Exploring and Drawing

She sat upon a large root protruding from the muddy ground, open sketch pad in hand. She clutched her quill until her knuckles turned white, grinding her teeth together to stop the tears that tried to ruin the eye makeup that she had worked so hard on. It had taken a very long while for her to make what few friends she had, and now they couldn't come back to Hogwarts. Sarah and Finn.

Quill meet parchment. She started with an outline of the great expanse of the lake, her mind reeling as she tightened her fingers around the pad in her lap. She blinked, staring blindly at the small drop of water that joined the ink on the paper, ruining her picture. silently cursed herself, wiping carefully at the tears under her eyes, as to not ruin her makeup.

Draco had been swimming in the black lake for quite some time. Luckily snape had taught him a warming charm which he put to good use on the cold waters. That and some gillyweed were all a person needed. He quite enjoyed swimming. He spent most of his time underwater, visiting the merpeople. They were a surprisingly docile species, greeting with a series of clicks and gentile hugs on rare occasions. He swam in a pair of black trunks he had conjured out of a leaf, the rest of his clothes lie in a heap beneath a tree. He surfaced, casting another warming charm on the lake with the wand he kept strapped to his leg. He could feel the gillyweed wearing off, he needed to get more from his pocket.

Draco swam towards the shoreline, rather quickly spotting a girl. She appeared to be crying though Draco wasn't sure. His clothes were hidden several feet away from her. She would spot him regardless. He swam up to her, standing about waist deep in the dark water. He crossed his arms, not even bothering to fix the mess of blond hair that clung to his cheeks and the back of his neck. "You alright?" He questioned, though his tone didn't match it. His tone was rather snarky and sarcastic, not matching the concern he question usually holds. Momentarily he forgot about his scar covered torso, maybe she wouldn't notice? Though it was hard not to notice, there was more scars than skin.

Bonnie jumped at the sound of a voice, an involuntary squeak leaving her tiny form, only to be stifled by her hand. Her eyes widened as they landed on the very scarred blonde. She dropped her hand and scurried to close her book, only to drop it on the muddy ground and leave her index finger with a wicked paper cut. "Uhm..." She bit into her lower lip, kneeling to clean up her things. She looked at him from under a mass of red curls and gestured to his chest. "I should be asking you the same thing," She said it quietly, barely audible.

Draco chuckled a bit and stepped out of the water slowly. He pointed his wand at the girls dirtied book and cast a cleansing spell on it. "Got mauled by a pack of wolves." He said, the sarcasm thick in his voice. Her bleeding finger caught his attention and he motioned to her hand. "Want me to heal that?" He grabbed for her hand to get a better look at the wound. He was, uncomfortable, speaking of what had actually happened to him. It was a rather long story to be honest.

She blinked, brow knitted together at his words. Her tongue darted out, wetting plush lips as he took her hand, the pale skin of her face suddenly flaming red. "Uhm, uhh..." She sniffled, lifting her free hand to wipe the tears from her cheeks. "Would you be totally and completely mad at me if I called you out on your lie?" She murmured, nibbling on her lower lip. She cast her eyes down, kicking at the ground, her hand shaking in his.

He grinned wickedly, casting a silent healing charm on her hand. "Nah. It's what happens when you get hit with several different types of curses." he raised his free hand, pushing the soaked blonde hair out of his face. He hadn't let go of her hand, it was warm, and he wanted to make sure the spell had worked. Wondering why she was shaking so much he raised a brow, but decided not to ask. Instead he smiled and let her hand go, wondering over to his clothes to retrieve another glob of gillyweed. "Care to go for a swim? I'm sure the merpeople would love someone new to greet." he held up another glob of gillyweed as his own gils began to regrow, his hands and feet becoming webbed as well.

Her eyes widened, her jaw dropping at his words. "Uhm, if you don't mind mine asking.." She waved a dismissive hand at his offer, before pulling back the large mass of red into a tight ponytail, even as her hand contorted, the skin between her fingers becoming webbed and gills sinking into the sides of her neck. "Who would want to curse such a nice boy as you?" She slipped of her shoes and robes, thankful that she decided to wear jeans instead of her skirt, and dove into the dark water.

He pointed his wand at her, charming her clothes to be waterproof so they wouldn't get ruined. He stepped to the waters edge, casting yet another warming charm on it. "My father...I'm sure you've heard of me." He raised a brow, stepping closer as he raised his forearm, placing his wand against the dark mark embedded onto it. It began to wriggle and hiss at the touch of his wand. Thankfully he could do this and not summon the dark lord seeing that he was dead. His tongue darted out and across his bottom lip, it was a nervous habit. Draco prayed to merlin she wouldn't hate him once she figured out who he was and what he had done.

Her expression darkened for a moment before she dunked her head backward into the dark water and resurfaced closer to him. "Malfoy. Draco, from the looks of your age." She tilted her head, smiling softly. "Come on in, your wasting your gillyweed," She dunked her head once more beneath the surface and came back up a few feet away. "Can I ask you a question?" Without waiting for an answer, she continued. "Are you sad about what you've done? If you could go back, would you take it all back?" She raised an eyebrow.

