10am to noon. Shore of the Lake.

The young Hippocampus made a mournful, braying noise as it broke the surface of the rippling water. Sylvain was sat cross-legged on one of many boulders and rocks scattered along the shore of the great lake. He wore little else besides his wetsuit leggings - the cold of the rain meant very little to someone who had lived a good deal of his life in the alps.

But Professor Onuris was not insensible of other people's tolerances. He informed his sixth years last week that they would be handling a domesticated Hippocampus this morning, and instructed them to arrive in full wetsuits for the endeavour.

September had been dedicated to Knarls. This new month bode other adventures for the older students, who had thusfar avoided a trip to the Forest apiary.

"Bien! Settle down." Sylvain clapped his hands together once he noted that most of the class had arrived. He gestured for them to sit on the ground while he casually addressed them from on top the boulder. "We only have our two hours, settle down. In pairs, today you will enter the water and attempt to climb on our dear Ursula. One to mount, the other to help. If she is amenable, she will take you out for a swim."

Ursula, the Hippocampus, recognised her name. She was drifting not far from the shore - occasionally dipping out of sight to wet her equine fin and then playfully reemerging to neigh at the watching crowd. Her sharklike skin glistened in the cloudy grey light.

"Before we start..." an assessing pause. Sylvain eyed his students, serious. "You can all swim, oui?"

Since getting pulled out of Hogwarts in the middle of her fourth year, Naomi's studies abroad kept her squarely in the tropics (if not squarely in the Circum-Caribbean), so she hadn't ever come across a Hippocampus. Now that she could see the creature's sharklike skin for herself, Naomi was glad she recently wove some of her shark animagi cousins' shared memories into her dreams.

Naomi's dreams were only suppose to help her get a feel for how some sharks kept warm via their rete mirabile, which was not a hard morphology trick for her to magically mimic (especially since she really hated the cold), but now it might help her out in class today if the Hippocampus' skin meant it had any similarities to shark. The downside was that using all that energy would probably make her ravenous.

At least they had lunch next!

With her kinky black locks braided out of her face, Naomi sat in her wetsuit and bugged nearby classmates[1] about whether they had met a hippocampi before, until the professor told them to quiet down.

• "You can all swim, oui?"

Naomi rolled her lips into a thoughtful pout before she firmly said "Yeah?"

It came out more as a statement than a question, since swimming had become only second to breathing to Naomi, but then she let her sea-green gaze fall over the rest of her classmates before she quickly added, "At least, I do."

1.	Couod be anybody

Wetsuits were not flattering!

While Ayla understood and appreciated the precaution she wasn't happy about it. The thick one piece suit clung to her body like a second skin which made her feel rather naked. Everything felt like it was on display. It didn't help that at nearly Seventeen Ayla was now a full grown adult with the body to match. She glared at Alistair who seemed very obvious of this fact. She gave him a look that said, this is the closest you'll ever get to seeing me naked again before turning her attention back to Professor Onuris.

Unfortunately trying to focus on the Professor wasn't exactly the easiest thing considering the man was sitting in front of them topless. At the beginning of the year Ayla had been trying to determine whether or not she found the new Creatures Professor attractive. This was only confusing her further.

As he posed his question though she answered quickly, "Oui Monsieur," The French flew fluidly from from her lips without a second thought. Though she had lost most of her language skills after leaving Canada, there were still some basics ingrained into her and she could still competently read it. Though she worried she ended up adapting the gaudy Quebecois accent over his proper Parisian one.

Wetsuits were awesome!

Once he got himself situated and made sure nothing was pinching in the wrong places, Kyson was feeling completely comfortable. His trips around the world with his surrogate family meant he had gone surfing in Hawaii, California and Austalia. He looked over at Kelly, the only one of the twins who still took Creatures and snickered at how uncomfortable he looked in his wetsuit. He nudged him, "It'll be just like that time we found that colony of Merfolk in Greece." He whispered before looking around at the gathered students, "Besides I'm pretty sure at least five girls have already checked out your muscles." His second comment caused his 'brother' to straighten and look a little less self conscious.

Kyson himself was standing at ease with his arms crossed over his chest. It was easy enough to see which in the class had worn the suit before and which ones hadn't He didn't care either way. He was going to ride a Hippocampus! Nothing could detract him from the excitement he had over today's lesson.

Kyson raised his hand, "are we picking partners or are you picking for us, Professor?"

Wetsuits were not appropriate attire for class.  Kelvin pulled at his in the obvious places, while trying not to be obvious, but it felt constricting and he wasn't exactly one for skintight clothing that showed off everything he did and didn't have.  Sure it might be necessary for working with a hippocampus, but despite how much that intrigued him, he wasn't sure it was worth it.

