Open Cartography met Poetry

[Sidon Stratis]

It was Friday afternoon, half an hour after his last class and Sidon had resumed his quest of creating his own map of the castle with all the secret passageways and areas. The Gryffindor first year loved exploring every nook and cranny and Hogwarts presented to him a great challenge when everything was constantly changing and auguring more than met the eye.

He had enough time until dinner to investigate a couple of suspicious portraits so after using a newly discovered shortcut, he found himself walking down a corridor on the third floor. Students were retreating to their dormitories or the Great Hall, as a result the corridor was relatively uncrowded. Although he was still dressed in his Gryffindor uniform, carrying his postman bag which was quite heavy with textbooks, Sidon was also wearing a beanie although it wasn't so cold. He recently had made an usual friend, a Hogwarts house elf, that loved beanies and had proved to be exceptionally helpful if you gifted one. In this way he had managed to learn the password of another portrait so from now on he was always carrying beanies in case he ran across the house elf. The problem was that with this tactic he had already gave away three of his own beanies and he hadn't much left.

Regardless, Sidon today was determined to solve any riddles presented to him on his own. Fortunately, the corridor where the portrait was located was empty at the moment. The portrait's owner, a wizard poet dressed in red robes, was writing on his desk. When Sidon stopped before his portrait, the owner sighed and let down his quill.

"You again?" The wizard poet sighed and turned his attention to the boy. "You are obstinate. I give you that!" He shook his head and dipped his quill in an ink bottle, ready to resume his writing.

"Yes and I will be back every day until you tell me your password." Sidon stated with unyielding determination. For the past one week, every time he was there, the wizard poet was giving him riddles to solve in order to get the password. He had no luck so far but he was hoping at a different, easier riddle every time.

"Fine, fine, fine. The password is absurd." Revealed the wizard in the portrait defeated and scribbled down a few lines.

"Absurd!" Sidon said but his triumphal grin didn't stay for long on his face. The portrait remained still. Nothing happened. "Hey! I said the password! Get out of the way!" The boy complained.

"I am sorry my lad but you are still wrong." Grinned the poet widely, focused on his writing. "May I give you an advice? Get help from a Ravenclaw and let me finish my poem." The man snorted and decided to ignore the boy that was glaring at him.

"I will find it sooner or later. You better hiding something wicked for making my life hell old man." Sidon responded as he heard someone approaching him.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

As much as Ryan wanted to put together a formal map of the school as soon as possible, he as rather enjoying his time wandering the corridors and halls between classes. It was starting to seem likely any map might take him a lot more time than he had originally anticipated. He was finding new or unusual things every day and it was enthralling.

Making his way South down one of the corridors, Ryan's attention was caught by the sound of arguing, though he was surprised to see it was a boy who seemed to be upset with a portrait rather than any other student. "My sister says the portraits are nicer if you don't yell at them," Ryan said, looking curious at the old wizard portrait the boy seemed to be arguing with. "Though I met one of a dog that wouldn't stop barking at me on the 2nd floor no matter what so she might be wrong," He said with a shrug. Nicole definitely hadn't done nearly as much exploring as he had yet, and she'd been at school a whole extra year. He'd probably need a better sample size to be sure, and interviewing portraits sounded a bit boring.

 

[Sidon Stratis]

Someone had just advised him on how treat portraits and Sidon turned around to see a boy around his age. A smile stretched on his face when the boy mentioned the dog at the second floor, a portrait he had recently discovered its secret. "You just have to throw a bone." He shared with his grey eyes flashing with excitement. "It doesn't matter at which direction you throw it. The dog stops barking and runs through other portraits. I believe that it stops at portraits that hide secrets." He told him excited about his discovery that so far had lead him to a couple of secret passageways. "The dog also brought me here but I still haven't figure out how to bypass him." Sidon nodded at the poet in the portrait, slightly annoyed as the wizard in the canvas muttered a 'and you never will'.

Deciding to forfeit for now as he had more portraits to investigate, he introduced himself to the boy.
"I'm Sidon by the way." He said and shuffled through the staff in his postman bag to retrieve a folded piece of parchment. He unfolded it to reveal hasty notes and symbols on simple charts that numbers disclosed the floors they represented. "I think that I am actually going to need that dogs help to confirm my theory on another portrait." He mused as he was checking his scribbles. "Wanna join?" He asked the boy, glad to have someone to explore together.

 

[Ryan Fisk]

Ryan was surprised at the other boy's explanation for the dog portrait, and a little jealous that someone else had beaten him to solving one of the school mysteries. "Where'd you even get a bone from to throw? From dinner?" Ryan always got in trouble when he tried to play with his food at home, which was frustrating because the bones and stuff were always so interesting. But Ryan tried to ignore it, if this boy had always solved that mystery, maybe Ryan could figure out this one. He peered up at the old man, but the other boy, Sidion, seemed to have some sort of chart and a plan for something else which was exciting.

"I'm Ryan," He said, half lost in thought as he looked down at the parchment and Sidon's notes, trying to see if he could parse it out. "What sort of theory?" Ryan was always game for some sort of mystery solving, though it was good to get as many facts as he could, since it seemed Sidon had been writing down a lot more than Ryan in these early weeks. It would be more fun to discover things about the castle with company, but now that Ryan knew other students were solving its mysteries too he was going to have to get a move on before all the fun was gone.