Down Under PV Horace Vargas & Rhea Bishop Closed

Horace ,the wandering wizard, as he named himself as he always roamed around the castle looking for new things and people. This time he was out of the castle for a walk in the natural surroundings after a few paces he decided to visit the great lake and maybe relax a bit.

As he went there he noticed a boy was already sitting there relaxing his eyes closed looking up to the sun. Horace smiled as he walked towards the boy. "Hey there tired of all the busy work at the castle i see?" he said with a chuckle as he sat down beside the boy and dipped his feet in the water.

The area was completely silent actually too silent for Horace's liking as he kind of felt weird about this place. But then he noticed the boy was a slytherin 'maybe its just that this is how it feel to sit alone with a slytherin' he thought to himself as he chuckled a bit. He moved his feet in the water relaxing and feeling the wind blow his beautiful hair. He felt the something strange in the water but then again it may just be a fish what did he know?.

His silent reverie was interrupted by the arrival of another student. However, due to his well-improved mood, Dmitri didn't have the heart to be mean and sarcastic--yet. He turned to the newcomer with a smile. "More like, tired of the people of the castle." He chuckled. "It sometimes feels too... loud and crowded and... claustrophobic in the castle, you know what i mean?" The raven-haired boy shook his head and huffed out a soft laugh. "You probably don't. I'm possibly the only student of Hogwarts who enjoys his own company, books and the company of..." He pointedly glanced at the horde of fishes clamoring over the bread scraps he threw in a while ago, "...fishes more than his fellow students.

Anyway, I'm Dmitri. Dmitri Jones. What brings you here? Wanted to find an escape from the woes of the castle as well?"

Dmitri turned a lopsided smile at the other boy as the soft wind  picked up slightly. Yes, his mood has indeed improved. He  hasn't snapped nor insulted his companion as of yet. That's probably an all-time record.

Multiple soft splashes sounded from the water in front of them but they were both too distracted with the ambience as well as with each other's company to notice. Besides, maybe that was just because of fishes getting too overeager with the food.



That was their first mistake.

Horace could totally relate to his thoughts at least he thought he did. He also didn't like being in a crowd he would call it claustrophobia but rather a sense of stress and that people were always watching him. It was anxiety more than anything that made him like his quiet corner with books. "Horace. Horace Vargas nice to meet you Dmitri and i can totally get what you are saying. The hustle of the castle does seem too much sometimes." Horace replied looking at the water with a smile.

Horace did feel something moving down under his feet but he just took it as maybe one of the fish from the group clamoring over the bread scraps dmitri gave them. Horace just now noticed dmitri was a slytherin as his tie indicated but he never had anything against slytherins and this one seemed rather nice.

Horace noticed him doing the confundus charm on the fishes he recognized the spell as he studied about it in the library but he never actually got any chance to practice the spell. Maybe it just wasn't a daily use spell like accio or lumos. "Hey how about we practice some spells on these fishes! Non-harmful ones of course!" He said taking out his wand as he pointed it towards the fishes "....and how do we do the confundus charm again?" he asked as he looked at dmitri ignoring the fact that something slithered past his feet in the water.

Rhea had been sitting near the edge of the Great Lake, her notebook open and her enchanted quill next to her. She'd been entranced in the music that was going through her head, and she was fully concentrated on not letting any melodies fly away before she put them down on paper. But when she reached the end of a part, she finally looked up onto the Great Lake. The surface was completely undisturbed, apart from a few of the fish that glided just beneath. There were a few of them, swimming in a cluster to a certain area. She followed them with her gaze and noticed that there were two of her fellow students throwing some bread to them. Rhea realized that she'd met both of them briefly before.

She decided to go up to them and at least say hello, as she was bored and had reached her limit with composing more music. Rhea packed up all her things into her shoulder bag and hoisted it up before making her way to where they were sitting. She remembered the two boys' names as Dmitri and Horace, and she could see that they were in the middle of a conversation. She got to them just as Horace, the Ravenclaw, proposed that they practice some spells on the fish. Rhea raised an eyebrow, but Horace added, "non-harmful ones, of course," before she could reprimand him that fish had feelings too (in a joking manner, of course).

She sat down next to them, keeping a small distance away and waved. "So, what're you guys doing on this fine afternoon?" 

"Yeah." Dmitri sighed, relieved at knowing the other boy understood where he was coming from. The raven-haired boy tapped his wand on the wooden pier in a lazy beat. "But don't get me wrong. I appreciate good company, sometimes." He tilted his head pointedly towards Horace's direction and smiled. "Just not all the time." Not most times, you mean. Dmitri mentally chuckled.

"Sure. Just... let's not hur--"

...Non-harmful ones of course!"

"Yes." Dmitri smiled, happy about it. "I was all ready to fight you there. I mean, I am doing spells on them but I make sure that there's nothing that can harm or disturb them in any way." He looked fondly down at the frolicking fishes near his feet, some of them--a lot of them, actually--sliding against his toes. "Oh! You recognized the spell? The incantation's Confundo but other than that, I can't tell you anything more. I, myself, am still studying it to little or no avail. I can maybe cast it 1 out of 10 tries after a week of researching the particulars (see: Dmitri Kazimir Jones' sheet: SPELLS section) but it doesn't really last that long." He tutted as he tried another go and failed, smoke coming out from the tip of his wand. "I'm trying to confund the fishes to swim backwa--" He cut off midsentence as he saw a vaguely familiar redheaded girl wave at them from her seat just a few feet away. 


