It is almost sunset, the brightly streaked colours of the dying sun playing on the surface of the lake. The air is cool, though not too cold, and the area is quiet and near empty, for the moment. Apparently unbothered by the cool air and the quietness and solitude in the area alike, Kelly Pantall sits on one of the boulders, trailing her fingers through the pebbles. Her gaze is fixed somewhere on the lake, and she chews on her lower lip thoughtfully, a rather pensive expression etched onto her features.

With her Owl, Figaro perched on her narrow shoulder Rawnie is making her way toward the lake. “It’s sucha loverly day innit Fig…” She stops mid-sentance and looks up at Kelly on the boulder. “I don’t think ya should jump in, tha squid only act’s friendly I says. ‘el bite yer clean in ‘alf!” She spouts up at the older girl jokingly peering at the expression on her face.

Bounding out to the lake shore, Briony appears to be giggling hard and red-faced. “See, I told you I’d win!” she calls back and then turns around to see that nobody’s following her. “Oh.” This is stated blandly and she frowns a bit before turning around to see her housemates. “Hi, Kelly! Hi, Rawnie!” she greets them both individually and grins broadly, glancing only once more over her shoulder to make sure that those she was trying to out-run indeed have not followed. “School’s almost out!” she announces loudly, sounding quite excited, and ignoring the fact that the other students are bound to already know that.

The lake has attracted more than just Gryffindor students this evening. In the distance, yet steadily approaching, Evan is walking alongside Olivia, the two taking a night as summer nears to get out and spend some time together. Evan carefully steps across the grounds, for all that his attention is much more focused on the lady with him than the ground beneath his feet – presumably someone will stop him before he walks into the lake. “I still think we ought to learn human transfiguration earlier,” he murmurs, a presumably a followup to some conversation. “I don’t see what use the animals are, and it’s enough work controlling them without worrying about taking a test at the same time…”

“I always get the irritable ones who don’t want to be transfigured at all. I’m certain they do their best not to cooperate,” Olivia answers in affirmative with a sigh. “I’m sure I failed it because of that,” she tells him, shaking her head ruefully. Olivia finds herself stopping as she gets closer to the lake, kicking a small rock with her shoe and frowning rather hard as she spots Kelly. Oh, perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea after all. “Let’s stay over here,” she tells Evan quietly, trying to step in front of him and direct him in the opposite direction of where Kelly is.

Rounding out the house set, Saphia trundles along as well, burried under a fishing rod, a tackle box, bait bag, fishing line, and three manuals of best fishing practice, as she staggers down toward the shore. She doesn’t seem to notice anyone until she finally reaches the shore and unceremoniously dumps most of the gear to the ground, apparently finding it too heavy to put down any more gracefully. “Oh!” She comments, and smiles nervously to all the other students before flipping open one of the books and reciting to herself, “Setting up your fishing pole, step one…”

Glance fleetingly flickering up towards each person as they enter in turn, Kelly looks slightly put out that her privacy and segregation from the rest of the school has been spoilt by the entrance of so many others at once. Her gaze quickly returns to the lake, though, and she folds her arms across her chest in slight annoyance. “I wasn’t intending to jump in.” She offers in response, though her tone is quieter than perhaps is normal for her. “And I am thoroughly aware of the fact that it’s nearly the end of term, Briony Wexler, and the last thing I need is to be reminded.”

A smile spreads over Rawnie‘s face as she turns to Briony “I know! It’s ‘citin ainit?” She nearly yells with her… apparent excitement. She looks back up to Kelly after a momment and rolls her eyes. “Well I were only jokein, but now I don’t mind if yer jump in at all.” All this was said in a rather haughty tone. Rawnie smiles as the other students arive, especially Saphia. “Yer got any worms there Saphia? Can’t go-a fishin ‘ithout yer worms.” To which her owl Figaro gives a positive HOOT.

Smiling broadly to Rawnie, Saphia reaches into her bait bag and, with some distaste, pulls out a wriggling worm, before putting it back into the bag. “Absolutely, Rawnie. Good to see you again, too.” She continues to look over her manual, setting up her rod and putting line over it, and then concentrates hard on tying her hook to the line properly.

“Maybe there’s a spell to make animals want to be transfigured. Though the only person who’d think to come up with one must’ve sat through these same classes once.” Somehow, though, Evan doesn’t sound entirely serious about this idea as he answers. This is followed by a very quick and emphatic shake of his head. “The Professor must know how difficult they can be. After all, he can’t even control it by giving the same creature to every person, there must be some sort of compensation. I’m sure you did fine.” Her halt brings him up short as well, stopping beside her with a curious glance, which is turned from her to the edge of the lake. There’s a lot of people, but noting this fact doesn’t seem to ease his curiosity much, given how definite Olivia was about staying. “Is something wrong?” he ask back, also quietly, walking neither forward nor turning to move away yet.

