Open Fish out of water

He did have to smile when he was asked about his father's work, always happy to talk about to it anyone who would really listen. "He's a marine biologist, so he's always heading out." And while it meant that his father wasn't home a lot of the time and would sometimes spend whole weekends out at sea on his boat, Eoin didn't really mind. His father always made it up for him for taking him out on trips when he could. But as for an eel making a fatal attack, "I guess you could get killed by an eel, especially one that big. But it's not very likely." But he didn't want to say anything for certain, he would have to do some more research into the matter.

The girls did seem to be having some issues between them, and Eoin would simply rather not get in the middle of them, only swallowing nervously when Lucie seemed to be trying to get him on her side. "I'd rather not... get involved with this," while he wouldn't really say that she was unpleasant, saying so would no doubt think Elara think he was taking Lucie's side in things when that was not his intention. Instead, he was more than happy to stand there and have a talk about this eel. "Well, it probably has a scientific name, all animals do," but he doubted that was what Elara meant, "but I would quite like to have a proper explore of the lake at some point, find out more about what lives down there."
 
Elara rolled her eyes when Lucie asked Eoin what he thought about her. He didn't seem to be one to stand up for his own thoughts which made Elara frown a little. She didn't really care what he thought of Lucie as long as the girl stopped acting bratty. She slightly ignored the girl's responses to the her inquiry about names, deciding that she must not have much of an imagination if she couldn't just play along. "Have you studied scientific names for anything? Like, is an eel technically a fish or it is something reptilian maybe?" She had never been big into science class so she hoped she wasn't asking something that had an obvious answer, though she was sure Lucie would butt in with her opinion.

When Eoin suggested he wanted to go exploring, Elara beamed and looked back out at the water. "Maybe we could start a club for students who are interested in discovering things. And then," she said with confidence, "that would give us reasons to go into the Forbidden Forest with permission." She wasn't interested in meeting scary and dangerous creatures, but she did think it would be fun to talk or interact with the lesser known things that lived in, especially unicorns.
 
Lucie nodded as Eion answered her question, feeling a little bit more comfortable about it now. After all, if the eel wanted to attack, it probably would have done much worse than splash some water onto them. She didn't mind that Eion didn't want to get involved in the feud between Lucie and Elara, and the Slytherin simply shrugged, respecting his decision to not have an opinion. Some people just weren't like herself.

As Elara asked Eion another question she couldn't help but also want to know the answer. Creatures were very interesting to Lucie and it pleased her that Elara was also interested and Eion was nice enough to answer. However, when Elara mentioned the idea of a club, Lucie was not entirely opposed to it, but thought it would be far too dangerous to have everyone enter the forbidden forest so often, especially on their own. It was the same concept as the lake really, except much worse. "It has the word 'forbidden' in it for a reason though." Lucie told her. "There are so many other things to explore in the castle, so why is the forbidden forest the first thing to come to your mind?"
 
He did have to cough a little nervously as he was asked if he had studied any scientific names, not really wanting to admit how big of a nerd on the subject he actually was. The number of hours he had lost when he was younger trawling through all sorts of heavy books on all sorts of aquatic life. "A freshwater eel is a ray-finned fish belonging to the Anguillidae family," he rattled off the information, going a little red in the ears out of embarrassment, though quickly tried to cover it up as he stood just a little bit straighter up. "I've done... some reading," he finished with a cough.

Though his interest was piqued by the idea of some sort of club all about creatures and finding and studying them. That would be a club he would join up for without hesitation, though only if they studied aquatic life as well and not just land creatures. Though the comment about the Forbidden Forest was not exactly something he could agree with, wrinkling his nose slightly. "I'd rather not go in there," he couldn't help but agree with Lucie on the matter, "I'm only really interested in water life, anyway."
 
Elara made a funny face when Eoin gave the real name of for eels. She thought Anguillidae, or whatever word he had just said, was kind of ridiculous and giggled. "No, that's cool," she said reassuredly and tried to say what he had just said to herself. She wasn't sure why he had called it a ray-finned fish, as she didn't think eels shot rays or had rays. "What other names do you know?" she asked Eoin.

Elara sighed when Lucie chimed in with her opinion on her new club idea. "Yeah, but some teachers take you in there for classes and stuff so it's not really forbidden," she replied with a touch of sass. "And it doesn't have to be just the forest. We could explore the lake or the cliffs. Or even go on field trips to other places. Like the sanctuary or haunted houses." She suddenly felt filled with the ideas and the ambition to go exploring somewhere other than the lake. If she knew how to do a bubble head charm on herself, she would have gone swimming into the depths of the water, but there was also the possible hypothermia; Elara wasn't about to spend a week in the hospital wing. "I wonder how deep this lake goes and how many creatures live in it," she said, more to Eoin than Lucie. She wasn't sure why the girl was still sticking around if she was just going to be negative.
 
Anguillidae. Lucie had never heard of that word before. She thought that maybe if she tried to find it in the library that she could learn more, and maybe then it would give her a better indication on whether or not those type of creatures were dangerous. "Yeah, what other families are there?" Lucie asked Eion, adding on to what Elara said. Lucie hoped that maybe they taught these thing at Hogwarts too and she couldn't wait to start learning about it all.

