Closed It Grabbed Me! Open

Speech: #008000

Rushing to help @Ava Winchect

Viva was ready to be done with the school year. It had been a wonderful year, but it had been long and tiring, and she was looking forward to just going home and not worrying about getting all O's or studying for exams or finishing scrolls of essays. This day found her walking briskly by the lake, trying to give her weary mind a much needed respite from studying. She muttered to herself as she walked, trying to remember the ingredients of a certain potion that she was sure would turn up on the exam. She breathed out, stepping carefully around the bank of the lake. Lifting her head up to let the wind catch her long brown locks, she closed her eyes and savoured the moment.

Suddenly, she was jerked out of it by a loud cry for help. Her blue eyes flew open, immediately on edge and worried. Viva looked around quickly, trying to spot where the commotion was coming from. With a pang of panic, she saw a student flailing about in the murky waters of the lake. What was she doing in there? Viva immediately rushed towards the lake, not heeding the cold water swirling around her pale ankles as she stepped into the water hurriedly. Her kind heart was pushing her onward, determined to help this stranger in trouble.

Panting from the thrilling cold of the lake, Viva shivered as she slowly made her way deeper, towards the thrashing and yelling girl. What exactly was wrong? Viva was confused as to what had happened. As she neared, she felt a chill run down her spine at the girl's next words. Sea monster?! Viva thought in shock. Oh no. Sweet, gullible, Viva made her way even deeper. Not the strongest swimmer, she had a shock of panic as she felt her toes leave the lake bottom, and quickly found her footing again. Slowly but surely, Viva made her way to the girl.

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It was a beautiful day outside. Ruby was enjoying the peace and quiet as she was walking the grounds. She wandered a little further, daydreaming about the summer holidays and being back home. She would miss this place but was glad she could see her parents again.

She was almost at the edge of the Great Lake. Suddenly she was snatched out of her daydreams when she heard some distant screams. Startled, she searched for the origin of the screams.

A little further down the Lake, no IN the Lake, there were two students. It didn’t seem they were swimming and enjoying themselves. From where she stood, Ruby could see them still wearing their Hogwarts robes. She started to run towards them.

It seemed one of them has gotten too far into the Lake, and the other one was trying to get to the first one. Ruby didn’t hesitate, and when she got to the place where the girls had entered, she dropped her stuff and headed after them.

The Lake was cold, much colder than Ruby had thought. She started shivering as she got deeper in the water. She saw the first girl go under water a few times, and tried to get there faster. She slipped and fell face first into the cold Lake.

Typical, Ruby thought, that this would happen to me. She brushed the hair and water out of her eyes and reached the other girls.

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Atlas spent the entire day studying at his dormitory. He had an intriguing and—one could say—not-so-smooth experience at Hogwarts. Despite how it was, he was still getting used to the position he had taken on, and since things didn't go smoothly at first, that does not mean he shouldn't enjoy himself.

After finishing a chapter in the History of Magic textbook, Atlas was starting to become interested in knowing more about past events that took place in the wizarding world and studying The Goblin Rebellion chapter—which he found to be one of the most fascinating topics to learn about, he wanted to know more and more. But he wanted a break; he couldn't stand to be a voracious reader he would be addicted much.

Having said that, he was a on point young man, particularly in his academics.

He was doing really well on all of his homework tasks and assignments, placing him at the top of his class. He was always the one with books at the muggle school. He is currently  in Hogwarts to study magic, and he seems to be finding it easy.

He considered going to the library, but he realized that he needed to take a break from studying, he chose to go to the Great Lake instead. Although he found touring Hogwarts to be fascinating, he wasn't interested in going on patrol because he could do that later. This was not his first visit to the Great Lake. He was genuinely a little nervous. It is similar to how he was when crossing the lake on the first night. Atlas once heard stories about mermen creatures from people. If they were as amiable as the ones in the Aquamarine movie that he saw in the Muggle World, he would have loved to meet one.

He walked around wearing his casual clothes while his prefect badge affixed to his shirt. Despite being a bit tired to perform some prefect duties today, he still enjoyed having his shiny badge attached to his shirt, though.

He was suddenly startled by a young girl yelling, “Help! Help me!” He raced to the scene to check what was going on and the reason behind the other person's cry for help. “Something grabbed me! It’s a sea monster! Help!” The young boy was shocked after hearing what the other person said, and he rushed over to assist.

