Two Friends on a Perfect Day PV Finished

Cecily gazed in awe at the most amazing tree she had ever seen. A Japanese maple, it was not as tall as the surrounding trees, and was not yet in full colour, but it was rounded to perfection. Whether it was magical or natural, the girl couldn't tell. Taking a step back to contemplate this further, she stubled forwards as she crashed into another body. She tried to apologize for her lack of awareness immediately-- but there was no one to apologize to. She turned her body an gasped as she saw a flash of red hair and Hufflepuff tie fly into the water. Amadea! she thought, taking a step back. The splash that the other girl had made sent ripples across the lake, and a few students turned their heads. Ignoring them, Cecily focused on the fact that luckily, the Great Lake, like most bodies of water, was not a straight drop-off. Cecily waded in a bit, and reached out her hand for Amadea to take. Grasping the Hufflepuff's hand, the Ravenclaw hoisted her out, now both shivering and sopping wet.

"Amadea! I'm so sorry!" Cecily couldn't decide what expression to put on her face, so she went with her best I'm-so-sorry-I-just-accidentally-pushed-you-into-a-magical-creature-infested-lake face, which she made up as she went along. "I didn't see you there! I was just admiring this most amazing tree--" she gestured behind them to the spherical Japanese maple-- "and I bumped into you, clearly, and I didn't realise how close we were to the Lake, I'm so sorry..." Cecily laughed. "Are you okay?"

She was not expecting to be pulled out of the lake so quickly. The first thought she had as she felt an arm grasp her, pulling her, was about the many creatures that the lake was infested with. She didn't want to die now; there was still so much more she wanted to do with her life. Luckily, it was only Cecily, pulling her out of the water and onto the shore. She sputtered, coughing up the water she had inhaled in her fall. She hoped that the water didn't have any magical properties that she might catch through the water inhalation. That would be something she definitely would not want to deal with.

The Ravenclaw was looking at her with a sheepish-sorry-are-you-okay look on her face that made Amadea want to burst out laughing. Clearly this was not one she had worked on very much. That was probably a good thing, Amadea figured, as she wouldn't want to be near Cecily if she often accidentally pushed people into magical lakes. Not that it was all her fault, of course. Amadea had been startled; she should have looked behind her before standing up. As she was thinking all of this, the small blond girl was apologizing profusely and gesturing to the beautiful Japenese maple tree swaying in the wind. It seemed to be watching the girls. Amadea wondered what it thought of this whole exchange.

"Oh don't worry!" Amadea assured. "I'm quite clumsy, if I'm being honest, and I should have looked behind me before standing up so abruptly. Thank you for coming in and saving me." She shivered slightly. "Maybe we should continue walking to warm up? I wouldn't want us to catch a cold."

Cecily gratefully replaced her awkward accidental-lake-pushing face with a smile as Amadea brushed off the incident. Cecily was glad that the victim of her inattentiveness was someone she already knew-- if her first interaction with someone was knocking them into a magical lake, that might not go over so well.

Amadea was thanking Cecily for pulling her out. "Hey, I wasn't going to just let you die in a magical lake. Then I would actually have no friends. Except for maybe Adam..." Cecily trailed off, trying to think of if she really had any other friends at Hogwarts. At home, she had been homeschooled, and she lived too far away from the nearest clump of civilisation to visit often, and she was always too young to go with her father when he went for necessities every Sunday. Needless to say, she didn't really have any friends outside of her family.

Amadea suggested they continues walking to warm up. "Yeah," Cecily agreed. "I'm not sure how much good that will do, but we might as well." She shrugged off her wet outer robes down to the grey sweater and black skirt beneath, and slung the heavy material over her arm before beginning to walk. "So, what brings you outside on this beautiful day?" Cecily asked, making small talk.

Amadea was glad that no magical beings had noticed her fall into the lake. That wouldn't have ended well. She was also glad Cecily had plastered on a real smile, since her weird magical-lake-pushing face was kind of creepy. She debated telling the poor Ravenclaw that, but she decided against it for fear that they did not know each other well enough to joke around like that.

"Well, thank you for not letting me die then," Amadea said with a laugh, feeling quite light inside. Cecily had just called her a friend! Were they friends? That would be exciting. "I'm glad my friends like me enough to save me from magical lakes." That was a very new statement for Amadea. Back in London, she had absolutely no friends. She hadn't been the friendliest person back then, if she was being honest with herself, but she also knew that most people in London that she knew were snobs. She didn't enjoy hanging out with her parent's friend's kids and she hated their pompous mannerisms. She felt like a freak when she was with them. She was glad it wasn't like that at Hogwarts. Everyone was so much nicer, probably because they were looking for friends as well.

