A Swim Would Be Nice... PV Closed

The young girl was incredibly excited about Rhea's idea to go swimming at the Great Lake. Rosie was looking forward to spending more time with the red-head, she could barely contain her excitement. It was nice to spend time with Rhea where it was private. She had a skip in her step as she followed the young Gryffindor to the Great Lake, who was already almost in the water. Rhea's smile made Rosie's heart flutter. She loved seeing her friends smile, it was contagious to the young Hufflepuff. Her cheeks flushed red, most likely from sprinting. She slowed to a stop when Rhea slipped off her clothes and hopped into the water.

"Rosie! Get over here!” Rhea yelled, waving her arms frantically to get Rosie's attention.

But the tiny, hyperactive Rosie had already gotten her attention, and grinned widely. She pulled off her shirt and kicked off her shorts to reveal her red swimsuit, ironic for a Hufflepuff, but Rosie was still a sucker for red and pink. Her eyes fell on Rhea's fancy sandals. Huh. She must be rich back at home. With a shrug, Rosie kicked off her beaten up sneakers, her only second pair of shoes. "Coming!" Rosie yelled. She backed up, taking a start before sprinting forward and leaping off the grass and into the lake, hugging her knees to her chest to perform the cannon-ball splash. After a moment she laughed and swam up to the surface, brushing her long wet hair out of her face. "You gotta make the entrance exciting, Rhea!" She cupped her mouth wiht her hands.

The smaller Hufflepuff waved back to Rhea, before running as fast as she could towards the lake, taking off her shirt and shorts as she did. Her swimsuit was red, and Rhea laughed as she remembered Rosie’s love for the romantic colors. Her own swimsuit was a pastel blue (as you could see, the young redhead was a sucker for pastels) with flower prints on them. She moved to the side as Rosie rushed past her, a laugh escaping her lips when she saw the girls motives. Finding it too late to jump back from the splash the other girl made, Rhea found herself covered in water. Gasping at the unexpected feeling, Rhea playfully glared at the other Hufflepuff. She squeezed the water as much as she could out of her red hair… and saw that some of the water was tinted red.

Shaking her head, Rhea looked out at the Lake. The water seemed warm enough, from what she could tell if he water that hit her. She laughed when Rosie exclaimed that she had to make a big entrance. Was she wrong? No, no she wasn’t. And Rhea was one to talk, seeing as she was the queen at making big entrances.

Cracking her knuckles and smirking, Rhea ran as far back as she could without ruining her bare feet. Seeing a little tree not too far away, its branches hanging perfectly over the lake, Rhea made a beeline over there and climbed it. Making sure not to climb too high up, Rhea slowly inched her way on the branch so she was hanging just above the lake.

"Watch this!” Rhea exclaimed with a laugh, and flipped into the lake. The splash that emanated was huge, and she swam to the surface with a large grin on her face. Rubbing the water out of her eyes, Rhea managed a lazy smile at Rosie. “That was wicked.”

Treading in the water to make sure she didn’t drown, Rhea swam over to Rosie. Unbeknownst to her, the tips of her hair had slowly started to become less red in the water - but, maybe it wasn’t too noticeable. Smiling at the brunette, Rhea cocked her head towards the tree branch. “You should try!”

Rosie laughed harder when she realized that she soaked Rhea in the process of her cannonball, finding the younger girl defeated and drenched hilarious. She chuckled a bit after she made her challenge, but when Rhea's eyes fell on the tree and started walking towards it, Rosie's smile faded a bit. "Uh, are you sure that's a good idea Rhea?" She called, sinking into the water a bit and swimming away from the impact Rhea might make.

After she probably waved Rosie's concerns off, she started to climb up the tree. Man, Rosie felt lame now. This was way cooler. She sighed and watched Rhea the Monkey climb up in the trees and look over the water for a moment. Then. It happened. Rhea literally flipped into the bloody lake. Rosie gasped when Rhea splashed into the water, and in return for earlier, drenched the little Hufflepuff. She covered her face and laughed. "WOAH!" Rosie yelled, sinking back into the water. She let out a string of giggles as she swam over to Rhea, her brown hair looked straight from the water as it fell over her face a few times.

"You should try!” Rhea encouraged, her face brightening with excitement.

Rosie looked up to the tree and sighed a bit. Peer pressure. "Fine, fine! It'll be super cool." Rosie pointed to her and swam to the shore. She climbed up the grass and shuffled over to the tree, trying to climb up it. Obviously Rosie wasn't very good at climbing trees, but she was slowly making her way up. She pushed herself onto the branch and walked forward a bit, her legs shaking. "I'm not scared!" Rosie said, as a reminder. She walked back a few steps and then ran forward, leaping off the branch and sloppily flipping into the water. That involved her falling almost on her stomach and she groaned into the water. Her shoulder hurt a little bit but she swam up, looking fine. "I'm good! That was fun."

Rhea giggled as she saw the expression on Rosie's face as she climbed up the tree. It was perfectly understandable - Rhea herself thought herself insane to want to do this. Actually, the entire thing had been sort of on impulse. Acting without thinking, just on impulse, was something the young Bishop found herself doing a lot of lately. Whether that was a good or bad thing, Rhea had yet to find out.

