Claudette smiled lightly as her eyes drifted over the grounds, her mind drifting with the thoughts of different things that could be done out here. She listened as Minerva spoke, then turned slightly to look at her. "First date? What did you do out here.. if you don't mind me asking.." She wasn't really looking for personal details of their relationship nor was trying to be nosy about it, just curious about what ones did on a first date at the lake. Though she had to admit, it did seem like a romantic setting. She smiled to herself at the thought, the looked back out at the lake with visions of couples walking hand in hand along the edge. She thought she'd rather try one of the boats though. Maybe that's what they did? Fun.

Her eyes darted back to Minerva. Perhaps they didn't take out the boats then. "Oh.. are they new? They look fun.." She looked back out at them and past the lake, trying to gauge the size of the grounds and what else was here. Butterfly garden and treehouse.. those sounded really nice. Shame they weren't still around. "Why do they change things?" she asked lightly, but she was rather curious. Even if she was here only one term and hadn't seen things before and wouldn't again to know if they were ever here again, she wondered why they would switch things up on people, especially if they had grown fond of something as it seemed Min did. "Have you noticed anything new besides the boats? Or even another of your favorites that's still here?" She wanted to explore a little more. "Oh yes.. I think I would like to try the boats if you want. They look fun." She looked back at her and chuckled a bit. "No.. I don't think I'm going out for Quidditch. Not really my thing, I'm more of a spectator than an athlete.."

Claudette listened to her words and gave her a small smile. "Oh.. no, really, I'm fine. No one is bothering me.. and I appreciate that." She looked out to the lake again and gave a light shrug. "It's just more that I don't feel like I've found my place yet.. I know it's still early though." She looked back and nodded. "Yes.. I miss it and I miss my friends there. But I know I'll make some here and I will have a good time.. It's just a little tough not knowing many people yet." She shrugged again and smiled to show it was no big deal. She knew in the end that she would be glad that she came here.

Marigold was daydreaming as she walked along the lake, looking at the water. She shook her head and closed her eyes - her daydreaming had turned to last year's dementors - and promptly bumped into someone.

"Ouch! Oh, sorry," Marigold said to the girl. "Hey, I'm Marigold. Your in your second year, right?"

Landon Hughes sat on the edge of the lake, admiring the view of it all. He was waiting for Melanie because he planned a date today at the lake and he really wanted to try out these cool boats. They just looked really fun and he wanted someone else there with him because he was a bit nervous about the big squid thing in the water. It could just attack them and take their boat under.

He shook the thought off and stood up from the ground, brushing the grass off of his pants. He looked around for Melanie, hoping she would hurry up because he wanted to get a boat before everyone else.

Late. Was she late? Melanie fiddled nervously with her backpack straps. It was stuff with food. Just in case they got hungry or something. She checked the time quickly before realizing she was actually on time. Oh. It was probably because she wasn't wearing her heels, right? Relaxing a little, she pushed the beanie back on her head and smoothed out her hair while she walked.

Autumn. Was it already October? As she got closer to the lake she grinned. She spied with her two eyes a Landon Hughes.

"Hey there, boyfriend," Melanie said, grinning. She had debated mentally whether to jump on his back or tackle him to the ground on her walk here and had decided to do neither. Both meant he'd possibly get hurt and Melanie didn't exactly want to go to the healer. Nope. So instead she hugged him and then pulled away. "So what are we going to do at the lake? Go giant squid hunting?"

Landon finally saw Melanie and he waved. He hugged her back, giving her a small kiss on her forehead. Before he could say anything, he gave her a curious look with a smirk upon his face. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked up and down at her. "Are you stealing my style? ...And my beanies?" He grinned. He wasn't really complaining though. She looked good. But he'd never really admit that. Heh.

He flinched at the word 'giant squid' and immediately shook his head. "No way, I uh-I mean...we're going to go on the boats. I hope you brought food." He smiled. He'd guess that she did since it was him they were talking about here. He was hungry all the time. Usually.

Melanie laughed and pushed Landon lightly. "Don't flatter yourself," she simply said in reply, grinning. Answer was yes to both questions but she didn't feel like she had to let him know that. Standing in front of him made her feel considerably shorter than usual though. Well, wasn't that strange? She was definitely much more used to being taller.

