"You don't know how to swim?" Ron cries, but everyone knows how to swim."
"Clearly not everyone," Aline snaps back.
"Can we just step back for a second." Harry holds up his hands. "Aline and I can't swim. So what are we going to do? We can't just splash around in the Black Lake with floaties."
"NO," Ellie says, holding back a giggle. " But that's funny."
Here Hermione has a better answer...well namely, a stack of books she plops down on the table before them. "How could I have been so stupid?" she mutters, flipping through the pages of an old dusty book. "The Bubble Head Charm.This charm is used to create a bubble of air around the witch or wizard's nose and mouth, allowing them to breathe under water.Of course!"
"That's brilliant!" Ron cries, shaking his head. "I was going to suggest it myself-"
"Oh really?" Hermione said, giving him major side eye.
"You beat me to it."
"Except that you'd be breathing in Carbon Dioxide."
"What's that?" Ron asks.
"You know," Harry continues. "When you breathe air out, it is Carbon Dioxide and you can't breathe it in anymore. Our body needs oxygen to breathe. Unless there is new air coming into the bubble...it won't work."
"Where'd you learn that?"
"Every Muggle knows it," Harry says quickly, then shuts his mouth. Neither Ron nor Aline have ever been to a non-magical school before. In Aline's case, she'd never been to school at all before Hogwarts.
"We can keep looking," Aline says, "There must be something here, something that can help us."
She's been in the library all evening. Gasping for air, Aline whips her head off from an open book she fell asleep on and glances around the near empty library. Nothing she'd found this evening nor the last three had anything useful on breathing underwater, except speculations.
Shutting the books, she picks up the pile and dragged it to the librarian's desk, dumping it into a dusty pile on the top. With no magic to help her, she still had to do everything by hand.
"Still here are you?"
Aline turned her head to see Draco Malfoy. Who didn't know if this nasty Slytherin boy? Of course, his father worked for the board of director's in the school, and also in the WIzarding government. They were rich and with great advantages and never failed to make use of them.
"Hi Draco," she mumbles. "Do you need something?"
"You know, I've always been curious as to why they let Squibs come to Hogwarts." He crosses his arms, making a sour, pitiful expression. "Oh that's right, you don't even know who a Squib is."
"If you're going to pick on me, at least do something that's actually effective," Aline snaps, too tired to care.
"Why would I waste my time?"
"Well you're clearly wasting mine right now. Don't you have anywhere better to be on a Wednesday night?"
"As a matter of fact, I do. But my friend seems to think you might be interested in going to the Yule Ball with him."
Aline laughs. "Would that friend happen to beyou?"
"Shut up," Draco sneers. "I would never go to the Yule Ball with a Squib."
"Oh yeah, that would be so beneath you."
"You just don't care, do you," Draco continues.
"Why should I? I don't even care about this stupid Yule Ball just as much as I don't care about this stupid Tournament. So step aside." And shoving past him, she walks to the door of the library.
The first person she sees in the Gryffindor Common Room is Hermione, also reading books by the fireplace. "Where were you?" she asks. "The Head Girl was getting worried."
"In the library. Ran into Draco Malfoy. He said his friend wanted to ask me to the Yule Ball, and called me a Squib."
Hermione rolls her eyes. "Draco is a prat."
"I don't get what the big deal is," Aline says, slumping on the sofa. "Why does everyone care about this stupid ball. Are you even going with someone?"
"As a matter of fact , I am," Hermione says quickly.
"O-oh," Aline blushes.
"And it's a boy, from Durmstrang. He asked me himself," she says, a fast smile forming on her lips.
"That's great. Are you...nervous?"
"Sure. But it's going to be...exciting!" She shuts her book. "You need a date as well?"
"I'll go with Ellie."
"You can't go with your sister. She's too young anyways. It needs to be a real date."
"Where am I going to find arealdate," Aline asks, grunting. "I don't even talk to boys, and the one's I talk to are prats."
"Maybe you'll get asked. Like me."
But Aline was not sure she was going to get asked by anyone to anything. Even though she had gained some social aceptence after being chosen for the Tournament and defeating the dragon, it's barely enough to get boys talking to her (never mind asking her on a date).