Open Searching In Between

[Chloe Thompson]

Ever since she had gotten the stone she had send out skipping over the lake thrown right back at her Chloë had been having difficulty letting go of the fact that there was something in the lake. Something big. Something unknown. Something that for some reason had decided to go up to the surface every now and then, to show students just the smallest glimpse of itself before hiding right back down in the deep darkness of the lake. There had been rumours going around the school of other students noticing it as well, telling their friends they had caught a glimpse of whatever kind of creature it was. No one seemed to actually know what it was so far though, at least not that she had heard of. It did clarify that Lysander and her weren't the only two who were curious, eager to know whatever it was that was in the lake and teased the students with a small glimpse of its presence every now and then. Which was exactly why Operation Fire Snitch was a go.

Teaming up with Lysander to find the lake creature hadn't provided them with any successes yet but she still felt like it was better to be on the hunt with someone else than to have to do it on her own, if only because doing it with a friend made things a whole lot more fun. Not only that but Chloë also believed they made a solid team, both bringing in different ideas about what could help them in their search for the creature. Or monster, as Lysander preferred to call it. Admittedly, she hadn't been sure on how to continue their quest since their plan of flying over the lake hadn't proven to get them any closer to figuring things out. Last year, at the very beginning of their teamwork Lysander had mentioned swimming into the lake which, because of all of his monster talk at the time, she hadn't been too fond of. No way was she going to let him swim out into the lake without even knowing or being able to see what was lurking down below. This year, however, the swimming plan had been put right back onto the table when they had learned the bubble-head charm in one of their lessons. She still wasn't exactly sure how she had come to agree with the plan but at least this time around things were different. Using the charm if they headed out into the lake meant they didn't have to stay at the surface, unsure of what was below. Instead, they could actually go and see what was in the lake which, in all honesty, sounded like quite the adventure. Slightly scary after all that monster talk, sure, but and adventure nonetheless. Plus, she had only agreed to the plan on the condition that they would meet up a couple of time to practice the spell as well as think of other spells or things that might come in usefull if they were going into the lake. Having gathered up everything she thought she needed Chloë had now made her way towards the lake, dropping her bag down at the base of one of the trees as she waited for Lysander to show up. Looking out over the lake she couldn't help but to feel a little nervous about their plan but it felt a little late to be backing out now. Surely they would be fine. Right?

[open only to anything that lives in the lake]​

 

[Lysander Summers]

Operation Fire Snitch was a go, and Lysander was ready to go down in Hogwarts history. It had been a couple of years since he'd first glimpsed the creature in the lake, and heard the rumours circulating around the school of what it might be. There was nothing concrete, no one seemed to have seen it for more than a few seconds at most to be able to verify what it really was. Despite his and Chloë's numerous attempts to track down and investigate what it was that really lurked beneath the water, they'd turned up nothing, not without being able to dive down themselves, which until now had seemed like an impossibility. Sander had toyed with the idea of somehow transfiguring himself partially into a fish, or breaking into the Herbology store (again) for some gillyweed, but since coming across the bubble-head charm in class, the whole plan had changed, and it seemed like one day soon they'd finally be able to take the plunge and get to the bottom of the lake's mystery. Today was that day.