She began walking on the trail she had previously been walking on until she had fallen into the lake, waiting for Cecily to follow. Maybe walking wouldn't warm them up, but it was worth a shot, right? She followed Cecily's lead, shedding of her drenched outer robes, hoping that her clothes underneath weren't quite as soggy. Unfortunately, she was out of luck. She shrugged, knowing she could just let her clothes dry later. Then she heard Cecily ask a question. "Oh, I try to take a walk every day," Amadea said. "I love being outside and Hogwarts is surrounded by such beautiful nature. I come from London, so it's kind of congested and really crowded all of the time, but here it's calm and peaceful and I love it."

Cecily jogged to catch up with Amadea as she began to walk, slightly puzzled at the Hufflepuff girl's speech. It wasn't the words, or the accent; Cecily could understand those just fine. It was the hint of emotion in her voice when she said the word "friends". Cecily knew what it was, because she heard it in her own voice every day: loneliness.

Cecily didn't have any friends outside of her family at home. She was homeschooled, and too young to go into the village before she got her letter. Consequently, she had very little human contact outside of the people she was related to. Cecily told herself that the reason she had so few friends in Hogwarts was because she had such little practice making friends, but lately she'd been wondering.

Cecily listened as Amadea began to talk about how she took walks every day. "I love being outside and Hogwarts is surrounded by such beautiful nature," the Hufflepuff said. She then went on to talk about how congested and cramped it was, living in London, and how nice it was for a peaceful breath of fresh air, but Cecily couldn't relate. She had grown up on the wide open moors of the Irish countryside-- there was nothing but peaceful fresh air-- well, wind-- there.

"I wish I could see the city," Cecily responded. "I grew up in the countryside, so I've no idea what it's like. You make it sound like a bad thing, but maybe it would be exciting to talk to someone outside of your family once in a while." Cecily looked at the sky and exhaled. "I'm sorry. That came out rude. I didn't mean it that way. I would just love to see London sometime."

Amadea slowed her pace slightly, waiting for Cecily to catch up. It wasn't like the other girl was slow or anything, Amadea was just used to walking very quickly, trying to keep up with the hustle of the city. She still walked quickly around Hogwarts, trying to get to her classes in time and always managed to speed ahead of everyone she was walking with, which didn't always bode well when she was trying to make conversation.

She tried to read into Cecily's expression as she said the word "friends." There was definitely a flicker of something on the Ravenclaw's face, but Amadea couldn't read into what it was. She wasn't the best at reading body language or facial expressions. That was probably why she didn't have any friends in London. But also because she hated all of the girls in London. Enough thinking about the past, she chided herself. She was no longer in London; she was at Hogwarts and she had a fresh start which was something not everyone had. She was going to do everything she could to make it the best restart ever.

Cecily began talking about her childhood growing up on the Irish moors. Amadea envied that life. While she did have a certain kind of love for the city, she couldn't imagine how differently her life would have been if she lived out in the countryside. "So you've never seen a city before?" Amadea asked incredulously. She couldn't imagine that. She would love to bring Cecily to a city to see her reaction. It was so much different from the countryside and Hogwarts in a way that was almost indescribable. The pulse and vibe of London, while tiring, was also something that Amadea thrived on. "That's okay," Amadea added, referring to Cecily's second comment. "It wasn't rude. I love my family too, but I wouldn't be able to stand being with them every single second of every single day..." She trailed off. Cecily's history was so different from Amadea's and her normal was so different as well. While Cecily was used to life int he countryside with her family by her side, Amadea wandered the city daily while waiting for her parents to come home from work. Usually she would have to cook herself dinner, and if she was lucky, her sister would be home from work and be able to eat with Amadea. But then she would have to go do her homework. Even though her family got on her nerves, Amadea secretly envied Cecily. By the way she talked, it sounded like her family was very tight-knit. Of course they would be, she thought, if they spent all of their time together.

Amadea had to stop thinking about this; it was just making her depressed. She decided to change her beat and talk about something happier. "You'll have to come to London with me sometime!" she exclaimed. As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she realized how much she actually would love for that to happen. She had never been in the city with a friend, especially not one that had never been to London before. She could show Cecily so many things: the best sights, the best foods, and she could meet her family! It would be so exciting. Amadea glanced sidelong at the Ravenclaw next to her, trying to gauge her excitement at the statement. It would be a little more than embarrassing if she didn't want to come to London. Amadea chastised herself at her thoughts again, she was being negative, and plus Cecily had just said she wanted to go to London.

"Maybe you can visit once school gets out? My parents would love to meet my friends!" That statement was definitely true. Amadea was pretty sure her parents had been waiting for her to bring home a friend since she started school in London. Unfortunately, the whole friend making thing didn't work as well as it had at Hogwarts. Amadea looked toward Cecily, waiting for her input on the whole situation.

