(jan 04 mp) carving a new way for me (jeva, aurora, bren)

"Come on, come on, come on!" She whined as she raced down to the lake. Her skates were held close to her chest as her feet pounded through the snow. Christmas break had been so much fun with her family, but Patty missed her friends greatly. For the professors to make a section available for students to skate on was such a neat idea! Patty didn't think the lake could freeze over, not with the giant squid always stirring the waters. She found a spot on the benches the school had brought out and sat her bag down as she worked to strap on her skates. "

"Have you been skating before? I love it! Make sure your shoes are tied tight!" She was pulling at her laces once her skates were over her feet. Her mittens continued to get in the way so they were taken off and thrown down eagerly beside her in her rush to get on the ice.


@Jeva Ward @Aurora Hall @Brendan de Havilland

Aurora loved spending the holidays at Hogwarts where she could study in peace. She figured out the theory to many of the spells she was learning in class and was close to getting them down with the practical side. She was excited though that Patty was back and that she was getting the chance to hang out with Patty's friend Jeva. This was her chance to make another human friend.

She ran after Patty to the lake. They were going to go ice staking since part of the lake was frozen. It made Aurora worried about the giant squid but the professors assured her that the giant squid was alright and could handle the cold. She had went ice staking once with her parents but wasn't very good at it. She laughed a little at Patty's excitement as she pulled on her own stakes.

Jeva had never been ice skating before, and if she was quite honest, she was a bit nervous. Not because of the prospect of falling through the ice or seeing the giant squid (both events she almost hoped would happen, just so she could tell stories about it later), or even the likelihood of falling on her face, but rather she was afraid of her friends laughing at her when she did fall. Still, the second year's excitement at trying something new far outweighed her fear as she ran closely behind Patty to the lake.

Following Patty's lead, Jeva pulled on her skates and began yanking at the laces. If they needed to be tight, she would sure make them tight! The girl couldn't tell for sure, but she thought the others probably looked far more experienced at skating than she did. There were four of them, including herself, and Patty was the only one Jeva really knew. Then there was Aurora, a first year Slytherin, who Jeva thought was oddly serious for being eleven but seemed nice, and Brendan, who she knew a bit better, being in the same year and all. He was more polite than she could ever hope to be, and she decided that she liked him, even if he did probably have cooties.

When her laces were tied as tight as they could possibly go, Jeva decided to try standing up. Worried that if she stood slowly it would throw her off balance, the girl practically leapt to her feet, though she landed wrong on her left foot and instead fell over. Right into the snow.

The last knot of her laces was being tightened when she saw Jeva fall over. "Jeva!" The hufflepuff cried out in worry and amusement. She finished her knot then carefully hobbled over to her friend and offered her a helping hand. "When you're walking on your blades, you don't want to go too fast since you're walking on a small piece of metal." She pulled Jeva to her feet and demonstrated. "See? Keep your balance."

Patty pulled her hat down tightly over her ears.her long blonde hair poked out in two braids cascading over her shoulders. She pulled her mittens back on and made her way onto the ice. "Be careful getting on! It's slippery." With natural ease, she began gliding across the surface.

Patty had been ice skating every winter with her family. It was as easy as walking. She made a couple of small loops then raced back to her friends. "Do you need any help?"

Aurora had just finished putting on her skates when she saw Jeva fall over. She looked worried but since Patty was handling it she just watched on not knowing how to really help. She took Patty's advice to heart as she stood up to head towards the lake. She stepped on the lake and had to quickly hold her arms out to make sure she didn't fall. She watched as Patty made a couple of small loops and come back.

"I think I will just take this slow." She looks down embarrassed since she wasn't as good as Patty. She slowly made her way out to start a loop when her stake gets caught on the ice and she falls down on her side hitting her shoulder on the ice.

Wrapping his coat a bit more snugly around him, Bren stepped out the front doors and set out across the grounds, the borrowed ice-skates tucked securely under his arm. His boots crunched softly in the thick blanket of snow; it was the heavy and damp kind, ideal for making snowballs. The type that – if one listened closely enough – one could hear the snowflakes landing with a soft yet definitive splat. The glare off the white was blinding; he shielded his eyes, but still had to squint as he scanned the perimeter of the lake for a flash of Patience’s long blonde hair. He was supposed to meet her, Jeva, and a first year in his own House named Aurora to go ice-skating.

Some of his peers had poked fun at him for voluntarily hanging out with girls when he was the only guy, but Bren was learning not to mind the teasing. He had two sisters at home, after all, and didn’t feel as ‘intimidated’ as some of his classmates. Besides, he liked Patty and Jeva; he was still trying to get a read on Aurora, but if she was friendly with Patience then that was good enough for him.

By the time he made it down to the frozen edge, he spotted all three girls already out on the ice. He waved (though wasn’t sure any of them had actually seen him), then found a spot on a fallen tree to get ready. He laced up his skates slowly and meticulously, ensuring each row of laces was snug and secure before moving up to the next.