How did one prepare for an underwater adventure? There wasn't a lot, Lysander found out, that he could really bring with him that wouldn't get ruined or become useless when wet. Carrying a camera to try and get some evidence of the aquatic monster was a no-go, and he hadn't wanted to ask Ajaccio if he had some kind of water-proof variant he could borrow. The less people knew about Operation Fire Snitch, the better. He didn't want their thunder taken by someone else. In the end, he'd brought a few semi-useful tricks and trinkets, stuffed them into a bag, and rushed across the lawn to meet with his fellow mystery monster investigator. He turned up looking a little more ready for a day at the beach than he did an underwater adventure, with his swim trunks and sunscreen on, and a rolled towel stuffed on top of his bag. He waved energetically when he caught sight of Chloë, and set his own bag down next to hers. "This is it!" He said cheerfully, rummaging around through his belongings. He passed her a bottle of sunscreen. "Here, put this on. You'll taste bad if the monster tries to eat you." He told her. "That won't happen, but. I brought so much cool stuff to distract it with before it can eat anyone. If it does. Look, I found a container for my frogspawn soap." He continued, pulling out the clear box and rattling it around. Air. Tight. "If we rip the lid off, boom, frog explosion." Lysander mimed lifting the lid, and the ensuing eruption of frogs from inside, enough to startle any creatures, or make them hungry for faux-frogs instead of humans. "And I got a screaming yo-yo if that doesn't work, and my fanged frisbee. Oh, and a wind-up billywig toy. It's supposed to zap things." He tucked them back into his bag and stood up, hefting it over one arm. "Prob won't need them though. It might be friendly. Or we might meet some mermaids who can tell us about it." There was a lot to be excited for on this mission, and while most of it revolved around finding the lake creature, Lysander was eager to interact with more mermaids. He'd heard there was a whole city of them deep, deep in the lake, and he wanted to see it for himself. "So, who's jumping in first?"​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Still not entirely sure of their plan Chloë now had to face the facts: she had agreed to it, they had planned it and now here she was waiting at the edge of the lake. There was no turning back now as far as she was concerned. Chickening out obviously wasn't an option and honestly her curiousity about whatever sort of creature, or creatures, were lurking down in the lake that she didn't know of could easily overthrow the slight feeling of nervousness that came paired with their mission for today. She waved when she noticed Lysander making his way over to her, not too surprised his bag seemed to be much bigger than hers was as she was sure he had probably stuffed it full of whatever he had come across that seemed like it might be the slightest bit useful. "Right, let me just marinate myself in the hopes of not becoming some creature's tasty afternoon snack." She joked when he handed her the sunscreen but started applying it to her arms nonetheless. For the biggest part she was still convinced that whatever was in the lake couldn't possibly be a monster, yet there was a small part of her that thought it would be pretty cool if it was. As long as it didn't want to eat them anyways, which seemed unlikely if it turned out to be a monster. They were called monsters for a reason after all.

Chloë nodded along when Lysander started showing everything he had managed to stuff into his bag. It made her wonder if perhaps she should've put some more effort in as well, if she should've tried to get her hands on some things that might be useful down in the water. Then again she didn't have too many things like that and judging from what Lysander had brought on their last attempt she had just trusted he'd come up with all sorts of tricks and trinkets they could use if they needed to. Which was exactly what he did. "Yeah, definitely putting my hopes on it being friendly." She responded. Even if the possibility of figuring out more information of the creature they were looking for from merpeople sounded intersting she did want to see the creature for herself. Being able to tell people they actually saw it rather than having find out what it was without seeing it sounded so much cooler. Even if they didn't find what they were looking for there were probably loads of other things to discover in the lake. Probably nothing as unknown as what they were looking for, but still. "You know what? I'm going to leave that honour to you." She laughed at his question of who was going in first, which was probably the least important thing to worry about, before putting on her serious face. This was a mission after all, a secret operation. Something that required seriousness and focus, especially since they'd be underwater.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander chuckled to himself and nodded the affirmative. He hadn't been this excited for a real adventure in a long time, and it was exactly the kind of distraction he needed. "Alright, it's go time then. Operation Fire Snitch." He said, holding his fist out for a bump. He readjusted his bag and made for the lake's shore, feet sloshing as he lead the way into the water. His steps slowed as his bag sank down beneath the surface, a lot heavier now that it was soaking in and collecting water, nd he almost regretted bringing so much. Once he was up to his shoulders in lakewater, he pulled out his wand and waved it around his head, muttering the well-practiced incantation. His head was encapsulated by a bubble of air, and he poked at it experimentally to test. It jiggled, an odd ripple of air, and he gave Chloë one last glance before plunging down.

