Searching for Squids

[Phoebe Holland]

Every day was a new interesting expedition for Phoebe, and today she was going to check out the big lake on the school grounds. She had heard stories from her parents about a giant squid living the one in Hogwarts Scotland, and wondered if something similar lived here. Or if not, if she could find some other interesting creatures that lived near the lake. She was just curious about it, and if she felt that way about something she had to know everything about it. Though she wasn't planning to go swimming, not today anyway.

She arrived at the lake and felt a bit disappointed. She couldn't really see anything under the surface of the water, and she chastised herself for not thinking ahead. Next time she would bring goggles and look under the surface at what was below. Maybe Veronica would want to come. But now all she could see was still water and some plants, how boring.

Not to give up completely, Phoebe gathered some stones and long sticks. She started with one of the sticks, poking into the water curiously to see if she got any sort of reaction. She was hoping maybe a Grindylow would grab it or something, but it seemed like the lake was particulary lifeless today. She sighed and put the stick down on the grass, turning to the rocks. They weren't very big, but maybe enough to awaken a giant squid if it was hit with one. After a moment of hesitation, she threw the biggest one into the lake with as much force as she could.

 

[Matt Rosemary]

Matt hadn't exactly explored as much as his cousins suggested and though he was glad that he hadn't been sorted in the same house as them he still half wished there was a way for him to find them. With Dan as prefect, it was probably easier to find him around the school and in the middle of corridors. However, today was one particular day where he wanted to talk to Amy, as he hadn't yet had the chance to see her in school. Matt was currently outside for some fresh air, the lake to be precise as he'd heard quite a few stories from his relatives about mystical and dangerous creatures and he was eager to see if he could spot any. It was unlikely, but you never knew. Matt squinted his eyes, it must have been around an hour later when he realised maybe those stories he'd been told were completely wrong and untrue. "So much for beautiful, untameable creatures," he muttered under his breath, loud enough for the nearest person to hear. His gaze settled on a girl who seemed to be...well, whatever she was doing it looked interesting. It looked as if she was trying to find those creatures his parents had told him all about.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe enjoyed the splash the rock she threw had created, but nothing inside the lake really seemed to react to it. No big squid tentacles came out of the water and no angry grindylow surfaced, shaking its little fist. How disappointing. She threw a second and third rock but it had similar results, which she found a disappointment. She looked up to find a boy around her eage nearing the lake. He seemed to be looking for similar things as she was, judging from his muttered comment. Phoebe saw an opening, and she couldn't resist. "I don't know about beautiful." She said with a grin. "But untameable is pretty accurate, just ask my mother." She walked over to him, still holding a rock. "My name's Phoebe, what's yours? You're a first year too, right? What are you doing here? You aren't in my house." She had prided herself of knowing who was in Ravenclaw with her. "So which one are you in?" She tilted her head to the side and eyed him critically. Aside from Oswald, she hadn't met many boys that she had deemed intelligent yet. Phoebe was more used to dealing with girls anyway, but if this boy could keep up with her she wouldn't mind being his friend. "Do you know if there's really a giant squid in this lake? I can't tell if that's only in Hogwarts Scotland or if my dad has been playing a trick on me."

 

[Matt Rosemary]

Matt blinked once, glancing at the lake again before responding. "What is it that your mother does?" He barely had time to fit his question in their current conversation as the girl began to ask a series of her own questions, to which Matt simply chuckled. She was cute, he'd give her that. "Nice meeting you, I'm Matt, yes a first year and I came to see if the stories of creatures living in the lake are true, which so far has proven to be fake. You never know though." He was kind of surprised, maybe even impressed, that the girl, Phoebe already knew who was in her house and who wasn't. "No indeed I'm not, I'm in Gryffindor," he told her with a smile on his face. His gaze drifted to the lake once more. "I'm not sure, I mean from what I've seen so far it's very possible. It seems as if our parents like to make us more excited for the years ahead," he laughed, not really minding if there wasn't a giant squid though it'd be awesome to see one. "My parents went to Hogwarts Scotland too," he said absent-mindedly. "Hey, maybe if there's a giant squid it only appears at certain times of the day."

