Fog, it blanketed everything. But fog was good. It wasn't rain! That's a positive right? If its not raining then the ground won't be muddy and there's somewhere to put my clothes, that's always a plus. And under the fog lets not forget that I won't be as visible. I doubt anyone will be going swimming today anyway, I mean, look, its foggy. Atleast it isn't a cold day. Then again if I'm swimming rain doesn't matter, theres charms and things to remove dirt and dry clothing.

Lucinda thought this as she approached the lake, she stretched herself out and threw a towel towards the ground, followed unceremoniously by her neatly folded laundry as she allowed it to scatter near the towel. She gave a sniff of the air and put on a disapproving scowl from the smell. "Doesn't help that it rained yesterday though does it?" She rubbed her nose and then looked over the water of the lake, stared for a few long seconds and nodded approvingly to herself. "Better then running around the castle. I wonder if its a good excuse to not shower, or would require me to shower."

As she asked herself the hard hitting questions she unzipped the hoodie she was wearing, having put on some black trainers that at this point were getting rather worn down and needing a replacement. A large zip up hoodie for warmth, a black shirt with some sort of band symbol on it and heavy jeans that she believes weigh her down more so she gets more exercise when running in them.  She took her wand and swung it about as she muttered her spell, casting lumos so she had a way back, although its dubious if it would work as a lighthouse. And finally with a yawn she pulled off the band logo shirt as she started making her way towards the water.

Zeta wished she could be enjoying her Sunday and looking forward to Dueling Club this afternoon, but someone had nicked her shoes. All of them. That someone very likely Kari Strong or her stupid dunce boyfriend. Zeta probably shouldn't have gotten into it with Kari Strong again, but she was just such a nasty person. Always talking about others behind their backs, sniping about people's clothes. 'Why don't you check the lake,' Kari had sneered. 'Hopefully the squid hasn't eaten it.'

In a borrowed pair of shoes that weren't quite the right size, Zeta grumped down the hill. It was cold and she was worried for her footwear. It had better not be in the lake. She had no idea where to start looking, but maybe she could pull off a good 'Accio' if she got close.

Her planning was cut short when she caught a glimpse of a ghost through the fog!

"Oh my god!" she startled and clapped her hands over her mouth. She drew her wand and scooted closer. The figure came into view and Zeta startled once again.

"OH MY GOD!" Lucinda Temple was missing some clothes.

Lucinda perked up when she heard the shout. Clutching tightly on her wand she pointed it as she attempted to find the source. "Who's there?" She said in a tone trying to keep authority so she seemed in charge and in control of the situation, regardless of if she was caught off guard or not by the person. With a few sniffs of the air she gave a low growl.

"If the shout was about the mark on my side. Its nothing, forget about it." She said out in a not so commanding tone, she clutched at herself a bit more to hide parts of herself that were revealed by her swimwear, generally not being happy with the swimwear in general for showing off her back but a swimsuit she decided looked weird to swim in a lake with. And its not like she needed more warmth, cold swimming gets warm after you've gotten used to it.

With a flourish of her wand and a muttering, she cast a ball of light towards where she heard the voice so she could get a better look. "If its a boy with a very high pitched voice know that I will hex you." Lucinda backed up towards the water at a slow pace, moving with the hope that it would give herself some distance and allow time to line up a hex if it was deemed that her towel was in danger.

Zeta laughed in breathy relief. "Lucinda...! I thought you were naked...!"

She did feel awkward about having cried out. Word had spread about what happened to Lucinda over the summer and Zeta knew it probably wasn't fun to be treated like a freak (not that Zeta liked that term). She secured her wand behind her ear in one of her two french plaits, and crossed her arms in the cold.

"Don't worry, I'm not a boy," she said, hoping it was obvious by now. "Just the Pepper-in-Charge. So no hexing, puh-lease."

Zeta Pepper was eldest of the Pepper family at Hogwarts right now and had claimed the title at the exit of her older sister Theta last year. She approached and could see now - wow. Lucinda was going for a swim.

"What are you doing?" she asked with a skeptical grin.

Lucinda gave out a noticeable sigh, followed by a lowering of her wand. Its just a Pepper. Thats a weird name, did their family eat peppers often? Then again mine is Temple. She thought to herself. She made a flourish with her wand to turn out the light and made a turn as if to cover the marks over her body although its hard for herself to hide them.

"No, why would I be naked? Its too cold out to be naked." Lucinda replied in a rather nonchalant way as she stands there dressed only in swimwear. "Its chilly here and the water is freezing."  Her body gave off a small shiver from standing in the cold.

"I think a better question is what are YOU doing?" Lucinda asked with a slightly defensive tone but friendly tone, she gave Zeta a look up and down before she turned to get a look at the lake. "I mean, there's fog. So what are you doing out when its hard to see? And its cold. Or do I need to hex you to get that information?"

Zeta smiled and scoffed.

"You barely know me and you've threatened to hex me twice," she said tolerantly, like the older sister she was. Like the wise sixth-year she'd decided to become.

"Have you ever actually hexed anyone? Like a real one, not a jinx?" She raised her eyebrows.  If Lucinda didn't actually know what she was doing she might want to come up with a different strategy to get basic information out of people in conversations. But hey, she'd been through a lot. Maybe hexing was the best way to start.

Zeta's reputation at school was a cross between a clothes explosion, sneezing panda bear, and a soft vegetable. Certainly she wasn't known for whipping off hexes and jinxes when she lost her temper.

