Double Dog Dare

"Don't you have actual friends to bother Samuels?" Juliet walked along the rocks at the edge of the lake, her bare feet paddling along the warm rocks, arms swaying out to the side to catch her balance every now and again, as the boy - the closest thing to a bane of her existence Juliet had ever known - walked along the grass beside her. "How did you even find me anyway?"

The boy's brown gaze was impassive as he watched her movements. There could almost be a concern in that gaze, but Juliet knew that he was just plotting a way to get her into more trouble. She wished to say that she was going to have none of it, but deep down she knew that to be untrue. There was something about Noah Samuels - perhaps it was his cocky nature - that just got on Juliet's nerves in a way no one else quite did. She couldn't not do whatever he taunted her to do. It was as if she had to constantly prove him wrong, in every action that she could do so in. If she didn't it felt as if there would be some failure.

Every time he won - which was rare - she felt as if she lost something. And the way her cheek had smartened after his fist made contact with it had only made that feeling increase.

"As if I was looking for you." Samuels snorted and rolled his eyes, "Now quits stalling Jones, are you going to do it or not?"

Twirling slightly on her rock, Juliet looked out at the object in question. Out in the middle of the lake was a small stone island. It wasn't too far out, anyone with a boat could get there easily - that however was not how Samuels claimed he could - and in directly, she couldn't - get there. It didn't matter if she didn't actually see Samuels swim the length or not, just be refusing, Juliet knew she would be admitting to what he said - she couldn't swim that distance. The truth was she probably couldn't, but well...

Samuels didn't need to know that.

"Shut up." Pulling off the shirt she had been wearing she chucked it at Noah with a quick "hold this" before her body had disappeared underneath the water with a neat dive.

Juliet had taken swimming lessons as a child - as most children in her town had - and although she wasn't a strong swimmer, she was decent. From her place on the shore, the island hadn't looked all that far away at all, and as she pulled towards it, she believed quite completely that she could make it.

However, from her original stand point she hadn't taken into account how choppy the waters got the further from shore she got. Nor did she figure on the slight panic she'd feel when, going to take a break she straightened her body only to found the bottom of the lake no where near her feet. Logic should have had her ready for that fact, and in the end she would have recovered just fine, if she hadn't gasped loudly when it happened, her head dunking just enough as she did so to give herself a healthy lung full of lake water. Coughing violently, her panic only increased so that she forgot to even attempted to tread water. Very quickly her head disappeared from view, bobbing up only a few moments later as she became aware of herself again. Three or four times this action was repeated until the last time... her head just didn't come back up.

On the shore, watching, Samuel's smirk of success died as quickly as it started, and he watched, completely at a loss as to what to do, sure that if he waited long enough the girl would pop back up again.

Wouldn't she?

"Every time we meet I find I've less reasons to not rend you limb from limb." Mars gave the boy a shove as he passed even though there was plenty of room to avoid him. He did not have time to bother with him.

He waded into the water and pushed off from the shore powerful strokes carrying him towards where Juliet had vanished beneath the surface. Why did she even listen to the idiot? He thought she was smarter than that.

Mars dove under the water and looked around. Seeing Juliet he swam to her and hauled her to the surface and back towards shore. If that stupid Samuels kid knew what was good for him, he would be gone before he got there.

The water that she hadn't been able to cough out of her throat before she had begun to sink burned against the lungs that it was filling up. They were begging for her to cough up the liquid, to try to get air, but there was nothing around her but more of the same. What she needed to do was swim back to the surface, and stay over the surface only her brain was too frazzled to think of that solution, all it cold focus on was the immediate demand, which was the need to clear her lungs of water, and take in air. The simple logic of piecing together how to do it, simply was not coming to her brain. If the murky figure had not come from the surface, dragging her back up with him, it would have been highly unlikely that she ever would have made it back up to the top.

Fearful of falling under again, or perhaps just because her brain was unwilling to allow her to sink even an inch further into the water, she clung to her saviour in a manner that more likely than note made it all the harder for him to swim. Part of her brain was aware of that too, but she was far too busy taking ragged, half coughing breaths, possibly getting more water into her mouth than air. Juliet hadn't realized how far she had gone out, or perhaps it only felt further on the way back because she had little to no air in her lungs.

Once on the shore, the girl threw herself on the ground with no help from anyone else, chest violently heaving as deep watery coughs racked through her body, purging itself of the poison that was in it. The water burned on its way back up.

"Oh my- Juliet I-I-" the boy who had been to stunned by what he had caused to do nothing more than stumble to the ground at the shove her receive and only pulled himself back up when the girl was on the ground again. It probably would have been smarter for him to leave all together, but he couldn't stop himself from making sure that the girl he had sent out into the water wasn't going to end up dead. His forward movement however was stopped by a held up hand from Juliet, the glare saved for him getting sent at the grass below her instead because she didn't have the energy to get back up at the moment. She sucked in air like a starving person consumed food.

