0730
Near the Lake

Angie needed to clear her head of everything that was cluttering it at the moment. The night before, she'd had nightmares about Amara's twisted wonderland and her smile... her wicked and devious smile that had once soothed Angie's doubts about submitting herself for a not-so-harmless Veela Charm practice...

She found herself down by the lake; a mess already and it wasn't even eight o'clock yet. She had gone without breakfast, choosing to throw back a simple glass of juice before rushing out of the hall in her cloak. She didn't have anywhere to be until much later in the morning when Charms would start.

That's when she noticed a man up to his knees in the cold water of the late, muttering something to himself as he tossed something into the water. "What on Earth..." She muttered to herself, walking towards him.

"Sir!" She yelled out, gathering her cloak about her and running over, delicate feet sinking into the muddy well-used pathway through the aid of worn boots that she refused to part with. "Sir! Are you alright?"

Dallas couldn't feel his legs anymore, but this was going to be worth it. The Kelpies had been getting ridiculously violent and kicking up massive waves in the lake. He intended on wrangling one and making an example of it, so the others would calm down. He had a bridle hung over one shoulder that he bought the other day when he was out with Professor Kesali.

One arm was wrapped around a large white five gallon bucket, and the other grabbed the contents and threw it out around him. Fish bones and scales filled the bucket. The Kelpies were attracted to the shininess of the scales and they loved the smell of the bones. He'd been tossing bones into the bucket behind his cottage and waiting for them to get really pungent. Now his nose burned as he rolled up his sleeves and waded into the lake in his rubber wellies.

His hat rested on the top of his head, and his wand was tightly tucked into his forearm holster. He heard a voice calling out, he turned around, blowing a strand of hair out of his eye. A girl, about 15, maybe was standing in the mud, looking at him like he had two heads.

"Hiya miss." Dallas said, turning around, sending ripples though the water. "Wha-? Oh! I'm fine, don't you worry about me, just tryin' to snag me a Kelpie." He adjusted this hat with a  scale-covered hand. "I'm Dallas, I'm the new Grounds Keeper?" He said. He was at the feast, he was only there to let the students know that he did risky things with dangerous beast because it was his job.

Angie wrinkled her nose as she got closer to the man and his bucket of what looked to be fish guts... gross. She remembered Dallas from the feast and gave him a knowing smile, he seemed to really love his hats; had he had one on during the feast as well?

"I remember you, I just couldn't tell who you were from behind. I'm Angie by the way, should I call you Dallas?" Angie said, getting closer to the enge of the lake. What was this man doing? She remembered him telling people that he was going to be doing things to control dangerous beasts, but what in the lake could be so dangerous? She'd heard tell of rumors of a giant sea monster, and of course there were mermaids that she had yet to see; but what else could be so dangerous.

Kelpies. She'd studied those once, dangerous things they were too. They were shape shifting demons; often taking the form of a horse. Innocent enough, until they dragged you beneath the waves and ate you. She was just glad they didn't have too many attacks from them because seeing somebody's guts floating around would be disgusting, not to mention terrifying.

"Is that going to lure them - oh." She saw a few ripples a few feet to the right of the grounds keeper, "Over there!" She said, pointing to the thing emerging from the water.

"Dallas is fine miss Angie, now...you might wanna take a step back, it's about to get wet!" He honestly didn't want to tell her to run, that would just scare her, and he didn't want her running off for help he didn't need. A horse head emerged from the water. he should have planned this better. It was a Hippocampus, not a Kelpie. It swam directly at him. Dallas laughed, he had only seen a Hippocampus a few times before but never this close before.

The blue beast had the front legs of a horse and the tail of a fish in the back. Dallas' boots pulled up from the mud and he let the creature lick his hand, removing the scales from it. "This ain't no Kelpie, it's a 'Campus, perfectly safe." He grabbed a fish bone and chucked it out into the lake. The horse head turned and looked at the splash where the bone hit the water, then with a large splash of it's fish tale, soaked Dallas and swam off.

Dallas laughed and poured water off his hat. "Like a giant water dog." Dal chuckled. Dallas reached over to the shore and put the bucket down. Now, he waited.

"You're the Hufflepuff quidditch captain, aren'tcha?" Dallas asked, as he searched the murky water for any sign of a Kelpie nearby.

Of course Angie didn't listen, and when he said take a step back, she took a step forward. The innate curiosity got a better of her; and she ignored her pounding heart as she tried to get a look at the creature. When she saw the horse head, she took a step back in shock. But smiled when Dallas said it was a Hippocampus.

Angie got a bit of the blow back from the splash and she laughed out loud as it sprayed onto her clean clothes. Luckily she'd charmed her jacket and boots to be waterproof a while back, but the chilly lake water was splattered onto her pants and left her scarf wet as well.

But whoever said you needed to be clean in order to have fun? Adventures were best had when something wasn't working out well. Like getting your clothes wet and muddy.

"That's me," she said. "Captain Angie Lemon, at your service." She said with a little bow, chuckling under her breath as she straightened herself back up. "Somebody had to make sure the badgers knew how to fly. Hooch taught us, I make sure we don't forget too often."

