Grindylows PV MAAE Closed

Mia listened to a rather exited Syrah speak. She too was rather exited. Grindylows were fascinating creatures and she herself had met one once or twice.

Stepping forward, Mia smiled at the crowd and pulled herself up to her full height, which, admittedly, wasn't that tall. Preparing to speak, she cleared her throat and flipped her hair, sending auburn waves cascading down her back.

"Hello. I am Mia Alexander. I've had a few experiences with these..creatures."

Mia laughed a light, tinkling laugh and returned to the discussion, furrowing her brow.

"They're rather aggressive, though I believe that Merpeople can tame them. Lucky for them. I was swimming once, in a lake by my families estate in Lancashire, and one got ahold of my leg. Luckily my tutor was there and she was able to snap its fingers. It was such a frightening experience! I wouldn't go into the lake for weeks."

Mia rolled her eyes and looked into the crowd, waiting for someone else to step forward. It was quite common to have these kinds of experiences, so she wouldn't be surprised if someone else had a similar experience, especially if it was by a lake, as they were water dwelling creatures.

Lorelai had been very excited to attend these meetings. She loved magical creatures, and sea-dwelling ones were no exception! She listened to Syrah speak intently, grindylows were so interesting! She didn't have any personal experiences with them, but she knew plenty about them from books. She nodded at Mia's story. They were known for being little devils for a reason.

"Hey, guys! I'm Lorelai Brunelle if you don't already know me. I don't have any cool stories about my experiences with grindylows but I have a little bit of information I remember about them from books."She hoped people wouldn't be disappointed in a few facts instead of an action-packed story.

"They have been known to kill and eat humans which is why they are classified as dark creatures."She said. "I remember reading that the best way to defend against one is to break their grip, usually with the Revulsion Jinx-Mia's tutor's way works too obviously."She said humorously, smiling.

"I wonder if the grindylows of the Great Lake have ever attacked-or killed anyone..."She pondered out loud, leaving it as a question for anyone to answer. To be fair, she hoped to hear some bloody tale of some kid getting themselves killed, but she didn't want to say that aloud. It would make sense if no one died from them, it wasn't that common that they attacked people, and the staff did everything they could to keep the students safe. But, hey something easily could have still happened.

The Magical Aquatic Animal Exploration Club, what a mouthful! The Ravenclaw had joined as soon as she heard talk of the club around school. It was a shame that Care of Magical Creatures would only start in third year so the club would hopefully help her fill the void. Being from a small seaside town, she knew quite a bit about aquatic animals but not so much about the magical ones. In fact, her favorite magical creatures weren't even the aquatic type - she preferred winged creatures but learning something new never hurt.

At the club meeting, the blonde realized that none of her friends had joined. It was a shame but she was glad to see some new faces, maybe make some new friends. They all did have something in common afterall. "Dymphna Teague," she said in introduction, sitting down in the damp grass as she listened to the others speak. It was impressive and worrying that Mia had interacted with their creature of topic. She herself had done a bit of research on aquatic creatures after joining the club and they didn't look very friendly. "Maighdean mhara," she repeated, never having seen a mermaid with her own eyes either. "Do merfolk eat people too then?" In muggle storybooks, they seemed to have less teeth than the drawings she had seen in books from her fathers study.

Dymphna shuddered at the thought, remembering all the times she had gone swimming in the Great Lake. "You'd think there'd be records if they had. Not to mention, the Daily Prophet." Then again, the school did seem to have quite a lot of dangerous creatures around - The Whomping Willow, poisonous plants and whatever lies beyond the trees to the Forbidden Forest. There had to be a reason that it was forbidden.

Maighdean mhara is mermaids in Irish  

From signing up for the club to receiving the owl telling her about the first meeting, Dinah had been excited about it. Her deep interest in animals  and her new found interest in magic meant the MAAE club seemed like a promising experience. 

Dinah had hurried down to the lake where she was met by the fellow MAAE members. 
She listened to Syrahs opening speech with enthusiasm. The host herself was clearly feeling the excitement of the new club also. 

As she listened, she pictured the Grindylow from the book she had read. A little, pale green, water demon with horns and an affinity for mischief and mayhem. 
Not something Dinah had any experience with already and a creature she was rather certain she wouldn’t particularly  want an encounter with. 

As the other girls continued discussing the Grindylow and it’s behaviour, Dinah bit her bottom lip nervously. 
Being muggle raised she knew very little about the magic world, besides what she had read in books the week before arriving at Hogwarts. This included any information about the aquatic animals. 
Had she made a mistake joining up? 
Dinah simply wanted to learn as much as she could about the magical creatures but would the other members of the club be irritated and disappointed with her lack of knowledge? 

The others finished speaking and Dinah took the chance to introduce herself to the group. 

“Uh, hello I’m Dinah, I’m really excited to be a part of this club.” She glanced around. She recognised a few faces but didn’t feel as though she knew anybody there. Hopefully this would be another chance to make some friends. Dinah lowered her gaze to look instead at the serene surface of the lake. “I don’t know all that much about magical creatures, but  really interested in getting to know more about them.”

Dinah threw out a small smile while nervously rubbing the back of her neck. Hopefully that would be enough for the others and she wouldn’t get kicked out before the first meeting was even over. 

Angela was overjoyed when she heard about the new Magical Aquatic Animal Exploration Club (MAAEC... a shame it wasn't some more interesting acronym). It sounded like a chance to hang out with people who are as interested in magical creatures as her.

She loved to swim. Her parents sometimes were taking lake vacations with her and her sisters, where they would play and splash around in the sun like little seals. The Hogwarts Great Lake was a massive disappointment in that regard. Since it was very cold, unwelcoming and possibly dangerous, swimming was forbidden for young students like her.

