Some Downtime (Janet)

Guest

The new year brought a lot of things her way: a friend, a forced relationship with her brother, a new home and a new school. Some of those were positive she supposed, but the biggest part of it all was the acceptance of it. She accepted the new school, she accepted the new part of her relationship with her family, and she accepted the people that managed to understand her. With those positive thoughts, she couldn't help but smile as she walked down the path towards the lake.

This had somehow become her favorite place to be if not in class. The lake was always peaceful and now that winter was in full force she was alone. Smiling brightly at the thought of it, she moved closer to the edge. Taking out the blanket she had brought, she murmured a heating charm and curled up on top of it. With a hat placed on her head and a tight peacoat around her she allowed herself to just relax and take in all that was around her.

Guest

Janet grinned as she flew up the steps from the slytherin dungeon. She hadn't brought her coat, though that would have been wise, but instead ingnored the bite of the cold air as she threw herself outside. She took a moment to breath in the cool air before returning to her fast pace down to the Black Lake. There was a girl already there that Janet recognized from her classes, and house but had never talked to.

She flew to the water's edge, kneeling beside it to lean over and peer into the murky water. She searched the surface with hopeful eyes and a tilted head. Do squids know how to tell time? She reached out one hand and rippled the water slightly. Heck, do squids even understand humans? She pouted slightly before taking a deep breath and plunging her head into the water, eyes squinted and looked around, hoping to see her giant squid friend. She came up a moment later with a gasp of breath and a shiver before slicking her hair back away from her face. She sat back on her heels with a sigh.

Guest

Humming softly, Tess leaned back against the tree and thought about the choir in Beauxbatons and how they used to sing along with the water nymphs and sirens. She had hoped there would be some in Hogwarts, but in turn there were only cold water mermaids and a giant squid. She missed the beautiful music that surrounded the Palace. 'It's okay to miss it and be comfortable here'

Still, as footsteps rushed to the Black Lake she opened her eyes in surprise only to see that there was a girl running to the Lake. Before she could even utter anything, she saw the girl dip her head in the water with no thought of the icy temperature. Tess' eyes widened in surprise as the oddity occurred in front of her.

"Are...are you okay?" she asked a bit wary of her classmate.

She knew that the girl was in Slytherin, she had seen her briefly in passing but not long enough to actually try to bring up a conversation. This was mostly unlike her to do something like that. But curiosity got the best of her.

Guest

The girl behind her spoke and Janet turned to acknoledge her. "Yes, yes. Sorry, I'm alright. I was hoping to see the squid today but it appears it doesn't want to play at the moment." Seeing the caution on the other girl's face only makes Janet's grin grow. "I promise I'm not crazy. Simply curious."

Janet walks over to sit facing the girl, though not sitting on the blanket and extended a hand. "My name is Janet. You're in my house right? Slytherin? I think you're in my year as well.. I've seen you in a couple of my classes if I'm not mistaken." She tilts her head at the girl, "Though I don't remember you being here last year.. you new? Though, if you were it may just be me... as much as I tried to make friends at first.. certain things caused me to.. erm.. distance myself from most people." She then realized she was talking to much and chuckled, rubbing the back of her neck. "Sorry. I'm a talker with not many people to talk to so..."

Guest

The girl before her was a lot different than anyone else that Tess had met. For one thing she was unfazed by the way her hair was soaking wet and indifferent to how it looked. If it had been the other way around, she wouldn't have known what to do with herself. Still when her smile widened, Tess swore she got a bit wide-eyed. Whatever she was looking for, ah yes, the squid, was not what she was expecting to hear. Since her transfer to Hogwarts, she had missed any sightings of the squid.

When the girl extended her hand, Tess delicately pushed her hand out as well to meet halfway, after all she needed to be polite. But as the girl, Janet, Tess corrected herself, went on about her reasoning, she found herself listening curiously.

"Right..."she began unsure how to process everything. "Well...my name is Tess, and I recently transferred here...well in the start of the year. I..I try not to make myself too known to people...so I understand you there...." she paused. "In regards to the squid...why are you so invested in seeing it?"

Guest

Janet giggled slightly as the other girl's eyes widened at the fact she was looking for the squid. She gripped the outreached hand and gave it a couple firm shakes before dropping it.

