Open The Known Past

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline had heard so much about Avie. In the passing conversations from her parents, in the old yearbook that she wasn't really supposed to look at. She had always known about the fact that though her mother spoke positively about her education and her schooling, that there had been this incident at the school which had tainted it. Apolline was curious, she wandered outside, in the drizzling rain, with her coat wrapped around herself, blonde hair flowing in the wind, and she walked to the lake front and to Avie's rock. She looked at the dates on it, and imagined what it must've been like. She hoped she didn't experience anything like that. But she had wanted to see it, to acknowledge it.

 

[Tabitha Gray]

Tabitha was still early in her exploring phase and wanted to see everything Hogwarts had to offer. The forest intrigued her, but she wasn't brave enough to go somewhere so dangerous and against the rules. The lake was nice, and with the weather warming up Tabitha wondered if anyone went swimming there. She wandered by the lakeside and idly picked up rocks to skip them, though more rocks were ending up in her raincoat pockets than on the water. She saw one of the girls who'd been in her own Sorting and eagerly approached her, hoping to meet someone new. Tabitha noticed the girl was looking at a rock and joined her curiously. "What happened to them?" she thought out loud as she read, brow furrowing in concern.

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline was staring at the rock, though she had no idea how much time had passed as she did so. Instead her focused just was on it, until someone approached and spoke. She was pretty sure this girl had been sorted just after she had. "Oh, they drowned, he drowned," she explained, since she knew at least that about him. She didn't know any of the details, she'd always been 'too young' for it. But she knew the broad idea, he had drowned in the very lake they were at. "It was a while ago though," she added, realising that others might not know anything about it and think it recent.

 

[Tabitha Gray]

"Oh, that's... Very sad." Tabitha said, solemnly as the other girl explained what had happened to Avie. Didn't wizards have charms to breathe underwater? Tabitha wondered if maybe it had happened so long ago that they didn't know about stuff like that. She'd had an aunt who also drowned in a lake when she was only a few years older than Tabitha, and she wondered if that was just a common thing that happened. Maybe water and wizards did not mix very well. "I hope that doesn't happen to anybody else. Maybe the rock is protecting everyone in the lake from drowning now?" It was comforting to think that, even though Tabitha had no idea how plausible it was. Thinking about sad things like drowning just made her feel bad.

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline agreed that it was sad, that she knew she'd hate to have someone in her year group die, especially if she'd spent seven years with them. Seventeen was young in the magical and muggle world. Apolline was glad that the girl didn't ask more questions about it, since they had reached the depth of Apolline's knowledge on it. She didn't know anything more than what she'd said. Apolline wasn't sure the rock was, but she nodded. "I'm sure it is, and serves as a reminder to be careful," she added. Apolline would likely never go swimming that deep or that often, because she knew what could happen. "I hear there's a giant creature in there anyway, seems like a pretty dangerous place to be swimming anyway,"

 

[Tabitha Gray]

Tabitha smiled and then felt bad for feeling comforted. She'd never known Avie and it was hard to think of this person as more than a vague concept, like a storybook character who had died heroically and left his footprints on the pages of the world. It was the same odd guilt she'd felt when attending a little known extended relative's funeral and didn't know how to be properly sad about it. She blinked hard at the other girl's mention of a creature. Her auntie had mentioned it before, but hearing that other people knew about it made Tabitha suspect it was actually real. "What kind of creature?" she asked, breathlessly. "Like a monster? Does it eat students? Is that even allowed?" Her last question was more to herself, she wanted to believe in monsters but was a little skeptical about whether it could be real.

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline glanced away from the memorial, not wanting to linger for much longer upon it. Instead glancing out at the water which had killed him, and was likely home to a number of dangerous things. "I don't know," she said. "I've not seen it, and supposedly most haven't, so it could just be a lie," Apolline liked to think her mother would do something about student eating monsters in the lake of a school, but she didn't want to boldly claim it if it turned out to be false. "It's probably a slightly too big fish someone say once,"

 

[Tabitha Gray]

Tabitha generally did not see the point in lying, so someone making up a lie about a creature who lived in the lake seemed unusual to her. Not impossible, but something that had very little point to it. Also, she just really, really wanted to believe in a sea monster. "Okay, but..." Tabitha scrunched up her nose, following the other girl's gaze towards the water. "It could be a fish but it might be a magical fish and people think it's dangerous just because it's magic. Like how we're not supposed to tell muggles about us being magic because they might get scared even though wizards aren't that scary." She hummed thoughtfully as she mulled it over in her mind.

 

[Apolline Fontaine]

Apolline thought it as interesting that this girl seemed to believe quite wholeheartedly about the prospect of some monster or creature living in the lake. Apolline wasn't that convinced about it, about it being magical and that was why people were scared of it. The gryffindor didn't think that true at all. She didn't think that the reason they didn't tell muggles about the magical world was fear. "I guess," she said with a shrug. "By surely if it was real, someone would've seen it, the school's old," She countered with a little shrug. "Do you want to go, closer and see if we can spot anything?"