Erin was not a happy camper.  Due to her rather hectic schedule, homework usually took a backseat to things like photoshoots and other concerns.  Though she had looked at this assignments, she had not put forth enough effort.  She had a sinking feeling when the professor did not board the boat, but did not expect the professor to actually capsize the boat.  The water was cold.  Though she had heeded the professors advice (actually she had forgotten about it but her roommates reminded her of it),  she was still cold.  She couldn't really think right now, but managed to tread the water well enough.  She realized she needed something to hold onto - since she had no idea how quidditch translated to swimming, and that was the only serious exercise she had done as of late.

As she thought of it, she realized that a broom would be a godsend.  Unfortunately, her broom was currently in the dormitory, and she doubted that she could summon it from here.  That did give her an idea though.  "Accio wood" Erin cast, hoping that a large enough piece of lumber could at least keep her above the water.   She did not know if any wood was nearby though, so she hoped that the charm would work.  She didn't see anything else that would float nearby, so figured that her spell choice was as good as any.

Dress warmly the instructions had said.  Kelvin wasn't sure what good that was going to do as the professor pushed the boat away from the shore and the boat kept moving further out.  He considered the essays he'd spent a considerable amount of time on.  For his main essay he'd chosen to write about the dangers of waters inhabited by magical creatures.  He'd already had some of the books required from research on nixies for Care of Magical Creatures a few days before the break.  And while he wasn't one to take the easy way out in terms of homework, it had made sense to choose that topic rather than defending boats.

The boat stopped and the professor issued instructions, and while being tossed from the boat wasn't on the top of the list of things he didn't want to happen during the lesson, it was certainly in the top three, and as he sputtered up out of the water, he again wondered what good the warm clothes were going to do now that they were heavy with water and constricting his movement, watertight clothing would have been a more helpful instruction though that would have given away the surprise . 

He was already shivering from the cold water while he tread in place, keeping his head above water while he worked to extract his wand from his sodden clothes, wishing the entire time it had already been firmly in hand before he'd hit the water.  Though then he'd have run the risk of losing it in the lake.  With a triumphant laugh, he had his wand in hand and started with a warming charm on his clothing.  He doubted the Professor would let anyone freeze to death but it was Storm, so he might let them loose a finger or toe, or foot.

The water felt like concrete, it stung every inch of exposed flesh and within seconds was dissipating every last bit of air caught within layers of clothes and making them heavy as they absorbed lake water.

Ambrose's lungs gasped for air as he made it back above water, and for a moment there was confusion as many arms splashed and flailed to get people above water. Kelvin had emerged and had his wand in hand, Erin too had her wand, summoning wood, which wasn't his first thought.

Below the water, Ambrose's feet trod water as he waited to see the bank and orient himself. Through blurred eyesight - the water had got in his eyes and all the splashing of his classmates wasn't helping matters - he could just about make out the Professor, and tried not to think too much about what he wanted to do to the man on getting back to the shore.

"Everyone ok?" He managed to call, the initial shock of the cold water passing, but his teeth chattering.

"Winnie! Cy! Moira! Juni, Addison?" He called, trying to account for the girls who he knew better as classmates, and then around "Alvis? Anyone seen Casey?"

"Who gives a rat's arse about him Pepper?" Asked another of his classmates, already making a swim for the bank like it was a race. Ambrose didn't dare try to use his wand, though he could feel it in the sleeve of his jumper as he swam forward out of the gaggle of people, looking left and right at who he could see - everyone looking a bit odd as their hair was flat against their heads.

She had a bad feeling about this from the very beginning.

But Juni wasn’t the sort to directly defy a professor’s orders—not when it meant that it would affect her grade. So she had dressed warmly.

Upon being flipped into the water, Juni immediately regretted that decision.

She was not the strongest of swimmers, though she managed to swim to the water’s surface, losing a shoe in the process. Her curly hair was plastered all over her face. Her skin paled from the shock of the icy water, making her freckles more prominent than usual. She swept her hair out of her eyes and looked around. Some of her classmates already had their wands out—

Juni thrust her hand into her pocket—empty.She searched her other pocket—empty. It seemed the shoe was not the only thing the lake had devoured.  The ravenclaw absolutely knew she brought it to class with her-- leaving it in her dorm room was like forgetting a limb. Impossible.

She heard Ambrose call out her name next to her,but she didn’t care.

She let out a caustic scream, followed by every colorful expletive she could think of.

“My wand!" She screeched, “It’s gone!” Juni glared in Storm’s general direction, as if she was willing him to go up in flames.

Cold. Cold cold cold cold cold.

