Closed Even the best explorers get lost PV Avis

"I think that suit of armor stared at me before," Maisie stated in the cold silence of the second floor corridor.

Avis cocked her head at the familiar hunk of metal. To be honest, they all looked familiar but this one did give her a haunting feeling that they'd passed it before. She couldn't imagine how. She was sure they'd made several left and right turns so they couldn't have possibly gone in a circle, right? Left? Avis shook her head to clear her thoughts. No sense in confusing herself.

"You know, he does have a familiar look to him," she replied thoughtfully, gazing up into the cold metal face. "My brother's a sixth year and he says that older students will bewitch these great lumps sometimes to play pranks on people, but he swears they've got minds of their own."

At this, she took a small step back from the suit of armor, the tiniest feeling of apprehension forming in her stomach. She decided to focus her thoughts on finding a way to their next area of adventure and leave the second floor behind.

Avis was about to impulsively suggest the two girls turn back the way they had come (which she was hoping Maisie would remember) and try to find a painting to ask for directions when a low metallic groan echoed out of the darkness behind them. Avis froze and her skin was suddenly flooded with a prickly sensation as the hair rose along her arm. What in Merlin's beard could that possibly have been?

Interacting with: @Maisie Gemmell

WC: 264

Maisie knew she was not crazy. When the family had gone up north into the Highlands, she recalled how the trees all blurred into one another over time. And somehow, it felt like that now. How desperately she longed for a distinctive shop sign or monument.

But there was only stone and armor.

As Avis remarked on the suit's familiar face, Maisie stepped up to examine him a little bit closer. Her eyes narrowed as she tried to discern if it had been staring, if it could even stare, or if it was all just a trick of a light. "Minds of their own?" she repeated as she stopped herself just short of reaching out and touching the top of the suit of armor. "That doesn't sound very good," she admitted.

Stepping back, she looked left and right around the corridor. "I think maybe we should go to the third—"

The way Avis just stopped there caused Maisie to hesitate. And then—

—she heard it too.

Her eyes went wide as her ears pricked up. And Maisie realised there was a choice to be made. "We could find the third floor," she reiterated, "Or maybe we should find out what that was." Swallowing, she nodded towards the direction of moan. She'd not force Avis to go in either direction, but she had to admit she was very curious.

@Avis Greymond

Avis gave her companion a nervous side-eye at her suggestion, not wanting to take her eyes off the dark corridor in front of them. She had to admit she was a bit nervous, but Hogwarts was a school for children wasn't it? It had had it's dangerous days in the past but it seemed to have been relatively safe in recent days. What could possibly be down there that would be so terrible?

Avis took a breath, her impulse to explore taking over as she realized Maisie was curious as well.

"I say we take a look," she said, trying to put on a brave face and with that, she marched forward into the corridor. The moan echoed down the hallway in front of them once again and Avis gulped nervously, but continued her way into the dark.

Finally, the two of them seemed to be getting closer as the moaning got louder. Avis stopped a few feet away from the supposed source of the sound and shakily, took her wand out, pointing it at the massive suit of armor towering over the two Ravenclaws. She knew she couldn't do much with her wand at the present moment as a new first year, but whatever was inside that suit of armor wouldn't know that, hopefully. On second thought, she hoped it was something inside the suit and not the suit itself.

"Alright! Come out! We aren't scared!" Avis shouted at the metal giant. The shakiness in her voice said otherwise but she ignored it as they stood preparing for the worst.

Maisie nodded. There was only one choice and that was curiosity. So, it wasn't that she followed Avis down the corridor. No, she walked right alongside her friend. If there was anything to be frightened of, they'd face it together.

Besides, what could be worse than the rogue potion set that had caused Avis to move dorms in the first place?

Still, the noise grew and it wasn't too difficult to tell that was getting to Avis a little bit. As she saw Avis take out her wand, Maisie decided to do the same. Leaning over, she whispered, "Know any spells?" She didn't want to have the same situation she'd had on the boats. Though, she did know some now—all of which she could count on one hand. Hopefully, one would be useful. At least, she could only think of one that would be remotely useful.

Maisie was still pondering this as she heard Avis provoke the suit of armor. Maisie's grip on her wand grew tighter though it swayed ever so gently as she tried to recall the exact movement of Verdimillious, in case she needed to try and blind whatever was in there. "This isn't funny! Come out!" she echo'd Avis' calls.

Holding steady, she looked back at Avis, just as she had the giant boy in the boats—only this time, she was moderately more prepared.

Moderately.

@Avis Greymond

Avis swallowed but her throat was dry. "I only the know the Sparks Charms we learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts," she whispered back but held her wand at the ready regardless.

After both of the girls finished yelling at the suit of armor, it suddenly rattled and Avis jumped. She furrowed her eyebrows and glared at the suit.

"Ahh to hell with it," she whispered, more to herself than anyone present. Lifting her wand, she cleared her throat and slashed her wand at the suit of armor, hoping it would startle whatever was clunking around inside. "Verdimillious!" she cried and a blaze of green sparks shot out from her wand. A frightened yelp came from inside the suit of armor and then a mischievous giggle.

"Big bad wizards using magic on a poor little ghost?" said a familiar voice. Avis groaned.

"I know this ghost," she said, teeth gritted in annoyance. The ghost of a young boy floated out of the suit of armor, cackling.

