Open Excuse Me, Do You Have a Moment To Talk About the Eel?

[Weston Stirling]

((Open after Kadi posts with Indira Khatri))

Weston had thought that just seeing the man-eating eel would be enough to satisfy his curiosity about the creature. But it turned out the opposite was true. His near-death encounter with the eel had only increased his interest in the monster, and he was determined to find it again. He hadn't been sure how to go about doing that since the first eel sighting had mostly been luck, but then Indi had gotten the brilliant idea to find other eel witnesses. Hopefully talking to others and comparing stories would reveal clues about the eel's behavior.

Because they needed to talk to as many people as possible, they decided the Great Hall was a good starting point. Weston surveyed the students and staff in front of them. Surely someone in this crowd had also seen the eel. He glanced over at Indi. "So should we just go up to random people and ask them about the eel? Or should I shout that we're looking for people who have seen it?" he asked, readjusting his grip on the backpack slung across his shoulder. Inside, he had a recording quill and some paper to help take down eyewitness accounts. He also had a folded up poster bearing the words HAVE U SEEN THE EEL? that he could pull out to help attract people's attention.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi was surprised by how invested she was in this whole eel thing. She had considered it a fun urban legend that students could whisper about but seeing the real thing had changed her perspective entirely. She still tried to approach the investigation from a scientific angle but she knew what she saw, now it was just down to obtaining the right documentation. Indi had rolled her eyes at Weston's pestering about a camera but now she was starting to wonder who she had to talk to to borrow one from the newspaper or yearbook. But that was something she could figure out later. Now they needed primary sources and eyewitness accounts.

She stood in the great hall with Weston and put her hands on her hips, determined to get peoples attention one way or another. Indi turned when he asked her a question. "Ideally people should come to us." she said thoughtfully. There was no need to survey half the school when they already knew sightings were rare. She weighed her options before shrugging. "But shouting will probably work faster." she said simply. "Hold up your poster." she instructed before walking the short distance to one of seats at the Hufflepuff table. "Excuse me." she muttered to the students around her as she climbed on top of it. In one swift motion she cupped her hands to her mouth and started to shout. "If anyone has an eye witness account of the giant eel in the lake we would like to talk to you!"

 

[Eoin Armati]

Eoin had been spending some in the great hall, finding that it was also a pretty good place to get some studying in. He'd been there for a couple of hours going over all his homework and making sure all his essays were in top order ready to be handed in. Or, that had been the plan, but a rather familiar voice caught his attention and he turned his head, frowning as he saw Weston and Indira shouting for people who had seen the eel. "For god's..." he muttered angrily in Italian before standing up, leaving his things where they were before marching over to where the two of them were.

"Please tell me you're still not on that man-eating eel rubbish?" He was rather quick to accuse the boy before his gaze moved over to Indira as well. "Are you encouraging him?" This was all rubbish and as a scientist and marine biologist like his father, he was not going to continue to let people spread these ridiculous stories about a man-eating eel that didn't exist. "I've seen the eel. I saw it in my first year. But it certainly wasn't man eating. It just caused some splashes because I disturbed it before it swam off again."

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston nodded, pulling out the poster and holding it aloft as Indi announced they were looking for eel eyewitnesses. He tried to give the poster a twirl, thinking it would attract more people's attention, but gave up after nearly dropping it. It didn't take long before someone approached them. Unfortunately that someone was Eoin. After their fight last semester, Weston had been very careful not to bring up the man-eating eel around his roommate.

