The Life Aquatic with Lupin, Maturin, and Nemo

[conriocht.livejournal.com]

It was early morning, and Lupin was shivering on the shores of Hogwarts Lake. Somewhere out there in the murky water, the grindylow were going through their spring hatching. There were important observations to be made: did the grindylow raise their young like mammals, or abandon them like some reptiles? What did baby grindylow eat? Which parent (if any) took care of them? Were grindylow prone to cannibalism of their young like many species? He was going to find out.

He was wearing a pair of very old swimming trunks, unused since his previous grindylow study fifteen years ago, and a threadbare, oversized T-shirt that had once belonged to Sirius - both a disguise for his scars and a sort of good luck talisman. He had with him his wand, two pads of paper charmed to stay dry underwater, and a camera and a stopwatch which were similarly charmed. He felt like the Muggle explorer Jacques Cousteau, and kept half-expecting a French voiceover to start describing his mission.

He wrapped his arms around himself to stay warm, and waited for Maturin to arrive. He wasn't sure if Nemo had been turned back into a fish yet or not, but hopefully he had been restored to his natural form and would be along as well. This was going to be an interesting adventure.

Comments

[nemofound.livejournal.com]

"No, I don't think we have either. Hi!" Nemo considered the prospect of the spell. "Okay, that's fine. Hm ... you can't talk with gillyweed? I could ... that's funny. I can still talk with both of you, right? Could that help?"

((OOC: Nemo had no trouble talking when he used gillyweed in his chibi-form; shall we just assume that that's a function of the fact that it's normal for Nemo to talk through gills? (And not that his mun forgot about any canon restrictions pertaining to gilly-speech. :-P Of course.) ))

[conriocht.livejournal.com]

"Yes, you can still talk with us. I don't know if that'll help, though. Now, if you could hold still a moment, I can try the spell on you. It won't hurt, don't worry."

Lupin took out his wand. He was using a variant of the Bubblehead spell, which would keep saltwater in and fresh water out, and also (as an added bonus) keep Nemo safe from any possible attacks by hungry grindylow. He murmured the words of the spell and then carefully lifted Nemo out of his tank, now floating in a little self-contained bubble of saltwater. "There - how does that feel? Can you breathe all right?"

((Yeah, in canon Harry can't talk when he's using the gillyweed - or rather, he can talk but no sound comes out. But let's just let it go... no big deal. ;) ))

[nemofound.livejournal.com]

"Whoa!" Nemo said, looking around and wriggling in Lupin's hands. "Yeah, that's just fine. Wow!"

[nemofound.livejournal.com]

((ooc: *severely* limited online time until Monday, as that's the day of my big test. Er. The first of many big tests, that is.))

[conriocht.livejournal.com]

"Ah, I'm glad this worked," Lupin said, holding the little ball of water carefully in both hands. "I've never tried this before. You certainly have been having some interesting experiences lately, haven't you, Nemo?"

((no problem - good luck on your test!))