Drifting Eyes Finished PV Ariana Walker

_{Ariana wrapped her cloak more tightly around her as she snuck down into the grounds by the Great Lake. She hoped she wasn’t being followed or seen by anyone and so she took great caution every now and then turning back to check her surroundings before carrying on. The breeze was cool and light and it swept Ariana's long brown hair behind her as she turned around, her bright green eyes scanning her surroundings. Feeling that it was now safe Ariana sat down by the side of the lake and pulled her knees to her chest admiring the beautiful night sky and feeling the breeze tickle her soft cheeks. She zoned out and lay down in the soft grass, not a care in the world, unaware of anyone around her until she heard a crack of a twig, as though someone had stepped on it, near to where she was sitting. She snapped out of her zone and sat bolt upright, aware that someone was close. Was it an animal? No it couldn’t be, it sounded like a human. Standing up slowly and narrowing her eyes she turned her head cautiously trying to spot the  person, or thing, whatever it was. She stayed still, her wand out, bravely looking around, still as a statue, what was it? Should she just sit back down? Ariana took a step back and felt the crunch of a twig beneath her trainers, turning her head sharply, she let out a scream as she spotted a shadowed figure not far off, looking in her direction. She slipped, losing her footing, falling backwards she landed with a tremendous splash in the lake. Sopping wet, her trainers full of water, she struggled as she swam to the surface, desperately gasping for breath.  She was gonna drown. Desperately she called for help, flapping her arms about, as water gushed in and out of her mouth. She tried to grasp onto the edge but the grass was too slippery, the water too deep and the current was too strong. I- must- not- give- up, Ariana thought desperately, she was a gryffindor for a reason. She was already regretting her decision from the moment she lost her footing on the bank, and hoping that someone would help her. She felt her head go dizzy, she was losing consciousness, black spots blurred her vision and she fell, sinking hopelessly to the bottom, before half-consciously, feeling a strong pair of arms lift her from the water. Her head was too heavy to think, she let herself fall into a deep slumber as her eyes closed and she lost consciousness completely.}

The events as they unfolded would have been comical if they had not been so dire. Having been spotted after carelessly stepping on a twig-- the whole area around the Great Lake was not as curated and taken care of as the rest of the grounds, likely because no one in their right mind would use the lake during the winter. When the girl heard his approach, she whipped around to confront him, only to scare herself by stepping on a twig of her own and stumbling into the deep, dark water in a thunderous splash. Flash thought he ought to leave now that he had the opportunity, until he heard her screaming for help.

Can she swim? If she couldn’t, there were no two ways about it, she would die. The edge she dropped from wasn’t particularly close to land, with nothing in particular to grab onto. Going to the lake alone, not even able to swim? This girl was insane. Still, he wasn’t going to let her drown.

With only a moment's hesitation, preemptively regretful of the freezing cold water’s embrace, he dived in after her. The cold bit at his skin and swirled into his clothing, almost making him lose his breath to the shock of it all. He couldn’t open his eyes, not that he was likely to see anything anyway, so he reached around trying to find anything at all to grab onto. As the seconds crept by, his heart started to drop into his stomach with growing fear. If she died, it would be his fault, wouldn’t it?

His fingers finally gained purchase on a piece of cloth, her large heavy cloak, and with it he could find his way to the rest of her, and pulled her up to the surface. He felt glad he had swam so much in his youth, even with his athletic build it was hard to pull a whole person out of the water with their winter clothes catching all the resistance they could soak up

Once on solid ground, it was even heavier, and the chilling wind stung as it brushed up against his back. He would catch a cold from this, no doubt, but at least the girl was alive. That was when he noticed who was beneath the cloak, he knew her. Well, didn’t know her, but she came up in a lot of conversations. Ariana Walker was her name, she was a popular girl from Gryffindor who was known for her natural beauty and for getting herself into trouble. She was certainly living up to her reputation.

Luckily she hadn’t tried to breathe and was only just out from shock. Flash didn’t want to be rude, but if they didn’t get back into the castle quickly, they could catch something worse than just a cold. He shook her shoulders to try to get her to wake up. The panic in him had mostly subsided, but it wouldn’t be gone completely until her eyes opened.

