Open This Great Unknown Was Meant To Be Found

[Weston Stirling]

((Open after Kadi posts with Indira Khatri))

When Weston had first started his eel research project with Indi, the days had stretched endlessly before them, and it had seemed like a forgone conclusion that they would be able to document the creature. Now, he wasn't quite as confident. They'd been at this for years, and they had only ever seen a single eel. And time was running out. This was their last year at Hogwarts, and Weston knew that once he graduated, he would likely never see the lake again.

Thankfully, they had some new leads. A book on aquatic creatures had revealed the fact that most eels were nocturnal. It made sense that the man-eating eels in the lake would also be nocturnal. Why else would sightings be so rare? One conveniently scheduled prefect patrol later, and Weston was standing in front of the lake, squinting out over the moonlit waters. "Can you see anything?" His question shattered the tranquil silence, and he hurriedly tried to lower his voice to a whisper. "Should we use our wands? Or do you think light will scare it off?"

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi had spent more time at the lake than she ever would have expected when she arrived at Hogwarts. She wasn't a particularly outdoorsy person and that hadn't changed but this place had come to mean a lot to her and also given her a fear of large bodies of water. The last time she had gone to the beach seaweed had brushed her leg and she had screamed before rushing back to shore. She had only been in up to her knees and Anisha had yet to let her live it down, especially during their arguments.

At least it was easy to have an excuse to not swim in the lake. Even if they hadn't found proof yet. She was getting impatient, but not desperate yet. Indi shook her head when Weston asked if she had a visual and she put her hands on her hips as she considered his follow up question. She had done some reading on aquatic animals during the break but she felt like she had come across contradiction information. It scared off some animals but fish were usually unbothered. Was the eel a fish? Her brain felt fried and in the end she shook her head. "I don't think that's a good idea. If it really is nocturnal you don't want to trick it into thinking it's day." she said with a shrug, remembering something she had read once.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Despite the moonlight, it was still a little difficult to see in the dark. Weston could tell that Indi was shaking her head, but everything beyond her was silhouetted in black. He really hoped his eyes adjusted to the dark soon. What if the eel passed by them and they never realised it because they couldn't see into the waters? That would be tragic. "Oh, right." It was no wonder Indi was head girl; she was so smart. "Do you think we could do the opposite? Like, make it think it's night when it's actually day?" he wondered out loud, though he wasn't really sure how that would work. But if the eel was nocturnal, then it would help if they could figure out a way to search for it during daylight as well.

At least they would be able to hear the eel if it decided to send up a spray of water. It was completely silent except for the rustling of leaves and the occasional call of an owl, the latter of which made Weston flinch every time. "The grounds are so much creepier at night," he muttered. He had grown up in a city, so he was unused to such overwhelming darkness. Even in the castle, there were usually torches in the hallways every few metres. "We don't have to do any special prefect things, do we?" he asked, remembering that they were technically on patrol. Weston still wasn't sure if he was doing those right. He and Eugene mostly just wandered empty corridors during the few patrols he'd had so far.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi stood with her hands on her hips and stared out into the ink water that was barely visible in the moon light. There had to be a better way to do this. She considered Weston's question about making it dark during the day. She chewed absentmindedly on her lip. "I'm not sure." she admitted. "I don't know if there's an effective way to trick the whole lake. It's not like we know where it lives." Indi sighed. But she laughed at Weston's comment and glanced back at him. "Are you scared?" she teased gently. It was kind of creepy out here. The clouds were moving lazily across the sky and blocking out the moon here and there making it worse. She shrugged when he brought up prefect things. "Your guess is as good as mine." she chuckled. "It's not like I've been a prefect any longer than you have." she pointed out and looked at the water again. "I think if we use red light, or maybe green? Like night vision cameras, we can see better and not worry about the daylight thing." she theorized.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Indi had a point. Their research project would go a lot more smoothly if they knew where the eels lived. "What if we tried to bait it?" He tried to remember what eels ate (besides people). The Great Hall sometimes served fish. Would a man-eating eel be tempted by cooked fish? At Indi's question, Weston gave her a look — or at least he tried to. She was still mostly a silhouette, though he could picture her smile. "Are you not? There could be a centaur or blast-ended skrewt or acromantula stalking us. They can probably see great in the dark, so we wouldn't know they're there until it's too late. What if there's something behind us right now?" He'd said that last part mostly in jest, but he couldn't resist the urge to glance behind them just to make extra sure they hadn't been followed by any creepy creatures.

Satisfied that there weren't any glowing eyes following them in the dark, Weston turned back to watch the lake. "Yeah, but you're like the head prefect. You're in charge of everyone." It was so cool how his two bestest friends had both ended up with the head people badges. Indi's theory about coloured lights made sense, and Weston wondered if wizards had night vision cameras. He should've brought his mum's omnioculars so they could test them in the dark. "So how do we make red light? All I know is normal lumos. And, like, stupefy," he added, grinning at the mental image of the two of them throwing stunning charms into the sky to produce red light.

 

[Indira Khatri]

Indi considered Weston’s next suggestion. “That could work.” she said mostly to herself as she paused to kneel down towards the edge of the water and dipped her fingers in. She glanced over her shoulder when he started to work himself up over imagined threats. Indi sighed and wiped her hands on her pants. “Well then I’ll just blast them away. You are talking to a practically undefeated dueling champion.” she said proudly, trying to gloss over the times she had lost to Elara. “Besides. I met a centaur once and they were nice.” she added for extra reassurance.

She shrugged at Weston’s insistence that she was in charge of everyone. She wished it worked like that. But more often than not she felt under qualified and a little out of her depth. Not that Indi would admit that but thankfully the topic went back to their task at hand and she wondered if she could make lumos a different color. She had never tried and it was a little late to try Professor Haden. She rummaged around in her pocket and wondered if she had anything that might be useful.

 

[Weston Stirling]

Weston's eyes widened when Indi knelt by the water. He couldn't exactly see what she was doing, but it wasn't hard to guess. "I meant with food or something, not you." He had no doubt she could take on the eel if it did attack, but he really would rather not have things come to that if possible. Especially not now, when it was dark. Indi's next comment, however, made him completely forget his apprehension. "Wait, you've met a centaur?! When?" It was starting to feel like all of his friends had seen a centaur except for him.

Indi was quiet, so Weston pulled out his wand and started to run through a mental list of spells. Fire would probably just scare the eel away. The bluebell flames spell was, well, blue — not red or green. "Maybe if we had red or green plastic? We could create, like, a filter and cast a lumos spell through it." The only problem was that he had no idea where they would get coloured plastic like that.