No giant squid hunting?

That was a bummer. Not really. At the mention of boats, Melanie immediately looked at the colored vehicles. "Are we going to go out into the middle of the lake? Because I'll have to warn you now... thought I know how to swim, I've never actually swam before," Melanie warned with a little laugh. So if the boat tipped over... well... there would be a Melanie Sung flailing around. She wasn't even sure if she could float. She'd never tried.

And then there was the food.

"I have oreos and bread in my bag," she said with a nod of her head. "And cake. I think I put cake in there too." She wasn't actually sure. Melanie knew for sure there were Oreos and bread though. She had made sure of that before she left the kitchen.

Someone bumped into her. On any other day they would have been sorry, but today Tora couldn't seem to get the energy required to be angry.

What? Oh. It was a puffer. She was pretty sure the other girl was also a second year... but better ask. Tora wasn't that glum that she wouldn't ask questions. "Yes, Tora Gallaway," she said holding out her hand so they could be properly introduced. "That's right. Second year Ravenclaw. You're second year too?" She asked with brows raised. Even though she wasn't angry, she was still a bit annoyed.

"You didn't see me here. Why not?" Even though Tora's heart wasn't in it, she didn't need this girl to think that she could be run over any old day. Next time when Tora was herself Marigold wouldn't stand a chance.

Mwaha. He was right. She was stealing his style and his beanies. "I'm not complaining." He muttered, fixing the beanie on his own head. And he definitely wasn't. If she wanted to dress like him, so be it, but at least it looked girly-ish or however girls explained how they dress.

He nodded once she asked if they were going to go out into the middle of the lake. "Well I'd rather not stay beside the edge or else that won't be any fun." He shrugged. Then once she explained why he got a bit more nervous. "Oh, well I can swim but...uh...hang onto me? We have to wear life jackets anyways, but I won't let you fall. I promise." He said, giving a small smile. Just if the giant squid attacked them, he'd probably freak out and try to save the oreos and Melanie. Which order though? He wouldn't tell.

YES. Oreos...and bread and cake. It was at least food though and he was happy because of that. "Sounds great to me." He said, giving her a kiss on the cheek. "Shall we then?" He said, pointing over to the boats.

"You might if I take the beanie you're wearing right now," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. Because Melanie liked the one he was wearing and didn't care that she was already the owner of a beanie that she had taken from Landon. It wouldn't make much sense though seeing as she was wearing his beanie already.

Well. As long as if he could swim and they had life jackets. "I call dibs on a red life jacket." Because it looked more Gryffindor than the yellow one and it matched her bag more. "If I fall out, I'm dragging you down with me," Melanie added, laughing. And then she started to reach for one. Oh. Wasn't this a complicated thing? Messing with the buckles a bit, she slipped it on. This didn't feel nice. It felt much nicer without the life jacket on. "If this jacket puffs up, I'd be a red marshmallow." Fact.

Melanie felt her tummy doing little flip flop things when he kissed her cheek and laughed a little, brushing her hair out of her face. "They don't have a pink boat," Melanie pointed out as she looked at the floating boats in the lake. Blue... red... yellow... green. Which one were they going to take? "Which color boat do you wanna go on?"

Oh? She obviously didn't need any saving? Schuyler grinned and eyed the Hufflepuff skeptically. "That's not what I heard." Why was Olly so smirky? Schuyler had nothing to do with this hag adventure, and if anything, Schuyler ought to be smirking at HER. "West impressed me without trying to impress me."

Hmmm, yes. Walking headless would no doubt prove to be a challenge. A welcomed challenge, mind you. The thought made her mind skip to that Gryffindor ghost. "Sir Nicholas might be offended, but we will tell him it should be taken as a compliment." Somehow. It could heighten their other senses? Come in handy like that, right? Most importantly, it would serve as their amusement, break up the monotony a little.

