The Queen and Her King

The Queens Fear

Brielle POV

Today was the day.

The day Harry is dragging me out to the enchanted lake to begin to teach me how to swim.

I actually had to get Evie on a rush order for a swimsuit, my first one in years at that. It was a simple pastel blue two-piece, nothing really special or elaborate about it but it does the job (bathing suit shown above). As a little gift, she also made me a long white flowy robe-like thing to wear over the top of it so that was lovely of her. Anyway, currently Harry and I were walking hand and hand to the enchanted lake, admiring the views as always as the trail alone never gets old let alone the lake itself. We playfully swung our hands back and forth as we walked, and as much as I'm kinda dreading this I was having fun so far. I didn't even bring anything with me, Harry brought one bag though that he had slung over his shoulder but I don't know what's in it.

Why do I dread learning how to swim you ask? Well when I was little my parents enrolled both Ben and I into swimming classes, Ben picked it up wonderfully, me though? Well, I almost drowned on the first day and thrashed so hard I kicked the instructor in the face while they were trying to help me. Yeah... I really don't want to kick Harry in the face. After that, I refused to get back into the water.

Not to mention my fear of drowning since then has been rather bad, being over water is bad enough let alone near it in any way. But I know Harry will be right there if I get panicked so I know I'm okay. Honestly, I look back on the day I jumped into the enchanted lake to wash the love spell off of me and I am bamboozled as to how I convinced myself to do that.

I think it's gotten worse since Uma nearly knocked me into the ocean, my fear wasn't as substantial before that.

I was getting over my fear of water really well actually, falling into the enchanted lake with Harry around was alright for a while. But when Uma almost shoved me off into the ocean I think I took some major steps back as being near water alone was terrifying again. Even having to board the ship for cotillion was a bit of a hassle for me. Especially when the boat was being rocked around by Uma, but in the moment I had higher priorities rather than being anxious or frightened. Now though, my old fear and anxiety of drowning seems more prominent than before. I felt like this right after my first near-drowning experience, the only reason why I'm actually alright with doing this is because it's Harry that's going to be there, he won't let anything happen to me.

We walked up to the gazebo and looked out onto the enchanted waters for a second before Harry carefully set his bag down and threw off his t-shirt,

"Alrighty bonnie lass, first things first yer just gonna get in the water alright?"

I furrowed my brow and looked from the water to him, getting slightly distracted by his lack of a shirt but powering through,

"Just... get in the water?"

I skeptically asked. He nodded and kicked off his shoes, leaving him in just his swimming shorts,

"Yeh, I'll go in first and I'll catch ya when ye come in. The first thing I want ya ta get used to is just being in the water"

Okay, that was a bit of a relief, I thought he literally just wanted me to jump in the water and fend for myself there for a second. I sighed a sigh of relief as he went ahead of me and sat down by the edge of the lake and slipped in. He went under for a second and came up and threw his head back to get his hair out of his face, I wish I had a slow-motion clip of that... because woah.

Anyway, he then held up both hands to me and waited. I sighed and slipped off my shoes and the white coverup, hearing a hitched breath once I did. I looked back at Harry with a slightly raised brow, he simply staring at me with his eyes darting all around me,