Open Subtle Fresh Breeze

[Marley Owens-Lee]

It had only been a few weeks since they arrived back at school for the second semester, and Marley was excited to be back at school. While she had enjoyed spending time with her family over the break, she had missed seeing and spending time with her friends. She also missed the Quidditch games at school while she was on break. While she practised during the break, it wasn't the same. But overall she was glad to be back at school.

It was sometime in the afternoon, Marley had just dropped off her recent letter to her dad, keeping him updated on what was going on at school. The Hufflepuff didn't really know what she wanted to do afterwards. She thought about doing some quidditch practice, but she felt like she wasn't really in the mood for that. So the girl decided to make her way to her usual place which was the lake. Marley liked spending time at the lake. It had always reminded her of her dad. When she arrived at the lake, she stood on the edge of it, enjoying the few of the lake, she picked up on one of the stones nearby, keeping a hold of it, while she looked out towards the distance, her mind going places that she hadn't realised.

 

[Miro Morales-Albertson]

The lake wasn't exactly the place Miro imagined would be his regular haunt, but as the semester progressed and he began what felt like an ill-fated journey to catch up on his classes and deal with the amounting stress of such a journey, he realized it was one of the few places in the Hogwarts grounds he could still relax. It wasn't as great as the quidditch pitch for taking out his frustration and pent up energy from being cooped up indoors, but throwing rocks into the water in an attempt to skim them on the surface felt like a close second option. One where he could at least get some fresh air and breathe after an afternoon of feeling weighed down by how stupid studying made him feel, and that was enough for the time being.

Miro kept his hands in his pockets as he arrived to the lakefront and fully intended to keep to himself. At least that was his plan until he spotted someone else standing by the water's edge with a stone in hand. He sort of recognized the girl from the Hufflepuff quidditch team but didn't really know her name. That didn't deter him from soon approaching her wordlessly and standing next to her though, and looking out to the lake before his attention moved to the stones on the ground below him. He knelt down to pick up the first stone he could spot that seemed round enough to try and skip, taking a moment to allow the weight of the stone to register in his hand before he spoke. "Are you gonna throw rocks too?" He asked gently as he stood back up to his regular height. "Do you know how to like, skip them on the water?" He added a moment later. "I've been trying to teach myself but they always just fall in the water you know?" Miro wasn't exactly sure the girl wanted to be spoken to but he thought it couldn't hurt to try and make conversation while he was at the lake. Whether she wanted to talk to him or not, talking at all while throwing stones would be enough to distract him from how stressed he felt and that was all Miro really wanted.​

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley became aware when she noticed a figure standing beside her. She continued to look out towards the scenery a little longer before the person broke the silence, which Marley didn't mind. Company was always nice anyway. She turned towards the person, realising it was a slightly younger boy, a boy she recognised from the Gryffindor team, though she didn't really know him well enough, nor did she know the boy's name. Marley looked down at her hand when he had asked her about throwing rocks. "Oh, I was, looks like I got distracted," Marley says with a laugh. She was always skipping rocks at the lake whenever she was at the lake. "Kind of, I'm not the best at it though" Marley says with a small smile before she decides to skip the rock across the lake. The rock did two small skips across the lake before it was plumbing down. "Practice makes perfect I guess. Did you wanna try?" Marley says with a small smile as she notices the boy pick a rock. Marley bent down to pick a slightly small stone. "I heard its better with slightly flatter stones"

 

[Miro Morales-Albertson]

Miro felt his extroversion kick in when the girl responded to him, smiling to herself as she spoke. He nodded at her answer that she could sort of skip rocks, watching intently as she reached to throw the stone at the water. His eyebrows raised as the stone skipped twice before splashing the surface with a thud, the fact she was able to skip a rock at all enough to impress him. Miro himself had tried to skip rocks every time he was at the lake but from a lack of understanding how to actually skip a rock, it mostly ended with him throwing rocks and watching them splash and no real skipping to show any progress. "Oh, well you're better than me." He said in response, a moment later reaching to throw his own rock that was round, and of course did not skip at all, hitting the surface and splashing a little before sinking to the bottom. "See, I don't know how." Miro added, attention then turning back to the stones on the ground nearby. "So I need flat rocks, like this one?" He asked, picking up a stone that looked flat at first, but was rounded and lopsided on one end. "Oh maybe not that one." He dropped the rock back to the ground, reaching to look for another one. Eventually, and after shuffling through all the nearby stones which all seemed very round and oval and definitely weren't very flat, Miro finally found one that was sort of flat. "What about this one?" He asked the girl, thinking as she clearly had more rock skipping expertise she would be able to tell him if the rock was good enough to try and skip.​

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley shook her head at his response. "Eh, I'm okay, I try my best, nothing really" Marley says with a small chuckle. She thought she was mildly okay at doing rock skipping, she knew she wasn't the best and didn't think she was any better at it. The Hufflepuff watched as the boy gave it a go. However, the rock didn't do any skipping. "Don't worry! You'll get it soon enough for sure! Sometimes it can be the way the rock is or the way it's being thrown" Marley says with a small smile, hoping that maybe she would be somewhat encouraging in a way. She knew she probably wasn't the best at explaining or teaching, but she definitely wanted to help in any way she could.

Marley looked at the rock that he next picked up, noticing that it had looked a little lopsided on its side. She shook her head a bit before he picked up another one. "That one should be good. Sometimes them being a little rounded and somewhat flat helps too" Marley explains to the boy. She too then picked up a rock that was a little rounded and flat. "Sometimes when skipping a rock, you just gotta try and throw it differently. Maybe you might have to throw some harder than others. Lighter ones might be different to heavier ones" Marley explains with a small smile. "Did you wanna try with that one?" Marley says with an encouraging smile while pointing to the rock in the boy's hand.

 

[Miro Morales-Albertson]

Miro looked between the flat stone in his hand and the girl. While he had listened to her explain flatter rocks were better to try and skip as he had searched for the rock, and understood what she meant by throwing the rock differently depending on how heavy it was, Miro was otherwise clueless of how to actually throw it. He had simply just thought throwing the rock as hard as he could with no real technique other than wanting to throw it as far as he could hoping the sheer distance and the fact the rock was reaching further in the water would allow it to skip. He had tried throwing rocks multiple different ways over the times he visited the lake, but none of them seemed to work so the 'trying' he had left was just throwing a rock and hoping for the best. "How should I throw this, then?" He asked, then looking out to the water as he pondered the best way to throw the rock. "Is there like a special way that I need to throw it?" He added, hoping the girl could instruct him on how to throw the rock so he had the best chance of skipping it on the surface.​

 

[Marley Owens-Lee]

Marley smiled a little at the boy's question. "Well, I've seen a few people do it differently. There's not really a wrong way of throwing it I guess" Marley says with a small chuckle and shrug. She looked back down at the stone she was still holding. "Sometimes, I position myself sideways, I guess and then sorta throwing the rock across me, I guess" Marley explains, as she positions herself sideways, her body facing the boy as she then gently throws the rock across her body sideways, slowly showing how she would sometimes do it. That was one of the techniques she'd do. "You get your own sort of thing after a while," Marley says after she gently throws the rock, it skips once before it plops down into the lake's floor. "Maybe try that? See if it works for you"