Open Frog Friends

[Lysander Summers]

The lake was one of Lysander's favourite places at Hogwarts by far. The water was cool and refreshing during the hotter months, and he could have sworn he'd seen a couple of mermaids swimming around over the course of the year. Then there had been the time Wendall's cousin and her friends had turned a part of the lawn into a giant waterslide, and despite how his friend might have felt about it, Sander had had a blast sliding his way down through the mud and into the lake's water. The best part about the lake however, was the wildlife. He had seen a few toads and frogs hopping about on the shore, just roaming freely, unlike the ones at his father's menagerie. The boy spent so much time seeing creatures in glass habitats that sometimes he forgot they actually existed out in the rest of the world. Choosing a familiar to take to school with him had been a difficult choice, and a frog or toad had been something he'd considered for a time, before he decided on Fuzzfeathers and Rembrandt instead. He was glad for that decision now, knowing that there were plenty of amphibians out and about for him to befriend and take back to his dorm, assuming one of them liked him too. Surely, he thought, Hogwarts couldn't say no to him having another companion if it already lived on the castle's grounds. He wasn't technically breaking the rules by bringing another animal since it was already there in the first place, he reasoned.

Dressed in one of his old Tuscan Charmers t-shirt and a simple pair of shorts, Lysander made his way down to the water's edge to find some new companions to add to his growing family. He'd found a few dead bugs around the castle to help entice them if need be, and kept them in a bucket of dirt and water - a makeshift bog, like the ones he'd seen in the menagerie, only far more rudimentary. He hadn't found any lilypads, but he did sprinkle in bits of leaves and grass he'd pulled up from the wild patch on the way over. Trudging toward the murkier part of the shore, Lysander set his bucket down and kicked off his sandals. He crouched down and splashed his hands in a shallow puddle, wetting them so that his skin wasn't too dry for the frogs that were hopping about, and waited to see if any would hop close enough for him to pick up.​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio had been getting increasingly lonelier ever since Rowan had left him standing there at Valentines. She'd been his best friends for absolutely ages, and in the space of one night she'd left him by himself all because she hadn't realised he didn't have feeling for her. He'd wanted to talk to her, make it up, go through all the new photos he'd taken, but whenever he came near she'd disappeared, and Elio had been left to find others to talk to. Of course he still had his clubs though, and he'd tried his best at both the duels and the at the event with the Wiggentree, and was glad when the younger Hufflepuff had seemed open to the idea of trying out his camera. That had done a little to fill the void in his chest was filled though, as he'd come to realise it was the people around him being happy that was most important. The Gryffindor was beginning to pick up habits that he wasn't especially proud of, but when he was around others at school he could forget about those for a while, and just enjoy things for what they were. Out on the lake, he peered at a student who seemed to be up to his knees in the bog, and for a moment he wondered whether he was actually stuck. Upon closer inspection though, it looked like the boy who'd tried to defend Alistair at the SDA event, and he was looking for something in the water. "Hey!" Elio called out, wary of leaving a first year by himself in the ditches like this. "What are you doing?" he didn't come too close, he didn't want to get filthy. ​

 

[Lysander Summers]

A big ol' green frog had hopped close enough for Lysander to reach out to, and he dipped his hand into the makeshift bog to pull out a dead beetle. He had a feeling it had been a button at some point, given that he'd seen it near the Transfiguration classroom, and could only assume someone had lets theirs escape. He held it out in front of him for the amphibian to see, and shuddered when its tongue struck the insect from his hands. Okay, gross. "C'mon buddy." He said, reaching his hands around the squat frog. It didn't appear to protest, and he held it up to his face with a smile. It was cute, if perpetually grumpy looking. He sat there for a minute to see if it would jump away, but it seemed content where it was. He was just about to set it down in the bog bucket to snack on the other treats he'd brought it when someone else arrived. Sander recognised Elio from his house, though more specifically his hilarious Quidditch try-out had stuck out in the boy's mind. He turned around with a grin and held up the frog he'd totally befriended. "Hi! I'm making friends with frogs." He explained. Totally normal by wizarding standards, to be sure. "I saw a few people with frogs and toads and I wanted one too, and there's like, tons just hanging out here without a nice home." He lowered the frog toward the bucket and let it hop inside to scour for food, before straightening back up. "I think this one likes me. It's hard to tell. They don't really smile." Sander continued. "Do you wanna come see him? I need to give him a name. Or her."​

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[Elio Zephyr]

The entrance to the bog was slushy underfoot and Elio was just doing his best not to get his jeans dirty, moving from foot to foot so that his feet didn’t get a chance to nestle in. He chuckled when Lysander mentioned he was making friends with frogs, partly wondering whether he had any friends at the school, but give his own track record recently he was hardly one to point it out. “People usually buy their frogs,” he mused, knowing that Abian has one too that he’d licked out from the Menagerie. He couldn’t imagine sharing a dorm with someone with a frog for a pet though, the idea of it jumping on your face while you slept was disgusting. “Don’t you think they like it in there?” He asked, hoping he could convince the first year that the frog was actually probably better off living where it was, and save everyone including the frog, some grief. “You could always make this a nice home for him. Or her. Leave it food, check on it every now and then?” He offered, beginning to inch his way further across to him with the clearest path.​