୨⎯ It Grabbed Me ⎯୧
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Just as she had hoped, the students nearby came rushing into the water, which meant that if she was caught the students who had intended to help would get in trouble too. It was difficult to keep the smirk off her face as she slowly swam further into the water.

The first girl swam slowly, and Ava knew she would be an easy scare. But based on the skill in the swim, she would have to be careful about how she messed with this girl— she was going for chaos, not crime.

The second girl seemed to be clumsy, but an alright swimmer. Maybe it would be possible to pull them both under at once, she would have to see how strong she was.

And the final person to arrive in the water was a boy— the prefect of slytherin. He came to help as well, and she couldn’t help but feel a little bad for ruining all these selfless people’s days—nah. She didn’t feel much remorse for her trouble.

When they were all somewhat near, she pinned their locations in her mind and sank back into the water, pushing herself deep so that she could reach the two girl’s legs. She grabbed blindly, and once she was able she grasped the girl’s legs and tried to pull them under the water and give them a scare. The prefect wouldn’t be touched, she would rather not get double punishment for breaking code 314a in their never ending rule book.

@Genevieve Delacourt, @Ruby Night, @Atlas Anderson . june 2 . afternoon

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Ruby managed to get to the place where the girls were struggling. She wasn’t a bad swimmer, but fully clothed wasn’t how she was taught to swim. And now she couldn’t feel the bottom of the Lake any more. Her determination dropped a little. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. I hope we can get the girl back to the shore before we all drown.

Are you girls ok?
She reached out her hand to try to grab the girl. But then she dropped beneath the surface again. Ruby tried to see where she was going and started to panic a little bit. Suddenly, she felt something grab her leg and pull her down. Now she was fully panicked. She kicked at the thing holding her leg and managed to free herself. Breathing heavily, she got back to the surface. Oh no, can there really be a sea monster? There are many things in the Lake, maybe this girl disturbed something? Should I just get out of here? No, I can’t do that, this girl needs our help.

She tried to calm down as she searched for the other girls. She couldn’t spot them right away, so she tried to shout to the other boy who came to assist.

Help! Something grabbed me too! We have to get out of here!
She turned back and searched for the other girls.

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୨⎯ It Grabbed Me ⎯୧
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Ava did her best to contain her grin as she surfaced and heard the last words of one of the girls she had grabbed. "It let go of me for now, we better get out of—" She drew in another breath and pushed herself under the surface again, and by now her lungs were starting to burn a little, and her legs hurt from swimming. But she wouldn’t quit until they realized what she was doing.

Once she felt she was deep enough, she tried to reach for the girl who had spoken (Ruby’s) legs. She did her best to do what she could before she needed to go up for a breath again, and once she surfaced again she tried to look as panicked as she could. She doubted she could keep up the charade for much longer, so she had to make it count.

"We need to get out of here! I think it’s the squid grabbing people, I’ve seen it swim past the common room window before!" She started swimming towards shore, and decided she would make one last grab before either the charade was up, or they made it to shore. She took a deep breath before making a quick shout and going back under. She reached out her hands as she swam deeper, reaching for one more person, Atlas’s.

@Genevieve Delacourt, @Ruby Night, @Atlas Anderson . June 2 . afternoon

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As she searched for the other girls, Ruby tried to catch her breath. Flashes of panic raced through her body. Ok, this isn’t helping. I need to get a grip to get out of here. For a moment she tried to stay were she was, trying to get a hold on the situation. She assessed the situation they were in. Three girls in the lake, and something was pulling them down. She couldn’t see anything on the surface, no sign of any type of creature in their vicinity.

One of the girls screamed at her, and vanished yet again under water. She felt something grab her leg again, it felt very firm around her leg. She kicked as hard as she could to get away from it.

She heard the girl scream something about the giant squid, and saw her swimming towards the shore. The squid? No, that didn’t feel like a slimy squid. It felt smaller. She tried to help the other girl in the lake, and grabbed her to take her back to shore. She couldn’t see beneath the surface of the dark lake, but it suddenly felt more quiet around them. As they got closer to the shore, she didn’t encounter the thing again. As the first girl got to the boy, she went under again, as if the thing that haunted them decided to only follow that particular girl. Ruby watched the girl go towards the boy, and started to doubt her story. She made her way back to the shore, while observing what the other girl would do next.

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