for those below, open

[Otis Barberis]

Otis had gone for a run that morning since the weather looked promising. It had been the longest he's run in a long time and he knew that he was up to par again with what he could do before leaving to England for his internship there for six months. England wasn't exactly the greatest place to go for a run since there were so many people around and not enough flat landscape Otis liked. Of course, Otis didn't dare venture outside of London since he wasn't too familiar with the area and Otis hated getting lost. That was the worst thing ever. So he grew out of shape and now he was paying for it.

When Otis had finished, he stopped at the lake and let himself calm down. Unlike in the winter, Otis's lungs didn't seem to be on fire every time he inhaled. This air was nice and warm and didn't bother him all too much on his run. He just happened to be a bit extra sweaty than in the winter. Now that Otis was all caught up with his progress, he knew he wouldn't go running in the winter anymore. He had originally decided that it would help him forget his resentment against winter, but it only made it worse. Nothing could change Otis's mind when it came to winter.

Once he was settled down, Otis began to pick up some rocks to examine them. He only picked up rocks that were mostly flat since the flat rocks were the rocks that skipped on the water the best. Standing up, Otis threw the rock up and down in his hand and then finally threw the rock, making it skip twice before it sunk beneath the surface of the water. Otis watched the ripples of the water spread until the lake mirrored the sky again. Picking up another rock, Otis did the same thing with the same result of two skips before the rock sunk.

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[Lily Lockhart]

<sub>Lily looked out of her dormitory window, and it was another cloudless day. Many of the children were in lessons, but the ones that were having a free period were making the most of the weather. Lily smirked, she had better things to be doing then child's play. Lily settled down on her desk, planning to get some homework done. As she was doing her homework, Lily couldn't help but stick her head out of the window, seeing who was outside. In the end Lily could not resist in any longer. Slamming her book shut, Lily went out upon the Beauxbatons gardens.

She breathed in the sweet, warm air. Looking to her left, you could see about five fifth year girls doing homework, and a distance away was some First Years practicing Quidditch. Lily had a love for drawing and reading, but she never does her hobbies nearly as much as she had liked to, as Lily was getting homework nearly every day. Lily headed her way down to the lake, deciding it was a beautiful place to stay while in her free period.

Lily sat down by the lake, and took in her surroundings. There was an older boy skimming stones. Lily smiled, she could never skim stones, how ever much she tried. She watched the boy skim the stones on the lake.</sub>

[Otis Barberis]

As Otis continued to skip stones, he looked around in between stones. He watched all the people around him. Otis has always been a very observant person and loved to watch people at all times of the day. People were fascinating in the way they interacted with people, their habits and how they thought. It was one of the reasons why Otis hardly had anybody that he hated. Otis took everybody in with fascination and was a bit too empathetic with people. It sometimes got him into sticky situations since he'd be blinded by his trust in people. But, that hardly happened.

There were people studying for exams, others taking in the sun and others just socializing with their friends. It was good to be back. People here weren't so uptight and serious about work all the time. There were some normal people in London, but it was a whole different country to Otis and it was a bit of a culture shock. He thought he had it bad when he came to France to attend Beauxbatons for the first time, but London was much colder. The snow was more bitter if that was even possible and it lasted longer too. Perhaps France was the place where he'd find his job.

Otis had skipped another rock, this time skipping three times. Otis smiled at his improvement and tried another rock, but he had done it too quickly and it sunk right away. Otis rolled his eyes and just picked up another rock. As he was doing so, he saw someone new come to the area around him. He saw her watching him and stood up straight again. "You know how to skip stones?" Otis asked and held out a rock for to take if she wanted to.

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[Lily Lockhart]

<sub>Lily saw the boy skim some more stones. He did three, which was an improvement from two, but then he threw a bit too quickly and the stone sank. Lily noticed then that the boy noticed her. As he went over, Lily stood up. "You know how to skip stones?" He asked, handing Lily a stone. Lily hesitated for a second, but then took the stone. "I'm not that great!" Lily laughed, remembering her failed attempts she had done before.

Lily bent down low, and threw the stone. It sank, and Lily smiled at her not so good talent. She tried again, again, and again, but she realised this was not her so lucky day. Lily looked in amazement as the boy next to her did four, then five, then six bounces with the same stone.

