Cold Calculations PV. Koko, Marla, Luna Closed

A breeze would catch the tangled caramel coloured hair of a young child prowling the grounds of the great Hogwarts castle. There was nothing better for her to do, you see, than roam aimlessly. No matter her cause, she would be there, watching. Except now, she did have a purpose to be out here. Um... Well... Her purpose was top secret. It was the most amazing purpose one could have. Once she realised what it was, of course...

Our brave protagonist's name was Koko, and she was a Slytherin here to save the day.

Or so she thought.

"OOF!"

It was the voice of a child, one who had slipped. Slipped on the muddy banks of the lake and gone sliding down the edge. Now the bottoms of her robes were sopping wet. And to make matters worse, it was winter. "Stupid, stupid," she mumbled.

And there she saw him. A very pale child he was, a petite one too, but a fellow Slytherin no less. Koko decided that, despite the bits of ice now forming on her robes, she would go say hello. It would be nice to see a new face.

She yanked her scarf tighter around her neck, wrapping it around once more, to try and keep out the cold. It wouldn't work, she knew that, but at the very least it might help. Her feet were now cold and wet as well; while the water hadn't soaked through her combat boots, a small bit had dripped in and was apparently trying to give her toes frostbite. Koko could imagine them turning more purple by the moment.

She finally finished her stride to the shorter child--shorter by almost a foot! Her cheeks were flushed red from the exercise, even though it hadn't been taxing, and her breath came in short pants as her body tried to regulate the heat. God, it was cold outside. Why couldn't she be inside the glorious castle?

Because she hated it in there.

Well, not exactly. Hate was such a strong word. More like, she had explored almost everywhere and she was bored as hell. So why not freeze out here?

It wasn't rational, not by any means. Nor was it necessarily irrational. It was just a choice, and by a roll of the dice, it had been so freezing that she could hardly move out here. "H-hello," she said through chattering teeth. "It is certainly cold out here." Of course, Koko, talk about the weather. Great way to meet someone. Keep it up.

Shut up, she told herself. Finally mustering up the courage to ignore her stammering and speak once more, she said, "I'm pleased to meet a fellow Slytherin. My name is Koko, may I ask yours?" She gestured to the Slytherin crest on her robes if he couldn't tell. Her golden eyes were ringed with worry, worry that one would hardly notice, as she spoke. Finally, she sealed her lips after a cloud of steam rushed out of them as she sighed. Koko wondered, for a moment, if she had said anything wrong. For a moment, she wondered if a nine-year old could understand her words. And then she realised that the kid had to be eleven or twelve like she was.

She wouldn't judge him. Not yet.

@Koko Riddle
@Warren Kirkland
@Luna Choi

Boring. That was the only way to sum up Hogwarts, or at least after searching every nook and cranny in a surge of curiosity. Especially with nothing to do except for work, but why do that when you can procrastinate? Even then, there isn't much to do in terms of "procrastinating". What was she going to do, ram into the Whomping Willow and put herself out of her misery? (Most likely). Even though it was bitterly cold outside, Marla was desperate for something to do, and maybe if she got frostbite at least it would make the day a bit more interesting. Painful, but interesting, no less. So she decided to go outside, walk around, maybe play in the light snow a bit. Marla slipped on her heavy winter cloak, grabbing a few snacks in case she got hungry and her wand.

As Marla stepped outside onto the grounds of Hogwarts, she was immediately greeted by a gust of wind so cold that it burnt, strands of red hair somehow ending up in the girl's eyes and mouth. She groaned, rolling her eyes as she pulled the collar of her coat as high as she could above her face, " Winter sucks ", she mumbled, scowling at nothing in particular. And apparently, it didn't suck for just Marla, especially since she spotted another girl soaked in mud after falling onto the ground. She actually looked quite familiar, too...

Ah! A lightbulb turned flipped on in the small girl's head, it was the Slytherin from the library! Marla walked over, trying to be careful as to not repeat what the Slytherin girl had done, since being in freezing weather and completely soaked is definitely not a fortunate combination. Marla hugged her waist as she tried to warm herself up more, though her efforts were quite fruitless, as her coat was a bit thinned out and matted from years of wear. Marla finally reached the Slytherin and another boy who was very short.. Even shorter than Marla! She didn't see that very often. The girl let a cloud of breath escape her lips as she sighed, trying to distract herself from her freezing hands, which were lacking gloves. "Sorry, I hope I'm not interrupting... But you look really familiar." She spoke to the Slytherin girl, shoving her hands into her pockets since they weren't going to warm up themselves. Marla was crossing her fingers that the person she was thinking of when she spotted the Slytherin, was, well, the person she thought she was. It would be super awkward if the girl had no idea who she was..

