She'd only been in it for half an hour but, already, Mairead had decided she did not like school uniforms.  Not only was her uniform slightly faded and, quite clearly, more worn than most of her classmates but the fitted shirt was restrictive and the skirt was, quite clearly, not intended for riding.  Or climbing trees.  Or anything of fun. 

But, the excitement of arriving at the train station had trumped the subtle discomfort of the uniform and, with giddy eagerness, Mairead followed the flock of first years down towards the edge of the lake.  All her things had been left on the train.  Apparently, somehow, they would be taken to her dorm room.  She had no idea how they could manage to do that, given that even she didn't know what dorm she would be in.  She tried not to think to much about whether that meant, here in the wizarding world, her bags were smarter than she was. 

The lights of Hogwarts castle came into view just as they reached the edge of the lake.  An older student was ushering them into various little boats but Mairead paid him no more attention than she did the boats or what she was doing.  All her attention was transfixed on the tall spires of the castle and the flickering lights dancing in their reflections on the water's surface.  It was magnificent!  More so than anything she'd seen before. 

"Yeah, yeah, I'm moving," Mairead snapped as the hands of older students ushered her towards on of the boats.  Only tearing her eyes away from the castle long enough to allow herself to climb safely into the boat, Mairead proceeded to completely disregard the other occupants of the boat.  It wasn't until the boat had set off across the lake that Mairead, finally, tore her eyes away from the lights long enough to turn towards her shipmates.

"It's brilliant!"  Mairead declared, grinning broadly as she peered through the darkness towards the other shadows.  "I can't wait!  There's gonna be a feast, I hear."

Eirene clutched the seat underneath her with both hands, letting out her signature squeal when the boat started to move. She stared ahead of her, mouth open, thrilled to see the brightly lit Hogwarts castle in the distance. That would be her new home until December! She was so excited that she wanted to bounce in her seat, but dared not to, afraid of making the boat shake.

Some of the children in the boat were not so considerate. How she had gotten stuck with Mairead again, she didn’t know, but Eirene couldn’t switch boats now that they were moving! She watched the girl, taking in her worn uniform with a great degree of smugness. Hogwarts required uniforms to make students, even ones like Mairead, seem presentable, Eirene thought, but the two girls still looked very different. She looked down at her polished shoes, her crisp, clean shirt, and smiled a little.

Her smile faded when Mairead shouted about the feast and made the boat jerk.

“Sit down, Mairead!” Eirene hissed at her, frowning in disapproval. “You’re making the boat rock,” she peered down at the water with a worried expression, remembering the stories she’d heard about the Giant Squid and other denizens of the lake. She smoothed out her skirt and hoped they would reach the castle soon.

The voice that greeted Mairead's ears in the dark was, by now, quite familiar but not necessarily more welcoming.  "Damnú air!"  Mairead said, the tone of her voice making it quite clear the phrase was far from complimentary.  Of all the boats sitting at the dock, how did she manage to choose so poorly?  Was her luck really that bad? 

"Oh, bloody hell, no.  I'm not - I need -"  Mairead turned, determined to get in another boat.  But, in the darkness, it was impossible to tell how far they were from the shore and the boats were moving with a remarkably steady speed.  With a sigh of defeat, Mairead turned forward once more and plopped herself, heavily, down on the bench of the boat.  The boat gave a considerable lurch, a small splash of water sloshing over the side. 

Even in the darkness, Mairead noticed the smug look the brat gave her as she looked from Mairead's clothes back to her own.  Hopefully, though, the darkness would help cover the color that rose in her cheeks but, to be safe, Mairead looked back towards the castle.  "How'd I bloody get stuck with ye, ye bruitheálach."  Mairead glanced, reluctantly, back towards the girl as she hissed at Mairead. 

"What?  Yer scared of the water?  Can't swim or something?"  Mairead scoffed at her.  "That's not very brave.  It's not like it's the bloody ocean." 

Mairead was just as unhappy about the boating arrangement as Eirene was, and very vocal about it! Eirene let out a strangled sound when the girl plopped into the seat and some water sloshed over the side of the boat.

“Be careful!” she ordered in a shrill voice, lifting up her feet so her shoes wouldn’t get wet. When Mairead had the nerve to insult her and call her a coward, Eirene’s knuckles whitened where she clutched the edge of her bench. Looking around at the other students in the boat for support, she stood up very straight and glared at Mairead.

