afternoon swim }{ [open]

[mercedes carissa nott]

"One hundred and fifty-two, one hundred and fifty-three, one hundred and fifty-four," Mercedes quietly counted to herself as she descended the marble staircase. One hundred and fifty-five steps she'd taken since she left Ravenclaw tower a few minutes before. Normally it would have taken about a hundred more to reach the entrance hall, but she was in a hurry today and was practically sprinting.

Today was the first Hogsmeade visit of the school year. Mercy had considered going. She liked visiting all the shops and spending time with her friends outside of school, but with everyone away from the castle, she could do some things that she wouldn't normally. Like go swimming to cool off on what was probably the hottest day that year.

Her eyes scanned the grounds surrounding her as she walked to the lake. She knew that the first- and second-years of Ravenclaw were locked away in the tower, studying for upcoming Transfiguration and Defense tests. She hoped that the children in other houses were equally worried about their grades and were staying inside. If so, she would only have to worry about the odd older student taking a walk. Or maybe the grounds keeper heading to the forest.

Mercy smiled down at the water at her feet. It looked so cool and inviting, she wasted no time in stripping off her shoes and baggy jeans and one-size-too-big sweat shirt to reveal her one-piece green swimsuit. It was rather plain in comparison to the things other girls her age were wearing. Backless suits and tiny bikinis that hardly covered anything at all. Mercedes shuddered at the thought. Perhaps it was because she hadn't let anyone see her in anything more revealing than a knee-length skirt since she was nine, but she was a bit cautious when it came to people seeing her body.

Slowly, she slipped into the water and let herself be carried away to the center of the lake. The water was just as cool as she'd hoped, but the afternoon sun still beat down on her face and arms. She took a deep breath and dived underneath the surface. Mercy felt weightless and carefree under the water. She had no worries or concerns. There was no one there that could hurt her. And then she caught sight of the scar on her left leg and the worrying came flooding back. She surfaced and let out a long sigh. If it wasn't for that little scar, she could do so much. She would be someone very different from who she was today.

[emma elizabeth logan]

Emma’s head was aching. She wasn’t doing her best those days. She’d stopped eating for days at a time and had taken to even more silence than before. She went three entire days without saying a word to anyone earlier that week. That was a harder task than it sounded. Teachers would ask her questions and Emma would sit there with this defiant expression and gaze away from them blankly. She’d just stare out the windows or at the chalk board or at the door. She had no desire to say anything. Finally, on Thursday night, she’d run into her sister in the Great Hall and Alice Logan was the only person who could ever really get Emma to do anything.

So, the night before, Em had been depressed and lonely and angry with everyone in her stupid house and year. She’d slipped out of the dungeons and wander up a few flights of stairs until she’d ended up in a secluded secret passage. She’d run into Kyndrick Laurent who was wandering back up to the Ravenclaw Tower. Kyndrick had given Em a bottle of rum. Emma had finished it on her own as the hours ticked away. Emma hadn’t slept. She hadn’t eaten. And she was hung-over. Other than a large glass of water, she was emptied out. She was useless to the world and she had no desire to join the smiling faces of the other students in Hogsmeade as they enjoyed their sunny day. The sunny day was nothing more than a lie in Emma’s eyes.

She’d spent a good half hour just wander the grounds aimlessly at first. Emma had this bad habit of walking on those grounds and pretending she was running away from something. She never could figure out what that something was, but it loomed over her in a fierce kind of way. When Emma spotted Mercedes Nott climbing into the lake for a swim, she became interested. She’d not swam in the lake yet this year. She wandered closer and watched Mercedes for a moment. She knew that had to be a bit creepy. She’d only talked to Mercedes in classes or during projects before. She’d never taken time to socialize with her. Then again, Emma didn’t really take time to socialize with very many people. Mercedes seemed sort of different to Emma though. Mercedes seemed like she didn’t socialize much either. Maybe she wasn’t half bad.

Before Emma could over-process what she was doing, she started stripping down. She pulled off her baggy black t-shirt and slipped her gangly legs out of her holy jeans. Her nameless black tennis shoes lay abandoned on the grass along with her pants. Her hair was down and messy and her makeup was smeared. She left on her plain black bar and black boyish looking underpants. She dove into the water head first and with a staggering kind of grace she’d forgotten she possessed. She stayed there for a second, underwater and overwhelmed by icy sensations. Her intense blue eyes were wide open and trying to make sense of this blurry scene before her. She knew Mercedes would have noticed Emma joining her by then. She brought herself upward for a gentle gulp of air. Emma felt rejuvenated. It was as though that gulp of air was satisfying all the needs she’d been ignoring. Things felt better in the lake. She could almost have smiled, had she been given a need.

”It looked like fun. Do you care if I join you?” Em asked the other girl now. She realized how close she was to Mercedes and wondered if the other girl was uncomfortable with her being there.

[mercedes carissa nott]

Mercy had gone back under the water and hadn't noticed Emma's presence until the she dived in after her. It surprised her, and she rose to the surface again, wondering how the Slytherin would take it if Mercedes made a mad dash for shore to cover up her scar. Emma surfaced before she could make up her mind on what to do, so she settled for turning slightly so that Emma wouldn't be able to see her left leg too well.

"Oh, not at all. You just scared me. I-I thought most everyone had gone to Hogsmeade already. What are you still doing here?" Mercy was afraid she'd sounded more nervous than scared, but in truth it was a little of both. There wasn't much she could do about it with her heart racing as fast as it was. It was all she could do to keep from rambling, a common occurrence when she was nervous or scared. Her mind was so filled with ideas of what would happen if and when Emma saw her scar that it didn't even phase her that it was Emma of all people that had joined her.

[emma elizabeth logan]

Emma’s blank expression relaxed slightly. It was sort of like being a ghost, she supposed. Water had a ghostly effect. She was floating, kicking up every now and then to tread the water. She felt weightless and endless and limitless and awake and alive. But none of that showed. She only looked weakly unaware of reality. She only looked somewhat present and entirely out of place and, from what she gathered off observation alone, she was floating in a lake with a girl who was scared shitless for almost no reason Em could easily point out.

And she was talking to her. Like normal human being did. Mercedes was asking her why she wasn’t in Hogsmeade. And, quiet Emma Logan felt inclined to answer. ”Because people are monsters and I’d rather swim in the lake with the giant squid.” Emma murmured. Something that looked almost like a small smile chanced its presence on her lips. Her unresponsive tendencies had been ever-so-slightly let up around a fellow freak show. And, for all it was worth, Emma was already more fond of Mercedes than the Nott girl’s elder sister, Cecilia. Emma found Cecilia to be a ghastly kind of girl, someone who Emma wouldn’t mind tripping down a flight of moving staircases should the occasion ever arise.

”You?” Emma asked, taking Mercedes in slowly. Mercedes and Cecilia looked similar, but where Cecilia’s beauty was loud and demanding, Mercedes wore her beauty with grace and modesty. Emma’s eyes lingered while she waited for a response and she found herself seeking flaws. Cecilia was like porcelain and Mercedes looked like she might actually be human. And that was when she spotted the scar. Em’s brows began to knit together slightly in curiosity, trying to recall if she’d ever heard of any tragic accidents involving Mercedes Nott’s leg.