Etna stared into the water at the lake, staring at a fish who seemed to be staring right back at her. Her dark red curls fell into her face, but not quite covering up the chocolate colored eyes that studied the fish.
Thirteen year old Etna Jeneall was commonly mistaken for someone about six, or she used to be, now she looked like a six year old who had developed into a young lady faster than expected. She wasn't even four foot yet, something Etna hated about herself, and her lying on the grass staring into the water made her look even more like a young girl. Etna sat up, and taking the piece of parchment wrote down something else about the fish. She liked animals, they were good to talk to, and they didn't even have opinions of you, they wouldn't even share you're secrets. Especially fish, Etna had decided long ago that fish were smarter than people led them to be.
Anyway, right now Etna was really waiting for the giant squid to come up, she wanted to take notes about it, because she wasn't getting enough from the books. And Etna jumped as she heard someone, coming up behind her.
"Oh bother..." She muttered, trying to gather the pieces of parchment she had dropped. Once she had them she turned around, "Hello." She said to the person.

April took a casual stroll through the lake, only to take a break from studying and working on the new term's homework assignments. The grounds were bright and alive with student acitivity; most of them trying to take advantage of the last bits of warm weather Hogwarts would see in awhile. Winter came on much too fast at this school, April had realized sullenly.

Shuffling her feet, she looked across towards the lake, and saw there was a very young girl sitting by herself, staring at the water. She seemed to have parchment of some sort, and was staring at what looked like a fish in the cool lake's surface. April glared at her, curiously, and then walked closer for a better look.

The girl in question was extremely small ,but her face was matured, yet still childlike. She was probably younger than April by a few years, but her body looked like she was six or seven. A midget, April thoughts, and laughed. She crept up behind the girl, who seemed to have noticed her and was looking at her, embarassed. Her papers had flown everywhere.

"Hello."

April looked at her casually, smirked a little bit, and picked up the rest of the papers, handing them to her swiftly in a neat stack.

"Hey. What are you doing down here?" April asked, lounging against a nearby tree.

Etna took the papers, still looking at the girl. She added to the already large stack of filled up parchment. She took a large rock and putting the parchment down, put the rock ontop of them, so they wouldn't fly off.
She observed the girl first, she was older than Etna, at least a 5th year and that was at the very least. She was slytherin, Etna could tell just by the mannerisms and the glint in the girls eye, but the badge helped alot too.
"I'm looking at the fish." Etna pointed at where the fish WAS with her quill, and sighed realizing it was gone. "Observing, mostly."
and hoping I don't get splashed by the idiots who rather spend their time wasting life away in a pool full of other peoples germs.
Etna didn't realize it but she was looking at the bunch splashing about and enjoying the last bit of warmth, with disgust. When she did realize it, her face went back to normal.
"And you?" She asked, raising her eyebrows.

When the girl mentioned fish, April looked towards the spot again, but noticed that the fish had left. April smirked, flipping her wand in her hand obnoxiously and deciding the best way to answer the girl's question. She stared off across the lake, to where the girl was looking, and saw a group of younger students swimming in the lake. Probably enjoying the last time they'd be able to do so in a long couple of months.

"Me? I was taking a walk, enjoying the rays of sunshine..." she said. She looked at the girl, trying to determine which house she was in. Defnately not Slytherin. Not fit for Gryffindor either.

"Who are you,anyways? Haven't seen you around..."

Etna bit her lip, "Probably the last bit you'll get for a while. Or at least warm rays..." Etna's thoughts trailed off, as she spotted another fish. Etna stared at it for a moment, and sketched it perfectly onto a blank piece of parchment.
"I'm Etna, third year, Ravenclaw... um and I'm normally in the library or the forbidden forest..." Etna shrugged, "I don't see you too much either." Etna told her, her face blank and unreadable. Etna liked to keep it that way, when she was little she decided that voices could fool a room, but faces could trick few. Eyes where also a tell-tale so she had trained herself for hours in front of the mirror, making no face at all.

