Closed Can griffins swim?

[Hildegard de Valeriane]

It was a very beautiful afternoon, the sun was out and a light gentle breeze caressed the surroundings of the castle. Hilda had thought it was a good opportunity to go for a swim and had invited several of her friends to come. She had therefore left early and had prepared a small picnic, she arrived on one of the small beaches that surrounded the lake. She laid the tablecloth on the grass near the water and placed a basket with several sandwiches, sweets, several bottles of water and as the young witch didn't want anyone to get sunstroke so she added a few hats and caps in the . While waiting , Hilda lay down and amused herself with creating several piles of pebbles with a spell, trying to reach as high as possible without them falling.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar had been super excited when her friend @Hildegard de Valeriane had told her that she would be hosting a picnic for some of her dormmates as a way to start summer off nicely. It was a great idea, made even better by the fact that it was a perfect day to do it too, with the sun shining and the smallest of breezes causing her hair to wave gently in the wind. The only downside was that it was becoming slightly annoying, so Skylar quickly tied it up into a high ponytail with a hair tie that she always kept on her wrist, for circumstances exactly like this. Not long after she'd done that, she walked onto the designated beach, and saw that Hilda was already there, and she seemed to be... stacking pebbles? And with magic?! Skylar grinned and sped up her pace, eager to see what her friend was doing.

"Hey!" she grinned as she surprised Hilda from behind. "How are you?" she asked, the question coming out almost like second nature. She'd seen her friend this morning, so she didn't think much else had changed, but it was just second nature to always say that. "And what's that you're doing?" she asked, curious to see what spell Hilda was using. "It looks fun! Mind if I join you while we wait for the others?" she added, noticing that @Blake Lodge @Harper Alston and @Emmaline Hopkins-Vance weren't here yet.

 

[Harper Alston]

Exams were approaching, but Harper found she had a hard time concentrating on the studying she was supposed to do when the weather was just so nice outside. Summer was finally here, and it seemed a shame to waste any of it inside the dreary castle. So when Hilda had suggested a picnic and possible swim at the lake, Harper had agreed immediately. It had been a while since she'd hung out with her roommates, all in one big group, and she was eager to spend some time with them before exams started.

Clutching a frisbee and a football, Harper made her way to the lake. She wasn't sure if her friends would be interested — she definitely couldn't imagine Blake voluntarily doing any sort of physical activity — but she figured having options for activities wouldn't hurt. When she arrived, Sky and Hilda were already sitting there, so she plopped down beside them, tossing the ball and frisbee next to the basket. "Hi, I hope I'm not late!" Harper peered at the piles of pebbles. "I see we've upgraded from sand castles to pebble castles," she joked.

 

[Professor Emmaline Hopkins]

Emmaline had barely seen more than a few glimpses of her friends this semester. Even though they shared a dorm, Emmaline felt like she spent more time in the library than anywhere else in the castle. When she was not physically in the library, the young girl often brought the library with her, her head always in a book or taking notes. Exams always seemed to get under Emmaline's skin. It was a final evaluation of whether she succeeded this school year. The young Gryffindor wanted to do nothing less than perfect.

However her friends had invited her to a little picnic outside today. It was beautiful out. For once Emmaline knew she needed to enjoy some moments while she could. Emmaline placed down her textbooks, rubbing her eyes to readjust. It was time Emmaline actually got to socialize for a little bit. Plus picnic always reminded her of the first time she was able to relax at Hogwarts, in the company of Hunter. It would do her some good.

The young Gryffindor walked out of the castle towards the lakefront. Her mind was still stressing about the upcoming exams, but she put on a smile nonetheless. A few hours of break then right back to work she thought trying to convince herself this was okay to time some time away from her studying. Emmaline walked towards a picnic blanket surrounded by Hilde, Harper and Skylar. The smile became more genuine as she instantly realized how much she had missed hanging out with them outside of classes. "Hey guys" Emmaline said as she reached the group. Her eyes looked around at the set up. "This was such a great idea." She added, deep down believing this was the case.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake was taking her time picking the perfect picnic outfit. Summer dresses were such a spring outfit and it was basically summer already, obviously were a dress, any kind of dress was a bad idea, it was also too hot for jeans or sweatpants, obviously she wouldn't be wearing sweatpants out in public either. Once she settled for shorts there had been another huge problem, the shorts' color, they could be either pink, blue, yellow, black, white, red, turquoise or grey, and those were just the denim ones.

She then decided to choose a shirt in order to find the right shorts' color. It was still too cold to go full on summer blouses but too hot to wear a hoodie and t-shirts were so basic. She eventually settled for something that was both cute, fashionable, warm if needed but also fresh so she wouldn't die because of the heat, a yellow cropped hoodie with two horizontal white stripes on the upper part of each long sleeve. Obviously this narrowed down the shorts options, she decided to wear the classic denim blue ones, she couldn't wrong with that. Especially because she would be wearing white heels and she didn't want to look too white with the white shorts.

before leaving the room she grabbed one big bag from under her bed, a surprise for the girls that she hadn't been able to give them as the last time they were together turned out to be a whole thing with some associated drama but this time they would be just the five of them. The Gryffindor girl left the room and headed towards the spot that Hilda had chosen and saw that all the girls were already there, "Fashionably late I see" she said with a smile. She put down her pink pastel bag next to the picnic basket, the ball and the frisbee and looked at what the other girls were doing, she saw some of them pilling pebbles but she decided to just watch them, hopefully someone would mention they. were hungry soon enough.

 

[Hildegard de Valeriane]

The first to arrive was Skylar, she surprised Hilda which confused and the young girl who dropped some pebbles from her pile "Wow, Anderson you scared me" she said laughing before answering the girl's questions " I'm okay and you? And that's just a little levitation spell I was doing while waiting for you. "she explained, giving him a little demonstration" And of course you can join me, it's more fun together " Hilda added.

A few minutes later someone else arrived, Hilda turned around to find the newcomer "Hey Harper, no you're not at all and I see you had plenty to do the exercise" she said pointing to the football and frisbee, although it was not her specialty but sport was something that Hilda enjoyed doing from time to time especially in groups. "At the speed at which we are going the castle will end in several decades" she said, laughing at her friend's joke.

"Em-em, glad to see you and to know that you like the idea" she said seeing Emmaline arrived "Sit down the tablecloth is super comfortable" the young girl motioned for her to come closer.

Finally Blake arrived "Look at you, if it's for you to arrive like this you can be as late as you want" Hilda said observing the beautiful outfit of the Gryffindor. "As the group is complete I suggest we eat a little before getting into the activities" she added before approaching Blake and asked her "You think you could teach me to make outfits like yours ?If you have time of course " as the ball approached Hilda didn't want to be dressed like a scruffy .

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar smiled at Hilda as her friend explained what she was doing. "Oh nice! That sounds cool, I didn't realise it was a simple levitation spell." she joined her friend soon after, and began levitating some of the pebbles to stack on top of each other. She had managed to get about 7 on top of each other before she missed the middle of the stack and it all came crashing down. "No!" she gasped in surprise, but covered it up with a grin, knowing it was just for fun anyway. And just in time too, since she saw more of her friends beginning to arrive. She waved at each of them in turn, and grinned as Blake arrived 'fashionably late'.

"Wow Blake, your outfit looks really good!" she complimented her friend, knowing that Blake was definitely more fashionable than she was. Even now, all she'd shown up in was a pair of leggings and a random top she'd grabbed, as well as simple sneakers. "Well, I guess we'll see who's outfit fares better when we play a game of frisbee..." she said with a sly smile, knowing that Blake would probably have a bit of trouble, especially in heels. "Kidding, kidding" she added, not wanting to hurt her friend's feeings. She grabbed a cookie from the food set out on the table and asked the rest of the group, "Well, since we're all here, does anyone want to play with the frisbee?" she was fairly certain at least Harper would want to, since she was the sporty type, much like herself, and she hoped the others would want to join too.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper laughed at Hilda's comment. "What's a picnic without a frisbee?" she said, fully aware of how predictable she had been in bringing one. She knew that aside from Sky, her friends weren't as into sports as she was, so she wouldn't be surprised if the activities she'd brought lay unused. All that really mattered was that all her friends were here, in one place. Harper watched as Hilda and Sky worked on their pebble stack before turning and greeting Emmaline and Blake as they arrived. She gave an emphatic nod at Emmaline's comment — this really was a good idea.

Hilda suggested that they start with food, and Harper was definitely not going to disagree. She grabbed a sandwich and took a bite. "Hilda, did you make these yourself?" she asked after she'd finished chewing. Even if she hadn't, it was incredibly nice of her to take the time to set this picnic up. Harper listened as her friends talked about fashion, laughing slightly at Sky's frisbee joke. Though she wasn't particularly interested in fashion, she could recognize that Blake and Emmaline always looked nice. "Yeah, you and Em can give us tips for the ball." She already had a pretty good idea of what she'd be wearing — after all she'd only packed two dresses — but if they had other ideas, she'd be open to hearing them.

Harper nodded at Sky's question. "You don't even have to ask me," she laughed. "I'm always down." She took another bite of her sandwich, wondering if anyone else would join in or suggest a different activity.

 

[Blake Lodge]

Blake nodded at Hilda "For sure, I once did that to Em so yeah" she said, then she looked at Sky and Harper and narrowed her eyes at them "Someday I'll be doing you a makeover, mark my words, might not be today, or tomorrow, but one day..." the girl said finishing with a laugh to break the scary moment she had created. She sat down with the other girls grabbing a sandwich "In my defense Sky, if I knew that there was going to be games I would have worn different heels" she teased "I came dressed for a picnic". Then, from all the compliments she decided to a quick trip down memory lane and say something that a certain roommate would probably turn red from hearing "Thank you guys, after all, since I have a reputation of prancing around and only caring about my hair and clothes", Blake whipped her hair exaggeratedly "I must at least live to those accusations" she said laughing, maybe a bit harder than she should have.

 

[Hildegard de Valeriane]

"Yep, these are Hilda’s homemade sandwiches," she replied to Harper while taking a snack too.

Hilda let a laugh slip out at Blake’s allusion to the altercation she had had with Ivy some time before " Of course, because if you are someone who pays attention to your appearance, you are necessarily superficial " she said sarcastically.Just thinking about it pissed her off but she was counting on turning this bad feeling into good by having fun with her friends "Now i'm ready for the most epic Frisbee tournament of all time" said she getting up ,removing the crumbs that were on her clothes.

 

[Skylar Anderson]

Skylar smiled at the girls' eagerness to play with the frisbee. That was one thing she missed at Hogwarts, the lack of outdoor fun that she could always count on back at home. But she'd grown to realise that her small group of Gryffindor friends were perfect for making up for it, and it seemed today would be no different. She grabbed the frisbee Harper had brought off the picnic mat, and ran a few metres away from the other girls, hoping to get a good throw in that way. When she saw that everyone was ready, she quickly yelled out "Catch Harper!" before she threw the frisbee with all her might. It seemed that although she had the power (since it went far), she definitely didn't have the sense of direction and instead it spiralled through the air towards Hilda! "Whoops sorry about that!" she laughed, a bit embarassed that her first throw had been so bad, but choosing to look on the positive side of it which was that at least the game was already beginning to be funny.

 

[Harper Alston]

Harper feigned a shudder at Blake's threat before loudly whispering to Sky, "Don't worry. We can outrun her as long as she's wearing those heels." She shot Blake a grin, knowing she'd whispered loud enough for the other girl to hear. Truth be told, she didn't particularly want a makeover, especially not one at the hands of Blake. Harper thought the way she looked was just fine, and after last year's truth or dare game, she didn't ever want to wear heels again.

The sandwiches were delicious, and Harper gave Hilda an appreciative smile. "They're great. Thanks for organizing this." She had to roll her eyes slightly at Blake's reference to Ivy, though her contempt was for their uninvited roommate. It was a good thing the other girl wasn't here, and she hoped the conversation would move on from the subject soon. They already had to deal with the tension in the dorms, and she didn't want to waste any more of the picnic on their dorm room drama.

Thankfully, Sky quickly started off a frisbee game. Harper finished her sandwich, brushing the crumbs from her lap, before walking a few meters away. She brought up her hands, ready to catch the frisbee, but it veered toward Hilda instead. She giggled slightly at the mistake. "That's Hilda. I'm Harper," she teased before turning her attention to Hilda in case the other girl chose to pass to her.

 

[Hildegard de Valeriane]

Hilda was trying to concentrate on the game when the frisbee that had been thrown for Harper came towards her. Despite her surprise she managed to catch it and laughed at her friend's joke "Harper understand her, we would be taken for twins if we didn't say that we were friends "she said before sending the frisbee towards her. Maybe she put too much force or maybe it was the wind that caused the plastic disc to land on the lake water."Sorry girls I'm going to get it" she added as she walked towards the water's edge. She curled up her pants and took off her shoes before stepping forward and picking up the Frisbee. "Well it's a little wet but in good shape" she added before throwing it back at Harper.