"Hi Eoin," he said, trying for a smile that probably came out more like a grimace once he saw how angry the other boy was. Weston brought the poster back down to chest level, holding it out like a shield. "No, you don't get it. We saw it," he tried to explain. "Last semester, after our, uh, argument," he winced at the memory, "Indi and I saw the eel, and it nearly attacked us." The beast had been large and vicious and certainly capable of eating a man. "I think you might have seen a different eel," he reasoned. He hesitated and glanced at Indi, unsure if they should continue questioning Eoin. Given Eoin's extreme aversion to the concept of a man-eating eel, Weston was pretty sure his roommate hadn't seen the eel.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi repeated the message a few times before getting off the table but not before offering a brief apology to the other students she disturbed. She was cautiously optimistic when someone approached them. She hadn’t talked to Eoin much and wasn’t sure what to make of him. He seemed painfully serious, and not in a good way she decided by his current attitude. “It’s not rubbish and I am not encouraging him.” she snapped. She hated the implication that she was doing this for Weston and not because she was an equal part of this project. Maybe she had indulged him a bit at first but she had witnessed the creature first hand and wasn’t about to let him get all the credit now. She stood by silently fuming as Weston explained what had happened. She hated Eoin’s dismissive tone and wanted nothing more than to prove him wrong. Indi wished she had listened to her friend’s suggestion all along and had gotten a camera. With a heavy sigh she pulled out her notebook that held all of the data they had collected so far. “Regardless, if you saw the eel or not. We would like to ask you a few questions.” she said tightly. She didn’t really want to talk to him but he was all they had at the moment. “Approximately how long would you say the eel was? What time did it appear? And where in the lake did it appear?” she asked and turned to one of the pages that had a detailed diagram of the lake for Eoin to point out it's location.

 

[Eoin Armati]

Great, another idiot who seemed to believe in the whole man-eating eel concept. He scowled as he looked at the Slytherin "No, it is most certainly absolute garbage and you're an idiot for believing that there is some eel in the lake eating people. I'll say to you what I've already said to him - if there was really a man-eating eel living in the lake, do you honestly think that the Professors and prefects would just let us go swimming in there?" He really doubted that. There might be dangerous creatures at Hogwarts, but the forest they lived in was forbidden for a reason and was actively patrolled to keep people out. The lake, on the other hand, had no patrols or protection from students whatsoever. Then, he glanced back at Weston, "It was big and it looked kind of gold? How many of those do you reckon are in the lake for it not to be that eel, huh?" There was the one eel and Eoin doubted very much that it was vicious and had attacked them. He folded his arms, "I don't remember, a couple of meters maybe? But I don't remember the time it was back in first year. Near the shore, though. I disturbed it so it splashed and swam off."

 

[Weston Stirling]

After his fight with Eoin last semester, he'd had a long conversation with his parents over the break to get some advice on the situation. They had gently tried to suggest that maybe someone who called people "brainless idiots" was not a person worth befriending. Weston hadn't seen it at the time, but now, listening to Eoin talk to Indi, he was starting to understand. "She's not an idiot," he said, ignoring everything that came after. The insult didn't even make sense. Everyone knew Indi was one of the smartest people in their year. And that proved that his parents were right: Eoin was just being mean for the sake of being mean. "You shouldn't say that to anyone."

The eel Eoin was describing did admittedly sound a lot like the one he and Indi had witnessed, but Weston wasn't about to drop the possibility that there were multiple eels. The man-eating eel had to have come from somewhere, right? "Maybe you spotted one of its family members," he insisted. He pulled out his notebook and realized with a start that he hadn't been recording Eoin's responses. Hopefully Indi was taking notes. He activated his recording quill and glanced back at his set of questions. "What was the weather like? How deep was the water?"

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi scoffed at Eoin’s ramblings. He could deny it until he was blue in the face but she knew what she saw. “First of all!” she said and tried to interrupt him, getting more irritated by the second. “We are not claiming it's eating anyone.” she corrected. If anyone was making up tall tales it was him. At best there were stories about the eel existing. She had yet to hear any claims of any students going missing. “Eels are carnivorous but they’re probably just eating other fish in the lake.” she explained. “It’s not like sharks go out and eat every human they find. Do you not swim in the ocean?” she asked with hands firmly on her hips wanting him to answer.