@Ariana Walker

_{Ariana felt the breeze tickle her cheeks and opened her eyes, she coughed and realized that she was laying on grass, sopping wet. She sat bolt upright “What? Where-what happened?” She stared around and her eyes landed on her rescuer, a slytherin boy kneeling next to her, who had obviously been trying to shake her awake. She stared at him for a few seconds, he had bright blue eyes and short brown hair. Come to think of it, Ariana was sure she'd seen him around. He looked down at Ariana with concern as she stared back, confused "you okay?" he asked her. She blinked, still trying to process what had happened. " It  was YOU!" she pointed a finger at him accusingly. "You scared me! I could of drowned!" She spluttered in astonishment. "It was you saved me from drowning?" It sounded silly in her head, as if she was a damsel in distress or something, she hated feeling weak. "Well...yeah" He replied. He sounded so calm, how could he stay calm at a moment like this!} 

_{Her irritance was not encouraged but the cold and she snapped loudly at him "How can you stay so calm!? You nearly killed me!" Pouting she crossed her arms and turned away, aware that she was still sitting on the grass, completely drenched. "Well I'm going back to the castle" She declared. She stood up, her legs shaking and her arms trembling with the cold, but she grimaced and turned to walk away, even if she was half freezing to death. "You'll fall, you're too weak from falling in the lake" She jumped to see Flash behind her pointing out her foolishness. She frowned, irritated. "Let me carry you back" She stared back at him in astonishment, Is he crazy?! I was not letting him carry me back, did I look like a weak little princess to him?}

_{"No way. You're joking. I am capable, thanks very much, of walking back myself." But even as she took a step forward, she wobbled, tripped and fell, landing on the wet grass again. Getting up angrily, she huffed crossing her arms and turned to stare at him, swishing her long, wet hair out of her face. "Fine. Fine i'll let you carry me then" She was gonna be humiliated and she swore that out of the corner of her eye she saw Flash smirk as he lifted her up with strong arms. "Payback for nearly killing me Holmwood" She murmured, a smirk on her face. He did seem quite nice I guess, he could have left me out here, but he actually was quite nice to me, Ariana thought. She spoke again."Although I guess you did save me." She sighed, weak with tiredness and cold. Flash will probably gonna ask why I was out there in the first place, no way he's gonna let me go that easily, she rolled her eyes to herself, smiling slightly. Maybe she could quickly run away, avoid the question?}

She bickered with Flash, to his surprise. It was amazing she still had fire in her belly with being frozen to the bone. She was in the water longer than him, and could no longer stay on her feet. It wasn’t up for debate, the two of them had to get out of the winter weather quickly. Being the chivalrous type, Flash insisted on carrying her back, and she reluctantly agreed, not having much of an option.

He knelt down to her level, and she managed to climb up enough that he could grip her legs and hoist her up the rest of the way.

Roll to lift Ariana and carry her (Strength):
DC 20 (tough)
d20(19) + 6 = 25 (success)

It was easy to do. She was young and thin, so she didn’t weigh any more than the kinds of things he had to carry around for his errands in the stables growing up. He would be able to carry her the whole way back at the rate he was going.

But there was a lot more on his mind besides just making it back. She knew my name. That’s good. He had worked hard to get momentum behind his reputation, and the fruits of his labor were starting to show. People in Gryffindor were already starting to talk about him. Good things, no doubt.

Also, there was the matter of warming up without alerting the staff of the flagrant rule breaking that had just gone on. Flash might have been able to convince a professor that he was innocent, but if Ariana was thrown under the bus she would surely start accusing him of being at fault to begin with. There were a few options, and Flash had to weigh them in his head while he still had time.

Lastly, he never got to learn why she would do such a reckless thing to begin with. Breaking the rules was fine so long as one didn’t get caught, but had she merely wanted to spend time by the lake? Was there more to it?

”Miss Ariana, do you want to tell me why you were by the lake? It will help me get us out of this if I know.” He appealed to her, hoping she wanted to avoid detention as much as he did.

@Ariana Walker

_{@Flash Holmwood}

<sub>”Miss Ariana, do you want to tell me why you were by the lake? It will help me get us out of this if I know.” At this, Ariana felt a fresh wave of embarrassment wash over her. She turned to glare at Flash, crossing her arms, "Well..I-I..." She trailed off and felt her cheeks go pink with the intensity of his stare. Wow. Flash had actually made her speechless, something that was very rare with Ariana (she was always talking). She sighed, slid from his arms and let go, so that she stood facing him. They were near the entrance of the castle by now, the darkness shielding them from view.