Alvis took a few seconds to resurface, sucking in a full lungful of air in one gasp. Thankfully, he'd managed to keep hold of his glasses, and could thus see all the furious splashing his classmates in full focus, though the lenses were water-stained. Within seconds, his teeth began to chatter; all the layers in the world couldn't keep out cold once they'd been soaked through. But at least it wasn't as frigid now as it had been back in November...

November...

"Alvis? Anyone seen Casey?"

Shite!

Alvis twisted around, searching the bobbing heads for a shock of strawberry blonde. The chaos of such a large group made the water rough-going for even a strong swimmer. If one of them hadn't come up, or couldn't swim, would anyone even notice? Apparently not, if the arse swimming for shore was any indication. Alvis would have a few words for both him and Storm when they caught up, but for now anger took a back seat to fear.

He did a full 360, but there was no sign of Casey. Could he have been pulled down with the ship? Heart pounding, Alvis took a deep breath and dove back under the splashing to search the calm but gloomy waters below.

Casey had a sneaking suscpicion ever since unrolling his essay for over the holiday.

Amongst the events of Easter vacation at the Norling residence, the two fourth years had talked topically about homework. It sounded as if Alvis had a differing topic of research but both shared the common knowledge related to magical creatures in lakes and water survival. Back then there was some humor to think whether this would become a practical event of Storm's, or if this was an entire misdirection of the Defense Professor's to catch them unawares with a different challenge.

Yet red flags showed up in the path. The need to dress warm, heading outside and then the single boat for the whole class at the edge of the lake. All warning signs but it brought Casey on edge from the beginning. To use lesser language, this was going to suck horribly.

There was little to do but survive so Casey focused his stress on getting ready during the boat ride to judgement, as if the crossing was at the River Styx. His hand never straying from where he kept his wand because he would need it when the pandimonium began. Would there be points off for early action? Whatever the case, Casey kept silent, nerves at the ready, for when the whole thing went lopsided. He wasn't going to be caught off guard in the water again.

And then it started.

Casey's first course of action was not to worry about fighting the pitch of the boat, going into the drink would be inevitable. No, having a source of oxygen was more important. Because the most annoying thing about all of this was that Casey still couldn't swim.

Given his frequency of having Bubble Head charms in place for Potions work, performing one under duress was no difficulty for the Slytherin. So when he slipped into the water his head was engulfed in a flexing bubble of air.

Step one complete. As long as this held he wouldn't drown, unlike the broomstick incident where he had crashed into the lake. Or taking the Hufflepuff fish freak's aquatic body for a spin on that infamous day of Body Swappings in November. Well, technically, because Casey hadn't been in a full state of mind and it was all too frustrating to think about the sour memories around that calamity.

Casey sighed as he sank. Par for the course at Hogwarts. He should probably be worried about the freezing water at some point but the sensation was familiar and there was almost something tranquil about the murky sound muffled depths of the lake.

Difficult memories aside, was there the possible chance of finding...? Actually, a short ways away there was a wand. Must be a dense wood. Before factoring the importance of lost wands in these circumstances Casey performed another spell with his own. "Accio Wand," he incanted, the word a ripple on his Bubble Head as the wand zipped over in the water.

Well, that was not good.

Addison closed her eyes and bit her lip as her body hit the water. Once she made it back above water, she gasped a deep breath of air. She regretted dressing warmly for the day's lesson as she could feel her clothing becoming heavier by the second. Looking around at her classmates so far that already came above water, she noticed that a few of them already had their wands out. Ambrose was the first to call out if everyone was alright. Before she could respond, Alvis dived … wait. He did what? All in search for Casey. Why he felt the necessity to help Casey, she had no idea.

Pushing pieces of her, now wet, blonde hair out of her eyes, Addison cringed as Juni screamed nearby. Her wand was missing. Finally opening her mouth to say something, she quickly realized that her teeth were chattering. The water was certainly cold, but her body was slowly adjusting to the strong temperature change.

"Juni, we've got to think clearly. Yelling won't help right now …" she trailed off.

Despite Professor Storm's abnormal teaching style, Addison did notice that one of their essay topics that they recently handed in was about surviving in water. Judging based on Professor Storm's unfortunate forcefulness, it appeared that their essays were rubbish. Or that he was crazy.

"This seems like one of those crazy lessons where we're supposed to help each other ," she mused.

Nothing could really be done until some more of them had wands, as any movement in the water would become increasingly more difficult the longer they were in the cold water.

Wincing as her hand submerged into the cold water again, she was able to grab her wand from her pocket. Pointing her wand at her own clothing, she cast a warming charm.

"Much better," she sighed with relief.

One by one, she cast a warming charm on her classmates that were closer to her.

The first thought that entered Moira's mind as she and her classmates were dropped into the water was that she hoped she didn't get sick again. She'd already been sick twice in the past six months and that was twice too many. Not to mention the first time had been because she had to dive into this very lake to save a first year from drowning.