"D-d-don't even-" she finally managed to give Noah the glare he deserved before dragging her gaze back to the boy who did pull her out of the water - who she was now aware enough of her surroundings to see was in fact not a stranger, but Mars. Her experiences had certainly humbled her for the moment, "I suppose I owe you a thanks for saving me from my stupidity."

He crouched beside Juliet as she coughed the water out of her lungs. When she thanked him, he stood up. "You're welcome," he said.

Mars grabbed the other boy by the throat and let his claws extend and dig into his neck. His appearance distorted a bit to accommodate the large teeth that formed in his mouth, which he bared at the younger guy. "Ravenclaws are supposed to be smart," Mars said. "Prove it. Give me one good reason I should let you walk away."

Rolling over, Juliet huddled in on herself despite the warm sun. The droplets of water were slowly dripping off her skin, leaving icy trails in their wake. Taking in healthy breaths of air, her green eyes search around for her shirt, but before she could find it her attention was drawn towards the boys instead.

Struggling against the grip that the older boy had against him, Noah Samuels was having difficulty getting the words out of his mouth, even if his brain could figure out the right string of words to get him out of the situation his stupidity had gotten him into. "I-I leave her alone. Just-"

"You can't punish him for what's my fault." Juliet had risen to her feet, and took the few steps to place herself beside the two. Her arms were still around her, pressed against her middle, and her arms continued to shake, but her gaze was steady, firm as she looked between the two. "He might have been stupid for suggesting it, and completely idiotic for staying around - but I was just as dumb for doing what I knew I could not do. I could not have drowned if I stayed out of the water."

She hadn't missed the claws, or the teeth, but Juliet had bigger things to worry about - and besides, Hogwarts was filled with "unique" people. There wasn't much she hadn't seen before. This one was new but not completely out of no where.

She had always felt like there was something off about Mars anyway.

"If we're going to punish him, might as well punish me in the same manner - I probably deserve it more so."

He gave a feral grin at the boy's stammering, showing off his teeth even more. "Who said I'm punishing him? Maybe I just don't like the kid," Mars said. "You goad her to do something stupid again and it will be the last thing you do. Got it?" He shoved the kid away. His teeth and nails returned to normal.

"Haven't missed your stupidity, sweetheart. Someone should probably just put you on a leash so you don't go and get yourself killed. Can't always be around to save you, you know."

Samuels fell to the ground once he was released, only taking a moment to make sure his feet were underneath him, that his legs were supporting him before taking off. Juliet let her gaze follow him for a moment, watching the spot he made on the horizon until he disappeared. "Well, if you really can't contain your dislike, try to hold your ripping from limb to limb impulses to not in front of me, will you? I find I still get horrible squeamish. Blood is so... unpleasant." As she continued to speak, a slightly amused expression began to slide onto her face even though the words that she was speaking was otherwise.

"Really, and here I thought my stupidity was my best quality," running a hand through her matted hair, she turned around and finally grinned at the boy in question. Although her one arm remained settled down on her middle, the shivering had died down some. Perhaps that meant the shock was wearing off, or maybe she was just distracted. It may come back if she began to think about what almost happened again. Still she looked around the ground again for her shirt, and finally found it a few feet away.

"So am I hearing a suggestion for me to take at large," her voice travelled over her shoulder as she turned to walk across the grass to grab it, the tiny rose tattoo that she usually forgot about glinted as the sunlight hit her right shoulder. "Or are you offering to be the one to put me on a leash?"

"No dismembering people in front of you. Got it," Mars said. He shook his head at her. "Guess you aren't too scarred if you are joking about it."

"Nice tat," he said, walking over to her. He took his wand out and cast a drying charm. "Better."

He gave a rakish grin. "That depends. You want me to be the one to put a leash on you? Can't say I'd complain too much."

Leaning against the the tree that her shirt had landed near, she faced the boy with a smirk and a slight twinkle in her green eyes, "Maybe I use joking as my defence against my truly scarring and horrible past. Ever thought about that?"

"Hmm. Oh thanks," she looked at over her shoulder to glance at the design that was upon the skin. A last minute impulse thing, "To be honest I forget its there sometimes."

Twirling up her shirt in her hands, thinking that she should put it back on but still having yet to do so, she smiled her thanks at the spell. The warmer smile turned back into a smirk though at his next statement, response to her own flippant remark.

"Hmm, noted then. However I think I could find some people who would complain. I myself might - leashes are horribly restricting don't you think?" Of course that was the point of a leash, and the point of the conversation but Juliet didn't seem to think she needed that kind of logic. "Plus I bet you they'd chafe like anything."