Defence Against the Dark Arts, Lesson Two (All Years)

Mimosa couldn't help herself. Despite how Mercy wasn't looking at her - not even after she gave the bestest answer ever - or Ashley shivering in her blanket, they were going to freeze things! Not just things, thaw were going to freeze the whole lake! Perhaps this spell could also be used to make ice creams alter on!

"Oh, I want to try first!' the stepped forwards, hoping to get the Gryffindor's attention this way. Surely Mercy too would be just as excited at the prospect of freezing things. And then they would start solidifying the lake together and everything would be okay again. "Can I, Can I please?"

When given the go ahead, the twelve year old stepped up to the lip of the pier, looking down at the cold waters rushing below. There wasn't enough slight for the water to be reflective so she couldn't see her face, just blurry outlines of where she stood with her wand held aloft.

"Glacius!" she tried, and waited excitedly to see something happen. Unfortunately, nothing did. "Glacus!" she tried again, this time her tone taking on the qualities of Grandmere's voice when she needed something done. The kind of polite tone that brook no argument from anyone ever. The dark waters underneath however had no respect for the tone, and kept on flowing. "Jake, I think the lake's broke."

It wasn't Jake who replied however. Squid Boy's voice was the one to rise from the group next. 'It's not broken, its- Never mind." Turning from her, the tall boy addressed their teacher. "I don't think we should be messing with the lake's delicate ecosystem. It's already getting colder with the weather, unnatural introductions would-"

Just then, Mimosa spun neatly on her heels in a dance move that would have put ballerinas to shame, stopping with her wand pointed directly at Squid Boy. 'Glacius!" the girl sang and a whoosh of frosty air escaped her wand, landing exactly where intended. the next moment, small icicles were forming on Squid boy's hair, giving him an icy crown.

"Now you're a Squid King!' she proclaimed happily, cutting his rant short.

Mimosa's attention didn't remain on the Squid King for long, her blue grey eyes swirling to Mercy's hoping she'd managed to make the older witch smile with her antics. Usually, she and Mercy would have been casting spells together but today, the Gryffindor remained as unaffected as Mimosa's previous spells on the water.

Maybe if she froze a bit of the lake... Maybe if she froze the entire lake, Mercy would notice. She would be forced to. She would come to stand by Mimosa and awe at the Slytherin's feat. Turning back to the lake, the young model found Loni attempting the same spell now, except Loni's water was actually working.

"Hey, Loni's doing it, Ashley, come see!' she called out, joining the older redhead by the pier's edge and putting her own wand to the solid mass of ice forming under Apollonia's gentle ministrations. Lifting her own wand to try once more, she murmured the incantation again, sending a wave of chilly air to the icicle, making it grow slightly in size.

The witch started as Loni's ice rock began to grow with magic poured from two wands. Not only was it growing in size but it wasn't moving now, meaning it was growing deeper too. And the more solid it got, the easier it became to enchant.

Perhaps things that stayed put were better to do magic on, she reasoned as she renewed her spell, now singularly focused on what was slowly becoming an ice platform big enough for one or two fo them to stand on.

"Jakeeeee, loooook! We're doing ittttt!"

Her blush only deepened as Jake conjured up a blanket for her. Right in front of everyone. Great, now it would be even more obvious that she was the only one here who couldn't stand the cold. How wimpy is that? And yet, she really was shivering like crazy and it would have been straight up rude to not use it right? Or at least that's what she reasoned as she wrapped the fabric around her tight.

The affirmation and five points gained from Jake made everything better though and she beamed proudly at her correct answer. She wondered silently as Jake explained the spell about why salamanders would need cooled off. Of course, they were coldblooded so if they got over heated in the summer and stuff they had no way of cooling themselves down, but then what did they do in the wild? Wouldn't it be more effective to teach them to find a way to cool themselves off? Are salamanders even teachable, like other animals? Probably with enough positive reinforcement any animal was teachable, right?

Her train of thought broke off and she focused back on Jake as he demonstrated the spell, squinting and focusing specifically on the movement he made with his wand, just a circle inside a square. She wondered sometimes why certain spells had certain movements to go with them, but she made a note to ask a professor about it later, or research it or something.

Students rushed to the lake as soon as Jake allowed and started attempting the spell on their own. She watched the rest of them for a moment, noting what mistakes they were making and forming her own plan for how she would go about freezing the lake. Mimosa was the first to succeed, though not in a way any of them would have guessed, but by freezing Squid Boy's hair. Lyra couldn't help but laugh softly, stepping closer to the lake and peering down in an attempt to see one of the creatures the boy had been speaking of. Surely they'd have the good sense to go farther down in the water where it was warmer, and not come up where it was freezing, right?

Her gaze was still on the water when Mimosa's voice rang out to address her this time. "Hey, Loni's doing it, Ashley, come see!" Her head swiveled toward her friends and she approached, tightening her grip on the blanket around her shoulders. She watched silently as Mimosa's contribution sped up the freezing of the water and grinned.