It was fairly chaotic, with a couple classmates taking off to the shore themselves, Ambrose and the others seemed okay but Alvis dove after Casey. Pulling a first year up had been difficult enough. Casey, being at least their size, would probably need two. Without thinking further she took a deep breath and dived down after Alvis.

They weren't too far into the lake so the water was deep, but not impossibly so. Tapping Alvis' arm she pointed to where Casey was, at least he had managed to use a Bubble Head charm, she should have thought of that.... Professor Storm was likely to tell her off for that, since he had been training her privately once a week since January now.

Swimming down the rest of the  way she nodded to Casey and took one of his arms with her own and waited for Alvis to take up on the other side.

From the muddy bank, the Professor watched, what appeared outwardly as nonplussed about the peril he'd just put his students in. Beneath the wrinkly surface (his skin, not the lake) it was a little less sure. Still, these children were born with magic which gave them some natural resistance to danger.

Some of them liked to quote from an interview with the famous Neville Longbottom, who had taught Herbology at Hogwarts not long ago, with regards to how he was dropped from the upstairs window of a house in an effort to make him reveal his juvenile magic. Professor Storm had thought more than once about dropping the whole class of fourth years out his classroom window for entirely different reasons.

As the splashing began to subside and the shouting began (shouting was altogether more reassuring, as it meant they were breathing, and not drowning) an oar which had been tethered along the floor of the boat the students had been in came free and shot out of the water before Erin Dark. For a moment he wondered if they were trying to summon the whole boat back up from where he had sunk it, and raised his wand, sending it  backwards beneath the water (he hoped) and out of easy reach.

Heads went under, it seemed as if a couple of them were diving. Reaching into his robes he brought out a pair of magical binoculars, and examined the bobbing heads. A couple were already swimming hard back to the bank. There was still a lot of confusion but at least Ambrose Pepper hadn't tried to use his wand. Rockwell had hers above water and was casting at nearby heads.

It was rather clear who had remembered their essay content, and who was easy to panic. But he was missing a few heads. McBoid, though he was sure he'd seen her a moment ago - Norling, and O'Doherty. He held the binoculars away a moment, using his own eyes to examine the surface for signs of them reappearing away from the main group.

Juni had calmed down slightly after Addison told her to—though she was still bristling with anger. “I’ve lost my shoe, my wand, and my dignity.” She muttered, struggling to tread water. Her legs and arms were beginning to get tired, and she wasn’t a natural floater. She hadn’t ever really swam. Juni had never been athletic—she never went out of her way to break a sweat. And now she was regretting it.

She was definitely going to write a letter to her father about this. Juni had to, especially if her wand was gone forever! Juni splashed about, searching the surface of the lake—but the wand wasn’t there. Rowan was a dense wood, difficult to work with. It made her wand sturdy, but likely to sink when in water.

Juni gave Addison a look of gratitude when suddenly, her body felt warm. It was almost as  if she was swimming in a hot bath, not icy lake water. It seemed, that she would have to be dependent on her classmates. Ugh. She preferred to be the person in the lead, the person who was able to actually participate. Without her wand, there was not much she could do. Juni looked around, eyebrows furrowing together.

“Where’s Casey, Moira,  and Alvis?” She asked, “Has anyone seen them?”

Thank Godric and Merlin for Casey's cool head under pressure. Alvis had caught sight of him soon after he dove, but nearly lost track when he had to dodge a fat-rising oar that nearly took out his glasses. Moira McBoid got him back on track, at which point Alvis would have breathed a sigh of relief if he hadn't been completely submerged. He nodded to McBoid in thanks before paddling past her to their sunken classmate. The clumsy strokes couldn't be called graceful, not in his sneakers and heavy clothes, but they got the job done and carried him to Casey's side.

Moira's's reappearance on the opposite side brought him up short. Soaked as they were, there were certain secrets he'd recently learned that could be exposed with close contact. But thankfully, she reached only for Casey's arm and no further. Alvis took the opposite limb and noticed that, for some reason, Casey was holding two wands; but neither he nor Moira had enough air left to waste pondering that.

He pointed skywards as a signal, at which point he and Moira[1] kicked off at the same time, dragging Casey up by the arms. Just when his lungs were starting to scream, they broke surface. After a gasping a lungful of spring air -- which felt warm compared to the frigid black lake -- Alvis slipped his shoulders under Casey's arm to free his hands for tredding water.

"You know, we c-can't keep doing this," he said through chattering teeth. "I s-swear Casey, this summer I'm dragging you to a beach."

Now that the whole class was topside and no one had drowned, there was the matter of Storm's 'lesson' to be dealt with. If the sinking oar was any indication, they wouldn't be raising the boat anytime soon. Focused more on staying afloat, Alvis glanced to those classmates who'd managed to draw their wands. "Anyb-body got any bright ideas?"

