Open Water you doing today?

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy was enjoying the calm before the stress of the second term hit by coming out the the lake to watch the water and do some sketching, maybe even read a book she brought from home before lessons took up all of her free time. But it didn't take long for the at plan to get thrown out the metaphorical window. It was simply too beautiful and too hot to simply sit still. Poppy pilled up her things and unceremoniously took off her well worn boots and socks before wading into the water to cool off. She had rolled up the bottoms of her pants and She stared at her feet, watching as the ripples of the water distorted them. She thought she could almost just make out the shapes of tiny fish in the sunlight. She knew they weren't actually there, but it was just more fun to pretend they were.

 

[Lysander Summers]

"Cannonball!"

From the pier jutting out over the Hogwarts lake, Lysander gave himself a running start, before he dove over the edge and curled up into a ball, landing in the clear water with a heavy splash. He sank like a stone, his backside hitting the pebble floor after a few seconds of descent. The blow was softened by the time he'd reached it, and after releasing his legs, he kicked his way back up to the waters surface. Sander had missed the lake over the holidays, especially with how warm the Summer months had been. He'd spent some time splashing around at Obsidian Harbour and searching for mermaids, but the salt water was nowhere near as pleasant to swim around in.

Breaking the surface of the water, Lysander brushed his damp mess of a fringe from his eyes, and paddled back to the shore to dive in again, this time deeper. By the time it was shallow enough to stand in, he realised he wasn't the only person at the lake, and sloshed his way over to a girl from some of his classes. "Hey! Are you going for a swim?" He asked brightly. From memory she was Alec's friend - or acquaintance? He wasn't sure which, but they'd seemed to know each other while touring the castle.​

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy’s daydreaming was finally broken by the sound of someone shouting, followed quickly by a loud splash. She looked up and saw a fellow first year she had met briefly during the castle tour and she couldn’t help but laugh at the way his wet hair hung in his face as he resurfaced in the middle of the lake. He waded through the water towards her before asking a question. She pondered it for a moment and looked back towards her stuff still sitting on the shore and then looked down at the simple pair of shorts and t-shirt she was wearing. Not exactly ideal swimming attire, but also not the worst thing to go swimming in. “Well...I wasn’t planning on it.” she began. “But I could be convinced.” she said with a grin. She waited for just the right time, when he would least expect it, before shouting “I’ll race you!” and taking off for the pier.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander placed his hands on his hips, his lips puckering into a thoughtful pout as he pondered how to convince Poppy to join him in swimming. He didn't have much time to think before she was racing off towards the pier without him, and he shouted after her. "Hey, no fair!" The boy trudged forward as fast as he could, which wasn't very when the water made his legs feel like heavy lead with every step he had to fight against, but once he was finally free of its grip and had made it properly to the shore he sprinted off after her. By the time he reached the pier he was already almost out of breath. "You only won because you got a head start. I'd totally win next time." Sander grinned at the girl once he'd caught up. He looked off of the pier's edge and into the water, squinting to see if anything interesting had popped up. He'd heard there was a shark, but that sounded ridiculous. "I bet you can't do a flip." He challenged once he was done looking - mostly because he wanted to see if she could, with the added benefit of it giving him some time to get his breath back.​

 

[Poppy Perkins]

Poppy was grinning ear to ear when Lysander caught up with her on the pier. It hadn’t been cheating exactly, she just used the element of surprise to her advantage. She was just as out of breath as she was but managed to laugh. “That may be true, but I’d like to see you try.” she teased. She watched him look off the end of the pier. “What are you looking for?” she asked. She stared too, not sure what he was searching for. She started to wonder if the lake and any creatures in it like the forest supposedly had. That if she merely looked hard enough she might see a giant squid wave to her from the depths. Her attention was snapped back to the present when he asked her a question. “No I can’t. I can do a cartwheel thought. Can you do a flip? You should teach me!” She said quickly and bounced with excitement at the idea.

 

[Lysander Summers]

"Sharks." Lysander informed the girl matter-of-factly, when queried about what he was looking for in the water. "Someone told me a shark lived in the lake, but I think they were lying. There's supposed to be mermaids though! I'm trying to keep my eye out for one." He was yet to meet many intelligent creatures that weren't human, if you didn't count house-elves and the goblins at the bank, and he was interested to see what they would be like. The mermaids in New Zealand were a lot like the ones he'd seen in muggle movies, and he wondered if they were similar to him, or just completely different. He paused when Poppy mentioned that she could do cartwheels, and brought his flipping talents to question. "I- yeah. I can definitely do a flip." Sander lied. He couldn't do a real flip. He couldn't land on his feet, in any case, but you did know he could sort of roll in the air. The boy jumped onto one of the pier's posts, and looked back into the water's depths once more. "Just watch me, but keep an eye out for sharks just in case. You have to like...do this first." He said, leaning forward so that he was ready to practically do a roly-poly off the edge. He shuffled forward a bit further, wanting to avoid failing miserably and smacking his head on the wooden pier on the way down. "Then you just bend your knees and JUMP!" He finished. His legs bent down, and he pushed himself forward as hard as he could. His body rotated in the air, his back splashing into the water before his legs had managed to fall beneath him. He sank down, and quickly swam back up to the surface. "Ta-da! Sort of like that. I can usually do it much before."​

 

[Poppy Perkins]

“Sharks?!” she squeaked and took a step back from the edge of the pier. She liked most animals but there were still a few that freaked her out and sharks were one of them. Poppy rarely swam in the ocean too far in fear of getting eaten. She knew not many people were actually eaten by sharks but every time something brushed across her leg it made her skin crawl. “I’d much rather met a mermaid.” she said solemnly. She tried to keep her face neutral and not react too much about mermaids being real. At some day stuff like that would stop surprising her, but today was not that day. Poppy gave a sarcastic smile at Lysander’s comment to look out for sharks, but watched him intently as he demonstrated how to do a flip by bending forward and jumping off the pier. He didn’t quite make a full rotation before splashing into the water but it was the best flip she had seen anyone do in real life. “Wow! That was great!” she said as he came back to the surface. “Let me try!” she shouted and tried to mimic Lysander’s instructions and bent her knees as she stood on the edge above the water. She bounced a few times before jumping as hard as she could to make sure she made the full rotation to make it a full flip, but it didn’t quite work and she lost her balance somewhere along the way and landed in the water on her side. “I think I may need some more practice!” she said as she gasped breathlessly as she swam back to the pier with a laugh.