As Elara tried to stick up for herself with her idea, Lucie just rolled her eyes. It didn't seem like Eion was very on board with it either. There were just so many holes in the plan, and if anything, Lucie didn't want Elara making a mistake that could potentially threaten everyone at Hogwarts. "Exactly. Teachers take people in. Teachers would have to give up their time. Have you considered how dangerous the cliffs would be too? If we're allowed to go up there on our own, I don't think we should be." Lucie didn't mean to be dragging Elara's idea down and was simply just worried for everyone that would be involved. Elara then wondered allowed how many creatures would be in the lake and Lucie didn't hesitate in chiming in. "Ooohh, me too. I can imagine there would be a lot. Like a whole town of them. Dangerous too."
 
He did have to offer a thankful smile as neither of the girls started laughing out loud at him about how much he happened to know. It was usually at this point people started calling him a huge nerd and picking on him for it. But it was a nice change and he certainly wasn't going to complain about being treated nicely. "A lot," an answer to both questions, he supposed, "Each animal belongs to a different family and there are hundreds of them." And he knew the names and descriptions of a lot of them thanks to the extensive reading he had done in the past.

What he was starting to understand about the two girls was that they had very different ideas about things and weren't exactly getting along very well. And it was making Eoin feel a little awkward about the whole thing, just swallowing anxiously as he kicked a foot in the water around his ankles. "I don't think the cliffs are that dangerous just so long as you stay away from the edge," he offered, though was quick to fall quiet again, not really wanting to get mixed up in an argument or even disagreement about things. Avoiding conflict of any sort was his method and that wasn't about to change. But as for what was in the lake, he smiled just thinking about finding out. "Probably hundreds of different species just from how big the lake is," and you bet he wanted to get down there and record every single one of them.
 
Lucie was starting to get on Elara's nerves. Everytime she brought up an idea, it seemed to be shot down by the girl, and Eoin wasn't providing much assistance. The girl didn't seem to like her club for multiple reasons, and Elara didn't understand why someone was being so negative to a person they had only just met. She crossed her arms and stared at Lucie, walking out of the lake towards the girl. "Obviously, you're not a risk taker, Lucie, which is unfortunate because it means your life is going to be rather boring." She walked over to the tree she had placed her silks on and pulled them down, stuffing then back in her bag as she continued. "It was really nice to meet you Eoin. I hope that you meet the eel one day or any of the other creatures in the lake." Elara turned back to Lucie as she threw her bag over her shoulder. "My fathers taught me to have manners, and since I have nothing else nice to say to you, I'm going to remove myself since my ideas are beyond you. See you in class," she said, turning on her heel and heading back to the castle. She didn't know why she was so frustrated, but it seemed like everything she said made Lucie say something that just got under her skin. She was in a good mood and didn't want her day ruined by some girl.
 
The fact that there were hundreds of animal families was really fascinating to Lucie who made a mental note to do some more research when she had the chance. She nodded when Eoin said he didn't think the cliffs were that dangerous. That was just his opinion, and Elara's too, and Lucie was tired of trying to warn people of risks when they didn't want to be. As Elara stepped out of the water and began making her way over to her, Lucie just watched and laughed as she said her life was going to be rather boring. "At least it will be longer than yours." Lucie snapped back at her as Elara went to grab her cloths from the tree. Lucie had to admit that the girl did have manners to be able to walk away from her, but if the girl was also implying that Lucie didn't have any herself, she knew that she was very wrong. Lucie's parents had raised her right and she was not going to let a stupid girl tell her otherwise. She simply gave a smile and a small wave to the girl as she walked away. "Can you tell me more about the animal families?" Lucie asked, turning back to Eoin.
 
The two girls he was with were really starting to make him feel quite awkward with how they kept disagreeing about everything and almost arguing about it. And Eoin couldn't help but inwardly cringe as Elara finally decided that enough was enough and decided to make her exit, but not before taking the time to more or less insult Lucie. "Oh um... yeah," was all he could really offer as she said goodbye to him and he couldn't help but turn his head and watch her walk away. Maybe things would be a little less awkward now she was gone and there was no one else for Lucie to disagree with about things, but he couldn't help but think that maybe that whole thing could have gone a little different if he hadn't been so willing not to take sides in the matter. Then again, taking a side would have probably made things worse. But Lucie was talking again and Eoin blinked, turning his attention back to her again. "Oh. I mean, yeah. I have a load of books on the subject if you want to read about it," though he did have a feeling she probably wouldn't find it as interesting a subject as he did.
 
Lucie could tell that the whole situation didn't make Eoin feel very comfortable, but now that Elara was gone she hoped that things would pick up and Lucie could talk to him properly again. She was interested in the books that Eoin had. "Oooh, yes I would love to borrow them!" she exclaimed, feeling as though there was a little bit of trust there already. After all, Lucie would personally not let just anyone borrow her belongings if she didn't like them. Eoin seemed like the person to trust others easily, and Lucie liked that about him, despite not being like that herself. "Where did you get the books from?" Lucie wondered if she could get her own books on the subject, that way she wouldn't have to give them back.
 
His feet were starting to get cold now, so Eoin decided to finally step out of the lake, hopping a bit awkwardly over the stones to avoid jabbing himself in the foot as he made it back onto the shore. Maybe he should have brought a towel with him so he didn't have to put his socks back on while his feet were still wet. "You would?" It was surprising to find someone else who might be as interested in the subject as he was. Not many other kids his age really cared about the subject, all they talked about was the lastest video game or sports team. "But I brought them from home, they were from my dad. But I suppose they might have some in the library. I haven't checked yet."
 
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