He wasn't sure how it all happened, it went by so fast and before he knew it he was drenched in water, top to bottom. It all started earlier that day, fairly close to the great late, fairly. He got together with one of the Slytherin boys, he cannot remember his name still, but he always had this weird grin on his face, as if something fun is about to happen, but Alex simply didn't catch onto the hints. The boy convinced him that Alex should drench his arm in oil and cast Insendio, it was harmless he said, it will go out immediately he said, it will be fine he said. Many reassuring words, none of which were genuine. The moment of truth was drawing closer and Alex pulled out his wand, a swift twirl and an incantation which followed soon after and a small ember was shot out onto his arm. Like magic the fire started to spread across it, but Alex did not fully comprehend what that meant, not until it was too late at least. He started yelling and screaming in panic waving his arm as much as he could while the Slytherin was laughing uncontrollably. Nothing Alex did helped, the Slytherin boy didn't do anything besides laughing.

Alex took off, running. The way he ran was definitely not what one would call a straight line, but soon enough he got there, a large body of water, the lake! Only one thing was on his mind... Well, two. He was on fire and there was a lake, that surely would help! He ran, desperate, brushing against something fairly hard on his way and he leaped into the water while his body was twisting in mid-air by that thing he stumbled into, a tree maybe? No, a tree would not move in response to Alex, maybe it was a person? A large splash of water accompanied Alex's landing and he was half-submerged in the water, the other sticking out on the shallow end. He quickly pulled his head out of it, shaking it and then raising his arm to be leveled with his face, it wasn't burning anymore at the very least. He sighed slightly with releaf. He was scared he was going to lose his arm all together, but it was fine, it hurt still but it was still there. He looked back and saw that there were two girls back in the way he came from, his face immediately reddened with embarssment

"U-um... S-sorry..."

He apologized, not really realizing what for, not at that very instant at least.

Cecily smiled as Amadea volunteered to show Cecily the city over the summer. Cecily had always wanted to see a city-- and what stories she would have to spin for Máire when she got home! Her father had told them all about his various trips to Limerick and other cities, and Cecily had always begged him to bring her along. Alas, it was to no avail. He had always claimed that she was too young.

Cecily turned her attention back towards the Hufflepuff girl. "I would love that," she said, smiling. "I would offer to bring you to the moors, but I'm not sure if you would find them very interesting after you've seen the city. Though I mean, if you want to, I'd be happy to show you over summer break!"

Suddenly, Cecily stumbled as another body collided with her. She caught a whiff of smoke and a flash of orange and red before she turned to see yet another student crash into the lake, spraying her with water yet again. Cecily stood stunned for a moment, staring at the steaming boy standing waist-deep in the Great Lake, before managing, "D-déjà vu?" She took another moment to try to recognise this boy (who was now apologising), but to no avail. She simply hadn't ever seen him around before.

Another moment, and Cecily promptly burst into laughter. She fell to the ground, wonder what could possibly have led to this exact scenario-- a girl falling into a lake after being pushed, directly followed by a boy jumping into a lake to extinguish himself. This led to a much more pressing question, of course.

"Um..." Cecily began, trying to get the boy's attention. "W-why...why...why were you...on fire?" Cecily asked, confused.

Amadea smiled. She was actually making plans with someone to hang out over summer break! This was so exciting! She couldn't wait to show everything in the city to Cecily. She had to keep reminding herself that Cecily had to see everything since she had never seen a city before. Amadea was going to make sure she was amazed. 

"I would love to see the moors!" Amadea said. "It must surprise you, but being in a city that's big and congested after a while gets boring. Well, not boring, but it just becomes everyday life. I'd love to see the moors!" This summer would be so exciting if she and Cecily were able to make plans. Amadea felt a lot better than she had a few seconds ago. Then again, a few seconds ago she had been in the lake. 

Before she could say anything else, she saw a flash of a person running by both of them, knocking them down. She heard another splash and turned just in time to see another person fall into the lake. Okay, seriously, what was it with people falling into lakes? This was the third time Amadea had witnessed someone falling into a lake, or fallen into the lake herself. Was it cursed? It definitely couldn't be just a coincidence...could it? 

The person stumbled out of the water with sopping wet robes and a sopping wet Gryffindor tie. Amadea didn't recognize him, but then again he was standing in a lake. As he came toward the shore, Amadea tried to think of if she had seen him around the school before, but didn't recognize his face. 

Cecily voiced the question that Amadea had been wondering about. She nodded along. "Are you okay?" she asked hesitantly. She had so many other questions, but that one was probably of the most importance at the moment.