOT IT?"

Now then, time to pass it out. Williamson reached down for another bag that had been sitting near Dash and slung it over his shoulder, moving around the gathered students and pressing one worm-like ball into each of their hands.

"Do NOT eat this until Professor Scabior and I give the word."

Once he had passed out all the gillyweed, Williamson tossed Dash a ball of the stuff and jogged over to change into his wetsuit. He emerged all changed and feeling awesome, his own ball of gillyweed clutched tightly in his fist as he looked to his co-worker.

"Ready?"

Oh boy Nate was getting nervous since this was the first time he was going in the lake. He was so scared you could tell by the look in his eyes he was scared. He was also happy and excited. He felt mixed emotions. He was getting pumped his heart was beating a mile a minute. He just couldn't wait.

Selena almost whimpered. But Selena Zabini-Riddle didn't whimper. She frowned changed quickly in the... thing they called a swimsuit and walked towards the rest of the students. Selena Zabini-Riddle didn't want to die. She didn't want to drown. She clutched her wand tightly in her hand, refusing to let go of it. She would need it later and she looked around. Was anyone as uncomfortable about this as she was? Selena didn't know how to swim!! Why were they forcing this on the disadvantaged?! This was a cruel and unusual punishment.

She stood there looking at the worm-like ball. She was a bit nervous to try this out.

Amelia shivered in her swimsuit as she looked from the lake to the ball in her hand to the lake again. She wasn't really scared of going in there, she was just worried that she'd freeze in the lake... and that gillyweed would feel weird. No matter what the Professors said, she wasn't sure.

She nodded and waited.