His brow furrowed a bit at her question, dunking under the water only to resurface in the middle of a rather dak patch of water. "If Voldemort would have given me a choice I would have said no. He threatened to kill my family. Even said, he wouldn't kill Harry. Of course that much was a lie.. So I listened to him." He shrugged a bit, slowly sinking under the water. He heard subtile screeches and hands tugging at his webbed feet. He chuckled as he vanished beneath the surface greeting the two merchildren who obviously wanted him to return.

An unknown emotion flashed behind her eyes, her lips pursing. Well, that's sad, she thought, as she swam deeper down into the water, her eyes instantly finding the blonde boy and the two merchildren. Deep red curls floating about her, a slight smile turned up the edges of her mouth.

Draco cooed softly, making an array of clicking noises as the children swam around him. He looked over at the girl who had caught up, motioning her over as he brushed his fingers along the children's backs to get their attention. They both squeaked and glanced over, quickly rushing towards the female. They clicked happily, studying her, playing with her hair. Draco found it all rather sweet and he made his way over towards the trio.

Bonnie grinned, reaching up to brush her fingers over one merchild's arm with infinite gentleness. She glanced up at Draco as he swam towards them, staring at him for a moment before turning her attention back to the merchildren, smiling gently.

Draco brushed his hand against the females arm, chuckling a bit. He swiftly swam away, down towards the dark depths of the lake. The merchildren squalled and hugged the girl, quickly following after Draco. They chirped happily and dissappeared into the seaweed after him.

Her face turned bright red as she watched the boy swim out of view. She resurfaced, pressing her palms against her flaming cheeks. Her gaze darted to her books, which lay neatly on the root she had previously perched on. Letting out a relieved sigh, she let her body sink into the warm water until only her head and part of her neck showed, hoping the chilled air would take the color from her face.

Draco happily swam up to the village, his body froze as he stared at the ruined village. Bodies of the merpeople laid everywhere, his heart sank into his stomach as the children swam to his side, the same look of terror plastered on their faces. Bellow them, at the bottom of the lake, was a Basalisk. He grabbed ahold of the two children as the beast glanced towards them. The child to his right met its gaze, immediately turning to stone and sinking to the bottom. The second child squealed and darted off into the mass of seaweed leaving Draco alone. He slowly backed away as the snake began to uncoil itself. He made a break for the surface next to the girl. He coughed up water as the gillyweed began to wear off, latching his arm around her waist and heading towards the shoreline.

She let out a squeak when he broke the surface, nails digging into his forearm as it wound her waist and he began pulling her to the shore. "Uhm, Draco?" Her face turned red once again, and she began to stammer. "W-what's w-w-wrong?" She began to have issues breathing, so she let the edges of her gills come together until they disappeared.

He plopped her onto he shoreline and ripped his wand out of the holster around his ankle. Not two seconds later the snake surfaced, hissing wildly as it slid towards them. "Don't look it in the eyes." he hissed out between his teeth, averting his gaze from the beast as he cast a stupify, missing it by about a foot as it jerked out of the spells path. Draco growled angrily as he heard the spell hit the water. Dammit, when the hell had this monster showed up. He gritted his teeth, casting another stupify, again missing it as the beast jerked out of its path.

She instantly squeezed her eyes closed, reaching backwards and feeling for her wand in the pockets of her robes. She gripped her wand hard in her hand, whipping it out and pointing it toward the sound of the snake. Annnddd...Her mind went blank. She bit hard into her lower lip, a small bead of blood seeping out. Damnit, what was that spell?!

"Sectum sempra!" Draco hissed out, hitting the snake head on. He cracked his eyes open and the snake writhed in pain, falling back into the water as black blood oozed out from the gaping holes the curse had caused. When it disappeared under the water Draco flopped onto the ground, breathing heavily. He had never seen a Basilisk before, he'd seen werewolves, hippogriffs, but never a Basilisk. He chuckled nervously, glancing up at the girl."That was a close one.." he smiled a bit, leaning back onto his elbows.

"See?" She wiped at the blood on her lip, opening her eyes and letting her gaze fall in Draco. "You are a good person. You're judged by the present, not the past." She sighted softly and slid her wand back in her pocket, staring at the ground. "You could have left me there." She blinked and grabbed for his arm. "Did I hurt you when I freaked out and clawed at you?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Once you go through the Crucatous curse a number of times anything else feels Brilliant." He chuckled a bit, leaning back int the mud. He lightly traced over one scar in particular, the larges one left behind when Potter had used sectum sempra on him. He smirked a bit and pointed his wand towards a stone, charming it into a couch. Beaming with happiness from the successful spell he crawled up onto it, relaxing into the soft plush cushions.

Bonnie folded her arms on the soft cushions of the couch, sinking back into the mud and resting her chin on her arms. She stared up at him, the corners of her mouth twitching as she tried to hold back her smile. "You're really beautiful when you smile, you know that?" When she realized what she had said, she flushed, turning bright red. "Uhm, in an artist's point of view, ya know?"

Draco's face flushed a dusty shade of pink as he smiled down at the girl. "Well then you're rather attractive when you blush." He grinned a bit, crossing his arms. "In an artists point of view." the Slytherin snickered a bit, running a hand through his messy rather dirty hair.

Her eyes widened, and her palms framed her face, covering her burning cheeks. She's nibbled on her lower lip, staring at a point beyond the boys head. "Uhm, so, ya know, since you're so, uhhh..." Her brow furrowed, nose wrinkling. "Ya know what, forget it," she said with a nervous giggle before snapping her mouth closed.