Stumbling Exploration Closed

Chloe sighed, slowly making her way to the lake. She hadn't had a great day and so far had been completely unsuccessful at actually making friends. She was homesick. She had remembered Hogwarts had a huge lake, and there was a lake near her house that she spent a lot of time relaxing beside, so she decided to go there to relax and think. As she walked down to the lake, she listened to the sounds coming from that area. She listened to the wind blowing in the trees in the Forbidden Forest, listened to some small waves crashing, and most importantly, listened to the sound of no voices. As she got closer, Chloe noticed another girl alone at the lake. She stopped walking for a moment, debating if she should keep going to the lake or turn around and lock herself Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. She decided to continue going to he lake. She walked past the girl, giving her an awkward but polite smile. She had no idea how to go up and talk to people without seeming creepy, so she kept walking. She sat down against the wall facing the water, leaning her head against it. She closed her eyes and imagined she's back at her home with her parents and dog.

Adalacia drummed her fingers absently against her textbook, pondering her next move and where she'd get herself lost this time - that was until another young girl came walking down the slope towards the Great Lake beside her, brushing on by with a small awkward smile. At first she just inwardly shrugged, not exactly fond of first impressions and the strange aura it seemed to bring (especially when it came to herself meeting other people, she always seemed to say something wrong) but she could hear her mum calling her anti-social and her father urging her towards making friends... there was no way she could just pretend like this wasn't the perfect opportunity to make her life easier at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

"H-hey, are you lost too?" Adalacia queried, picking her way down the slope slowly so as not to make a total fool of herself by tripping up. The girl that had passed her by was sitting up against the stone wall of the castle, as the Great Lake was situated right up against the building further down. As she grew closer her nerve seemed to waiver, noticing the quaint beauty of the other; but she continued nonetheless, she was her father's daughter after all...  fear wasn't a part of her vocabulary. 

Chloe opened her eyes and looked at the girl walking over to her. She shook her head and smiled softly. 

"I'm not lost... I just had a bad day and came down here to think. I love the lake." She didn't want to seem whiney and pathetic the first time she met the girl, so she stuck with the short story, avoiding the details unless the girl asked. She shyly smiled again and stood up, stretching her back. "Why? Are you lost?" 

Adalacia listened to the girl speak, a little relieved that she seemed friendly enough. "Oh... I see." She hugged her books tighter to her chest, fingers turning white at the intense grip. Her embarrassment tinted her cheeks a pale shade of pink when the girl asked if she was lost, a question she didn't really want to answer but knew would be useless and slightly rude to avoid.

"I guess you could say I am a little lost, I've never been really good at finding my place around unfamiliar places. I also don't really like lakes, or oceans, or rivers... or any bodies of water really, they kind of freak me out..." Quickly Adalacia stopped herself short, pulling her bottom lip between her teeth to keep her words trapped inside her mouth. In her nervousness she'd begun to ramble - it was a bad habit her mother had tried forcing her to kick when she was much younger, but alas there was nothing to be done about it, and her father had told her it was nothing but an endearing tick and she had nothing to be embarrassed about. 

"Sorry." She apologized gently, "Sometimes I talk too much... my name is Adalacia, but you can call me Lacy if you want?"

Chloe laughed and smiled warmly at Lacy. 

"I'm Chloe. And don't apologize! It's okay." She smiled at Lacy's nervousness and looked back down at the water. "So, you're really afraid of the water in general?" she laughs again. 

Chloe could hear the voice in her head basically yelling at her. 

Chloe shut up, dear God. You're so nosy. You sound like you're making fun of her. Stop it. You bloody idiot.

Chloe took a deep breath, ignoring the voice in her head. The words were already out of her mouth. They couldn't be taken back. She just hoped Lacy didn't think she was as rude and judgmental as she just thought she sounded. She had a tendency to speak without thinking and then beat herself up for what she said. The thinking would always come after the words came out, just a moment too late. It got her in trouble many times with her parents and at school already. She struggled making friends because of it. 

"I can go with you back up to the castle if you want. To keep you from getting lost again." Chloe laughed again, doing her best to ignore the voice in her head again. 

CHLOE. STOP IT. Seriously. You sound so judgmental. This is why you don't have friends.

She hesitated ever so slightly, pulling the inside of her cheek between her teeth to hide the fact that she was smiling nervously; "I am a little afraid of water, yes." She admitted to Chloe bashfully, shrugging a shoulder; apparently fear was apart of her vocabulary sometimes. "It's a little ridiculous, really." She muttered, a small laughing chime to her tone. She wasn't upset with Chloe's brashness, she rather enjoyed the forward approach if anything; people who filtered themselves were boring, and frankly uninteresting in her opinion. "What about you, are you scared of anything?" Lacy queried then, running with the awkward subject of innermost fears rather than forcefully change it to something more accommodating. 

The lake was rippling ever so slightly as a gentle fall breeze rippled across its surface, cooling the air around them. Above was an overcast sky, and far off a group of third years chatted among themselves animatedly; and before she knew it Lacy was taking a seat just beside where Chloe had been sitting, pulling her text books into her lap and staring intently at the waves slapping against the shore before responding to her offer. "I'm actually okay here, I mean it's not like the lake is going to get any closer than this, right?" Lacy mused, shrugging a gentle shoulder. 

For the first time in days she felt comfortable at this school, and there was no way she was going to let that go when she had the opportunity to make a possible friend right in front of her. "But maybe I can take you up on that offer in a bit when I do decide to head back." She finished, chuckling.