open Afternoon Swim Party closed

Sinclair noted that the other boy didn't answer her question, but did not bother to pursue his name. She knew her stamina wasn't the cream of the crop and that it may be wiser for her to go second so she wouldn't have to spend as long underwater, but the girl didn't really want to dilly dally and instead just get this done.

"No objections. I don't mind going first," she shrugs with her left shoulder. Dipping her head underwater for a moment to find that faint shimmer, she makes sure she knows where to go. Sinclair positions herself under Adeline properly, lightly bobbing in the water with the girl's feet hovering over her shoulders.
"Okay, I'm ready Adeline." Sinclair steadies herself, taking a deep breath. She pinches her nose and folds her arms to her body to keep streamlined, and the flush of water and bubbles rush against her skin as the tomboy sinks into the murky waters like a needle. Well... there's a first for everything.
Sinclair finds herself slowing and her feet eventually touch the floor of the lake. She was pretty impressed with Adeline that it worked well after all. She'd never been this deep. The pressure squeezes her throat but she manages to stay calm. Actually... it's oddly peaceful down here if you ignore the lack of oxygen.

She can already feel herself starting to float due to the air in her lungs, so she repositions herself and swims to the shiny object. Her fingers grip over the edge, partially anchoring herself- she couldn't make out what debris it was exactly due to the murky water but it felt like some kind of stone with metal decoration. While a large portion of the stone was covered in some kind of algae, the metal still gleamed. That was what probably caught the eyes of those above shore. Sinclair grunts a little underwater, pulling the chunk of debris from the lake floor. While she was able to lift it, it may be too heavy to lift up to the surface by herself. Some help would be appreciated after all. Sinclair looked above with her eyes squinted, watching in wait.

During the students' swim party, a red fox had been watching the young wixen interact and converse with one another while wandering along the water's edge. It had stayed hidden among the foliage nearby as best it could, clearly curious, but not eager to be spotted any time soon. Instead of stepping out into the open, it had remained still and concealed for the most part, biding its time as it observed the humans in its vicinity.

They all appeared to be around the same age, but not all of them seemed to know each other. The first the fox noticed was boy who appeared to be a brunet with a pale complexion that made his freckles stand out all the more across his cheeks and nose. His large brown eyes, which stood out in contrast to his small, round nose, intrigued the fox, and it wondered if it hadn't seen the boy before. Perhaps at a certain Slytherin table at the Great Feast that had begun succeed the Sorting Ceremony that year. Whether or not it had, though, or perhaps even chanced upon seeing the boy elsewhere such as in the Slytherin Common Room upon passing, it decided it liked the look in that boy's eyes. It would have to continue to watch him and see if he did anything interesting.

The next for the fox to take notice of were a boy and girl pair. Even as the first boy had removed the top half of his clothing - leaving untouched a silver chain with a hexagonal silver locket that dangled from about his neck - and gotten into the water, the new couple of students saw him and the boy identified him as 'Thaniel'. Evidently, he had been at a 'kissing party', whatever that was... Perhaps later, it would be worth investigating.

In the meantime, the fox mostly overlooked the girl since, if she had thought this 'Thaniel' was drowning, it didn't think she could have been very observant; at least not in that instance, and regarded her companion instead. The boy's almost unnatural beauty immediately caused the fox to look away again, however. While human appearances didn't mean much to it, the unnaturalness was quite familiar since it had encountered such beings before and knew better than to stare at them for very long. This brunet didn't look immediately part-veela, but the fox could recognize one by then if it saw one. Perhaps that was why the girl was hanging around him.

Typical humans, drawing close to others based on superficial appearances...probably affected by the halo effect too, no doubt. If the boy seemed intruiged by Thaniel too, however, maybe he wasn't quite as gullible or simple-minded as the impression the girl was giving the vulpine. From Thaniel's following recognition, the part-veela boy seemed to be known as 'Sebastian' and he had a confidence about him that the fox was certain only came with having grown up being used to his veela half-breed effect on people.

Fourth to appear was another brunette, this one a girl, with chocolate brown frizzy hair smokey blue eyes, and a light, playful voice that the fox liked. She didn't seem very fixated on appearances if her messy locks and somewhat disheveled clothing was anything to go by, but that only intrigued the fox all the more. She, too, seemed curious like it, and like it, she also seemed to be interested in the word 'kissing' that had been spoken by Sebastian - at least if her sudden blush was anything to go by. Her inquisitive nature seemed to bring her attention to whatever the first boy, Thaniel, had seemed to get into the water for, however, and that was what she chose to speak up about first.

