First Year Entrance 2021-2022

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

The cold water was paralyzing the girl, and she was out of breath thinking she would die there, but then she felt something grabbing her and an inaudible voice speaking. Soon she could resurface just an instant to breathe a little. But something was odd, Hildegard could not breath properly.
She tried to, but something was blocking her respiration, and so she pushed as hard as she could making herself puke lake water on her savior. If this was not for this situation she'd feel extremely embarrass by this sort of karma thing.
And for some reason she again fell underwater, maybe her rescuer let her go out of disgust ?
The disable girl was not sure about what really happened, but this time she was ready, she grabbed her savior's feet when she was underwater, in an attempt to pull herself back at the surface.
Unfortunately, it failed, and it seemed like she only managed to reduce the distance between her and the surface in exchange of lowering the blond girl that tried to save her.

-All of this is Avery's fault ! She thought while going deeper and deeper into the bottom of the lake, this time focusing on keeping her breath while hopping the giant squid would go eat people on the second boat instead of her.

Interacting with @Della Barfield

He did not listen to her, or maybe he did not HEAR her, but the boy trying to assist Avery (Rhys, Rhys, Rhys, need to remember that actually passed through her mind, not wanting the issues that came with forgetting.) kept trying to pull Avery in. Even with the squid pulling. Even with the boat tilting so far. Seren began to breath heavily, and a slightly panicky whining sound emitted from her, as she lost complete control over her metamorphmagus abilities... Her hair began to flash in blinding colors, like it was trying to signal her fear, and her eyes almost seemed to glow as they became a bright, frightened yellow.

"No... Nooooooo..." Were the last words she managed to get out before the boat capsized. She was flung into the water, as the boat flipped. There was a panicked scream, high and terrified, like the sound of a rabbit being caught by an eagle, and then it was cut off, sharply, as she passed under the surface.

All she could see was flailing limbs, darkness, water. She did not know how to swim, and she began to join the panicked flailing, because she did not want to drown. She could not die here, not now... She needed to live, to prove she could succeed, and if she died now, that would never happen. WHY had that boy not listened? The thought passed through her mind, for a moment, because even in panic, the mind needed to grab onto the strangest thoughts.

Her lungs were trying to demand she breath, but the one thing she knew was she should not do that. That was how a person drowned, letting water into their lungs.

She had no idea how much time was passing as she flailed, either. It felt like no time at all, but it also felt like she had been under this water forever, and she was afraid she was going to get a little to close to that squid tentacle she could see not too far off.

It would have been so interesting, in other circumstances...

@Kit Paine@Hui Ming @Geoffrey Donovan@@Della Barfield@Avery Chen

Calming the Chaos

"GAAAAAHHH!"

"GIANT SQUIIIIID!"

And here Kit had actually thought the boat ride would end up being dreadfully uneventful.

"HHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!! PLEASE DO SOMETHING MISTER!" Hildegard called, trying to scramble behind him before slipping and falling into the lake herself. "HELP!!!!"

Meanwhile, the second boat out on the water wasn't faring so well. Despite Kit's warning, they still seemed set on pulling Avery into the small craft with them. "Hang on!" a boy (Rhys) shouted to Avery. "Someone grab his other hand!"

"STOP IT! You're going to pull us ALL in with you! STOP it!" another frightened girl (Seren Yong) cried as Avery continued to thrash about, panicked. Kit blinked, startled to see her hair flashing bright colors and switching back to black in between. Was she a metamorphmagus? She had to be. Looking up at him, she pleaded, "Please help!" drawing him back into the present. Right; the children needed to be taken care of and helped out of the water. It needed to be done fast, too, since more and more seemed to be falling in as each minute passed.

First Avery, then Hildegard...then all the kids in the boat that Avery had tried to cling to as that boat capsized (Della, Rhys, Seren, and Hui). That made a total of six kids - and by the look of it, not all of them knew how to swim. Wonderful. The caretaker took a deep breath. He was probably going to have to get wet after all.

Deciding against trying to shout over all the splashing, flailing, and screaming to be heard, Kit hopped over the boat into the dark waters of the lake himself. He shivered at the freezing temperature but forced himself to overcome his shock quickly as he began to steer the boat he'd been in toward the kids who seemed to need the most help quickest.

"Hey, hey, I got you!"