Watching with wide eyes as Rosie shakily climbed the tree, the redhead brought her hands to her mouth as she watched Rosie flip off the branch as well. Before the older girl even landed in the water, Rhea knew it would be an unpleasant landing. Most likely a belly flop, but if Rosie was lucky, maybe a different part of her anatomy could take the brunt of the fall.

Paddling through the water and meeting Rosie halfway, Rhea raised an eyebrow in questioning. "Are you sure you're okay?" Rhea asked, genuinely worried for her friend. From the limited amount of information she'd managed to gather over the course of their friendship, Rhea knew that Rosie would never outright admit what was wrong. For some reason, the brunette always wanted to put on a front of complete carelessness and happiness. It worried Rhea, and the redhead had to make sure to check in on Rosie every once in a while.

"Belly flops can hurt like hell sometimes," Rhea said, an eyebrow raised. She herself had narrowly avoided ending her flip in a belly flop, finding herself putting more force into her arch at the very last second of her flip in order to avoid it. Although she'd had a lot of practice, Rhea had never quite mastered the art of flipping. Quite frankly, she didn't care all too much; all she cared about was swimming and enjoying her time.

Casting another glance at Rosie, Rhea started to swim towards the edges of the lake. Her legs had already gotten tired from treading water, and she didn't want to imagine how the other felt, as she was shorter than Rhea. Dragging herself up onto the damp soil, Rhea thanked herself for bringing a towel with her. Squeezing as much water as she could out of her hair, Rhea didn't notice, once more, the very light red tint of the water. Instead, she wrapped the towel around her shoulders and tried not to shiver as she looked out over the lake. She was oblivious to all her surroundings; she paid no mind to see if Rosie had gotten out of the water. Besides, it didn't matter all too much. Rhea planned to get back in, anyway. Just as soon as she rested her legs. "I'll get back into the water soon. My legs just started to hurt a bit," Rhea told her brunette friend. "We can have a race!" Rhea was quite the competitive soul; add that onto her slightly above average swimming skills, and she was bound to win.

Rosie groaned a bit more as Rhea made her way over to her, concerned about her fall.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked, frowning.

She laughed it off and waved her hand. "Don't worry, Rhe. I'm good. Just a rough landing. I don't spend all my days flipping into lakes, you know!" She smiled back at her. Rosie was indeed all good, just tiny pain in her shoulder. Of course if she was actually hurt, maybe Rosie would've made a bigger deal out of it, but not too much. After all, worrying Rhea wasn't exactly a goal she wanted to achieve.

Rosie started giggling about Rhea's comment about belly flops, nodding in agreement. "Yeah, they're bloody painful.." She lowkey complained, treading the water with Rhea. That was until she started swimming to the shore again, which Rosie followed. She looked at the water, seeing it... tinted red? Rhea was saying something as she she got onto the shore, but Rosie gasped loudly. Was it... Blood? "Rh-Rhea?" She stuttered, scrambling out of the water. Rosie pointed to the water and then looked back at Rhea.

And that's when she realized she was an idiot.

Rhea's hair was dyed. It had faded in the water. It wasn't blood, it was Rhea's hair dye.

Rosie groaned and covered her face with her hands. That scared her so bad. "What the heck." She muttered, mostly to herself.

A bright smile on her face, Rhea felt herself slowly recuperate and her energy start to come back to her slowly. Soon, she felt well enough to jump back in, a huge smile on her face as she did. What she didn't notice was Rosie staring at her peculiarly, pointing back and forth at her hair and back. Rhea raised an eyebrow and looked down at where the Hufflepuff was pointing, an 'O' making its way across her mouth when she realized what was taking place. Her hair... was losing its color?! Was that even possible? Her parents had searched far and wide for an accomplished wizard/witch to take the color-changing charm off, and here it was, being washed off as simple as that. Was there something magic in the Great Lake, or was it simply that her time had wore off? Rhea didn't know - and quite frankly, she didn't want to know. She was here with her friend to have a good time, not to worry about her hair color.

Granted... with this new change to her, Rhea would no longer be a redhead. She'd be a blonde, once again, after all this time. In truth, she didn't know how to react. It was a given that her parents had started to look at her differently when her hair had turned red; they claimed to still see her as their daughter but if she didn't have the trademark blonde/platinum blonde Bishop-Tucker hair color, was she really one? It was a thought that plagued Rhea, but a thought that she didn't want to dwell on. Not at the moment, at least. Thinking of her parents, even just picturing them, would resort in dropping her mood at any second. It was with this that she decided to shake her head, square her shoulders, and drive straight into the lake. 

Scared of opening her eyes, in fear any microscopic flees or fish would swim in, Rhea enjoyed the underwater in a sea of black. It wasn't the best, but at least she felt in her element once more - swimming did that to her. Resurfacing, Rhea took deep gulps of air to get her lungs back up and working. Once she could properly breath again, Rhea swam up to Rosie with a wide grin. 