“Stop calling me those weird names! The bru- whatever it is. I can swim just fine, but I’d prefer to do so in, I don’t know, a swimsuit, not my uniform. Unlike some people here, I want to look presentable for the Sorting.”

Eirene flipped her braids over her shoulder and smiled smugly. “Where did you get that uniform? Been scrounging around in the rubbish bin? I wouldn’t be surprised if the Headmistress turned you away at the door. And your ugly dog too.”

Insulting this girl she didn’t like at all bordered on the list of Things She Should Not Do, but it was… fun. Different. Exciting. Like starting school at Hogwarts. At home, Eirene hadn’t spent time with enough children to practice making fun of them, but treating Mairead badly hardly seemed like a crime. Effie did it. Besides, it wasn’t like Mairead had gone out of her way to be nice to her. She was the one who had spit on her at Ollivander’s! The memory made Eirene a little wary and she shifted in her seat, hoping the girl wouldn’t do anything rash in retaliation.

Mairead chuckled under her breath as little miss Priss cried out about the water spilling in the book.  Good grief - was she really that helpless?  Again, Mairead couldn't help but laugh.  She was afraid of getting her shoes wet?  Mairead couldn't imagine how bored she'd be living such a clean and sterile life.  What did this girl do for fun?  How could people have fun without getting wet or dirty? 

"Sorry," Mairead offered, sarcastically, with no trace of apology in her voice.  "I didn't realize ye were so fecking fragile.  Are ye one of those witches that melt into a bubbling pile of green when they get wet?" 

Pointedly, Mairead ignored the girl's reason for being careful.  Mairead was presentable - maybe not to the girl's exacting standards - but she was presentable.  Mairead would much rather have clothes that allowed her to climb trees than were free of tatters or stains. But, she knew better than to point that out. 

But, the girl turned the conversation to her own uniform.  "No - I got it at the store," she said, defensively.  "I don't ... Just cuz ye got it easy.  But, ye know, sometimes yer luck just turns."    Mairead leaned over the edge of the boat and cupped her hands in the water.  With a mischievous grin, she flung the handful of water at the girl. 

She had no idea what the girl was talking about, witches bubbling into green sludge like that, but it certainly wouldn’t happen to her! No, she was too clean to allow such a gross thing to happen.

Eirene felt a tiny sting of remorse when Mairead got defensive, mentioning that she got her uniform at a store and didn’t have it easy like she did. That slight amount of guilt was very quickly squashed as Mairead mischievously reached into the water and did the worst thing she could possibly do. She splashed Eirene.

Shrieking, Eirene stood up, swaying with the boat as the boat rocked dangerously. “Stop it, stop it!” She yelled, climbing over the other students in the boat to get as far away from Mairead and her splashing. Eirene clutched at the stern of the tiny boat for dear life, glaring at Mairead but unwilling to sit down or come any closer to the girl.

“You…” she sputtered. “Don't come near me or I’ll tell on you! Then they really won’t let you in. You’ll get expelled from Hogwarts just like you got expelled from Ollivander’s!”  That was a mighty big threat, Eirene thought. Surely she wouldn’t continue her awful behavior now.

Mairead laughed loudly as Miss Priss shrieked.  She could just imagine the girl standing there, panicked yet helpless as she flapped her hands like a bird with a broken wing.  Like that Eufie girl had hopped around after Mairead had punched her.  What was wrong with these girls?  Couldn't they fight back? 

Perhaps this was part of why Mairead preferred being around boys then girls - they didn't think they were bloody vases.  They were far less likely to think they'd bust into a million pieces if they happened to fall down in the dirt.  All of her friends had been boys growing up and she really only ran into girls (usually rich, stuck up girls like this specimen) when she was out and about in the cities.  She wasn't really sure what girls usually did for fun but, if this girl was any indication, chances were it was pretty darn boring. 

However, girls did seem to offer a possibility for amusement.  Eirene was crouching towards the front of the boat, trying to avoid getting splashed by Mairead.  She looked so precariously perched and so nervous.  It was, really, far too tempting.  In fact, Eirene made it so easy that it seemed like she was begging for it.  And, really, if Mairead got wet in the process, it would be worth it - if not part of the fun. 

"Alright," Mairead said, in feigned submission.  "It'll get as far away from ye as I can."  Mairead pushed herself to her feet and, after discretely pulling Ailill from her pocket and shoving it in a nearby classmate's hand, she scrambled over towards the far end of the boat.  Having grown up spending as much time as she could on horseback, Mairead found it rather easy to balance as she climbed up so she stood on the sides of the boat where they narrowed to a point at the bow of the boat.  "I'm as far away as I can get.  Ye happy now?"  Mairead shifted her weight between her feet, much to the annoyance of the other occupants of the boat. 