But that ban wasn't going to stop her curiosity. She WAS going to swim in that lake... sometime... eventually.

Now it would be certainly useful to get to know more about the dangers deep within. Just in case. Even if grindylows weren't very cute or friendly, they certainly were interesting.

She was listening closely to every person's introduction. Every occasion to get to know other first-years better was valuable. Hello there, I'm Angela Silverberry, I love all kinds of magical creatures and hope we will have a lot of fun together, she said to the group when it was her turn to speak. I'm so happy that this club emerged, she added with a smile, looking at Syrah. But about grindylows... I've never seen one... I wonder, besides talking about them, are we planning to observe some alive specimen?. Well, that was rather obvious idea... why meet next to the lake otherwise?

Gemini ran quickly down the hall, trying to fasten her robe as she passed people on her way to the lake. Of course she was running late, what else was new. She saw the group formed by the water's edge and made her way towards them stumbling on a root. Reaching the edge of the group she let herself stop and take a deep breath as she her the club's leader continue to talk.

"Today we will be exploring one of the dangerous creatures that lives in the depths of this black lake - the Grindylow!" she heard the girl say as she finally levelled her breathing and stepped closer into the group.

Being completely honest, Gemini knew nothing about magical creatures. If you asked her about any regular animal she could give you any type of solid answer, but even after finding out about the wizarding world she couldn't comprehend the amount of creatures she had missed out on. That's why she joined this club, because she loved all kinds of animals and now there was a whole lot of them waiting to be discovered, in her eyes.

Gemini listened in on the introductions as other people talked about Grindylows. Her eyes widened in amazement at this strange miniature animal that was coined as a type of water demon. She loved it already.

There was a steady silence and Gemini knew it was her time to introduce herself. She straightened her sweater and stepped up from the back of the group.

"Umm, hi. My name is Gemini Violet. I... Um, I am pretty knew to all of these magical creatures, but I have loved animals all of my life, so I am really excited to learn more about them," she began saying nervously.

"If I am being completely honest with you I just learned what Grindylows were today, and obviously, I don't really have any experience with them. But I did I grow up with myths about magical creatures like mermaids or dragons, and the fact that they are tangible beings is incredible. I am just so grateful to be here with everyone and hope to learn from you all. Thank you," she said giving a soft smile as she took her place back in the group.

As she listened to everyone accounts of Grindylows in their own life , she smiled, relieved. She was extremely glad that some of them had actually experienced them, since she certainly hadn't. Grindylow's were dangerous though, and she was glad it seemed none of them had really gotten hurt. 

She frowned, though, to see so many of her members haven't even heard of the thing. Muggle borns she guessed.  Unfortunate for them, but that's one of the reasons she formed this club, so everyone could learn more about the wizarding world. With this pulled out her previously mentioned book and turned to the page on Grindylows and began to pass it around. There was an illustration there and it should give those who hadn't seen one before a good enough idea of the creature. [

She was very surprised to learn some things from her members that she hadn't already read about. As Mia, a girl she knew from the Slytherin Newspaper, and was very happy to see at her meeting, mentioned that the creatures could be tamed by merpeople. That was something she read about and it was why the pair could live together in the lake rather peacefully. "Merpeople are a sentient race, whereas Grindylows are more like energetic, violent dogs. And so its like an owner-pet relationship with them. A lot of them are still wild, but they exist relatively peacefully in the lake. I'm not sure, but I don't think merpeople are as violent"

However it was what she didn't know that Lorelai mentioned, about a revulsion jinx that could repel the creatures. She wondered if she could get one of the Professors to teach the group that, maybe Scheinberg? No, she didn't want to spend more time on the Grindylows than necessary. But she filed the idea away for later anyway. "Well one of the reasons students aren't allowed to swim in the Lake unless they have Prefect or higher supervision is because the Grindylows can attack and the students will need someone who can repel them. Unfortunately, unless anyone here is a Prefect? We can't go into the lake and as a simple student I don't have any live specimens."

Lorelai was unfazed by the idea of going into the Great Lake without supervision but it didn’t seem the other students felt the same way. She knew she was ill equipped to fight any grindylows, or anything else that may lurk in the lake. But what was the odds it would hurt her? Besides it sounded cool to have a few scars and be able to say you got them from sea demons. The other students weren’t saying much so Lorelai spoke up. She really did want to see one of these little guys.

“Anyone?”She repeated what Syrah had asked earlier. She didn’t recognize any of the students in the club as prefects, then again she didn’t know all of them very well. Despite being fine with going in and getting one of these suckers herself, the last thing she wanted was to get in trouble. And it seemed likely one of the club members was the tattle-tell type. “Maybe we could get a teacher or something?”She asked. Maybe Professor Lear would be okay with coming over? It did relate to his class after all, even if most of the students were first years and wouldn’t have him for a few more years.

As to whether Dinah was up to going into the lake and finding one of these Grindylows, she was more than willing. Part of the reason she had signed up for the club was to explore and discover new magical creatures and surely the best way to do that was to get right in there in their own habitat. 

“I’m no prefect but I’d love to go in...” Dinah said quietly. She didn’t want to seem too eager as so far only one of the other girls appeared up to it. 

She paused thinking. Would she get expelled for going in the lake? They had warned them at the start of the year they weren’t allowed but Dinah didn’t know how serious a rule that was. 

Dinah nodded along as one of the other girls suggested getting a teacher to help them. That could be a good idea, if any of them were willing. 

“Does anyone know Accio? Maybe we could just magic one here...” It was a lame suggestion but she ended it with a big grin to show she was half joking. 

From what she knew of Grindylows, Dinah knew there was at least a minor element of danger that maybe they were being rather flippant about but that was all part of the learning. She had a feeling she was going to enjoy being a part of this club.