Ch. 8 Train Travel
After Scorpius Malfoy had helped Mrs. Weasley get her son's cart onto the train and said goodbye to his parents, he proceeded to search the compartments for his friends. He found Nott soon enough, and upon telling of his encounter with the marital Weasley Nott's mouth fell open.
"The Hermione Granger? Your dad talked to the Hermione Granger?"
Malfoy felt himself bristle with a mixture of pride and annoyance. "Of course he did, you know both our fathers went to Hogwarts with her. And it's Hermione Weasley now."
Still Nott refused to let it go, "Hermione Weasley is a boring old lawyer. Hermione Granger was the badass witch that fought Death Eaters."
A passing Hufflepuff student gasped and scuttled away when he heard the title come from Nott's mouth, whispering to a group of friends that proceeded to look at the two Slytherins in shock and fear.
Scorpius felt his mouth tighten as he glared. "Well? Death Eaters. What are you gonna do about it." What the Hufflepuffs 'did' turned out to be both disheartening and disappointing, as the group all but ran from their presence.
"Bloody brats," Nott mumbled under his breath, his good mood thoroughly destroyed.
Malfoy was just as livid as he pulled Nott in the opposite directions those cowards had scampered in. "Com'on, may as well get into our robes now." After changing into their official school attire they resumed their search for Zambini, Melissa, and Priscilla, talking about mundane things like what would change in their fourth year classes.
The person they ran into first wasn't Slytherin at all, and Scorpius rolled his eyes at Nott with a smirk when Rose Weasley marched over to him with one of her cousins. "Hey Malfoy!" She'd seen the smirk, he thought, because she was already upset, "How much dummer did you get over the break? I studied every day."
"You did?" Her cousin looked at her in horror, to Rose's obvious annoyance.
"Of course she did," Scorpius drawled with a triumphant smirk, "How else can she hope to keep up with me?"
Nott snickered when both Weasleys grew red. Rose's cousin stepped forward to poke him aggressively, "Are you laughing at my cousin?" and he only grinned more.
"Why Dominique-" Scorpius glanced at Nott in surprise that his friend knew her name past 'Weasley' and 'Legacy'- "Would you rather I laugh at you?"
"Yes." She scowled, and he returned the expression until Rose butted in.
"Malfoy, I need to speak to you privately. Come with me." and ignoring everyone's surprise she turned on her heel and marched off. Scorpius raised an eyebrow. Did she expect him to follow her like a lapdog? He was Scorpius Malfoy, surely she wasn't that thick.
After a few moments of realizing she was alone Rose stomped back, red faced, and Scorpius rolled his shoulders lightly at her unspoken confusion. "I didn't hear a 'please' in that, Weasley. Didn't your mum teach you manners?" After he said it he wondered what Rose would think of the fact he had helped that exact mother a mere hour ago, and had been perfectly gentlemanly about it.
"Please, Malfoy." Rose grunted sarcastically through clenched teeth, and his eyebrows drew together as he pretended to think about it.
"Hm, no thanks Weasley. I think I'd rather not be alone with such a prickly personality." Then Scorpius did stop in actual thought and smiled in a soft, predatory way. "So prickly, Weasley, that maybe I should start calling you Thorny instead of Rosie."
Her scrunched face looked at him, glowing red in the dim lights, then she huffed and spun so fast her thick hair lifted and fell in a thick wave across her shoulders. She rested a hand on her hip as she glared at them over her shoulder. "Forget it, Malfoy. Your loss. Dom, lets go."
Nott faked a falsetto voice as he mocked her. "Yes Draco, lets depart." And he twisted in the exact same manner Rose had, sticking his butt out to the side and snapping his fingers to punctuate his demand as he smirked at the girls.
Nobody seemed sure of how to respond to that, so the Weasley girls left without saying another word.
Scorpius and Nott grinned at their success in pulling Legacies down a few pegs before the year even started, and felt much better as they resumed their search for their friends.
They found their peers sitting together- alone, of course- and set the last of their bags in the overhead compartments as they sat with them. While Priscilla gossiped about who would be the new Slytherin Quidditch Captain, Scorpius casually slipped his hand into the pocket of his robe and was surprised to find something in it. Carefully pulling out an old piece of parchment, he read looping cursive script in surprise.