"Ohhh, the more strength you give it in one spot the faster it freezes. It would probably be easier to work together if we wanted to freeze the whole lake?" She retrieved her own wand from her boot, taking a deep breath and trying the spell herself, speaking loud and clear and aiming her wand at the spot of ice the others were working on. Her wand spit out a bit of the blue light Jake's did before failing. A second try however drew a bit more success and a steady stream of the light and frosty air blew from the tip of her wand, contributing to the steadily growing patch of ice.

Mercy tried to pay attention to the lesson. She really did. But as soon as Mimosa had arrived, she knew the cause was lost.

There was just no way she could keep ignoring her. Not when she was this close, and this active. From the moment the younger girl first opened her mouth, Mercy redirected all her concentration toward looking at the ground, at Jake, at the lake - anywhere but at Mimosa, the one place her eyes seemed to want to stray of their own accord. She almost missed the instructions.

As Mimosa took off to try the spell on the lake, Mercy squeezed her eyes shut to stop herself from watching. She just knew that if she gave in and looked, the rest of her would cave too and she'd end up gravitating toward the Slytherin before she could stop herself.

Instead, she took a deep breath, opened her eyes, and set them straight ahead of her as she walked purposefully toward a further bank. If they were going to freeze the whole lake, they'd need to cover more ground, anyway. She reached a spot on the shore a good 30 meters away from the rest of the class and drew her wand.

"Glacius," she said forcefully, whipping her wand through the correct movements. A blast of cold air shot out, and she saw particles of frost begin to form along the very edge of the water.

She could hear Mimosa's voice. She shook her head, trying to concentrate. Don't look.

The spell fizzled out as her focus broke. She huffed in frustration.

"Glacius!" she repeated. Another gust of cold air. A few ice crystals spread outwards from the bank.

"Jakeeeee, loooook! We're doing ittttt!"

She couldn't do it. Her head turned of its own accord and her wand dropped to her side as she gazed across the distance, all thoughts of her own work forgotten as she watched Mimosa and the rest of the class gather around their patch of ice.

Her chest ached, trying to pull her in the direction of the young Slytherin, trying to make her legs move. She wanted more than anything to join the rest of the group.

She couldn't. With great effort, she tore her eyes away, turning back to her own section of the lake. She repeated the spell again, louder, trying to block out all the other noise. It wasn't working.

"Ohhh, the more strength you give it in one spot the faster it freezes. It would probably be easier to work together if we wanted to freeze the whole lake?"

"Exactly," Mimosa answered, proud of her friend for understanding the concept as quickly as she did. Ashley was almost as smart as Mimosa was! As the small group of girls focused their magical energies on the slowly widening circle of ice, the boys too began to come closer and soon, nearly the whole class was standing at the edge fo the pier, several wands drawn out to aid in the effort of creating a little island made of ice in the lake.

Someone suggested a contest to see who could create a bigger icy mass with a boys versus girls initiative and Mimosa wholeheartedly agreed, knowing nothing would draw Mercy in like a good competition, especially if the Gryffindor suspected the boys would win without her help. Mimosa, Loni, Ashley, Seema and Zoey began pouring serious power into their little ice cube while the boys organised themselves to do the same on a competing ice cube, half of them casting spells while the other half simply trying to yell their ice mass into growing.

"Oh no, the boy are winning!" Mimosa called out loudly but to no avail. Mercy still remained far away from everyone else, making the young Slytherin finally deflate.

Nothing was going to work.

Mercy just... didn't like her anymore. there was no other explanation.

Trying hard to fight off her tears, the young witch threw herself into the spell again, this time, the end product forming prickly little shards along the edges of the growing island of ice.

Students started to gather within moments around the three girls, and the patch of ice got bigger and bigger. Maybe they really could freeze the whole lake! She hadn't entirely believed they could at first, seeing as the lake was huge and there were less students to help out than usual thanks to Mimosa's ditch party.

The suggestion of a competition drew an immediate 'yes' from Lyra, always up for a bit of challenge, not that the boys presented much of one considering they'd already gotten a head start. Maybe it wasn't all that fair, but it had been solely girls who had gotten it started, so it seemed fitting that it would count towards the girl team in her opinion. The evident struggles on the boy's part drew a small giggle from her, watching them for a moment before turning her attention back to their ice.

She'd only been focusing for another moment before Mimosa spoke up beside her.

"Oh no, the boys are winning!"

The very idea caused her head to whip back in the direction of their male counterparts but there was no way their ice patch was bigger than theirs. "No they aren't M-" she cut off as her gaze turned back to her friend. The younger girl looked more upset than Lyra could ever remember seeing her, and she frowned.

Mimosa cast her spell again, but her emotions were obviously affecting her magic because ice shards grew on the edges of their ice patch, creating little spikes. "Mary-Kate? What's wrong?" A hand reached out to rest on the red head's back between her shoulder blades as she spoke quietly, trying not to draw the attention of the other's around them. She wasn't one to really know how to comfort someone else, but she knew some basics and knew she had to try her best to cheer the girl up. Because that's what friends were for, right?