Being underwater was like visiting an entirely different world. Even as close to the shore as they were, Lysander felt like he'd stepped through a portal to somewhere else. The floor was littered with pebbles and sand, and brightly coloured shells. He could see a quaffle, that someone must have kicked about on the shore and lost, amongst other familiar objects. A notebook, a bottle, and what looked like a friendship bracelet. The weight on his belongings also appeared to lighten, and he swam out, accidentally spooking a school of fish nearby. He guessed they weren't likely to see many humans further out in the lake, and he paused to take in just how cool it was to be surrounded by creatures he usually only ever looked down at from above. He kicked his legs and thrashed his arms slowly about to turn and find Chloë, shooting her a thumbs up. "How wicked is this?" He asked. He scooped up the old, waterlogged quaffle and attempted to pass it to her, watching as instead it sank short and landed back on the bottom of the lake.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë had to admit that now that they were actually going to go into the lake her nerves seemed to settle a bit. Or perhaps they were just being overshadowed by her growing excitement of seeing what's under the lake's surface. She had looked out over the lake plenty of times, walked by it and just hung out but never gone as far into the lake as they were likely to go today. At the moment just being further down in the water and seeing what was around sounded interesting, even if they didn't find the creature they were looking for. Which they totally would, she was sure of it. Something cool had to happen at the very least. When Lysander held out his fist to her she happily bumped it, before following by walking further into the water. She watched as he performed the spell and went down below the water's surface, disappearing from her sight. No turning back now. More confident about their mission than she had been before Chloë took out her own wand and cast the incantation, shaking her head for a second to see if the bubble would last before submerging into the unknown underwaters of the lake. Unknown to her, at the very least.

Actually being underwater without the imminent distraction of having to hold her breath felt sort of.. freeing. There we no worries of running out of breath, of having to somehow manage to get back up quick enough to catch a breath. No restriction of having to get up to the surface every once and a while. Intrigued by everything there already was to see, even if it wasn't all incredibly interesting yet, Chloë swam further out into the lake, swimming up to the vague form a bit further down that looked like it had to be Lysander. Either that or they weren't the only kids this far out in the lake, which would be a strange turn of events to say the least. She laughed when he tried to pass the old quaffle to her, creating a bit of a funny sensation within the bubble that surrounded her features. "Good thing you didn't want to be a chaser." She joked as she moved forward a bit. "Definitely cool though." She nodded in agreement before moving her arms to turn around and take in their surroundings, wondering if there was any sign of whatever creature they were looking for or anything that seemed out of place within the calmness of the lake. Asides from themselves. "So," She questioned when she managed to turn herself back around to face Lysander. "Any idea what we should look for? You saw glimpse of it right? What did that look like again?"

 

[The Golden Eel]

