who needs prefect's bathroom? (open)

After getting a lot of work done in advance, Louis had some time to relax. He knew that this time in the evening before curfew wouldn't be a popular time for swimming, and luckily the swimming pool wasn't crowded. In fact, he appeared to be the only one there.

Dipping a toe into the water, he immediately took it back again. The water wasn't cold, but it wasn't the warmth he was looking for. Maybe there was some kind of spell he could use to get the temperature up some? So it was more like a bath? Perhaps if he concentrated, he could use the same spell he used to heat water for tea.

After a while, he seemed to have managed it. Steam rose across the water's surface, and Louis slipped inside. Immediately he closed his eyes - it was very, very relaxing.

Cernunnos wanted to find out what all this hoopla surrounding the pool was about. He brought his phone and a docking station for it, that he may or may not have charmed the shit out of, so he could play some tunes while floating around.

He wore whatever swimming trunk he actually managed to bring with him to Hogwarts. Despite his personality, it wasn't too flashy and was just black. Cernunnos powered up his phone and docking station and quickly started blaring some Ace of Base throughout the pool area.

It took him a while to realize he wasn't the only person there.

"OMG, I had no idea you were in here!"

@Louis Weasley

The sooner he relaxed, however; there was a sudden blare of music. Louis couldn't help but jolt. The presence of music reverberating off the walls of the large room spooked him. When he turned about, he saw Cernunnos Largo standing there.

"It's all right," Louis said, chuckling. "I hope you don't mind me being here as well. I've heated up the water."

Beaming, clutched onto the side and kicked out his legs behind him.

"What kind of music is that?" He'd never heard it before.

@Cernunnos Largo

"I could use the warmth anyway. You have nooo idea how gross the guys in my dorm's bathrooms are."

Cernunnos shuddered to think about some of the things he's seen over the years there.

How could he not know who Ace of Base are?! "Ace of Base! I saaaaw the sign, it opened up my eyes I saw the sign!"

@Louis Weasley

"What is the sign?" Louis had to ask.

He chuckled lightly. A 'biggest hit' to him maybe, but to Louis: he couldn't really fathom what that meant. He wasn't big on his musical knowledge, but he liked what he was playing nonetheless.

"I'm Louis," He greeted, beaming, "And you're Cernunnos Largo, aren't you? I've heard girls talk about how they want to do their make-up like you do."

Could that be perceived as offensive? Maybe.

"Is it waterproof?" He added, wondering if he was going to get in.

"Everyone calls me Cernu!" he responded with a smile as he began getting into the pool.

Cernunnos cocked his head. "What's waterproof? I'm actually makeup-less right now! Most makeup free looks involve makeup, but that's too much work."

@Louis Weasley

Louis hadn't the slightest clue what he was talking about, but he smiled nonetheless. Obviously there were a lot of things he didn't understand, but he could appreciate that people were passionate about different things.

"Cernu, then."

Then, he realised something.

"There was a song playing at the bowling place when Carina and I--" He stopped, bit his lip, and continued: "When I was there. The lyrics were something like: 'two hearts that beat as one'. That was a good song."

"I don't think so..."

It felt like he was entering the twilight zone here, but it was a very welcome distraction. Cernu probably didn't realise that.

"Can you play Kylie Minogue?" He asked, smiling.

Cernunnos nodded excitedly. "Totally. She's a legend. To me, she's up there with Madonna and Britney!" He briefly got out of the pool to change the song to whatever was the next Kylie Minogue song and jumped back in.

"This is one of my faves by her!"

@Louis Weasley

He couldn’t really say whether he liked it or not. It wasn’t something that he would choose to listen to again, but he was more intrigued by how much Cernu seemed to like it. As the song progressed, he sort of changed his mind.

”It’s quite nice...” He dipped his shoulders under the water so only his head was bobbing on the surface. ”Do you... ever think you were more suited to the muggle world?” He didn’t really mean it to be offensive, he just always wondered that about Cernunnos...

”What’s your real opinion of the wizarding world?”

He realised that muggles probably killed one another as well. But Louis’s mind was constantly fixated on this ‘grass is greener on the other side’ philosophy as of late. It was almost as if he wanted to blame magic in general instead of an individual for his Aunt’s death.

What a question.

"Still not fully adjusted to it honestly. Everyone and everything is so outdated. How can they stand to live that way?"

@Louis Weasley

”How do you mean by ‘outdated’?”

For some reason he was envisioning everyone walking around dressed and bearded as Merlin. He sort of laughed.

”I suppose I always thought of technology as the muggle’s magic,” He said thoughtfully. ”It’s funny how the foundations of our magic stems from muggle invention though.”

He smiled weakly. Then he sort of felt sad. It was a little bit too much to think about right now, he decided.

”So you probably feel a little trapped here at times?”

"Yeah, I do."

Guess he might as well explain his trials to even feel some sort of normalcy while in Hogwarts.

"I know people wouldn't think of me as the type, but I genuinely read every charms book in the school that I could find to try and figure out how to get my smartphone to work. When all else failed, I might've experimented and created a few of my own..." Cernunnos paused and bit his lip. "I even created my own magical router!"

He went through his hair until he pulled out a minuscule router that resembles a bobby pin. "Water and rust proof. Powered by magic!"

@Louis Weasley

Louis blinked at this tiny thing he was being shown.

”That’s... really quite something.” He was genuinely astounded that he could accomplish such things. What was a router? Obviously it was something that ran on electricity. The muggle’s magic. ”You don’t have to worry about your future, these sorts of charms will benefit a lot of people. Not just while you’re at school.”

He smiled.

”Have you ever been in the restricted section?” He asked, seemingly out of the blue from their last line of conversation.

Cernunnos slid the bobby pin back into his hair making sure to not lose it in the pool water.

"Except I do worry about my future. I have a few career ideas, but they're unrealistic things like fashion design. I'm literally a bit afraid to show off my workarounds or whatever unless I know the person in question is from the muggle world."

He shrugged. "Not much, but this Cherry girl managed to get in there when I was trying to figure out my technology, and she told me there was nothing there of value for my, um, research. I don't think electricity is even written that much in wizarding books."

@Louis Weasley

”Unrealistic?” Louis didn’t know much about the fashion industry: magical or muggle. ”Perhaps muggle fashion in the wizarding world would be a niche we need.” He beamed brightly at him, his vast optimism deluding any sense of how to start and run a business.

Then he shook his head, still smiling.

”No, I don’t suppose there would be,” He’d never been in that part of the library, but he’d heard things about it. ”I was just thinking about what you said about films. In the restricted section, there are supposedly these books that warp your physical body into the story. Although, I suppose most of them would be some sort of curse...”

Being sucked into a book sounded kind of fun to him. Like being in a well-constructed dream that you could recall entirely.

"You're officially the only person in this school who knows of that router. To be honest, it gets overwhelming sometimes getting all the phone signals near my head, but since it's powered by magic, it's virtually harmless. I should try and make a few more of them to hide throughout the corridors though..."

He was trailing off into his own verbal troubleshooting of sorts as he thought about his invention.

Cernunnos raised an eyebrow. "The only thing that makes wizarding fashion wizarding fashion are robes. What you all wear when not in uniform wouldn't be out of place among muggles."

Yep, seemed like he needed to do a bit of fashion education too.

"Muggle books already do that. You just need an imagination."

@Louis Weasley

”There must be a reason why muggles don’t only read books, though,” Visuals. Also he wasn’t certain that Cernunnos was fully comprehending what he was saying.

”I’m sure there are a lot of muggle fashions wizards are unaware of.”

He still didn’t know what this router thing actually was. All this new information was a little overwhelming.