Simply enjoying my lunch [Aimée et Francis]

Aimée still couldn't get used to the food at Hogwarts; there were so many choices, the scents and colours were overwhelming. She had tried most of it; being a lover of food she had to. A pity Hogwarts didn't serve much dishes with fish; that was one of the things Aimée missed from home. She could usually endure the variety of food, but today, with the sun who shone happily was mentioning to her to come outside, made her senses tingle too much. Aimée quickly grabbed some simple ham sandwiches, filled her cup with pumpin juice, casted a spell so it wouldn't spill and ran outside with her arms full.

She kept walking until she arrived at the lake. It was one of her favourite places to be on the grounds of Hogwarts. Especially on days like these it was just perfect; the warmth of the sun, and the soft breeze that came from the lake made Aimée feel at home.

She sat down on the soft grass, put her things beside her (her food safely on top of her bag; how much she loved the nature, sand in her food makes Aimée a sad girl) and grabbed a sandwich. She happily sighed before take a bite from it. Lazily chewing she stared at the lake, looking if she saw anything new. She hoped she had a chance to see the giant squid that was apparantly living in this lake.

Francis loved the food at Hogwarts, despite it being “English” it was good food. The best things he tasted in the UK but not as good as the actual French cuisine. Despite the good food, Francis still imported bird seed from France. He really wanted the best for Pierre. Pierre was one of the things Francis cared for the most.

The weather outside was still warm and sunny so he decided to eat outside while could still enjoy the rare nice weather. And he liked to watch Pierre fly around. With a small bag of birdseed, a tin filled with tea and a few tuna sandwhiches, Francis made his way outside the great hall onto the school grounds. He smiled softly, enjoying the sun shining on his face. He strolled on with Pierre happily cooing on his shoulder. On his way he was greeted by a few Ravenclaw girls happily. He blew them a handkiss and they walked on giggling. Ah the girls here were so adorable, he thought and walked on.

He had wandered off quite far, he noticed as he spotted the lake already. He decide to no go much further and eat by the waterside. It looked like someone had the same idea, as he saw from afar a figure sitting in the grass. He wondered who it was and curiously walked towards the person. As he got closer he saw that this figure was quite familiar. It was that Gryffindor girl with the ugly insults. Her name was…Aimée. Yes that was it.

From Francis point of view, she looked quite lonely. Perhaps she didn’t have any friends to eat with? Oh no that’d be terrible. With a gentle smile he approached her. “Bonjour, do you mind if me and Pierre joined you?”

Still no sight of the giant squid. How disappointing. Aimée swallowed and took another big bite from her sandwich, when suddenly she heard a voice near her. Startled, she looked at the owner of the voice, and saw that it was none other than Francis. Uwah, he was one of the people the girl expected the least to show up here. And it seems like she completely underestimated his looks in her mind. Lately when she thought of him, she only thought of a big, mean bully who was constantly making nasty comments at her everyday behaviour. But apparantly her mind-Francis didn't look like the real Francis at all. Especially not when the real Francis was smiling at her like this.
The deal, the deal! Oh, why did he disturb her when her mind wasn't ready for this at all? Calm down, calm down.

"Shme, swit dwn-" she choked, quickly swallowed the food she had in her mouth, and repeated what she said; "I mean, sure, sit down!" Manners, Aimée Collins! She could hear her grandfathers' voice in her head.
Embarrassed, she shoved her bag out of the way so the Slytherin could sit down. This was really awkward. Though she had prepared herself for the time when she had to meet him again, she couldn't think of anything to say now. She couldn't immediately begin about their deal; they had to hold a normal conversation.
Well, as long as he doesn't do anything weird, I'll manage. And if he does something weird.. Well, then I will have won!
She turned her head at him, and smiled slightly. "So, what brings you here?"

