Week 2 - Task #1 - Start of Vacation

[Prof. Alexander Brighton]

Now that you’re finally at your vacation spot and ready to enjoy some time to yourself, you decide to explore a bit. So you leave your charmed wizarding tent, ready for adventure!

You decide to check out the beaches first. So you head to the nearest or best beach around. Depending where you are, you might need to travel a bit to get there. Once there, you get yourself all set up.

You have a fantastic time at the beach, it’s such a surprisingly beautiful day. But then after a few hours, the clouds grow dark and the rain starts pouring down. You look out to the horizon and you see a huge tidal wave forming. You know this can’t be right. It seems kind of mysterious. Just as you’re about to run for cover, you see something that confirms your suspicions that there really are magical forces behind this.

But what is going on? Was it a magical sea creature native to the area that you saw or maybe one that isn’t so native? Or maybe it’s something else altogether, like the rise of a new dark witch or wizard. In at least 100 words, tell me what you will do to stop this and save the beach and the muggles (if there are any around).

Please post below by May 31. If you complete at least half the tasks by the due date, you will earn a bonus of 20 beans. If you complete all tasks, you will earn a bonus of 40 beans.

[Aquaria Sandalwood]

Since I am attempting to vacation around London, to go to the beach I ventured over to West London to check out Ruslip Lido Beach. It is an absolutely beautiful and balmy day, which is exactly what I needed to soak up some much needed sun. All of the sudden, the sky is darkening, though, and as I look to the water, I see a huge tidal wave forming! “Isn’t this a lake?” I think to myself, knowing that this tidal wave should not be possible. And as the wave gets closer and my fear is rising up inside me, I can see the angry faces of Merpeople under the surface. They are the ones causing the wave! What looks like the entire contents of the lake is rising up, up, up into a tidal wave, the height of which I can’t even estimate, and looking around me I see quite a few people who I assume are mostly, if not all, muggles who came out to enjoy the sun just as I did. Thinking quickly, I pull my wand out of my bag and cast the shield charm, “Protego!” and I can feel the weight of the water pushing against it as I wield my wand and hold the shield with all my might. Thankfully, the water slides down, back into the lake with a crash, and I quickly turn to see if anyone has seen what I’ve done. Everyone around me is just looked up, however, and no one is looking at me, so I run up to the water’s edge to see if I can find out why the Merpeople are trying to wash us all away. I, however, do not speak Mermish, so I cannot understand what they are screeching at me. I do my best to explain to them that I am simply here on holiday, as I suspect everyone else on the beach is, and that if there is a problem they should report to the Ministry of Magic instead of harming innocent beach goers, and it should be handled. I’m not sure if they understand me or not, but they do swim away, back into the depths of the lake. They did still look angry, however, so I have a feeling that whatever that was may not be over. I think I’ve had enough of the beach for today.

[Lex Green]

On one of my first days in New York City, it was really beautiful outside (far better weather than we would have in Scotland at this time of year), so I bought a cheap phone from a shop near my hotel, in case and I needed to contact anyone, and headed out of Manhattan and into Brooklyn, where I headed to the coast line and the beach at Coney Island. I spent the whole day there, alternating between relaxing by the see and enjoying the many activities and amusements that were nearby, but just as I was packing up and getting ready to leave, the sky started to darken. At first, I figured it was just the weather playing up, and it was probably a good idea to start leaving, but I then noticed a huge wave building up not too far from the shore, and then, it started pouring. I looked around, but everyone else on the beach seemed just as confused as I was, most people trying to run away as fast as they could, deserting their belongings. As the wave got closer and closer, I noticed a few green blobs inside it, and realised that they were grindylows! Probably very confused grindylows, since they should typically only be found in the UK, hence the extreme weather change and tidal wave. I was very grateful for my newly purchased phone, and punched in the number of the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures, where I had a friend working. A receptionist of some kind answered the phone and I asked to be passed over to my friend, who I then explained the situation to. They asked me how many muggles were around (which at this point, was only one or two, and even they were rushing away quickly), and then suddenly I heard a crack, and my friend appeared beside me on the beach, holding a large cage filled with water. They headed closer to the wave and the grindylows, cage outstretched, and started chanting in a foreign language that sounded something like Mermish. The grindylows in the water suddenly jumped out and into the cage, making quite a splash. My friend shut the cage, thanked me for calling them, and within a second, disapparated again.