"Oh! Greetings! We're just enjoying the amazing weather," Dmitri glanced up at the slightly overcast sky with a fond grin, "and just overall taking advantage of the great outdoors of Hogwarts--by playing with the lake's fishes." He turned back to the girl. "And you? What brings you here?"

He said that just as a particularly loud splash emanated from the water. Dmitri nudged Horace with his elbow, "Oy! Stop throwing stones into the water. It'll scare the fishes away!", he said, thinking it was Horace that caused it. The raven-haired boy threw in another piece of bread from his sandwich to coax the fishes back.

Horace was listening intently to the description given by Dmitri about the charm but it was just not enough he just knew the incantation. Horace himself has read about this spell before but never actually practiced it. As he was ready with his wand to practice the charm on the fishes still paying attention to Dmitri suddenly a girl interrupted them. 

Horace never liked to be disturbed when he was in the middle of learning a new spell but then he realized this wasn't his manor where he would shout at anyone who disturbs him this was hogwarts and he finally needed to learn to live in a group and to be a part of the crowd. He just shrugged off his slight irritation and smiled at the girl. 

Dmitri greeted her and talked about the weather and the fish. As Dmitri was talking to the girl Horace was looking at the water and he noticed something in the water. His eyes widened and he was sure this wasn't a fish at all. Horace read about many creatures who lived in the great lake but as far as he knew they weren't hostile to the students otherwise the great lake would be called the forbidden lake. But these creature never bother the students then why was this 'thing' here. Horace was trying to make an explanation of its unusual behavior when he was startled by a splash in the water. Dmitri nudged him with his elbow and told him not to throw stones in the water. "It wasn't me! Look closely something is in there" Horace whispered to Dmitri trying not to let the 'thing' know that they were alerted about its presence.

Rhea walked over closer to them and sat down looking out across the water. She didn't miss the small irritated look that passed over Horace's face, but she ignored it, not thinking much of it. The black-haired boy, Dmitri, asked her what she was doing by the lake and she shrugged in answer.

"I wanted to work on some of my music, and it was getting too loud in the common room," she replied. She motioned to her bag. "I'm working on a new piece and the lake gives me inspiration - it's just so calm and beautiful, you know?"

Rhea leaned back on her elbows and looked over the lake again. She heard Dmitri tell the other boy to stop throwing rocks, to which Horace replied that he wasn't. That caught Rhea's attention and she propped herself back up. 

"Look closely something is in there," Horace said, pointing down at the lake. Rhea leaned over and did, in fact, see something moving in the depths of the water. She furrowed her eyebrows and thought about what it possibly could have been. A fish? No, a fish couldn't cause that kind of commotion. She squinted her eyes and saw the thing moving again. 

"He's right," she said. "There's something moving down there."

"Huh?" Dmitri leaned forward on his seated position as he took a closer look at what his companions were pointing out. Aside from the slightly chaotic water due to the lake fishes fighting over the scraps of food given to them, the raven-haired boy cannot see anything from this angle. "Really? I can't see anything. " He shaded his eyes from the sun with a hand. "What could it be?"

He hoisted himself up and went into a front-crawl position on the wooden pier. Moving his body forward with his arms a bit, he squinted his eyes and could just barely see a silhouette moving underwater. 

He pointed towards it and looked at the other two. "Wait. You mean that? What do you think that i--"

Dmitri barely finished his sentence when he felt a cold-slimy hand grasp the arm that he was pointing with--and pulled. 

The boy was just able to yelp in surprise before the cold, dark lakewater embraced him. He struggled in his unknown captor's strong grip as the surface slowly kept getting farther and farther and his air getting less and less.

He accidentally swallowed water as he flailed, coughing and further expending the air in his lungs. I'm doomed.

The last thing he remembered before he blacked out was the pier and his companions' shadows over the surface of the water, a large tail beside his head, and a clawed hand shoving something slimy* in his mouth.

Help.

Horace was afraid as he looked at the water. Rhea also seemed to notice the thing. Dmitri didn't seem to notice anything first but he then pointed out a silhouette moving in the water. Horace just lifted his feet hanging down to the water he didn't want the thing to bite his foot off. 

As they were talking about the thing suddenly it pulled Dmitri down in the water. He yelped in surprise as he was taken underwater. Horace stood up looking at the water and rhea trying to think of something. He didn't shout he was just too surprised he didn't know how to react at first. He wanted to help Dmitri but the first rule to help is to not get in trouble yourself. He took Rhea's hand and ran a bit away from the water creating some distance. 

He then stopped and finally gained a bit of his senses. He thought for a minute "...W-We will have to get help quick!" He ran towards the castle gesturing Rhea to follow. He realized he didn't really know where to get help. He didn't want to inform the professors as that could put them in some sort of trouble "Do you know where we can get help? should we find the prefects?" He asked rhea as they ran for the castle.