Vaguely in the back of his head, the part of his brain that wasn’t stuffed with cheesy romance, reminded Francis about the challenge they had. He wondered if Aimée had worked on herself at all. He wondered what things she expected from him. He smiled gently at her. “Merci~” he sat down next to Aimée. Not too close. If she wanted a different him, she would get it. He was after all a pretty good actor too. He just needed to find a way to get her to be the ‘old’her while still in his role of ‘modest’ Francis.

“I just came to enjoy the beautiful weather ‘ere. Soon it will get colder and rainy. And I like to eat outside with Pierre.” He said with a soft smile. He reached into the bag of birdseed and as reply Pierre hopped down to the end of his arm and started picking at the handful of birdseed. “They don’t like it when I have Pierre around inside a lot. So I’m glad I can still eat outside.” He explained with a soft chuckled. “Et toi, what brought you here?”

Aimée couldn't stop smiling when Pierre began eating. She just wanted to snuggle up to the dove and talk to it and pet it and- So much. Too bad it was such a little animal. She frowned when Francis said they didn't like Pierre inside. "Je ne comprends pas, how couldn't they like something like Pierre?" The girl was even more careless than usual with her random french words; but she noticed that Francis did it himself too.. Though his french sounded a bit more, ah, chic. He must be from a french speaking country too.. Perhaps France? It was an option.

"What brought me here? I think it's the same reason as you; the weather.. But did you just say it would get colder and rainy?" Aimée shuddered. Even on a sunny day like this she had her robe wrapped tightly around her. She would probably stay the whole winter behind the walls of Hogwarts when the real cold came. Too bad she liked the grounds way too much. Maybe she could try to make those special Bluebell Flames a student told her about. She hadn't bothered about it then because the sun was so hot that one day, but if it would be getting really cold it would be nice to have a jar with warm harmless flames under her robe. The girl glanced over at Francis. Would he know the spell? He was pretty old, so he must be in a much higher year than her.
Maybe she should ask him.
Later.
She didn't feel as threatened by him as last time; as long as the Slytherin boy wasn't acting all high and mighty and throwing seductive smiles at all the girls near him he wasn't that bad. Maybe it's good, if we stay like this..

Wait, what was that? did she just see the water ripple? The Gryffindor girl quickly put down her sandwich, jumped up and ran closer to the edge of the lake. "Did you see that!? Perhaps it's the giant squid!" Aimée squinted her eyes. Come on, show yourself! "Hey, Francis, can you see what it is? Is it the giant squid?"
She almost jumped in the water from excitement.

He smiled sadly at her. "They say birds should fly outside. They want me to put 'im with ze owls." he explained her and stroked the feathers of Pierre. "Slytherin mostly prefer cats. And well zay do no go well together with birds, sadly enough. So I keep Pierre safe in my room, but sometimes they complain about 'im." he told her. Perhaps the other guys were jealous that the bird attracted girls?


He nodded at her. "I'm afraid it will, but you will get used to it soon enough, don't worry. And the common rooms aren't so bad, non?" he said smiling. He got a bit used to it, but he preferred the warmer weather where he could walk around without cloaks or jacket and enjoy the sun and play around outside with pierre.

He jumped almost in surprise when the girl suddenly raised her voice. "A-ah...careful, don't fall in ze lake." he regained his posture. "...hmn it could be, but ze lake is dark and there's more than just a squid in there." he told her.

Aimée looked back at Francis, frowning. "You're barely even looking!" she accused him. But she had indeed forgotten that there was more in the lake than the squid; she had read about merpeople and grindylows. But she was sure she had seen something way bigger than those should be in the lake.

She stepped closer to the edge of the lake, and felt the ground softly moving because of the water right next to it. Fall in the water? Not likely. Though swimming was delightful, this water didn't look like the warm and clear water she was used to.

"It must be the squid." she said, thinking how she could prove it. Then she spotted her sandwich, laying forgotten next to Francis. "I know! We can lure him closer! Quick, Francis, give me my sandwich, maybe if I throw small pieces of it in the lake it might come closer."
She wasn't thinking at all about the Slytherin and the bet they had; the only thing the girl had in mind was to see the Giant Squid.