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe shrugged. "I meant that you talked about untameable creatures, and I joked that you meant me. That's why I told you my mother would agree, since she would probably call me untameable." She generally didn't like having to explain her jokes, but she could imagine she had been talking too fast again. She tended to do that a lot.

She grinned when she realized Matt was here for the same reasons she had. "Well, I think if there are any they would probably be under the water, which makes it trickier to see." She said, holding up her rock. "It's why I was throwing these, hoping to startle something to come to the surface. I suppose we have the same reasons to be drawn to the lake." She smiled. "I wish I knew that spell to make a bubble around my head, I would just go look for myself."

Matt's point about their parents making them more excited made her frown. That actually sounded like something parents would do. She glanced back at the lake and shrugged. "Maybe." She said, brightening again when he said his own parents went to Hogwarts Scotland. "Isn't it funny how this school is almost exactly the same as that one? I had expected more differences but this is almost exactly the same as they described it. As odd as it is to see a medieval castle in New Zealand, I really like it." The point about the giant squid made her even more enthusiastic. "Wow! That would make sense actually! What sort of times do you think? Maybe it's nocturnal! That would make sense, wouldn't it? If I were a big giant squid, I would want to appear when there aren't many students around to poke at me with sticks. Maybe I should try looking at night sometime." Phoebe always started to ramble when she was excited, talking fast enough to be hard to follow. She was suddenly aware of this, and took a deep breath. "Sorry, I get excited. Maybe we could see if we could find a grindylow or something for now? I would love to see one of those."

 

[Matt Rosemary]

Sorry this took me forever!

Matt laughed, playfully rolling his eyes at Phoebe. He had kind of caught on but wanted to see what her reply was going to be, of course asking what her mother did was boring talk so Matt made sure to remember not to mention it in future, at least while he had the chance to make friends. He didn't want to make other people think he wasn't a fun person to be around. "Oh, I'm sure you're not so bad," he shook his head, giving her a friendly smile and a wink to let her know he was messing with her. Hopefully she didn't really think that about herself, even if her mother did.

The Gryffindor nodded his head, reflecting on what his new friend was saying. "Well, anything is possible and we might just have to come back here more often during the year," he squinted trying to see if he could spot one now. It was hard to. "I guess we'll have to wait for that, as long of a wait as that sounds." He shrugged not really convinced of the idea of waiting so long himself, although having a bubble to around his head to be able to breathe underwater sounded awesome. Matt noticed her brighten when he mentioned his parents also went to Hogwarts Scotland. Maybe their parents knew each other? "I've never lived in New Zealand but so far what my parents described does in fact sound exactly like this school too and not just the one in Scotland," he told her.

He glanced at her, grinning at her excitement. Seeing her this enthusiastic made him excited too, so when she mentioned the idea of going at nighttime he couldn't help himself. "I'll join if you decide to go at night!" The first year shrugged at her apology, he had two sisters but neither of them were like Phoebe and yet he didn't mind her rambling. It was sort of cute. "No apology needed and yeah we should definitely look for a grindylow! The Lake is huge though, where do you think we should start?" He asked her, wondering just how much time it would take to finally meet a creature that lived in the lake. Matt's eyes were glued to the water as they talked.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe laughed as he said he was sure she wasn't so bad. She shrugged and grinned. "You'll see for yourself, I guess." She told him, clearly teasing and not taking this seriously. Phoebe didn't lack self confidence in the slightest, and she didn't feel bad at all about being a little bit untameable to her parents sometimes.