The days were getting colder. Colder and shorter. There was little time for basking before the sun would shift too far away and eel could tell the time was coming for it to begin to sleep. It was always quietest in the colder months and the eel craved the silence from those on the shore. It had been drifting not far from the surface, catching a few moments of warmth, when it heard the splash of something larger entering the lake. It strained its senses, confused by the odd rhythmic noises it heard, muffled by the water. It wasn't often that the shore dwellers entered its lake, but they often brought trouble. With a lash movement, the eel twisted its long body, curling downwards and to the safety of the rocky depths below.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander could get used to the sensation of floating about underwater, not having to worry about holding his breath, or surfacing too soon. It was different from flying, yet in some ways similar. Slower, for sure, but he didn't have to rely on a broom the whole time. He was free to do what he wanted. At Chloë's comment he chuckled and shook his head, hair bobbing weightlessly around him. "Let's see you give it a go." He offered with a laugh. An underwater version of Quidditch was starting to sound like a fun, challenging idea, and for a moment he genuinely wondered if it were possible to do it. It would have been hilarious to see. He kicked his legs forward, attempting to see if he could perform an underwater somersault, before righting himself back up. It took a second to remember which way was "up", with no real sense of gravity to tell him. He waved his arms about, pushing himself further into the lake and scanning its murky depths as he listened to Chloe, searching for a sign of where to start looking. "Deeper" was about as much as he had planned. "It has to have some kind of lair. If we find the merfolk village, they might be able to direct us." He suggested. He had assumed he'd know it when he saw it. "It looked kind of like..." The Gryffindor continued, trailing off as his eyes caught sign of a slither of activity. Something long and golden had slinked out of sight, and he pointed frantically in the direction it had headed. "That! Over there! That was it!" He shouted. He kicked his legs and spun his arms about like a windmill, trying to propel himself toward the creature. He'd lost sight of it now, but they'd seen where it had went, and that was probably towards its lair.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë laughed at Lysander's response, knowing full well that she likely wouldn't be able to throw the quaffle any better than he had done. Especially not with how deflated it was, not to mention there was probably some water in there as well. She looked around, still intrigued with everything around them. Even if they weren't very deep yet and it was mostly just some fish. Still, it felt like there were plenty of adventures to be had the moment they'd actually venture deeper into the lake. Chloë nodded when Lysander mentioned the merfolk, honestly getting exited about the idea of looking for their village. She hadn't even met one before and to be so close to them and not seek them out would be a shame. Their mission wasn't to find the merpeople though, but if they were the only ones that might give them a clue it seemed like the best shot they had at finding their creature. That was untill she heard Lysander shout. She tried to turn as quickly as she could to see what he had seen, only barely spotting the end of the creature slither away into the deep. "No way!" It was the most she had seen of it so far though and whilst her body tried its best to move after Lysander and keep up the wheels in her mind were turning in an attempt to figure out whatever it could be. Maybe it was something she had seen before? Or something her uncle had told her about? He'd told her plenty of stories about all sorts of creatures after all. "Let's go!" She responded excitedly once she had almost caught up with Lysander, even if it felt like she had to kick her legs twice as much to be able to keep up. "Do you think it saw us? Went hiding on purpose?" She asked as she started to move down more towards where the creature had vanished to, staring into the depths below to see if she could catch a glimpse of anything. They were so close.

 

[Lysander Summers]

Lysander floated above the rocky outcropping he'd reached, his legs kicking slowly back and forth on the spot to keep him in place as he stared into the dark abyss below. This deep in, it was too dark to see anything properly. He glanced at Chloe thoughtfully, wondering if it had spotted them and slithered off, or if they'd just happened to see it coming by. "It was huge. Do you think it would have been scared of us?" He asked her. Magical or not, they weren't very big themselves. He raised his wand, uttering a quick lumos to ignite his wand with light. For a moment his eyes widened, wondering, too late, if it would cancel out the effect of the bubble around his face, though as it seemed to hold he took a sigh of relief. He pushed himself to the lake floor with a few swishes of his arm, hooking a foot under a rocky ledge, and waved his wand back and forth in the dim below to try and get a better look. "I don't see it. How deep do you think it gets?" ​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë was a little disappointed that they had gotten a glimpse of the creature after which it completely disappeared again. It did mean their plan had been a good one. Before today she hadn't even actually seen any part of the creature for herself. Only the stone that had come flying back at her. "Dunno, maybe it just doesn't like us? Y'know, since we don't belong down here and all." She gave a little shrug. It seemed unlikely that a creature as huge as this one looked would be scared of them. Especially since it had the home turf adventage and she, in all honesty, didn't think either Lysander or her looked very scary. Chloë follwed Lysander into swimming a bit deeper, grabbing onto the ledge with her hands as she continued to stare into the deep. "Honestly? Not a clue." She replied to Lysander's question with a small shake of her head. What she did know was that even with the light of Lysander's wand it just seemed to get endlessly darker down there. "Do you think we'd even have a chance of finding it if it's hiding? It probably knows exactly where to go to disappear." She looked at her friend, slowly started to wonder if losing sight of it would mean the end of their mission. It wasn't like she wanted to give up right now, on the contrary: she wanted to find it even more now she knew how close they were. However, it did start to feel like a bit of a lost cause if the creature was actually hiding from them.