She turned away from his gaze in embarrassment and dropped her bright green eyes to the floor, shifting her feet nervously. “I owe you an explanation. Your right. Thanks for saving me.” She briefly glanced up at him, before hastily dropping her eyes back to the floor. She nudged a tuft of grass with the edge of her shoe. "I was out there tonight because...because i'm not all that brave you see..." She whispered softly. She lifted her head and stared into his eyes, somehow getting lost in their gaze. Snapping out of it, she continued, "People always practically worship me always saying, oh Ariana's amazing she can do everything, she's fearless, she's popular, she's bold and confident!” There was bitterness in her tone, as if she prefered not to say this at all, but she carried on, “And you may think that's a good thing, but sometimes, it's just-just hard, because I feel weak underneath all that ‘glory’ as if I can never show my true emotions because i'm shielded by my successes and appearance. I don't want to hide in a shell forever, because of course, I can do all those things they say I can, but I sometimes just want to hide from that and mess around with nobody caring or pressuring me and just  to talk to someone who would understand, someone who really cares and someone who would see me not by my successes but as myself, Ariana Walker, a girl who just wants to be happy. A girl who doesn't want to be pressured with her past. That's why I come down here, to be at peace on my own sometimes, and enjoy the quiet.”

Ariana dropped her gaze once again to the floor, her eyes burning slightly. She impatiently blinked them away. She hardly ever cried, what was wrong with her? “My grandma used to understand, I wish I could see her now. She died a few days ago. I got a letter this morning.” Ariana paused and reached into her pocket. She drew out a letter that looked like it had been folded and reopened several times. “The lake reminds me of her, calm and collected, she let me be myself when I was around her.” She swiped at her eyes. Cllecting herself she stood up straight and put the letter back in her pocket. “Im being silly, I'm such a crybaby, i'm so sorry, I didn't mean to get you into trouble” She turned to walk away to the castle, when she felt a tug on her arm and looked back to see Thomas holding her back. Her face glistened with tears in the distant light of the castle and her long light brown hair waved around slightly in the breeze, her green orbs sparkled as they reflected the shiny stars in the dark night sky above them.</sub>

_{Im really sorry for the late reply, ive been really busy but im back! I hope you are still interested 
Arianaxx}

Just as they were nearing the entrance to the castle, Ariana slid off his back, apparently having regained enough of her wits about her to be able to stand and walk on her own. That was good, since he didn’t know how it would look if they walked it together while still fully wet like they were. It would be easy to deduce what happened, at least that they had both gone for a dip in the lake.

Then, to Flash’s surprise she started to open up. It was interesting-- she felt pressure from the expectations of her peers. People put her on a pedestal, and once she saw how high she had been raised, she realized she had a fear of heights. At least, she didn’t seem to want the burden of being who she was. She called it a shell, which interested Flash deeply. He never regretted the faces he put on in order to attain the same things she said she received naturally. She ‘just wants to have fun and be happy’, she said, paraphrasing.

Flash couldn’t sympathize. He also went on walks away from people to center himself, but it was only to comb through the data he had collected and formulate a plan. Nature had a wonderful quiet to it that allowed him to concentrate better, but he was always striving to improve, raise in the ranks, and tower above others. It was a worthy investment of his time, he wasn’t concerned with ‘relaxing’ and ‘having fun’.

Just as Flash was about to suggest they go to their common rooms separately to avoid suspicion, she started to sniffle, wiping away at her eyes. She had a recent death in the family, her grandmother. The news had arrived on that morning, so he couldn’t blame her for still feeling the raw emotion, the loss. With that, at least, he could sympathize. When he thought about someone in his family dying-- his grandparents not included-- he couldn’t imagine the pain he would feel. Especially someone like Valerius, someone who ‘let him be himself’, as she put it.

She diminished the scene she had made, perhaps feeling bashful, or frozen cold, given the circumstances, and started back towards the castle. Flash called back with one last time, since their meeting had ended on such a dour note.

”Take care of yourself Miss Ariana. Don’t do anything too reckless.” It was a strange choice, it felt more like a scolding than a good-bye. He was freezing, wanting badly to get back to his room to warm up. With it being Slytherin however, the green glow of the lake would be hanging over his head as a reminder the whole time.

@Ariana Walker