She nodded at his suggestion to come back there more during the year, she was definitely going to be at the lake a lot, she could tell already. So if she ran into Matt there, all the better. "I suppose we do." She said, planning in her head to at least look up that bubble charm and see in what year they would learn it. "I used to live in England." She said in response to him telling her he had never lived in New Zealand. "But I was like, super young. I don't remember anything of it. My older sister claims to remember things, but she's only a year older than me so I don't know if she's lying or not." Phoebe shrugged. "I like New Zealand a lot. Though I wonder why they decided to make the school so Scottish. You'd think they would want to make it more... New Zealandish? I wonder if any of the professor's know this."

She was glad he said he would join her if she ever went at night. She wasn't sure how she was going to coordinate that yet, considering they were in two different houses. She would figure out a way. She smiled when he said they should look for a grindylow, she agreed. "Yes, we should. I think we should start near the edge of the lake, since that's closest." She grinned, clearly joking. "I hear they like to grab people's ankles, so maybe you should step into the lake and we can see if that's true?" She smiled at him innocently, trying not to laugh. She wondered if he would see it for the joke it was. Though, if he wanted to try it, she wasn't sure if she would stop him.

 

[Matt Rosemary]

"Yeah, maybe I'll have to stick around for that," Matt smiled as he replied to his new friend. He raised his eyebrows at her when she mentioned where she used to live. "That's interesting. I live there...well my family does, since I'm here now. My cousins recently moved here though and at least I have them." Although Matt had two more years after this one with Amy and Dan, hopefully they'd stay in New Zealand while he was still in school. Being in Gryffindor though meant he didn't have to live under their shadow, something for which he was grateful.

He shrugged. "You never know with siblings, one moment they really care about you and the next they're annoying and you want nothing to do with them. I have two sisters," he cast a sideways glance at Phoebe, completely avoiding the topic of adoption - because neither sister was blood related to him. They weren't related to each other, but Matt still called them his family. They'd helped him through a lot, at least Kaia did. "My older sister is two years older and in Ravenclaw. I've always been closer to her than to my younger sister." Matt squinted, thought he saw something glint in the lake but it turned out it was just the sun reflected on the water.

The first year nodded at what she was saying about the school. "Yeah, I know right. Do you think this Hogwarts was founded after the Scottish one? I mean you'd think they would give it a different name," he chuckled, thinking that perhaps both the Scottish and New Zealand Hogwarts were created by the same people. "Or..." he said, "maybe the creators of Hogwarts had something to do with both schools. Anything is possible in the wizarding world." He stopped talking, realising how much he was speaking. Matt pretended to think for a moment before nodding in agreement at her suggestion. He could tell she was kidding, but he wanted to play along just for the fun of it. "Of course, yup, great idea." He grinned at her and winked. "I wonder where I should jump from... which angle is the best for the grindylow to grab my ankle?" he frowned, all the while keeping an eye on Phoebe to see her reaction and also whether she might push him in the lake.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe listened to Matt talk about moving to New Zealand. "Do you like it here so far?" She looked at him curiously, it would be odd to move somewhere without her family, though at least he had cousins and apparently a sister with him. She sometimes missed her own parents, though she hadn't told anyone about that. It felt childish to her.

She nodded in agreement at what he said about siblings. "I know right? Sisters can be the worst. But you're an amateur compared to me, I have three." She grinned to show she was joking. "Rose is older than me and Diana and Alice are younger. But Rose is sometimes a bit silly and we're really close in age so sometimes I feel like I'm the oldest." She shrugged. "Rose is cool though, most of the time. She's in Gryffindor like you. You might've seen her around. I guess I'm closest to her." She definitely was closer to Rose than to Diana, but she had a special connection to her youngest sister as well that she didn't have with Rose. It was complicated and she didn't want to linger on it.

Instead she focused on his question about Hogwarts. "I'm pretty sure this one was founded after the Scottish one, the one in Scotland was founded in the middle ages and this one hasn't been around that long. My mother said it was built here within her lifetime, though I don't remember the exact number of years. But it means it's less than thirty years old, which I wouldn't have guessed by looking at it. Isn't that odd? Why not just make a new school insead of copying an existing one."

