June 10th, 1881 — The Black Lake (Hogsmeade Side)
Lily Huddleston

Showing me all the ways I could fall
You made me feel new
I'm crashing, I'm crashing right into you

As far as fundraisers went, there were certainly worse things they could have been doing. As one of the more junior officers drafted into the Sycorax expedition, he hadn't actually volunteered to be a part of this so much as he had been voluntold, but so far, JD really didn't mind. The sky was bright and sunny, the wind was mild, and he was getting to do his favorite thing — sailing.

Well, truth be told, he wasn't actually doing much sailing. He was more here in a supervisory capacity, really. The fundraiser involved Hogsmeade residents wandering down to the park and paying a few sickles to take a turn around the lake in one of the sailboats they'd provided, and John's job was primarily to make sure they didn't crash into each other, which was, of course, exactly what everyone was doing. What had anyone really expected, letting folks who had never been out on the water before just climb in and take off? There was a brief lesson in the basics, provided by either him or one of the few other officers involved in the fundraiser, but most of the people he'd talked to didn't really seem to be listening, and the way they were sailing certainly bore that theory out.

With a few well-placed cushioning charms, though, he'd managed to keep anyone from total disaster — until the Mers started getting involved. Apparently, no one had cleared the fundraiser through them (which was poor form, he thought, since it was their lake), and several of his shipmates had to go and make some quick diplomatic gestures to keep them from attacking all of the sailboats out on the lake. JD's Mermish had never been good enough not to accidentally insult anyone he was trying to converse with, so he was left as the sole guardian of the boats on the water while the situation was seen to.

Five minutes later, someone had managed to tip over their boat. How they'd even managed it with these wide-keeled vessels was beyond him, but he was learning not to put anything past folks with no sailing experience. Taking one of the spare boats still on the sandy shoreline, John launched a little rescue mission of sorts — but had not gotten even halfway to the capsized little crew before one of the nearby boats came careening towards him, steered, it seemed, by a young lady who might very well have still been in Hogwarts.

"Ay!" he called out to her with a wave of his hand. "Haul out port—er, left," he shouted, remembering at the last minute that nautical jargon would mean nothing to her, most likely. He tried to steer his own ship away from hers in case she wasn't able to turn, but at this point it was, unfortunately, too late to avoid at least a partial collision.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

With OWLs and her fifth year now behind her, Lily was quite happy to focus on more important things like having a bit of fun. Her father didn't seem to think very much of an expedition but he was happy enough to fund it through the means of attending alongside his family. The day was beautiful and Lily was looking forward to another summer.

Lily had been fascinated by the sailboats while the rest of her familys attention were drawn elsewhere. Considering they were hardly in a den of debauchery, it had been agreed that Lily could do as she pleased. Her parents probably didn't think the sixteen year old could get up to much mischief even if she had been so inclined.

Lily had sort of assumed that the sailboats would work like the cute ones on the Padmore Park pond did. Lily did not know how to sail a boat that wasn't enchanted to lazily float her about so she was a little lost. With no idea what to do - and unbeknownst to her, an ornery mer causing mischief beneath her vessel - it was no surprise that Lily soon had more than she could handle on her hands as her boat went careening towards another boat.

"Haul out, what?" Lily asked in confusion, pulling at ropes. His words were similar to ones she had read in stories about sailors and pirates but the meaning of them were lost on her at the moment. Lily was not all too surprised when hers collided with his and caused her o fall back. If there was an accident to be had, usually Lily had the misfortune of experiencing it. "I'm so sorry, are you all right?" She asked, tripping over her skirts a little as she tried to sit up straight.

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The impact of the two vessels striking each other sent a jolt through his joints, but it was nothing worse than he'd experienced during his time at sea (though usually those impacts were caused by waves, not collisions). Still, he was jostled, a bit, and he had to shake his shoulders out to regain his bearings. "I'm fine," he said as he eyed both the lady (a rather pretty lady, actually, which he hadn't taken the time to notice when she was imminently crashing in to him) and her boat. The latter had sustained a bit of damage: at the front end where the two vessels had struck, there was a large and ugly crack in the hull, which extended some amount below the waterline. That wasn't entirely unexpected, as these were just little wooden pleasure craft; wood was bound to crack eventually, and JD had no idea how old these boats actually were.