Sorry it's so late getting back to you, but life got kinda busy. See ya around, Malfoy
~Malam
He smirked as he read it, realizing this must be the exact robe he'd leant her last spring. This letter was obviously from before the summer, and she certainly hadn't lived up to her promise. Scorpius frowned, crumpling the note back into his pocket. She was the one missing out on his company. The only thing he was upset over was an idiotic girl breaking her word to a Malfoy, which wasn't done.
Melissa Goyle was being oddly silent, he realized suddenly as he looked at the girl. She was staring out the train and watching the rolling landscape instead of talking. Scorpius felt his eyes narrow. "Something on your mind, Melissa?"
She flinched as though struck and looked away from the window as everyone's attention focused on her. Fingering her skirt in apprehension, Melissa took a deep breath and confessed "I have something terrible to tell you guys…"
"I swear I can't stand the prick, Dominique." Rose complained, ignoring her cousin's mutterings in fluent French about how she should have gone to Beauxbatons. "Scorpius Malfoy is the most insufferable, arrogant man to ever set foot in Hogwarts, and that's including young Voldemort."
"Relax, cherie. Just ignore him." She assured with her trace of French accent.
"Ignore him?" Rose slid open the door to the compartment the two of them had been in before Rose had decided to go warn Scorpius about James's apparent grudge, "How can you ignore a bloody, arrogant prick who struts around like he owns the galaxy, Dom? He honestly thinks he's his own gift to the world, and- oh hello." She grew red and cut herself off as she saw there was someone in the room who wasn't family.
Lily and Hugo looked amused while Dominique looked at the extra occupant's turquoise hair with a mixture of shock and revulsion. "Nice… vibrancy." She finally commented as she sat down next to Lily- which was far as possible from Zoey as she could get.
Zoey looked up from the rabbit paws she'd been playing with for the past few minutes and beamed at the two new redheads. "Thanks! My name's Zoey, nice to meet- wait, you're Rose, right? Didn't I run into you earlier?"
"Er… yes, I think we did." Rose blinked as her embarrassment wore into plain old surprise, turning her gaze on her younger clanmates and silently asking What is this doing here?
Lily was too interested with playing with Charles to notice, so Hugo answered "She needed a place to sit. Been running around after that missing pet since we saw her."
"Missing pet?" Dominique wrinkled her nose. "Tell me it's not a rat."
"It's not a rat." Her voice was so smooth and flat nobody could tell if she was serious or saying it to humor Dom.
After a moment of tense silence, Rose spoke up again. "So where are you from, Zoey?"
"Oh all around." Zoey twirled the end of her colorful hair, which reached her shoulders from its high ponytail. "My aunt and uncle work at a travel agency, so we went everywhere while I was growing up. Muggles, by the way, on my dad's side. I'm half-witch."
Dom rolled her eyes and reached for her makeup kit that was tucked into her trunk in the overhead compartment. "It's half-blood, not half-witch."
"Half-blood doesn't really seem to work, though. I've got a full body of blood, but I don't have a filled heritage of magic."
Rose smiled at the distinction. "Half-witch. I like it." By that logic muggle-borns would be new-witches or new-wizards, which was much better than mudblood. But then purebloods would be full-wizards. Ugh. She could just see Malfoy having a hayday with that.
Dominique squealed and dropped her make-up, daintily sucking a manicured nail in her mouth as she complained "Something cut me." She looked over to see what it was but froze when all five of them heard a growling hiss from their luggage.
While the four red-heads were still with shock- or in Dom's case, terror- Zoey perked up. "Raz?" Pushing them aside so her short figure could stand on the seats, she did a chin-up to reach the baggage. "Rasputin, there you are! Wait, what're you- oh no you don't, get back here you little-"
The gathering of assorted Weasleys dodged as the small girl started to kick wildly while chasing the errant pet that scuttled through their trunks. Finally there was a triumphant cry shortly before Zoey tumbled hard to the ground, firmly holding the most bizarre four-legged creature Rose had ever seen.
It was about two thirds the size of a quaffle, and Zoey was telling the truth when she'd described it as having big brown eyes and a black nose, but those were just about the only attractive things about it. Instead of fur the thing's back was covered in striped purple-brown quills the sizes of toothpicks, a few of which were red with blood from Dom's finger, and four curved black claws that were half an inch long on each foot. It was growling at it's owner with a vicious set of white fangs and for a horrible moment Rose feared that it would start mauling the girl's face.