Kit was astonished to notice that despite her own plight, one of the girls (Della) had bravely tried to assist Hildegard with keeping afloat. He smiled at her attempt but quickly pulled over the boat when the disabled girl began to sink nevertheless. Then he tried to reach for the helpful one (Della) and offered her his back, hoping she would grab hold so he could get her to her own boat.

Underwater, a new tentacle appeared to grip Hildegard about her waist and lift her from the depths of the lake, higher and higher until she broke the surface of the water. There, the arm dropped her into the first boat from which she had previously fallen before the tentacle slipped back into the lake.

The tentacle around Avery's ankle released him as soon as the second boat capsized. Instead, it reached to overturn the upside-down craft so it was right-side-up again before going to fetch a lad who seemed to be sinking fast (Hui). Like the other cephalopod limb, this one wrapped about the boy's waist and hoisted him up into the air with a splash as it breached the water. Then it set him down gently in his former boat.

"The giant squid isn't a threat unless you antagonize it," Kit eventually started calling to anyone who had an ear to listen. "I know the water's dark and the lake is deep, but it's important to stay calm when the unexpected happens. Things aren't always what they seem, especially at Hogwarts."

He raised both his arms from the water to reveal that they were each transformed into tentacles - the very tentacles that one boy had noticed and immediately assumed belonged to a giant squid. As a metamorphmagus himself, the caretaker had changed one of his arms in the hopes of maybe startling one or two of the braver students (such as Maggie) but the joke had gone far beyond his intentions. He had then changed his other arm in order to aid him in retrieving his water-logged charges. He supposed it was only fair he was paying for his prank now by being drenched himself and having to jump into the lake to save the students he had frightened out of their wits.

Using his tentacle arms, the caretaker pushed the boats back toward the students that had fallen out of them so they could climb back in one by one. The first boat he pushed toward Avery and the second boat he pushed toward a struggling girl who also apparently couldn't swim (Seren). Then he tried to gather another boy (Rhys) while helping them and the girl on his back (Della) into their craft. He clenched his teeth as he fought not to shiver, trying to make sure each child was able to safely get back into his or her boat. Hopefully they wouldn't be late for the coming feast, but he was certain he'd have a lot of explaining to do once they got to the castle with six dripping wet students.

"I apologize for causing a panic," Kit continued with a bitter smirk. "I should have known better than to mess around like that, especially since you're all new here and still don't really know what to expect. Is anyone hurt?"

Interacting: -
Mentioning: @Hildegard Schneider | @Avery Chen | @Seren Yong | @Geoffrey Donovan | @Della Barfield | @Kit Paine

English | Mandarin | French | Quotes

His lungs were aflame; his limbs flailing wildly. Every time it became too much and he tried to draw breath, more water gushed into him. Drowning and desperate, Hui Ming could barely process the muffled noises that might as well have been coming from another universe.

His every instinct, every single action that he took here, was wrong.

The pre-first year did not even notice the large tentacle grabbing a hold of him until he was being hefted up, and by that point, it was far too late to try to mount any form of resistance - the tentacle had him in an iron grip and he had little enough strength to try and fight off something so large.

The first reaction the Chinese boy had to his head breaking water was a surprise, but it was immediately overtaken by coughing and sputtering. Blessed, precious air. He did not even notice that his knees had given way, and he was all but curled up on the same thrice-cursed boat. He did not notice the way his clothes - drenched and heavy - clung to him. He did not notice the night chill exacerbated by this wetness. He did not even notice the most basic of things that he would have expected himself to pay attention to at all times - like the fact that Mr. Paine was saying something, or that his glasses were missing.

All that at that point was the cold night air, and between coughing up water or sputtering, the boy tried to breathe it in through deep breaths.

It took some time for him to get his breathing back under control, and his mind to jumpstart again. In a blink, he was bombarded with several thoughts, and he almost froze, his exhausted body struggling to keep up with a mind that was suddenly running a hundred miles a minute.

He was suddenly aware that he was back on the boat. A rickety, unstable boat, as had just been demonstrated. And he was not alone. There was little he could do about it at the moment, and so this thought was cast aside for later.

His next thoughts were two that hit him almost at the same time. He blinked, as opposing emotions took him from thoughts about two of his train companions. The thoughts ran through him like a flash of lightning, and in but a flash he found himself on his unsteady feet, only to lose balance and topple back down. There was Mr Paine's voice saying some words nearby, but he paid them no mind, he had more important, immediate things to handle.