As focused as she was on getting to the girl, Mairead barely heard Eirene's threats.  They wouldn't kick her out, yet.  She hadn't even gotten there, yet.  And, this was all about messing up perfect little Eirene's perfect little day.

Eirene stared at Mairead, a sense of relief and smugness filling her when the girl climbed to the other side of the boat and stayed there. Finally! It was about time she got some respect. With a poorly concealed victorious look on her face, Eirene cautiously started moving back towards her seat in the middle.

"Sorry," she murmured to the other occupants of the boat, who were none to happy about all the drama between the two girls.

"No, I'm not happy. You got my shoes wet," Eirene told Mairead in a lofty voice, about to sit down. "But at least you're showing reason-"

Mairead had, indeed, started seeing reason.  The other girl's willingness to believe that Mairead was playing along only solidified Mairead's determination.  Mairead braced herself against the shock of cold knowing it was highly likely that getting dunked herself was a necessary consequence of putting this girl in her place.  And, it was a consequence she was willing to accept. 

Watching Eirene move along the seats, with that sickening grin on her face, Mairead threw all her weight on to one foot before hopping and landing on the opposite side.  She took a deep breath as her momentum launched her off the side off the boat into the chilly water. 

Mairead kicked for the surface, immediately, eager to see the fruits of her sacrifice.  Laughing, Mairead looked around for Eirene, as she swam back towards the boat.  She grasped the the edge of the boat and braced with both hands.  It took two tries but, finally, Mairead managed to pull herself back into the boat.  She was cold, wet but exhilarated.  That had been fantastic.

Eirene didn’t even get to finish her sentence. The boat gave a mighty jerk and she lost her balance, tumbling over the side and into the water! She didn’t have time to see the horrible, mischievous look on Mairead’s face, or to see the girl fall into the murky depths as well. She didn’t even have time to squeal. Caught completely unprepared, the lake swallowed her whole and a rush of cold water filled her lungs. Terrified, Eirene fought and kicked her way to the surface of the water, losing a perfectly polished shoe in the process.

She broke through the surface of the lake, coughing and sputtering. Eirene blinked the water out of her eyes and saw a very drenched and smug Mairead sitting in the boat. A surge of anger wiped away her shock, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it, because the boat was getting farther and farther away!

“Wait!” she wailed, her voice high and reedy, throwing her into a fit of coughing again. The other boats sailed on past her, full of first years. She thought about climbing into one but they were all packed and many of the kids had started to laugh at her.

Very close to tears, Eirene started swimming after the elusive boat with the devil child in it, but stopped when she wriggled her foot and realized she’d lost her shoe.

She treaded water for a moment. Get to the boat, or get her shoe? Which was more important? With a groan, Eirene slipped back into the water and started searching, fueled by her terror of parental disappointment. It was so dark. Her eyes were open but she could barely see anything in front of her. Seconds ticked by during her futile search, eventually leading her to accept that the shoe was lost in the bottom of the lake where she wouldn’t be able to reach it. With burning lungs and numb fingers, she began kicking to the surface again, suddenly realizing that all the boats could be leagues, leagues ahead of her!

Oliver had been enjoying the journey towards the castle.  There was nobody on his boat whom he recognized, but the pair of voices several leads ahead of it captured his attention.  Mairead and Eirene were going at it; Mai being her usual, mischievous self, and Eirene, from the sounds of it, threatening to get her expelled.  Knowing Mairead, such a threat wouldn’t concern her.  Instead, it would probably only cause her to become giddier than she already was!

He opened his mouth to shout a greeting to them, but stopped short when Mairead launched herself out of the boat.  His eyes widened and his jaw fell.  The eleven-year-old daredevil didn’t spend a lot of time in the water; she was back in the boat in less than a minute.  Oliver wasn’t watching her, though.  Eirene had fallen into the lake, only this time, it wasn’t on purpose.  She remained submerged for a few moments, but reemerged, coughing and choking on the lake water.  Her boat didn’t stop, to his surprise.  There was a fair number of first years gaping and pointing at her, though.

She went back under the surface.  What for, Oliver didn’t know.  Still, that didn’t stop him from pushing his way through to the side of the boat.  He squeezed past a pair of second years, who were laughing between themselves at Eirene’s accident.

“How dumb do ye have to be to fall into the water?” one of them, a raven-haired boy asked his friend.