Then Zoey snapped her teeth together with an audible click in front of its long snout and started snarling right back, cowing the creature with her equally white albeit much rounder chompers. The thing's claws retracted a little as it quieted and the quills lowered until they pressed flat against its body, which was shaped more like a tube than it's original roundness had implied. Zoey continued her rolling growl until its pointed ears twisted back as the creature tentatively reached forward to lick under her jawline, and only then did the girl start to smile once more.
"What," Dominique accused, pressed against the wall with her feet pulled up off the floor, "Is that?"
"This is Rasputin," Zoey started to stroke down him down his spikes to keep him calm. "He's a murtlap. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them calls them 'rats with sea-anemone spikes', but they're more like smart porcupines in my opinion. Very smart; I don't think a porcupine could get out of a cage with three locks on it." She glared at the murtlap in her arms as she accused in a baby voice "And you're not gonna tell me how you do it are you, you Razmanian devil?"
"That thing poisoned me!"
"Murtlaps don't have poison, Dom." Rose piped up, understanding the creature as soon as she heard its name, before turning to Zoey with an accusing glare. "But they are magical, and certainly aren't allowed as pets in Hogwarts. First-years don't even take Care of Magical Creatures."
"Oh I told you, he's not mine." The Weasleys all watched in horror as Zoey sat cross-legged on the floor while she petted it adoringly in the same way she had Charles the rabbit not ten minutes ago. "Jonovan got him over the summer."
Dominiques face grew blank. "Jonovan? As in Jonovan Orion?"
"Who?" Hugo whispered to Lily, who whispered back "New professor assistant at Hogwarts."
"Yeah." Zoey answered both their questions. "Jonovan walked in the store planning to get a kneazle and came out with this guy. Said he looks cooler- when he's not running away and giving us heart attacks."
Dominique looked between the turquoise-haired girl and the creature in her hands that had attacked her, then threw up her own manicured hands and declared "So not my type." as she left the compartment.
Zoey watched her leave, then looked to the remaining Weasleys in absolute confusion. "Did I say something wrong?"
When Roxanne Weasley finally found Lorcan and his twin, they immediately pulled her into a bone-crushing hug that could easily be used to kill if they weren't so very fond of their victim. Hugging them back and used to holding her breath through the process, Rox was nonetheless glad to take a deep lungful of air as she was released.
While her body rediscovered oxygen Lorcan leaned towards her and whispered "Did you do it?"
Their bag of prank supplies was the only thing he could be thinking of. "Of course." Roxanne scoffed, insulted by his doubt.
His grin was huge as he sat back next to his twin and confided "This is going to be the best year ever." Lysander just grunted and turned another page in his book.
Roxanne took a seat across from them, musing for the millionth time how similar the Scamander twins looked. They weren't identical, but they were the same height and the same broad build, both had dark hair and the same olive-tone complexion. Lorcan's hair was more brown than his twin's black and their faces were a little different, but that was hard to see when they weren't right next to each other. Honestly the easiest way to differentiate the two was to look for their house colors. Red and blue were much easier to tell apart than brown and black.
Lorcan Scamander, brash and headstrong, had been placed in Gryffindor six years ago with her and James. He and Rox sat together in every class so she could help him keep up, and pass some notes on whatever they were currently scheming. Lorcan was always ready for action and insisted on doing the most daredevil stunts, like Accio-ing a broom from midjump off the Astrology tower.
Honestly it didn't make sense that they'd gotten in trouble for that, nobody'd been hurt. Except that that random girl who fainted and bumped her nose, but that wasn't their fault.
Lysander Scamander, who always had a book to study, was in Ravenclaw. The day that boy went somewhere without his bookbag was the day Voldemort rose from the grave and brought flowers with him. He was top of the class in their grade, and had even beaten some of the school records set by Hermione Granger twenty years ago. More often than not, he had to help his twin and Rox with their essays and tests when their in-class 'planning' notes were longer than their real ones. He was elected Prefect last year.
He was also the best Keeper on the Ravenclaw Quidditch team in the past ten years and, according to rumor, was going to become Team Captain next year. Lysander neither confirmed nor denied this, but Lorcan had told Rox that his twin was probably just afraid he'd lose his last chance at the position if he bragged too soon.