Stumped, April lazily lit a leaf on fire with her wand, watching the way it made Etna jump a little bit. The girl was a little annoying to April in some sort of way, like she was better than April or something. That clearly was not the case, and in any way, how had she not heard of April? She had competed in the Tetrawizard tournament, for Merlin's sake.

"Oh, really? I'm sure you know me. I'm April Teagan, 6th year Slytherin," she said, as if this was common knowledge. Thinking of it, it sort of was. April was pretty popular, especially for a Slytherin.

April peered over the girl's sketch, which seemed to be of a fish. Looking up, April saw another fish in the lake, which Etna was drawing. April blinked a few times, and then focused back on the parchment, which was forming a more detailed picture.

"You're a pretty good artist," April said, off hand, flicking her wand again.

Etna shrugged, "Is there a reason I should know who you are? Because I really don't..." Etna shrugged again, "Sorry to dissapoint you, love." Now, Etna should be forgiven for her behavior, she wasn't around people in general much and she rarely spoke to them either. Etna never had a friend that was REAL, her friends were all imaginary and left her alone mostly. She didn't hardly socialized with the imaginary friends either.
"Oh. Um, thank you. I like to draw so my notes will be more..." Etna hunted for the word, "Accurate. Yes that's a good word..." The last bit was mostly muttered to herself.


OOC: Wow, Etna would bug the heck out of me.

OOC: Me as well :)

BIC:

April was getting a little tiny bit ticked off at Etna, and then she used the word 'love' as a petname for April, which wasn't appropriate at all. April snarled a little bit but said nothing, choosing to ignore it for the time begin. Etna was still talking nervously at this point, and April didn't make much of an attempt to tone in.

"Well, you need to get out more, in my opinion. Start to know who people are," April said, a little bit stuck up.

"And yeah, I'm sure that'll help you... although I'm not sure why you're taking notes about fish, to be honest."

Etna looked up at April, almost surprised at the change in tone. She didn't think she had said anything rude.
"I know I do, I just don't. Brutis says it's mostly my mothers fault because she doesn't let me play with the other children in our neighborhood." Etna stopped and realized she had mentioned her imaginary friend. Etna had many of those, and they were the few friends she had.
"Because, fish are interesting and in my opinion are smarter than people lead them to be." Etna told her, innocent eyes looking at April. Etna was in every way and form innocent, she didn't know things that most girls her age did, she never used bad language, and all together she was innocent.
"But I take notes on lost of other animals because I like animals..." Etna shrugged.

Apri paused for a second, contemplating why Etna didn't meet people her own age instead of studying fish and other 'animals'. The girl was a total smart ass, but April had a feeling that this didn't register somewhere in her brain.

"Whose Brutis?" she asked stupidly, then shok her head as if trying to clear it of stupid thoughts.

"Anyways, how can anyone know how intelligient fish are? No one speaks fish. And animals are boring..." April said.

April was a firm believer that anything that had to do with hard work outside was to be done by house elves. I mean, she had been brought up that way. So, basically, she wasn't too interested in animals or nature or anything. She liked the calmness of the forest or the lake, but she wouldn't clean it up or anything.

Etna thought for a moment on how to answer this, "My friend." She said simply, as if she had no intention of going any further in detail.
"Some people speak fish." Etna said deffensively, but sounding like a little girl, "And not all animals are boring. If all animals where boring then why would we have them for pets? Isn't that why we have them, for entertainment?" Etna asked her, trying to make a point.
Some people do speak fish... so there!
Etna, love, quit acting like a child.
I AM a child for God's sake!
"Besides it's either this or go read in the library. Which I've gotten bored of," Etna shrugged, and looked back as her sketch putting the finishing touches and making it look... real.

"No one speaks fish, Etna..." April said, laughing. Trying to imagine someone speakig fish was making April have to laugh out loud, which would be quite rude at the moment. "And animals aren't boring, they're just... hard to handle. I don't have my owl for entertainment... he's my mail carrier, actually. Quite useful."

April watched the shock on the girl's face, like she was upset that April would use her owl for such cruel purposes. It was what they were for, actually, and it wasn't April's fault for that. Owls actually were very useful.

