While exploring around in the lucious tall underwater seaweed forest and getting mesmerized by all the colours, waterplants and sealife you stumble upon what appears to be a large. dark underwater cave. Dare you make your way inside the dark cave that could have looming danger lurking in the shadows? As you contemplate your next step something very shiny glimmers up in the cave and then quickly dissapears. Could that glimmer have been a treasure?

He was busy looking about when out of the corner of his eye he saw Beth flagging him down with those crazy expressive eyes of hers.. " Alright!.. Gimme a sec!.. ", Reese called over to his friend, Beth.. She looked like she was having a time with Danny Boy..

He happened to see that Quinn was fairly close by and called over to her when he caught glimpse of a cave , " Wanna go check out that cave with me?".. He swam over and gestured for her to follow him over to help Beth The Amazing pain in the rear, with her stuck in a gill finger.

Vivian gave Beth a small nod and a smile because phew! She wasn't so sure if she wanted to deal with another of her Slytherins getting into trouble these days. The Head Girl was even more assured when Wayland stepped in to help the merpeople himself. She very much trusted him more than the rest because he was a professor for this field, after all. Better him than anyone else.

And because they were given time to explore and swim around for a while, Vivian did so. She was mostly intrigued by the various aquatic plants around them, being a Herbology enthusiast herself. So yes, the tall green seaweed forest had caught her attention. She knew that this was obviously the other way around, but the blond didn't want to get involved with merpeople today. She couldn't even understand what they were talking about. Besides, the others were right over there and she was making sure they wouldn't get lost. See? Good prefect.

But then they were all going to explore the seaweed forest? What?! "Maybe not a good idea, guys...." Imagine how much trouble they'd get in? NOPE, this Head Girl wasn't going to deal with that. Vivian's anxiety was developing anxiety itself.

The greenish glow could only hold a twelve year old's attention for so long before something else more interesting came along. Or she remembered what it was she was supposed to actually be doing. Where she was meant to be. With the rest of the group. Back the other way. Not over here staring at the pretty green glow and examining seaweed which was what she was currently doing. Having pulled her wand from the holster that was strapped to her thigh. Before she could lose her attention completely Ry, cast a quick, "Diffindo" on a small piece of seaweed stuffing it into her wand holster for safe keeping. It might come in handy later.

Growing bored the ginger haired lion cub glanced around looking Reese positive he had been right behind her the entire time. Except now he wasn't. It had taken .01 seconds for her to locate him. Even in the murky lake water his ginger hair stood out. Made sense why he was no longer at her side anymore, why would he be. Rather than swim back towards them all now like she had intend to just a mere second ago she looked back towards the seaweed noticing other waterplants that a sealife.

Huh? What was that? Gripping her wand tightly in her hand, for she hadn't yet returned it to the holster on her leg she swam a little more ways ahead towards the darkness. Was that a cave? A shiny glimmer like a lone star on a dark night caught her eye drawing her in more and she couldn't help but swim towards it, though something in the back of her head told her to turn around she didn't. The darkness of the cave was like being at home.. like the cave at home... it felt welcoming and she just wanted a peek at what was inside, that's all...

"Lumos," was whispered to light up the darkness in front of her. Hopefully? It wasn't easy to swim and hold onto her wand.

Daehyun was beyond freaked by Beth's fascination for gills. Or, more like, freaked by her fascination for his gills. He didn't want to have them touched, and he didn't want to touch others - only the thought of it gave him the heebie-jeebies. It was simply something that should not normally grow on a human being, so it unnerved him. Him, the person who wanted to become an animagus one day. Meaning he'd be fully in animal form. That made perfect sense, to be bothered by gills.

They were soon distracted by the shimmery plant thing, and he was glad he didn't need to fight Beth on this one. He could only nod along when she'd mentioned grindylows, but Ewan was... very Ewan. And had taken off. The only consolation was that he didn't wander off alone, but he was still not calm about it. His eyes would flit over to his Ravenclaw friend every once in a while to make sure he didn't get eaten, like Beth mentioned.