"You look to be in a bit of trouble, though," he said, moving towards the front of his own boat and reaching out to catch one of the lines on hers, so that she couldn't accidentally drift away and start sinking. A quick glance at the side of his own sailboat told him that he wasn't suffering any similar maladies, which was a godsend. He still had, after all, a crew of capsized citizens to go rescue, and he could hardly do it with a sinking ship. It was lucky, too, that the impact hadn't sent the young lady over in to the water — he had never really understood all of the layers involved in women dressing themselves, but knew he certainly didn't want to struggle against them (and, potentially, an angry mer) should he have to take a dip to go rescue her.

Pushing up his sleeve quickly, John plunged his hand down into the cool lake water to see how far down the damage to her boat extended, but he couldn't reach the edge of the crack without unbalancing himself. She'd be sinking sooner rather than later, with something like that, and he wasn't sure that he really had time to properly fix it and still get to the capsized crew in a timely fashion. Not to mention, whatever water her boat had already taken on would make it sluggish and hard to steer, and she didn't exactly seem to be an expert in the field of how to manipulate a sailboat as it was.

"Here," he said, shaking out his wet hand and offering it to her while he continued holding on to the head of her boat with the other. "Why don't you come over to mine? You'll be sunk if you stay here." It was the most sensible solution, though JD had overlooked several problematic variables — first, that she would have to cross over the smallest part of her boat in order to reach his, and the entire thing was coated in a thin layer of scummy water from the splash of their collision; and second, that women's shoes were hardly ever practical things to actually walk in. It would not have been problematic for him to move deftly between two small craft bobbing in a lake, and so it did not occur to him that it might present any difficulties for anyone else.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Oof, now that smarted. Lily had to sit a moment to let her mind have some time to catch up with what had just happened. Her boat was rather ruined though but Lily figured some sort of repairing magic could deal with that. Or something. This was one sort of accident that Lily had never experienced before.

Lily watched as the man moved about, seeming to know precisely what to do. Oh, how impressive! He brought the sort of protagonists that she read about in her adventure novels to mind. Being sixteen and full of hormones, she was quite plainly impressed despite the fact that he hadn’t really done much yet. Be still her heart when he pushed up his sleeve!

The young woman definitely didn’t mind the notion of moving over to his boat. The problem however was that she was a naturally clumsy person and this was not helped by the sort of dress and shoes fashion saw her wearing. Not to mention the thin layer of water on the part of her boat that she would need to move over to more easily move onto his.

Even so, she wanted to impress him so she wanted to try anyway. Maybe she would get lucky. Grabbing his offered hand, even that wasn’t enough to prevent Lily from ending up dangling in the water with one hand on his boat with the other on his hand. How mortifying.

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   J. Alfred Darrow

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The fall seemed as though it happened in slow motion from his perspective. He could tell both from the way she was carrying her weight and the slight change in pressure on his hand that she had lost her balance, but he was powerless to do anything about it. If he let go of her boat with the one hand it would start to drift away, which would only make matters worse and ruin any chance she had of recovering herself. Letting go of her hand wouldn't be any better, and it would look rather unchivalrous, besides. He just watched, then, while she tumbled down into the lake. At least she was still holding onto his hand and was therefore close enough for him to try and pull her aboard. While J would have dived into the water if necessary to ensure she didn't drown under all those layers of wet clothing, he was rather relieved that that wouldn't be necessary.

"It's alright," he said, letting go of the boat and reaching down to take her other hand. Letting a sailboat drift out onto the lake whilst sinking wasn't ideal, but he was here to protect the people participating in the fundraiser, not the boats. It might irritate the Mers, but he thought all things considered his shipmates would give him a pass on this one. Moving to the farthest edge of the boat and planting his knees firmly, John leaned down towards the girl in the water. "You're alright," he said again (mostly to keep her from panicking; this would be much harder if she became hysterical). "If you can get your arm up around my neck, I can lift you out. Alright?"

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   Lily Huddleston

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Fashion was not very productive when it came to water safety. The amount of layers was weighing her down despite the fact that her petite stature would make most assume she would be easy to just haul out of the water. Lily still was not entirely worried though, she had a pretty good grip on both the mans boat and his hand.

“Thanks to you, I’m sure I will continue to be,” Lily couldn’t resist saying with a smile. She was sure that he would have her onto his boat in no time so what was the harm in a little innocent flirtation. Besides, she was growing accustomed to finding herself in mishaps.

