Fresh Air

[Nathaniel Traynor]

It was second semester at Hogwarts. Nathaniel managed to get used to Hogwarts really fastly, his sisters were always somewhere around him. His aloe vera Antoinette got sick during holidays so he left her at home, just so she could get better. Being on the road wasn't good for plant, but he missed her a lot.
He got letter from mom, she always wrote letters to him and he always went to lake to read them. That was way more chill than reading it in common room or in Hall. Also he loved being in fresh air so it wasn't something he didn't usually do.

@Salem Lee

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem was almost disappointed to be back at Hogwarts for another semester. At the start of the school year, everything had been exciting and new, but after a few months, Salem felt like she'd gotten used to everything and now she was back to do it all over again. The break seeing her parents had helped, and they'd even seen a bit more of New Zealand, especially the beaches, which had left Salem craving more beach time.

Slipping her shoes off at the lakefront, Salem eagerly dug her toes into the dirt and stones at the lakeshore. It wasn't anything like the sandier beaches they'd visited, but it wasn't unlike some of the rockier ones either. There's been a lot of crabs on the rockier beaches too and, struck with inspiration, Salem began pushing a few of the larger rocks nearby over, looking eagerly for crabs. "Oh, hey, Nathaniel! " She said, glancing up from where she'd been scanning the mud when she noticed her crab hunt and brought her past one of her housemates. "What are you reading?"

 

[Nathaniel Traynor]

Nate looked around when heard his name, only after some moment he understood who he was talking to. "Hey Salem! What are you doing?" he got his legs away from water when saw his housemate in water. "Oh, it's nothing. Letter from mom," he put his letter away. He wasn't going to get in the water, but looking at Salem was way more interesting than some letter. "What are you searching for?"

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem smiled when Nathaniel mentioned it was a letter from home. "Oh neat, I should probably write my mums soon as well," She said, letting her latest rock drop back into place when it didn't reveal anything interesting. "I'm looking for crabs! Or, anything interesting, really. I did it a bunch over the Summer. I bet the school has cool magic bugs and stuff around the lake as well," She explained, motioning to Nathaniel to come help her move a larger rock nearby so they could look under it.

 

[Nathaniel Traynor]

Nate giggled a little bit, he felt good that he with his letter reminded classmate to write to her mom. For him, family always was in the first place. "Do you think there can be any crabs? I'd love to see one not just in the photo, but magic bugs doesn't sound so exciting." he shrugged a little bit and then freeze, he was being called to get in the water? He wasn't so sure, he looked back to his things and then decided to take his boots and try to help her. "Alright, let's move this rock." he rolled up his pants and then sleeves, he almost had shirts with long sleeves, now he regret that.

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem was surprised to hear Nathaniel had never seen a real crab, but maybe he'd not lived by the sea or anything before. "I don't know, I'm not sure if fresh water crabs are a thing. You've really never seen a real one before?" Salem said after a moment of consideration. "It'd be cool to find something, crab or not," She added, glad when Nathaniel moved to roll up his pants and join her. Salem hadn't even spared a thought for getting wet or muddy and belatedly glanced down at her own pants and shoes, grimacing sheepishly when she saw they were damp and muddy. "Oops," She said with a shrug before shifting so she and Nathaniel could push the rock over. "Hey, I see a worm!" Salem said once the rock had been successfully flipped aside with a wet slap. "Just a normal worm though, non-magical," She said with a shrug.

 

[Nathaniel Traynor]

Nate nodded. "Uh yes, I literally live at the centre of Wellington and my mom hates these sorts of animals, so here we go. I have seen them only on pictures at school, where are you from?" he easily talked about his mom and crabs, while rolling his pants up. "Yeah, but I still hope we will find something magical. It'd be way cooler." he added while slowly trying to get in the water. "Oh crap! It's cold!" he fastly took his leg out of water and then tried again. He shrugged from cold but somehow got in the water. Nate looked in the direction where Salem was looking and giggled at her muddy pants, but then finally got to stone. "It's dirty and cold, huh." he whispered under his nose and then pushed stone away. "Where?" he tried to notice it. "I left my glasses on the letter, God! I'll get them, I want to see it. They are amazing," he fastly took his glasses and somehow got dirty, sighed a bit, but then just put his glasses on and looked at worm. "Alright, I love it."

 

[Salem Lee]

Salem gave Nathaniel a sympathetic look when he mentioned his mum hated animals like crabs. Maybe she was scared of spiders or something. A lot of people were, and crabs were kind of like spiders. "Aw, that sucks. There's lots of cool bugs and stuff around," She said, going to pat Nathaniel on the shoulder and grimacing when she accidentally got mud on both their clothes. "Sorry. I was born in America, technically, but we never really lived there. My family travels a lot. Or we used to," Salem said, happy to focus on that and hope Nathaniel didn't mind the mud. It did suck she hadn't been able to go anywhere since school started. Surely her parents were getting as bored with that as she had been.

Salem laughed when Nathaniel succeeded in getting more grit on his glasses, not realizing he'd needed to wear them at all. She laughed again at his excitement over the worms. "Cool, right? I bet there's all sorts of weird stuff around the lake, let's keep looking," She said, moving slowly to set the rock back so they didn't squish anything before looking for another good spot to search.