"Isn't this dangerous?" She asked, "Couldn't you get your face eaten off or something? Or have you done this before."

"Well...Captain, I've wrangled a Kelpie once or twice on my time, but the ones in the lake here are crazy, the most vicious I've seen in a long time, and I don't want no-body to get h-" Dallas felt something bite into his boot and he was dragged under the foggy water. Dallas kicked his leg and splashed around a bit, kicking whatever had his foot with his other boot repeatedly.

He breached the water, taking a deep breath, his hat floated closer to the shore than he. With a final good kick, a Kelpie reared out of the water and let go. Dallas got into a standing position, his ankle was bleeding, the water was turning slightly pink. Dal raised the bridle and shouted the placement charm. The bridle flew from his hand and he heard the bit clang into place behind the animal's teeth.

"Ha-HA!" Dallas shouted, the Kelpie now stood perfectly still, and looked at him like it was any other horse. Dallas trudged through the water and grabbed it's mane of bulrush and hopped up onto it's back. "Git!" He dug his heels into the tame Kelpie's barrel and it splashed through the water with ease. It's blue hoofs hit the mud and with a push from it's hindquarters made it up onto the shore.

Dallas grabbed his hat from the floating water and placed it back on his head. "There, th-that wasn't...so difficult." He coughed an a stream of water gushed from his mouth. He spit into the water, looking at the stream of red behind him. "See? Not something you witness everyday!" Dallas slid his wand back into his holster and shook off his hat.

"Would you like some tea?" Dal said after a moment, the purple kelpie shook it's mane and water sprayed from the bulrush weeds like a summer rain.

Angie's bright smile was soon lost as Dallas dissapeared into the water. In a flash, she had drawn her wand out of her boots, and she was advancing toward the edge of the lake. "Dallas!" She shouted, seeing him pop out of the murky water. She stood, mouth open in a little 'o' as he got out of the water.

She startled when he shouted the placement charm, throwing the bridle onto the Kelpie. It was an extraordinary thing to watch, even if it was a tad bit terrifying to the fourth year. She watched in awe as he wrangled the Kelpie and was onto it's back.

"Wasn't so difficult?" Angie asked, "Are you kidding me! I've neva' seen anything like that before and you said it wasn't so difficult!" Of course the new groundskeeper was a cocky guy, she should have had him figured out the moment she saw the hat he was wearing.

"Are you offering me tea? Or are you trying to soothe the Kelpie you just wrangled?" She quipped, undecided between if she was still freaked out, or if she was amused. She decided she was amused, "Asides from tea, you might want to consider bandaging your ankle; or I've got a spell that should heal it if you'd like."

Dallas leaned against the Kelpie's neck as the baffled quidditch captain...scolded him? "Sorry I frightened ya miss, I was a little scared meself." Dallas said, sitting up properly, stretching his back. "And yes, I was offering you a spot of tea, if you'd like some, I have a few tea biscuits in a jar back at my cottage."

Dallas liked how this girl wasn't afraid of sarcastic with him. he hated being called 'sir' or 'mister', Dal liked it when people treated him like he was any other guy. "That's mighty sweet of you, Angie," Dallas said in response to her offer to help heal his leg. "But it's fine, really. You should have seen the monstrosity Professor Kesali made me ride the other day. Horse had it out to get me, I swear" Dallas crossed his heart with his finger.

 Dal swung his leg over the kelpie's back and his wellies hit the ground. He cringed a bit as he put weight on his ankle to adjust the reins on the kelpie. He got the reins just the way he wanted them, and began walking towards his hut. "You like Scottish tea?"

"It seems like you just don't have that good of a track record with horses then," she said, her tense little frame relaxing as she was reassured that Dallas would be fine. Not that he said so himself, but it seemed to be that way.

She slipped her wand back into her boot, pleased that she hadn't needed to heal his wound. To be honest, she wasn't so sure she would have been able to do it right after the minor heart attack she'd almost had. The kelpie was still a bit threatening, and Angie made up her mind to keep her distance. Even if it was out of the water and harnessed and all.

"Any kind of tea, really - it's all fine." She replied, following Dallas, trying to keep up with his longer stride. She realized why some of the girls were so... infatuated with the man. He was polite and he looked sharp, or as some of her dorm mates called it, drop dead gorgeous.

Angie didn't see it. But then again, she wasn't the type for those silly schoolgirl crushes. She was more of the type for, let's say, being obsessed with her health and her athletic ability. That was her.

"What are you going to do with the kelpie?" She asked as she half-walked, half-jogged next to the grounds keeper. "You going to make Professor Kesali ride him in payback?" Angie asked, a wild glint in her brown eyes. "I'm just kidding, that would be mean."

"I worked on a cattle ranch in Texas for a whole year, with no magic whatsoever when I was eighteen. I know horses like the back of my hand. It's the crazy-massive gypsies and magical horses I sometimes have an issue with." Dallas said, a little offended, but he brushed it off, knowing that he had the best knowledge of horses in a twenty-five mile radius, mostly because there was forest and a lake surrounding Hogwarts in every direction for twenty-five miles, but, that didn't matter.