It was only when Beth's friend Lydia joined their group that he realized he was still holding onto the girl's wrist, and he let go of it so fast as if his hand had caught on fire. His face surely did. "Hey, Lydia, nice to meet you," he said, awkwardly waving a hand, which reminded him of the... things. The things that his hands had turned into.

"Did you see that?" he said to no one in particular, looking towards the cave that came into view. His brows furrowed as he thought he'd seen something glimmer in there. Or was it just him being paranoid and seeing danger around every corner? Very possible.

Vaguely, she was aware that Derf had swam in after her but hadn't given much thought for why. It wouldn't have been unusual for others to be curious. It was a forest of seaweed that likely hid many interesting things. The fact younger students may or may not have seen older ones veering off and decided to do the same was also more or less....not her problem.

Professor Wayland and apparently Bartholomew Henry were in charge of keeping the students in line here and the man HAD said this was the time for independent exploration. As far as she was concerned, that meant every man for himself.

The Ravenclaw swam further into the thicket, being sure to keep a bit closer to the top just in case she was in need of a quick exit but all actions ceased at the opening to a dark cave, one the little Gryffindor had already gone off into. How big was the cave? How many tunnels? How likely was she to get lost or otherwise trapped and should something terrible arise, what would be her most likely game plan?

All very important questions as she took notable pause just outside.

That was when she saw it, the glimmer of something just inside. If she could see it from here, then it couldn't have been that far inside. Worst case, she swam in, realized it wasn't as close as she'd hoped then she would simply swim back out and continue her exploration on the outside.

That being decided. Jessa tentatively made her way inside, keeping just beyond the entrance while she looked around for whatever had been glimmering a moment ago.

Quinn sighed internally, and made her way over to Beth. "What?" Her arms folded over her chest until it matched perfectly the level of annoyance in her tone. She was perfectly fine not being in this crowd of people, thank you very much. And was...Daniel ignoring her? Interesting. Had she reached the level of terrifying that it was better to just not acknowledge her existence? Or was this something to do with his supposed crush on her?

Honestly, she hoped the former. She'd be quite proud of herself if it was the former.

And then, there was that unmistakable voice, even distorted underwater and with gills, it was unmistakable. Quinn bit her lip and didn't immediately turn to Reese. She wasn't going to smile this time. Nope. At last she turned slowly to face him. "No. Not particularly..." But she could see it in his face. He was going to go either way, and after a second Quinn visibly relented. "I suppose I can go, just to make sure you don't die or anything." But if anything happened to her, Reese Prichard, she was going to volunteer you to be her personal hex tester for the next seven years. "What's with suddenly deciding to act like a Gryffindor?"

In the darkest depths of the cave, creatures stir. They are not happy to be disturbed! Several pairs of eyes shines out of the darkness as a few of the braver among them slowly swim forward. Who dares invade their domain?!

They sniff the water. Ugh, humans… FOOD! Sharp teeth gnash, and a bony reaches out, ready to grab any unsuspecting person who wanders too close. What a delicious meal those foolish humans will make!

She wasn't going to go very far into the cave. All she wanted to do was find that shiny thing. Rylee knew she had seen it. The glimmer, bright, cutting through the dark. Where had it gone?

It was dark. Darker than she thought, even with the light of her wand. Rylee turned around to swim back only to realize she had gone a bit further into the cave than she may have thought. Which way had she gone? Was it left... or maybe right? She wasn't even sure anymore. The Gryffindor tried to shine her wand around but it really didn't do much good for her.

Something brushed up against her leg, it felt bony and somewhat sharp the suddenness of it startling her. She had found the shiny things. Lots of it. Bright shiny eyes staring at her from all over the dark cave. Bony webbed fingers , and sharp teeth.

Her brain told her to move, to swim. Now. Fast. Only she wasn't moving. She was frozen. Except for her racing heart.

Floating close with Beth and Quinn, Eria heard when the little boy-with-a-death-wish let something completely idiotic come out of his gilly little face. Cave? Cave! CAVE!? Exploring the dark underwater CAVE!? JUST HOW STUPID WAS THIS KID!? She knew he was stupid and not surviving to graduation, and he was a Hufflepuff to boot....but who did he think he was getting other people killed with him!?