Lily nodded her agreement to his words though a blush did manage to find its way onto her cheeks at the notion of being so close to a man. She did want to get out of the water before she ended up with a cold though so she did her best to get her arm up around his neck.

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   J. Alfred Darrow

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Well, she wasn't hysterical. In fact, she was smiling at him, which was... not the reaction he expected from a young lady treading water in a Mer-filled lake. Her comment, too, threw him for a loop. Was she... flirting with him? It was so unexpected, in the circumstances, that he didn't know how to react. Luckily, he didn't have to say anything, as she managed to get her arm up around his neck (dampening his shirt collar in the meantime), which brought them too close for words or even expressions to be exchanged.

"Alright," he mumbled instead, focusing on the task at hand. He realized that the arm over his shoulders wouldn't be quite enough leverage to get her out almost immediately. The damp clothes were heavier than he'd anticipated. With a slight frown, J reached down with both arms to wrap them around her back to give him something else to work with. "Three, two, and —"

And with one fluid (if not entirely graceful) motion she was out of the lake. He was relieved to have been able to get her out, but less so by what followed: trying to hastily scoot back in order to make room for her in the boat, John lost his balance and ended up slipping down to a sitting position. It wasn't a dramatic difference from where he'd been kneeling a moment before, but it did mean that he had more or less just cradled this girl (who was still entirely a stranger, special circumstances or not) up against his chest. The position made him blush a bit, but he didn't let go of her right away. He wanted to make sure that she had her footing on the boat before he disentangled himself, because it would hardly do to send her crashing back into the water.

In the meantime, he'd gotten rather drenched by the close proximity of the still dripping-wet girl (though not nearly as much as she herself was), and a brief breeze made his skin prickle in all of the areas where he wasn't still in contact with her. "Merlin," he muttered, "You must be cold." If he felt a bit of a chill when the wind blew, after all, it was probably a dozen times worse for her, given her current state.

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Despite her earlier flirtation, Lily had not been prepared to find herself ending up more or less cradled against a strangers chest. It brought a blush to her cheeks and she was dazed for a moment. She did have an in-built sense of propriety though so she wasn't left just sitting there for too long as she tried to balance herself enough to be settled as comfortably as she could be given her current uncomfortable factors.

"Yes but all these layers are good for something," Lily said with a bit of a laugh. She got in enough mishaps that she tended not to be too embarrassed about them for too long. Besides, what she'd just said was true enough. Her skin under her corset and bustle were relatively dry compared to him, most likely. "I don't suppose you have a blanket all the same, do you? Or know a good drying spell?"

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A drying spell wasn't a bad idea, and J did know a few handy ones that they typically used on damp sails before folding them up and storing them away, so that they wouldn't collect mildew and mold before they were needed again. That said, he hadn't ever used one of those spells on anything with skin, and he wasn't exactly keen on trying out new magic in this situation. He hadn't been the best student at charms, and there wasn't anyone nearby to help the two of them if something went awry.

"Not one that I'd want to use on a person," he admitted, helping her off of his lap and onto one of the bench seats built in to the side of the sailboat. It was a shame that none of her clothes looked to be easily removed (and that doing so would probably leave her significantly underdressed), because surely drying out at least one article of clothing would at least help.

"Oh, wait," he said as an idea struck him. He shrugged his coat off of his shoulders and held it in one hand, fishing his wand out with the other. A quick spell saw it thoroughly dry, and he moved to drape it over her shoulders. "This should help, a bit."

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   Lily Huddleston

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER

Well, that was a shame. Lily mildly resigned herself to sporting the soaking wet look until she either got home or ran into someone that would be able to dry her out. Her father wasn't the best at magic though so definitely not him. She'd figure it out once she was on shore. For now, there was nothing to be done about it so she didn't intent to fuss over it too much.

"Thank you," she said, thinking him quite gallant to be offering his coat and it did help somewhat. "I'm Lily Huddleston, by the way."

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"John Darrow," he said as he sat down across from her. After taking a second to brush his shirt sleeves down after they'd been ruffled by removing his coat, he turned his attention towards the sails for a moment and trimmed them to set them moving again with a few well-practiced adjustments to the nearby lines. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Huddleston," he said genuinely as he returned his attention to her. "Though I wish it had been a little less dramatic, for your sake. Let's get you back to shore."

  

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MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER