Just keep swimming, just keep swimming

Natalie didn't want to waste a second of her time at Hogwarts, she decided in the Hufflepuff common room, especially not any weather where it was warm enough to actually swim in the lake. She had not yet done so, but she really wanted to meet the Giant Squid. She changed into her bathing suit, two piece but tasteful, since she was only 13, tossing on some older clothes over it, then rushing out to the grounds.

Once there, she could see that some of the sixth and seventh years had the same idea. Not wanting to encroach on their space, she went down the lake a ways. She shed her top layer of clothing by a large tree that had branches hanging over the lake, which she then climbed, since jumping in was really the only acceptable way to enter a lake. She jumped in with a splash, opening her eyes under the water to see if she could catch a glimpse of the squid. Nothing yet. Damn.

She kicked back to the surface, bobbing there for a little while as she tried to think of the best way to see the squid, then, looking to the shore as she heard someone approach her.

Hester had decided to take a walk down by the lake. She still hadn't learned to swim, even though that Terry girl had offered to teach her; she was still terrified.

She felt her shoulder subconsciously. Her shoulder had nothing to do with her fear of swimming, but it was an action she did when she was scared of anything, not just what had happened.

She was wandering along, the sun shining brightly down on her, when she spotted a figure swimming in the lake. When she was closer by, she realised that it was Natalie, a girl she had met when she was in First Year. She hadn't spoken to her in a while, so she decided to pop by and say hi.

"Hey!" she called to Natalie. "Having a nice swim?"

Natalie had to blink the water away from her eyes in order to be able to see who was talking to her. "Hi Hester!" she called back.

She swam closer so that they wouldn't have to shout back and forth to each other in order to hold a conversation. "Come on in, the water's great!" she grinned at the Gryffindor.

"Uh..." Hester looked at the uninviting water lapping at the edge of the lake. It sent a chill down her spine. "Uh... I'm fine here, thanks," she said, feeling cowardly and unfit for Gryffindor. Surely she was supposed to be brave? And you couldn't be brave without actually facing your fears.

She sat down on the bank and decided to leave it a minute.

"I'm happy in the sun," she said, giving Natalie a jaunty wave and a grin.

She dropped her back and pulled out her book, one she had brought from home. It was Slaughter House Five, a classic that she had been given for christmas and never got round to reading. She was having difficulty with it but she wasn't one to give up on a book, not when she was only at chapter two.

"Suit yourself," Natalie shrugged.

Hester didn't have to come into the water if she didn't want to, although she was going to miss out on all the fun if she stayed on the shore the whole time. She went back to floating in the water, trying to look down as far as she could. She wasn't going to be able to see it from up here, since it was likely lurking somewhere in the shadows, but she figured her best bet would be to find the deepest spot she could and dive.

She found a deepish area and ducked her head under the water after taking a deep breath. Unable to see anything of interest, she moved a bit further away and repeated her actions. Still nothing. This was going to take forever if she had to keep moving at such a slow pace.

Hester watched Natalie curiously. What one earth was she doing? She looked as if she was looking for something. Hester hoped that it wasn't the squid. Just the idea that there was a giant squid somewhere down there creeped her out.

She stood up and moved closer to the lake, wanting to get a closer look at Natalie. Before she realised it, her feet were in the water.

She screamed.

Natalie just happened to have her head out of the water when Hester screamed. Petrified, she whipped around and swam back to the girl. When she got her footing on the sandy bottom of the water, she asked, "Hester, what's the matter?" She was immensely concerned. A normal reaction to water wasn't to scream.

She heard Landon and felt a little self conscious, but she didn't have time to worry about it; she needed to focus on Hester. "I don't know," she replied to him. "I was just searching for the squid and she was reading, and then I turned around and she was standing in the water and screaming."

She placed one hand on Hester's arm gently. "Hester, what's wrong?" she asked again.

"I-"Hester stuttered. She was still in shock, and she felt numb. She was stood in water and nothing had happened so far, though, so perhaps she was being stupid. "I-" As she began to calm down, she began to feel embarrassed. She took a step back, out of the ankle deep water and tried to take deep breaths. Some Gryffindor she was.

"I don't- I don't-" She couldn't get her words out properly.

She didn't know what to say to them. She couldn't tell them the truth; it was weird. It didn't warrant screaming in ankle deep water when you were thirteen.

Hester nodded and made her way over to the tree. She sat down and hid her head in her hands, feeling herself blush bright red. Well, way to go Hester. Now everyone here will think you're the little freak girl, just like at your primary school. And you were doing so well at looking normal. Coming down by the lake was one bad, bad idea.