Eventually, a fifth student joined them. This one had black hair that was short and stuck up at the back and hazel eyes similar to the fox's. Like Thaniel's, their nose was also small, but unlike his round one, theirs was pointed. At first, the student seemed so androgynous that the fox wasn't certain of their gender, but after observing and listening to them for a bit, it thought they might have more or less presented as female. It wasn't positive, but as the fox was generally gender-blind, it didn't care too much about confirming its guess.

The fox would have been content just continuing to observe the students and listen if a 7-month-old black cat hadn't come up from behind it and prowled over to the edge of the pier. By then, the fox had curled up for a small nap in the warmth of the afternoon sun, but it opened its eye at a small sound from the cat who had become quite stealthy but hadn't exactly mastered its stealth yet. Especially not from the attentive ears of the older fox.

The young adolescent cat had already made it to the pier's edge and had begun to reach out a paw to bat at the dead fish bumping repeatedly against said pier when the fox finally got up and darted to go fetch it. The cat was already getting too big for the fox to try to pick it up and carry it away by the nape of its neck, but it tried anyway. At the very least, the vulpine managed to snag the back of the feline's neck before the feline nearly tumbled into the water in an attempt to grab the dead fish.

@Thaniel Finn, @Sebastian Drake, @Adeline Spinks, & @Sinclair Carver

Reducio

Note: If anyone has any issues with my character having been here from the start and having observed yours the whole time, please let me know - whether here or by owl or Discord (@kitomyx) - and I can edit my post. I apologize because I had meant to join earlier (when this thread was only three posts in) but I had gotten busy with other things and before I knew it, this thread was three pages in. Apologies for the delay.

Sinclair was pretty thankful that the branch was moved out of the way. In the hazy depths of the lake, she studied the vague form of the boy, and together they brought their findings to the surface. Whatever it was, it was not light and was only possible to haul to the surface with two first years propelling. Where Sinclair first aimed for the glimmer in the dark, she now swam towards the erratic gleam of the water's surface. Even though she felt her lungs empty, there was only one thought in mind- to get this thing to the top.

A burst of gasping broke the water's surface as the pair made it. Sinclair, still clinging onto the piece of debris, reached out for the dock to steady herself, air flooding her lungs again. Having some leverage now, she was able to hold onto this weighted treasure and let the other boy get his bearings too. She blinked several times to clear her vision, then glanced for make sure he was fine, before studying this piece of.... huh.

It was a knocker. There on a piece of algae-infested grey marble, was a metallic brass knocker fixated tightly to the stone. The brass had been cast into the head of some kind of falcon, and in its mouth laid an ornate ring. Oddly enough, the metal was unnaturally in great condition.

This was eventually brought to the dock's edge with a deep clunk. She managed a crooked smile towards Adeline, quite pleased that they were able to handle this together, "Well, it's some kind of treasure to me." The gryffindor noticed Sebastian had gone, but didn't take too much note of it. Maybe he needed the toilet or was hungry...too bad he didn't get to see it properly.

Reducio

Thought the head could look something like this. Imagine it's grey marble and brass without patina. Let me know if you guys want something else!

_{Mentions: @Thaniel Finn}

_{Time: time given in thread}

_{Day: Feb 10}

_{Outfit: Below in the Reducio}

Reducio

The winter has officially passed, so that means only one thing: Swimming. The waters of the great lake where still cold, but perfect for a little swim. Today, out of all of the days was a very busy day at the lake. A lot of kids where swimming eating food from picnics, and even doing races in the water. All activities seemed fun. A lot of people though where having fun swimming, so he decided too go to a group off all sorts of ages. He new none of the people their, but they seemed nice, so why not join? He first walked up to a boy named Thaniel, who was a year younger than Andy. Hello! Thaniel, right? I am Andy. Nice to meet you! Do you mind if I join you guys? The boy said calmly, with only a hint of fear in his voice, and that fear came from only one thing; the boy saying no. Most people at Hogwarts where very nice, including his friend Brookline, Elizabeth, and Justin, but their are mean people too, and considering that the boy Andy asked to join the group was a Slytherin... you don't know what to exepct. Of course Andy kept those thoughts to himself, because he himself doesn't want to sound rude. Andy waited for the answer of the boy, but even if the answer was "no", the lake was amazing.