Especially HER people! No, she wasn't saying it outloud but she claimed baby snake and the tweetless bird under her protection. "If he is idiotic enough to go into dangerous territory willy-nilly and then dies, its his own bloody fault Quinn." Yes, those were the first words she'd bothered to utter this entire activity. It was usually a waste of breath, but this needed said.

"Hey Oompa Loompa. I don't care if you get your stupid self killed, but keep more important lives out of your blatant wish for selfharm, mmk?" What, was his mother drinking potions during pregnancy or something? Before she realized it, the older snake was but a body length away from the young eagle. Her tone was certainly as sharp as her green eyes, warning that if the aquatic denizens didn't deliever his demise...she just might.

Bel.... had no intentions of going into random caves? Not unless the professor guided them in there. What kind of crazy person just deviated from where the adults were? Also, ALSO she did not have her wand. Which .... she was now realizing might have been an oversight. She was a strong swimmer though, and when she thought about it, not being that great with her wand, probably trying to use it underwater would have been more of a hindrance than anything else, especially because how would you even pronounce a spell right to cast it? And the professor had gone off after those merpeople and the hippocampus and did he even KNOW people were going off in crazy directions? He'd said not to go too far. She herself had just been enjoying the whole being underwater thing.... She swam up a little higher, hoping that she'd get a bit of a better view of what some people were doing, at least she could keep track of the many directions people were going off in, even if the water was probably too murky to see much detail. And she was keeping an eye out for the professor so that when he came back she could point out where people all went. Cos the group? It had dispersed.

What did Barty think of all of this?

Ewan couldn’t help but get closer to the seaweed. He had a feeling this was why the sorting hat had put him in Ravenclaw...his need to follow new information. Feeling the texture of the seaweed now, his eyes caught the sight of a large dark cave in the shadows. Hesitantly, he moved closer to it. Unsure if he really wanted to get that close to the entrance. After all, he wasn’t exactly supposed to be this far away from the main group.

Watching still, he noticed some of his fellow first years moving towards it (Reese, Beth and Quinn). Indifference briefly flitted across his face before he finally noticed Rylee wandering into the dark unknown. What was she doing wandering in there alone? The one time her shadow left her side and it was to let her wander alone into a cave.

Turning back now, he looked at in the direction of the group he’d left before moving his eyes in the direction of where Professor Wayland had wandered off to. Making up his mind, he slowly moved towards the mysterious cave, curiosity getting the better of him. Gripping his wand tight, he held it out in front of him, ready to send jets of water towards anything that swam towards him.

Reached the edge of the cave now, he couldn’t help but notice how deep it really was. Floating there for a second, he looked into the dark abyss, his mind going at war with its self. Finally, having decided to swim back to the group, he turned to swim away, relief crossded across his face. Until he spotted Rylee. She was in trouble!!! What was th... GRINDYLOWS!!!

Swimming closer now, his wand out in front of him. Dimly, his mind recalled the spell he needed to use; The Revulsion Jinx! Except... he didn’t know how to. Making a mental note to learn it if he made it out of here, he aimed his wand at the pale-green water demon. Instead, doing what he’d hoped he wouldn’t have to, he shot a jet of water at its long, brittle fingers in the hope that it would break. Strange how, even under water, he held his breath as he waited to see if it would work.

Reese was following his sister into the cave.. But stopped not so far deep into it as she had gone when Eria, the SnakeLady's, shrill voice tore into his ears and he turned around to flash her a nasty look.. What was her deal anyway?.. HE was Quinnlin's friend.. She could take a long walk off a short pier as far as he was concerned.. And with that he stuck out his tongue.. Not very mature, but fact was. He was only eleven years old.. He might as well be five..

He looked over at Quinn to see if she was going to continue along with him... OR if she was going to stay back with SnakeLady and Bethlebee?

Then he turned back to see where Rylee had gone.. But he couldn't see the light from the tip of her wand any longer.. Not at all!.. He looked back at SnakeLady, pure fear.. Fear for his sister.. He wouldn't have gone down deeper in there alone!!!.. Why would she go in there alone?!!!

