Closed Water Creatures

[Sophie Elliston]

Sophie's first year at Hogwarts was going by quite quickly. She was kept so busy with classes and homework assignments that she didn't have much time to herself. As soon as Sophie realised this she thought the best thing to do would be to explore the castle a bit before the end of the year. There was definitely lots of studying she needed to do before the exams but she thought she deserved a break, and maybe she would learn something along the way. The Ravenclaw held her drawing journal under her arm as she walked out of the castle and onto the grounds where she hoped to find some inspiration. Sophie had enjoyed looking through the textbooks in the library, especially the ones that contained magical creatures, and so she hoped to find one on her journey outside the castle.

After walking for some bit, Sophie decided to stop at the lakefront. She liked looking at landscapes despite not being able to draw them too well, but she hadn't found any magical creatures yet and so figured she would make do. The girl lay on the grass facing the water and opened up her journal to a fresh page. She drew the water before beginning to sketch a picture of a mermaid from memory. She enjoyed the little mermaid books her mother would read to her when she was younger and imagined a mermaid jumping out of the lakefront, putting on a show for her. She drew her mermaid with diamond scales on its long tail and long hair that she spread out across the page. It was relaxing to just sit in the sun and draw and not have to think about anything else.

 

[Elliot Briar]

After spending more time with Lars, Lily, and even Nell, Elliot was starting to wonder more and more about all this art stuff. It had never really been something that had interested him before, he’d always been too stuck for what to actually draw whenever the opportunity presented itself. He liked his hobbies to be slightly more structured, to have an easily defined goal. But painting or drawing with Lily and Lars had been almost relaxing, once he finally got started. He still never really knew what to draw, and it was hard not to feel stupid sometimes when nothing seemed to come out right, but he figured maybe he just needed some more practice.
He’d come down to the lakefront, hoping for a bit of inspiration. Lars drew a lot from nature and the deep blues of the lake were certainly pretty enough. Elliot had been staring at the water for about 20 minutes now, squinting at the sunlight reflecting in the water and trying figure how you were supposed to emulate the what the light reflected off the water, when he spotted another classmate nearby. She was laid in the grass, engrossed in the sketchbook spread out in front of her.

Curiosity piqued and considering his lake-watching probably a dead end, Elliot approached her hesitantly. Elliot recognized her from some of his classes and wondered if maybe she had some tips on this whole… art business. “Hey,” he said as he got closer, feeling a bit awkward now standing over her ,his planned conversation about art suddenly out the window now he’d actually opened his mouth. “Uh, what are you drawing?”

 

[Sophie Elliston]

(Sorry this is so late!!)

Sketching was always relaxing to the Ravenclaw who found herself quickly taken away by it, leaning in to the page further as she became more focused. Her tongue stuck out of her mouth slightly, her fingers lightly gripping the pencil as it moved about. The mermaid was beginning to look like her own, and as she drew she figured she was doing quite a good job. She became completely distracted however as she heard a voice. Looking up she noticed it was coming from directly above. Sophie recognised the boy's face from classes and smiled slightly at him as she sat up before answering his question. "Oh, it's just, um..." Sophie began, but she didn't know how to describe it. The obvious answer was that she was drawing a mermaid, but this particular mermaid also had wings and unicorn horns, and its tail was looking more like a dolphin's than an actual mermaid's. "Initially I was drawing a mermaid, but I don't know if it looks much like one now. It's not very good." she told him truthfully with a shrug, turning the page slightly towards him so he could see. She never usually showed others her drawings, but didn't want to be rude. "Sorry, but, what was your name again? I'm Sophie."

 

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot tilted his head when the girl, Sophie, if he remembered right, turned the page toward him, nodding appreciatively, even if he had no idea what he was actually looking at. He got the impression art was supposed to be subjective and creative and well, Sophie's was certainly... interesting. "I like it, it's very uh,"Elliot paused, mentally grasping for the right word "Multifunctional?" He motioned to the wings and dolphin tail "Great for land or sea."

