Pondering by the lake

[Prosper Voltaire]

Prosper was a lot of things. He was a spoilt rich kid with reckless tendancies and a temper he struggled to keep in check. He boardered on clinically ill as he flipped between being a polite young man who would help the weakest of peers, to a snooty brat who was rude and compulsive. He didn't act on reason, he acted on emotion, and that could go either way with someone as unstable as he.

Readers must be wondering why this is all relevant right now. After all, all he was doing was standing alone on top of a big rock beside the lake minding his own business, staring out at its calm waters. That doesn't relate at all to the previous paragraph since he was being all together placid. But have no fear, it will all tie together at a later date. At least I hope so.

He flicked misplaced strands of fringe out of his eyes and sighed deeply, folding his arms tightly around his middle. What the hell was he doing here? At Hogwarts. He knew nothing of magic, yet had somehow found himself sorted into the house which prided itself on purity. Whatever that meant. He wasn't comfortable down in the cold dungeons with the other Slytherins, he preferred the fresh air by the lake and was perfectly happy spending time here by himself where he was blissfully tuned out to the outside world.

 

[Corrine Lagos]

Having spent the morning exploring her new common room, Corrine had decided to get some fresh air. Back at home, she loved spending time outdoors, reading and writing and talking to her neighbors. She'd lived in the same place her entire life, her parents had dug in roots even before they'd had any children.

Humming a song by her favorite singer, a witch by the name of Mira Merlin, Corrine found herself by the lake. It was large and rather ominous, though whether it was because she'd learned that a student had died in there only months before was unclear. Corrine was a strong swimmer, but she didn't think she'd be entering the lake any time soon. Still, she took her shoes off and made her way closer to the water. To dip her feet in. "Have you seen anything lurking?" she asked the boy she'd only just noticed, pausing with her shoes crooked on her fingers. She gave him a small smile, friendly as she usually was when meeting someone new. So far, everyone she'd met had been nice, so she had no reason to believe this encounter would be anything different.

 

[Prosper Voltaire]

Prosper hadn't noticed company until he heard them speak. Usually the young Slytherin was well tuned into another persons presence even before they let themselves known. On this occasion however, he was too involved in his own head to sense anything outside of his little bubble.

He turned his head only slightly to look at the girl. "No" He replied abruptly, turning back to the lake, he wasn't the most warming of fellows. He examined the reflective surface of the lake for a few seconds, looking now for lurking creatures. He became paranoid that some great predator lived in the lake and everyone at Hogwarts knew about it except him.

He looked at the girl again, this time for longer. "Why? What sort of lurking creatures are in this lake?" He asked curiously, keeping his voice steady to hide any fear which might peak through. Prosper had been taught never to show weakness towards strangers.

 

[Corrine Lagos]

Corrine simply stared at the boy for a moment, his abrupt response settling around her. Must be a Slytherin, she assumed, a sing-song voice floating through her head. Dropping her shoes, Corrine settled close to the edge, dipping her feet in. It was cold, sending a shiver through her body but she powered through so the boy wouldn't think her weak.

The eleven year old gave a small shrug at his question.Maybe a Ravenclaw?, she amended her view of the boy with this question. In truth, she didn't know what was in this lake, but she knew what was in the lake at Hogwarts Scotland or she thought she did because of the stories she'd heard from her sister. "Merpeople and grindylows and kappas and kelpies, I bet" she stated boldly, though she was just guessing. She pulled her feet out, backing up slightly. If there were Kappas, she wouldn't want to be in the water.

 

[Prosper Voltaire]

Prosper studied the girls words for a moment, he had never heard of such creatures before, they certainly didn't exist in his world. Except he could guess what Merpeople were, he assumed it was the collective word for mermen and mermaids. His mind wondered to a disney-esq character sitting on a nearby rock, brushing their apparently perfect hair. This was impossible however, Prosper already knew that merpeople were creatures of fiction. This girl must be winding him up.

Prosper jumped down from his higher rock to become level with the girl. He stumbled on landing but quickly composed himself and pretended it had never happened. He looked at her with a crooked smile to suggest this was a joke and he knew it. "You're making this up, right?" He asked her. He already knew the truthful answer, or at least he thought he did.

 

[Corrine Lagos]

Corrine kept her gaze on the boy, watching as he moved from the higher rock he’d been on to drop closer to where she sat. She hid a laugh behind her hand as he stumbled, still not having quite outgrown laughing when she saw someone do something slightly embarrassing. As he challenged her statement, the blue-eyed girl stared at the boy for a moment before shrugging her shoulders slightly. “Why? Scared?” she stated, her voice both teasing and challenging the boy at the same time. Corrine knew that neither of them knew enough magic to combat even the least aggressive of those creatures, but she would surely try to stand her ground for a second longer than the boy. Unless it was a kappa. Then, all bets were off.

After letting her questions sit for a second, Corrine continued. “My sister says that the Hogwarts Scotland lake has all of those creatures. No reason to believe this lake doesn’t have them” she stated, having heard that this school was based off of the other, more famous school. Her sister didn’t usually make up stories in the way that older siblings did, so she tended to believe the things that she said. Really, she had no reason not to.