Quinn was a bit floored and plenty touched with Eria started to lay into Reese about trying to get Quinn to go along with him. Honestly, he didn't mean anything by it, he was just channeling his inner Gryffindor today apparently. That wasn't quite a good thing in Quinn's mind. But he didn't mean anything, just wasn't thinking.

But Eria was. As was Beth. As was Quinn herself. It was not a good idea to go down there, and to be perfectly honest, Quinn wasn't all that inclined to, she just wanted to keep Reese safe from himself, should he follow through with....

Quinn turned back to Reese to see that he'd already swam to the mouth of the cave.

Yep.

She was torn for a long moment, between self-preservation and saving a good friend and....For Merlin's sake! She wasn't stressing about this. Nope. There was a fantastic solution if she could pull it off.

Quinn pulled out her wand and aimed it at Reese. "Accio Reese!"

Beth’s attention was drawn to the cave, not because it was a cave…no, partly because it was a cave. Still right now, it was more because she knew there could be waterdemons around and – and Rylee had gone into that cave. ”we should make sure they don’t die,” her voice was firm as she started slipping away from Daniel – waaaaait…Reese was going after the cave?

”Vivian? Do you need us to do anything?” she asked the headgirl as her own eyes darted around the area. Reese was near the cave, Ewan was likely fish-food, that…glimmering and disappearing glittery thing didn’t seem good. It seemed ominous ”guys we should go get Professor Wayland – or Bartholomew Henry and get help” turning she looked toward Eria.

”Eria, what do you think we should do? Wait for the Professor and risk saaaaay people dying or risk breaking trust by going to get help from Professor Wayland?” she asked even though she was also asking Quinn. She was going to go and get help, that was the best course of action right? Maybe, just maybe the Merpeople could help?

Derf had seen the glimmer too and it was uncanny how Hogwarts students despite EVERYTHING still acted like moths to a flame, you know? Though he himself was acting rather like a niffler in the moment, seeing something golden and shiny and moving towards it...but then it was gone. Vanished. And it made the Hufflepuff pause as several of his classmates swam by him and IN to the cave along with Jessa.

Dark ominious mystery. Portal. Monster.

"NO GUYS WAIT!" he called out, his hand gripping his wand tightly and at the ready should something unsavory come out.

Which it did - though Derf was EXCITED to see these creatures despite their Dark status. And of course the creatures were acting hostile, they had just swam up and invaded their space - were these, perhaps, some of the grindylows that the merpeople had domesticated? Didn't mean they were going to listen to them or anything but he still found himself curious in the moment.

AND THEN PEOPLE WERE SHOOTING OFF SPELLS AT THE GRINDYLOWS AND THERE WAS RYLEE WITH REESE AND SDLFJDSLFJSJFLSLFSJ

Had the grindylows even properly attacked yet? His curiosity had been preoccupied elsewhere for a bit too long. Oops.

Heart pounding in his chest, Derf kicked his feet wildly and shot through the water like a frog just as Ewan shot...water (???) out of his wand at a grindylow lurking nearby. But his focus was on Rylee who who frozen in place. Grabbing the younger lioness by the arm, Derf yanked firmly and roughly to throw her backwards. Unfortunately, as was with the laws of physics and such, it produced an opposite reaction that flung HIM further into the mouth of the cave and towards his water demon friends.

And he was fairly certain that a Summoning Charm only worked on flobberworms. Poor flobberworms. Terribly underrated creatures, you know?

Wand in hand, and his back facing the cave, Derf pointed his wand out into the lake's waters. "Periculum!" he shouted, a jet of red blasting from his wand and in the direction from whence they had all come. That would hopefully draw Professor Wayland's attention. And Bartholomew Henry. And, you know, maybe the merpeople could help with their pets since, technically, Hogwarts had just help them with the hippocampus.

In any case... the fifth wasn't taking any chances here. Grindylows one-on-one were one thing...but who KNEW how many were in this cave.