Dal laughed at the idea of Gale riding the Kelpie. "Well, it wouldn't be the worst thing I could do to him. If the bridle stays on, its like riding a carnival pony." Dal patted the beast's jaw bone. "I'm just gonna let it relax a bit on land, and after a little bit, and the other Kelpies don't pose a threat, because they know there is someone up here who can catch one, I'll release it back into the lake."

Dallas liked to thing of him removing the bridle and the Kelpie bolting back into the water, shifting and splashing as it went. Dal tided the kelpie to a post just outside his cottage and limped up the stairs and opened the door. Thor went nuts, jumping up on him. The collie pawed at his leg and rubed his head on Dallas' hand. "Good boy Thor." The collie sat down on his dog bed and watched as Dallas pulled out his wand and heated a kettle full of water.

Tucking his wand back into his forearm holster, Dal poured the hot water into his teapot, well, his grandmother's teapot, she'd given it to him in her will, since he always liked it growing up. They always had tea together when he came to visit. He grabbed a tea leaf strainer and began to steep the tea.

Angie laughed along with Dallas, realizing she was in a much better mood than she had been this morning. After rolling out of bed, a hopeless mess as it probably had seemed to her dorm mates; she had gone on with her normal routine until she'd found herself by the lake, watching Dallas almost get eaten by a man-eating horse. She hadn't even noticed that she'd made it all the way out here with little to no thought about where she had been headed.

She smiled at the sight of the collie, and kneeled down next to the dog bed as Dallas was heating a kettle.  Angie held out her hand, a few inches from the dog; "Hello Thor," she said cautiously, letting the collie investigate the newcomer. He sniffed, and then leaned forward and nuzzled her hand. She smiled even brighter and scratched between his ears.

Angie fancied herself more of a cat person, well, a kitten person really. Athena was a bundle of caramel fur and brown eyes that she loved to death, much different than Thor; who was very energetic and seemed to love everyone. "Is Thor taking well to the transition, I mean, a new place to live and all. But he seems adaptable..." She trailed off, leaving the question for Dallas to answer. The collie flopped back down in his bed and the Hufflepuff stood up, earning only a lazy stare from the dog who knew who she was now. Or as best as a dog could know you by your scent.

Dallas grabbed out a few tea cups and placed them on the thick wooden table. He grabbed a bottle of milk from outside and grabbed the sugar bowl from a cabinet. The puffskeins he had taken out several days ago still sat in the plastic bin, hopping around and being as adorable as usual. "Thor just loves chasin' critters, as long as he has room to run and squirrels to run after, he's pretty good, he doesn't like being cooped up in the cottage for long periods of time, except at night."

Dallas poured tea into Angie's cup, then into his. "Milk? Sugar? Both?" He asked, having a bit of deja vu, but he couldn't remember what from.

---

Sorry it's short

"I just take my tea plain, thank you." Angie said, walking over to sit down. Tea. Oh god. That reminded her of the last time she'd had tea... in that wonderland where she'd basically signed away her soul to the devil. Not like the devil had minded, and neither had Angie. Angie just didn't know what to do with herself at the moment.

Shaking, she picked up the teacup and was hit with an image of the teacup she'd picked up with Amara. The deja vu was too much and she dropped the teacup suddenly, the china falling to the ground and chipping the edge. Luckily, it hadn't shattered, and a simple mending charm would probably fix it.

She sat still for a second, her world going in slow motion as she sat; still as a statue and oblivious to everything. Her face was blank, her lips parted slightly as her mind tried to reboot itself in a sense. Angie was freaking out, she couldn't move. She tried, but she was so stuck in the moment and the memory of a few day's past that she just couldn't move.

Dallas opened a basket of dog toys and tossed Thor a pong toy with some peanut butter still on the inside. Thor pounced on it and began looking for a way to get the peanut butter. Dallas smiled and watched as Thor rolled around, then he heard the glass chip. He snapped his head to where Angie sat, pale as a ghost, her eyes wide. The teacup landed on the floor and the tea splashed over the carpet. "Angie?"

Dallas left his cup of tea on the table. He stepped over the chipped cup and spilled hot beverage and kneeled down in front of her. "Angie, lassie? Are you okay Sugarcube?" Obviously she wasn't okay. He grabbed her hand, it was kind of cold. "Angie, darlin', I can't help you unless you tell me what's the matter."

Angie blinked as Dallas came into view, kneeling in front of her. She tried to move her lips, form words, but they didn't come easily. "I'm... just... fine." She stuttered out, apparently not fine because she could barely string together three words to form a sentence, let alone make it coherent enough for Dallas to hear.

His hand was warm on her cold one and it snapped her back, everything hitting her at once and she took a deep breath. She noticed the teacup on the floor and she gasped, "I'm so sorry... I didn't mean to drop that. I broke it, I'm terribly sorry Dallas." She said, trying to apologize for something she barely remembered happening.

Her words were half-formed but they were passable as words. She looked at Dallas, noticing the worried look on his face. "I'm fine," she said, making no effort to move as she processed what just happened. "Just, a little dizzy. That's all. It'll pass."