“What are you doing over summer?” Briony asks the two Gryffindors, ignoring, for the time being, Kelly’s snarky comment. “I’m hoping my parents will let me stay with my Aunt Eva in London. Though, we just moved to Hogsmeade, so I imagine I’ll have to stay there.” She pauses. “Plus, Dad’s got some kind of… project… I guess. He said we’re going to work on it all summer to get it started.” The girl shakes her head in confusion and sits down on the ground, leaning back and propping her arms behind her head. “I’m glad to not have to do homework every day, now!”

Though she sighs heavily and rather unnecessarily loudly, Kelly remains silent for a moment, ignoring those others in the vicinity for a moment. Then, she looks up again, fixing a particularly dark expression for a moment on Briony. “Nothing. I’m doing nothing over the summer. I’m staying at home with my insane mother and my two sisters and my brother, and doing absolutely nothing.” The way she lists off her family members is spiteful at best, and she returns her attention to the lake darkly. “And I was enjoying the privacy of my sitting here until all of you came along.” She adds, at a low grumble.

“I dunno wot I’m gunner do….” Says Rawnie to Briony while chewing on her nails. “I guess I’m just gunner stay at home with my ol man. Maybe I can get Mimi ter take me ta ‘ogsmeade though.” She thinks out loud. “I ain’t ne’r been there…”

Saphia Bona looks to Kelly and frowns, and whispers to her, “I… I’ll take my fishing around the shore a little. I’m so sorry.” She begins packing her fishing gear up again.

“She, er… well,” Olivia frowns and leans against the tree nearby, examining her fingernails rather closely. “We met in the library a while ago, and she started yelling at me, and then called me stupid.” She begins picking at her fingernails, though the excitement of the other girls present does make some effect on her and she looks up at Evan, offering a small smile. “I’m glad it’s summertime, almost. My parents said it would be fine for me to visit in July.” She blushes and smiles more as she tells him this.

“S’a public place,” Briony answers to Kelly, frowning at the the girl and then sitting up. “If you come to Hogsmeade, you should come visit me. We can go on adventures and things. Gabe is probably going to visit some, and hopefully we’ll be able to look at some of the mysteries we found before we came to school.” She pauses. “That’s where I met him, you know. His mum used to watch kids for my Auntie Eva when she worked at Hogsmeade. Isn’t that neat?” The girl giggles and then looks at Saphia. “Oh, are you fishing? I’ve never done that. I hear it’s relaxing or something. It just sounds boring to me.”

Tuning again to look up at Kelly, Rawnie makes a bit of a sour face. “Aww shut-up Smelly, yer don’t own that lake an’ anyone kin come out here iffen they wan’ter.” She states in a very as a matter of factly type tone. “Jes cause ya can’t spend yer summer with Rafiepooh dern’t mean ya kin take it out on us.” Rawnie shakes he head and turns to look at Brony. “She ain’t gots no kinder manners a’tall”

His friend’s answer doesn’t seem to clarify things completely for Evan, who glances over at the group again, all of whom seem to be female. “Which she?” He frowns momentarily, glancing over to eye the group again, though a quick smile returns as she speaks of summer. “Did they? I’m so glad! Everyone will look forward to seeing you.. of course I will..” “You’ll meet the new baby! And if you’re able to stay long enough, we might even be able to take a day trip somewhere outside of Hogsmeade.”

Looking up at the other two Gryffindor girls, Kelly seems utterly stunned for a moment. Whether this is from Briony’s invitation to visit or Rawnie’s rather bizarre mockery is entirely uncertain. Finally, she offers the quiet query, “What, really?”, directed to Briony. As annoyed as she is (or was – her anger seems to fade a little, here), she calms down considerably, eying Briony, perhaps trying to see if this is some sort of jest. “You really want me to come and visit you, again?” Eventually, though, and with a very thoughtful expression, she seems called upon to answer Rawnie, and she offers, quietly and politely, but with an edge of contempt, “Rawnie Weller, I am only going to say this once. Leave me alone and never, ever speak of Rafe DeWitt again.”

“An’ what if I don’t eh?” Rawnie says narrowing her eyes at the older girl. “Ya don’t scare me Pantall, It inn’t my fault yer always lookin fer things ter be sour about is it?” Rawnie stands a bit firm despite Kelly’s penchant for hitting people. “I can out ‘ere ta look out at tha lake with me bird is all an I gotta rite ter it jes like everyone else.”