"Hellooo again," he said in a sing song tone. Avis folded her arms.

"Get out of here. You aren't scaring anyone," she turned to Maisie," I argued with this glorified poltergeist for a good 30 minutes in the dungeons about absolutely nothing. Made me late to Charms," she explained. The arguing had been partly her fault, but Merlin's Beard, this ghost was annoying. He knew just how to prick a nerve. Avis turned back to the cackling entity in front of them. "Shoo!" she said, waving her hands in front of her.

"I only the know the Sparks Charms we learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts," Avis had said. Maisie swallowed. Seemed they were in exactly the same position: first years, not yet poised to take on the world. But she wouldn't let that deter her. Instead, she gave Avis a firm nod.

That is, just in time for the armor to make a deep rattling sound. Her eyes fluttered wide again.

But it was Avis who was first to attack. Maisie held her wand firm with the incantation right on the tip of her tongue. Unlike times before, she'd be ready.

But armor just shook as a figure yelled, which then transmuted into something else: laughter. What emerged was a little ghost, a little dewy eyed and sheepish. "You know him?" Maisie asked surprised. Perhaps Avis had gotten around the castle even more than Maisie had. Still, there was no better partner in exploration.

Looking in the ghosts' eyes, Maisie tried to see what could have caused it to argue so. And in those seconds, she recalled some recent reading from DADA. "They're different," she explained, "ghosts and poltergeists. A ghost is a person. A poltergeist is an emotion." With her free hand, she reached out in friendship. If there was a person there, she wanted to reach him, but it was difficult to tell. They'd only had one lesson on it.

And while maybe there was a useful spell here, Maisie reached instead for simple diplomacy. "Which are you?" she asked.

@Avis Greymond

The ghost or whatever he was visibly faltered at Maisie's outstretched hand and Avis glanced at her sideways in confusion. She'd been fully ready to blast another Sparks Charm at the thing and run but her dorm mate seemed to have other ideas.

Avis wasn't the only one confused by Maisie's actions. The transparent boy seemed to relax in front of them, more from stark surprise than comfortability, Avis imagined. He was staring curiously at her dorm mate, a puzzled look on his faded but youthful face.

"No one has ever asked me that before," he said finally, his voice much softer than it had been before. Avis looked back and forth between the two in front of her. "I'm a ghost, I think. Not sure exactly. You don't really get a handbook about death when you, well... die," he continued, his voice almost a whisper now. Avis rolled her eyes.

"Well, if you were alive at some point, you're a ghost now. Poltergeists are non-beings, like Maisie here was saying," she said in a matter-of-fact tone. The ghost stuck his tongue out at her, seeming to realize he'd been pulled out of character for a moment.

"Ahh, she has something in that head of hers besides useless spells," he chided in a sing song tone. Avis narrowed her eyes. Here we go again.

"Hate to point this out, but if you haven't noticed, your head is completely transparent and I don't see a brain in there anywhere," she fired back, crossing her arms with her wand still in hand. Avis felt a spark of temper rise in her chest. Useless spells? I'll show you useless spells.

"No one has ever asked me that before," he said.

Maisie looked to Avis to see if his pause meant anything to her—other than perhaps the fact that no one had seen the boy as anything beyond a mere annoyance. To him, it seemed like death was just an inconvenience as he guessed he was a ghost. Avis was quick to give him some definitions, but he just mocked her.

"Stop it," Maisie said, wand raised again, "Don't you want to know what you really are? If you don't have a handbook, you might as well accept people trying to help you figure it out." Maisie wasn't particularly interested in death—these were academic questions—but she was interested in stopping him make fun of her best friend.

Avis' rhetoric, however, suggested she needed no intervention. That was what Maisie liked about her. Despite this, she did have an idea: "Here, if you're a ghost, I know something you won't like very much." Looking back at Avis for a moment, she held her wand straight up and flicked it on with a simple "Lumos," spell. Professor Fresnel had said the light could repel ghosts so there was the answer. If he ran away, they all knew—and maybe he'd stop bothering Avis. And if he didn't, well, they learned something else.

@Avis Greymond

Wicked. Avis grinned at her friend’s brightly lit wand. She herself hadn’t quite got the hang of Lumos yet but at least one of them had, otherwise Avis might’ve been arguing with this supposed ghost for the next hour, just like her last encounter with the fellow.

With an unearthly shriek, the transparent boy covered his face with his hands (which did not do much seeing as he was, again, transparent) and disappeared back into the suit of armor behind him, followed quickly by the wall until Avis was quite sure he had fled the second floor all together.

“Well, that mystery is solved,” she said matter-of-factly and pocketed her wand. She glanced at Maisie and gave her an encouraging smile. “Maybe keep up that spell until we find our way out of here? This is much better than stumbling around in the dark,” she said, still admiring the bright light emitting from the tip of the other girl’s wand.

Avis glanced around at their surroundings. Surely there was a staircase somewhere close. They must be on the other end of the second floor corridors where classes were not held. What lay behind these doors, Avis could only guess and she wasn’t sure she wanted to. She swallowed as her throat started getting dry. The reality of their situation flooded back into her nervous system.

“Speaking of the dark, d’you think curfew has already passed? I mean, when did we leave the West Tower?” she stated, thinking out loud.