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander snorted. "Yeah...I don't have a job." He said. He'd bought a pet already with his dad's money, but doing chores wasn't going to be enough to allow him to buy and look after even more! He shifted his glance from the bucket to the rest of the mud around the lake, and he shrugged his shoulders. "Do you like sleeping outside of the castle?" He asked. He liked camping, but he didn't love camping. He preferred the warmth and comfort of home compared to sleeping outside, so it made sense to him that other things would, too. It's not like they all had to sleep in caves anymore. "Wild animals get eaten all the time, you know. They live longer with humans. That's why we have familiars. They help us and we help them." He'd heard his dad argue with more than one person about keeping animals as pets, and Sander couldn't understand it at all. Why would anyone want their puffskein or rat to get eaten by something else? It was dangerous for animals that didn't know how to protect themselves. Frogs weren't dragons, that was for sure. "If it wants to leave it can hop away. I'm not stopping it. Don't you have any animals?"​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

Elio didn’t have a job either, but didn’t this kid get pocket money or anything? The fourth year raised his eyebrows at the boy, “Do I? I’m not a frog!” He imagined sleeping outside was quite nice for those that were used to it and did have a natural habitat outside, but Elio wasn’t one of them. The boy wasn’t really sure what the first year meant about familiars, but he nodded about the pets. “Sure, I’m bet all pets like being looked after, but that doesn’t mean every animal should be a pet.” He said, although not convinced that the boy would change his mind. “I don’t have any,” he didn’t feel the need to have any either. Apparently not all students were the same though. “I assume you do?” Maybe he had a lot of pets, especially if he was keen to try and pull a dirty frog out the garden.​

 

[Lysander Summers]

Sander laughed and shook his head. "I know you're not a frog, duh. But people didn't always live in castles, or houses. If you had to choose between like, a cave or a bed, what would you choose?" He asked. "Frogs can't build houses yet. If they could, they'd probably want to live in one instead of the mud, just like how we don't sleep on dirt and stuff now. It's not fair not to let them just because they can't. He might like it out here, or he might like it even better in there. You don't know." Didn't this older boy know anything? Lysander sure was glad he was so smart already. "I don't think every animal should be a pet. I think they should all be our friends. Life is better for people than for animals, so we need to help make their lives as good as ours. I heard that animals can help us with magic, too. I read about it on the internet." He told Elio matter-of-factly. Everything on the internet was true. Being friends with Fuzzfeathers was probably what made Lysander such a good flyer, after all. Elio needed a bird if he was going to be less bad at it himself. "I live with lots and lots of animals. My dad owns the Menagerie. If you want one, you can go there and I can help you pick a new friend. I think you need one. Then you'll understand what I mean, you know? It's pretty sad when people don't get to spend any time with animals." He smiled. There were plenty of frogs around he could spend time with too, but it seemed a bit obvious that frogs weren't Elios thing.​

 

[Elio Zephyr]

The more Elio listened to Lysander talking about the animals and their environments, the more he felt like it was obvious that this was where his passions lay. Sure, he may have found it strange to adopt a wild pet from the gardens, but the first year clearly didn’t. Even if some of things he was saying didn’t even quite make sense. Elio was more inclined to drop the subject completely, since the boy had an air of confidence that reminded him of himself when he was younger. Elio was speechless for a moment when he suggested he needed new friends, was it really that obvious he didn’t have anyone? “I have loads of friends,” he found himself explaining, “Besides, I don’t think animals really like me. There better off staying with someone who can look after them, right?” He raised his eyebrows, “Isn’t your dad a Professor?” He asked after a moment, wondering if that professor had a few jobs up his sleeve.​

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander wasn't sure what it was he'd said that made Elio pause. He could totally have tons of friends, but he'd still be missing out if he didn't interact with more than just humans, he thought. "I don't think that's true." He began, and had to quickly clarify that he wasn't talking about Elio's number of friends. "Most animals only don't like bad people. They have like, a magic that lets them know, I think." It was the only thing that made sense to him any time his father explained how some animals could sense how a person felt. 'you don't seem bad. You just need to find the right animal. Puffskeins are really easy to look after, and they love basically everyone. If I can sneak one into school next year, I could let you help look after it in your dorm, if you want. You don't even have to feed them much, they eat loads of stuff that just hang around, like spiders." It was already basically decided he would bring a puffskein, for himself at the very least, and for the both of them at the most. "I have two dads." He continued to explain after a moment. "But yeah, one teaches Transfiguration, and they both do stuff for the Menagerie." Lysander was lucky to have two parents who did so many cool things. He couldn't imagine how different his life would be if the Menagerie wasn't in their lives. Would they still have so many animals in the house? There was no telling, but this was definitely the life he preferred to have.​

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