Clara was happy, but stressed.

It was an odd feeling, but a feeling she knew well .

Luckily, she knew how to deal with it. She needed to get out of the castle and away from all the people IN the castle. They were biggest problem. Making the large spaces seem small and further crowding her with voices. Lots of loud voice. She needed to get away from that. She needed her quiet place.

But this was Hogwarts, so her usual quiet place was unavailable, so she'd have to find a new one. There were several possibilities, but one that she like more than the others. The lake. It should be quiet down there and the lake was huge and peaceful ... or so she'd read. It seemed like the perfect place to escape to, so that's where she went with book it hand.

Once she got there, she spotted a tree by the water and decided to sit and lean against that. The view from her chosen spot was amazing, but one look was enough for her. After taking a deeeeep breath and clearing her head, she opened her book to the first page and began reading. Perfect.

"Don't feel you... can't handle all this life... Cause you... you're lucky you're alive... And you... can't cry in your bed forever, baby. You got a life to live for lady..." Phoenix was EXPLORING and SINGING and it was awesome. He bounced down to the lake, occasionally executing a cartwheel here and there, until he got to the edge, then he toed off his shoes and socks and walked in up to his ankles.

"THAT'S COLD!" he yelled, jumping back a little and wiggling his feet around to try to dry them. That was when he saw... "Clara!" He scrambled over and plopped down next to her, kissing her cheek and then flopping down to rest his head on her lap. "Whatcha readin'?" He could have just read the cover, but he wanted attention, so he peeked up at her from underneath the book like some kind of needy pet... Pay attention to meeeeeeeee...

This was so peaceful. Just her, the lake and a book.

Usually, when she was reading, she was in the ZONE, but this time something broke her out of the ZONE. A particular Phoenix that she happened to know was singing and bouncing and ... dipping his toes in the lake. It took a lot of will power not to jump up there and then and attack him with hugs. Clara tried not to burst into laughter at his hopping back from the lake ... he hadn't seen her yet, so she just smirked.

At that point, he turned around and spotted her. The redhead grinned uncontrollably. "Phoenix! Hey, boo!" She exclaimed and watched as he came over and made himself comfy with his head in her lap. "It's a collection of Latin stories," she said, half tempted to continue reading, but completely tempted to give him the attention he appeared to be craving. "But the book doesn't matter nooow," she said, carefully placing it down beside them on the grass. Clara dropped a kiss on his head, leaned down to wrap her arms around him and buried her face against him ......... "yousmellnice." That was a fact.

Now she required attention, too.

YAY ATTENTION! Phe beamed and wiggled happily, returning the awkward hugs. It'd be so much easier if he wasn't lying on her, but he was comfortable so theeeeeeere. "Latin?" He raised his eyebrows a little, not that anyone could tell, what with all the hair. "You're so smart." She could do his homework for him. She enjoyed learning and he was alarmingly terrible at it, so it would work out, right? Right.

He grinned and placed little kisses on her shoulder. "Thaaaaanks. It's new." His deodorant thing. He'd bought a couple of thingies before he'd packed, cause he didn't want to run out whilst he was at school. Didn't want to stiiiiink. Smelling good was important for impressing the girls and boys and getting snogs. Yep. "You look nice... as always." Silly beamy smile. "Hiding from someone?" Or just everyone? She was kind of an introvert, right? Phe wasn't. He didn't get it. But he liked that she didn't seem to mind his company ever. So that was okay.

Hayden had not spent much time outdoors last term. In fact, she only times she had been outdoors was when lessons were held outside and therefore she had to be there. She had a perfectly good excuse for not going outside, considering anyone who dared step foot out of the castle would have died because it was so cold. But even before that she'd stayed inside. Hayden wasn't much of an outdoors person. That was what made it so unusual for her to make her way out of the castle on her second day back. But she had a reason. She'd heard something over the summer and she wanted to see for herself if it was true. She couldn't let a rumor like this go untested.

Was there or was there not a giant squid living in the lake?

Hayden shed her shoes a few feet away from the water and walked forward without them. She didn't want them to get wet. She wasn't planning on getting wet herself, but she didn't want to take any chances. Barefoot, Hayden stood right on the edge of the water. Her toes almost reached the edge but not quite. She leaned forward slightly and peered in. If there was a giant squid, would she be able to see it?

"You'll need to go deeper if you want to see anything interesting."

Maddie had been sitting a ways back, watching her fellow Hogwartians enjoy the outdoors for the first time in a long time. Seems the endless snow wasn't so endless after all. Thank Merlin for that, yes?

