Closed Swimming...….together?

It's not every day that you see a first year without at least someone around them. A friend, a classmate, maybe even a prefect helping them out. Unfortunately for Reginald, he was currently alone under the shade of a nearby tree, obsessing over a piece of transfiguration homework that he just could not figure out. He thought the sun and cold would be a nice combination to get his brain running faster, though it's not exactly working.
 
"What in the...No way!" He yelled, as he slowly put the book to his side and stood up, watching the girl walk out onto the great lake. He always thought the lake was off-limits. He never saw anyone get near it, and he didn't want to be expelled just yet. "We were allowed to do that?"

Unfortunately for the boy who's currently making his way over to the water hurriedly. You, in fact, are not allowed to do that. "Make some space!" He said as he chucked his winter cloak to the side, revealing a white T-shirt and jeans he probably wasn't allowed to bring into the school anyway, but who's keeping watch?

Reginald threw himself across as he reached the edge, his stride long, giving him a sizeable gap from the lakeside compared to the girl he was copying. "Oh, God I needed that! Studying was getting so boring." He said out loud, as he fished his own body out of the water and began to float for a few seconds. Okay, this might have been a bad idea. It's really cold.

"YY-Y-You just gonna stand there?" Reginald said, a wide grin on his face, as he put his shaking arms up just barely above the water and floated. Staring at the girl still tip-toeing around the lake. Still trying to figure out how you're supposed to turn a needle into a matchstick, but in freezing, debilitating waters this time.

- _{Word count: 315}

The most embarrassing thing that could ever happen to Elisa was someone seeing her swim but that was exactly what happened when she heard a boy yell if they were allowed to do it, hearing this Elisa stayed still acting like she was ignoring him but the situation got worse when she heard someone swim behind her,

As she heard the faint voice swimming get nearer, a light tint of red covered her face, she felt embarrassed at the fact that someone had seen her do such a stupidity and had also joined her, worse of all it was a boy,

As the voice got near, Elisa's face got redder, anyone who didnt know her would think that she was blushing instead of feeling embarassed but the young girl was suddenly caught off-guard when she heard the voice right behind her complaining about how boring studying was, to which the young blonde simply ignored and stayed still.

Elisa would have continued to ignore the boy when he asked her if she was going to stay in there but somehow she was able to mutter "Maybe, the coolness is pleasing and is helping me calm my mind", she then finally faced the boy since she had learned from a very young age that talking to someone while showing your back was unkind and Elisa surely didn't want to start any argument about her manners yet,

As she faced the boy, she saw him grinning while shaking from the cold, the boy looked cute in such a condition, After nearly 4-5 minutes of fighting her urge to smile, she won and kept on her serious face, "You seem cold, you shouldn't have jumped in." , her voice was lighter than a whisper, but the boy's situation was indeed scaring her, he seemed like he was freezing,

All Elisa hoped was that the boy wouldn't get sick, if not then the blame would come onto her for taking him for a swim when she didn't even know him..

Great Lake	@Reginald Drake
'Thoughts' "Speech"	Notes: -

It wasn't an ideal situation, but Reggie rarely found himself in those either way. It was plenty fun, which is all he really cares about. Hair wet from the impromptu swimming session; he quickly swept his locks away from his face as he finally shook himself out of this rabbit hole of transfiguration that he was digging his mind into. He didn't expect her to be nice! Score! The Slytherins these days were so shut off, excluding Ulysses of course, but that's because he ambushed him in the library.

"Oh. N-Nah! I've had worse. T-This is awesome! I didn't think we were allowed to go swimming!" He said as his smile widened and he walked past her, deeper into the water until his whole body was submerged in the water. The clothing was definitely a bad idea in this cold water, but you live and learn he guessed.

"A little cold is so worth it, if we get to swim like this after studying." He said, as his head alone resurfaced from the water. "Oh, Name's Reginald by the way. Reggie's better, though." his brown locks, which he had swiped away, latched onto his face once more. He had thought about cutting them plenty of times before, but his mother's love for his long hair was all the motivation he needed to keep growing his hair well past the norm.

"W-What's your name? And more importantly, are you gonna stop there, or are you actually going to give this lake a chance to freeze ya?" He said, voice slowly going back to a normal volume after his ears got adjusted and his icy-blue eyes sparkling with amusement while locked onto the girl he left behind. Being under water is fun, just not for your ears, and he can't be the only one suffering here!