What a cold day. Though she shouldn't be surprised, it was winter. And we couldn't call winter "winter" when it wasn't cold, right? She wanted to go outside. It was sudden, but who cared? Winter had always been her favorite season. She gave her kitten a pat on the head as a goodbye to him. He was still sleeping, and she didn't want to wake him up either. It was cold outside, and he probably would follow her.

Luna stood up, wore the scarf on and tried not to make too many noises. She took her wand, the Marauder's Map and the prefect's badge with her. After so many things happened, she had learned to bring her wand with her everywhere. The Marauder's Map, she brought it with just to be sure, it helped her a lot in the past as well. Why the prefect's badge? She had to prepare first before anyone broke the rules. Since the Slytherin prefect's plan was to have a walk, not reading books, she didn't bring anything to read with her. The others in the dorm weren't here, maybe they went out to hang around with their friends? Maybe.

It was colder than she thought, now she felt lucky that she brought her scarf with her. There were a lot of students on the grounds more than she expected. Weren't they cold? Luna decided to go to the places near the Great Lake instead. Walking along it didn't seem like a bad idea right? She slightly looked at the sky, and then a slightly smiled showed on her face when no one was around. As she thought, there weren't any students around here. And she guessed that she knew the reasons why they were out, just looked at this beautiful day, although it was cold.

Luna walked along the lake, enjoying the view until she saw three other students from far away. Two Slytherins... and a Gryffindor. No familiar face, how, unfortunately. (Yes I know Koko and Luna have already met, but Luna doesn't realize that they have met before >->) When she came closer, she stopped. The rule... right, the students were not allowed to swim in the Great Lake without staff supervision. Why? Because it might be dangerous, and the staff needed to be there to help them. Maybe, she should give them a warning...

"I suggest you three stay away from the lake." She looked at them and said, without showing a smile or anything like that. They might misunderstand why she suggested that, but it was their choice to misunderstanding.

And then the other snake noticed her. He had almost leaped twenty feet at the surprise of her being there, but now she would begin to recognise him. Warren? Was that the name of the Quidditch player? Whatever his name was, he was certainly small, spectacle-clad, and about as adorable as a kitten. He then bowed slightly after facing her.

"Evening."

The boy's voice was tinged with extra warmth, an indication that he was going to be a kind Slytherin. Not that Koko had met someone particularly rude from her own house--no, the Gryffindors were honestly terrible. Koko nodded towards the boy, a small smirk threaded across her lips. He spoke as if he knew what he was doing, and his laughter sounded genuine. Koko decided not to be too defensive around him, for there was no reason to. The blonde snake was grinning from ear to ear, and Koko couldn't help but break into a wide smile as well.

You're absolutely correct, I don't remember you. I'd rather not say that it's because you're rather small--no offence--, but rather because I don't spend nearly as much time in our Common Room as I should. I need to meet more fellow Slytherins." Her voice was light and full of laughter, which reminded her of the times when she used to laugh every day. How times had changed.

"Are you okay? Your robe is a bit muddy- Oh, and your shoes- Wait, did you fall?"

Yes, there it was. The assurance that, yes indeed, the girl had fallen. "I would rather say that the wind tried to push me down, and I came up only slightly dirt-covered." She forced out a laugh as she spoke, trying to dismiss the other Slytherin's worry. And then he held out a scarf. It was a Slytherin scarf, and it was definitely oversize for the boy. "O-oh, grazie," Koko stammered, throwing an edge of Italian. She'd been learning the language, and she had only thrown in a simple word of thanks. Koko accepted the scarf and wrapped it around her throat, which was being near-frozen by the near-subzero air. Significantly less cold would make its way in through any crevices in the scarf.

"Here. Don't freeze, alright? Also, my name is Warren. Call me War, though!"

"All right, thank you very much," Koko said with a quick burst of laughter. Then she smiled. War, she thought warmly, committing the name to memory. He certainly was an interesting boy! And then, as she noticed that War was looking behind her, Koko turned. There was someone there! Koko had seen her before, though she wasn't sure what her name was. She was a lion, though, and from what Koko remembered of her, she was a fiesty lion. Koko waved awkwardly as Warren shouted a greeting.

Next there was another girl, a prefect. The newcomer was someone who had met Koko before, Luna Choi. "Greetings," she said to Luna. But Luna said something else, something along the lines of staying away from the lake. With a smirk, Koko said, "Well, you see, I was walking along the banks and I slipped. I'm terribly apologetic for my slip-up." She spoke with an odd mix of modern speech and speech more reserved for formality.

