And So We Meet Again PV Margaret Burkhart

A single staff member that Miranda didn't recognize walked past them, and she automatically got out of their way.

"Do you want to follow him?" Margaret whispered after the person made their way around a nearby corner. "If he doesn't lead us to it maybe he came from there and we can follow our steps back to see if we can find a locked door. Sorry, I don't know if that makes sense, what I just said, sometimes I lay out plans that make no sense, anyway I can explain plan B later if we need it."

"Sounds good," Miranda agreed with a nod, and the two of them hurried after the lone staff member, careful to always keep a turn or two between them. It felt good to be on an adventure with someone she counted as friend, since the last time she'd done that was back before her first year, when she and her brother had still attempted their ridiculous stunts. Over the summer, they'd spent their time with their parents (more than they'd ever done before in one stretch) so they hadn't had time to try any more.

While Miranda was an expert at sneaking around, she was more used to leafy or grassy ground, not the stone bricks they were currently on, so she had to keep a slower pace to avoid making loud noises. It made her wish she knew some kind of muffling spell. My, that would be useful.

Margaret loved sneaking around and always tried to do it with her friends, for fun, but they were never very good at it so she just gave it up but now she was having fun sneaking around the corridors with one of her friends, well it was more like her friend. Margaret hadn't really made any other friends yet.

The guy said some weird password that honestly sounded like some dumb scrambling of letters instead of the usual Latin words or passwords like that. He said something that sounded an awful lot like a slurring of "hocus pocus." They peeked around the corner only to see that he had disappeared. There were two corners he could have turned into but when she quickly ran to the corner, not very loudly but if there was a dog around they would have heard her. He hadn't turned either of the corners. She opened the only door in the hallway which led to a potions closet.

"Do you think there's a password that turns this closet into a door to the hidden floor? Or maybe it's hidden along the wall and only shows with a spell or an object, maybe? Do you think he knows we were following him?" Margaret asked, jibber-jabbering on with her questions and looking around in a dazed like way.

Since Miranda was a couple steps behind Margaret, she didn't hear the man say anything. By the time she rounded the corner, he was simply gone without a trace.

"Do you think there's a password that turns this closet into a door to the hidden floor? Or maybe it's hidden along the wall and only shows with a spell or an object, maybe? Do you think he knows we were following him?" Margaret asked, glancing left and right as if waiting for a secret door to suddenly pop into existence.

"Maybe there's a password," Miranda agreed. "That sounds possible. And when the person says it, the storeroom transforms into a staircase or a passageway or whatever. Yes, that would make sense."

She paused for a moment, then realized she'd never answered the second part of Margaret's question. "I don't think he knew we were following him," she replied slowly. "But I could be wrong. Some people are really tricky and hard to read."

Miranda turned and started taping on the walls, trying to see if any were hollow or could move. She even pulled out her wand and tapped several more of them, whispering the unlocking spell under her breath for good measure.

Margaret pulled out her lightly colored wand and flicked it and said "hocus pocus?" As if it were a question, not really knowing if she just looked stupid or if she would open some passage.

Then she said it with certainty, thinking maybe it had to do with asking it like a question. Maybe in some magical way it new if you said it uncertainly then you might not actually know it so she said it with certainty this time. "Hocus pocus," she said firmly. Then she tried saying I in the slurring way the guy said it, and still, nothing happened. I guess it's not a password? She thought Then why did he say that, was he saying something else?

Then she heard something like stones sliding together. She turned around to see that Miranda was standing by an opening passageway. Miranda must have opened something. Why did he say that weird slurring then, was he talking to someone an I just couldn't hear from around the corner? For some reason, she couldn't help the fact that that question was stuck in her head.

She walked over to the moving stones, both amazed and dazed. She watched in wonder as they made a huge archway that probably 3 people could walk through at once. The arch became embroidered with beautiful designs, of swirls and other designs. The passage must have closed pretty quickly if they didn't want to be seen. The staircase leading up, which she thought was strange because it was supposed to be between the second and third floor and they were on the third floor, but she didn't think much of it and assumed the boy ha just gotten the instructions wrong. It was fairly dark and light by pretty dim torches but that was all.

Miranda could hear Margaret muttering something, but didn't bother trying to make out what it was. Instead, she continued tapping and whispering, to no avail.

Suddenly the stones right in front of her started to shiver, and Miranda jumped back in surprise.

"What in the world...?" she muttered as the wall started to slide apart to reveal an archway that steadily grew bigger and bigger. "Margaret?"

Miranda had no idea how the opening g had been revealed, either by what she'd done or what Margaret had done, but the important thing was that they'd discovered something they probably weren't supposed to know about, secret floor or not. It was quite possible that they'd opened a hidden passageway and not the entrance to the staff floor, but it was still incredibly cool.

"I wonder how many secret passages and rooms there are in this castle," she said aloud, turning to face Margaret. "Because it seems like there are a lot. Seriously, who planned this place?"

Her eyes sparkled at the thought of an adventure, especially one that included uncovering secrets. "I wonder if we could find them all! That would be awesome, don't you agree? This place is so old, there's bound to be secrets no one's discovered before."

