Open Flying High Above

[Lysander Summers]

The lake monster was proving to be the most elusive creature Lysander had ever come across. Admittedly most of the creatures he'd come across in his life were quite literally handed to him, either at the Menagerie or during any Care of Magical Creatures lesson, but this one was still very elusive nonetheless. No one he knew had been able to find it, or see it as more than a brief glimpse in the water. Even Vader hadn't been able to capture it on his magical camera. By now almost everyone knew there was something in the water that wasn't simply just another merperson, and that was enough to continue to believe that the creature was real, to not give up on trying to be the first to find it. He wanted to be the one to find out what it was first. He still couldn't find any information that entirely matched the descriptions of what the creature might have been, though he also hadn't been bothered to do all that much reading on the subject. Wanting to find the creature and theorizing about it was exciting, but figuring out the actual "how" was the biggest issue. Lysander had ideas, but rarely ever were they good ideas, so he was glad to be able to rely on Chloë to come up with decent ones. Flying to the middle of the lake had been her suggestion, and while he would have liked to figure out what the creature was on his own ad be the first to really discover it, he knew he was better off with a friend. Besides, it made the whole search a lot more fun with someone else to help, and if he was going to have a chance in finding it before anyone else did, he needed someone else who was just as motivated, and Chloë was someone he liked, so he was happy to work with her instead of against her.

It was pretty lucky that the two of them were on a Quidditch team together. Getting brooms was no problem, especially now that Lysander had his own for matches instead of having to use the school's ones as he had in his first year. He brought along a backpack with some goodies - snacks for himself, and for the creature, and some magical objects he thought would come in handy. His broom hovered on the edge of the dock where he'd left it, ready to take off over the lake, and he crouched down to unclip his bag and rifle through his belongings before they were due to set off. "I brought some omnioculars to help try and spot it. And some extendable ears to listen under the water. We're definitely going to find it today." He informed Chloë, beaming proudly at his own initiative. He hoped they'd be useful. He didn't know if the ears could be used underwater, but he also didn't know if they couldn't, so it was worth trying. The omnioculars seemed like a good idea too, since he couldn't find a camera to bring along. It wasn't going to be able to tell him what kind of maneuvers the creature was pulling like it could with Quidditch matches, unless it was somehow doing some underwater Quidditch stunts, but it was the slow-down and replay feature he knew would come in handy.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë knew she probably shouldn't spend as much time trying to figure out what was in the lake as she was doing right now, but at the same time she didn't really care. Even if exams were creeping in closer she knew there'd still be plenty of time to study for those later. Right now, she had different priorities and most of those included finding out what was in the lake. In some sort of way she guessed this could count as studying as well. She might not be studying the subjects she'd have exams about, she had definitely been buried in books for a couple of days. She was sure Lysander wouldn't bother much with reading up on things and would much rather just get to work, which is why she had felt like that part of their little quest had fallen onto her. She didn't mind it much, actually enjoyed reading up on different kinds of creatures that could be linked to living in lake-like areas. What she did mind was the fact that so far all of her reading had seemed to be a little hopeless. She hadn't come across anything that resembled the small part of the creature Lysander had spotted and it annoyed her, which then only lead to her being more determined to find out what creature -or monster as the boy would call it- was residing in their school lake.

Whilst they had discussed several ideas of how to get to whatever it was that was in the lake, most of them weren't the safest and Chloë was glad she had gotten Lysander to agree on flying over the lake first. At least that way they'd be able to get all the way to centre of the lake without having to be in the water. If the creature turned out to be some sort of monster in the end she figured it might be better not to be in the water with it. She did think they made a good team though and they'd be far more likely to figure things out together than they would on their own, both having qualities that worked well together. Like how she had come up with the plan to fly and Lysander had been smart enough to bring some objects that could be of use, whilst she had only brought her broom. "Ooh, clever." She replied when he showed her what he had taken with him. The omnioculars definitely seemed like a solid idea, although she did wonder if the ears would work. If they did that'd be super cool, regardless of whether they were going to find the creature or not. "Totally!" Chloë nodded at the mention of finding the creature today. They totally were. And if for some reason they didn't she knew she'd only be more fixed on finding it anyways. "Right." She said as she hopped onto her broom, slowly starting to get a little bit excited about the idea of actually finding something today. "You ready?"

 

[Aras Ragauskas]

Perched atop the castle's north tower, Hogwarts' gargoyles loomed over the grounds from their unique vantage point above. Among them, Aras was using his pair of omnioculars in an attempt to see the strange creature he was witnessing randomly flying solo or in numbers above the grounds. This time he was also equipped with one of the school's brooms, ready to soar closer in case there was a sighting. He tried not to get too distracted by the view and the affairs of other students, enjoying the day outdoors. Primarily, he was checking through the lenses the forbidden forest and the lake, where he had seen before the winged creatures. That was all he had made out of them without the assistance of omnioculars. Winged shadows, dancing in the sky or over the lake before disappearing in the trees. Whatever the creatures were, most people seemed to ignore them and he wondered if it was a regular sighting to appear around. His knowledge for magical creatures was limited since the relevant classes would begin next year for him but he could certainly assume they weren't dragons, they were too small, despite their serpentine wings.