"Nice to meet you Tess! You are in slytherin right? A transfer huh? Where did you transfer from?" The statement had piqued her intrest and Janet found herself going over the other wizarding schools Tess could have transfered from. She smiled at the other witch, "Well I sure hope you are having a nice time here. What's been your favorite thing here that your old school didn't have?"

She grinned as Tess asked about the squid. "Oh, I love the squid. I come down here every once in a while and just watch him in the water. Sometimes he’ll put his tentacles on the grass and let me tickle them. I don't know.. he's one of the only beings here that seem to be friendly towards me..." She shrugged and turned to look back at the lake, mood dampened slightly.

Guest

The first real impression of Janet was that she was very enthusiastic and friendly. It was very unlike Tess, but she took it in stride afterall not everyone would have the same boring personality as her. Still as Janet poked a bit into her personal life, Tess found herself curling her body a bit within herself. For while her questions weren't too intrusive they did bring a sour taste in her mouth. She found herself missing her old life in a sort of waves; there were moments where she missed Beauxbatons deeply, like she had moments about during her pondering session. She missed the large roses that grew throughout the palace and the flying horses. But she missed her grandmere more than anything, her eyes darkened briefly as she mulled over the sadness.

'This is not the time Tess Marie' her conscious yelled at her.

If you aren't happy, then fake it. And she was good at doing it. A half smile and she forced her expression change the way that she had always done it. She prided herself in being a bit of a chameleon and faking emotions so weakness wasn't shown.

"I am a snake" she chuckled slightly. "I guess...the various amount of darker magic that are taught here. I know...it might not sound right but it's true. While here you are taught duelling, in Beauxbatons you are taught, choir, dance, magizoology. It's...it's a lot different here than my home."

Looking back at the lake, she had heard of the squid but had yet to see it. She wasn't too overly fond of things that weren't beautiful, but that was something that her grandmere had instilled in her.

"I am sure that there are friendly faces here, it just takes time to meet them all" she murmured as the girl looked a bit forlorn. "I'm sure he will visit soon, I...I have heard there are mermaids, have you seen them?"

Guest

As Tess seemed to become uncomfortable at Janet's questioning she stopped and gave a sheepish smile. "Er, sorry. I can be a bit nosy at times.. though I usually call it curiosity." She shrugged and backed up slightly to give the other girl her space.

As she mentioned the darker magics taught at Hogwarts Janet nodded. She herself preferred her Care of Magical Creatures and Charms classes over the dark magic classes, but she could see the appeal.

Her eyes widened as the other girl went on to describe the classes Beauxbatons had. "That sounds amazing, and like you said, very different." What really peaked her interest was the magizoology. "So the... Magizoology you said.. is that anything like our Care of Magical Creatures class here?"

The other girl tried to reassure Janet, to which she gave a grateful smile. "Yes, well I've met a few people, and I'm sure I'm on the path to making more and more friends. I'm just very... outgoing." She giggled at that and turned back to watch the lake.

Tess then asked her about the mermaids and Janet nodded, eyes bright as she turned to look at her again. "Oh, yes. I love the mermaids. They are so beautiful, in their own way. The ones in this lake are actually Selkies, a subspecies of merfolk." She grinned and looked back at the water.

Guest

Her initial displeasure at being asked so many questions must have showed, especially as Janet looked a bit sheepish. And for a brief second Tess felt a bit guilty, that is until she realized that it was fine, she should be able to properly express herself. Still, when the girl showed an interest in her old school, a sense of nostalgia rose within her.

"Yes, Care of Magical Creatures is similar except well..in Magizoology it varies by classification. In Beauxbatons, they used to have you actually interact with them after studying the books in depth. I remember, once they brought in a Demiguise baby. It was beautiful and so scared. But when it trusted you and showed you his true form.."she sighed " I...I wish the classes here would be more in depth when it came to the actual creatures because they're beautiful."

Something about mermaids warmed her soul. They were beautiful and deadly and varied. She remembered when she was young and she had seen a siren, it had changed her life completely. When little she remembered rushing to the ocean during their vacation and singing out to the ocean hoping that they would come to her. She used to be so free...she looked out towards the lake smiling.

"Well I'm sure that the Selkies are beautiful." she murmured. "They're my favorite beast and no matter what they look like, their voices must be mesmerizing."