Nostalgia PV Closed

School was almost over, but Hengist was out for a walk to gather his thoughts. He had been told of the summer camp being planned for students who signed up, but he wasn't positive if he wanted to attend or not. After all, he had never been away from his family, especially his sister, for so long and he was feeling slightly homesick. On the other hand, he had barely made any friends over the year due to his unwillingness to put himself out there because of his awkward social mannerisms. But it was a beautiful day outside and he couldn't concentrate on books because of his conflicted mind. "I think I'll walk down by the lake," he thought. Maybe he'd take of his shoes and socks, roll up his pants and cool off his feet a bit in the water.

So, Hengist made his way down to the lake. Even if he didn't go wading, which was probably a better idea; best not to evoke the ire of some of the lake's more unfriendly denizens, it'd be nice to be near water. Being from a port town, he was used to the smells and sounds of water, and even though the lake didn't really have waves or that same salty ocean smell, it'd be a bit nostalgic anyway.

Once he got there, though, he saw an auburn-haired girl already wading in the lake. She was skipping stones, or at least trying to, only getting 3 or 4 skips per stone. Hengist hadn't done this before because the ocean waves make it impossible to do this, not that he knew though. Hengist watched, trying to figure out how she was doing it at all. Was it some spell? Or something more mundane? Before he could figure it out, she had noticed him watching her. She then said to him, "What are you looking at? I know, I suck. Don't rub it in." Hengist didn't think she sucked, he didn't even know how she was doing it. So, he responded very matter-of-factly, "I don't think you suck, I don't even know how you're doing that. Are you using some kind of spell to make the rocks bounce off the top of the water?"

"It's due to physics not magic but pretty facinating none the less."

A quiet voice sounded behind the two students; an embarssed sort of noise that was nearly aborted before it had begun.

What are you doing!?!?

He didn't normally do this sort of thing, jump into other people's conversations uninvited. In fact Khris was usually painfully shy. There was the possibitly that some confidence had been gained over the course of the school season what with a few freinds being made and adventures gone on but still... Why he, an awkward sort who'd been sitting silent trying to capture one last sketch of the great lake before his departure, was suddenly being so out going as to crash a conversation was a mystery even to him. Especially when what was said proved a point that often made his life a difficult one.

He was an odd child. A geek or a nerd or... It didn't matter. He was quite unavoidably both.

"Um..." Khris gave a quick shake of his head, the movement sending blond curls spining as he brought his focus back to the present. To the sunny sky, and the warm breeze and the smooth surface of the lake.

He shouldn't have said anything but what was done was done and as much as he wished he could take the words back to sit invisible once more, they were out of his mouth and he may as well finish his train of thought. Besides, these two students, this Ravenclaw boy and Hufflepuff girl didn't seem too terribly frightening. There may even be the potential of finding a friend before this day was up.

Or at least, a friendly sort of acquaintance.

The pebbles on the beach shifted in a clinking cascade as he stood from his spot, art supplies set carefully aside as a smile was offered.

"The stone skipping. It has to do with velocity -which is how fast the stone is going- and mass -which is how big the stone is- and something about angles and gravity and such... " A small skipping stone was carefully located and tossed with a quiet plink, plink, plink, PLOOSH before it vanished under the surface of the magical lake.

He froze then, chuckled awkardly and reached to twirl his fingers in the curls at the nape of his neck, a bad habit not yet broken, silver blue eyes dancing between the two students.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to interupt. It's only that I just read a book ducks and drakes." He gestured to the near empty beach and the still rippling lake. "Stone skimming, to clarify. Not actual ducks and- It's an old term. My da used it back at- Um... I'm Khris?"

"OOF-"

Frost grunted as she tripped over a rock on her way down to the water. She barely had enough time to realize it had happened, much less cath herself from the fall. 

Sitting up, she brushed the damp soil from her arm and knee. The short girl spat out the grass she had accidentally eaten when she fell.

Her tangle of wavy hair flew into her face as she got up. The breezy summer day here at Hogwarts was not going well thus far. 

Standing on a large rock, she could see the beautiful view of the lake and the blooming trees in the near distance. And if she listened a little closer,  she swore she could hear voices coming from the water's edge.

Furrowing her eyebrows, she leaned to the left, trying to see if anyone was actually there. Hazel eyes scanning the surface for familiar or not so familiar faces. 

