Swimming!

Hilary wandered down to the lake. She had been looking around for her friends, but they didn't seem to be anywhere in the castle. So naturally, the lake was the next place she should check.

She finally found them, splashing around in the lake. She shook her head. Wasn't it just yesterday that Indiana had almost been killed by an octopus in there? Though, she and her friends weren't necessarily known for taking safety into consideration.

"You guys are going to catch pneumonia in there!" she hollered to them from the edge of the water.

Theresa laughed "Raja, that is so cute" she said. "I wonder what I could call my mascot though" she said thoughtfully. She didn't even know what names would suit an Alaskin Husky puppy, maybe a wolf type name.
She looked up when she heard Hilary and grinned "all apart of the fun" she joked.

"We're going to be fine!" Shelby called back to Hilary. Still, she swam to the water's edge and got out. She pulled her old t-shirt and shorts back over her pink and silver bathing suit.

"We saw the squid," she said happily. "And we've decided to name the octopus Hannibal Lector after the guy in Silence of the Lambs," Shelby filled Hilary in, wondering if since Hilary was muggle-born she would be familiar with the character or the movie since Resa clearly had no idea what she'd been talking about. "And I just named my House of Awesome mascot Raja," she grinned.

Shelby loved naming things so much that she was considering giving the castle a name. "Did you hear that there's a new Herbology professor?" she asked Hilary, wondering how fast the news had travelled.

"If you were going to be fine, why'd you get out?" she asked jokingly, sticking her tongue out at Shelby. "And I thought that someone said that the squid's name was Sebastian? Though Hannibal Lector is a way cooler name."

Hilary thought back. She had heard some mention of the new Herbology teacher, but since she wasn't taking the class, she hadn't really concerned herself too much with. "Yeah," she said. "I heard about him. What happened to the old one?"

"The squid will forever be Christopher to us and the octopus is that Hannibal, whoever that is" Theresa said as she swam to the edge of the water.
She grinned at Hilary's question "I think he had finally cracked, especially with those Slytherins and either quit for his sanity or got fired because he had already lost it" she said.

Hilary looked up, confused. She ran over the conversation she had just had in her mind, finding her mistake. It had been a long day, and she wasn't so sure her brain was working properly anymore.

"I think we're going to give the poor squid an identity crisis," she giggled, thinking of it's two, and possibly more, names. "Well, from what I heard, he wasn't the greatest teacher anyway, so it's probably not a big loss."

"I heard he retired because he couldn't take the pressure of being a teacher," Shelby said. "I only got out because I wanted to take a break. I can always get back in," she stuck her tongue out at Hilary.

"The squid's name is Christopher, the octopus is Hannibal. I don't care if Lawrence said that the squid's name was Sebastian. That sounds like a name better suited for a crab, not a squid," she wrinkled her nose at the thought of calling the squid 'Sebastian'.

Theresa's grin grew "so I was right? he cracked and had to quit to save his sanity?" she asked, laughing.
"You two can stay in the dry then" she said childishly before she kicked back from the edge of the water and continued to swim. This was just what she needed to get her to forget everything that had happened. "We are currently naming our House of Awesome mascots if you would like to be next Hilary" she said.

Hilary cracked a smile at the mention of the idea of Sebastian being a name for a crab. "Wasn't that the name of the shellfish-thing in the Little Mermaid?" she asked. She wasn't sure if Shelby or Resa would know of the Disney movie, but they had known about others, so it was possible.

She didn't continue with the discussion about the Herbology professor. She had never met him, and didn't particularly want to base her opinion off of what she had heard.

"I don't even think I ever decided on a mascot for the House of Awesome," she mused. "I can't name it until I've decided what it actually is."

Theresa sighed drmatically "well you need to choose one then dont you, Shelby has her tiger, I have my Alaskin Husky puppy, what maskot are you having?" she asked. She got out of the lake and sat in the grass as she thought of what her own maskot would be named.

"Speaking of the Herbology professor, I went to the greenhouses and met the new professor. His name is Professor Ellis, he's very nice," Shelby filled them in on what very little information she'd already gathered.

Shelby laughed at the mention of the Little Mermaid. "That must be why I thought that. I couldn't figure out why it sounded familiar," she remembered her mom showing her all of the old Disney movies at some point or another.

"Have you thought about what animals might be a possibility for your mascot?" she asked Hilary. "If you make a list, you might be able to narrow it down to a definite choice," she suggested.