- _{Word count: 310}
@Elisa Shakestra

by Ulysses Drake

Never had Elisa ever thought that she would be so chill while swimming with a total stranger whom she had just met, her parents would clearly disapprove of this situation if they ever find out about it but who's going to even tell them? Elisa wouldn't, It would be the dumbest thing ever to go forward and tell your strict parents about breaking rules, maybe Hogwarts was a bad influence on her, such an influence which was bad and could also ruin her relationship with her parents more but it was sugarcoated with the sweetness of enjoyment, happiness and freedom, 3 things the young girl had always craved for from a very young age,

As she remained in her thoughts, Elisa heard the boy speak something as he walked deeper into the lake, his entire body submerging deep into the cool water, "T-This could earn us detention but it's not that big of a problem, the detention is worth the pleasing feeling of the water.", she said as she stood in the water, Elisa knew if she walked a few more steps the water would be deep and she would have to use her swimming then.

Her head instantly rose up, when she heard him introduce himself, for which to maintain the formality, she muttered "Elisa, Elisa Shakestra, a pleasure to meet you", as she helped him to swipe his hair off his face, "Your hair seems like it's hard to handle, maybe I will let the water freeze me, the feeling is so great to stop" she said while walking deeper towards the water, as the water reached her neck, Elisa slowly started moving her legs to swim while trying to float which she succeeded in doing so easily,

After a while, Elisa turned towards the boy with a small smile, which surprised her deep inside too, the young girl hadn't made a genuine smile for a long time she had completely forgotten how to smile until she met Dennis, on at the ice cream shop to whom she had given a fake smile to keep on her friendly cover which covered her true helpless self, "You sure you aren't feeling cold? You could always step out of the water"

Great Lake	@Reginald Drake
'Thoughts' "Speech"	Notes: -

Clair had plans to go for a short walk before returning to her dorm to complete the puzzle she had been working on for the last couple of weeks. The Ravenclaw prefect had left her cat in her dorm and was hoping that the puzzle was left in its half-finished state and that it would stay that way when she returned to it.

Clair pulled her sweater tighter around her shoulders, even though it had been a warmer week, reaching a high of 10C which was unusually warm for February, she was still chilly and looked forward to a hot cup of tea later. She paused to remind herself why she had even decided to come out, she listened for the sounds of life, the sounds of students chatting as they wandered the grounds, the sounds of laughter, in her own head she could hear the constantly running thoughts of her boyfriend, she pushed the chatter away. She headed towards the great lake, it was a favourite hangout place for most of the student body it seemed, however, it was still able to make a person feel peacefully alone.

As she neared the lake she could see what looked like two heads bobbing around in the water, her first thought was if they were ok, she quickened her step, but as she got even closer she noticed that they looked relaxed, these two were swimming in the middle of February!

She briefly wondered about just turning and leaving, they'd learn pretty quickly not to swim in the lake, if some wild creature did not eat them, the cold water sure would. But then she realized that if she left them in the water she was failing as both a prefect and as a person, if either of them got sick or worse, died, she would never be able to live down the guilt.

She walked up to the edge, and crossed her arms over her chest (she was getting rather chilly by now)
"What in the heavens do you two think you're doing? I know it's been warmer than normal but its still February!" She resisted the urge to roll her eyes, how could these two even come up with the idea to go swimming now?

(wc 377)
@Elisa Shakestra and @Reginald Drake

Reggie smiled lightly to himself, as he shook his head this way and that, although it did nothing to fix the brown locks that decided to plant themselves on his face. "Oh, well. I'm sure we won't get caught. We'll leave in just a few minutes."

He grinned widely as she started properly swimming, and started clapping above his head. "Yeah! Way to go! You'd get in trouble anyway, apparently! Live it up, Elisa!" Reggie said, as he let his body flat, the lakeside to his back.

"Huh. It's weird, though. What kind of detention would we get for swimmi-" And right before Reggie's words could finish forming, he turned around to see someone come over to ruin the fun, and finally, for once, he began to feel the cold of the water overpower him.

"O-Oh. Well, this wasn't the plan." Reggie gave an awkward smile to the prefect, as he started waving after pulling his arm out of the water.

"Hey, Miss, what are the chances we can continue for a few more minutes before we have to talk about this?" Reggie said, trying to hold a front of strength as he smiled wide. This is the first time he's gotten in trouble since getting to the school, and his nerves were shot. The cold helped, but going back to his mother without experiencing all she promised at Hogwarts was the worst thing that could ever happen to him.

"Taking a swim isn't too bad, right?"

