[Lake] Lacustrine

[Coeus Linde]

After a long and boring day of unpacking--after an early return to school--Coeus was ready to do something relaxing, amusing, and fun. And where does one go to do that? The lake of course! So down from the Ravenclaw Tower he came, through the castle, and out the big front doors onto the grounds.
It was one of those rare, perfect summer days; sun shining, no clouds, minimal wind, and a glittering lake just waiting to be explored.

He rolled up his khaki pants and waded into the shallow banks of the lake, reaching down every so often to pull up a piece of seaweed or shell or to scoop up some small fish to inspect closer. Now this was relaxing; on site research. What else would you expect from a Ravenclaw? "Accio water glass," he says with a wave-and-snap of his wand. From a window of the Great Hall, a large clear goblet comes flying at the boy, who catches it out of midair. He smiles and stoops down, "Come here, fishy, fishy, fishy..." he calls softly at the water. "Come out, come out, wherever you are..." his voice floats across the surface of the lake, creating quite the spectacle for any nearby viewers.

After a few minutes of searching and calling, crouching and conjuring fish food from the Grounds Keeper's hut, a smile explodes on the young man's face, "There you are, my pet. I've been looking for you." He moves slowly, cautiously, carefully towards the aquatic creature. "Just a liiittle closer..." he dips the glass into the water, reaches out, and...
SPLASH!
"Ha ha! Well, will you look at that! I caught you!" There, swimming in the goblet, is a little fish. Long and red with two sets of fins; one short front pair, and a longer, more elegant pair just behind those. "Brilliant."

[Via Thorn]

It was days like this that Via enjoyed most. Being the Herbology geek that she was, she was in the greenhouses currently sweating away, caring for the plants like she usually did. After watering some plants and re-potting a few mandrakes who’s pots had broken from some rather sadistic slytherins who thought it would be funny to break them, she was glad that they were only babies and only one first year had come in and heard the screeches and fainted. So while Miss Cross had taken the first year to the hospital wing, Via had stayed behind to clean up the mess they had created with their absentmindedness.

Pulling off the ear-muffs as her hearing was now safe, she hung them up and began wiping the soil free from the table and putting the small spillages back into the pots. Dusting her hands off, she looked back at her work before walking out of the door.
“Come on Arnie” she said just as the door was closing, and her toad happily followed her, soon jumping into her small bag that was swinging low from her shoulder.

Deciding to spend the rest of the day outside in the nice weather, not to mention get the most of it while she could, (it was Scotland after all) she made her way from the greenhouses, a head above most of the other students, which was always odd to see a girl so tall and slender. Making her way outside she breathed in the fresh air, a totally different smell compared to the familiar one of soil in the greenhouses. It was getting hotter the more she walked, and being out on the open lawns was probably contributing. As she bounced slightly on her heels, she continued to walk along near the lake and take in the beautiful view.

As she nearer the lake, she spotted a boy wading in the shallows talking to himself. The sheer spectacle he was making, not to mention talking to himself reminded Via of herself, and with that she couldn’t help but give a little giggle. Walking over to him, she sat down on the bank near to where he was, letting Arnie her toad jump free from her bag. She simply watched him for a moment as she tapped her feet together, leaning back on hands as she began awaiting him to look up at her before she spoke.

As he looked up in triumph at catching a fish, she applauded him.
“You must have good reflexes to catch that fish. They’re pretty hard to capture” she smiled sweetly.

[Coeus Linde]

After inspecting his capture for a moment or two, the sound of hands clapping reached his ears. He looked over to see a cheery Hufflepuff girl sitting on the edge of the lake watching him. His face grew red, slightly stunned that anyone had seen his fish-whiperer display, then recovered and returned her smile, "I have miserable reflexes, actually. It just so happens that I'm extremely patient and have far too much time on my hands to be healthy cooped up inside."

With his prize catch still in hand, Coeus waded back over to sit down beside the lovely Hufflepuff girl. "It's Thorn, isn't it? Via Thorn, if I'm not terribly mistaken. Didn't we have Herbology together a couple years ago?" he asked, partially just making conversation, partially wanting to know whose claims he'd have to deny in the Great Hall about how 'That Linde kid was talking to fish!'. Though, he really wasn't too concerned about that sort of thing, and Via didn't seem like the sort to tease people like that anyways.

Coeus dipped his finger into the glass and then ran it around the rim of the goblet. After a moment or two a mellow hum began to resonate from the crystal drinking cup. A moment later, another hum could be heard, harmonizing with the first. The fins of the little fish were wiggling about, and the very tips were changing color between red, orange, and gold. "Beauty, isn't he?" asked the Ravenclaw, lifting his finger from the rim of the glass and letting the fish settle down again.