“She and that other girl will be soaking by dinner,” his blond-haired friend replied.  His green eyes were ablaze with amusement.  He watched Oliver, who was leaning over the surface, waiting for Eirene to come back up.

To everybody's surprise, another boy dove in after  Eirene.  Seconds later, he reemerged with her.  When he did, Oliver knelt on the side of the boat and stuck out his hand to help them into it.

((OOC: This was posted after Sasha's, hence the edit.  Sorry!))

It was unlikely that Eirene's dive for her shoe could have lasted much longer, even if Eirene hadn't made the decision to begin kicking for the surface.  A long, strong arm snaked around Eirene and pulled her, firmly, towards the surface.  After several strong kicks, the pair of heads broke the surface and the cold night air hit Sasha's wet face.  He'd never heard that saving drowning kids was part of the standard prefect skills but, hopefully, this type of thing didn't happen that often.  Sasha sure didn't remember any of his classmates falling into the water during his first year journey across the lake. 

 The boats had moved a fair distance off - one didn't really appreciate how fast those boats moved until one was trying to swim after them.   At least, swimming in the lake wasn't an unfamiliar activity for Sasha. 

"Alright, we're going to try to catch up with the boats," Sasha explained as he began to swim after the boats.  "Just ... just kick your feet.  You'll be ... why ... how did you fall out of the boat?"  He asked, breathing heavily from the cold of the water. 

Over the surface of the water, Sasha could easily hear the chiding remarks from the kids in the last boat so, presumably, the girl could hear it, too.  As a particularly crude comment drifted across the water (which involved a critical comparison of the girl's intelligence relative to the blood-thirsty grindylows in the water), Sasha spoke up, again.

"This is your first year?  What's your name?"  He asked, loudly, between strokes, hoping the voice and conversation would drown out the crude comments and distract her.

Something was coming for her. As Eirene kicked towards the surface of the water, she saw a dark shadow, growing larger as it moved swiftly towards her. Her mind jumping to the most horrible conclusions, Eirene kicked harder, trying to break the surface before the thing could gobble her up. A scream bubbled in her throat when an arm wrapped firmly around her waist and pulled her- up? They were going up! Two heads emerged from the water, bobbing above the waves, and Eirene finally realized that a person had saved her. No grindylows were going to drag her down to a watery grave now.

Eirene took in big gulps of air and wrapped her arms around the boy’s neck. He was much larger than the first years, even larger than that dodgy Hufflepuff who had taken her ‘pet fee’ on the train. She was puzzled until she realized he must be the prefect who accompanied them on the boats. Her eyes widened. A prefect. A nice person had saved her and he was a prefect!

“Thank you!” She managed to gasp, listening as he told her to kick her feet. Eirene did, trying to help them move forward, but when they got closer to the boats she could hear the taunting and the laughter. She blinked rapidly, trying to pretend the wetness on her lashes came from the water.

“It wasn’t my fault!” Eirene protested when he asked her how she fell. “This awful girl started rocking the boat on purpose, just because I told her to sit still. She’s so spiteful! She acted like she wasn’t going to, but then she did, and we were both standing, so she fell in and I fell in but I wasn’t expecting-” Eirene started coughing again, cutting her whining short.

She looked at him, really hoping he’d believe her. Her stomach felt a little jumpy, like it did before she asked her mother for a favor or before she took a quiz in class. It didn’t make sense to her, so she tried to ignore it. He hadn’t called her stupid like the other kids in the boats, or given any indication that he’d even heard their comments.

“Yes, I’m a first year, but I’ve heard, and read, all about Hogwarts already. I’m Eirene Antonopoulos,” She paused. “My mother’s going to be mad I lost my shoe,” her lower lip trembled. That still seemed like the worst part of her near-drowning experience.

To Eirene’s surprise, she saw Oliver leaning over the boat, waiting for them. A grateful smile flickered on her face.

“Look! One of the nice people is over there,” Eirene pointed. “I don’t want to go back in a boat with Mairead,” she told him hurriedly. “Unless I could sit with you?”

Eirene looked at him hopefully. If she sat with a prefect, the other kids wouldn’t dare tease her.

Sasha saw the younger boy lean over the edge of the boat but, even still, the boats seemed remarkably far off.  Somewhere around the fifth stroke, it occurred to Sasha that should a stray grindylow show an interest in them, it be rather disadvantageous that his wand was safe and secure in his trunk on his bed.  But, maybe grindylows bed down at night - keeping safe from whatever ... hunted ... them ... at ... night.  Sasha groaned as his own mind started playing tricks on him and tried to drive the thoughts from his mind with his own standby favorite. 