Feeling her foot slip on the grey stone she stood on, she abruptly crouched down to catch herself. With a little squeak, she stablized herself. Thank god she hadn't fallen for the second time. Jeez she really needed to watch her footing when she was outside.

She just had to turn and continue down the- 

"AAAAAH!"

One wrongly stepped food and there she was, a small girl tumbling down the small hill. 

Rocks scraping against her. Dainty body dragged in the mud. Tumbling through the plants. Every which way, she was getting bustled and bruised. 

Frost could barely see anything going on in front of her. Pain suddenly shot through her cheek as she passed a tree that was dangerously close. She couldn't tell if she was just getting hallucinations, but she could swear she saw someone up ahead. 

No no. It was just a rock.

A rock that looked oddly like a- OH NO!

"MOVE! I'M GOING TO-"

Before the ginger could continue, she collided with another person. 

It wasn't long before they both started screaming and flailing their arms. Too enthralled in what was going on, Frost couldn't tell who she had even run into.

Turning her head to look at who she had dragged in, everything was muffled and her vision was blurry.

SPLASH

In the water they went.

A scream echoed around the grounds, interrupting the silent afternoon. Isabella whipped her head around - looking for the source of the cry. She couldn't tell which way the yell had come from. And she had no way of knowing either. Her ears perked up, listening hard for another noise that would direct her to the source of the scream. The world around her seemed to go quiet, as if it knew she was listening for something. The wind ceased to blow through the branches of the trees, and the water that lapped against the edge of the Great Lake seemed to stop. The few seconds of silence gave her no sign or warning what way the scream had sounded from.

"MOVE! I'M GOING TO-" Some sort of force slammed into her body, knocking her off her feet and sending her tumbling down the slope. Her first thought had been that someone had thrown a tree at her - that's what it felt like. Her body felt like a tree trunk had just been thrown at her. But the tumbling of her anatomy down the slope left her no time to worry about the injuries she might have abstained from the hit.

As she rolled down the hill she caught a flash of what looked like ginger hair from beside her. Could it of been a person that hit her? It would explain the scream, and the shout. But she was sure no human could slam into someone that hard. She screamed as something sharp pierced her upper left arm, hard and deep enough to draw blood. Before she had any time to even think about the pain in her injured arm the ground decided to disappear from underneath her, dropping her and the other thing into the cold water of the lake.

Opening her eyes under the water, she saw a girl. She looked fairly small - and Isabella was confused as to how something so slight could cause so much damage. Looking up and away from the girl, she propelled herself towards the surface of the lake. Her sopping hair stuck to her face as she broke the surface, impairing her vision and compromising her breathing. She pushed her hair out of her face as she gasped for air. Hey! Are you ok? She shouted in the general direction of the red head.

Cecily was, in fact, engrossed in a very exciting novel when she remembered the meeting she had planned with Ami. Knowing that she was already late, she carefully tossed her book onto her trunk-- already mostly packed for the last day of school-- and booked it down towards the Great Lake.

Out of breath from the run down all of the stairs in the Ravenclaw tower, Cecily gladly stopped short as the lake came into view and she heard a scream. The yell was soon followed by another, and then joined by a second voice. Wincing as she saw the tangle of limbs and hair tumble towards the lake, the girl couldn't help but laughter a bit at the expression on their faces as they were launched into the freezing water of the lake with a splash.

Walking now, Cecily spotted Ami as she came closer. The redhead was talking with two other students: a Ravenclaw whom Cecily slightly recognized (she remembered that he had a strange name, but couldn't quite recall what it was) and a light-haired Slytherin.

"Ami!" Cecily called in the direction of her friend,picking up her pace ro reach her. Now that she was closer, she noticed Ami's wet arms and legs, like the Hufflepuff had been in the lake herself. "I'm sorry I'm so late!" Cecily apologized to her friend. "I got caught up in a book. Again." She said the last part under her breath, but she knew that Ami was thinking it anyway-- Cecily had been known to spend entire free blocks huddled on her bed or in one of the pushy armchairs in the Ravenclaw common room, reading, and had even missed a class once (or more than once) due to one particularly enthralling book.