<sub>- Word count: 256
- Notes: Reeee problems arise.</sub>

Before she knew it, Elisa was nodding to the boy like some fool without thinking twice, but it was not like her mind was set on the conversation, Instead, it was back to enjoying the cool weather, as Elisa was about to zone out, her mind was interrupted by the voice of which surely didn't belong to Reggie,

Elisa instantly flipped her head towards the side where the voice came from and instantly widened her eyes, in front of them was a girl standing with a pissed-off face, the girl was trying her best to avoid her urge to roll her eyes, Elisa's mind went blank when she recognized the girl, It was Clair Fernandez, the Ravenclaw Prefect,

Before the young blonde could say anything, she heard Reggie speak back to the prefect, hearing which Elisa instantly looked down, the boy was looking for detention and would drag her to it along with him, It would have been easier to convince the prefect, if the boy next to her hadn't said such stupid stuff to the prefect.

As the boy continued speaking, Elisa finally had enough and instantly covered his mouth with her hand, "Are you crazy? That prefect is known for giving the most ruthless punishments, we will both be dead" she mumbled to the boy while making sure, It was only he who heard her and no one else,

Elisa then dragged the boy along with her to the edge of the lake, as she moved forward, the level of the water decreased until the time came in which the duo stood just a couple of meters away from the prefect, the young Slytherin then slowly spoke up "It was not that big, We promise never to do that again, If you let us off this time please and don't mind what he said at all", her eyes with a light hint of fear, there was no way, Elisa was gonna mess with a prefect of whom she had heard of for being strict

As she waited for the prefect to reply, all Elisa hoped was for the prefect not to take Reggies words seriously.

Great Lake	@Reginald Drake, @Clair Fernandez
'Thoughts' "Speech"	Notes: -

Clair stared at the boy, was he honestly serious? She had to remind herself to keep her mouth shut, her surprise threatened to allow her to forget. "Please tell me you are joking, right?" The prefect stared at the two who had decided that swimming was a good idea in the middle of February in Scotland.

"I mean it's fine by me, as long as you don't whine when I have to drag you to the nurse because you're dying of hypothermia." She said sarcastically. She added a wave of her hand to her display of disapproval. "You know what? Why don't we talk about this right now WHILE you actively work on freezing every bit of you." She frowned at them, a memory of seeing videos of people taking ice baths crossed her mind from the break when her sister had tried to introduce the Ravenclaw prefect to the muggle addiction called Tiktok. "Listen, I know its like some sort of trend at the time, but can you please use a little brain power to realize just how dangerous this is??" Her voice had dropped its sarcastic tone, she was not stupid enough to have forgotten that she too had something similar in her own first year. But she had learned her lesson after her toes had touched the water.
Clair turned her gaze to the girl, "Oh yes. Its really not a big deal you know. breaking rules and trying to freeze yourself at the same time." She paused for a second, "Ok c'mon get out before you gve me another ten years of trauma to recover from." Her words were heavy but her tone was lighter than before. The kids HAD to be freezing, that or they really were extra magical.
(wc 296)

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Reginald's brows furrowed deeply, his eyes flickering with a mix of confusion and fear as he heard Elisa speak with the prefect. It was as if the prefect stood as a judge, ready to lay down the law on them. "I'm confused, Miss Prefect. Are we in trouble or not?" His voice trembled slightly, betraying the mixture of fear and cold coursing through his body. Though the thought of punishment in his first few days at the school scared him, he couldn't quite imagine a prefect doling out severe consequences, especially given her apparent similarity in age. Surely she understood the urge to... cool down now and then!

"I thought it was fine. I didn't know swimming wasn't allowed when there's a lake right here." Reginald muttered quietly, his teeth chattering as he finally emerged from the frigid waters, crossing his arms tightly over his chest in an attempt to stave off the cold that threatened to give him a premature end. Despite his efforts, shivers wracked his body, visible evidence of the cold's unrelenting grip.

With a sense of urgency, he hurried towards the side of the grounds, each step a darned fight to get one foot over the other. Hypothermia was a set path to, at the very least, a very extended stay at the hospital wing, if not for his magic, their magic protecting them. A muggle would have succumbed by now, sprawled out and motionless on the frozen ground.

Finally reaching the lakeside edge, he cast a glance over his shoulder, expecting the prefect to stop him. With a sense of relief, he reached for his winter coat, the soft fibers a welcome barrier against the chilly wind, though the initial touch was even colder. quickly slipping his hands through the sleeves, he felt the warmth seep back into his numbed fingers, each sensation a welcome relief.

"God, that's cold. Cold. Cold. Cold," he exclaimed, his voice tinged with a mixture of disbelief and discomfort as he continued to shake in place, as if trying to dislodge the icy tendrils that still clung stubbornly to him. "Why was the water warmer than the outside?! It makes no sense!"

"Well, if nothing else, I promise I won't be doing that again...Around this time of year?" He said with a cheeky grin that split his face, showing a sparkle in his icy-blue eyes. A trademark of his, an expression that unconsciously plants itself onto his features whenever a situation is amusing or entertaining.