For being forbidden, a lot of events and classes took place really close to the forest; the more he was near it, the more that Charlie found that it didn’t look too scary, and well, maybe one day he’d explore it. Even he wasn’t daft enough to try to wander into it when almost every staff member was breathing down their necks like hawks to ensure they were on their best behavior, plus it seemed like the prefects were doing patrols near it. Sucked to be them.

Charlie found himself standing near the side of the lake staring at the boats, his foot tapping insistently as he watched Professor Lissington enchant another one to launch across the lake. He swallowed hard. While he was terrified of water, it didn’t mean that he disliked looking at it… Charlie just didn’t like to be in it. Or near it. But he was a Gryffindor and Gryffindors were courageous, which meant he was too. (Right?) He couldn’t work up the courage to get in line, not yet.

Charlie turned toward the kid next to him, the weird looking one who was so pale he should probably touch grass and be outside way more than it seemed he was, (Professor Foxwood said he should try to be nice to everyone to make more friends), and before he could stop himself asked, “you don’t think they’ll tip over and people will wind up in the lake, do you?”

---

Connor Sinnet // Elias Grimstone

---

Connor was grateful for the darker days of autumn, the way dusk started falling early. He had always preferred the cool temperatures and the overcast days, if they had to go outside.

But he expected the lake water would be freezing by now, so he wasn’t keen to fall in this evening if that was a possibility. Hutton seemed oddly anxious about the possibility. Connor followed his gaze towards the DADA professor – he had seen nothing to assume Lissington wasn’t competent at charms like that, and wouldn’t rescue anyone if the magic went awry. He could have said as much, but he could sight of a diminutive figure in one of the boats and instead said coolly, “If anyone does, I hope it’s Sidonia.” He tried to keep his darker thoughts to himself, usually, but he had been imagining it so intensely it had been hard to resist. Besides, as far as he could tell, Hutton disliked Sidonia as much as anyone did, so it might even make him laugh. (After all, Connor wasn’t trying to make more enemies than necessary.)

---

Charlie laughed before he could stop himself, his eyes following one of the boats that just launched across the late. Ignacio was a pretentious brat and the mental image of him floundering in the lake before Professor Lissington could pull him out was enough to make the edge of his lips curl into a smile. It really would knock him down a peg or two and prove to everyone that he wasn’t invincible.

“You know we’d be hearing about it for weeks, maybe even for the next couple years. How he fell out of the boat and survived.” Charlie finally said, turning his attention toward the kid next to him. He’d probably embellish the tale – he battled a squid before bobbing to the surface, a mermaid saved him and now their best friends. It would be something utterly ridiculous that people would believe because they were dumb. Not Charlie though. He knew Ignacio well enough to know that almost every word that came out of his mouth was either a lie or something mean just to upset someone.

He blinked, shaking his head. “I’d much rather see the squid come out. I’m not sure if it would reach the boats or not though.” Seeing a giant squid would be kind of cool. Charlie didn’t want anyone to be hurt, of course, he just wanted some entertainment.

---

“That’s true,” Connor agreed, with a shrug to say I-hadn’t-thought-of-that. “The miracle of his survival. His death-defying adventure. I’d have to curse my ears off.” To spare himself the hearing.

The squid, though – Connor gave a thoughtful hum. “What do squids do?” he wondered. “What do they eat?” They could lure it out, perhaps, if they knew. Or at least experiment, to try and catch a glimpse of it. (Probably it wouldn’t, but – if only it ate people, Sidonia could serve himself up on a rowboat platter.)

---

Charlie snorted. (Mama would be appalled at the noise, so it was a good thing she wasn't here.) It was nice to have someone who disliked Ignacio as much as he did, or least might, dependent on much of a jerk the Ravenclaw was over the rest of the year.

"Well..." Charlie paused, his gaze moving toward the water. "I think they eat fish, and maybe birds, if they fly too low." He glanced at the Slytherin. "But it's a giant squid, so it'll probably need more than a few sprats for it to come to the surface." He shifted uneasily, as though picturing the enormous creature lurking beneath the surface. Charlie was petrified of water, so he certainly wasn't going to be the one getting near it.

"I don't know how to fish." Charlie said sheepishly. How else would get they get food for it?