He’d gone ice-skating a handful of times with his family, usually around the winter holidays. Back home, it wasn’t often that it got cold enough for a long enough period of time that ponds and such could freeze over and so the rinks were almost always man-made. He described himself as neither talented nor incompetent: he could make his way around the circuit without falling or grabbing hold of anything, but couldn’t go very fast without getting unsteady and certainly couldn’t do any tricks.

Skates reasonably secured, he ambled out onto the ice, bracing himself from the sudden transition but wobbling spectacularly all the same. He pushed off awkwardly, trying to reactivate his muscle memory as he glided along, doing his best to avoid any embedded sticks or leaves. Spotting the girls up ahead, he lengthened his ‘stride’ slightly to catch up – and then Aurora wiped out, landing hard on her shoulder.
Bren flinched, clumsily coming to a stop about two feet away.

“You okay?” he asked, extending a hand towards her – and preparing to brace himself if she did take it so he wouldn’t fall over, too.

Jeva giggled as Patty helped her up and gave her some tips. Falling hadn’t even been that bad! That was good, since the girl planned on falling at least seventeen more times before the day was through. She did feel a pang of sympathy, however, when she saw that Aurora had also fallen over. Luckily Brennon was there to help her up, because Jeva was fairly certain she’d biff it again if she even attempted to support anyone’s weight but her own.

The young Hufflepuff watched in amazement as Patty moved easily across the ice. It looked so easy, and Jeva imagined herself gliding all over the lake, an instant master of ice skating. The reality, however, was much different than her fantasy. Not having a clue how to make her skates actually slide, the girl instead clomped, flatfooted, out onto the lake, not even attempting any form of grace.

Simply proud at the fact that she’d made it an entire twelve steps without falling, she continued to stumble clumsily across the ice, a wide grin slowly taking over her face. “C’mon, guys!” she shouted to her friends, wobbling to and fro as she turned around to face them, “It’s surprisingly easy!”

Jeva was a resilient little sprout! She was pleased to see that she got right back up and tried again. When she was younger, Patty would fall and want to quit immediately. She hated embarrassing herself in front of others and disappointing herself because she didn't do something like she had thought she could. Her expectations for herself as a child were high. When she'd want to quit, her father would be right there telling her that she didn't come this far just to come this far. With some more encouragement, she got back on the ice and learned to skate. Now she was so much better than where she had begun and could teach her friends to skate too.

Jeva was up and going so she checked on Brendon and Aurora. "Are you okay," she stopped in front of them. She waved at Brendon so he didn't think she was ignoring him. For a Slytherin, he wasn't too bad.

"Did you want me to teach you some tricks too? Getting on the ice is kind of scary at first. I fell sooooo much when I first learned. You won't get better if you don't keep going though." She purposely stood a little closer to Brendon so she could talk to him once they got Aurora moving again.

Aurora frowned as she rolled a little bit to make it easier for her to get up. She was mad at herself for falling and her shoulder hurt from landing on it. Even though she was mad at herself though she knew she wanted to keep trying.

She looked up at Brendon who asked if she was okay. "I'll be fine," she said quietly. She didn't really know him that well so she wasn't sure what to make of the Slytherin boy. She knew that Patty and Jeva were good friends with him so she figured he would be nice. She took his hand as to get up and smiled at Patty coming over to check on her. "I'll be fine. I'll just keep going slow so I'll skip the tricks this time around. I don't want to slow you down."

She slowly moved forward a little bit, just sliding her feet little by little. She smiled at Jeva who was doing pretty good. Aurora knew that everything would be okay. Yeah her should would hurt for a little bit and be sore tomorrow but she was having fun trying something new with friends.

“I’ll be fine,” she’d replied, and he nodded in acknowledgement.

Aurora took his hand, then; he did get pulled forward a bit with the effort despite his efforts to dig in and hold steady, but managed to keep his balance in the end. They both had just gotten their bearings again when Patty drifted over to them, and Brendan returned her wave.

“You’ll get the hang of it,” he told the younger girl in what he hoped was a reassuring tone. “Just takes time, that’s all.”

Aurora seemed good sport, too, which would go in her favor. Bren watched her inch away in Jeva’s general direction with a determined expression, and couldn’t help but glanced at Patty and smile a little – and when he actually looked at her, his smile widened. Her cheeks were pink with the cold, but her eyes were bright and she was brimming with excitement that radiated off of her in waves.

As soon as Aurora was out of earshot, though, he couldn’t think of anything to actually say. His fingertips began to tingle, a likely protest against the chill; he was wearing gloves but they were thin, no match for a properly-knitted set of mittens. Resisting the urge to stuff his hands into his pockets (last time he’d done that while skating he’d nearly broken his nose) for want of something to do with them, he tucked them under opposite armpits instead.

“They’re… doing pretty well for their first time out, you think?”