"Don't worry about the hair," Rhea said, putting her hand up in order for the smaller girl to help Rhea out. Of course, Rhea would pull Rosie into the water in a classical swim-related prank. "It's a long story, one that I'm too lazy to explain - unless you wanna hear it?" Rhea began to tread water, working her legs as hard as she could. The water was deeper here, and she couldn't touch the ground at all. "Now come on, swim with me!"

The masked figure rarely went out in the daytime. When he did, it was usually in his student disguise rather than himself. Today he was wandering the woods and the shores of the Lake. He didn't know what he would find but maybe some students would be out exploring for him to spy on. What habits did these children have? When were they vulnerable? That's when, from the far side of the Great Lake, he spotted two girls swimming by themselves. Alone in the lake. That seemed foolish especially considering what was in this Lake according to the Master's research. Children were either bold or foolish.

Take one, drown the other.

"You know I'm not strong enough." he said out loud to the voice in his head, giving what little resistance was possible.

You are useless to me if you can't do as I ask. You remember our deal.

A sigh escaped from the masked figure as he rounded the Lake to be closer to the swimmers. If they turned around they would see him on the shore, watching. Lucky for them, he had no spells to do the job his master required. This job was one of spying, not destroying. That had been the original command. So far, he could resist doing too much harm. So far.

Turn their clothes to stone. The spell is Duro.

"I do not know this spell," he argued back lazily, almost like a zombie. "I'm coming home."

After a few minutes watching, or at least until they spotted him, he turned and disappeared into the woods once more before they could speak to him or give chase.

[FONT=Palatino Linotype] Rosie let out a big sigh of relief when she realized that, indeed, it wasn't blood. It was just Rhea's hair dye. She laughed the embarrassment off, waving her hand. "No worries, I bet your hair is still gorgeous blonde." She gushed, watching Rhea dive back into the water. It was so graceful, almost impressive. Rhea reminded Rosie of herself, but just better. She was an inspiration, Rosie dared to think. She usually thought of all of her friends as perfect, and they were, in Rosie's eyes. Rhea was one of those people.

But when Rhea suddenly soared out of the water, and back to the shore, she held her hand out for Rosie to grab it. "Did you learn to swim at a yo-- AH!" She screamed, tumbling into the water after Rhea who had yanked her inside as a classic prank. She coughed up some water and gasped when she reached the shore. "YOU--" She giggled, splashing her. "Yeah, I'm up for it--"

Wait. What--?

Rosie could've sworn she saw something in the trees. It sent a chill down her spine, weird. Must be a student, or something. Shrugging it off, Rosie turned back to Rhea, grinning. "This is such a beautiful place, isn't it? It's calming, and relaxing," she shot a playful glare to Rhea, "you know, for the most part when you're not being yanked into the water." [/FONT]

She'd never worked her legs this hard before. Even for Quidditch, most of her work had been in her upper body, using it to guide the broom and catch the Quaffle. Slowly but surely, she found herself growing exhausted, and would soon come back to land, but not until she'd made sure that Rosie had successfully been pulled back into the water. Laughing and making sure not to cough up any water, Rhea turned to look at the sand, debating whether to go out of the water or not. Deciding that yes, of course she should, otherwise she would drown (her legs would give out and she wouldn't be able to propel herself through the water), Rhea swam to the shore. Before she got out, she dunked her hair one last time underneath the water (you know, to make sure that all her hair was equally wet instead of just part of it). As she sat up on the shore next to Rosie, her eyes were drawn to some commotion in the trees. As far as she knew, everyone was busy doing something or other inside the castle, so there should be no one outside, right? About to go and investigate, Rhea decided against it. It took every fiber in her being to restrain herself, but she was prefect now. She couldn't get up to any shenanigans - especially not in the Forbidden Forest, which was Forbidden. For a reason. 

And what would her parents think of her if they found out that she'd lost her position as prefect? Granted, they weren't even that excited when they found out of her position--"A real Bishop knows how to build their way up the ranks"--and she just knew they would rage if they ever found out she was kicked out of being prefect. To avoid her parents' wrath, Rhea had decided to simply... push away that part of her.

Okay, maybe not. She still got up to some troubles; as long as she didn't get caught, what was the harm?

As she was thinking, Rhea absentmindedly started to squeeze the excess water out of her hair once more. Taking the towel she'd left in her absence once more, she wrapped it around her neck. Was she done swimming for now? Perhaps.

Rosie commented on how pretty the scenery was, and Rhea nodded in agreement. "Calm and peaceful, especially when there's no one around to yell at you," the redhead joked, and pulled her hands away from her hair. 

They were red. Almost completely covered in red, even in the crooks under her fingernails. 

She cast a look at her hair, eyes widening, and gasped at what she saw. At least half of it (a little bit less) was blonde. The red blended into the blonde, so at least it wasn't a stark contrast. But still, it was unpleasant to look at. Looking at her wrists to see if she had any hair ties, Rhea breathed out when she found one. She tied her hair into a low bun, covering the blonde as much as she could before Rosie could see it. 

She didn't want to be thought of differently...