Open Through a Different Lens

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Although she loved the forest at home even more, Maddy found that she had missed being able to just ramble around exploring the Hogwarts grounds. There was always something new to discover, and it always gave her an odd thrill to do so on her own, rather than with her brothers as she always did at home. Today the sun was shining, and it was a perfect day to forget what little homework she had this early in the term and just enjoy being outside. Maddy strolled across the grounds, wandering, exploring, seeing what she could find. Spontaneously, she did a cartwheel on the lawn just for the fun of it, and was about to do another when she caught sight of a familiar face walking along the lakefront, camera in hand. Maddy grinned. She'd had a fun conversation with Vader when she'd delivered a rose to him last year, and she would be keen to catch up with him again. She bounded over to him. "Hi Vader! How's it going? Taken any cool pictures today?"

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader had always liked taking pictures of the lake, they tended to be the ones that moved the least, where staring enough at them would show the slow movements of the water, but that was always about it. He liked it, after the stress of finding people to join accio having resulted with him getting what he needed, it felt like a little weight had been lifted from his shoulders and he had slept soundly in the past few nights. In fact he felt well rested, calm and pretty happy. Accio would be a lot of work, he could feel that already but boy was he looking forward to it. He had so many ideas of what they could do, things that they could tackle outside of just producing a yearbook. Even if the thought of adding more work worried him a lot. He didn’t know if he’d be able to handle it, but he wanted to do more, show that he was worthy of the position he had been given. The teen stopped in a spot he thought would be good and was surprised when a girl, the one who’d delivered him a rose in the last semester bounded over to him ”Hey, Maddy,”. She was nice, and had let him briefly ramble a bit. He gave the girl a smile, ”Not yet, I’m hoping to take some pictures of the lake,” he replied. He had brought with him a few things to the lake with him in his bag, he put the camera around his neck and then put the bag down on the ground, ”Hows it going for you?” The boy began taking out the tripod stand for his camera began setting it up, ”Were you doing cartwheels before?”​

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy smiled cheerfully, happy to start a conversation. She hadn't realised she'd interrupted Vader before he'd taken any photos, that seemed like a shame, since she knew she could be very distracting. Maddy didn't mind much though; he seemed happy to talk to her, and as long as he remained okay with doing that rather than what he'd come here to do, she was happy to continue. "Oh, cool," she said, though she didn't really see what was cool about taking pictures of a lake. "Have you spotted any birds, or fish? Or - ooh - I heard a rumour that there was a giant squid in the lake! That'd be awesome, if you could take a picture of that. Or the merpeople." Now she thought about it, Maddy was sure that the interest of the lake was all the cool creatures that might be found in or around it. She watched curiously while he put his tripod up; Maddy had never seen one of those being used up close, since most of the photography she was familiar with was opportunistic snaps of animals. "It's going good! It's always a bit weird being back at school after the holidays, but it's great to see my friends again." She giggled. "I sure was! Just for fun."

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader gave Maddy a little smile, but shook his head a little at the question, ”A few birds but no fish,” he thought for moment about what she said with the giant squid. He would never want to go swimming in a lake someone had died in, but he also felt that even if he was willing, but the boy wasn’t sure that any magical camera could go underwater like the muggle cameras could. He stared a little at the camera and seemed to be a little bit in thought, thinking it over, he knew there was a spell that magical people used but he doubted it would extend to a camera, ”I don’t know if the camera would be able to cope with that,” the boy said, ”Magical cameras don’t have any electricity but I think water would still damage the film,” the boy touched a few buttons on the camera attaching it to the tripod, and adjusted the height of the tripod with the camera on top, he looked through the camera to see the height of it. The teen was thinking about it and he wanted to try. He wouldn’t feel particularly comfortable swimming in the lake, but he might try. ​

​

Vader nodded as she talked about how her break was, he agreed that the better part of being back at school was because of the fact that he could see his friends. ”Its nice to spend time with friends again, I do miss this place there’s so much more to do here,” Vader said with a little smile, the teen smiled at her, ”Would you do it for the camera?” the boy said, ”I’ve been trying to get better at taking pictures of quidditch, quick movements where in a second the people are gone, so you could end up with nothing in the picture. I’ve been trying to get better by taking pictures of similar quick movements,” the boy explained. He’d brought his spare wide lense just in case the situation perhaps called for it which it now seemed to. He hoped too that the explanation didn’t make it too weird for Maddy to do. ”It’s okay if you don’t want to,” Vader added with a sincere but nervous tone.​

