Wandering...

Ethan liked being indoors, in fact, if he could go back to the times where he could spend stupid amounts of time in front of the computer or the TV, he'd be a happy boy. Ethan was fascinated by the magical world, but something about electricity not working at Hogwarts, bummed him right out. He'd have to find something else to waste time on now.

Thinking that there wasn't much to do in the castle, Ethan decided to get some fresh air, and what better place than the Black Lake. Upon walking down Ethan noted, that though the lake definitely looked Black when he boated across it not that long ago, in the daylight, didn't look so black anymore.

He gave the lake a quick walk, and then decided to paddle his feet in the water. He placed one foot in the water, shuddering at the cold, but followed his right foot with his left. Splashing his feet, Ethan placed his hands behind his head, and rested his back against the glass, enjoying the sunlight and quiet.

Liz was depressed. It wasn't entirely reasonable, either; the magical world was stunning, there wasn't much work to do, and she was at Hogwarts, the best wizarding school in Britain. There was no reason at all for her to be depressed in any normal person's point of view except for one thing: there were no electronics at Hogwarts.

Video games were her life. It sounded pathetic, yes, but it was entirely true; they were the only things that kept her going. She had struggled through the entire year before without them, and she wasn't sure if she could handle it this time. She was definitely going home for Christmas this year. In order to get her mind off of technology, she found her way out into the opposite; the grounds. As she approached the lake, he saw and unfamiliar boy lying back, feet dangling into the water, something coming up through the water at him. He's rather cute, she thought offhandedly before waving her own opinion away; boys were idiots. "Squid," she called calmly as the sea monster inched its way closer to him, sitting down cross-legged next to his head.

Ethan blinked his his eyes open as he heard the word squid being randomly called out. He raised an eyebrow thinking that it was indeed a strange word to just crop up out of the blue like that. He wouldn't have been so interested if the word was 'duck!' or even 'cheesecake' but squid? How bizarre.

He turned his head to see a girl sitting next to him. When did that happen? he thought, and sat up.

"Are you the owner of the word squid?" he asked.

She sighed. Like she thought before, boys were strange. "No," she shook her head, watching the creature carefully sneaking towards his feet. "I mean that the giant squid in the lake is swimming towards you and you should either feed it or get out of the water." She grinned cheekily. "Are you could become fish food, whatever you prefer."

She watched him, interested. First year, there was no doubt in her mind; anyone else would have immediately scrambled up the bank at the mention of the crustacean. She wondered if anyone had taught him the ropes around the school...it certainly didn't seem like it. Suddenly realizing that she hadn't even introduced herself, she offered him a hand. "I'm Liz. You?"

Ethan looked down at his feet, which were still submerged in the water. He wiggled his toes. Yup, all ten were still there. He lifted one foot out to prove that he wasn't fish food... Yet.

"Perhaps I taste gross," Ethan said, placing his foot back in the water again. "What does the squid even eat? If you say First Year Hufflepuff boys, I'd say you were lying, or I'd have very bad luck, indeed.

Ethan looked down at her extended hand, and then extended his own. "Ethan, Ethan Carter."

She watched as he wiggled his toes, amused. If the squid was going to eat him, it would probably eat him whole, not toe by toe, and he'd probably feel his toe being eaten, anyways. But that was alright; it never hurt to check. "First year Hufflepuff boys," she replied seriously, her barely concealed grin slipping out before a thoughtful expression replaced it. "Anything, really. Bread, crackers, occasionally other fish, though I think it avoids those, and I think Astrid Eliot disappeared down there one day." She shrugged. "If you ever see her, let me know."

"I'm not joking when I'm telling you to take your feet out, by the way," she added. "Either feed it--I have some bread--or don't swim. Putting your feet in is teasing it, and not only could that be classified as animal cruelty," she muffled a laugh here, "but it's rather unsafe at the same time." She slipped the packet of whole-wheat bread (nobody would care it was gone) out of her pocket, opened it, and offered him a slice, a half-smile donning her face at the strangeness of this situation. "Want to feed the squid?"