Aras smothered a yawn after more than an hour high there with no signs of the creatures. He was about to open his backpack and get his water bottle when through his omnioculars he spotted two students flying on brooms, over the lake. They drew his attention as they looked like the were intensively searching for something and they had also omnioculars with them. If they weren't inspecting the waters, he would have guessed they were looking for the same creature as him but he was convinced that the winged creatures weren't aquatic.

Believing that most possibly they were looking for something they had dropped in the lake, Aras was about to turn his omnioculars back to the forest when he almost dropped them as he witnessed five of the winged creatures soaring in formation over the lake, not far from the two students. Aras frantically zoomed to have a better look through his omnioculars of the elusive creatures. They looked equestrian, skeletal with bat-like wings and their eyes milky-white, pupil-less like his own left eye. He had never before seen or heard anything like them and from their appearance only, he guessed they were dangerous. They were heading towards the two students on the brooms and he reacted immediately without a second thought. He jumped off the tower's ledge while mounting the school broom he had with him. He leaned forwards, his chest almost touching the broomstick and zoomed towards the lake to warn the two students. "HEY! Watch out!" He shouted, flailing his arm still holding the omniocular, in an attempt to draw the student's attention in time or scare the creatures away.

He managed to do the second. The grim-looking creature made a U-turn in a synchronized maneuver and headed straight for the forests trees as Aras reached the other two kids. "Did you see those zombie horses?" He asked them frantically as he hovered closed to them, pointing towards the forest as the creatures vanished beneath the canopy. He used again the omnioculars in an attempt to catch a last glimpse of the last one, diving in the trees.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Having his cleverness validated left Lysander grinning stupidly, quite pleased with himself, and he wasted no time hopping onto his broom to take off over the water. This was going to be great. He had a good feeling about this search. There was more of a plan, and they'd actually be looking over the whole lake instead of watching from the shore, unlike every other time he'd tried to catch sight of the creature that lurked beneath its depths. "'Course I'm ready! Let's do this." Sander responded. His hands wrapped around the broom a little awkwardly, his excitement taking over despite his extensive experience with flying. He repositioned them twice before he felt comfortable enough to kick off the pier. He left the ground behind and slowly bobbed above the water, though as he pulled his broom up to get some height, it felt as if the wind had picked up, and he was startled by someone suddenly shouting. Instinctively he jerked upwards, darting away from the lake below, where he was already envisioning the sea creature that lived there bursting out to try and devour himself and Chloë, but aside from a few ripples across the surface from the wind, nothing stirred below him. He looked at Chloë to see if she was okay too, and then at the boy who'd shouted and flown over, his brow creasing in annoyance at being surprised over nothing. He didn't know the other boy personally, or even by name, but now that he was close he realised he had definitely seen him around the castle. With his one white eye, he stood out in the school. It was hard not to notice. "Zombie horses?" He asked, still a bit miffed at the interruption. He shrugged at Chloë and glanced around the rest of the lake, seeing literally nothing of the sort nearby. His eyes lingered on the trees, where the wind from before must have been blowing the leaves about, before turning his attention back on the boy. "What are you talking about? This is a lake." It was, quite frankly, the last place he would have expected to find undead horses. Undead fish, perhaps. But not a horse.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë felt confident that they were going to find something today, at least spot something unknown below the surface of the lake. They had to. They had been so well prepared this time as well. There was a solid plan, she had done quite some reading and Lysander had brought useful items. Sounded like the path to succes on their quest to her. She nodded when he said he was ready, feeling quite ready for it herself as she pushed herself off into the air. She could feel some adrenaline building as they hoovered close to the lake's surface. What if they were actually going to find something today? She was confident that they were but realizing they actually might still got her adrenaline pumping. That would be so cool. Chloë didn't have much time to think about it though as someone started shouting at them. The shouting startled her and she dipped down for a second, almost touching the water, before her reflexes kicked in and she pulled up away from the lake's surface. Once she felt like she had reached an acceptable height she looked around, happy to see Lysander close by and a bit less enthusiastic about the other kid now flying up to them. Especially since his shouting had almost caused her to crash into the lake whilst there seemed to be nothing around to be shouting about at all. "Sorry to burst your bubble but I think we would've noticed something resembling zombie horses and there was literally nothing around." Chloë frowned a little as she shook her head, wondering if the kid was seeing things or if he was just on a mission of his own. They were right above a lake so even if there was such a thing as zombie horses she didn't think this was a likely place to find them. Unless they could fly or something, which if they did exist they might. She didn't want to rule anything out, but she also didn't see anything and in all honesty she wasn't too interested in zombie horses right this second. What she was interested in was the lake creature and she hoped the boy's commotion hadn't ruined their chances of spotting it. "We were kind of busy with.. a.. secret mission.. anyways." She added, not wanting to reveal what they had been looking for because she wanted to be the ones to find the creature, but also accepting the fact that if there had been something else they might not have seen it because they were so focussed on the water.