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy nodded cheerfully. "Birds are cool." Although apparently not everyone agreed. It had shocked her to find out last year that Sierra was scared of birds. How could anyone be scared of birds? Birds were great! It seemed like she'd sent Vader off into some deep thought with her comment, but when he spoke again she frowned. "Aren't there, like, spells you can do to make things waterproof?" She was sure she'd seen her parents do that, but Vader might not have learned about it yet. "I bet you could, and then you could take awesome underwater pictures!" She watched curiously as Vader set up his tripod, not daring to try to touch it in case she broke something important. "I missed my muggle friends, too, though," Maddy said. She didn't really agree that there was more to do here; there were classes, sure, but those were work. And at home she could hang out in the forest without being told off, and go on adventures with her brothers, and play D&D with her friends. She paused, startled by his odd request, then grinned. A photo of her cartwheeling sounded like a lot of fun, and then she could help Vader and do cartwheels! "Of course I want to!" Without hesitation, Maddy ran a little way off across the grass, then hesitated. "Tell me when you're ready."

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader nodded, ”There are spells to protect objects from rain and one to help people breath under water, but I don’t know if they would extend to whole cameras and a whole lake of water,” Vader shrugged a little, there must be some way of doing it he was sure. He just hadn’t figured it out yet and would need to do a lot more research about it. Maybe when he got a new camera he could test it out on the old one. Perhaps really the only thing which would need protect was the film. ”They would be cool, since movement under water is different, so what could be captured could be interesting. Like slow motion ballet,” he wasn’t sure if he’d want to swim in that lake, it seemed rather dangerous, but perhaps when he was older and had learned that spell that would help him breath underwater he might. He shrugged at the girl’s statement, he couldn’t understand missing people from before school, but there hadn’t really been anyone for Vader to miss. He smiled at her when she agreed to do some cartwheels for the camera. He moved the camera to where it would be in a better position to take pictures of her doing the cartwheels. He adjusted a few things before looking back up, ”Just do a few back and forth, okay?” the boy instructed before giving a thumbs up and saying that she could just go. Cartwheels would be interesting to catch on camera. They would be quick but hopefully slow enough still that he’d actually capture something.​

 

[Madeline Kaimarama]

Maddy shrugged. "I dunno. I feel like there should be, it's probably worth a go at least." She hoped she was right; she wouldn't want to give advice that didn't turn out to work. Maddy was pleased that Vader seemed enthusiastic about her idea, though. She wasn't particularly keen on slow motion, but she could see how it would be easier to photograph. "Yeah! And hair floating around like a mermaid, and underwater creatures and stuff." The more she thought about this idea the more she enjoyed it. Maybe photography would be fun to try, though honestly Maddy doubted she had the patience for it. Vader's lack of reaction to her comment about muggle friends seemed a bit odd, but Maddy didn't press it. There were more important things to focus on. Like cartwheels! "All right! I'm going . . . now!" Maddy did a little run-up, then started a cartwheel, trying to do it slower than usual to give the camera a better chance. Instead she collapsed in a heap on the ground. "Whoops! I'm fine, gonna try that again." She went back to her starting spot and did another, this time at full speed and successfully.

 

[Vader Hume]

Vader was thinking still about taking underwater pictures but allowed himself to just focus on taking the pictures of Maddy. He moved the camera, adjusting it lightly just before Maddy got started, he was taking a picture when she fell, and he felt a little pang of concern for her. He looked up to make sure she was okay, but it appeared that she was fine, if what she said was to be believed. The gryffindor watched as she went back to the starting position and got back behind the camera, easily slipping back into just taking pictures of her doing it, he hoped it would turn out just fine, from what he could tell it would probably look quite good. It was a good cartwheel. ”Excellent,” the boy said, with a thumbs up as he looked back up from the camera. ”We won’t know how it turned out until after I develop it, but I think it’ll have come out well,” the boy said loudly so that she would hear it. ”Thanks!” Vader added with a little smile. He was quite appreciative of how willing students seemed to be to get into pictures. He’d had very few people actually turn him down, and it tended to be him or other accio members who turned down being in the pictures.​