The seaweed forest had been doing weird things to Stasya’s mind. It piqued her curiosity as to if there were merpeople or hippocampi or other fascinating creatures inside. The lake equivalent of the unicorns, really. But it also was reminding her way too much of the Forbidden Forest and her fears of getting lost in there, which had been why she hadn’t been quite as reckless as Jessa and some of the others, floating near the edges up until the discovery of the cave. Underwater caves with something glimmering inside. It had to either be like the fireseed caves or there was something like a dragon in there guarding treasure. Just mysterious enough to be intriguing, but she hadn’t ventured much past the opening.

Even though she’d desperately wanted to go after Rylee as she saw her tiny ginger protégée swim past her and into the cave proper. As her prefect, she should have followed but she really hadn’t wanted to find out what was in there either. Even Jessa had stayed close to the opening, and that really wasn’t helping her state of mind.

When the grindylows made their appearance, her hesitation both seemed smart and highly idiotic. “You can’t summon a person!,” she called out in the direction of the firstie Claw who had tried. But then, at least she had tried…

“Relashio!” She was focusing as hard as she could, but it wasn’t a spell she’d had much practice with. That and she doubted most of the spells she’d learned for dueling would work well against that many grindylows. Derf’s plan was so much better.

“Periculum!!!!!!” The spell that had saved her back in first year hen Emmeline had fallen out of the tree in the forest. The spell she was really good at. Except being underwater, spells worked differently, so she just had to hope that Bartholomew Henry and/or Professor Wayland would notice their signal. She’d even take the merpeople at this point, as long as Rylee would be safe.

Could she say she told you so now?

Harriet couldn't exactly see what was going on from where she was, since she'd been a good prefect and stayed where she was. But there was definitely something going on, spells flying about, and the blonde didn't feel like she could just stay here. Her baby puffs, the stupid ones that couldn't listen, were potentially in danger and she couldn't let them get hurt. So she had to do something.

The seventh year glanced in Professor Waylands direction. Could he even tell? Did he know what was going on? Hopefully he had noticed the red sparks from the spells. Hopefully he would know that something was going on. But what if he hadn't? She could have gone over and got himself, but she didn't want to waste her time when she may be better used in the actual problem. "Bel!" The blonde suddenly said, noting her Captain there. "Quickly go get the Professor. i'm gonna go see if I can help..."

And then the prefect was swimming towards whatever was going on. "Guys! Guys! If you can get away. Get away" Because they needed to be safe. Hopefully by then Professor Wayland would be there.

Bel opened her mouth and did that weird, bubble-filled underwater talking which wasn't clear at all past a word or two, but she WAS trying to say okay, and added gestures to that to make it clear that was what she was saying. And... and Hattie was gone already. Okay.

Bel turned and swam powerfully and quickly in the direction that the professor and the merpeople had gone with the hippocampus. And who knew what the squid was doing by the way.

Okay, so the jet of water didn’t exactly work. Thankfully, Derf has come to save the day! Swimming every so slightly in, he grabbed Rylee by the arm. “Are you okay?”, he asked, a plethora of emotions flashing over his face.

Breathing rather heavy now, he gave her a quick look over to see she wasn't too hurt. Satisfied that there didn't seem to be any obvious injuries, he wanted to make sure that they got out of there safely. “Come on! Let’s get out of here!!”



Pulling her away from the cave now, he swam back to the group, his heart threatening to take off if it started to beat any faster. Stopping when he was on the edge of the group now, he looked back towards the seaweed and the cave, worry still across his face. He wished Derf would hurry up and get out of that cave!

Reaching the group of children now, he couldn’t help but appreciate the sheer amount of number of them there were. Relief was now starting to set in slightly as some of the other children sent for the Professor. He’d know exactly what to do, although he did get the suspicion that a detention and a loss of house points may be heading his way.

Eria considered transfiguring the little edgits face when he stuck his tongue out at her, and thought of all the ways she might hex him for a moment.

When the tiny badger looked back at her though, instincts hit. That was subzero, down to fear...she knew that look. This was going to suuuucccckkkk.....