"Now tell me;" he said, turning over the glass and letting the little fish swim away, "what is a lovely young lady like you doing out all alone on a day like this?" Certainly a very forward question, one that might make some people uncomfortable, but that wasn't his intent. He was genuinely curious as to why such a cheery girl would be wandering around alone when she seemed to be such a bubbly social-butterfly type of person.

[Via Thorn]

As the boy emerged, looking rather red in the face, Via stopped clapping and moved her bag from her side so the boy could sit next to her. As his legs dripped with water Via looked back up to him, shielding her eyes from the bright rays of the sun beaming down on the pair before giving a thoughtful smile and turning her head to look at him.

“Well either way congratulations on catching it” she said softly, giving a small laugh to end with. Bringing herself closer to the glass, she peered in it and watched the fish swim around with it’s beautiful floating fins as they swayed in the water. Looking back up to him when she heard her name, she grinned when he got her name right.

“Yes, that’s right! Via Thorn’s m’name” she said with joy clearly audible in her voice, but then her expression died. Via didn’t have many friends at all, all were just acquaintances. Well, the two acquaintances she had were Ellie and Polaris and other than that she had Jackson, but with him being a professor now their friendship seemed to of fallen by the wayside. Looking down at her long airy skirt, she began to play with the hem. The reason she had no friends was because she was considered the oddball of the school, the ‘hippie in the wrong generation’ and the Herbology geek. Of course this was all true, but Via never understood why it should matter, she was a cheerful and friendly girl but nobody seemed to care about that.

“More than likely” she eventually replied, a small smile back on her lips, curving them upwards slightly.
“I think it was two years ago” she said in thought. Looking back at the fish as the boy dipped his finger into the glass and a ringing hum soon emitted from it, changing the fish different colours. Grinning, Via looked back up at him.

“You are, oh let me try and pronounce this, Coeus right?” she said, stuttering slowly trying to pronounce his name, her welsh accent making it sound a little odder than expected.
“How do you know he's a he?” she questioned naively. She was never good with telling the sex of animals and magical creatures unless there was some distinct difference between the sexes. Watching as he let the fish back into the water, she observed it flicking about slightly getting it’s bearings before swimming off triumphantly.

At the boy calling her a lovely young lady, Via blushed slightly.
“I was cleaning up some slytherin mess in the greenhouses, but now I’m done I’ve decided to enjoy the view for a while...” she said, flicking her waist length hair away from her face.
“But now i’ve seen you fishing, I quite like the idea of trying it myself” she grinned as she stood up and flicked off her sandals.

[Coeus Linde]

"Well, thank you," he said, nodding his head in an informal bow of sorts. He was quite pleased to learn that he was, in fact, correct about the identity of the girl sitting next to him. She seemed like a very genuine person, an aura of I-am-who-I-am hung about her, if slightly understated. Her long flowing hair, billowy garments, and beaded necklaces reminded him of a picture he'd seen of Cliodne, the last Druidess of Ireland, once. When a mild frown appeared on the girl's face, a line of worry follows on Coeus' brow. "Is something wrong, gezien?" he asked, his Dutch heritage momentarily slipping into his speech. He couldn't stand to see a lady frown.

Coeus was quite pleased when a smile returned to her face at the mention of Herbology classes. It pleased him that he had found a subject Via was fond of to talk about. "Ahh, so you're a fellow green-thumber?" he asked with a grin. He himself enjoyed sitting and watching grass grow... or monkshood or or asphodel. Whatever he was curious about at the time.

Now it was Linde's turn to applaud! It was a rare occassion indeed that anyone managed to pronounce his name properly the first time... much less without his saying it at least three times. And what's more, the girl had an accent!
"Quite right!" he said mirthfully. "How clever you are," he said, slightly amused with his latest find in the student body of Hogwarts. He had met girls before, and Hufflepuffs before, and even Hufflepuff girls before, but none were yet so fascinating as Miss Thorn. She just stuck out of the crowd, like a bright sunflower in a garden full of daisies.

"It's quite simple, really," he explained about the fish, "The males are red or orange, and respond to vibrating hums by their fins turning gold, whereas the females are yellow or red, and when they hear a vibrating hum they send out pulses that break glass... or whatever other female fish is swimming in the area trying to steal her man." He smirked momentarily, then decided he ought to explain a bit further, "You see, the hum that a crystal water glass makes, matches the tone of the mating call the females of this species make."

