Closed A lost Tome PV EmmaLee LeDames

As class ended, EmmaLee packed up her things neatly and slung the strap of her bag around her head and across her shoulder. She breathed a sigh of relief as the last class of the day was over and she could look forward to hanging outside for a bit. She was planning on trying to get the Giant Squid's attention at some point and maybe she could accomplish that today. I mean, if their was a giant squid. She still couldn't tell if there really was one or if it was all just rumors. Lots of people agreed that not only are squids a seawater animal that couldn't survive in a freshwater lake, a giant squid was just too big to fit in Hogwarts' lake. Well, EmmaLee would find out.

As she was walking down the row to exit, she tripped over something and kicked it under the table. Curious about what she had kicked, she popped down on her hands and knees and retrieved someone else's Hogwarts: A History. Standing up, she looked towards the flood of students already exiting the door. She knew that a boy, Efleeon...Elefon...um....it started with an E, sat here. Well... she'd get his name correct later but he was definitely the tall boy who was rounding the corner of the door and heading down the hallway.

She put the book under her arm and tried to move through the crowd and get out the door before he got to far. Mon dieu, My god it was a good thing he was a taller student or she would have completely lost him in the crowd and fallen too far behind with her short legs.

As the other students dispersed to their chosen destinations, the crowd thinned out and it was easier to keep track of the boy heading outside. She quickly followed him as he walked across the grounds, sat down, and started to look around in his bag.

"Are you perhaps looking for this?" EmmaLee said, holding up the Hogwarts: A History book she had found as she came up the hill and approached the boy. "You dropped it in the classroom." She finished, holding it out to the boy and then clasping her hands behind her back.

She twisted the toe over her shoe in the dirt nervously as she asked, "Um, My name is EmmaLee, and I have heard the professeur say your name, but I am not sure how to pronounce it? Or I would have called to you early about your book." She said, fumbling through her words. She was usually pretty okay with talking to new people, but she always got self-conscious about maybe being made fun of for the way she spoke.

Efelion’s heart skipped a beat when he heard a voice by him, he had been searching for his book. There was an accent on the voice from near him as he looked around to see a white blond hair girl standing nearby holding up a copy of the book he was missing. The boy sighed with relief realizing she had brought his copy to him, a kind gesture to be sure.

“Thank you muchly,” Efelion said standing up to grab the book of the girl who stood in front of him with relief on his face “Last thing I wanted to do was send my family a letter asking for a new copy else I’d get a howler along with it.” the boy spoke to her.

“My name is Efelion” He replied “Ef-El-Ion” he spoke the pronunciation as he knew it was an odd name even in the wizarding world. Efelion noticed her awkwardness, something he often had when meeting someone new, however, he normally came from engaging them first so he was far calmer and collected. He was just happy someone had been kind enough to have gotten his book and was nice enough to bring it to him.

“I apologize for making you come all the way out here just to hand me a book,” The boy said softly “I don’t think I’ve really seen you around however in saying that I'm normally nose deep in a book unless I’m exploring the corridors of the castle.”

It was true, he was often either lost in the halls or intentionally was running through them trying to find all the nooks and crannys of the large castle. He had a habit of getting into trouble although not intentionally, out of curiocity, he had a need to explore and understand everything. Knowledge to him was more than just books.

“Do you want to go down by the lake?” Efelion asked with a smile “I find it relaxing down by the water’s edge.”

EmmaLee smiled and chuckled a little as he took the book from her. She herself wouldn't have found it if she hadn't tripped over it. It seemed that in his rush to get out of the stuffy castle, he dropped it on the floor. She was also glad that she had been able to spot him before he got out the door or she would have never had found him to return it.

"You're welcome. That would definitely be a terrible outcome." She said with a nod. "It is nice to meet you, Efelion. I'm EmmaLee." She continued, decidedly more confident now that she knew how to pronounce his name. She tried to enunciate and be as clear as possible but sometimes her accent still won out in the end and meaner kids would make fun or her for it. Efelion seemed to be used to the mispronunciation of his name, though, and he seemed nice enough to not make fun of her if she had gotten it wrong anyway.

"It was no trouble at all. I was coming outside anyway. I found out yesterday that it is a good place to study." She said with another smile. The wind picked up and blew a large portion of her white hair into her face, causing her to push it behind her ear with a small laugh. "You sit about three seats down from me in our History of Magic class, I tripped over your book as I was passing by your chair, but that's alright. I'm a little more observant than the average person and I seem to be very good at blending in." She shrugged at her observation about herself and then nodded at Efelion's suggestion to go down to the lake.

"I would enjoy that. The lake is very calming, although I have suspicions that there is more going on in there than the staff would like us to know." She said with a raised eyebrow and a mischievous smile. "I have been wanting to look further into it since I read Hogwarts: A History over the summer, but haven't had a spare moment."

Efelion felt stupid not knowing that EmmaLee had been sitting in the same class as him, he would have thought he’d have remembered the white hair of the girl as it wasn’t exactly too common of hair color. Though she said that she was able to blend in easily he still felt silly over it. Maybe he was just unobservant of others but he was glad that they had met now. When she brought up the lake he looked to Emma and nodded in agreement, he had heard things from his family as well.

“Some say there are even mermaids that live in there,” Efelion said with a smile, only half joking to her “A place of mystery and legend, a place where its secrets are hidden by its depths.” He continued as he walked over slowly to the water's edge and looked in, as it slowly lapped at the pebble-covered shoreline “I wonder if even more secrets than the oceans in the whole world.”