Lucinda gave off a smile also, lowering her wand, then she decided to secure it to herself. She placed it in the strap between the upper half of her swimwear and her body to secure it. And with that she moved to face the Pepper again, arms crossed over eachother. "I mean, hex is a nice word, nice and magical. Plus always sounds threatening. I've managed to scare off a few people by saying I'll hex them." Lucinda gave off a small laugh as she remembered something. "I may of also had to use them a couple of times. Nothing serious, just maybe some people needed to check their teeth or couldn't follow me."

Her head shook and Lucinda resumed looking at the newcomer. "So why are you here? You were hoping to meet someone? Wanted to swim? Not advised, very cold right now. You'd be a chilly pepper." Lucinda suddenly looked down upon saying that. "I haven't had chili in awhile actually." She muttered to herself, she picked up a stone from the ground and turned to the lake. With twist of her hand the stone was thrown into the lake, but just hit the water and sunk with a rather annoyed growl from the Lucinda.

Zeta giggle-snorted at the unexpected 'chilly pepper' joke. She was good-natured about her spicy surname. Everything's better with a little pepper, they liked to say. She joined Lucinda at the edge of the lake and found her own rock to pitch.

"I think my shoes are in the lake," she said rolling her eyes. "If anyone needs hexed its that hag Kari Strong."

She chucked the rock with some extra oomph, her annoyance coming through. "All of them. If they are actually in the lake, I'm going to ... summon a rain cloud to follow her for a month. Some of them are suede!"

Lucinda rolled her eyes and tossed another stone, again no bounce came from it as it sank immediately. "So you're down on clothing? The lake is a terrible place to put them, atleast put them somewhere decent." She wandered a bit into the water so her feet were covered.

As soon as her foot touched into the water Lucinda released a yelp but didn't back down. "C-COLD! COLD! Not so cold....ok. I can handle that until I have to move." She cried out with her voice relaxing over time. "Do you want me to try looking for your clothing? Its not that cold." She shouted back at her, before deciding it would be easier to face her.

As Lucinda turned around to face Zeta again she would shudder from the water splashing over her ankles and a tiny bit up her legs. "Its not that cold, I can handle it. Although seeing underwater. And breathing underwater. Those are special skills that I don't particularly have." Lucinda stamped her feet a bit inside the water in the attempt to warm up but it only caused her to shudder more from the water splashing her legs.

Watching Lucinda wade into the lake in November didn't exactly inspire any confidence in Zeta that the sassy fourth year could find anything by hypothermia in the murky water. Either that or grindylows! Or stranglekelp! She couldn't help but gently scoff at the first offer. But Lucinda did have a good point - they were witches, weren't they!

"I know Bubble-head," she said and slid her wand out of her hair. "Learnt it in Charms last year. Ready?"

Whether Lucinda was or not, Zeta began casting. Her wand emitted a flurry of shimmering bubbles that swarmed Lucinda's head and quickly coalesced into a single sort of 'fish bowl'.  Zeta smiled feeling a bit smug.

"There you go."

Lucinda gasped and stared at her as her head was enveloped by the bubble. Then she made the widest eyes she possibly could and make popping motions with her mouth, in an attempt to recreate a goldfish in a fish bowl. She gave herself a good stretch with her arms raised up and going onto her tiptoes.

Once finished. Lucinda turned and faced the water. She braced then ran into the water. Once she hit the point of swimming she swam as best she could and vanished under the surface. She retrieved her wand from her back and made to swim down, casting Lumos she started her hunt for the soggy clothing.

Truth be told, Zeta realized she didn't quite believe that Lucinda was going to do it until she actually did. One moment she'd been giggling at Lucinda's very good impression of a carp and the next she squeaked in surprise as the girl sloshed into the lake and disappeared.

"What!" She laughed and trotted up to the edge of the lapping lake, her hands tucked into her armpits for warmth.

"Lucinda! You don't actually have to - ! Lucy...?"

It was suddenly very quiet on the bank of the lake and - had Zeta just misplaced a younger student? How was that going to look.

Lucinda swam, searching under the water for a few minutes. Then after those minutes she headed back. Her head broke above the water and she returned to the shore, she struggled to swim to the shore once closer and then made it up onto her feet, with her wand she popped the bubble and looked up at Zeta. "It is, much harder to swim back then to swim out."

With her spare hand she clutched a pair of male boxers and sighed. "Sorry, its very hard to find stuff out there, I did find some girls clothing but it was rather..." She gave a small cough. "Large. I can't imagine it fitting around anyone without lots of people noticing." She looked at the boxers. "Found these though." She says casually. "Also a pair of bright red cowboy boots. But I'm not touching them, they're in there for a good reason I'm sure."

Lucinda nodded then gave a shudder as she hugged herself tight. "Sorry to leave you waiting so long." She said in a small chattering of teeth while doing her best to hide the painfully obvious fact she is drenched and cold.

Zeta's jaw dropped.

"You legitimately found something! Clothes. You found clothes in the lake."

She reached for the underwear and wrung them out. They were light blue and covered in tiny golden snitches.

"Whose are they, you reckon?" she laughed. "Lost them skinny dipping?"

Zeta suddenly snorted. "There was the Creatures class where Professor Onuris had them swimming in the lake. Someone's knickers nicked by a kelpie?"

Lucinda shook her head, not entirely sure how to react. "Um. Maybe stolen by them. But who plans on going swimming in a skinny outfit? Just this bikini is hard enough, why anything skinnier then this?" She shivered and hugged herself tighter, rubbing her hands up and down her arms to keep warm.

"Who would teach a lesson by tossing them into the lake? I mean to find creatures sure, but you're in their environment. Can't hunt them that way." She cast a spell and called her towel to herself, it wrapped around herself and she sighed a little. "Thats a bit better. Its not cold, trust me." She lied poorly as she shivered and shuddered with water dripping down herself.