A Place to Think

Jasmeet exited the castle, and came out into the fresh air. The sun filled her with warmth as she walked towards the Lake.

The time so far at Hogwarts had been fast, so much happening, but she stll hadn't gotten a reply from her mother yet. I wish she's alright, she thought.

In the distance, she found the perfect spot next to the tree. It was on the edge of the Lake, where she could sit comfortably.

She plopped herself down, and used the tree as support. Closing her eyes, she blocked out the view of everything around her.

Dixie was taking a stroll through the grounds. She wondered how you can charm rubber ducks to explode...
Spotting Jas sitting under a large shady tree, she smiled and walked over to her friend.
"Hi there, Jas, how's it goin'? Or poppin'? Or crackin'? Or whatever people say to each other these days?"

"Hola, ladies," Will chirped when he noticed Jas and Dixie by the lake. He hadn't really talked to them in a while. It'd be nice to strengthen those ties again. "Enjoying the weather until winter sets in? Best to take your pepper-up potions now before you catch cold."

Grinning, he sat down, uninvited.

Dixie smiled up at Will.
"Howdy there, you're looking all chipper and cheerful and stuff. Yeah, weathers great, isn't it! It's not 95 degrees, it's actually in the seventies, much better than Florida... Wow, I'm talking like an old dude discussing the weather."
Shaking her head, she asked "Having any more trouble with charms?"

Will half-shrugged. "It's not too bad now. I'm working on it though. Doesn't help much that my old bat grandma's been sending me howlers left and right---long story, I'd rather not elaborate at that in the moment." He said quickly before Dixie became curious over it.

He shivered at the memory at any case. "She knows that Howlers are my worst fear. My uncle sent me one as a joke when I was two years old. Hadn't been the same since---I spent nights hearing him yell at me in my dreams." Will grinned at her despite the awful memory. "Kind of strange isn't it? Fear? I suppose everyone has one."

Dixie sighed. "Yeah, I know what you mean about the whole fear thing. I have a few my self-by the way, what's a howler?" Dixie crossed her arms, and suddenly had a mental image of a wolf howling at Will to do his homework or something. She almost laughed, but looked toward the lake, and inched away from Will and Jas unconsciously.

"A Howler is a letter magically used to record the writer's voice," Will answered with a smile, though it was strained at thought of one. "They're usually used for yelling at the recipient. Parents give it to their kids on a daily basis if they're bad."

"And you don't look like someone who has a fear," Will noted with a curious air. "If you weren't a Hufflepuff, I would've called you a Gryffindor. I don't see anything that you could be honestly afraid of."

Dixie laughed, now able to imagine a letter screaming at Will to eat his peas. Noticing Will and Jas just staring at her, she stopped. She was already seen as a bit of a nut, and laughing at seemingly nothing wasn't helping the cause.
Inching away from the two again, this time consciously, she looked at Will.
"You'd be surprised, I have the weirdest fear."

"Really?" Will raised an eyebrow. Silly Dixie has a fear? The girl who was willing to eat candy given to him by Nick Hale? It was almost too crazy to believe. "Yeah right," He said with a grin. "Prove it. What's your weirdest fear?"

His mind wandered. Was she afraid of horses? Boxes? What? It certainly interested him.

Dixie hesitated. Did she really want to reveal her fear to Will and Jas? Could she trust them enough?
Eh, what the heck.
Pushing her glasses up her nose, she said "Well, I'd rather you figure out what I'm afraid of. You Claws are smart, right?"
She started listing a few things she WASN'T afraid of.
"I'm not afraid of paper, butterflys, lamps, towels, or pillows."

Alice yawned quietly walking towards the lake as she ran her hands through her hair trying to calm it down. She was still a bit tired from taking a small and was going to dunk her head in the lake to wake up a bit more while she got so fresh air. She noticed a few familiar heads and walked up behind them. "Well if it isn't the three musketeers." She continued walking towards the lake bending down and dunking her head in the water momentarily before squeezing her hair mostly dry before clipping it up. She walked back to where her friends were sitting and plopped down near them. "So what are we talking about currently?", she said raising an eyebrow at what Dixie was listing.

"There are conclusively over a million things you might not be afraid of," Will said plainly to Dixie. "Trying to guess them all would be time-consuming. One can't figure it out without some sort of clue, or riddle if that's what you're into." He glanced at Alice momentarily.

"Hey Alice."

Dixie scooted over from Alice as the girl sat down. Smiling, but getting a bit panicky, she said in a would be casual voice "Oh,ah, nothing at all, we are just discussing my phobia. As I told Wilma here, I'm immune to a fear of snakes, Popsicles, clothes pins, chairs, mattresses, pencils, erasers, hats, muffins, flags, radios, shoes, tv's, pictures, cauldrons, butter, candy-care to go on?"
"I'll give you a hint."

"Im fine with the listing of what you're not afraid of", Alice said leaning back against a tree she raised her eyebrow a bit higher wondering why fears of all things they decided to talk about. "But be careful about telling fears they may come back to haunt you.", she said in a mock prophet voice wiggling her fingers in a creepy fashion.

"I already told her of my fear of Howlers, so I think its fair enough that she spills," Will folded his arms and regarded Dixie with a suspicious air. He wondered if Hufflepuffs were good at giving blatant hints. "It's not like I'm selling you out to the Dark Lord or something."

"You have a fear of Howlers?" Alice gave him a weird look wondering what could have caused the fear, Oh well at least its not as bad as other things. "So Dixie what's your fear then?" Alice patted her friends shoulder wondering what her friend could possibly scare her friend.

The moment Alice's hand patted her shoulder, Dixies heart rate sped up, her lungs tightened, her hands shook, and slapped Alice's hand away from her. Panicking, she screamed Bloody Murder. Then Dixie leapt up, tripped, and crawled on her hands and knees quickly before saying something about Jesus, then she ran faster than the time Bailey chased her into that dumpster, back to the castle.

Alice just stared mildly dumbstruck from Dixie's reaction her eye twitched slightly, "Well okay then... I'm going to follow her just in case she runs into someone and knocks them to the moon." She got up jogging after Dixie hoping that she was going to be okay and not have a heart attack or hurt someone or herself as she ran away.

Startled at the rather alarming response Dixie had, both of Will's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline as Dixie ran off like a maniac back to the castle.

"What in Merlin's name was that about?!" Will said incredulously, immediately looking at Alice. He wondered what triggered such an unexpected event. "All you did was touch her!"

"That's all I did, I didn't purposely mean to scare her!", Alice hollered back before she disappeared into the castle. She wasn't the type of person to purposely scare people using phobias or anything only if they're a little bit jump she will scare them a bit. She sighed to herself thinking that giving her friend a hug might scare her to death... literally.

Going for a stroll, Jasmeet recognised the spot where she had sat the other day. Walking towards it, she plopped herself down, once again using the tree for support and looked out to the lake.

From her pocket, she took out a small book, a quill and a bottle of ink. Perching the bottle of ink beside her, she opened up the book, and began to write her thoughts of a few days.