Schuyler released a small giggle when Olly caught her like a tiger lion by the toe wrist. But she still lightly poked the girl once more in the stomach for good measure because Schuyler liked to win things. All kinds of things. Things like last words and poke wars and quidditch matches and especially the more important things, too. "I'm sure you can roar just as well as I can. But I don't even know what sorts of noises badgers make... do you?" Did they even make sounds? She was glad that Olly wasn't disappointed with her house, though, even in spite of their not sharing the same one.

It only took a few moments later before somebody had spoken to her after her little shout out. BEAM. This Miss Blonde person was so gonna paddle with her! She looked real friendly and awesome and she would be a PERFECT paddler. Yep. Yep. So hello to you Miss Blondie.

Was she an expert paddler? Was she really? Naaaaaah. But she was REAL good which in Abbi's opinion was close enough to being an expert. "I know how to paddle REAL well." Thanks to various trips back at home. "It's really easy! Like riding a bike, I'll show you!"She tugged at the girls arm and went towards the yellow and red life jackets.

Once reaching the jackets she picked a red one up and put it on slowly closing each buckle tightly. The jacket was slightly big, but hey it would do. "Come we'll go on a green one cause Tinkerbell!" Always wore a green dress. Was Miss Blondie following?

"That's good enough for me, Kiddo." Because Ella had never done this before so the little one was already way ahead of her in the paddling department. Plus she was adorable so Ella clearly couldn't say no to her. Clearly. "Alrighty, let's go!" And she was being tugged so apparently that was already the plan. "I'm Ella, by the way." Y'know, in case the smaller girl was wondering who it was she was tugging along.

The blonde reached for a yellow life jacket and pulled it on, making sure it was snug just in case. She knew how to swim and everything but who knew what kind of craziness these paddle-thingers involved. Best to be prepared. "Greens my favorite color, y'know." And Tinkerbell? Awwww. Ella hurried after the girl, not wanting to be left behind.

"Fairies first." The captain said with a smile, standing beside one of the green boats. Since the kid had mentioned Tinkerbell, she figured she wouldn't mind.

"Of course has Slytherin trophy's!" laughed Sonea. "We are the best house of all so we have trophy's yes" She had been really fascinated with the trophy's when she had seen them for the first time, not that SHE had done something to win them, she wasn't a Quidditch player, so all what she had done was trying to NOT lose too much points so that they could win the house cup. But... She didn't wanted to tell boy that she hasn't done anything special to win a trophy, no, she acted as if she was really important! "Maybe if you are doing you best you can help to win a trophy, just like all the others" said Sonea grinning. She hoped that Slytherin would win the house cup this year, so they needed to win as much as points as possible, and... she was proud about it, she had won the FIRST five points this year for Slytherin!

"I can show you then once if you want, or you can search for the trophy room yourself and meet others" she herself had searched for hours and hours before she had been able to recognize something, or to find her way back to the common room. She had been really confused because the stairs were always moving...

She grinned while she watched how Lucian walked, it was funny to see how a little kid was walking like he owned the world. But she didn't said anything about it, she found it funny to watch him. "Oh, so... you know a few spells? Where have you learned them?" she was curious about that because this was just their first day and it was almost impossible that somebody would already have learned to use magic after one day, only somebody who was REALLY smart or simply a nerd would be able to do that. And... it was cute that he wanted to protect her, but at the same time she was sure that SHE would be the one who needed to save HIM if she needed to, it would be really strange if a first year was going to safe her, a third year, but it was cute that he wanted to try it...

He also didn't seemed to happy about the life jackets but he took one so he was listening to her. She would have refused to step in the boat if he didn't wanted to wear it because SHE would get in trouble if HE was doing something what was not allowed or dangerous, because she was old enough to know what was wrong and because SHE needed to be the smartest of them... Not that she needed to do her best to be smart, she was already the best student of this school, but nobody was admitting it!

"Yes, we can take the green boat" sighed Sonea, knowing that she now really needed to get in them and she HOPED that she wasn't going to get wet today. She eyed the boy one last time to made her point clear. "I have told you this before, but... if you're making trouble or fall in the lake, i will NOT jump after you. My rat's cant swim for so long and you have a life jackets, so you need to take care of yourself!" Or course she knew how to safe him WITHOUT getting wet, but she wasn't going to tell him that, hoping that he would behave himself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DanialRadFAN01

Airey had gone quiet for a moment as Callie paddled her side of the boat. They weren't moving very much at all but an inch or so still counted in her opinion. TRYING COUNTED!