The three of them enjoyed the companionable silence for a while until the door to the compartment opened and James crashed in, sitting next to Roxanne with a particularly disgruntled look on his face.
His ginger hair was almost as messy as his little brother's, and his glasses- which really didn't suit him at all, Rox had always thought- were dingy and tilting off his nose. He was obviously in a bad mood and obviously wanted one of them to bring it up.
Lorcan, as ever, was the one to comply with his best friend's wishes. "What happened to you, mate? Grow your own whomping willow?"
Lysander sniggerred into his book, revealing his annoying capability to both read and hear an entire conversation if he felt like it.
James was not as amused as he glared at the bookworm. "If you must know, Albus and I have been fighting."
Roxanne shook her head in disbelief. "Our Albus? Our little green-eyed, soft-spoken mascot has been 'fighting'? Are you sure you're not Confounded right now, James?"
"Of course I am! It's all because of that bloody thief I almost caught last year."
Lorcan seemed to be the only one unsurprised by the statement, leaning back with an "Ah" that just shouted foreknowledge.
"'Aah' what? What thief are you talking about?" Roxanne looked between them in annoyance. She hated being left out.
Lorcan started to explain. "Last year when James finished herbology final early-"
Lysander snorted. More like skipped out and left his partners to finish his work.
"-he found someone in the greenhouses, stealing potion ingredients."
"I Stupifyed him and was running to get Professor Longbottom when none other than Malfoy jumps me," James picked up the tale with a scowl. "While I dueled with him his buddy recovered and shot me in the back. Lorcan found me unconscious before the rest of class got out, healed my bruise from the fall. But Malfoy and his partner were long gone."
"Why didn't you report this?" Lysander frowned, his Prefect badge glinting on his chest as he looked up from his book.
"Right, report that I got ganged up on and knocked out? Oh yeah, that'd go over real well with the Daily Prophet."
"We checked the greenhouse, but nothing was missing." Lorcan shot James a look from the corner of his eye as he gave their real reason. "We had no proof Malfoy was there or even that he'd attempted a robbery, and it was the last week of school anyways. We started patrolling the greenhouses ourselves just in case, but never saw them again."
"What does this have to do with your fight with Albus?" Roxanne asked, finally remembering how they reached the subject.
"The little- mascot," He looked like he'd sincerely wanted to say something different but didn't dare under the stink-eye the three of them were giving him. "Doesn't believe me when I say the slimy sneak of a Slytherin was involved."
"Hrm." Lysander looked at him a moment longer, then leaned back and once more put his nose away in a book. "Well next time, report it." and said nothing more about it for the rest of their ride.
As they pulled into Hogsmead station, the compartment of Slytherin's started to recover from their shock at Melissa's declaration. The girl was curled into a ball on her chair and muttering "Don't hate me." Over and over again.
Zambini was the first to recover, reaching out to pull the crying girl into his arms. "Of course we don't hate you." And glared over the top of her head in case anyone disagreed.
Priscilla reached forward and rubbed her arm comfortingly, telling her younger friend "I am so, so sorry this happened to you."
Scorpius looked at Nott and saw his jaw set in determination, the dark-haired boy turning to Malfoy to find the same look. They nodded at eachother once before Scorpius declared "We're going to fix this."
It spoke to his record of success that the first question any of them asked was "How?" and only a few seconds later that Melissa groaned "It's not possible. People have tried for- for ages."
Nott shrugged. "Who cares if it's never been done. We'll just be the first."
"If anybody in the wizarding world has done it before, and kept it secret, it's someone from our families." Scorpius declared, reminding them "We're purebloods, longest lines of magical ties that exist. We come from five of the strongest wizard families in the world, who also tend to keep their own business to themselves. One of our ancestors had to know something they didn't share."
His speech brought a bit of hope back into their eyes, and he rallied them into action. "Now, first thing we'll do when we get back to Hogwarts is start making inquiries- most useful stuff will be back at our homes, and we'll scour there during the holidays, but we need to know what we're looking for first."
There was a commotion outside in the hallway as students started unloading from the train, talking and laughing and altogether unaware of how drastically inappropriate their jovial attitude was for the somber Slytherins. Zambini handed Melissa over to Priscilla with a dark look, stomping over to open the door to their compartment and shouting "SHUT UP!" at the streaming crowd.