"I am Lily," she said, failing another attempt to skim a stone. "What is yours?" Lily asked, out of curiosity.</sub>

[Otis Barberis]

Otis wasn't exactly the greatest stone skipper either, so she had no reason to be scared to try. Although he might look a bit scary for strangers to approach him, Otis tried his best to make people comfortable. He was just so tall and now that he had cut most of his hair off, he felt like a body guard for some villain. Otis ran a hand over his head and could feel the tiny hairs on his head start to get a bit longer. He had just gotten tired of constantly doing something with his hair that he just buzzed it off. He had no clue how girls could do it every day with making their hair look good. Or even braiding. Braiding was a mystery to Otis and was still trying to figure out how girls did it.

"Oh that's fine. I'm not too great myself really." Otis reassured her as she took the stone in her hand. He watched her throw the stone and watched how it sank right away. Otis shrugged. Skipping stones wasn't exactly very easy in the first place. "It's all in the wrist. It's kinda like throwing a frisbee." Otis told her and motioned the movements of throwing back hand and front hand like he was throwing a frisbee. He then picked up a rock and demonstrated. To his bewilderment, he got his rock to skip four times this time around. "Guess I'm teaching myself in the process!" Otis chuckled as he took his own advice quite well. He picked up a nice flat rock and ran it between his fingers as he touched the smooth surface of the stone. He handed it over to her since Otis seemed to finally get the stone skipping process down. "I've been at it for awhile already, but practice does make perfect." Otis told her with a smile.

"Nice to meet you Lily. I'm Otis." Otis introduced himself. He smiled at the fact that there seemed to be a never ending supply of girls named Lily at this school. One of his best friends was named Lily, but at least this Lily didn't have orange hair and was younger. Otis would definitely be able to keep those two apart then. "I'm a Rouerie, how 'bout you?" Otis asked. Sometimes it was obvious what house people were in. Some of the super artsy people that carried around their instruments or sketchpads made it clear they were of Cossu. With Sournois, some of the people always had scowls on their faces and were bluntly rude to everybody. Roueries could always be found in a library, but Otis had a hard time telling who Roueries were sometimes since he thought of Rouerie as a more diverse house than the other two. Of course there were exceptions to the stereotypes, but it was easier to tell what houses people were in then.

ooc: careful with god-modding. otis may or may not have skipped that many stones in the first place

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[Amanda James]

Amanda slam, ed her book shut. She had fonoshed yet another one. Amy bit her lip and breathed deeply in her anger at the book. The book hadn't meant any har, of course, but like all good books, his one just had to end. But what really angered Amy, wad that it chose today to end, of all possible days.

Amanda had hqd a cold for the past few days and was getting very miserable for her. She flicked her hand to summon her veela hair wand from the table. "Accio" she said as she pointed the wand to her hair brush. Amanda had neen sittin in her dorm for the past few days. The only food she ate was candy from her trunk.

Amy grabbed a chair and slowly stood up. Bang! was the sound she heard as she fell to the ground.This was not going to be easy. After a minute of debating, she had decided to veela hover. She was one sixreenth veela and was quite good at it actually. That didn't really work out eiher. In the end she was in her red sweater and jeans, flyin down to the lake on her Nimbus 2000.

She landed with a plop on the grass. Looking up she noticed her room mate Lily skipping stones with an older boy. What was hos name? Otis? Amanda thought she haf seen him with some roueries a few weeks ago. Amy slowly stood up and walked over to Lily and the otis boy.

[Lily Lockhart]

<sub>"It's all in the wrist. It's kinda like throwing a frisbee." Otis had told Lily after her fifth failed attempt. He demonstrated his point to Lily with a flat stone, and had done four skips, to his bewilderment. "Guess I'm teaching myself in the process!" Otis had chuckled, and Lily smiled. He handed a stone to Lily while adding "I've been at it for awhile already, but practice does make perfect." Lily took the stone and bent low, doing exactly what Otis had told her. She threw the stone and, to her bewilderment, had finally skipped two stones! "Yes!" Lily said with a smile, she was quite pleased with herself by skipping her first stone.

"Nice to meet you Lily. I'm Otis." Otis had told her. "I'm a Rouerie, how 'bout you?" Lily sat down by Otis while he had asked her that question. "I'm a Cossu, one of my best friends is a Rouerie." Lily answered, kicking off her sandals aside.

At that very moment, a young girl had hopped off her broom nearby. Amanda, Lily's best friend! Amanda walked up to them, thus did Lily wave at her. "Hey Amanda." Lily called.

OOC: Sorry, wasn't concentrating and didn't realise that I was god-modding.</sub>

[Amanda James]

"Hey Amanda." Lily had called as Amy waved. Lily had just explained to Otis that she was a Cossu.

"I'm Lily's best friend Amy and her dorm mate. I'm alao a Cossu" Amy said to Otis as she air hugged Lily.

She didn't want to make physical contact with anyone today.