Turning to Ami's companions, Cecily introduced herself: "Hi! I'm Cecily." As an afterthought, she added, "And, um, what happened with those two?" gesturing to the two girls who had collided and flown into the lake.

Elizabeth wandered down to the lake, her hands filled with books she had borrowed from some of the professors. She watched as the light danced on the water and the sun bounced off the trees - making the leaves look greener than usual. As she reached the bottom of the hill, Elizabeth lay down by the edge of the water. Her eyes drifting in and out of consciousness from the sleepless nights of studying. She was meant to be meeting her cousin at noon for some catch up reading but couldn't seem to find her. She closed her eyes to rest them for a few minutes.

She was awoken by a blood curdling scream, followed by a few faint words that sounded like someone - or something - was cut off. Snapping her head back too see what had happened, she was shocked to see two people, one with ginger hair the other with brown like her own, tumbling down the small slope towards her. "What the-" She managed to say, before they rolled into the lake causing a giant splash, splashing her and the books in the progress.

"Hey watch it..." She said, stopping mid-sentence when she realized who one of the girls now soaked head to toe was. "Bella...of course its Bella, who else would go tumbling down a hill?" She sighed, giving a disapproving look at her cousin as she spoke.

She had come down to the lake for some peace and quiet, and voila, there was none. Time to go back through the turn of events, because she was confused. Extremely confused, because a lot had happened in such a short amount of time. 

Not good for the brain.

Okay, part one, a Ravenclaw boy had come up to her, inquiring as to exactly how she skipped the rocks. A blonde Slytherin boy had come by to explain the science side of the whole thing, which only made Ami's head spin- all she knew was to chuck the rock at the water. The Ravenclaw hadn't introduced himself, but the Slytherin's name was Khris.

Okay, so good, so far. It was after that when things started to go downhill- literally. Ami recognized the tumbling redhead as Frost, a girl she had met during her pillow fort competition. Frost had hit a Slytherin girl, and both of them rolled into the water, splashing lake water all over Ami. Cecily, whom Ami had planned to meet, showed up, inquiring about the whole situation, and another Slytherin girl had looked up from her books to watch the action.

Wow, that was a look to comprehend, where to start? "Um, let's see... Khris, nice to meet you, wow, I didn't realize so much science went into skipping stones." Khris, check. "Thank you for your kind words, nice to meet you, I'm Ami." Nameless Ravenclaw, check. 

"Frost, are you okay?" Frost, check. "Hey, you too, that was a bad fall you took there... are you hurt at all?" Nameless Tumbling Slytherin Girl, check. "Cecily, hi, it's fine that you're late, I don't really mind. Frost hit her-" Here, Ami pointed at Bella. indicating the "her". "And they both fell in." Bending down, she helped Frost stand up, expecting Khris and Hengist to do the same. After all, it was the right thing to do, to help people up when they fell down.

What was happening? Hengist was just taking a stroll to think a bit, and now it was utter chaos. At least, it was for him. First he came across a Hufflepuff girl skipping stones in the lake, which a Slytherin boy then informed him on how it worked (which he would have to follow up on as he found it incredibly interesting) when he asked the girl. Then, suddenly, two girls (a Hufflepuff and a Slytherin) he didn't recognize came tumbling down the hill into the lake, screaming as they went. Hengist didn't even have time to react to this when another girl he didn't know appeared, a Slytherin girl she hadn't noticed before, was almost hit by the two falling girls. Lastly, a Ravenclaw girl he had seen but didn't really know, walked up and started talking to the first girl.

This was all a bit much for Hengist, as he had barely socialized with one or two people at a time during the previous year, now he was dealing with six! He instinctively froze for a few moments, not sure on how to proceed. Whenever he dealt with a crowd this size back home, it usually didn't end well for him. However, the first Hufflepuff girl started talking to everyone, naming the first Slytherin boy as Khris. She then turned to him, thanking him for his kind words, and said her name was Ami. She pronounced it oddly, too. Ah-me. Hengist liked the name, and nodded at her thanks, not returning his name due to the shock of the situation.

She then turned to the two girls who had fallen into the lake, naming the second Hufflepuff girl as Frost, but she did not seem to know the second Slythern girl's name. She then addressed the Ravenclaw girl as Cecily, which Hengist immediately recognized as a member of the house Quiddich team. Ami then began helping the fallen girl named Frost up, so Hengist timidly began to walk over to help the Slytherin girl. Not really knowing how or where to touch a girl, he simply extended his hand to her as a gesture to offer his help. Unsure if she would take it or not, Hengist turned his head to Khris, unable to hold in his curiosity any longer.