---

Connor was absolutely going to do some reading on the giant squid. Find everything he could on it, and then find a way to lure it out. See it for himself.

If it was giant, perhaps it needed a bigger meal than small fish, or – as Hutton said – needed something more than on the surface. “Can you swim?” Connor asked, in interest. He could – he had swum in the Mediterranean before – but the Black Lake was a different kettle of fish, so if he did swim here, he wouldn’t be going it alone. “If you can, maybe we could put some food in for it a bit further out –” he suggested, with a new flicker of excitement.

---

Sinnet’s question made him hesitate, his fingers twitching slightly at his side. He didn’t like the water – had been afraid of it since his father had drowned – but at the same time he finally felt like he might be making a friend, so he didn’t want to just dismiss him. Hogwarts was lonely without many friends.

He let his gaze swing over to the lake before back toward the Slytherin. “Yeah, I can swim.” It wasn’t a lie, he just omitted the fact that he didn’t want to.

But then he cleared his throat and smirked slightly. “What kind of food? I’m certainly not going to be bait.” Charlie could do this; he couldn’t spend the rest of his life afraid of water, right?

---

Connor’s expression brightened at Hutton’s confirmation of his competence: that was less annoying, and less of an impediment to his first-spark-of-a-forming-plan than if he had to factor in swimming lessons for a year mate before they investigated the squid.

In fact, he had lightened up enough to actually laugh at that comment. “Not sure yet. We could try chicken, maybe?” That was a bird, wasn’t it? And something they could get off the dinner table. Presumably the squid didn’t usually eat chickens in the middle of the lake, but all that mattered was it piquing its interest. Suddenly he grinned broadly, with an unintentional flash of his teeth. “Better to bring one than be one.”

---

For the first time since he started Hogwarts, Charlie felt like he might actually be making a friend. He couldn’t help but grin back at Sinnet, giving a sharp nod. “Chicken’s not a bad idea.” He was pretty sure he’d seen some at the dinner table, and it wasn’t like anyone was going to stop them from snagging more if they wanted it. (If anyone tried, Charlie would just say that Uncle Basil requested it.)

Sinnet flashed his teeth, but it was so quick that Charlie didn’t notice anything different. “Fine, but let’s be quick about this.” He said, already turning back toward the table. “Let’s go see if the squid’s got a taste for chicken.” Charlie made his way over to the table, assuming that Sinnet was going to follow him, although it didn’t really matter if he did or not. The Gryffindor was going to do this. He was committed.

He forwent the plate, grabbed a few napkins and a couple roasted chicken legs from the plate at the end of the table; they smelled divine, and if they didn’t call the squid forward, nothing would. He wrapped them up and tucked them into his robes.

---

Connor might have been doing most of the egging-on, the preparation, but he was still a little startled when Hutton just – leapt into it. They were actually going to do it.

Obviously Connor was in. (It was rare enough that anyone took his advice or suggestions, anyway – he wasn’t going to give that opportunity up.)

He loped after Hutton, and nodded swiftly when he’d gotten the chicken for bait. “Let’s go,” he said, heading for the lake and the boat line, and trying to stay cool and inconspicuous until they were out there – so that no one else butted in on their plan.

---

Charlie was used to just doing things whenever a half-baked plan was hatched; he had two younger brothers and all three of them were constantly egging each other on, much to his mother’s dismay. Things hadn’t changed much when he’d come to Hogwarts, although Charlie had quickly replaced his brothers with friends… although he wasn’t quite sure what to categorize Sinnet as yet.

Either way he found himself with a handful of chicken as he followed the Slytherin back to the lake, not a single thought in his head if this was right or wrong to do. He adjusted it like it was a completely normal thing to be carrying around, his mouth opening to confess that he was terrified of boats and wasn’t sure if he’d be able to commit as the line moved quickly, them suddenly behind one other group.

Instead Charlie said, “If this doesn’t work out, we were never here.” The group in front of them moved. Charlie took a deep breath – if he could survive the boats from the train to Hogwarts at the beginning of the school year then eh could survive them a couple months later, too.

---

“Aye, aye,” Connor said – impulsively. (He wasn’t used to saying things that sounded silly, particularly; he had spent so much of his life trying to make adults pay attention to him that he didn’t know how boys his age spoke – but something must be rubbing off on him at Hogwarts.)

