A Salty Sea Breeze? PV Closed

However much Karlyn loved being at Hogwarts, she couldn't help but miss home a bit. She missed the beautiful seaside village that was her hometown, and she definitely missed being able to walk along the beach and feel the sand between her toes and the wind in her hair. Though it wasn't the same, Karlyn liked walking along the side of the lake. If it wasn't a beach, at least there was water.

It was unusually sunny for a mid-October day, which Karlyn appreciated. She didn't care much for the cold. The water rippled gently in the breeze, making for a serene sort of backdrop. A dead leaf blew from the tree in front of her onto the water and floated calmly on the surface. Karlyn thought it was kind of like something you would see in a postcard. This sparked an idea: wouldn't it be nice if Hogwarts had post cards students could send their parents? She knew that her sister would LOVE it if she got to show her pictures of the castle. Maybe it was something she could suggest to the Headmaster the next time she saw him, thought she wasn't positive that Wizards knew what postcards were.

As Karlyn continued to walk along the side of the lake, she came across a pile of rocks. She bent down to pick one up and chucked it absentmindedly towards the water. However, her aim was a bit off, and it actually went flying towards another student a few yards away instead.

"LOOK OUT!" she exclaimed, waiving her arms frantically, hoping he would see it in time and move out of the way.

Karlyn’s heart was racing. What had been nothing more than an innocent misthrow had turned into something that had apparently greatly upset another student. She clutched her elbow nervously before walking closer to the boy, who appeared to be from the Slytherin house.

“Erm, I’m very sorry. I didn’t meant to cause any harm.” She frowned, a look of genuine concern crossing her face. “Are you alright? You aren’t injured, are you?” Her voice shook with fear. She didn’t know what she would do if she hurt someone, even if it was on accident. She paid no attention to the hostility of his words, assuming that he was just joking, or that the rock had hit him too hard.

The boy was incredibly tall for a student, even towering over Karlyn who was actually quite tall for her age. Was he a 6th year or something? She hadn’t recalled seeing him in her classes, but truth be told, she didn’t have many classes with the Slytherin students anyways. Deciding that now was as good a time as any for an introduction, Karlyn smiled timidly and offered her hand to the boy. “It seems like we got off on the wrong foot, so my apologies for that. My name is Karlyn Amherst, I’m a first year Hufflepuff,” she spoke rapidly so that her words nearly all ran together. “What’s your name? You’re quite tall, you know. Are you a 6th year? I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, it’s just that I don’t know any older students, so if you are, then that’s brilliant.” She didn’t realize that she was being overly talkative again; it was something she did commonly when she was nervous or excited. Normally she relied on her sister to reel her back in, since she had virtually no awareness of it on her own.

Charles folded his arms across his chest as he listened to the girl who admitted that she threw the rock at his direction. The rage inside of him was begging to be released but he kept it in check, He did not want to bring shame to his family name by acting out in anger although the girl deserved all the anger for throwing the rock in his direction. It felt odd to be called a 6th year when he was only in his first year and already tall. He supposed that will hurt him in the later years but he would worry about that another time. Now he was trying his best to keep his anger in check before responding to the girl. Does she not know who he and his family are. What does it matter anyway..His family would tell him to deal with it himself.. And they would expect him too as well.

After some time the anger slowly died down inside of him and he finally responded “ I am fine and not hurt Thank you for asking. What on earth were you thinking of throwing a rock and not paying attention to where it was going ?. Do you have any idea that you could have injured someone by your foolish actions ?. your lucky I did not get hurt or.. “ He yelled at the girl before stopping at the last sentence and took a deep breath and slowly let it out. He needed to calm himself down and get a hold of himself. Anger will not fix anything and will only bring shame to his family if he got in trouble because of his anger.

“ I am a first-year student and my name is Charles York. Look I am sorry for snapping like I did. But I was not expecting a rock to be thrown at me. I mean you could have really hurt me you know that? “ He said softly now as he looked around the area they were in. He placed his hands at his sides now the book under his right arm. He really wanted to get back to reading.. But well now that could wait until later.

Karlyn was excited at the idea of meeting an older student. She had seen some walking around the castle, of course, but hadn’t really had a reason to interact with any of them, so she thought of the opportunity as a bit of an adventure. One may think that she might be disappointed to hear that the boy was actually a first year as well in this case, but the truth was that she was thrilled about that too. Really, Karlyn didn’t care what year someone was, as long as they were willing to talk to her for a few moments at a time.

“Nice to meet you, Charles!” she wondered if she could call him Charlie, but she supposed she could wait until he was slightly less offended to ask him this. Another bright and stupid smile grew on the girl’s lips. “I sure am glad that you aren’t hurt! That would be terrible!” her eyes grew big at the very thought of it. “Anyways, I was just trying to skip some rocks, but I guess that the rock sort of slipped.” She twirled a lock of her dark brown hair around her finger and giggled.

At any rate, Charles seemed to have calmed down a little bit, which Karlyn thought was a good thing. She felt her shoulders relax a little bit and smiled at him again. “I would hope that you wouldn’t expect to have a rock thrown at you. If you were, I would have been worried,” she laughed. She bent over to pick up a few more rocks and offered them to the boy. “However interesting I’m sure that textbook is getting, did you want to maybe skip a few rocks with me? I bet that you can’t make them go further than I can,” She teased. Karlyn had spent a lot of afternoons of her childhood skipping rocks on the beach, so she had certainly aquired a bit of a skill for it after all these years. Charles didn’t need to know that, though.

Charles listened to the girl speak and asked him about wanting to throw rocks. He could not understand why someone that almost hit him with rocks would want him now to throw rocks with them. It made zero sense to him and then the excuse they used about why a rock almost hit them. How does a rock slip out of one's hand and nearly hit someone?. Maybe he should ask a professor about that sometime later since he could not wrap his head around it. His hands at his side still holding his book tightly as he watched her gather more rocks which he assumed was so that the girl could throw them

“ You were trying to skip some rocks from this distance Karlyn. Why in the world would you skip rocks from this distance and not closer to the lake? I am going to decline your offer Karlyn and just watch you skip the rocks as i read my book. Although i will tell you this.. I can skip rocks far better than you can. “ He said as he found what he hoped would be a dry spot to sit down at and began to read his book. He would keep on reading for some time looking up from time to time in thought about a creature that he read about. To him the book was a page turner and he could read it for hours if he wished too.

“ so Karlyn what house do you belong to. One day hopefully i can tell simply by the robes one wears. But for now i have to ask because i am curious. “ He said as he returned to the book he was reading and began to read out loud.