Bri was in the common room when she got sick of just sitting around. She went down to the lake to walk around and saw two people, one of whom looked like she was in Ravenclaw also, so she decided to be friendly and go say hi.

It was only when she got closer that she realized she knew the boy as well. "Ethan! What... What are you doing here?"

She had no idea if he was a student here or if he'd gotten here some other way, but she immediately started to panic. How was she supposed to explain the gigantic castle to him? It momentarily slipped her mind that it was a possibility that he was actually a student here, especially since she'd been sick and hadn't seen the Sorting Feast, since she'd been taken to the Hospital Wing immediately upon her arrival to the castle.

Ethan moved his feet out of the water, as the girl confirmed that the squid did indeed like to eat first year boys. He knew she was joking, but still moved them anyway; he was getting cold.

"Well, I don't have any food on me, and I wouldn't want to be arrested for animal cruelty, so I suppose I won't dangle my feet in the water anymore. Thanks for the advice."

Ethan took the slice, and was about to reply when he heard his name being screeched. He definitely knew that decibel.

He spun around, grinning like a buffoon. "Brianna Banana!!" Ethan cried, hopping up and giving his cousin a hug, still with bread in his hand. He got some crumbs in her hair, and pushed them off.

"I go here, silly. Crazy, I know!" he said, still smiling, and taking in her appearance. She was wearing Hogwarts robes as well, but she had blue colourings, suggesting Ravenclaw. "So this is the special school Aunty Michelle and Uncle Phillip sent you! We all thought you were some headcase, or something! I knew different though."

Brianna accepted the hug but was still immensely confused. She thought it had to be pretty rare to have cousins from a family of muggles inherit magic at the same time. "You're here, and... and you're a Hufflepuff," she said finally, before breaking out into a huge grin and hugging him again. She didn't have a lot of friends here, so it was nice to have some family around. Ethan was her favorite cousin, even if he was a little bit odd, so that was an added bonus.

"Of course you did," she ruffled his hair. "Just do me a favor, if you meet a Ravenclaw named Andy, don't call me Brianna Banana. It's just Bri here, and I'd never live it down."

Ethan nodded vigorously. "Yup! I'm a Puff and you're a Raven. I'm not surprised about that though. You always had your head suck in a book!" He smiled at the memory of Bri constantly reading when the rest of the family wanted to play a board game or something fun.

He hugged his cousin again when she hugged him. He really was ecstatic that she was here with him, to help him when things got bad.

Ethan made a face, "Not the hair!" he cried, trying to dodge her hands, grinning cheekily as he heard her favour.

"Andy, hey?" he asked. "Perhaps I'll have to pass the nickname on to this Andy. I'm sure he'd appreciate knowing it!" He prepared himself to duck incase Bri had any ideas to thwack him over the head.

"Oh, please don't!" Bri's face grew warm at the thought of Andy knowing her family nickname. It was something that she would never, ever live down from him.

She'd gotten so caught up in finding out that her cousin was also a wizard that she'd nearly forgotten about the girl that was there also. She searched her mind quickly for the name, since she must have heard it from someone at some point. "Hello Liz," she said with a smile when the name miraculously popped into her head. "Having a nice day?"

Liz watched, amused, as the two relatives batered, throwing the squid a couple of pieces of bread, but jumped up when she heard her own name, looking around. "Oh..." she relaxed and blushed when she realized it was just the fellow Raven--Ethan had said her name often enough in the past five minutes. "Brianna, right? It's been great, mostly! What about you?" She was going to feel like the world's biggest fool if she got the name wrong. That'd make the situation awkward...

"Same," Bri replied to Liz, smiling brightly. From what she'd seen of her around the castle, Liz was a really nice girl, and they would probably get along very well if Bri wasn't so shy around others. She didn't really have a lot of friends- she mostly only talked to Andy or people she needed help from with a class- so what harm would it do to give it a shot and try to be friends with Liz? "What are you doing?" she asked. She sat down beside Liz and patted the ground for Ethan to sit too.