It was a possibility that it could hold many, Hogwarts had begun to show him it had more than it's fair share of secrets and he had known that before coming. He had heard many things about the school but he had never thought that it would be as magical as it had been so far, even in the wizarding world it was above and beyond anything he had ever experienced. He wanted to explore it all though and learn about it all, he wasn’t one to leave mysteries unchecked.

“Do you think that the mysteries of this place will ever be solved?” Efelion asked looking over to EmaaLee “Do you think that maybe one day someone would be able to go to all of the trouble of discovering all the nooks and crannies, all of the folklore and all of the rumors?” It was a question he wondered about, whether one day they would all be solved, if he could solve them all in his time in school or if even seven years wouldn’t be enough time.

To be honest, EmmaLee sometimes wondered if her white hair and pale skin made some of the other students mistake her for a Hogwarts ghost, and therefore, they looked over her. She twirled a lock of hair around her finger and frowned for a moment as that thought crossed her mind again before she released the lock and physically waved the thought from the front of her face, her freckled nose scrunching up as she did so. Then she looked back over the Efelion with a soft smile as he spoke.

"It would be fun to find mermaids, although, my maman did warn me that mermaids are more angry sea witch than beautiful maiden." She commented as they approached the shore. She crouched down with her feet flat for a moment and sorted a few smooth rocks from the sand. She giggled a little at his oceans comment. "With the stories I've heard, it may just be deeper than all of the oceans in all of the world."

She stood back up again and drew a slender arm back, only to fling it forward expertly and release her ammo, skipping a rock over the surface of the water. The rock skidded across the surface of the dark water six times before gracefully sinking below to the depths on the 7th landing. She turned to answer Efelion's questions before launching another rock.

"I think they all will be solved some day if many people are willing to look for them." She said with a shrug. "Lots of people are willing to just let mysteries lie and be mysterious. I can't really seem to do that." She continued with a laugh. "It always feels like an itch where, no matter how much I scratch it, it has yet to go away. I think it would probably take a couple of people to go around and explore every bit, maybe systematically, and search out every little bit and that takes a lot of determination."

Efelion nodded in agreement, he felt the same way about things, he also could never just leave things alone. He was always looking and searching for more things, whether that was his own knowledge or just trying to prove something to be true. It had often gotten him in trouble with his parents on family trips.

“I am glad I am not the only one that thinks like that” Efelion exclaimed with a smile on his face as he looked over at his new comrade “Tis amazing the world, many things to learn and see, hopefully, one day I get to see them all.” He picked up a pebble himself and looked at it while thinking “I always wanted to be an Auror ever since I could remember thinking about what I wanted to be, but the more I think, maybe I could be an explorer or researcher.”

The thought was something he hadn’t really questioned originally, after seeing all the work the Aurors at his mother’s work did he thought it would be the best thing to be, trying to keep others safe. But he had wondered if they got to travel and if not he wasn’t sure if it was something he’d want to be stuck with. He wanted to travel and explore not be stuck in the same place all the time. Maybe he had thought about the wrong path.

“Do you think that the giant squid rumor is true?” He asked looking down into the deep water “That something so big could be stuck down there all this time?” Efelion was never sure what was a fact of fiction in the castle, he was so used to the magical but the school still surprised him all the time. He couldn’t believe that even for someone who grew up with magic how wonderful the school was.

“I’ve heard the stories but I never really believed something so big could fit in such a small body of water” He admitted awkwardly “But seeing how deep it is, maybe my first hesitation was wrong.”

EmmaLee continued to skip rocks as she listened to Efelion talk. It was really nice to meet someone just as curious as she was. It would be amazing if they could explore all of Hogwarts' secrets together, or y'know, as many as they could uncover in the short seven years they'd be here.

"I think that an explorer would be better than an auror. Aren't auror more like criminal police than detectives? I think I would rather be an explorer or a curse breaker. Maybe an architect or a sociologist. I've heard that they travel a lot and get to figure a lot of things out. Like, solve the whole world's mysteries. There's still so much about everything that we don't know." She said, smiling widely at the idea of being some kind of Indiana Jones detective. After a moment though, she sighed.

"Although, I'll probably end up taking over my step-father's business and living the life of, what did he say, a jet-setting business woman." She continued, skipping another rock as her smile dipped into a frown. Victor traveled a lot for his business, but it really wasn't something she wanted to do when she got older. She felt more or less obligated because she was his only child.

"But, I mean," She said, stumbling a little as she realized that she didn't want to discourage her new friend from something he wanted to do. "if you really want to be an auror, you seem smart enough for it. Or anything you could want to do, really." She twirled a lock of hair around her finger awkwardly, hoping that she hadn't stepped on his toes or anything.

EmmaLee giggled at little when he asked about the giant squid and put her hand daintily over her mouth. "Well, maybe it's a runt giant squid. Like, a little one." She said, holding up her thumb and index fingers to indicate it's size. "But to be fair, squid are salt water animals so they wouldn't survive in the lake anyway. I think the only real explanation is that it is a magical squid and can live wherever it wants." She pushed her white hair out of her face and over her ear once again, then quickly braided it out of her way and over her shoulder.

"I think it's real, though, I am 100% sure that I saw it during the boat ride when we arrived here. I could see it's huge eye just below the surface and I almost fell in." She said, with a small laugh at the memory. "I think it is possible that the students don't really know just how deep the lake actually goes or what all is in there. It is not uncommon for wizards to charm something to be bigger on the inside and put things of massive proportion in them. What do you think about just going in and seeing if we can find the squid ourselves?" EmmaLee asked, turning to Efelion with a mischievous smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Or we could just, see how deep it is."