It was their turn to embark, and Connor clambered in without a care, watching Hutton absently at first, and then with a little twitch of curiosity. Did he look nervous about something? Just their plan to feed the squid, or something about the way the enchanted boat rocked slightly, side to side? “Alright?” he asked, in case Hutton was wavering. They had scarcely started moving, but Connor was almost grinning – there was something fun about a boat ride, in spite of himself.

---

Charlie hesitated just a little before stepping into the boat. He’d done it to get across to the castle, plus it was enchanted not to tip over, so nothing could go wrong – right? Sinnet’s question caught him a little off guard, and Charlie blinked once before nodding quietly.

“Yeah, fine.” He said a bit too quickly, sitting swiftly on the bench across the Slytherin. He would probably make fun of him if he was to learn about how he was terrified of water, and well, Charlie really wanted a friend at Hogwarts, so it was best not to chase this one away with a silly fear.

“You ever think about how deep the lake is? Will the pieces have to sink before the squid sees them?” Charlie asked, looking at him instead of the water itself. Well, he’d already committed, so it was now or never. Reached into his pocket to pull out some of the chicken, which he promptly offered to Sinnet. The pieces he kept for himself were tossed into the lake as far as he could get them.

---

Connor wasn’t good enough at reading other people to know what had flickered across Hutton’s face, or what that blink meant, or what exactly was in his tone, but he pretend to give the other boy the benefit of the doubt, and didn’t comment. Maybe he was inclined to seasickness. That was probably it.

“Hopefully it’ll come up to investigate,” Connor said, as if he could will such an outcome into being. He started tossing the bits of chicken, too, as if all they were doing was feeding the ducks; he tried to leave a little space and time between throws, so that it gave the underwater creatures time to react. Hopefully no one in the other boats was looking at them, and wondering what they were up to. He peered over the side of the boat, down at the murky water, watching for potentially meaningful bubbles.

It was nothing at all like the clear sparkling shores of the Mediterranean, where you could see feet beneath you – this could go on forever into the deep, or be a foot deep and then mud. Thinking about the lake, and all the rumours he had heard about it made him remember something else. “Do you think merpeople eat chicken?” He said in a low tone. They weren’t who they were trying to attract the attention of, if what people said was true and there were some in here – and Connor wasn’t sure if they would appreciate an offering of chicken, or be insulted by it. They probably ate fish. Hm.

---

Charlie didn’t dare look at the lake as he tossed the pieces of chicken, because what if he saw something move beneath the surface? Was it going to flip the boat? Was Mama going to have to bury him just like his dad…? (Of course it defeated the purpose of not looking, because he might miss the giant squid, but whoever said Gryffindors were brave was clearly wrong, because Charlie felt anything but.)

He swallowed hard, eyes flicking up to Sinnet as he asked a question. It was something nice to concentrate on. “Doubt it,” he said with a shrug. “They’ve got gills, right? Probably not built for digesting anything but fish.” And maybe seaweed? Charlie had no clue that they actually ate, but it was a question he could ask a professor whenever the topic came up.

He tossed another piece of chicken, not watching where it landed, just listening for the plop that seemed to accompany each piece. Charlie shifted, careful not to rock the boat although it creaked under him anyway. At least Sinnet didn’t look worried about being out here. That helped. A little.

He risked a glance down, then looked away just as fast. Nope. Still terrifying. (Did he imagine those bubbles?)

“I don’t think it’s coming.” Charlie huffed, dropping the rest of his chicken into the water with little fanfare. Somehow, he didn’t feel the slightest bit disappointed.

---

Hutton was probably right, about the merpeople – Connor wasn’t actually sure what they looked like, but if they had gills that made enough sense to him. Still, it was something of a let down to have come out here on this quest and have nothing special to show for it (– well, he supposed making friends with Hutton was something, not that he’d admit it).

It had been mostly his idea, though, and Connor wasn’t particularly comfortable with failing at things. He shrugged, disappointed, and leaned over the edge glumly, as far as he dared. He nudged Hutton beside him. “Sure you don’t want me to accidentally push you in, and see if the squid comes up to catch you?” He joked – he felt like they would get in trouble by a watching professor if either of them purposely went for a dip.

---