"And yes, I would have to agree, pretending to talk to fish is more interesting than reading... on occasion."

Etna looked blankly at April as she laughed, not seeing the humor in talking to fish.
"I bet someone in the world can speak fish." Etna told her, diffiantly. "Animals aren't too hard to handle, unless you have to clean up after them but I don't so I like them. And I don't have my own owl. I have a mouse though..." Etna shrugged. "I'm not pretending to talk to them!" Etna exclaimed, "I observing them! If I were pretending to talk to them I would be doing this. " Etna made a fish face, and then her face returned to normal, "But I'm not." Etna pulled a clip from her pocket. It had a large blue gem in the center and smaller diamonds surrounding it. She carefully clipped back some of her curls that continued to get into her face.

April gaped at Etna as she pretended to talk to the fish, for real. Her face got all scrunched up and fish-like, and she seemed to be in concentration or something. April laughed really loudly, tears welling up in her eyes, and then saw the expression on Etna's face and tried to stop.

"You know, you would have a mouse... "April said, and she could picture Etna hanging out with a mouse in her dorm room, by herself, and talking o the mouse. That gave her another round of giggles.

April watched as Etna pulled her hair back with a clip. Etna's hair was long and curly and brown, and seemed to get in the way a lot. Apri lwas glad that hers magically stayed perfectly straight; it was nastily wavy if not for magic. Apri lsighed and finally sat on the ground, throwing a rock into the water and scaring away Etna's fish.

OOC: Dark red hair. Not brown!! :D

"Why?" Etna asked, tilting her head to the side. She wanted to know, she had a mouse because she had found it in her home and caught it, her mother didn't know about it which was a good thing. Etna watched her fit of giggles, and jumped slightly at the noise from the rock. Most noises made her jump. She felt sorry for the fish as she watched it swim away. Etna felt that she was being made fun of, but she couldn't tell why. Etna looked at the sketch and carefully signed her name in beautiful handwriting.

"Well," April said, looking at the drawing again and attempting to explain, "You're very small... and mice are small. So therefore, you look like the type to have a mouse. And sort of annoying too," April finished, smirking.

She laid on the ground now, feeling the warm grass on the back of her head. She pulled out some grass and threw it up in the air, turning it to dist with a flick of her wand. Etna watched her so this, staring at her in an odd way.

Etna bit her lip on this one, thinking on it for a moment. "Hmm. Alright." She said, not sounding a bit offended, or not even sounding like she care. Etna tugged a loose curl, it bounced like a spring and fell back into place, Etna thought on how to word things.
"Why are you... setting things on fire?" Etna asked, looking at the burnt grass.

April pulled out another clumb of grass, tossing it into the air like confetti and setting it alight before it reached the ground. Etna seemed entranced by this easy practice, curious why April would do such a thing. Humming, April ignored the girl for a moment and demonstrated again, this time turning it into water droplets. She was becoming much better at Transfiguration.

"I like fire, and I'm practicing Transfiguration and such spells," April said, honestly for once, and turning another handful of grass into water pellets. Etna stared.

Etna watched, forcing herself not to gape. She was just a third year and couldn't hardly do that. She watched the water drip down, and she pulled on a loose curl, allowing it to bounce and fall.
"But fire is so...." Etna thought about all the books that could be set on fire, "destructive!" Etna said, after the word was found. "Transfig is fun." Etna commented, her idea of fun was not the same as everyone elses.

"Fire CAN be destructive, but here, it isn't," April replied, smiling lazily. She set a branch on fire above them, and it fell to the ground at Etna's feet, still emitting sparks. April cackled and put it out with a trickle of water from her wand.

"Oops," she said, shrugging. "Anyways, Transfiguration is okay. I find it sort of pointless sometimes, but now that I' more advanced, it does have it's uses. Now Potions... that's a fascinating subject," she said, flicking her wand and setting hovering grass into water droplets, which fell and splashed onto Etna's head. She was sopping wet.