She peeked out from inbetween her arms and looked over at the others. She hoped they wouldn't see her looking. They had been so nice to her, and she had been a complete idiot.

She tried to block out the thoughts from her mind. The boat, the water, that feeling of drowning. The rush of water. A tear fell from her eyes and she brushed it away angrily.

Happy thoughts, she thought. All your friends here, everyone who likes you...

Natalie gave Landon a look that said clearly read seriously? She got out of the water behind Hester but lingered by Landon as the girl went to go sit under the tree that she'd stashed her clothes under. "You could have at least tried to be nicer to her," she whispered to him before going and sitting on her knees by her friend.

"Hester, what's the matter?" she asked kindly. She didn't like to see people upset.

Hester took a deep breath. She was calm enough to talk now. She didn't want to say anything that would make Natalie think she was just being stupid, though.

"I really, really don't like water," she said quietly. "It's like, a phobia. I didn't realise how close I was to the lake and then I was just- stood in it."

She bit her lip.

"It's because of something that happened when I was little," she said, wanting to give a reason for her outburst. It was the true reason, but when she said it it felt like a poor excuse, something made up.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell us about it if you don't want to," Natalie said, trying to be reassuring as she placed her hand gently on Hester's arm.

She didn't know what else to do, so she looked over at Landon with a panicked look on her face. As much as she hated it when people were upset, she wasn't very good at calming them down.

"Thanks," said Hester. She smiled at Natalie, trying to reassure her that she was ok now. "I'm alright. Thanks for your help." She smiled at Landon as well, so that she didn't annoy him any more. She didn't want him to go away thinking she was a wimp, an attention seeker AND ungrateful.

"I'm gonna go inside now," she told them. "Really, thank you."

She stood up off the ground.

Hester looked at Landon, who had just declared his name in front of her.

"Hi, Landon," she said. She let out a nervous giggle as he sat back down. She was still feeling a little shocked from the whole lake thing, and she realised now that it must have been a bit weird for Landon and Natalie to have to try and deal with.

"Bye, Natalie, thank you again, and Landon," she said. She hoped it didn't look as if she was hurrying away from them, but she could feel another panic attack coming on just from standing here by the lake, and she wanted to get something from the hospital wing to calm herself down.

Natalie wasn't sure she saw what she thought she saw when Landon "introduced himself" to Hester. Did he seriously just exclaim his name in her face? She tried to hold back her giggles, but it was a difficult task that she soon gave up on. She truly missed his cute, awkward moments like that. She tried to speak, but couldn't do anything but laugh.

She couldn't resist moving closer to Landon and giving him a little hug. He really did make her laugh sometimes.

After a few deep breaths, she was finally able to focus. "Bye Hester, see you later," she called after the girl as she left. She was going to make it a point to go see her later when they were alone to make sure she was really okay.

"Well that was interesting," she said to Landon when Hester was gone. She didn't know if she should really comment on what had just happened, although his attempt at helping her was quite funny. "You make me laugh. You really do," she kissed his cheek softly when she thought no one was looking.

Natalie didn't linger for very long on the kiss, quickly pulling back. She didn't want to answer any awkward questions about her and Landon. "Right, well I was hunting for the giant squid. Care to join me?" she asked. Them swimming would always remind her of his first trip to her house; it was a memory that she quite liked. She silently hoped that she'd be able to get another kiss out of it, somewhere away from prying eyes.

Natalie was confused by Landon's seemingly sudden disinterest in doing things with her. "I just thought it would be fun," she said quietly, a little hurt that he thought she did too many things. She always thought he enjoyed going with her, but now she was having second thoughts. "You don't have to come, I just thought you might like to," she tried to pretend like she was less hurt than she was, although she was pretty sure she was doing a crap job at it.

"Yeah... maybe," Natalie returned Landon's hug half-heartedly. She couldn't pretend that she wasn't upset by him not really wanting to do anything but kiss her, or so it would seem. She let him kiss her again, though when he pulled away she got up and grabbed her clothes, pulling them on over her swimsuit. She wasn't really in the exploring mood anymore.

She sat down where her clothes had been under the tree with her back against the trunk and looked at the water. Was she being silly by wanting to find the giant squid? She didn't think she was, but for all she knew, she could have been. Still, she didn't understand why Landon just wanted to sit around all day; there was so much to do around here that it didn't make sense to her. Still, she could give it a try, see if there was anything good about doing nothing.