Chapter One - The Boathouse
Cleo Setori, a young fifth-year student at Hogwarts settled into her place on the bench at the Hufflepuff table in the Great Hall. She grinned down at her plate of shrimp pasta and readied her fork to take a bite of it.
"Evening, Cleo," Another fifth-year said. It was Lewis McCartney, a Ravenclaw with blonde hair that fell to his shoulders atop his black robes. He awkwardly waved and gave a goofy smile to his friend, Cleo. She beamed at him with a mouthful of food and waved almost twice as awkwardly as him. We shuffled past the Hufflepuff table to his own and she smiled to herself. Cleo has had a crush on him for ages and vice versa. Practically every other student at Hogwarts knew about their crushes on each other. The only two people who were oblivious to it were them!
Cleo took her time eating her food, then headed down to the school's boathouse to help out her father with his fishing net. Cleo's dad, Don, was Hogwarts gamekeeper ever since the previous one, Rubeus Hagrid retired in the year 2000, six years ago. Don was a master fisher and often took out his boats onto the large Hogwarts lake to collect fish for the feasts. Cleo, being naturally kind and helpful, often joined her dad down at the docks and boathouse to help him out with the nets and things.
She skipped down the ancient stone steps of the castle on the hill. She entered the boathouse carefully, worried that if she were to slip, she might end up in the cold, deep lake. The only thing Cleo feared more than doing badly in her classes was water. All forms of it. Lakes, oceans, even some swimming pools gave her the chills. She didn't know how to swim and she wasn't about to learn anytime soon. She glanced around the room illuminated by the sun glittering on the moving water. She saw only bobbing boats and buoys in the lake-bottomed building, but no dad.
"Dad?" She called out and the room echoed it back to her. There was no response, so she turned to leave. She exited the house and heard someone call her name, but it wasn't her dad.
"Cleo! Hey, Cleo!" The voice belonged to none other than a sixth-year Slytherin: Zane Bennett. He was tall with dark hair that swooped across his forehead and a permanent smirk across his face. His dark eyes stared at Cleo in a way that always made her uncomfortable. He was hunched over a wooden row boat, fiddling with something in one hand and twiddling his wand in the other. He told her, "I'm in a bit of trouble here. Can you help?" She glanced around here. It was just them down at the docks with no other witch or wizard in sight. She hesitated with her response, "Er, no. I don't think so." Zane stood and adjusted his green and silver tie underneath his robes.
"Come on," He looked at her with a glint in his eyes, "Please?" His charisma often captured everyone that spoke to him, so it wasn't entirely Cleo's fault that she fell for a pretty face. He continued, "My oar is broken and I've forgotten the repair charm." She huffed and approached him, who hopped out of the boat and placed the oar on the ground. It was clearly broken in half as if he had done it out of rage earlier, but Cleo decided not to question it verbally. She warned him, "I'm not good with boats, but I may know a charm to help." He turned and smiled warmly at her.
"Thanks. It means a lot." His words made her blush and she stepped cautiously into the boat and asked him to hand her the oar. He picked it up and examined the two halves in his hands. He hesitated, then drawled, "Er, no thanks. I'll take it from here. You've done all the help I need." Cleo looked at him questionably, since she had done nothing but step onto the boat. Before she could say anything, Zane lifted his want and sent an orange colored jinx at the rowboat, sending it out to the lake.
"Zane!" Cleo exclaimed, frustrated. She didn't have the time nor the bravery for this. Zane chuckled to himself and called to her, now that she was drifting further and further from the docks, "I was getting sick of that thing anyway!" Zane's sidekick, another sixth-year Slytherin, Nate walked up behind him and joined him in the mocking laughter. Cleo grunted and cried, "Why me?" Zane quickly spat back, "Because you're here, Cleo! My dad will buy me another boat anyway." She smirked and scoffed to his mate who chuckled with crooked teeth. Cleo, who was now anxiously pacing the small rowboat clutched her wand to her chest with worry.
"I'll tell you what, if you can fix the oar, you get to keep it," Zane shouted out to her before sending the two halves of the broken oar to her with Wingardium Leviosa. It landed inside the boat with a loud clunk and Cleo groaned. She screamed at him, "This isn't funny!" Zane exclaimed back, "Sure it is! Works for me, right Nate?" He turned to his stupid friend who waved goodbye to Cleo after doing a complicated handshake with Zane. They walked away and up the steps headed back to the castle. Cleo screamed again, "Zane!" After no response and drifting further into the lake, she slumped down onto the rowboat's seat, defeated. She rested her chin on her hand, propped up by her elbow. Suddenly and to her surprise, a small figure jumped into the boat right in front of Cleo's face, making her shout. The girl who jumped in flipped her curly blonde braids out of her face to look at Cleo accusingly. She set her broom down in the boat and Cleo stood up immediately and asked, "What is this? Some sort of rescue?" The blonde girl, who was a fifth-year Slytherin said nothing, but nodded her head to the broken oar then gestured breaking it in half with her hands.
"You broke Zane's oar?" Cleo breathed out, staring at the blue eyed girl. She sat on the wooden seat and spat, while glaring up at the castle, "Zane Bennett's a pig. Anything I can do to get under his skin can't be a bad thing, can it?" She smirked at Cleo. Cleo murmured, "So cool." She was practically instantly jealous of this girl. She sat back down and watched as the Slytherin performed the Remus Repairo charm on the broken oar. The wooden splinters fused together and it was like the oar was as good as new within seconds. Cleo said, in a more gleeful tone, "Thanks, Rikki!" Rikki Chadwick looked up at the Hufflepuff quickly.
"You know my name..." Her sentence trailed off. Cleo shrugged, "Well, yeah, we had Potions together last year and I see you around the halls." Rikki returned her attention to the newly fixed oar. Cleo quickly added, "Well, I meant to say hello and everything." She watched as the silent Slytherin picked up the oar and placed it in its iron ring and it dipped down into the dark water.
"Hold on." Rikki lifted her wand and enchanted the two oars to propel themselves quickly, almost like a speed boat. They sat in the fast boat, looking across the sunny horizon, admiring the sun's glistening on the waves they were creating. Cleo looked up at the castle to see a furious, yet confused Zane glaring at the sight of them and his newly repaired oar. Cleo laughed and her and Rikki looked at each other in amusement. They whipped around the castle's island, soaring quickly underneath bridges and around boulders. Cleo nudged Rikki and asked, "Can we pick up my friend Emma? She said she would be joining me at the docks soon." Rikki smiled, "Sure."