Water Precautions

Light illuminated the room full of sleeping students; they tossed over as the light bugged their sleepy eyes. A ray of light reflected off of Meg's glasses and towards Basil, who groaned, and flipped over again. Anna sat up in her bed then checked the clock by her bed to realize that it was almost time to go to class.

"Guys! We have class in thirty minutes!" Anna yelped while jumping from her bed.

Persephone rolled out of her bed and followed Anna to the Ravenclaw bathroom. Meg sat up and placed her hair in her neat bun then placed her glasses on her face. Basil watched, with exhaustion still in her system, but she threw herself out of bed to get ready. Basil brushed through her hair as she stood in front of the window, only to notice a strange shadow moving. Basil tried shaking the tiredness from her eyes, but it stayed in a blurry haze.

"What was that?" Meg asked and jumped towards the window.

Basil's eyes finally stabilized as she looked for the figure and saw something horrifying; something out of a horror movie. The window opened up to the Forbidden Forest from which they saw creatures running towards the castle. Hagrid and Headmaster McGonagall appeared also. They were approaching the creatures with swiftness.

"What is that?" Basil gasped.

"I have no idea…some sort of…oh my god…spiders!" Meg shrieked and jumped away from the window in fear.

Meg was right about the spiders. They were giant, almost as big as Hagrid, and they seemed to be talking to Hagrid and McGonagall. Basil felt disgusted by the sight and moved away from the window. Anna walked back into the room, dressed with bag ready, while whistling nonchalantly; she noticed the uneasiness from both of her friends and walked to the window.

"Spiders? We have to ask Hagrid about this later." Anna stated then turned to Basil.

Persephone appeared with a grumpy expression, as they had just missed breakfast, and stood by the door. Basil followed her friends down the stairs when they began talking about Sebastian yet again. They were acting all giggly, which Basil could tolerate so much of.

"His hair though! So messy…I love it." Meg gushed with red cheeks.

"Messy?" Basil asked. The image she remembered was perfect blond hair that was slicked back.

"Yes! It's beautiful." Anna agreed.

Basil kept her silence until they reached their first class, Defense Against Dark Arts. Professor Aguirre gave a look of disgust as they took their seats. Derek Collins took a seat behind Basil, smiling constantly, and tried striking up a conversation. Before Basil could reply, Professor Carrie suddenly entered with her nose up in the air, yet her head was in her ass.

"Sorry Charles, but I have something that is much more important. Attention students," Professor Carrie sneered then glanced at Bail. "Due to the unfortunate news of Arnold Sweets escape, we will have stricter rules for staying out. We don't want any more people murdered! That is all." Her lips curled into a snarl as she left. Basil caught her eyes glaring darts at her.

"Well welcome class. As this year begins, I must tell you all that the mere mention of what happened last year, will be punished. We must move forward from other's coincidental triumphs." Aguirre announced. His eyes burned at Basil and Anna.

The class went on with Aguirre explaining the lesson they would have tomorrow and regular rules about the campus. Aguirre kept glaring towards Basil's direction ever so often and it was obvious to everyone but Anna. Anna smiled brightly at Aguirre while the rest of Ravenclaw looked either scared or disgusted. Basil felt a tight knot in her stomach; everyone was so angry at her, and for no reason at that! Or at least, Basil thought that she didn't so anything.

"We'll handle pixies soon enough-"The bell rang and interrupted the sentence. "Okay students, come tomorrow prepared."

Basil grabbed all her things then sped out of the classroom like a bullet. Anna, Meg, and Persephone followed close behind but talked about Sebastian. Basil exhaled once she stood with her group that was heading to the Great Hall. The pressure from that class made everything harder at that moment; she needed to relax and forget the memory.

"Basil!" A familiar voice called out.

Scorpius appeared, slightly unhappy, with Sebastian. Sebastian wore his Slytherin robes proudly and greeted Basil's friends with a dazzling smile. Basil noticed an uncanny resemblance between Scorpius and Sebastian; same blond hair and blue eyes. Those blue eyes….Basil snapped herself out of that weird trance and turned to Scorpius for a favor. Scorpius looked ticked off with cheeks the shade of an apple.

"Scorpius, can we go down to the water?" Basil whispered to her blond friend. "I need to talk some stuff out."

"Let me drop my stuff off. I'll meet you down there." Scorpius agreed.

"Oh Sebastian! Please sit with us." Persephone begged with her honey brown eyes.

"Oh…yes of course!" Sebastian smiled meekly and joined them. All the girls looked as if drool was coming from their mouths.

"I'm sick of him." Scorpius groaned. "All the girls were discussing his eye color this morning. Saying stuff about hazel and green." Scorpius scoffed.

Basil gave Scorpius a puzzling look; what is he talking about? Basil wanted to say something but Scorpius said he had to drop his stuff off now. Basil said her short goodbye to her friends and left for the outside of the castle. They had a half an hour till their next class so Basil wasn't too worried about time constraint.

The walk down to the lake was calming and quiet, which was refreshing to Basil, as noise had taken over her life at the moment. Basil was maybe ten feet away from the water when she noticed the pits of mud and slippery grass; she made extra precautions to make sure her shoes didn't get muddy or to slip. Basil threw her bag to the side of the water and sat on a somewhat dry rock, waiting for her friend to finally appear.

"This is nice." Basil said to herself.

Her brown eyes focused on the water as it rippled and around the edge of the rocks. Basil noticed shadows under the water, assuming it was fish, and leaned over the side. The water bubbled and rippled right by the edge; Basil slid her hands across the rock to get a closer looks while trying to distinguish the shadows. Suddenly, something slimy and wet grabbed Basil. All the air vanished around Basil while water entered her lungs. The ambush surprised her so much that she was in a frozen shock. She couldn't even get away from whatever was holding her! All Basil could see was something scaly and something human. Merperson!