#24 - Some downtime to calm down

Joe was relieved by the lack of flames flaring towards him upon entering and pleasantly surprised to find a sunny room with a pond in it.

It was a beautiful sight and he would have liked to sit down and just look at the water, half expecting a little froggy to surface and croak at him - if only there wasn’t something foreboding about the pond.

He strolled into the room and briefly inspected the two buckets before moving towards the pond to read the plaque.

He furrowed his brows.

So far when he had been in these rooms he hadn’t been really hurt but this room seemed to be different and he shuddered as he turned back towards the door, intent on leaving without dipping as much as a toe into the water.
When he found it closed, he turned back towards the pond, wishing he hadn’t gone here and instead was still sitting his exams.

This had to be the room Toby had told him about. Joe suddenly remembered his friend’s tale of almost being dragged to death into water.

Joe’s face fell and he tapped his palm to his forehead. He should’ve just gone and played outside at the lake.

He‘d never doubt his mum again when she sent him to play outside.

Gathering his courage, Joe tip toed towards the pond once more, trying to figure out how they had gotten it inside and as deep as it appeared to be as well.

Joe peered into its depth and fumbled with his robes to get his wand out.
He tried to get around going into the scary pond by trying the levitation charm on a stone but nothing happened.

He tried it again for good measure but he was unsuccessful. At first he thought it was because he couldn’t actually see the stone or perhaps the levitation charm didn’t work in water but he then tried the wand lighting charm, just to see if magic even worked here - it didn’t.

Joe mumbled something rather unpretty about the professors‘ mothers, still believing it was the professors‘ work.

He wasn’t even sure how this correlated but he was convinced Snape was behind this particular room.
That slimy git would surely gloat if he‘d drowned a student like him, Joe was sure of it.

At this point Joe was feeling more annoyed than scared and he took off his robe, shoes and socks then shirt and trousers until he was in nothing but his boxers.

Good thing his parents had made sure to take him swimming at least once a month and had actually played the dive and fetch game before.
But it had never been this serious or dark before and he took a deep breath before submerging into the water.

During his descend he let out the air to be able to move down faster and take pressure off his lungs.
He tried to dive down straight and not let his gaze wander to the left or right in case he saw something scary.

He was glad when he finally reached the bottom and grabbed a stone. It felt heavy in his hand and he had to use the second one as well, which he did not feel comfortable with:

This left him with only his legs and he did the froggy swim motion once he had kicked off the ground, trying to ignore the aching in his lungs that urged him to take a breath already.

The moment his head broke the surface, Joe gasped for air deeply. Looking around left and right below him, he was certain there was something in the water with him.

He now vividly recalled Toby’s tale about this room and he pushed his legs to move him towards the edge of the pond. He heaved the stone onto the floor and climbed out himself.

He was dripping wet, some of his hair clinging to his forehead as he carried the stone towards the buckets and tossed it into the black one.

Wouldn’t it be funny if he had chosen the wrong one now?
Black felt right to him but he figured it was just a fifty/fifty chance.

Joe shook his head like a dog. He would have enjoyed the drops flying around if it weren’t for the uneasy feeling of having a creature lurk just below that surface so he hoped something would happen with the bucket soon.