Luna wasn't smiling, so Koko's smile soon faded as well. She wasn't distrustful of the prefect, but she certainly didn't want to put all of her trust in the violet-haired girl. It would be best to stay on her toes, not unlike a duelist on the balls of their feet. Still, it was only figurative. Koko would be standing flat-footed on the cold, moist, dead grass. Her eyes portrayed no emotion now, unless one were to look deep enough to spot just a sliver of fear in the mass of molten gold. Fear that a goody-two-shoes might get a detention. Was Luna that terrible? Koko was unsure, not knowing her well. She hardly remembered her anyway...

The wind was beginning to howl in her ears, or perhaps it was just her imagination. She was beginning to grow restless, pacing on the dreary wasteland. At least, that was how it appeared to her. The winter certainly hated Scotland. She looked back at War, but he didn't seem scared at all. Perhaps she was just overreacting...

Before answering these two Slytherins, Luna just realized something. Their voices sounded really familiar, but she couldn't really recall where she had heard them. Not the library for sure, or in the class. Might be in the common room? But she was not the type that would stay in the common room for too long so that probably wasn't the answer. How about... somewhere related to Quidditch? Finally, the answer popped up on her head. She was not interested in playing this sport, but because she usually patrolled at the Quidditch Training Pitch, she might have heard them there. Not really sure if that was it, but it would totally make sense when she remembered their faces and voices. She wouldn't really care about others in the library or in other places unless they did something wrong, for example, breaking the rules. But she did recall that there were some Quidditch players with the same voices... Which meant, she was right. These two were quidditch players.

But then what? She didn't have any interest in this sport. It wasn't like she would treat them any different from usual. They were just students in Hogwarts. Even if they were prefects just liked her, she wouldn't treat them better. Luna was just that type of person.

This guy sure had a lot of energy, didn't he? That was the first question which came to Luna's mind when she heard the male quidditch player asked. The second one was, how did he know the reasons she chose the lake to wander around? It was surprising that he liked it because of those reasons as well.

The people who she talked a lot with called her Miss Choi this Miss Choi that, and the person who she had never talked with before called her Luna. Interesting. Though, she was a bit surprised that he knew her name. It made her feel kind of bad that she couldn't remember his name. Though, Luna didn't show any of her real emotions on her face, as usual. To answer his question, this sounded like a hard one. Nothing would change if she joined, still had an acceptable afternoon. "With the fact that you might accidentally fall into the lake anytime, I suppose that I can join..." First of all, it would be breaking the rule if they did. Second, the most important reason, she didn't want the people who she had just talked brought troubles to themselves. Unless they jumped down in their own will, she wouldn't give them any detentions because it would be quite unfair. Luna, she wasn't that type.

The Slytherin Prefect turned to Koko, was that just her or she felt like this girl was mocking her? Before that, just by looking at how she was right now, the lavender hair was sure that she was not lying. "You might want to go to the Hospital Wings... These wounds don't seem dangerous, but just to be on the safe side, I suggest you do that. Of course, since that was just my suggestion, you can do whatever you want." To be honest, she didn't care if the blond hair was mocking her or not. She had never had interested in having enemies. There might be some people who were interested in it, but Luna didn't want to have any dramas in her life. She just wanted a peaceful life, and that was it.

What could go wrong? Everything could go wrong. But she wouldn't explain it to her. They were having a "fun" conversation, weren't they? She shouldn't ruin it by talking about bad things. It actually got colder and colder, although she had already brought her scarf with her. She shouldn't be surprised though, it was winter, and it was late after all. She coughed and introduced herself.

"Luna, Luna Choi. A pleasure to meet you." You here was for everyone, not only for the Gryffindor. The lavender hair always introduced herself like this to others, so she didn't find it strange. However, it seemed like not everyone was used to this, for example, Marla and some people that she had met before. If she felt uncomfortable being polite, why did she even do that? Humans were such strange creatures... Luna thought, totally forgot that she was one of those "strange creatures" as well.

The Slytherin Prefect looked away from Marla, not planning to answer the question. It was not because the lion was the one who asked that, Luna had never had problems with being with a Gryffindor. She just didn't think it was necessary to answer that question. Should she scare them by using the reason "patrolling the lake"? ...Maybe not. She actually was going to say that was none of their business, but the girl suddenly remembered about Mari. That Hufflepuff just literally cried harder when she said that. Although these people might be different, but just to be on the safe side, she wouldn't do that.