 

[Lysander Summers]

The idea that the lake creature didn't like them was one Lysander couldn't believe. They were both entirely likeable people, human or otherwise. "We don't look that different from sirens, do we? Stick our legs together, wear some shells. Totally the same." He remarked with a small laugh. From what he'd seen, those were the merfolk that inhabited the Hogwarts lake. He wondered if the creature would have hidden from the merpeople, too, or even mistaken them for being sirens themselves. What if they fought? Were at war? He stared into the inky abyss and raised his wand. "Homenum revelio." He called, waiting a beat as only Chloe registered in the vicinity. He shot her a quick glance. "Before you say anything, I know they say it's only meant for humans." He explained quickly. "Worth a shot though. You never know, it could have eaten someone. They say a kid died in the lake." He reached further down with his wand light, straining the peer deeper, hoping for a glimmer of something. "Me and Iris talked to his ghost once, and he said he wasn't eaten, but still." The Gryffindor gave up, tucking his lit wand in the waistband of his shorts. "Well, there's only one way to find out what our chances are." He shrugged, before kicking off from the ledge to swim further down into the dark, keeping his eyes peeled. His view was mostly that of rocks and sand, but as he continued his search, he spotted a glint of gold. "I think I've found something!" He called out. His hand brushed away at a sandy spot, kicking up a cloud of dust, though rather than some kind of cool scale, or finding that the creature had buried itself beneath the lake, he seemed to simply uncover some sort of manky old necklace. Still, it didn't look man-made, and he held it up to the light to get a better look.​

 

[Chloe Thompson]

Chloë still wasn't sure whether the creature had actually gone into hiding from them for one reason or another. It seemed logical that it might not like them, or just figured they didn't belong down there and made off. Either way there was one thing she did know for certain by now: it wasn't a monster they were after. She could hardly imagine a monster swimming away from them rather than towards them to eat them or scare them off. Plus, whilst the creature was big it didn't look super big. Like monster sized big. She laughed at Lysander's response, slightly shaking her head. "So if today doesn't work out you'll come dressed up as a siren next time?" She said jokingly, continuing laughing now that she imagined him dressed up. It wouldn't surprise her if he would actually do it though. Chloë looked on curiously when Lysander raised his wand, wondering if there was something he realized they hadn't tried yet. She nodded when he said it was worth a shot. "Did he.. tell you how he died?" She asked curiously, feeling a shiver run down her spine at the mention of a kid dying in the lake. It wasn't something she hadn't heard before but it wasn't specifically a nice thing to be reminded about when they were deep down in the lake themselves. Before Chloë had even registered what Lysander's response was he seemed to have already disappeared further down into the dark. She squinted to try and see, but there were mostly just vague shapes further down. Realizing she hadn't even lit her own wand yet she muttered a lumos to add some light to the situation before swimming further down. She moved her wand around to look at what was around her, although it wasn't all that much. Moving through the dark she almost felt a new sort of envy for creatures that could see down there, do whatever they wanted and not be bothered by their vision. When she heard Lysander call out she turned to swim as quickly as she could towards the general direction his voice came from. If he had found anything related to the creature, or even the creature itself, she didn't want to miss it. Apparently, he had been pretty close because it only took her a couple of strokes to reach him. "Looks old." She noted when Lysander held the item he had found up to the light, now clearly seeing it was some sort of necklace. "Maybe it belongs to one of the merpeople? In which case we should totally look for them and give it back. " It wasn't just that she wanted to see the merpeople, it only sounded like a realistic option. Either that or someone had lost the necklace a long time ago. "Or maybe our creature has a weird love of ancient jewelry." She added with a soft chuckle.