 

[Lysander Summers]

There wasn't any time for games when, as Chloë said, they were on a secret mission. He looked at his friend, and back at the younger boy, concerned that he might want to get himself involved with what they were doing. Lysander knew he'd want to be in on any secret mission someone was doing, and maybe that had been the boy's plan all along. "Look! There they are! The zombie horses!" He shouted, pointing frantically in the distance. He had to hope the distraction would be enough, this guy had seemed to really believe in these imaginary undead horses. He didn't waste any time, nudging Chloë and miming a "let's go", before turning his broom around and soaring off further across the lake to put some distance between them. Once he thought they'd safely gotten away, he slowed down and hovered above the water. "What was that about?" He asked, somewhat rhetorically. Sander wasn't sure there was any explanation for what had just happened. "No one should bother us out here. I think we're far enough away." He commented. It would have taken him a while to swim out this far, he thought. He rummaged through his bag and pulled out his extendable ears, and dropped one end into the water with a small splash. "Do you see anything?" He asked, holding the other end up to his own ear to see what he could hear.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë still didn't know what exactly was happening with this other kid. What she did know was that she was still a little bit annoyed he almost made her crash into the lake to when Lysander came up with a distraction in order to get back to their own mission and flew off she quickly followed suit. "I mean I don't even know." She chuckled, still confused as to why the other kid had been going on about zombie horses or whatever. She could only hope that the commotion hadn't given their presence away to anything that might've been close to the lake's surface. Especially not after all the effort they had gone through to come up with a plan that didn't involve tying Lysander to a rope and having him swim out all the way to the centre of the lake. She nodded when he mentioned they were probably out far enough now to not be bothered. "Let's hope so." Chloë looked back in the direction of where they had come from for a second to see if the other kid wasn't following them. Luckily, there didn't seem to be anyone around so it seemed like they were all good to continue their mission. She flew a bit closer to the lake's surface as Lysander dropped the ear in the water, trying to see if there were any shapes below them that she could make out. "Not really, I'm not making out any shapes yet. Do you hear anything?" She replied with a little shrug, wondering if even if she couldn't see anything yet perhaps the extendable ear did help him hear something. Plus she was just curious whether the thing would even work underwater. "Also," She looked back up at Lysander after staring at the water for a little while. "Do you think we should like give our mission a name? Like a code name? Operation.. something.. or whatever?" She figured both of them would want their plan to find out what was in the lake pretty secret in case anyone else had the same idea, so perhaps giving it a name wouldn't be such a bad idea. Also it just sounded fun.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander pressed the end he held closely to his own ear, though the only sound he could make out was...well, the same sounds you'd hear if you dipped your head underwater. It was kind of cool, listening to the ripples and swooshes under the lake without actually being submerged himself. He had to imagine it was like when people held up conch shells and claimed to hear the ocean. He'd never found one to know how true that was. "Not yet." He said, wondering if he should try to disturb the water. He pulled the earpiece away, considering Chloe's question. Other people, like that boy from before, were bound to try and get in on their secret mission. A codename sounded like an awesome way to keep it on the down low. "Yeah! That's such a cool idea. What about...Operation Zombie Horse?" He joked with a small snort. "That guy would know. Hm, operation...ear string. Operation seaweed." He said, just looking at random things around them. "I guess it should sound like something completely different so people don't know we're going out to the water. Operation...Fire...Snitch?" He offered. "If anyone asks what we're doing we can say we're going to Quidditch practice." It was another reason that it was great they were both on the same team. It probably wouldn't sound unbelievable to say they had practice to go to, unless someone else on the team asked.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë was starting to lose a little bit of hope after staring at the water for quite a while. It was definitely difficult to make out what was below the surface, if there even was anything close enough to see. It also made her wonder if the creature had been there at first, if there was a chance they could've spotted it untill their search got interrupted. She was slightly disappointed to hear Lysander wasn't doing much better with his extendable ear as she was just staring at the water. At that point she remembered her friend had brought something else as well though. "Did you have the omnioculars?" She asked, extending her hand in case he did. "Maybe they'll help." She wasn't sure if they would actually be usefull but it certainly wouldn't hurt to them to try. Chloë let out a laugh at Lysander's first option for a possible mission name referring to the weird situation from earlier. "That's a no for me." She chuckled, considering every other thing he said after that. She figured operation seaweed would possibly even be more obvious than just calling it their secret mission, but operation fire snitch sounded pretty cool. "Yeah, I think that'll work!" She nodded. They were on the same team anyways so she figured they'd get away with that name at least like 80% of the time. Which were far better odds than operation seaweed or earstring. "Also it just sounds cool so I'm in." Chloë added with a little laugh. What good was a secret code name if it wasn't cool anyways?