Miranda gets a broom.

Karen can't understand any of these negotiations.

She finds a bit of wood at the bottom of the lake, too waterlogged to float.

She finds a merfolk hair snagged on the rough edges of the castle foundation.

She fidgets with them, not sure if her innocence is very convincing. No way to bore a hole in the wood but it's got a little nick on each end and if she wraps it right - it only has to do one spell -

The girl returns from her Hufflepuff sister's dorm.

Miranda flies through the halls with the warming gear and gillyweed, and she's headed toward the right part of the lake at highest confident speed when

- Karen rockets up out of the water with a sparking makeshift wand sizzling in her hand and screams "CATCH ME" at the top of her lungs.

Miranda manages to get the broom under her and Karen lands in front of her with a thump.

And then they are both summoned back to shore by very concerned professors and dried out and questioned and the arriving team of Aurors called off -

"Coldcoldcoldcoldcoldowowowowowow," whimpers Karen, clinging to Miranda. She can't open her hand around the wand.

"Let me take her to the hospital wing -"

"Yes, all right -"

Miranda wraps Karen in warming things and piles her onto the broom and zooms back into the castle.

Karen is just incoherently whimpering by the time they get there and still can't let go of the wand, which is still zapping her. Madam Hirudinea thinks that's a much more serious emergency than the hypothermia - "I can only address one thing at a time and she'll lose her wand arm if I'm not quick, Swan, get into bed with her and cuddle up - no, clothes off, she needs body temperature -"

"Warming charm -" says Miranda.

"No," Karen whines.

"Do you want to exacerbate these burns? Don't argue with me," says Madam Hirudinea, and soon all of Karen except her sparking paralyzed wand arm is snuggled.

(He comes up to the hospital wing to check on them, sees what's going on, stays out of the way. Feverfew heads in and curls up at Karen's feet.)

Feverfew is also nice and warm. Miranda is so nice and warm. Her arm hurts like dying but once Madam Hirudinea gets her hand to unclench it's much better.

Eventually her arm is all wrapped up and she's up to temperature and Miranda is allowed to get out of bed and put her robes on.

What's the prognosis -

She will be okay but is not to do ANYTHING AT ALL WITH THAT ARM for two weeks.

Making a wand out of driftwood and merperson hair could honestly have gone worse than that. He leaves her to concerned Ravenclaws and awards points all around and goes to talk with the Aurors.

Concerned Ravenclaws are so concerned.

"I'll be all right I just have to not use the arm."

"Ugh what a stupid mess."

"I wouldn't have tried it if I'd known Miranda was about to drop me warm stuff."

"It's just good you'll be okay."

"Yeah it was really scary."

A heated debate occurs over whether merpeople are a valuable part of Hogwarts history or whether to just get rid of them.

Do the merpeople have an opinion on whether they're going to continue to be a hazard to random students.