The Gryffindor Boy's dorms really needed to be aired out more, in Sam's opinion. In the winter months, and the transition to summer the boys in the room just seemed to keep the windows closed every night, and the heat as high as they could make it go. Really all it resulted in was a bunch of smelly, sweaty boys stinking up the joint like there was no tomorrow.
Oh well, it was only a comparatively small number of hours that he spent there, when all other activities were taken into account, and even then he only spent a tiny bit of that time conscious. Once Sam fell asleep, he was very hard to wake, and he slept every night, that was for sure.
One of the things he looked forward to the most was a rather simple activity, something he hadn't been able to do much when he lived back in Australia. With the beach being far away, and every body of water south of the Murray-Darling having dried up during the drought of 2017-2022 (The hottest and most devastating on record) he'd missed out on swimming for most of his childhood, and as such he tried his best to make up for lost time ever since he moved to the UK.
It was a fairly routine activity. Every morning he would wake up, put on his swimming costume (Especially the goggles, mustn't forget the goggles) and head down for a swim in the Lake, no matter what season, no matter what weather, he'd managed to do it every day since... oh about 3 weeks into his first year.
This morning was slightly different though. When he'd woken up he'd found his swimming costume missing, something very odd. His swimming costume was quite special, a gift for his 13th birthday. It was enchanted with some weird spell that kept him warm when in, and when out of the water, thus preventing the hypothermia setting in during the chillier seasons. It was very important during this time of the year, because if you went for a swim, then left the lake and spent a prolonged period of time outdoors (See where i'm going with this?), lets face it, if you didn't catch the flu, you'd probably have a part of your body fall off.
Well, that wouldn't happen today, he'd make it a quickie, dive in, then swim from A-Z and run back inside for a warm shower and change of clothes. To make things faster he decided he'd pack his robes and take them down with him, that way he could just go straight to the shower, yes, that would be for the best.
So, after a quick walk down to the lake he stood on it's banks, shivering a little in the cool mid-spring breeze. After a moment's hesitation he finally "Manned up" and took his shirt off, before jumping into the water.
Imagine being hit by a hammer on every square inch of your body, all at once. Not fun right. Well that's what the water would have felt like 3 months ago. Now, however, it was reasonable. Freezing, mind you, but fine enough for Sam to have a decent swim. Heading out into the depths he spent a few minutes swimming around till he was thoroughly tired, before heading back in. As he neared the bank (But still mostly in the water) he saw someone approaching him. With a slight smile and a cock of the head he looked at the girl who seemed to be approaching him, not approaching the area, but specifically him. "Hello," He shouted, lifting an arm out to wave at the girl. How very odd that someone would come to see him this morning, when almost everyone else in the school was inside trying to keep warm.
by Samuel Grigori Sat Apr 23, 2011 3:45 pm