Hilary thought hard about what she wanted as her mascot. She really should have figured this all out earlier, but she had just been being lazy, as she had been doing with her Defence homework. Then she realized that it was an easier decision that she had previously thought.

"I want it to be a unicorn!" she said, thinking back to her adventure in the forbidden forest with Will. "And, since it's going to be a girl, I'm going to name it Ainsley."

"So you guys might actually get to learn something in Herbology?" she asked, with a laugh.

"That's a great mascot! A unicorn named Ainsley," Shelby grinned. "Don't forget to add her to your corner the next time you go into the common room."

"I don't know if we're actually going to learn in Herbology or now. If we don't start learning something, I'm going to stop taking the class because I have better things to do if it's not really worth my time."

Theresa laughed "great, we have a white tiger called Raja, a unicorn called Ainsley and an alaskin husky who has no name yet, Lauren hasn't chosen a mascot yet" she said. She was confused about what her friends were talking about. She had only just started to understand the muggle things they usually talk about but she had never heard about this before.

"I'll try to remember," she said, with a smile. "If I forget, I'm sure you'll remind me anyway."

An idea struck her when she noticed the puzzled look on Resa's face. "You know what we should totally do sometime? Get the Room of Requirement to give us a working television and dvd player and watch a bunch of muggle movies!"

Hilary's words just confused Theresa more. She understood what a television was now and kind of knew what a movie was but she didn't understand what a dvd player was. Movies were like plays that were peformed in a box which is called a television but that didn't explain what a dvd player was. She leaned back on the grass, she would never understand it. Sometimes she wished that she knew more about her mother's muggle world.

Shelby laughed at the look on Resa's face. "That's a great idea Hilary. Someone needs to teach Resa about movies otherwise she'll never understand half of the things we talk about. Maybe in a few years I'll show you Silence of the Lambs and you'll understand why Hannibal is a fitting name for the giant octopus," she said.

(OOC: Speaking of movies, I'm watching Grease right now. Yay musicals!)

Hilary noticed the confused look on Resa's face. She knew that she had an idea what a television was, so it was probably the dvd player that she was stuck on.

"A dvd player plays movies," she explained. "The movies come on circular, plastic discs that you put into the player and has all the information on it. The dvd player can read the information and puts the picture up on the screen."

She had never thought so much about the things she had know as normal in the muggle world. It was a little strange to think about them this way.

Theresa stuck her tongue out at Shelby "the silence of the lambs sounds terrible if a character in it suits a octopus" she said.
She turned to Hilary "ok so you watch movies off disks yet the thing is called a dvd player and not a movie player, muggles are so strange" she said. She understood it but she was begining to think muggles were all crazy.

"Well, Hannibal Lector was supposed to be a serial killer or something, wasn't he?" she asked. She had never seen the movie herself. Her dad had said it was far too scary for little girls to watch.

She couldn't help but laugh at Resa's confusion. "Don't worry, we'll show you how it all works when we get up there. It's not as complicated as it sounds."

Lauren heard the the girls were down the lake and made her way there from the Hospital wing, still fuming. She didn't even say hello as she sat down next to Hilary. She was so angry that she couldn't even speak, but she was sure that one of her friends would pick up on the anger and ask her about it. Lauren tried to calm down, but couldn't. What a stupid, stupid girl! Lauren though.

Theresa looked at Lauren confused, she had never seen her usually calm and fun friend so angry. "What's wrong Lauren?" she asked, wondering if she wanted to talk about it. She knew that it was never good to keep things inside but hoped that Lauren didn't think she was just being nosey or something.

Lauren turned to Resa. "You remember that stupid girl in the hosptial wing. Shannon. Well she completely refused my help! She is going to kill herself, and it'll just put extra stress on the hospital wing when she does decide that she needs help. It's just so stupid! I don't know if it's a cry for attention, or what! But it frustrates me so much, and she is just so selfish!" Lauren grumbled after she said this. Her angry still very strong. "I don't know what to do, but I know that the next time she comes in will be worse than just a fainting episode."

"If she refuses help then it is her own fault what happens to her really" Theresa said. She remembered the girl and felt bad for her but there was no point in trying to help her if she wouldn't let them.
"Maybe she will eventually understand that she is being stupid, it could easily kill her if she doesnt eat or sleep" she said.

Lauren huffed, "Yeah. I'm just so angry because I can help her and she won't let me!" Lauren loved working in the hospital wing, but at times, it could be very frustrating. "Anyway, enough about me. What's been happening? I rarely see you guys all together anymore!" Lauren said to her group of friends.