Her question unanswered, although she guesses she did speak it rather quietly, Saphia ignores Briony and Rawnie for a moment and then, biting her lip, she puts down her rod and walks over to Kelly. Clearly frightened of the strange third year, she puts her hands down on the rock Kelly is sitting on, and then whispers, “M… Ms. Pantall? You scare me, but I don’t think you’re a bad person.” She breathes out, the hardest bit done, and then finishes, “I’m sorry I disturbed you. I’ll go set up somewhere else.”

“Sure, why not,” Briony responds and nods. Though the girl had been talking to the other Gryffindor, she doesn’t seem anything adverse in inviting them both. Well, except the fact that they seem to hate each other. “We could work on the Good Deed Club some, and get it ready to start for next year. We don’t want the same thing to happen next year after all.” Pausing as she looks at Saphia, Briony quirks her head. “What’d we say?” she asks. “You can fish as well there as anywhere else, I wager.”

If Kelly figured that Briony was actually talking to the other girl, it doesn’t show, and she offers a small half-smile in response, before turning to Saphia, eying her appraisingly. “Er. Okay? Thank you?” Though her words say thank you, her tone says ‘I don’t really care’, and only now does she turn to Rawnie. After a moment of silence, glaring at the girl with barely concealed annoyance and contempt, she offers, “You’re the most obnoxious girl I have ever encountered. I won’t do anything to you, but I hope you die over the summer.” As much as she would probably like to, she doesn’t dare to swing at Rawnie again, not in front of so many other people, one of whom has just called her ‘not a bad person’. She turns her attention back to Saphia for a moment, adding, “I don’t mind if you go fishing here. I’m leaving.” And with that, she stands up and begins to stomp away.

“Oh, a day trip? Where would we go?” Olivia asks, looking quite excited as she asks this. “Oh – oh, they live in Hogsmeade, too, it sounds like,” she comments, looking around Evan at the other students. “Does your mum have plans to go away for a daytrip already?” She asks and bites her lip. “I mean, I don’t want her going out of her way just because I’m coming to visit.” She pauses. “Oh, and what do you want for your birthday?” She grins widely as she says this and stands up from where she has been leaning to stand next to Evan again.

Saphia Bona looks sad as Kelly walks away, raising her hand for a second to try and stop her, but her nerve failing her. Sighing, she walks back to her fishing pole and winces at the worm, and finally just asks Rawnie, “Ca… can you put the worm on the hook for me?”

Turning a bit white at Kelly’s declairation Rawnie stares at her shocked for a long momment before she starts to shake a bit. “Well….” She starts but can’t find the words she is looking for. Taking a teep breath Rawnie‘s face slowly goes from pale white to deep and angry red. “Well… well w…..” She begins shaking so much that her Owl decides it better fly from her shoulder and land on the branch of a nearyby tree. “Well I hope yer sweet’eart finds ano’r girlfriend ter snog with!” She finally shouts at the top of her lungs before turning quickly and storming off toward the castle.

Evan Geroff glances again at the other students, question reguarding them in particular unanswered, but shrugs it off to instead try and decide whether he’s seen any of them around Hogsmeade during summers. Kelly does win a someone odd look, but that is all, before he turns back to Olivia. “There are usually enough students around. If you like, I’m sure we can find out who, and all get together some day. I don’t know all of them though.” “I don’t know where we would go – some nearby city, or.. anywhere you like, really. Mother doesn’t have any trips planned that I know of, but she wouldn’t mind. We frequently go..” places. Except that he pauses, to blink at Rawnie this time, and say a bit louder toward the general assembly, “I hope you all didn’t come for a peaceful sunset, did you?”

“I just came here to fish,” Saphia says, sounding disappointed as she appears to have driven off two people here now. Well, maybe it wasn’t her fault, mostly. Biting her lower lip, she grabs the worm and forces it onto the hook, wincing as she does so but successfully managing to bait her fishing pole. She then skewers the worm a second time (one of the books said always to skewer both ends) and leans back, before managing a truly dreadful cast that tangles her line and goes nowhere.

Staring gape-mouth as Kelly stalks off, Briony looks to Rawnie, and then to Saphia. “Huh,” is all she can say and she continues to stare as Kelly disappears into the distance. “Ew, are you going to put the hook through the worm?” she asks and then watches Saphia does so. “EW!” She stands up quickly. “Oh, no, does the worm get hurt from that?” she asks and stares, backing up a bit. “So brutal…” Briony shakes her head and acts as if she hadn’t squashed bugs as a child.