"Your name is Khris, right? I'm Hengist Warbeck. You have to tell me more about physics. I've read a lot of muggle books, but I have not come across one about this physics you mentioned. It almost sounds like a branch of magic." Curiosity was one of the few things that can make Hengist forget his nervousness and actually talk. He wasn't so much curious about people, but he was always looking for something else to learn about. Especially something like this that his sister could benefit from.

Oh good gracious. Must there always be tripping and tumbling, surprised yelps and gasps? It seemed no matter where he went, no matter how long he stayed, no matter what he had planned on doing, someone was always taking a tumble. Or catching things on fire. Usually both now that he thought about it.

I suppose it was understandable; this was Hogwarts after all. Drama and danger kind of came with the package if you attended. It was something every student, parent, and professor was aware of. It's why they had such strict rules and enforced them with a seriousness that would have terrified Khris had he been a misbehaving sort of child. As it was he enjoyed the structure.

That being said... whoever's idea it was to teach incendio to first years was severely overestimating these student's self control. Magical fire. What normal 11 year old boy wouldn't try it out every now and then.

That was beside the point though.

The loud scream and startling SPLOOSH that had followed his introduction set off a sort of trigger. A noisy sort of babble that was pulled from the students who'd all seemed to materialize within moments of the mishap. Some faces were familiar and others not. A ragtag gaggle of children it seemed, a few from each house save Gryffindor.

Right then. He could do this, socialize. It was simple. Break it down, go one at a time, compartmentalize and react.

A shaky breath was taken.

It was true some confidence had been gained over the school year but large groups really weren't something Khris was good at. He could manage them if necessary but, yeah, definitely not his strong suit. He preferred quiet and peace and the calm and often silent enjoyment of a single person's company. One on one conversation was really his go to and in a situation like this, choosing the correct option for an interaction was daunting.

Where did he look first? Who does he address? Does he go and help those who fell or stay and speak with those in which he's already engaged in conversation? If he knows someone is he obligated to greet them? Is it rude to go off with a friend and leave the strangers behind? Can he leave early? How much is saying too much and how much is saying too little?

Oh gosh. Too many rules, too many variables, too many options!

No.

He let out a deliberately slow breath. No, don't panic. He could do this. Break it down, go one at a time, compartmentalize and then react. Silver blue eyes scanned the scene.

Bella had been the girl that had been hit, he knew that much. They'd met earlier in the school year and he would recognize that yelp anywhere. Frost was the Hufflepuff who had hit her. Not purposefully, but the cause of the mishap none the less. They'd met the same time he'd met Bella. He wasn't familiar with the Ravenclaw girl who'd just approached the Hufflepuff skimming stones, Ami, she had said, the Ravenclaw boy, Hengist Warbeck if he'd caught that right, and he, but other than that he was pretty cleared up with everyone's names. Pretty cleared. Not entirely but good enough to calm some of his scattered thoughts. Enough to know what to do next.

"You have to tell me more about physics. I've read a lot of muggle books, but I have not come across one about this physics you mentioned. It almost sounds like a branch of magic."

Khris watched as Hengist made his way into the shallow part of the lake where Bella and Frost were still sprawled, Ami already helping the Hufflepuff up and Hengist offering his hand as he spoke over his shoulder towards him. He cleared his throat.

"Um... Yeah. Yes! I could tell you a bit more if you like. It's not really something that's commonly, taught or read around our age but..." He gestured between them, eye's darting to Bella's damp frame still sat in the water. "Uh. Maybe some time after all of this get's cleared up we could talk about it together? Or I could borrow you a book if you like? It's not really magic but science is kinda like magic. Or at least my da, he teaches in a Muggle school even though he's a- sorry. Babbling. He says it sort of is like magic. Muggle magic or just..." Khris' voice trailed off. "I'm sorry. Bella, right?" His brow furrowed in concern and his eye's flashed between the Slytherin girl and the awkwardly held out hand on the Ravenclaw's part. "Just... let's get you out of the water, yeah?"

He kicked off his own shoes and waded in.