Shedding her own shoes and socks, the twelve year old placed them beside her and busied herself with rolling up her pants to just below the knee.

"Hi, by the way. Good summer?"

Clara couldn't stop grinning. There was just something about Phoenix that made her so happy and grinny and gahhhhh. Silly Phoenix boy. "Yes, Latin. It's such a great language," she said enthusiastically, wiggling around excitedly, then leaned down so her mouth was close to his ear. "Amor meus," she whispered and kissed the top of his ear, before nuzzling his neck ....

She knew she was smart, but she definitely still liked hearing it. "Thank you." She also liked compliments in general very much. Yep. "You're handsome." Did he know that? .... "And pretty much the only thing or person capable of distracting me from reading." And that is NOT easily done.

Ooooh. Shoulder kisses.

"Is it? ... You should wear it all the time, it's super nice ... and so ... YOU." That made sense. She was babbling. Oh dear, that was what happened when all her book-reading-ZONE energy went into talking. Especially talking to Phe. OH. Oh. "Thank youuuuuuu, handsome" she said, grinning even more if that was possible. She'd already called him handsome. Oh well. Oh ... hm .. "Notalways,I'msure." Like ... what about in the morning when she was really groggy and her hair was messy. Surely she didn't look nice then.

Hiding? Oh, right, yeah ... Reading ... "I suppose I was hiding from everyone. I like to read in peace and quiet," she explained, looking down at him, before quickly adding, "but I don't mind at all that you turned up ... actually, I'm glad." She nodded, leaning down and burying her face into his side. She was talking so much and was so HYPER. This was so unlike her.

Hayden wasn't very good at knowing if someone was talking to her or not, unless she was looking at them so it was obvious. With her back turned toward anyone who approached, it was especially hard to tell who was talking and to whom they were talking. She heard the words and could tell that they'd come from somewhere near her. Also, it would make sense for someone to be saying that to her. After all, she was trying to see something in the lake. Just to make sure, she turned and glanced behind her.

"Hi Maddie." Sure enough, there was the Ravenclaw girl Hayden had met the previous term. She smiled at the girl before turning back to the lake. "I don't really like swimming." She did have her suit on underneath her clothes. She'd come prepared just in case, but she didn't really want it to have to come to that.

"My summer was fine. Warm." A welcome change from what it had been like at Hogwarts. "Yours?"

"I don't get to swim much but I'm a fan." Of the water in general, really. It was rather calming to the second year. She just wished she could be near it more often. Luckily Hogwarts had this nifty lake right out her front door.

"Warm is good. I missed warm." Hayden surely knew why and the twelve year old was positive she wasn't the only one harboring those feelings. "Mine was sort of boring, really. Minus the time I was able to go to Diagon Alley."

"So what're you looking for, anyway?" The brunette had stepped into the water by this point, brown eyes focused on things just beneath the surface. The water was already pretty cold, hinting at the autumn and looming winter.

The Lake, one of the places that Chance was at most. Whether it was doing homework, practicing spells, hanging with friends, or chasing after girls, he was here. In fact, it was where he was about 60% of the time. Sucking in a deep breath of that good fresh Lakey air, Chance headed down towards it. Stopping close to it, he bent down and picked up a rock.

He had no where to be right at the moment so he was going to do a little magic. Let's see how far he could make this pebble skip. Throwing his hand back, he shot it forward, and the rock skipped...

Once..
Twice...
Three times....

PLOP!

Into the water it went. Chance shook his head. He could do better than that!! Grabbing another pebble, he stood up again. Taking his arm out, he threw another rock.

Once..
Twice...
Three....
Four..
And!...

Something grabbed the pebble midair and Chance's mouth dropped open. That little lake monster!!! Shaking his head, Chance laughed and sat down. He was just going to enjoy the nice weather out then.

Latin. Nope. Phoenix had nothing on Latin. Greek he could do, Latin... not even a bit. Phe just smiled at Clara, he liked it when she was all smiley and happy like this. She was an awesome person, so she should be happy as much as possible. Also... she had a really pretty smile. "What's that mean?" He really was clueless...

"I know." Cue his most CHARMING of charming grins. Which was pretty darn charming, if he did say so himself. He just exuded it. The charm. Like glitter. He was a charm fairy. Yep. Aaaanyway, back to the matter at hand. "Well that's because I'm awesome, you see..." He nudged the book out of the way and BEAMED at her like a cheeky puppy.

So HIM? He liked that. "I have another new one too, maybe you'll like that one more." Or not. But it didn't really matter, cause he was gorgeous, so as long as he didn't smell like the wrong end of a dog that was okay. See? She called him handsome again, it must be true. "Definitely always." He was a fan of the messy morning hair, didn't she know that? She should do.

Hiding from everyone huh? "You know, there's a library for that." Not that he wanted her to go there. He was much less likely to bump into her if she hid away in a place full of boring old books. Didn't matter anyway. He was enjoying this attention thing he was getting. Y'know what'd be even better. "Heyyy, don't hide your face." He wiggled a bit so he could get her to face him, then he kissed her. Y'know, cause kisses are nice. And she was quite good at them.

Tessa had wandered to the lake, wondering if there was a real giant squid in it or not. She noticed a boy, older than herself, chucking pebbles at the lake, she watched them skip across the lake. She walked up to him as he sat down, "how do you do that?" she asked him with great curiosity. She had seen other do that, but she never knew how to herself, she wanted to know the trick that she couldn't master.

Angel had been in totally shock about Benny giving her a plant, that she had totally forgot about the cuddly dragon that she had got him. She knew his nickname was dragonboy and so she thought it was a nice fit for him. She had been taking great care of the plant that Ben had given her. She was going to make sure that she had it for as long as she could because well it was the first present anyone had gotten her.

Angel looked at the teddy in her hand and smiled, she was sure that Ben would like it. Now though she had to try and figure out how she was going to give this to Benny maybe her sister could give it to a Gryffindor boy to give to him and tell him it was from a friend? She would have to find out. Finding a piece of grass near the lake she sat down and stared into the dragon before talking to it. "You think that Ben will like you?" Angel asked the Dragon. "I really hope that when he get's you he likes you because I'm starting to think he won't." Angel pouted. "Not that there's anything wrong with you Mr Dragon, your fluffy and amazing." Angel gave the Teddy a cuddle. "We'll have to wait and see What Benny thinks won't we."

Taking advantage of her first free moment, Jasmine headed down to the lake. Making her way to her favorite spot, she sat down with a sigh. It was a beautiful day and Jasmine was sooo glad that it was warm again. This was her favorite place at Hogwarts, but she always had mixed feelings when she was here.

Jasmine had been so busy with the start of term that it had taken her mind off of the fact that she still missed Cris terribly........but only for a minute. Now that she had a moment, it was all she could think about. After seven months it still hadn't gotten any easier. It was especially hard today because today was his birthday. Leaning back against a tree, Jasmine stared out at the water. Memories.....

Although it wasn't warm at all, Agatha needed to take advantage of the not-freezing weather to get her exercises done. Swimming was one of the few things that would help her stay fit while she couldn't do proper ballet stuff, so there she was. Swimming. In the Black Lake.

It wasn't like she was further than the in-water signs or anything, so she was safe. In any case, she could always kick the water creatures REALLY HARD until they left her alone.

Sounded like a plan.

Sunshine, green grass, and fresh air. It was nice, and AJ had every intention of soaking it up while she still could. To be honest AJ was still really mopey about finding out that Adi was getting a girlfriend. The lion couldn't even enjoy herself properly at the party. That was SO her kind of party too.

Without a question AJ knew that she was going to head down to the lake. That was were the roller coaster of a ride relationship started between her and Adi. She blew out air. This was dumb. This was the exact thing that AJ got to on Angel about. Suck it up, Valentine.

As she walked down she head a voice, and it had to belong to her sister. Only who was she speaking to? AJ got closer and realized that there wasn't anybody there. "Are you talking to a stuffed animal?"

You know one thing he missed about Hogwarts more than anything? The grounds. Especially because they were freaking locked up in the castle ALL term!! He didn't even get to visit his favorite spot ever. The lake. The beautiful lake that was also frozen the entire term last year. So naturally, Zander just had to go pay the giant squid a visit. And enjoy the peacefulness of the outdoors, which didn't happen last term.

With his small blanket tucked under his arm, the fourth year walked all the way out to a spot a few feet away from the lake. He took his time unfolding the blanket and setting it out and then right as he went to lay down-- Huh? Was someone... Swimming? Leaning forward and squinting just a bit, Zander tried his absolute hardest to figure out who that was and... Agatha?

".....Agatha?" From what Simon had told him about the girl, she didn't strike Zander as the swimming-out-in-the-middle-of-the-great-lake kind of girl. Or maybe it had to do with the hair flipping thing that had him thinking she was some sort of hair maniac or something, which wouldn't be surprising because there were a couple of those at Hogwarts.

Angel was busy looking at the Teddy bear that she didn't hear anyone come near until her sister was speaking to her. "Hey AJ." Angel blushed a bit. "Thanks for the comment in the Great Hall." Angel laughed at her sister. "I don't need any of that sort of things." Angel was totally not needing things like that in her life. "Okay so if Ben did..." Angel stopped no need to tell her sister this. "Angel giggled. "Oh I was telling the bear how much I think that Benny will like him."

To be fair, kicking the water creatures probably wouldn't be a good idea because that could make her thigh muscle hurt even more. So Agatha just hoped no creatures would touch her that day, because she didn't even have her wand with her and even if she did, it would kind of be useless anyway.

The fourth year was busy swimming and thinking of new things she could do to make her leg feel better when someone called her name. She turned her head around only to see Simon's friend standing there, looking at her.

"Hello." She greeted him casually, as if swimming in the lake was something completely normal. Well, it was, wasn't it? She hadn't seen many people doing it, but since there were signs there, it sure wasn't forbidden. "Zander, right?" Either that or her memory had gone bad. Which was impossible, so his name was definitely Zander.

Despite the fact that it was a a rather chilly day, Lux had decided to head out to the lake. The last time she was here, the water had been frozen and snow was everywhere.

Standing at the shore, she took off her shoes and socks before rolling up her pant legs and stepping into the water. It was colder than she had expected, but there was nothing for it now since she had already gone this far. Splashing her feet a little, she spotted a small stone and skipped it across the lake wondering where the Giant Squid was.

The breeze felt amazing out here. The light breeze ruffled Chance'shair a bit as he sat watching the other students around. One girl (Hey Ju) was even attempting to swim in the Lake. She was cray cray. Chance had been in the Lake on a dare a couple times, and he hated going in it. It may not have looked very deep, but it was like a whole nother world out there.

Hearing a voice not far from him, Chance noticed a young looking Ravvie come out and ask him how he had been throwing the rocks. He smiled at her. "Oh it's easy! You just have to get a..." He looked down to find a smooth pebble, "Smooth rock, and you..." He cocked his arm back and sent the rock flying where it skipped four times before plopping into the Lake, "do that." He said with a smile. "Easy peasy."

Vinnie sat down by the lake and smiled. This term was gonna be so good. So many new people transferred. Some she already knew even. This was so exciting. And of course she had missed the library. It was kind of her save place, like the RoR when she went there to practice.

Maybe this term, she'd find someone to drum with. Maybe someone who played guitar or who could actually sing. That would be so fun.There were so many opportunities.the only downside was that jun would leave after this...but it had just started. Not the time to think about that.

So the brunette just got out her book and sighed happily. Time to relax and enjoy the view.

Norah was completely out of breath by the time she reached the lake. Apparently sprinting all the way there wasn't her greatest idea. Slumping against a tree, she gasped and spluttered regained her breath while stripping off her shoes and socks. FINALLY. Lake time. She hadn't been able to really visit it last year because the everything had had the nerve to FREEZE before she even got to see the giant squid. Talk about unfair. Standing up and brushing a pesky curl from her eyes, she surveyed her surroundings, which were wonderfully ice-free.

Norah was about to start her investigation of this squid fellow when a familiar figure caught her eye. "Hey! Jasmine! Remember me?" She skipped in the older girl's direction, batting her eyelashes. As if anyone could forget her. HA. But from this closer view, Norah saw Jasmine was kind of...droopy...like when her little brothers got a time out. OBVIOUSLY Jasmine was too old for time outs (one did outgrow those, right?), but she was definitely droopy. Her grin faltered. "Are you okay?"

Jasmine was mesmerized by the water, lost in her own thoughts when she heard someone call her name. Turning around, she saw a face that she hadn't seen in a while. "Hi Norah. Long time no see." Jasmine could never forget the younger girl. They had teamed up along with Cris in a crazy combination class last year. Norah had more than held her own while working with the older students during a wild carriage ride.

"I'm OK, just thinking about some things. How have you been? Did you have a nice summer?" Norah was another of the fabulous firsties that she had met last year. As they were talking, Jasmine suddenly realized that Norah had taken off her shoes and socks. Raising an eyebrow, she asked, "What are you up to Miss Norah?".