"I wonder how many secret passages there are in this place because it seems like there are a lot," Miranda said and Margaret laughed. "I wonder if we could find them all! That would be awesome, don't you agree? This place is so old, there's bound to be secrets no one's discovered before." Miranda continued, then Margaret had a thought. What if we made our own secret passage or something like that? She told Miranda her idea, not knowing whether or not Miranda would like the idea or not.

"Well, let's see where this goes," she said leading up the stairs. "I don't think we found the hidden floor bu this seems cool too," Margaret said enthusiastically, as the stones quickly moved back into place and they were shut off into the dim light. Margaret moved out of Miranda's way so she could go up the steps a little before her while she got a torch in case they needed it. Soon she came up after Miranda with he light. For a long while, they just went up a lot of stone steps. Margaret thought they were finally getting somewhere when they came upon a hallway but at the end, there were just more stairs.

After a lot of stairs and 2 or 3 hallways, they ended up in a long hallway with a door to their right and two others on their left. Margaret's heart began to race as she approach the first door.

"What if we made our own secret passage, or something close to that?" Margaret asked once Miranda was finished her excited exclamations.

"That would be amazing," Miranda agreed. "Our own secret passage. Although, you have to admit it wouldn't be easy. I wonder what kind of spells would be necessary..." She trailed off, frowning in thought.

"Well, let's see where this goes," Margaret said as she headed up the stairs. "I don't think we found the hidden floor but this seems cool too."

"Agreed," Miranda replied, and quickly flicked her wand while whispering "lumos" under her breath. The tip of her wand started to glow a faint white, and she grinned. She then followed Margaret, who had grabbed one of the torches - an idea Miranda hadn't thought of - and continued up the stairs.

Together, the two of them made their way up three or four sets of stairs, along with a couple hallways, until they reached a hall with three doors in it. Two on one side and one on the other.

"Which one should we check out first?" Miranda whispered, her awe keeping her from speaking any louder. It seemed like a place where hushed voices were the norm.

"That would be amazing," Miranda agreed. "Our own secret passage. Although, you have to admit it wouldn't be easy. I wonder what kind of spells would be necessary..." Miranda asked. Margaret wasn't sure if she was asking her or herself. "We wouldn't have to use many we could just use this passage right and just make our own tunnel, but we could hide it behind a banner or something," Margaret replied

Margaret saw Miranda using the Lumos spell and felt stupid for not thinking of it.

After they walked for a while they found 3 doors. "Which one should we check out first?" Asked Miranda.

"The first one I guess," Margaret said, walking toward it with Miranda close by. She looked at Miranda, Margaret's eyes were wide and she almost felt afraid at what might be behind it. She grasped the golden handle of the old, almost grey, wooden door. She took a deep breath and realized she was still pretty scared. She took another breath and held it for a while this time. Her heart was still racing but she quickly forced herself to open it before she got too scared again. the door opened slightly but still not quite enough to see anything inside besides an unlit lantern by the door. She opened it alittle bit further to reveal a..........

"The first one I guess," Margaret replied, and slowly approached an almost grey door with a golden handle.

Miranda watched apprehensively, wondering what it could be hiding. A mysterious door in a secret passage...it could be concealing anything.

Margaret slowly opened it, and Miranda found herself holding her breath. She held her lit-up wand towards the dark opening (which looked eerily like a gaping maw...now that was not something she should think about) and revealed rows of boxes and crates.

"A storage room?" she asked aloud in confusion, taking a few steps inside with her wand held high. "I think? Margaret? Are you seeing this?"

She walked over to the nearest crate and tried to wrench it open without success. "Do you know any spells that will open a crate? It's not locked, so Alohomora is out..."

Miranda wasn't used to using most muggle items, since her parents relied heavily on enchantments, so the idea of using an object to lever the boards apart didn't occur to her.

"I could splinter it with the knockback jinx, but that would be loud and it might break whatever's inside." She racked her mind for any other spells of use, then gave up. "Nope, no idea."

Margaret sighed in disappointment at the crates. "Well, hopefully, there's something cool in the crates," she said trying to be optimistic, but not doing very well.

Miranda purposed trying to open it with a spell and Margaret thought she had just the one, but he didn't want to seem too bossy. She waited for Miranda to go through all her ideas and when she said "nope, no idea" Margaret purposed her idea.

"Well this is a pretty simple spell, but simple doesn't mean bad. It'll still work nonetheless." She said, blandly hoping that there was something cooler in the crates than potion bottles or anything. "Whimgardium leviosa" Margaret said whipping her wand in a wave snape, that was kind of like a thin number 2 on its back. The lid of the box lifted revealing the objects inside. The box was a little above her head but she would be able to see the contents inside if they climb onto some of the boxes.

"Ladies first," Margaret said moving a hand toward the boxes. She wanted to let Miranda to experience the adventure first. She thought it would be the kindest thing to do. She wanted to make sure she wasn't being too bossy or taking to much control. She moved a little so Miranda could climb on the crate.