Finally the Science officer captain spoke up and he thought his way would be better. The blonde didn't think so just nodded. "Ummm maybe both could work, I mean you could do you it your way and I could do it mine?" She continued to paddle her way, and the boat began to turn into a slow circle.

"What brought on the idea of a boat ride anyways?" She asked curiously, not noticing the circular motion they were now making in the water.

Hmm, so these boats were like magnets then? Meaning that unlike poles would attract and in this case those unlike poles were him and Calista? Wait no. Not him and Calista. How they were peddling were the two poles. Her doing things one way and him doing it his way.

Only if the science behind this boat WAS like the magnetic poles, then WHY were they still not going anywhere.

Well, they were going somewhere. Sort of. They were going in circles.

So maybe this was more like mathematics then. Negative plus a positive equating zero and therefore nothing would happen. He was clearly the positive, because he was right. Yep. That was the story he was going to stick to.

"Hmm?" he asked as he began peddling faster but to no avail. "Oh, well, I thought maybe I could cover more ground this way, looking for Pebbles I mean. Or water as the case may be." He stared back at the shore as their circling continued. "Only this isn't working out the way I had hoped it would. We're going in circles."

Taylor smiled at him as he said ‘me too’. She shrugged at the next part that he said, ”It is the truth… at least what I believe the truth to be so it isn’t really being nice… just stating a fact.” Taylor giggled and smiled at him. Tay swayed back and forth while talking to him. She almost always moving… or at least it seemed that she was. She blushed at what he said and tried to hide it. ”I have been doing it for years… I doubt that it is like I have been born doing it.” Tay blushed, ”You are just being nice…” She smiled at him and hugged him, ”But thanks, Wade… That made me happier to be honest.” Tay giggled and smiled at him, twirling in delight. ”Glad that kayaking definitely wasn’t bad.” Taylor giggled again and beamed a big smile at one of her favorite hufflepuff guys which only grew as he agreed with her. ”Yep, yep.” She nodded and laughed. Tay tilted her head and looked at him before bursting out into a fit of giggles. ”Thanks for the confirmation of ‘no knocking in’.” Taylor winked and beamed at him yet again. ”Hopefully, we don’t… I already was knocked into the lake by Harvey.” A pout formed at the memory but it was soon erased by her huge ear-to-ear smile. She practically danced over to the boats to step in. ”He probably is but would he show?” She tilted her head, a bit curious and a bit frighten if said yes.

Good! Good! Miss Blondie had no problem with Abbi tugging her along, because really Abbi wouldn't have given her a choice. She was the first to speak after she had asked for a paddler and so therefore no matter what she WAS going to paddle. The girl got wide beams all along.

"Ellalalala?" Giggle. See what she did there? But really 'la' just reminded her of a song she knew. A muggle one that probably no one here would have known it. "I'm Abbi." Because surely the girl wanted to know her name too.

The more this girl spoke the more reason Abbi had to beam. "MINE TOO!" Clearly only because of Tinkerbell, but people who thought green was a boys colour was SO silly. It SO wasn't. MANY girls like green.

SHE SAID FAIRIES! SHE WAS OFFICIALLY DEEMED AWESOME.

"Thank you, Miss Ellalalala." With her little feet Abbi hopped onto the paddle boat and took a seat, her feet just barely reaching the paddles. "Okay, must I show you how to paddle now then?" She looked up at the blonde again.

The lake was a super pretty place, and even though Charlie could not and would not go into the water, she made her way down to it, and sat down beside the edge.

But, far enough away that someone couldn't come over and push her in.

Setting her bag down next to her, she pulled out her homework, before checking that her sketchpad and book were in there, too, you know, in case she finished before she wanted to go back inside, or it began to rain. Which would probably happen soon, because typical English weather. Unsure of how quickly she could get back up to the castle in the event of a downpour, she'd also brought an umbrella.

See, Charlie was prepared for anything.

She pulled her pencil from behind her ear and began to tackle the questions.

