Gryffindor Syndrome || Eamon

Wednesday, July 13, 1921
The shore of the lake
12:54 AM

"What do you think they really are, Echo?"

Rae crouched by the water line, dark eyes trained on the girl who looked back at her. Similar, but different. Much like the lake back at Hogwarts, Mirrorveil Lake was one of her favourite places to be whenever she happened to be at the facility. Prone to wandering as she was, the girl had always enjoyed her midnight strolls along the glassy black waters that so perfectly reflected the sky. There was a sense of peace to be found where the cool breeze flowed inland. In summer, the frogs and crickets added to the sleepy symphony of the night, transporting her to a different world. Less crowded, less loud and dripping with danger.

Without the incessant chatter of others, Rae was often left with her own thoughts. Her own thoughts and the night that stretched until morning.

That night, she let herself be fascinated by her horror-stricken reflection. When the expressions grew particularly frightful, the girl spared cautious looks over her shoulder to be sure her complacency wouldn't become her downfall. It only took one time with her guard lowered for a serene night to become something more, and while Rae had learned that the lake was keen to twist reality, she wasn't willing to let that become the reason she was carted off into the darkness by whatever unseen but ominous being that provoked her reflection so tremendously.

"Echo?" she called again.

Somewhere not far off, her feline companion was having her own adventure. While the half-kneazle didn't care much for Rae's fascination with the large body of water, she did enjoy checking along the reeds and shrubbery in case there should be something she could chase.

The Slytherin girl huffed, not at all appreciating the way the feline went on as if she weren't there. "Ignore me then. You used to love the--"

Her words were cut short when Echo bristled. The creature whirled around, sprinting to Rae's side despite her disdain for the wet sand and the gently lapping waves that reached out to her. A second later, the girl thought she knew what had set her off. Footsteps. Heading their way. Even without a watch, Rae knew it was already past the latest block of curfew. The girl froze, praying it wasn't the director out for his own checks as he was sometimes wont to do. The man cared an awful lot more about the rules than the professors back at Hogwarts did, and so soon into the summer, she wasn't looking to lose her privileges.

Mercifully, as the figure drew closer, Rae saw it was too short to be Montreaux. Much less concerning. Even better, she recognised the not-so-stranger.

"Hey, Eamon," she greeted, returning her gaze to the water. "Not interested in sleep either?"

He would make a lovely alibi. What a fortuitous run-in.

Eamon wandered through the facility well past curfew, his feet carrying him in whichever direction his thoughts could shove him. The possibility of detention was nothing but a background noise as his brain refused to behave. His own multiplied voices in his head kept firing questions at each other, not stopping at all. He couldn't just turn it off and go to sleep. Of course he tried... and failed spectacularly.

Nights like this weren't rare and tonight the culprit was a bloody magical creatures enthusiast he talked with. she dropped three fascinating theories, stirred his bloody curiosity and dashed off early to see her boyfriend. She left Eamon alone with half finished explanation. Just. Like. That. "Merlin's cracked cauldron, her. Morgana's rotten teeth, him. May all the ghosts haunt them," he muttered under his breath and kicked at a pebble with a scowl.

"Maybe I’ll go and ask her now- oh, right, night... girls’ dormitory, brilliant plan, moreover..." he kept murmuring as his feet kept dragging him forward and his mouth running ahead of his brain again. The grass got softer and the air shifted and He kept going until he realised he had already crossed the meadows and reached the lake and his attention shifted to the silhouette by the water.

Rae. Of course, Rae. She had caught him more times than he cared to count... and somehow never actually give him detention. Thank Merlin for that!

"Hi Rae" he lifted his hand in a quick wave before pacing toward her without breaking stride. He let out a scoff which was a mix of exhaustion and frustration at her question. “Nope. Opposite. In fact—worse. Sleep hates me. Despises me-" he paused and, "Hey do you-" considered that maybe Rae has all the answers to his questions, "Ah- never mind" he huffed out a breath.

Eamon followed her line of sight as her eyes drifted back to the lake, "did you drop something in- or I don't know, see something?"

“Nope. Opposite. In fact—worse. Sleep hates me. Despises me--Hey do you--Ah- never mind" he huffed out a breath.

She knew he'd short-circuit someday.

From her position crouched on the soggy shore, Rae cast her gaze up at her friend. Ravenclaws were a special bunch. They were kinda like Gryffindors in how all over the place they could be, but with them, the girl figured a lot of their movement took place in their heads. Cassian was a prime example of that, always coming up with new ideas, always reading weird books, and rambling a mile a minute about them after. Eamon was like that too...kinda. It only made sense that one day his brain would stop keeping up and he'd end up malfunctioning like he was with all his clipped sentences.

"One at a time," she drawled, a light tease coating the words that left her tongue. "The night's not going anywhere, and neither are we by the looks of it."

"Did you drop something in- or I don't know, see something?"

Hm?

She cast a glance down at the wrinkled liquid surface. Her reflection that once looked on at her in horror now followed her lead closely again, turning when she did, eyes roving like hers did. "Nothing like that," she replied, reaching a hand in to disrupt the image. Wrist deep, she made small circles that lazily rippled further and further from the source. Warm, as it always was; another great mystery of the lake. Much like the shifting spectres, Rae wondered what kept it perpetually at such an agreeable temperature. "Just me...well...sort of me. I'm not entirely convinced that thing is my reflection, you know?"

She removed her hand, letting the droplets drip onto the skirt of her dress.

"But that's neither here nor there. I'd like to hear more about you wanting to break into the girls' dormitories. Finally found the one, eh, Eamon? She worth a few days in solitary?--No judgement. I reckon I might be inclined to do the same for good enough reason."

Whether that had been the boy's actual plan was inconsequential to her. On his walk over, she'd heard him mutter something about it and had always been the sort of girl who took things and ran with them. Reality would catch up eventually.

Until then, she may as well have fun.