And that was before he saw the Professor in only half a wetsuit.  It was definitely cold enough for needing more clothing than that, and yet Kelvin wished it was a lot colder.  The wetsuit and the warming charms were unfortunately doing their job and keeping him warm.  He sat next to Naomi and pulled his bag into his lap.  Nothing strange about that and Naomi was a safe choice. And the topic of conversation was safe.  He'd never met a hippocampus before though he'd read plenty about them in preparation for the class.  It was easier to keep is attention on his newly returned friend rather than the professor or some of his other classmates.

That was short lived, though as the Professor dragged Kelvin's and the rest of the class's attention to him.  And the hippocampus in the background.  He was never more thankful that he'd learned to swim.  "Yes," he nodded as the Professor asked the class if they could swim. 

Osha wrapped her arms around herself as she sat on the damp ground, next to Ayla. It was so cold! Even in the hideously thick wet suit and its heating charms, it was really cold! She enjoyed their lessons on Knarls last week and was looking forward to a change in pace but, Merlin, what she wouldn't give to be nice and dry in the Great Hall right now. It was only the sight of a beautiful Hippocampus that made her feel this was going to go alright.

            "Oui Monsieur," Collins piped up, and Osha echoed with her own, "Oui oui! We can swim! Let's just get in the water!"

At least in the water she could adjust to the temperature. How was Professor Onuris not even wearing a top? He looked quite nice, sitting up there on his boulder, but it couldn't be comfortable.

"As soon as this is over," she muttered, "I am going to have the longest, hottest bath in the Prefect's bathroom." Osha ran her hands over her hair and secured her curls in a bun at the back of her head.

He was lucky - it appeared all of the sixth years were comfortable swimming. Non. Comfortable might be an exaggeration. One glance at the teenagers scattered before him was enough to tell that some were not yet adjusted to their growing bodies. Sylvain hoped that such worries would fade to the background as their handling of Ursula took the forefront.

            "...are we picking partners or are you picking for us, Professor?"

"You are, I think, grown enough to pick your own?" he smiled at Cavanaugh boyishly and began to clamber off the boulder to join them on the shore, touching ground where the water was ankle deep. "But first I will go, with a volunteer. I will help them mount and we will see."

Sylvain took a step backwards, wading deeper into the cold water whilst still facing the class. He raised both his arms to beckon. "Come, eh? And then two-by-two. Ursula is very friendly. Nothing to fear."

As soon as the floor of the lake dipped deeper, the wizard dropped entirely into the lake with a soft SPLASH! and submerged himself for a few seconds. The Hippocampus made a playful sound not far from them, aware that it was time to begin. Sylvain shook his hair out and waited for the volunteer to join him.

When the professor beckoned a volunteer, Naomi was quick to get to her feet and eagerly follow, stiffly wading after him into the very cold, rain-spattered water of the lake. However, once the water was up to her waist, Naomi relaxed, remembered the feeling of how her shark animagus cousin kept their fish-like body warm,  and and then dove beneath the surface.

Naomi swam under water for a bit, getting herself use to chasing away the cold with a little metamorphing as she waited for the splashing of her classmates entering the water or the garbled sounds of the professor speaking again.

As soon as the Professor gave the go ahead to pick their own partners Ayla wrapped her arm around Osha's. There was no way she was going to end up with one of the guys in class. She was already feeling self conscious in the wet suit, having a male partner was bound to make her feel more so.

"Wetsuits aside, this is pretty awesome." She whispered to her fellow housemate.

Her emerald and gold eyes followed Naomi as she jumped into the water ahead of everyone else. She bit her lip and tried to quell the surge of jealousy that built up inside her. When it came down to it, She didn't exactly have anything against the Slytherin and it had been years since she did but she was still having trouble letting go of those feelings. After her entire mess of a "break up" with Blake (as in she had cut him out of her life after a horrible prank his brother had pulled) he had cozied up to the girl. Ayla had found it easier to see her as a vile temptress than to accept that Blake had moved on.

Kyson gave a curt nod as the Professor suggested they were old enough to choose their own partners. Kyson was secretly hoping they'd just get paired up and he wouldn't be left making any decisions on the matter. It wasn't as if he were a loner or anti social, he had plenty of friends in class. He just wasn't exactly the most attentitive partner and wasn't typically anyone's first pick.

He took his time to appreciate the view of Naomi jumping into the lake, volunteering herself to work with the Professor. Those around him started to pair up with friends or significant others. Kyson strolled across the shore and stopped to stand behind where Kelvin was tensed up on a rock.

"You're looking more uncomfortable than usual." He said casually to the Ravenclaw. He had a few guesses as to why. Most of them centered around the wetsuits the students had been forced into wearing. Not all students had had the luxury of Kyson's experience with them and someone like Kelvin who was uncomfortable in even his own clothing was likely to loath the rubbery things.