Etna shrieked as the branch fell, falling back almost into the water but catching herself with her hands. Most of her hair had fallen out of the clip by now, and the clip, being very loose, fell into the water with a PLOP! Etna stared at the water in horror, "Oh no. Oh nononono. My mom... she'll... oh my god no!" Etna reached in and tried to catch it before it got any deeper than her arm, but couldn't get the clip. Etna pulled her hand at and looked at April, "Please help!" She said.
Help because it's mostly your fault my family heirloom just dropped into the water. Help because that clip is one of THE most magical artifacts on EARTH and I'm supposed to take care of it because I'm more responisble than the twits in my family!

April looked at Etna weirdly as she tried to save the clip as if fell deeper into the water. Etna was frantic and almost feel into the lake herself as she tried to snatch it as it feel ever deeper into the black water. April watched curiously, a bemused expression on her face, and pretended not to hear the girl's pleas at first.

But, she didn't want the girl to drown trying to save a stupid clip, after all. And either way, it looked pretty important, and she had muttered something about her mom. Well, we couldn't have any family issues involved here. She stood up, and grabbed Etna by the back of the robes and shoved her off to the side, glancing into the lake.

"Are you a witch or not?" she asked, exasperated, and looked at Etna. Then smirking, she drew her wand again.

"Accio clip," she said lazily, pointing at the water. A second later, it flew out of the water, dripping wet, and into April's hand. She tossed it up in the air a few times and then handed it over to Etna, a smirk all over her face.

Etna watched April, "Well yes but..." Etna bit her lip. But I'm useless with a wand. I'm only good with books and paper and quills, not wands or potions. I'm good with animals, not spells.
Etna caught the clip quickly, and it seemed that someone like her would've missed it, but she caught it immidiatly. Etna eyed it for a moment, the blue gem glowing slightly up into Etna's small face. A tiny smile began on Etna's face, and she pocketed it.
"Thank you." She told April. She didn't want to tell April that not only was she useless with a wand, but she didn't even HAVE her wand. It was up in the dorm room.

April looked at Etna, who was fawning over the clip in amazement, as if it had been saved from the bottom of the ocean. Rolling her eyes, April shrugged and leaned against the tree again, flipping her wand in her right hand and brushing her wavy hair behind her ear with the left. She took a second to play with her hair, then used a spell to make it straight again, still staring at Etna.

"You're welcome," she drawled lazyly, still smirking. "You ought to learn that one, shouldn't you? Where's your wand anyways?" she asked, looking on the ground for it. It didn't seem to be on the ground, and it didn't look like Etna was carrying it. April had never met any witch or wizard who didn't bring thier wand with them somewhere.

Etna watched April play with her hair, making it wavy and then straight again with magic. She wondered how many people used magic to look beautiful. She didn't really like the way April was staring at her and it caused her to looked at her sketchbook uncomfortably.

She pushed some of the curls back behind her ear.
"Yea I guess I should..." She mumbled. Then looked up at April's next question.
"Um,,, it's not with me." Etna bit her lip, "It's in my dorm room." Etna told April, slightly embarrassed. "I'm not really good at... wand work." She explained, her fingers playing with a curl almost on their own.

Gaping at Etna again, April shook her head as if to snap out of it, and sat upon the ground, still in mute shock. April couldn't imagine anyone leaving thier wand inthier dorm room, whether or not they were good with a wand. April's wand was always with her, even when she was asleep, it was underneath her pillow or on her nightstand.

"You probably should be carrying it about with you, whether you're good at magic or not.That's not a habit I would stick with," she reprimanded harshly.

"And maybe brush up on your spells. What is it that you aren't good at? Charms? Transfiguration? Defensive hexes?"

Etna felt like she was being scolded, She twirled a curl between her fingers, embarrassed.
"I just...don't need it when I'm merely looking at fish. I don't think I do anyway..." Etna bit her lip thinking about it. And then sighing she looked at April, "All of it. It always turns out wrong and I can't seem to do it. I make it by in classes alright but I'm really only good at doing the written type work than the actual spell work." Etna told her, sighing.