Frankly enough, Francis didn't even care about some ugly slimey squid. He sighed and nibbled his sandwhich as he watch the younger girl lean over to see wether or not there was a giantic squid.

He took her sandwhich and joined her by the the edge. "Here you are~." he handed it to her. "But you should do a few steps back. if it was indeed the giantic squid, I wouldn't want us to become lunch as well." he commented. "Or for you to fall in." he didn't feel like jumping after her if she fell in. Dieu that water was disgusting and cold and he'd stink for the entire week.

Aimée took her sandwich from Francis and continued to stare at the place in the lake where she saw the water move. Lunch? Aimée thought about that for a while. It was true; squids are carnivores. But there had to be more interesting things in this lake for the squid to be treated as lunch.. Right?
The girl softly squished the sandwich in her hand and looked down at the water under her. It was by far not the kind of water she was used to; at her place, the oceans were bright blue and you could see right through it. In this water you probably couldn't even see your hand in front of you.

"Okay, let's play it safe then!" She agreed with Francis and was about to turn and step away from the edge when she heard a wet noise, and felt her foot slipping away.
Everything went in slow-motion. Aimée dropped her sandwich to grab on to something keep steady but failed, and the next moment everything blurred and she saw something dark coming closer. A big slash followed as she met the lake.
Then it was all cold and dark.

Francis was glad the girl thought so too, he offered her his hand to go sit back in the grass. But just as he turned around to do so, the other was gone. It took a moment to register what just happened. He realized it when he heard the splash. He dropped his own sandwhich and almost automatically dived after her.

He didn't think about his hair or clothes or the smell anymore. He just thought about the giantic squid and how the girl could become lunch. He couldn't see much in the lake but he just felt with his hands till he touched something, something that could be- no was an arm. He grabbed hold of the body and held onto it as he swum to the side. He carried her bridal way style back, safely away from the lake.

For a moment Aimée was too stunned to do anything. Her next reaction was to put her feet under her so she could steady herself, but she only felt slimy mud that was trying to keep hold of her feet. She quickly pulled them back, only to be touched again by something else- the giant squid!? She tried to push it away, but was too disoriented to stop it from wrapping all around her.

Suddenly the light and warmth was back. Confused, Aimée blinked with eyes. Then she saw that it wasn't the giant squid who was holding her, but Francis. This only confused her more. Did he also fall in the lake? Or did he jumped in the lake to safe her? He must have, for he hadn't been close to the edge to the lake at all when she looked at him before she fell in.
Aimée was impressed. If someone would have told her yesterday that Francis would jump in the lake to safe a girl from Gryffindor, she would have laughed at that person and wouldn't have believed it.

But now here they were. Aimée got the feeling she was slipping through the arms of Francis. Holding a person who was wearing a heavy, wet robe mustn't be easy. Aimée rose her arms and put them around the neck of Francis to make it easier for him to carry her.
The girl felt embarressed when she realised what she was doing, and quickly turned her head so Francis couldn't see her face. But she also felt.. glad? She couldn't help herself but smile slighty to herself. Perhaps the Slytherin boy really was a better person than she first thought?

Francis hair was wet with seawead and other plants and small insects, tangled in. His perfect hairdoo was ruined in merely a few seconds. He was lucky he was just wearing his uniform, he coudln't bare the thought having ruined his own beautiful clothes, especially those light brown trousers with the frilly shirt taht suited him so well.

He wiped the messy wet blonde looks out his face, only to discovere his ribbon of his hair had dissappeared in the lake. He looked down at the gryffindor girl, she seemed to be breathing and unharmed, which was good at last. "Are you alright?" he asked checking anyway.

Though he hoped people had not seen them, oh- how they would laugh at him a slytherin saving a gryffindor girl from all people. Though a very beautiful one, despite the messy clothes and hair at the moment.