Even Penelope agreed the beater's aspect was the funniest. "Wouldn't it be epic if Alice let us all try for beater during one of the tryouts?? Imagine all the bats swinging and bludgers flying." It would look like a really gruesome tryout...and she imagined at least one person would end up having to see the healer but that was half the fun yeah?

She looked to Sarah who'd been going on about rowing and logistics. Whoa. Stop. No. She'd only just come off of vacation, no need for talk like that. She nodded at what Penelope said, trying to put an end to it.

"You can row if you want, I'm in no real hurry to get somewhere on the lake. If you get tired you could just let me know and I'll take over." There, volunteering to row without actually volunteering because she wouldn't if she didn't have to.

Lex grabbed hold of the boat they'd chosen. "Let's get it on the lake then!"

With all their life jackets on they were ready to row. "fine, so we will go with the flow... I just needed to know the designated rower" Sarah said. It looked like she was starting off.

"Okay, non-rowers should get in first... maybe Penelope than Alexa, as Alexa will take over from me when I get tired, so she is next. This way it will reduce the chances of the boat overturning when we rotate" Sarah said.

She waited as the other girls climbed on before untying the rope and quickly leaping into the boat, making it wobble. "Sorry about that.. don't want to be left behind" she said. She could have done it the magical way, yet she was not into magical mode yet, still fresh from Edwoods. Then the boat got steady and she sat down/

"Ahoy!" she shouted. She was beaming, this will be fun. She looked at her passengers once more before turning her attention to pedal. She pushed down her right foot and then her left, and kept alternating as the boat surged forward.

"I haven't done such good excercise in a while.. this is great for toning" she said, not that any of her friends needed it. It was a Hogwarts thing that all the students and faculty were either pretty or handsome, and not very fat. Sarah wondered why.

"Alright, Mates, who wants to turn the boat?" she asked. She was not ready to take on both parts of the operation

Landon eyed Melanie as she said that. "No way, you already have one of mine. You can't have another." He said, putting his hands on his head where the beanie was. Maybe then she couldn't get it if his hands were in the way. Hah. But then he realized that he'll need his hands to move the boat so he placed his hands beside him.

"Fine, you can have the red one." He said, acting like he was all sad about it. But in reality he was sort of happy because he'd rather have a yellow one. If he was in the water, he was sure the squid would go after a red target. Or was that bulls? He couldn't remember. His eyes widened as Melanie said she'd drag him down with her. "You better not. I can't die at this age. I haven't ate the amount of oreos I really want too yet and I uh...haven't experienced life. Yeah...experiencing life. That's the real reason." He nervously laughed. Oreos.

He was about to help her out with her life jacket but she seemed to get it on and so he slipped his on without trouble. "Well we can both be yellow and red marshmallows." The Gryffindor laughed. He was silently happy that there wasn't a pink boat. If his friends had come out to see them in a pink boat he'd be the joke of the century. "Uh...there's a blue one over there. Let's go on that one." Landon nodded, taking her hand in his and running over to it. "Please don't fall in because I really don't want to get close to that giant squid today." He chuckled. He was serious though.

She laughed when she saw him hold onto his hat. Did he really think that she was going to take his hat right then and there? He was being ridiculous. "Really cute boyfriend. You're getting loads of boyfriend points for saying that," Melanie said, shaking her head. Not really though. He'd get boyfriend points for not protesting but he was getting them for being cute.

Melanie beamed at Landon. Oh. But then he was using that face. And by 'that face', Melanie meant that he was using that sad look face that was actually really cute. She raised an eyebrow at him, and laughed, going on her tippytoes and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek. "If you really want a red one there's probably more... and we could probably charm it so it's red." Just a reminder. They had magic and they hand wands to use to do magic so it wouldn't be that hard. Unless there was a spell on the life jacket but she wasn't sure.

"Don't worry, Landon. You can swim, remember?" she pointed out. Silly boy. "And we all know that you really want to experience life... with your precious Oreos," she added with a smirk.

