[Lake] Musical Squid

[Amara Conway]

Winter had most definitely come to Hogwarts. The wind howled around the draft castle, making the wearing of a skirt madness, well, that was if you were to ask Amara. She was the sort of girl who loved being girly but on blustery days she knew better then to choose looks over being able to feel your legs.

Still, even though most days were cold this particular Thursday Amara found that her feet had lead her outside of the castle to the lake. It looked like glass or a giant mirror to the sky. Mara imagined giants would use the crystalline water to admire themselves. As the dark haired girl dug her hands into her pockets, Amara smiled at the thought that giants actually found each other attractive.

"They must!" she chirped to herself and laughed. It felt as though her laugh echoed over the calm waters and the saying "still waters run deep" suddenly sprung to her mind. Amara turned and began to skim the surface of the water with her eyes. She had heard stories, read books, but never actually seen the squid in person. She wasn't stupid enough to go looking for it but wished she could get a chance to see it.

Amara decided that seeing as she was there already she would take advantage because the wind seemed to be calming a tab. Mara turned, whipping out her wanted, and she waved it at the Ravenclaw tower direction. Satisfied she put her wand back in her robes and stood exactly as she had been before, watching the tower for something and on looker might have noticed.

[clarrissa]

Snow. It was not really uncommon sight for Clarissa, but she was still excited about with a little more enthusiasm than most people. In fact, she enjoyed pointing out how wrong people were about it just being too cold. It was lovely and it transformed everything it touched into a more pure and beautiful form.

Heading down the stairs with just the lake and the possibility that it's frozen over in mind, she pulled her white gloves over her fingers to keep the biting cold off them then wrapped her overly-bright scarf around her neck. Seriously, who decided that they should be red and gold, they were too obnoxious together. When she reached the lake she noticed that there were few guys milling about and the ones that were, were just little boys having a snowball fight. Ickle firsties, does their incompetence know no bounds?

Seeing nothing that would be fun, she just scanned the bank of the waters to find an older crowd or victim to talk to. There! She smiled at the sight of an odd girl who didn't look much younger than herself just staring up towards the sky. Clarissa had been victim to many of those jokes where they try and get everyone who passes to look up when nothing was there. Of course, they just frustrated her because it took her the longest time to figure that out.

Walking up towards the girl, she had to clench her jaw to not turn around and look up too. "Is today a beautiful day for cloud watching?" She asked innocently enough and placed her hand on her hip.

[crappy post]

[Amara Conway]

Amara could hear the sound of other kids playing, having fun, but she didn't want to join them. Right then all she wanted to do was play her guitar. She had not had the opportunity to play much but now that she had some time she was going to take the opportunity by the horns and run with it as far as she could. Amara was, after all, a chance taker.

With her wand safely away, Amara waited, watching the sky for what was coming. Should be coming. It was possible she hadn't quite done the spell correctly but she was certain she had. All that was left to do was wait and see. Mara was not usually a patient person but for some reason she stood like a statue and waited.

The sound of the wind blowing through her long, loose hair rustled in her ears and was soothing to hear. When a voice came entered into her ears, Amara's contemplation and relaxation took a turn as she did towards the person who had spoken to her. It was a Gryffindor, perhaps a little older then she.

Mara smiled at her but a look of confusion came to her face. Looking back up at the castle the realisation of how she must look came to her like a pie in the face. Mara laughed and nodded. "I suppose it is," she chuckled, "but that's not what I'm doing." The Claw laughed again.

[clarrissa]

Clarissa's pleasant smile twitched slightly with the irritation of being corrected. It may have been a stupid question, but the Claw didn't have to take advantage of her moment of superiority. 'Do they enjoy rubbing their so-called intelligence in everyones face like so, because it's rather annoying.' Her brow furrowed slightly as she tried to come up with a comeback to that besides some sort of curse in French. That wouldn't be very pleasant of a greeting.

Letting her head tilt slightly as she glanced to the clouds, she noticed that they were scarce and cirrus. Though cirrus were pretty in their own way, they certainly weren't anything that you could see something in besides them being combed hair. Clarissa must look like quite a moron, but she'd shrug it off rather than having a grude against the random girl for her mistake.

"Ah, perhaps not the greatest day for that." She said with a little smile. "But, what else are you doing?" Then she glanced to the sky trying to see if there was a lone quidditch player making laps around the castle and started to think she actually saw that, by the Ravenclaw tower.

How odd, she must be seeing things. Clarissa's hand moved from her hip to fiddle with the end of her scarf as she stared at the object and eventually recognized it to be a muggle's guitar. 'Correction, very odd. Did she summon that thing?' Wizards and muggle objects never seemed like a good mixture to her unless they were using their magic on said object. Why should they waste the talent you have by doing something everyone can do?

"Oh!" She said suddenly after prying her eyes away from the incoming object. If the girl was going to summon it, she better catch it herself lest it hit poor Clarissa in the head and knocked her out. "Here I am, chatting you up about cloud nonsense without even introducing myself. I'm Clarissa Lemont, Gryffindor 5th year." It was odd for her to have to introduce herself to everyone she met, as everyone used to know her by face and name. Moving can be so troublesome.

[Amara Conway]

Amara waited for her guitar, quiet oblivious to the girl's irritation, smiling happily to herself. There was a multitude of thoughts flying threw her head as she stood, watching the sky: "I wonder what Marcus is getting up to? Would it be random of me to go and find him? He wouldn't like that very much ... maybe I should. I wonder what's for dinner. Lunch was good, as usual but dinner is always fantastic. I think I'll have some of the beef roast tonight if there is. Did I remember to do my Transfig paper? ..."

The thoughts whizzed through her head like a bludger on a loop. She caught nothing of the girl's looks directed at her or the bemused expression at Mar's answer to her question. Mara had not expected company but now that it had come to her she wasn't certain about how to handle it. She was usually very good with people, friendly, talkative, but today she seemed to be in a funny mood and wasn't particularly talkative.

"Ha!" she exclaimed after a moment's thought on the matter. She missed the girl's comment on the day but did manage to pull herself out of her own head in time to hear the girl's question. Amara looked at the tall blond with inquisitive dark brown eyes for a moment before looking back. Her guitar was coming, she could see it now. "I summoned my guitar and it's... there!" She lifted her hand and pointed to it.

The introduction came as a surprise to the Claw but she wasn't about to turn it away. Looking back to Clarissa, Mara smiled broadly. She opened her mouth to speak but a soft whooshing pulled her attention back to the guitar. She took a few steps forwards and caught it neatly by the neck, spinning around as the motion carried her round. She giggled as she stumbled around a little. Coming to a stand still (though everything was still moving), Mara smiled again at the three girls. "Amara Conway, Claw, Fifth year too. Pleasure."

Mara did not recall seeing the girl before and she thought on it. Taking a seat right where she was, on the cold gravel beach of the lake, Mara set the guitar on her crossed legs and began to pluck away absently at the strings. "You new here?" she asked enquiringly. "It's the only explanation I can find for not recognising you because at this point you get to know most of the people in your year and I don't recognise you." She spoke very quickly and smiled.