He proceeded to glare a few seconds after their noise lowered to frightened whispers, then slammed the door shut and sat back down, looking decidedly better after getting to yell out part of his frustration.
Nott pulled a silk handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to the red-faced girl. "For now, pucker up and hold your head high. You're a Goyle, Melissa, and nobody can take that away from you."
She pushed her curly black hair back and daintily started dabbing her face clean, the magical cloth perking her appearance as she did so. Melissa handed it back to him with a smile as she stood with perfect posture, declaring with a grateful smile "I am a Goyle, and I'm pureblooded too."
Zoey Malam never found her short height to be a problem, but tall people just weren't fair. As she followed the crowds off the Hogwarts Express, she could barely see two feet in front of her through the sea of shoulder's she found herself in. Distantly she heard somebody shout over the roaring din that was the crowd, and sighed in relief when the echoing conversations quieted.
Rose Weasley kept a firm grip on her brother as she escorted him off the train, dragging the taller boy toward where the first-years were gathering at which point Hugo started protesting to being shown around. "I know where I'm going now, Rosie, stop pulling… seriously, people are staring- this is embarrassing, let go of me-"
The bushy haired girl did no such thing as she dragged her brother to stand in front of the short caretaker with the other first-years, and Zoey silently arrived in their shadow as all attention focused on them.
"Lookit that hair-"
"Do ya rekon?"
"Has to be-"
"It's another Weasley."
Hugo's face turned red as his hair and he started grasping Rose's hand as fiercely as she was holding his, turning away from the many peers that were staring at him. Rose gave him a comforting squeeze and waited until the last possible minute to go or else miss the carriages. As willing as she would be to stay with him, she wasn't allowed to ride with the new students; something the caretaker-elf Snottgrout was more than willing to remind her of.
Hugo looked so miserable as he watched her walk away that Zoey stepped up and patted him on the shoulder, which was even with her nose. Rasputin even nosed him in sympathy as she said "We'll see her in less than an hour, I promise."
He gave her a crooked smile as thanks and pulled himself together, sticking by her as the caretaker started grouping them into fours. Zoey and Hugo were paired with a short girl with tight blond curls named Trisha Scarlett and a resigned looking black boy named Mitchell Sanders for their ride across the lake.
All three of them looked sick with nerves, and as they settled into one of the rickety old rowboats Zoey sincerely hoped none of them were bad about seasickness. Mitchell held onto the edge of the boat nervously as it glided smoothly across the water, pressing down into his seat and mumbling some kind of prayer. Trisha kept twisting her hair around her fingers over and over again, making the naturalness of her curls doubtful. Hugo surprised them all by grinning like this was the best thing ever, apparently over his fear as soon as they were out of a crowd. He started babbling in excitement, and Zoey absently listened as she let her fingers trail through the water.
"This lake is really cool, Zoey. There's a whole nother world of magic underwater; there are merpeople down there with a whole city, I swear it's true. They even have their own magical creatures! Uncle Harry had to fight off a bunch of grindylows while saving my dad from being the merpeople's prisoner for the Triwizard- er, actually, nevermind that part. Tell you more about it later. But grindylows are like these magical demon-squids with hands. The merpeople use them as guard dogs, and there's an actual magical squid in here too. Giant thing according to Mum. Not that she ever saw-"
Trisha, who hadn't really been paying attention to him at all, pointed ahead and asked "What's going on up there?"
Murmuring had started in the boats ahead of them, and the Caretaker's voice started to have what seemed like a one-sided conversation. The magical progression of the entire fleet slowed down to a crawl as Zoey felt something rubbery pass by her fingers in the water.
"Seaweed." She murmured, then she pulled a strand up and her eyes widened when she saw it tied in a knotted pattern. "A net of seaweed." Zoey kept her hand out of the water.
The Mitchell fellow spoke up as something breached the water by Snottgrout's boat. "What was that you said, mate, about water people taking your dad hostage?"
As though summoned, dozens of merpeople slowly lifted their heads above water, staring at the many boats. They had bulging yellow eyes that reflected the moonlight and stringy green hair the color of mossweed, a few of them flicking silver tails along the lake surface in agitation. Snottgrout was making screeching noises at the one in front of her, and did not look at all pleased about being delayed like this.