Red and yellow marshmallows. That sounded like fun. "Well, you make a really attractive yellow marshmallow," Melanie said, smiling and blushing a little before she looked at the boats. Clearing her throat a little, she brushed her hair away from her face before being pulled towards the blue one. "You know, Lex and I have a theory of sorts about the Giant Squid. We're pretty sure he's friendly and he might be willing to give us rides," Melanie said as she checked the boat out. Hm. Looked safe enough. "If we share the Oreos with him, maybe he'll make sure neither of us drown," she added before carefully stepping into the boat.

Oh. It was a pedaling-type of boat. So they would be like... biking... except on a boat. Okay. They got this... right?

Dylan made his way down to the lake, looking out at it as he went. It was quite a chilly October afternoon but not too chilly for him. He liked this weather, and all the fall colors. It was his favorite season, actually. He really enjoyed just...everything about it.

The first year took a seat underneath a tree, staring at the lake. He sighed. If only he had brought his sketch pad, then he would have drawn it. It was a beautiful view from where he sat and it would make a really brilliant drawing. Dylan made a mental note in his head to bring his art supplies the next time he'd come down here.

That's not what she'd heard?! Olly gasped dramatically and attempted to nudge Schuyler with her foot. "What did you hear then from the mighty West Odessa?" That he had heroically swooped in to save her from the dirty old witch? Who probably wasn't even a witch but you know. Same difference. And her next words earned the Gryffindor another amused smirk. "Yeah?" West was very impressive it seemed. Interesting.

Sir Nicholas? Oh, right, the Gryffindor house ghost, right. The one who looked a little like John Cleese. She'd read about him and even briefly glimpsed him at the feast. Theirs was kind of lame. A friar. A fat one at that. She'd much rather have a nearly headless ghost. "Why would he be offended?" Olly furrowed her brow slightly in confusion, the amused grin still playing around her lips, however. Why would he be offended by their walking around 'headless'? Huh?

"Hey!" Maybe she shouldn't have let go of her that quickly. Probably, yes. Else she would have been spared another poke, this time in her stomach. Not that she MINDED per se. With a small smirk she reached out to poke Schuyler in her side. This was not over, you know. "You even look a bit like a lion right now, you know." She commented with a grin and a nod towards Schuyler's hair. They were inside a sweater after all. And long hair usually didn't exactly like that much. Her own was probably all over the place too.

But what sounds did badgers make? "Hiss? I don't know." She replied with a shrug, not exactly too interested in finding out. Badgers weren't particularly of interest to her.

Józsua was getting increasingly used to being on his own. He found the kids at Hogwarts to be very different to the Beauxbatons students and, he would never admit it aloud, but he finding it difficult settling in here.

But one thing that Józsua was finding that he loved about Hogwarts, was the spectacular grounds the school was set in. He was out for a walk, armed with his homework should the inspiration strike to sit and tackle it. He preferred being out of the common room, still not liking having to live in the dungeons. Perhaps he should have taken Elodie's advice and BEGGED the Sorting Hat to let him into Hufflepuff.. but.. euh.. he looked so awful in yellow. And, even though the yellow students were his favourite so far.. Hufflepuff was a very silly name, he thought. Something else he wouldn't voice aloud.

Still, being so near the kitchens worked massively in their favour.

He spotted a girl he had seen at the sorting, and knew she too was new to the school, sitting and getting on with her homework. He hesitated and then made his way over. He smiled slightly. “You mind if I join you?” He asked pleasantly.

Ella giggled too, eyes on the younger girl. Her little brother said her name like this sometimes, in the sing-song voice. She missed him lots which is maybe why she had such a soft spot for the first years. They reminded her of him. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Abbi." The seventeen year old said with a smile, curtsying dramatically. Oh and look, she was turning into her Gran now. She must really miss her as well.

"Well it is a brilliant color." And Abbi was quickly winning Ella over, did she know? She was adorable and excited and just awww. It'd probably be weird if she tried to hug her, yeah? Yeah. Maybe later.

"You're welcome, Miss Abbi." BEAM. Ella carefully got into the boat after the little fairy, making sure she didn't rock it too much. The last thing she wanted to do was send them into the chilly water. As for the lesson getting started, the blonde nodded enthusiastically. "Yup, I'm ready when you are." Teach away, little one.