She raised an eyebrow slightly when the boy went along with her idea of catching a grindylow with him as bait. His wink suggested he was joking too, but she wasn't going to give up the chance of a willing test subject on the off-chance that he wasn't. "I'd suggest going in over on that part with the weeds sticking out." She nodded at the lake. "If I were a grindylow, I'd hide in the weeds while waiting for skinny boy ankles to appear." She smirked at him, a challenge in her eyes.

 

[Matt Rosemary]

Matt smiled when Phoebe asked him whether he liked it here. "Yeah, at least so far," he replied. "The accent is different, opposite weather, it still needs getting used to but I think I'll manage. You?" He returned the question, oddly curious now. Though he hadn't known her for long, it was interesting hearing what other people thought of the place, particularly people who were not related to him. "Although, if I'm being honest, I do miss my parents. I'm thankful to have Kaia here but I do miss the familiarity of home, you know?" Matt found himself talking honestly, which did not usually come easily to him. The Gryffindor also found it odd that he had admitted that to Phoebe, considering he never shared how he felt.

"Three is a lot, I couldn't imagine myself with three sisters and being the only boy, just imagine," he chuckled, not in favour of that idea. He wouldn't even express his thoughts on that either, because if he did, his mum and dad would most likely adopt yet another child and Matt liked it how it was - the house was big enough, had enough members in it and enough mouths to feed. "I might have, yeah. I still don't know many people though, I'm sure it won't take me long to figure out who she is." Matt smiled, even thinking about it made him feel determined to get to know Phoebe better. It wouldn't be hard finding out who her sister was and whether he'd seen her before.

He nodded at her logic, starting to wonder the same thing. "Wow, I never would have guessed. Approximately thirty years doesn't sound so fascinating but then again this school turned out to be just that - unbelievably fantastic. It seems to me like it is much more promising here rather than the muggle world," he shook his head. "I agree, it looks like a replica of the Scottish Hogwarts. Although, I guess the scenery is different and we won't have to go to school during the winter." It would take some adjustment but Matt didn't really mind, as long as he coped he knew he'd be fine. "Then again, a new school entirely probably wouldn't be as great as this one. Who knows," he added afterwards.

The girl then went on with the joke and Matt repeated, "in the weeds?" His tone suggested he was amused which he certainly was. Phoebe had stated it in such a way that Matt couldn't just refuse. If it was a challenge there was absolutely no way he was going to turn it down. What if it actually worked? So after thinking about it for a minute, the boy went over to where his new friend had indicated and sat down, careful not to slip, before taking his shoes off and putting his feet in the cool water.

 

[Phoebe Holland]

Phoebe smiled at his assessment of New Zealand. "The weather would be weird to get used to." She said, tilting her head curiously. "I wonder if it has any effect on your magic, or your mood. Maybe next year I'll try to study the new firsties that come to this hemisphere for the first time. See if there's anything interesting." She had a suspicion she would not be allowed to do that, but that hadn't often stopped her. "I like it here." She told him, nodding. "There's so much information here to learn, so many things to figure out... I have so many ideas." She smiled at his admission about missing his parents right after her own thoughts about the same topic. Though, she didn't admit she felt the same. Phoebe laughed when he talked about having three sisters, and then when he talked about figuring out who Rose was. "I could point her out to you sometime. She's sort of loud and noticeable."

She agreed with him about the school. "What would you do if you could start a school? Like what would it be like?" The thought popped into her head and she started to think about it herself. "I think I would separate students by competence level, instead of age. I think if I tried hard I could understand second year things but they would never let me."

She should have known better than to dare a Gryffindor to do anything. To her surpise and amusement, he did as she had said. She watched him with a curious expression on her face before going to his side. "I can't believe you're doing this, but I can't just let you be bait on your own." She said with a slight roll of her eyes. "Scoot over." She kicked off her own shoes and put her own feat in the water after only a slight pause. She shuddered at the coldness but didn't pull her feet out. "Let's hope they don't drag us down and drown us, if they're there." She quipped.