Chapter 7: Interlude by the Lake
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The morning was bright and sunny- a rare warm day in early fall. The area by the lake was fairly deserted since most students were still at breakfast or inside eagerly awaiting the Quidditch match later on that afternoon.
Alinora was quite happy to have the lake to herself- one of the reasons she was up so early on a Saturday was for that very reason. She'd grabbed a quick bite to eat before most had awaken, then came outside to enjoy the morning. She'd been outside for a little over an hour now and was slowly beginning to consider the idea of making her way back to Gryffindor tower to see who else was around. At the moment though she was quite happy sitting on a rocky outcrop, singing to herself and combing her wet hair while staring dreamily out over the lake.
She turned at the sound of footsteps and smiled to see Professor McGonagall making her way across the grass towards her. As she approached Alinora called out to her "Beautiful morning, isn't it Professor? Pull up a rock and join me!"
"I believe I will." she responded and pulled out her wand to transfigure a small rock into a comfortable seat near Alinora. She was happy to see that Alinora was looking so calm and relaxed. She'd been worried lately that they'd been asking too much of her- thus, the reason for tracking her down this morning.
"Out communing with our lake's Merpeople are you Miss Roane?" she asked dryly.
"You know me, Professor- I feel the need to bond with everything…" Alinora laughed in response. "What can I do for you?"
"I wanted to see how you've been doing with all the extra work load we've been giving you. You've been handling a much greater amount of magic since classes started than you're probably use to- much more in fact than we normally require or even allow students to ever work with. And I've noticed that you've been looking a bit tired in class recently, though I am happy to say that your work doesn't appear to have suffered." She paused in consideration for a moment, "though there was that incident with Professor Snape the other day…" She gave Alinora a questioning look.
She laughed. "The whole Snape thing was simply a misunderstanding. While I don't expect you to admit it, I do hope you are aware that he has a bit of an… issue with the students of Gryffindor- Not that we haven't deserved at times!- but this really was quite innocent. I have been a bit tired recently with everything going on and there we were in class preparing our latest concoction and Jason put something into ours that was blatantly wrong… the whole thing made an odd noise and disappeared into a cloud of smoke. I couldn't help it, I just started laughing and I couldn't stop. That got Jason started and it snowballed from there. I don't know if we really deserved to have quite so many points taken off from Gryffindor and Hufflepuff over it, but" she shrugged, "I couldn't deny it had happened. At least he didn't give us all detention!" She laughed again. Professor McGonagall appeared to be trying to hide a smile of her own. "But otherwise, I really am doing fine. I'm really enjoying it all, though I'll be quite happy to have some free time to catch up on my sleep come November!"
"Well, I'm happy to hear you weren't trying to harass Professor Snape, which was his take on the whole situation you realize, and that you're surviving okay so far. Let one of us know if that changes. You're doing a wonderful job on the talent show, by the way. I don't think anyone has any idea of just how… eye opening an experience this will be."
She got to her feet and changed her seat back to its original form. "I'll leave you to finish your bonding then. Will we see you later on at the game?"
Alinora nodded. "I'll be there. Have to support Gryffindor's team, don't I?"
McGonagall gave her a last smile then turned to make her way back up to the school. Alinora turned to resume her contemplation of the lake's surface. Reaching into her pocket she removed a small shell and stared at it silently for a while. Looking back at the water she saw a dark shape approaching from the middle of the lake and she smiled. She whispered a few words into the shell's opening then tossed it out towards the dark form in the water. Right before it hit the lake's surface it looked like a hand had reached up and caught it.
Alinora sighed then got up, performing a quick charm to finish drying her hair. She quickly braided it up again then turned to wave her hand over her own seat, returning it to the smooth lake shore it had previously been. Looking back out over the lake one last time, she turned to make her way back up to the castle.
I wonder what color the twins are this morning… she thought with a wicked grin.