"You really are a Herby devotee, aren't you?" he asked, quite interested in someone who had so strongly associated themselves with a class. Sure, he liked Herbology, but he wouldn't go to the trouble of cleaning up a Slytherin's mess over it.
He grinned when Via said she wanted to try goblet-fishing. "Ha ha, perhaps I've invented a new sport." He himself hopped back down into the water and held out a hand for Via to balance on while she got in. He then handed her the goblet and said, "If you have trouble finding one, I've discovered they like eating peanut-butter covered cherries. I don't know why. I'm guessing it's a fish thing."

[Via Thorn]

Chuckling as he bowed like a true gentleman, she rocked slightly as the laughter escaped her. It was odd to find someone who knew of her, but wasn’t just dismissing her as a weirdo and leaving her alone, but was actually conversing with her and actually didn’t seem to mind doing so. This new outlook on people made Via’s grin widen and Coeus restored the piece of lost faith in humanity to her, especially after the slytherin greenhouse incident earlier in the day. Hearing him say a rather strange word, she looked back to him with her nose wrinkled in confusion before she had to stifle a laugh to be able to speak.
“Gezien?” she questioned, guessing he had foreign heritage because of his name also.

“What does that mean?” she asked, ears ready to soak up every piece of information he was going to tell her. They hadn’t been speaking for long, all of a few minutes, but already Via could tell that Coeus was extremely intelligent and wise beyond his years. The thought made her smile sweetly at him, and she wondered how someone could have such a big brain in a small compartment.

“Yes, I must admit I’m a total green thumb” she flushed slightly looking back over the waters. A smile was still fixed on her lips, even if it was barely visible.
“I’m going to be the Herbology Apprentice, as long as I pass my exams of course” she looked back to him with a triumphant look glinting in her eyes. She was not one to boast, but she has worked extremely hard to succeed in school, Herbology especially but even so she still had the nagging in the back of her mind that she didn’t do well enough. Growing up in Wales to a scientist father who dealt with natural science she had always grown up learning about that sort of thing and she lived nearby a forest and a large lake, so she was always excavating with her father.

Listening has he went into detail on how to tell them apart, she made an ‘o’ realising that once you knew, it was pretty easy to tell which was which.
“Well thanks for telling me that, it’s pretty easy once you know I guess” she smiled.
“Although they seem pretty violent females” she chuckled.
“I am yes, and I think you should put a claim on a new sport invention. It looks more fun than quidditch anyway” she grinned as he held out his hand to her as she hitched up her skirt slightly, accepted his hand and began lowering herself into the waters.

Gasping slightly at how cold it actually was, she brushed past the slight marshes and long grass that popped out from the waters and they were overgrowing slightly. As he shared with her their favourite food, she laughed so hard yet lightly that she almost fell backwards into the water.
“Well i’m glad i’m not a fish if that’s their idea on nice food” she grinned back at Coeus. Taking the goblet from his hand, she pulled out her wand and duplicated it, handing the original one back to him.
“I need a teacher for your fine sport after all”

[Coeus Linde]

Coeus found himself unable to keep from laughing with Via. Her sense of humour was infectious. "Yes, gezien. It means 'dear'," he nodded. "My grandmother teaches my sister and me Dutch whenever we go home for holiday," he explained. He couldn't help but be excited that he had found someone as interested with learning arbitrary information and factoids as he was. It was refreshing to know he wasn't the only knowledge hunter around. He was even more thrilled that there was another plant head around.

"The Herbology Apprentice?" he said, astonished. "That's quite an accomplishment. Congratulations!" he said sincerely, slightly awed at the silent brilliance of the Hufflepuff girl. He was kind of surprised that someone could have made such a stride in the school without it being a more widely known fact. "I'm sure you'll do fine on your exams. I don't see how you could not if you're smart enough to be an apprentice here."

He laughed slightly at how interested she seemed at his lesson on fish. He was entirely unused to people being curious about the same things he was, but he was glad someone was. "Oh, the females are quite violent. Well… as far as violence in small fish goes, anyways," he shrugged.

"More fun than Quidditch?! Goodness, I very well may have to get a patent on it," he said, putting a hand to his face in a dramatic display of shock. "I know… cherries and peanut butter. Fish are strange… but beautiful." He watched her walking around in the water, goblet in one hand, staring down into the shallows looking for another strange little fish. He waves his wand and summons a bowl of fish treats out. He charms bubbles around a few of them so that they float on top of the water around Via, then sticks one in the bell of her goblet. "Now you just have to let them follow the breadcrumbs," he said with a smile, moving her hand to rest in the water, glass horizontal so that the fish can swim right in to get the food.