Logic. 

He'd never heard any stories of huge sea monsters in the lake and, from all accounts, it seemed the giant squid held some strange affection for the students.  It had been that logic that had led Sasha to believe it was safe to swim along the edges of the lake.  During the day.  But, logic aside, he was sure going to have a word with whoever had prompted this highly unnecessary nighttime swim. 

"I ... um ... you're welcome," Sasha said, awkwardly.  The girl was, indeed, kicking, but how much good it was doing, Sasha wasn't sure.  The boats were still moving at a nice, fast clip.  For a moment, the question occurred to him: was it better to expend his energy trying to catch up to the boats when there was no guarantee he'd catch up or to accept he wouldn't catch up and treat this as a long distance swim - and conserve his energy? 

In the darkness, Sasha couldn't see the tears in the girl's eyes but, he knew, if he could hear the jeers from the boats than she could, too.  But, when Sasha heard the girl's whining, his heart caught in his throat and he quickly pulled to a stop.  "You both ... fell in?"  He asked, quickly, desperately.  Scheiße, scheiße!  He looked around at the water, well aware the boats were slipping further and further away.  "There were two of you that fell in?  Where's -" 

Oh goodness - his first day as a prefect - the first day he knew about being a prefect and he was loosing first years!  Treading water, he kicked at something floating by his feet (and, kicked his feet free of his increasingly heavy shoes in the process) before looking at the girl.  "Did you see where she fell in?"  He asked, though by now he was accepting that there would be no catching up to the boats.  It was going to be a long swim.

"Antonopoulos?  That's Greek, isn't it?"  Sasha asked, continuing to listen and look for signs of the second girl.  "Don't be surprised if half of your teachers can't remember the whole name.  And, don't take it personally.  Too many letters and ... they seem to get lost halfway through."  He'd been there four years and many teachers had only figured out the "Schlag" part. 

"Well, we should be able to get the shoe back.  I've just lost both of mine," though it was highly unlikely he'd be telling his parents about it.  He'd walk to Hogsmeade barefoot to buy more if he needed to.  "Maybe tomorrow," or whenever, "we can see if we can borrow a boat and try to summon them."  Or maybe bribe a merman. 

The boy suddenly seemed panicked and Eirene stared at him, wondering what was wrong. She peered down at the water, thinking for a second that he’d seen a lake monster, but then he asked her where the other girl was.

“Oh, she climbed back into the boat!” Eirene said, feeling a little odd now that his attention wasn’t on her. “I saw her sitting in there, soaked but grinning for some unfathomable reason.” Her lips pursed and she sniffed a little. “I hope she gets into trouble. She will get into trouble, won’t she?”

Eirene imagined Mairead being turned away at the door by an especially stern professor, pointing towards the lake and telling her she needed to swim back to the train and go home. While Eirene, of course, would be offered a warm seat by the fire and a cup of tea, oh, and new shoes, and maybe this boy would want to talk to her and be her friend. Following Effie’s example, she normally ignored boys, but this one was different. He was older and nice and a prefect.

A delighted smile appeared on her face again when he actually recognized her name! He could tell it was Greek! Most of the kids she’d met so far had just stared at her in confusion or snickered at the way it had sounded. She listened to his advice and nodded.

“Don’t worry- I’ll remind my teachers of how to pronounce it. They might already know my name! My father works at the Ministry and my mother’s a Healer,” she declared proudly. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if adults have heard of it, at least.” She watched him carefully, hoping he would be impressed.

“What’s your name?” She asked shyly, waiting for him to answer and then thinking of something else. “Do I call older students by their first names? Or their last ones, like I would for professors?” It was something she’d worried about on the train. Many of the seventh years seemed like giants to her so she’d wondered if they deserved more respect.

Eirene kept glancing at the boats that were fading into the distance. A part of her was happy that she could no longer hear most of the taunting, but she worried that they wouldn’t be able to catch up. The water was cold. She kept kicking alongside the boy, trying to help though her legs were tired. He seemed so calm about the loss of their shoes, suggesting that they could summon them tomorrow. That meant she’d probably see him again!

“Do you think we’ll make it?” She half-whispered with wide eyes. There was a point where the adventure got old and she wanted to be back on solid land, safe and dry. Eirene had felt much safer in the lake with Sasha, but even he couldn’t swim all the way to the shore and fight off grindylows, could he?