Still flipping her wand, April sat on the ground, brushing away the dirt with a spell and feeling the coldness of the grass. Scooting over, she took off her sneakers and dipped her feet into the cool lake water. It was a nice temperature, especially since it was warm outside, and April immeditaely felt relaxed and at home. She turned back to Etna, who was looking at April's feet, or perhaps searching for another fish. She seemed embarassed while she spoke.

"Well, the written work isn't as important as the spells that it's based off of. I mean, if you think about, you're going to need magic for the rest of your life. Especially with the Death Eaters around nowadays. Tell me you knoe about the Neo Death Eaters," April asked, rolling her eyes. She wouldn't be taken aback if Etna didn't.

OOC: If this post makes no sense it's 'cause I'm dealing with some issues. If it does make sense, woohoo!
IC:
Etna swallowed at the mention of Death Eaters. Her father had been one, but they wanted to take and train Etna. Etna's father had died protecting her.
"But muggles seem to be... just fine without it." Etna told her, slipping off her own shoes but not putting them into the water. Etna leaned back in the grass and plucked a blade, observing it and then discarding it.
"And I know about... the Neo death eaters but I know more about the old death eaters... my father was one until they..." Etna stopped and her brown eyes darkened, "Killed him for protecting me." She finished, biting her lip. It all had to do with that damned stone in the damned clip that Etna was protecting...

April scoffed at the mention of Muggles, but said nothing to Etna about them. She seemed twitchy after the mention of the Death Eaters, but April didn't feel bad for bringing them up, since everyone was a little on edge because of them. Etna had taken off her shoes and was laying on the grass near April now, playing with the grass. Rolling her eyes, April turned outof the water and faced her.

"Oh, really now? Your father was a death eater? Well, that's the first interesting thing you've told me all day. So why'd he have to protect you, anyways?" she asked, a small smirk finding it's way onto her face.

Etna watched April turn to look at her but she did not sit up, or even turn her own head to look at April. She plucked another blade of grass, and out of the corner of her eye saw the smirk on Aprils lips.
"Why should I tell you? How do I know your parents don't work for them or something?" Etna asked, now looking at April. "He was my DAD, he protected me 'cause he was my bloody DAD." Etna told her, although it was the slightest lie. Yes as he father her probably should protect just from them in the first place but they wouldn't have really wanted her had she not had the stone. Etna realized a bit of her own cockney accent had come out, even though she tried to keep it as hidden as possible.
"Anyway why should you care?" Etna asked now sitting up and looking into the water.

April smirked and chuckled, muttering under her breath but not loud enough for Etna to hear, "Bitch." She put her shoes back on quickly, using magic, and sat and faced Etna, a wide smile spread on her lips.

"Temper, temper," she replied, clucking her tongue obnoxiously. She flipped her wand in her hand again, a bad habit, and stared angrily at Etna. She was starting to become annoyed, of course.

"And how dare you assume my parents are death eaters," she spat angrily, "just because your father killed people doesn;t mean we Purebloods are all crazy extremists."

Etna bit her lip, but kept her temper down. She knew if she made April anymore upset then well... she could get hurt.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to assume. It was just a question, and I'm really protective of the subject about my dad. Sorry. I know not all Purebloods are," Etna thought of the words April had used and refrained from nodding at how good they were, "crazy extremists. My mums not, and neither is my sister. She's getting married to a muggleborn anyway." Etna couldn't help but let a small smile play on her lips, Jane Elizabeth loved the boy, yes, but she loved how much the muggleborn bit made her mother twitch. "I'm sorry I made you upset." Etna told her, looking extremely sincere. "I really didn't mean to." She added, pushing some of her curls back behind her ear.

April listened to the girl's snappish and nasty apology, though it didn't make her feel any less angry. Her temper often was out of control, and this was clearly one of those times. Assumptions were for the weak minded and stupid, and she didn't like the way Etna made loose guesses based on the little facts that she knew about April, anyways.

"Well, whatever. Stop looking like I'm going to kill you," she snapped at the girl. "I only hurt people that have a fair chance of hitting me back."