Feeling a little awkward still standing, Elliot tentatively sat down, shooting Sophie a look to gauge if she minded the company. "I'm Elliot," He said, relieved he'd remembered Sophie's name correctly from class. "Do you draw uh, mermaids, a lot?" Elliot already felt like he had a hard enough time picking real things to draw, he had no idea where people found the inspiration to draw multi-limbed, be-horned mermaids just off the top of their heads.

 

[Sophie Elliston]

Sophie pursed her lips as the boy looked at her drawing. She assumed he didn't like it very much, mostly because he didn't give her the reaction she was hoping for. No one ever found her drawings very good, mostly because Sophie's mind was full of so many things that they all just seemed so jumbled when they were on the page, confusing many people. She simply shrugged her shoulders when he mentioned that it was good for land or sea, not wanting to tell him he was pointing out the obvious when he clearly was. She just didn't feel like talking about her drawing anymore.

As the boy said his name was Elliot and went to sit beside her, Sophie quickly shut her drawing book and put it to the side. After all, it would be rude to keep drawing when someone was talking to her, and it seemed like the boy actually wanted to stay. "I don't know." she said truthfully to answer his question. "I draw characters mostly, but they're not real life characters. Instead, they're like made up creatures. I get most of my inspiration from video games." Sophie paused for a moment before remembering that he might not even know what that meant. "Do you know what video games are? Like, are you... muggleborn?" Sophie hoped she didn't offend Elliot somehow. That definitely wouldn't be a good way to start a friendship.

 

[Elliot Briar]

Elliot immediately sensed he'd said the wrong thing, watching Sophie's expression tighten. He felt even worse when she shut her sketch book. Maybe he shouldn't have interrupted after all, though he really did find her art interesting. He tucked his knees to his chest, listening as she spoke a bit more about her characters. "No, that's really cool. I know about video games, a bit. My dad's a muggle but I don't see him much so I've not played many. I'm not very good at them though" He ducked his head.
Elliot had a loose grasp of video games, it was kind of hard to get away from a lot of muggle culture living in a big city, and his dad had tried to get him into them for a little while. He just.. kinda sucked at it all. "So is that what you like to draw? Your own characters? Do they have stories too?" He glanced at her sketch book, wondering if she'd let him see any of her other art if he could stop saying the wrong things for a few minutes. He didn't think he could come up with some character off the top of his head and just.. put it on paper like that.

 

[Sophie Elliston]

Sophie smiled, glad that Elliot knew about video games as this meant that she didn't have to explain it. She wasn't sure how she would explain video games to someone who grew up with magic. She was still trying to get her head around the wizarding world and she was sure it would be just as hard the other way around too. The Ravenclaw listened as Elliot spoke, nodding as he mentioned his dad was a muggle. She wondered how many people actually had both a magical and muggle parent, especially with the statue of secrecy in the wizarding world. "What kind of games do you play? I'm always playing online games, so if you do the same we could maybe play together sometime. Don't worry, I'll go easy on you." Sophie said, chuckling slightly. It would be great to play video games with someone from Hogwarts, but if Elliot didn't play those games then it wouldn't bother her much. After all, she wasn't going to force him to do something he didn't want to.

Sophie was slightly shocked as Elliot continued to question her drawings. Not many people really cared about them and it wasn't typically something she shared with people. "Yeah, I do like drawing characters. They don't really have stories - they're mostly just dumb stuff..." Sophie told him, shifting slightly as he glanced at her book. She hesitated before picking it up again, turning to one of her favourite drawings of a woman with long hair and devil horns. She had scales all over her body, held a katana, wore a warrior outfit, and definitely did not look like anything anyone should mess with. "This one is probably the least weird... but yeah." Sophie shut her book again, not intending to show the boy any more. "Do you do drawings or anything?" she asked him, wanting to shift the conversation to him now.