She took a deep gill full of water as Quinn tried to summon the foolish boy. She didn't think it worked like that, but she applauded the passion of it. Hearing Beth's voice she strafed her head to face her. Let's pick the best, least disruptive action... "Get the squid!" She bellowed back to her little housemate. "If not, the Professor. Swim fast."

Looking back over to Quinn, her eyes said "Don't do anything stupid." she had to voice it though. "STAY." Her voice was not cruel, but concerned and firm.

Wand at the ready, the older girl swam to snatch the Oompa Loompa. With her thin frame she swam like a fish really...she hated sports but water she could do.

There were enough older, bigger students in that cave area to get the dumb one's dumb sister. She was snatching him first, then the situation could be reassessed, but hopefully a fantastically dashing squid or that professor bloke would be getting their butts in gear something like quick.

Eria reached her wandless hand out to snatch a badger wrist, and hopefully prevent the potential casualty or hospital visit.

One of the grindylows locked its eyes on the little girl that was just floating there frozen. It smiled maliciously, flashing its sharp teeth at her. The others continued to slowly inch torward the other humans. They were angry and hungry.

But they all scattered in different directions once the spells started being casted. One even was hit by a jet of boiling water, which caused it to shriek in pain. They all then simultaneously retreated back into the depths of the cave with empty stomachs. For now.

Having been one of the handful of people who had stayed behind and had actually listened to a responsible Prefect, Dorian had no idea what was going on inside the cave. Actually, he had no idea that there was a cave as he had never been close to it.

Instead, he waited for them to come back. He had seen Rylee swimming towards the tall seaweed and he had wanted to grab her ankle and pull her back but who was he to do that? Besides, she was with a pretty big group now and he was sure she would be safe.

...Okay he did not feel that way. He was nervously watching in the distance , even biting his finger nails. Why weren't they coming back yet? He swam back and forth thinking about if he should go look as well or not. But his fear got the better of him and he stayed behind. They were fine...they were fine...they were fi--- Red Sparks?

THAT couldn't be good! Dorian looked around and saw the Hufflepuff Captain was swimming in the direction of the Professor, giant squid and the merpeople. He was sure that she was trying to get them for help, judging by the powerful way she moved through the water. Dorian on the other hand turned back around and pulled his wand out of his holster.

He wasn't being brave, he didn't swim towards the scene, he didn't move at all. He just floated in midwater and clutched his acacia wand in his hand just in case.

He was scared and had no clue on what to do.

...

Did she sign up for watching over the students? Well, yeah. Sort of, especially when the badge came along with her letter. But did she sign up for seeing pretty much all of them become an ultimate grindylow human buffet? Not at all. Vivian took a moment to look at Beth when she asked what they should do. Honestly, she didn't even know... but Professor Wayland was waaaay out of reach for her at the moment. She couldn't just divide her body in half to do both things. "Could you please call Professor Wayland and tell him that they may be in trouble?" The merpeople with that hippocampus were the least of his concern at the moment if he didn't want half of his class turn into grindyfood, right? "Or nevermind." Since, y'know... Bel seemed to have went to call for Wayland already. As long as someone got his attention.

Vivian honestly didn't want to do this under normal circumstances. She really wouldn't, but she'd faced worse than some creatures here. In her Defense OWL, she had to face both an echinokarp and a golem to pass. She could do this, right? Clearly doubtful, she went ahead anyway and pushed through the seaweed forest to reach those who were already inside the cave.

Cue the inaudible cursing. She couldn't wait to graduate.

Hand still touching her wand holster just in case, Vivian made sure the other students were safe. "Get out before they come back, guys," the Head Girl called out. "And fast." Because she wasn't at all keen with the thought of dealing with an entire horde of grindylows. Nope.

Whether you now want to stay in the cave or leave, the floor might manage to catch your attention. Remember the shiny glimmer you saw before? There before you, sticking out of the ground, are a variety of treasures. The beauty and glimmer of the treasure hoard is so breathtakingly irresistible and unbelievable that you might just want to examine them closely.

Perhaps you should take and show them to your professor and the squid? This is an unimaginable find. No matter what you decide to do, don’t dilly or dally. Only Merlin knows when those grindylows will come back.