She was really on a roll but was caught off guard when Weston stood up for her. “Thank you.” she choked out and nodded stiffly. She had been made fun of a few times at her old muggle school for being, well the way she was. She knew she came on strong but she had never let it bother her when she was younger, but she still appreciated him standing up for her. She sighed as Eoin answered some of their questions. It was better than nothing even if she wasn’t sure how reliable it was. Indi looked up excitedly when Weston suggested it might be a relative of the eel they saw. "I hadn't even considered that. It would explain so much." she said excitedly. It hadn't crossed her mind that there might be a family of eels in the lake. That would explain why the size varied when it came to the rumors. She nodded along as Weston asked a few more questions, pleased to see him taking initiative.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander had not expected his lunch to be interrupted by a bunch of kids yelling in the Great Hall, but he perked right up at the mention of the eel. The eel. The very eel he'd been taking frequent underwater trips to try and find out more about. He hadn't known there were too many other people interested in investigating it, but here they were, with signs and everything. He'd tried to keep his own investigations with Chloe under wraps, to avoid anyone else spoiling their discoveries, but it seemed like word had spread in the last few years. He turned in his seat to keep an ear out for what people had to say, though it seemed to turn into more of an argument between kids than anything exciting and new. He had to resist rolling his eyes. "I've seen the eel too." He called out, if only to try and diffuse some of the name-calling since he supposed he was meant to be a prefect. "I know where it lives." He continued with a casual air, just to try and impress the kids as if it were all no big deal to him. A giant eel? Just another Monday for Lysander. Admittedly it wasn't totally a true statement, but it wasn't a lie either. Technically it lived in the lake, and he knew that, but he had at least a rough idea of where beneath the surface it might be hiding.​

 

[Eoin Armati]

Eoin was actually surprised, Indi had some common sense after all and she didn't actually believe in the man-eating eel. "Oh my god you do actually have a brain," he said with a mock little gasp before turning his eyes to Weston for just a moment with a rather judgemental look. "Because your partner here seems very adamant that the eel eats people. He has told me as much. Would you maybe like to try and share your common sense with him? Because I have tried and he certainly cant get it into his thick skull that the eel doesn't actually eat people. How he made it into Ravenclaw I will never know." Yes, the eel existed, that wasn't a question he had seen it with his own two eyes and so had other people, but it most certainly was not man-eating.

But it seemed their conversation was getting the attention of some other students as well, namely some older students, and Eoin quickly turned around towards a boy he only knew as a Gryffindor prefect. And the Gryffindor quidditch captain or something, Eoin didn't really know he had never watched a Quidditch game. "You know where it lives? Where?"

 

[Weston Stirling]

As a general rule, Weston did not enjoy arguments. And Indi looked like she was ready to argue. Still, a small part of him was looking forward to her backing him up. If anyone could convince Eoin of the man-eating eel's existence, it was Indi. Her first statement, however, made him whip around to stare at her. "We're not?" Before he could interject further, she continued and oh. That was the perfect way of explaining it. The man-eating eel didn't only eat people, but it was definitely capable of doing so. Like a shark.

Eoin did not seem to understand this. Weston dug his fingernails into his palms, trying to distract himself from all the awful things his roommate was saying. "Yes, it does," he insisted when the other Ravenclaw tried to claim that the eel didn't eat people. "Or it can. It's like Indi said. It doesn't only eat people, and it might have been a while since it did eat someone, but it definitely can if given the chance." The eel had nearly eaten him. Plus, for all Eoin's arguing, he still hadn't proven that the eel had never eaten anyone. The school had been around for ages. Weston thought the chances were pretty good that the eel had managed a bite of at least one person during that time.

The sound of a different voice made Weston look up, startled. His eyes grew wide when he realized it was a prefect. A prefect who had not only seen the eel, but knew where it lived. He was about to ask for further details, when Eoin beat him to the punch, so he waited silently for the older boy to elaborate.