He glanced out to the water and leaned in a little lowering his voice. A smirk danced across his lips, "you know, it's almost criminal. We shouldn't be seeing professors in anything less than teaching robes. Could have gone my whole life without knowing Professor Onuris was ripped. I mean just look at that six pack."

            "Wetsuits aside, this is pretty awesome."

"It is!" Osha replied readily as she smiled at her friend. She was glad Ayla wanted to pair up with her - the boys seemed really preoccupied with Professor Onuris! Were they admiring him or were they jealous of him? It was hard to tell. All she wanted to do was make sure she got through this class without almost drowning. Hippocampi were forces of nature!

She watched Naomi go in, sighing enviously at the other girl's agile form.

"I bet they're going to make it look easy." Osha remarked to Ayla, leaning in and bumping shoulders. "But it's going to be super hard when we have to do it. Do you want to mount first?"

A volunteer emerged from the general mess of students scrambling to pair up, and Sylvain waited for Foley to adjust to the water while everyone else watch from ashore. The Slytherin was not as self-conscious as her peers but he reasoned that such was the boon of being a metamorphmagus - you could leave behind the superficial when the superficial is easily altered.

"Bien!" he clapped his hands together, drawing attention and silencing chatter. "To begin, we will approach Ursula with no sudden movements and without emotions too extreme. It is customary to wait before a Hippocampus, to ensure it will not object to interaction. Observe."

Sylvain gestured for Naomi to come up next to him in the water, an arm's length between them. They slowly drifted their way towards the creature and remained floating before Ursula for a few moments. She seemed as eager as before. He nodded to himself and dipped his head to speak to his volunteer.

"In my role, I go to her muzzle and caress. I occupy her," he explained. "Gradually, then, you mount her, oui? Let her see you as you approach from the side. You must stroke between her shoulders once you are seated. Come."

The older wizard glanced behind him to ensure his class was still watching, and then proceeded towards the beautiful Ursula as gently as he could.

When Naomi didn't see anyone else enter the water she popped her head above the surface and saw everyone had just paired up on shore, which caused Naomi to realize she had abandoned her role as Kelvin's shield against social awkwardness and was replaced by Kyson's Lean-In of awkward-summoning mischief. Oops.

As Kyson looked towards the professor, Naomi began to bob in the water and wave at them, and then at everyone else, hoping everyone just interpreted it as a silly attempt to stay warm rather than as a distraction for her Ravenclaw friend.

But she soon stopped the bobbing once the professor drew attention back towards himself, causing Naomi, like a switch, to calm down and start following and then listening to the instructions.

"Got it." Naomi nodded confidently. To her, this sounded less like the parallel swimming standoff between sharks and more like something do with horses. Maybe reverse parallel swimming? Reverse, diagonal-ish parallel swimming? Okay maybe a bit of a stretch.

As the professor moved towards her muzzle, Naomi quietly and gently made her way towards one Ursula's scaley shoulders, and occasionally stopping to admire the creature's scales as Ursula looked away, and then kept gently moving towards her whenever she seemed to look back at Naomi. This might take an eternity, but at least she got to swim in the rain!

Kelvin didn't respond to Kyson at first.  Of course he was uncomfortable.  And now he was stuck with Kyson since he hadn't moved quick enough, or at all, to find a partner.  And he certainly wouldn't have chosen Kyson.  Well unless he just wanted to do all the work himself.  But this wasn't that kind of project.  And he didn't care to get eaten by a Hippocampus while wearing a wetsuit.

He started to wave back at Naomi who had jumped into the water leaving him high and dry when Kyson started talking about how ripped the professor was.  Like Kelvin hadn't already noticed.  "Really?  You don't say?"  He said through clenched teeth.  If Naomi got nibbled on by the damn sea horse, he wouldn't tell her she'd deserved it but she definitely did.

"Stop staring at his perfect body and pay attention," Kelvin whispered, "unless you want to drown."

Ayla kept close to Osha in an attempt to help them stay warmer in the wetsuits. While the rubbed monstrosities were specifically designed to keep you warm she thought it was more about the lack of proper clothing that made her feel cold. Either way keeping close to her fellow Hufflepuff wasn't exactly a bad idea.

She clenched her teeth and a nasty sneer crossed her lips, "of course she's going to make it look easy." She nearly snarled back at her partner before plastering a fake bubbly smile back on her lips as Naomi waved to the class and she waved back, "show off." She added under her breath not sure if it was even loud enough for Osha to hear.

She looked back to her partner, all nastiness and jealousy gone, "OH no, you can go first. I love animals but the big ones still kinda freak me out." Was it just her imagination or were the claw mark scars on her belly suddenly really itchy? Whether or not it was in her head Ayla uncrossed her arms to scratch at a spot just under her ribs.

She glanced past Osha momentarily, "Poor Kelvin."