summer

[peterxy]

Professor Spukhafte doesn't have any more advice than Hermione does, and is not as willing as the Gryffindor to help them if they're still stuck.

Which they are. Sadde's suggestion that they try focusing on shorter parts of memories for a higher happiness-per-second value helps him but not Miranda, so he ends up with a more solid fog. Still just fog, though. They continue reading books about it, and it seems to just be that idiosyncratic. Interestingly enough, some books written by alchemists also have mentions of Dementors, trying to figure out what their symbolic value is and whether it's possible to integrate it. More advanced books are in the Restricted Section, and they won't have access to it until at least Professor Slughorn gives them the go ahead.

The year passes. Willow is consistently good at the theoretical parts of classes and consistently bad at the practical ones, mostly due to being flustered by failures and not quite being able to get over that fact. Sadde and Miranda are exceptional at Potions, and the only reason Sadde isn't also exceptional at Transfiguration is that he doesn't quite care enough about homework when all that's on the line are his grades. That, plus all the time he spends between reading about Dementors, reading about Alchemy, and trying to undo the damage suffered by Slytherins because of the Dark Lord.

That last goal has the most tangible results, for a certain value of "tangible." Slytherin firsties are divided between liking him (Jacob and two of the girls) and grudgingly tolerating him (the other boy and girl). He has thoroughly dispelled the notion that he's "just another Slytherin" firsties from other Houses (except perhaps Gryffindor) might have, but of course that doesn't make the older years all that happy. Well, not that the older Slytherins actually care that much. But he has helped various of them with various things, mostly by acting like a somewhat willful minion, since there's not much more he can do to help older students beyond that, so he's at least on talking terms with most of them (Cole and Astoria have been quite useful there, as well).

Arens is not one of them, but by now he's mostly just ignoring Sadde and hoping he'll just go away.

Summer arrives.

They return home and spend a while with their respective families, but eventually...

Comments

[msmaxwell]

"Alright, then, it's through here!"

There's a backdoor that leads directly to the pool, and it's a massive pool, with a little waterfall and a fountain and a small island in the middle, a few tables with umbrellas and chairs, and two small locker rooms of sorts over there. From where they are, they can see the start of the mini-golf course from a distance, but not wherever it is the horses are kept.

[chanuphis]

"Oooh, this is a nice pool."

[mswoods]

"Very nice!" she agrees.

[msmaxwell]

"We can change over there," she says, walking towards the locker-room-of-sorts.

[chanuphis]

Miranda's suit is red and Karen's is blue. Karen's has sleeves and little shorts extensions; Muggle bathing costumes are more daring than wixen ones.

[mswoods]

Willow's is yellow with pink flowers on it, and Sadde's is black with a skull in front of it.

[chanuphis]

"Fashion statement," Miranda remarks of Sadde's.

[mswoods]

She grins. "Did you expect anything else?"

[chanuphis]

"Hadn't given it any thought."

She dives in. Karen follows soon after.

[msmaxwell]

"CANNON BALL!"

[mswoods]

Well given that Sadde is completely and thoroughly drenched now, she might as well dive in too.

[pleating]

Karen laughs at the look on Sadde's face.

[mswoods]

Sadde splashes Karen!

[pleating]

Well, now they just have to splashfight.

[mswoods]

SPLASHFIGHT!

[msmaxwell]

SPLAAAAAASHFIGHT!

[chanuphis]

A form of play combat Miranda can participate in!

[msmaxwell]

Willow swims away from them a bit so she can float belly up and start splashing them with her feet. They are much better at splashing than her hands.

[pleating]

That means she will have a harder time seeing people sneaking up on her to splash her, a fact that Karen takes full advantage of.

[msmaxwell]

She eeps and seeks protection underwater!

[mswoods]

Sadde decides that playing fair is for the weak and now her fingers are webbed together and she is splashing much more effectively!

[chanuphis]

"Cheater!"

[mswoods]

That comment earns her some extra splashing!

[chanuphis]

Which earns Sadde a flying tackle leading to a dunk.

[mswoods]

Gah! No fair!

...so she'll play even less fair. Say, what if her skin had a more slippery texture and her feet were shaped in a slightly more hydrodynamic fashion?