Hugo was speechless once more, looking around nervously as merpeople started to draw closer to the boats. Trisha swooned in a dead faint at their approach and Mitchell, obviously worried the girl would tip over the edge, unapologetically stored her by their feet.
Rasputin started hissing from her lap and Zoey turned to find a merman right next to their boat, his torso lifted out of the water as his yellow eyes stared at her. Her nails dug into her right palm while she started fingering her charm bracelet, taking meditative breaths and hoping she didn't reek of fear. Could merpeople smell fear? She thought it unlikely, considering that scent wouldn't be beneficial underwater, but then sharks could smell blood from miles away-
He lifted a webbed hand out of the water and Hugo whimpered as it started to reach toward them. Zoey clenched her eyes shut and was about to yank the silver charm off when her head registered a very gentle tug.
Everyone watched in terror as the merman continued running his wet fingers through her turquoise hair, apparently fascinated with it. While her hair got progressively damp from his caress Zoey nervously watched two more merpeople swim up to join him, and then she had six sets of webbed fingers running over her head. Eventually the new students realized that these people wanted absolutely nothing else than to satisfy this curiosity.
Hugo started laughing in relief, to which Malam shot him a dark look and threatened to point out his scarlet shock of hair to successfully make him sober up some, but he kept giggling randomly. Zoey sighed and subjected to being 'petted', for lack of a better word, until the boats started moving again. Her hair tie fell out as they continued their slow ride toward the Hogwarts castle.
The merpeople got distracted by increased screeching at the front boat, and one of them left to apparently help their leader when Snottgrout started making threatening gestures. Zoey just hoped it wouldn't take much longer.
When another shape loomed underwater on Hugo's side of the boat, they all assumed it was the merwoman coming back and were shocked to see the furred head of a horse come up instead. It's dark black eyes had a slightly blue haze surrounding them as they swept over the occupants on the small rowboat. Finally resting its gaze on Hugo, the horse whinnied and angled itself so it was moving alongside the slowed boat, its saddled back rising temptingly out of the water. A large fishtail shone underwater behind it.
Hugo stood up with a dazed look on his face, smiling some ridiculous grin as he moved to stroke its long nose, still giggling a bit as he went. The magic on the boat was the only thing that kept them from tipping over.
Zoey frowned and grabbed his wrist, "Hugo, what- what is that?" The boy turned and she saw his pupils were dilated and unfocused in the dark night.
"A hippocampus. It wants to give us a ride." Hugo smiled absently as he gently pulled his wrist away to pat hers reassuringly, "C'mon, it'll be faster than waiting. Besides," The boy laughed as he turned to look at it again, "Even James never had the opportunity to make an entrance this grand his first year."
"I think we should stay on the boat," Zoey looked toward Mitchell for support, but found him staring at the hippo-horse thing in the same entranced manner. His fear of water was the only thing stopping him from joining Hugo in stepping over the railing.
Stepping over the- her focus snapped back to Hugo in time to see the redhead straddle the beast, which looked at her with a glowing blue eye again. It was the softest light and Zoey felt herself relax; this was a gentle creature, she was silly to worry… it obviously meant no harm, it was just trying to do them all a favor…
Rasputin pricked her arm with a dozen of his quills. "Ouch!" her gaze flicked down to him in annoyance for moving when he had, and when she looked back up she saw the creature part its lips to grin at her with sharp teeth. The thing was carnivorous.
Zoey jumped up from her seat, ignoring the displeased hisses of the merpeople as she lunged for Hugo's arm again. "Don't!" she cried but was too late as it started swimming away from the boat with the youngest Weasley. She looked around frantically for help. One person in the boat with her was unconscious, the other was hypnotized, and the last had been kidnapped. Snottgrout was still in the middle of arguing and Zoey's merperson fanclub had disappeared.
A cold snout pressed into her cheek. At least Rasputin was with her.
Mitchell was barely starting to snap out of it as Zoey threw off the heavy school robe and tossed it in his lap, then threw him her shoes and retied her hair back, all without looking away from Hugo. He looked at the clothes he now held in absolute confusion. "What's this for?"
The thing kept bobbing lower in the water with Hugo, only to pull up again in apparent dissatisfaction.
Zoey Malam didn't have time for a word of explanation to the confused kid as she ripped off the charm she'd been fingering earlier, then launched off the side of the boat and dove into the freezing lake.