“I don’t know any of them either,” Olivia admits, looking at the two who are now left. “I wonder why all the shouting.” She bites her lip and gives a small wave to Saphia, directly diverting her eyes as she sees the younger girl skewer the worm. “I suppose if your mum wants to go on a trip while I’m there it’ll be alright. I just don’t want people to go out of their way, you know. Of course you know.” Olivia stifles a giggle, smiling as she says this. “You’ve brought books out on fishing?” she asks, stepping closer. “I didn’t even know people wrote books about that!”

Olivia can’t help but giggle a bit now, looking back to Evan. “They write books about fishin, see?”

“Oh yes!” Saphia grins as she hears Olivia’s comments, “They write books on everything. That’s why I love them so much.” Her wonderful smile fades a little as she untangles her line, and then casts again, this time getting off an awkward but passable toss that lands her hook a little ways out into the lake. “Now, let me see… hold your rod firmly and wait to feel a tug that indicates the hook has been bitten. Tug on the rod occassionally to simulate movement…” She tugs on her rod obediently.

“I know,” Evan answers. “But we enjoy it. Really.” He chuckles a little with the remark; it’s a discussion he’s used to. Looking obediently toward Saphia and the fishing books, Evan glances back at Olivia, then apparently figures this isn’t the girl who was upsetting her and steps closer to get a look at the equipment. “What will you do if you catch one?”

Shuddering a bit as Saphia continues on with her fishing, Briony crosses her arms and looks in the direction that she had come in, the direction from which her friends were supposed to follow. “Well, I’m going to go see where my friends got to,” she announces to everyone. “Have fun, er, fishing,” she tells Saphia and then turns with a wave. “See you all at the feast tomorrow!” The girl sprints away quickly, though not quite so quickly as she seems to think she ought to be able, given the pudge that still lingers on her being.

“Oh, right, of course,” Olivia answers with a nod, lingering closer to Saphia. “I just didn’t figure that one would need books on fishing.” Pondering over this a moment, Olivia smiles a bit. “I suppose I wouldn’t even know how to start, so a book would be helpful … if I wanted to fish.” She smiles to Evan as well. Almost as if the distance is too much for the young girl, she leans over and grabs at Evan’s hand, trying to draw him closer to her as she stands near Saphia, glancing only slightly down at the books.

“Well, I’ll hopefully bake it, I think,” Saphia muses, “Probably in a casserole of some sort. This is really only practice, though. You see, I’m hoping to start up a few fishing trips out onto the lake next year, if anyone else is interested and so, I thought, well, I’d really better learn how to fish in the first place.”

“Bake it? I’m sure the elves would make fish if you asked..” He’s nothing against cooking in general, but this still baffles Evan a bit. As he speaks, he responds readily to Olivia, accepting her hand into his and moving a step closer to her. His words, though, are still directed at Saphia. “Are there many.. edible fish in our lake?”

“But I enjoy cooking!” She answers, smiling, “That’s the whole idea behind my fishing trip. Which, erm, yes. You know, I don’t even know if we do have any edible fish in the lake, although I assume we must do since we have a giant monster in it, or what’s it eating? But I suppose it might eat som… AH!” She suddenly grabs her pole as it jerks in her hand. A fish is clearly seen on the end of her hook, flapping out of the water. She fights with it, trying to pull it in, but in the end it frees itself from the hook and vanishes back into the lake. However, Saphia, looking flushed and amazed, grins, “Well, I guess that answers that question, Mr. Geroff!”

“I wonder, it must be suppertime soon,” Olivia comments cheerfully. “All this talk of food has made me a bit hungry.” If the girl is trying to hint at going inside, she seems to be doing a rather poor job of hinting at this, though she does tug ever so gently on Evan’s hand. “Maybe you could get the house elves to make you some fish instead, and try catching some later.” The hufflepuff smiles to the younger student with a bit of a shrug. She isn’t sure of the appeal of fishing, but, of course, doesn’t want to belittle it.

Evan Geroff laughs quietly, giving Saphia a nod. “It does indeed. Half of it, anyway; I’ll know it’s edible when I see someone eat it.” Because magical fish could taste really, really terrible. “I don’t dislike cooking, but when every meal is made here..” Shrug. “You know, I don’t believe..” But whatever he doesn’t believe will remain unknown for the moment, the boy turning to Olivia and nodding again. “Let’s eat, then. Fish or no; I’ll settle for whatever they’ve made tonight.” He can always inquire after her name later, Olivia seems to know her. With that he turns toward the hand Olivia was tugging on, not letting go as he moves to walk with her back into the school. Only once does he turn his head to look back over his shoulder, adding a final comment to Saphia – “Good luck to you!”

Other Interesting Logs:

• Sorting Day: Briony’s Perspective
• Sweets and Sour Moods
• The Society for Exploration and Adventure Convenes Again
• Sorting Day: Olivia’s Perspective
• Sorting Day: Briony’s Perspective