[Otis Barberis]

There were days that made Otis question whether or not he could be a professor at Beauxbatons or Hogwarts, or hell, even Durmstrang. Otis could have gone to either school if he had wanted to. He'd been all over Europe growing up. He was born in Greece, moved to Ireland to live with his aunt and uncle while his parents sorted things out and then moved back to Greece. Although, by the time his family moved back to Greece, Otis was already attending Beauxbatons. He had English, French, Greek and a bit of Bulgarian under his belt all thanks to his diverse family. The majority of his cousins went to Durmstrang because it was a lot closer to Greece than France and a few of his cousins went to Hogwarts. It was one of the reasons why Otis always had the curiosity for knowledge. His family were growing more diverse in different cultures every day and Otis had to keep up with all those changes. He didn't have to, but he always had a thirst for knowledge.

He told Lily what to do to try to help her improve with skipping rocks and she had done it with success too! She got two skips before the stone sunk to the bottom of the lake. Otis threw his arms up in excitement. It was more for her success, but a tiny part of him was congratulating himself on teaching someone correctly. He had always been iffy on teaching because Otis could explain things horribly because he was a man of detail. Not everybody could understand where he was going, but there were some days where he was spot on: like today. "Nice one, Lily!" He congratulated her and they both sat down. Yet another Lily to add to Otis's brain. Lily was one of those names that had gotten very popular a few years ago thanks to the infamous Wizarding War over in Britain. It was all people seemed to talk about when he was over in Britain for six months on an internship. There were a few statues of Harry and the rest of his friends and it was all very exciting. It just wasn't as nostalgic for Otis as it was for the natives. Otis was far from that craziness and was glad to get away from it. "And one of my very best friends is a Cossu! What a small world!" Otis told her with a smile. Otis knew that Beauxbatons never had that stigma that only Roueries hung out with other Roueries or Cossus with Cossus and Sournois with Sournois. House status never really mattered here. At least, it didn't matter too much to Otis. If you were a nice person, then you were good in Otis's books. Although, he had noticed he didn't know many people from Sournois. There was really only Morrígan Mason, the Head Girl. They were quite close when they were both Heads, but that changed when Otis had left for six months. He hadn't seen her around lately, but knew he needed to catch up eventually.

Then another small girl came nearby and heard Lily call her Amanda. Otis waved, just to be friendly since Lily seemed pretty excited to see the short girl. Then Amanda introduced herself as Lily's best friend and Otis thought this must be the Rouerie girl she had been talking about, but then she said she was a Cossu so Otis was slightly off guard. He watched as they air hugged and Otis watched with interest. He hadn't seen anyone greet their best friends like that, but he let it go. People that age had their own way of doing things, unlike Otis who pretty much knew who he was. Unless air hugging was an actual thing girls did, then Otis was definitely confused. Just when he thought he knew women, he got things like this and had to start over. He had been hanging out with Matthew more, so maybe his female intuition was starting fade after all those years of hanging out with Kabes and Lily James.

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[Amanda James]

The boy named Otis had smiled and waved at Amanda. She smiled back. He seemed nice. Unlike some people. Amanda thought about some older students who hadn't been the nicest to her. Most of them were from Sournois. Amanda did know many nice people. Many were from her house, of course.

Amanda looked up at the boy who appeared to be only a little bit older than Lily. Amanda sat down on a rock beside the enormous lake of Beauxbatons. Amanda had heard people speak about a giant sea monster that lived in the deep blue waters.

Amanda took out a tissue and into it. She sniffled as she ran a finger through her long brown curls. Amanda conjured a book with her wand and began to read.

[Lily Lockhart]

"Thank you!" Lily said cheerfully. Of course, Lily was quite rubbish at skipping stones, so that had been a great achievement. "Or, you could just make them skip yourself," Lily added cheekily, and, taking out her wand and a single stone, Lily made the stone skip 6 times in the water with a lazy flick of her wand. "Makes things easier, if you ask me!" Lily said, giggling slightly.

After the greeting with Amanda, Lily saw that Amanda sat on a rock. Lily left her to her reading. Of course, after Lily achieved in skipping the stone, she had wanted to try again. Naturally, Lily had done what Otis taught her. Another skip, but this time, the stone sank back down. Once again, Lily tried, but was a bit more successful, having succeeding in the same amount of skips as the first one Lily did properly. "Some more success for me, I think," Lily said cheerfully.

Lily never really valued the beauty of the lake until now. It was a very still but stunning lake, even if some supposed creature laid below. Lily knew they were just myths, but she never really had taken the time to look. Sometime later she could have a dip in the lake, just to see if there was actually any creature or not.