11 Mar 2021, 04:32
Not-so-fantastic beasts and where to find them
@Freya Thomas
It was with unusual determination that Julian plod through the muddy grounds of Hogwarts, shoes squelching with every step as he approached the lake. Normally the awful sound of his shoes sinking into the mud and creating a small vacuum before suddenly plopping free would've been enough for him to avoid this particular path, but he'd finally managed to figure out the correct angle to get his microscope working with just a mirror, and he very much needed the lake. Or, to be more accurate, he needed a particular formation of mossy rocks on its shore.
Moss was, after all, the natural habitat of the tardigrade--the target of this little expedition--and he was not going back to his dorm until he'd caught one.
It didn't take long for him to reach the rocks. Setting up, on the other hand, took longer than he'd expected. It had not occurred to him that there would be no good place to lay his microscope or backpack so he could start collecting mossy samples, and the ground was very much not an option as he wanted neither dirty. Instead, he was stuck trying to find a non-grimy, non-slimy rock. A real challenge, this close to the lake.
Eventually he identified a promising one, low on the ground and flat enough and more or less clean. It was farther than he would've liked--his microscope was easily his most prized possession (aside from maybe his wand) and he did not like placing it where he could not comfortably keep an eye on it. He had no choice, however, and while the microscope's perch atop his backpack on the rock was a little more precarious than he was entirely comfortable with, it was far better than getting it muddy.
He would just have to keep an eye on it while he worked on scraping the moss.
Grabbing the couple of jam jars and tweezers that he'd brought stashed in his backpack, Julian walked over to the rocks and set to work, gingerly using his tweezers to peel back tiny pieces of moss from the rock, which then went into the jam jars. He did not look up until he was satisfied at which point he realised that there was someone in close proximity to his things. A girl who he did not think he recognised.
"Please don't touch that," he called out, the words out of his mouth before he had time to think on them.
It was with unusual determination that Julian plod through the muddy grounds of Hogwarts, shoes squelching with every step as he approached the lake. Normally the awful sound of his shoes sinking into the mud and creating a small vacuum before suddenly plopping free would've been enough for him to avoid this particular path, but he'd finally managed to figure out the correct angle to get his microscope working with just a mirror, and he very much needed the lake. Or, to be more accurate, he needed a particular formation of mossy rocks on its shore.
Moss was, after all, the natural habitat of the tardigrade--the target of this little expedition--and he was not going back to his dorm until he'd caught one.
It didn't take long for him to reach the rocks. Setting up, on the other hand, took longer than he'd expected. It had not occurred to him that there would be no good place to lay his microscope or backpack so he could start collecting mossy samples, and the ground was very much not an option as he wanted neither dirty. Instead, he was stuck trying to find a non-grimy, non-slimy rock. A real challenge, this close to the lake.
Eventually he identified a promising one, low on the ground and flat enough and more or less clean. It was farther than he would've liked--his microscope was easily his most prized possession (aside from maybe his wand) and he did not like placing it where he could not comfortably keep an eye on it. He had no choice, however, and while the microscope's perch atop his backpack on the rock was a little more precarious than he was entirely comfortable with, it was far better than getting it muddy.
He would just have to keep an eye on it while he worked on scraping the moss.
Grabbing the couple of jam jars and tweezers that he'd brought stashed in his backpack, Julian walked over to the rocks and set to work, gingerly using his tweezers to peel back tiny pieces of moss from the rock, which then went into the jam jars. He did not look up until he was satisfied at which point he realised that there was someone in close proximity to his things. A girl who he did not think he recognised.
"Please don't touch that," he called out, the words out of his mouth before he had time to think on them.