[Via Thorn]

Via gave Coeus a look that could only be described as an ‘uh huh’ one as he proceeded to tell her what the word meant in Dutch. So he was of Dutch heritage which filled a missing gap in her brain, and with that Via gave him a sparkly eyed grin.
“Well it sounds like a very interesting language to learn. I’m not too understanding of languages, except welsh of course” she smiled back at him, before she searched her mind for something to tell him. Clearing her throat, she continued.

“'ch chreuau ydy 'n arddun. n fel glas fel 'r ddyfrha safi i mewn a befrio cara sêr” she reeled off as she looked back at the boy in amazement that she had actually remember the word’s herself. Giving him a cheeky grin, she stepped further into the water.
“You will have to translate that yourself” she said as she bent over, leading the goblet gently into the water as her hair fell down and dipped into the water. Sighing, she flicked it back only for it to dunk back into the water yet again. Standing up straight she looked around for something to keep her hair from getting wet but was at a loss.

“Yes, I’m pretty lucky that my dad’s a natural science scientist” she begun. Wadding through a small patch of marsh grass, she pulled the goblet back out.
“He taught me quite a lot since I was a child” she looked back at the Ravenclaw and gave another thoughtful smile. She missed home, but it was nice to be in Scotland. Scotland and Wales weren’t all too different, but there was just something certain about home that she really missed. Looking back to Arnie her Natterjack toad, she smiled as he sat on the bank croaking to a lady frog peering out from some shrubbery. Laughing at him and more of his antics, she pointed to him so Coeus knew who she was laughing at.
“He is a traitor. He’d rather be up to mischief trying to kiss Gryffindor girls to make himself a prince than be with his owner” she chuckled. Arnie took time out of his busy flirting schedule to look at her and croak repeatedly as if in a mock laughter back at her, before he jumped into shrubbery after the female.

“I hope he isn’t doing what I think he’s doing” she paused, a look of horror on her face before her eyes slid over to Coeus and his face made her break out laughing again.
“On second thoughts I don’t want to know about what he does, especially not in there” she said, her face scrunching up making her nose wrinkle up slightly in disgust.

As Coeus continued to pass on his knowledge, Via trudged over to the bank and sat on the edge to listen to him. Nodding every so often she found herself smiling for no apparent reason, and as soon as she realised, she stood up again. Looking back down at the waters she felt Coeus hand on hers pushing it deeper into the waters, making her bend lower. Looking at him, she smiled back as she looked into his vibrant eyes that were glistening with joy. Via’s eyes returned the same look before she looked back down at the goblet and the breadcrumbs.
“So how long will it take for them to see them?”

[Coeus Linde]

"Welsh, huh?" he asks thoughtfully, "Well that certainly explains where that lilt in your voice comes from." When she rambles off a phrase in her native language his face is pure confusion. "Uh… could you write that down? Maybe I'll go look it up in the library later," he grins winningly, hoping it'll help him to get a transcript of the girl's lovely speech.

Watching as Via wrestles with her lengthy locks, he smiles a bit. "Ah the suffering of beauty," he thinks, knowing what trouble his sister has always had with her hair. Shaking his head, Coeus flicks his wand and summons a hair tie from the dormitory. He isn't surprised that there was one stuck in his luggage somewhere; his sister is always leaving her things mixed in with his. "Here," he says, holding the ribbon out to his fishing partner, "this should help." For a moment he thinks about explaining his reason for having a girl's hair ribbon, but decides against it.

"Seems brains just run in the family then," he says after learning her father's occupation. "So, how many natural warheads does your father keep around in case of potential, unsatisfactory suitors?" he asks, picturing Via showing up at home over holidays, some tall, dark Slytherin on her arm, and her father slipping a natural toxin into his butter beer over dinner.

Coeus turns and sees the little toad's escapades attempting to woo a frog in a bush. He laughs, "Aww, she's just a little tadpole, you nasty fiend!" he cries at the amphibious flirt. Snickering, Coeus shakes his head. "Well, personally, I don't see why he would go chasing after other girls when he's got such a pleasant owner to spend his time with." He smiles at Via, then turns his attention back to the treats floating in the water. "Well, they should be coming any minute now…" as if responding to his words, little ripples break the surface of the water. Red, yellow, and orange mouths attempt to break the bubbles concealing the cherries. Swarms of the fish swim around the pair, looking much like fire just beneath the surface of the water; their fins brushing against exposed ankles and knees as they move.