1.	Minor g-m'ing approved by Lyn

"This seems like one of those crazy lessons where we're supposed to help each other," Addison remarked from nearby,

"Still trying to kill us all though." Ambrose replied grimly, swimming forward a little in an effort to get active and start back to the shore.

Suddenly he felt a little warmer, which initially he thought was his body getting used to the freezing cold lake water, but then he saw Addison's wand above the water.

"Thanks!" He managed to say before taking an accidental gulp of lake water as he was splashed. Blargh!

"Where's Casey, Moira, and Alvis? Has anyone seen them?" Juni was asking, and Ambrose turned in the water to try and do another head count. This time Moira and Alvis were definitely not there.

"They were here a minute ago-"

Spash! Three heads broke through the surface of the lake, Moira and Alvis either side of Casey who seemed to have his head in a giant bubble.

"… Casey, this summer I'm dragging you to a beach." Ambrose heard Alvis say.

"Merlin, tell him you love him on the bank or summin'" the Gryffindor exclaimed, swimming back towards Moira a little to check if she needed help with Casey who seemed to be holding onto the other two to stay afloat. However, he doubted McBoid would give up easily.

"Come on, swim you guys!"

He gestured toward the bank where the dark figure of their Professor jutted above the water line,

Reaching back, he seized Casey's clothes by the front, determined to help the other two haul him back to shore so they didn't get a class detention.

"Ergh! Kick your legs Casey!"

Erin tried to make sense of the organized chaos.  She had no idea that some of her classmates could not swim.  It seemed counter-intuitive when living on an island for nine-months out of a year.  Even if they lived inland, the lake at Hogwarts wasn't frozen during the summer months.  Though to be honest, Erin had no idea if she would have preferred it to be frozen or not.    Following the lead of some of her other classmates, she cast a warming charm on herself, but that didn't do as much good as she would have liked.  The water was still colder than Fortescue's finest. 

"So, I don't think we can grab anything to float onto...Yeah I'm out of ideas.  Anyone at least know how to keep  warm besides warming charms?" not that Erin was the most intellectual in the classroom at any-rate.  It was doubtful that she would be able to contribute much, if anything else to their efforts beyond simply swimming to shore.  She doubted their good professor would make it that easy though. 

Lua loved swimming.

Even if the professor hadn’t meant for this to be a pleasant splash on a pretty bay… even if they weren’t in the Maldives or Caribbean, and the water wasn’t as transparent as a swimming pool or warm as a bath, the Gryffindor was a glass-half-full girl in the extreme. Or lake totally full. When the muggleborn's head popped up from the murky black surface, hair matted like a shaggy dog’s, with the bits around her face shiny and stuck to her skin like the most unintimidating Medusa, it was with a massive smile and an ice-water-induced shivering laugh. Her feet kicked in diligent slow motion beneath, puddle-proofed wellies becoming rubber traps for lake water. They were brilliant at their job until one paused to consider the possibility of being submersed in the lake, which not even the best Divination student among them seemed to have the foresight to do until they were piling into the boat. So, Lua forgave them, her trusty boots.

“My watch is waterproof,” she shout-confided in Kelvin’s direction.

Never mind that that the professor was keeping time for them.

Lua’s wand hand surfaced, her fist bobbing lightly on the water, the wood poking upward. She caught sight of said watch, a cheap neon thing from Weasley’s, but paid it barely any mind as she considered what she might do first. “It’s like our own Tournament task,” she offered warmly, to no one and everyone. They all looked they could use a bit of encouragement.

Or warmth, a spare wand, a fast-track lesson in human transfiguration. But even if one of them managed, actual mermaids were not the kind from the commercially successful, musical animations of which Lua’s hippie parents were highly suspicious. Mermaids were not particularly friendly, she had heard, except she found that one Hufflepuff lovely. Somewhere down below them, the mermaids roamed, along with other things. Lua was more curious than afraid, but she also knew that if she planned to get out of the lake, she’d need to be cautious.

She couldn’t turn into a mermaid… or a fish, even… but Lua Taylor was very good at swimming like a frog. Pushing water with her arms in the general direction of Ambrose, who was counting heads, Lua thought he had the right idea.

Someone was bobbing in the water quite a ways behind the rest of them. Their voice grabbed the Gryffindor, who paused and began to kick in place again as she reoriented herself in her classmate’s direction.

“Carpe retractum!”[1] A rope of light shot from the end of Lua’s wand, and coiled around the submersed middle of the student. As soon as it caught the target, the rope began to recoil, dragging the other teen through the water toward Lua like a half-sunken water-skiier.

1.	Seize and Pull Charm