The first thought that drove his distress was Schneider - the girl had all but declared that his kind was not welcome in their world - and it seemed that she had already taken action to make that happen. In front of faculty no less! It appeared that Miss Decipio's warnings had been correct, and that blood was going to be an issue that he would have to tackle. The lame girl, as she liked to present herself, needed to be handled quickly. A repeat of a scenario like this could not be allowed. But he knew little of how the magic world worked, and felt weary to ask adults for help when the same adults would give girls like this flamethrowers and bombs all rolled into a pocket-sized implement called a wand. The faculty were clearly all stupid eggs, and could not be trusted.

The second thought - and it shamed him that he thought of this AFTER Schneider, even if it was by but a moment - was Avery. The boy was his best friend, and he had been trying to help the boy keep his head, surely-

The boy looked around wildly to see if his friend was on the boat with him. The Giant Squid would surely not save him only to let Avery drown. But all he found on his boat were three other blurry figures.

Of course he had lost his glasses in this fiasco! That would just be his rotten luck! Could he even get them replaced? Did the wizarding world even make glasses? He did not think he had met a single other person wearing them in the summer camp.

"Gah!" His frustration escaped him in what about to a little over an exhalation. He squinted, trying to get a better look at the people on his boat. One had long, pale hair (Della), and could not be his friend; another (Seren) had long dark hair. The last one (Rhys), well . . . .

"Avery?" Hui Ming asked quietly, hope and fear battling inside of him as he tried to squint harder and try and guess the identity of the last person on this boat.

BOARDIMNG BOAT 4

Interacting with @Grace Swan

@Kit Paine
@Hildegard Schneider
@Della Barfield
@Hui Ming
@Seren Yonh
@Geoffrey Donovan

Green : talking
Purple : thinking

While underwater the disable girl felt something sliding around her waist, as soon as she realized it was a tentacle the girl instantly feared to death. She believed the Lake's monster had grabbed her and was about to eat her. And like an octopus who release ink in moment of extreme fear, Schneider released her own ink.
She had done what everybody did underwater, but which no one ever dared to admit doing.
The pathetic girl did not get the time to understand what had happened to her that she was in her boat again, the shock she just had endured broke her, she still understood that the tentacle was in fact Kit's but it was already too much and so the girl started crying hoping and thinking that no one would have noticed that the lake was not the only thing that got her wet.
The poor girl grabbed and ate the chocolate of Dancelos as soon as she could while still crying.
After a few bite she decided to reply to Dancelos using an angrier tone.

-He vomited on me ! I did not do anything wrong ! He is responsible ! He should have protected himself better !! She blamed on Avery.

Interacting with : @Dancelos Grey| @Avery Chen

Aboard Boat #1
@Kit Paine @Dancelos Grey @Hildegard Schneider @Hui Ming @Geoffrey Donovan @Della Barfield @Seren Yong

@Avery Chen
@Hildegard Schneider
@Kit Paine

Suddenly, the terror of that tentacle became even worse, as it moved right towards her. She wanted to scream in terror, but she held her mouth shut and struggled, trying to get towards the surface before it was too late... And it slipped past her, doing something towards what she had been assuming was the surface. It took her a long moment to manage to figure out how to get to the top... Her sodden clothing was definitely NOT helping her, and between that and a lack of ability to swim, by the time she broke the surface, she was gasping from both having held her breath too long and the physical exhaustion.

When she broke the surface, she realized the tentacle had turned the boat back over, and moved it towards her. She stared at it, and the people that were inside it, and flailed forwards, grabbing onto the edge until she was assisted back in. By the time she had been, she was as tired as if she had been running for an hour straight, and she found herself clinging to the plank of her seat, afraid she was going to get tipped back in.

She needed to learn to swim, obviously, but she had no idea when she was going to get the chance to learn.

She looked around at her fellow first years, and frowned at Hui's face. "Where are your glasses? Are they in the lake?"

She turned to the Caretaker, pausing to listen to his words, and frowning deeply. A trick? This whole mess was caused by a trick from an adult? She had hoped the adults here were better behaved than her parents. And to be fair, he WAS apologizing, which her parents would never do. Still... This seemed not alright. She pursed her lips, thinking hard, then finally called out to the caretaker. "Sir! I think Hui's glasses fell in the water."

It was the only thing she trusted herself to say, at the moment.

@Kit Paine@Hui Ming@Geoffrey Donovan@Della Barfield