No Sense Of Direction

[Bradley Ahn]

It had been well documented in Bradley's short 11-year life that he had a terrible sense of direction. By now everyone back home knew not to trust him when it came to directions, most didn't even bother asking for his advice anymore. Which he found just a little bit rude, there was no chance he was going to get better if everyone just ignored him and opted to ask someone who might actually know what on earth they are talking about. Though he could see where they were coming from, he still got lost in his own school building and didn't know where anything was even after going there for five years. But he refused to let this be a repeat, if he was doomed to attend their weird school with stupid magic, then he was going to know where everything was with no exceptions.

This was not going very well for him.

Brad frowned, wrinkling his nose up as he held the piece of paper in front of him, turning the drawing on it to the side like maybe he was holding it the right way up. The picture was a map, one he had painstakingly been working on, but even this didn't seem to be helping very much as he still appeared to be completely lost following his own map. In the end, the first year huffed with annoyance, scrunching his work up into a ball and angrily shoving it into his pocket. He would ask for directions, but there didn't even seem to be anyone around. So he did the only thing he could think of, sitting himself down in the middle of the corridor, crossing his legs in front of him and folding his arms across his chest to wait for someone to arrive.

 

[Lia Barros]

If ever there was a time to go exploring, this was it. The school year had just started, so there wasn't much to worry about in the way of academics or clubs. All of the older students seemed to be self-absorbed, catching up with their friends and recounting what they had done over the holiday break. Even some of the more well-connected first years had already started clustering together, thanks to prior friendships and older siblings.

Lia, on the other hand, knew absolutely no one. As a result, her schedule was completely free, and she had taken to exploring her new school. Although she was more interested in the Forbidden Forest and the green areas surrounding the school, Lia forced herself to start with the castle. After all, whether she liked or not, she'd be spending most of her days going from class to class, and she didn't want to get lost every other day.

That was why she was currently on the first floor, trying to figure out where the classrooms were. The hallways were eerily empty as she passed through, glancing briefly into random rooms whenever she could. She didn't seem to be getting anywhere, however, as many of the rooms looked quite similar. Sighing, Lia turned a corner and started to turn look for the nearest room. Instead, her gaze settled on a boy sitting cross-legged in the middle of the corridor. His arms were crossed, and he seemed to be staring at her. Lia hesitated before stopping and glancing behind her. Nope, the hallway was empty except for the two of them. She stared back at him, her eyebrows knitting together as she tried to figure out what he was doing. "Are you... waiting for something?" Was she interrupting something? Maybe he was doing some kind of magical ritual?

 

[Bradley Ahn]

Maybe he looked like a little bit of a fool just sitting there cross-legged in the middle of a corridor by himself, but this was bound to get someone's attention. If he was just standing up and waiting against one of the walls then people could never easily just walk right on past him. And that would just not do as he didn't want to be stuck wandering the corridors in confusion for the rest of his life because he could never find the stairs or the way back to his dorm room ever again. But he did suppose that when it got dark and a curfew was put into place a prefect or a Professor would come along and help him, though they would probably deduct house points from him as well. Then everyone would just hate him for getting into trouble. Not that he really minded that, people were just bound to hate him eventually and that was fine seeing as he had no intentions of being friends with any of them.

He was, however, starting to get a little bit impatient when no one seemed to be coming along to help him. The Hufflepuff sighed a little, fumbling with a loose thread from his sleeve to try and pass the time. But this is when the sound of footsteps drawing closer caught his attention, eyes lighting up as someone came around the corner. Though his hope was somewhat dashed when it just looked like another first year. Brad wouldn't be surprised if she was lost as well. Then what?

"Yes," he announced in response to the question, pushing himself back onto his feet and dusting himself off, "I was waiting for you, actually." Not her specifically, but he wasn't going to mention that right now. "Do you know where we are right now? And how to get back to the stairs?"

 

[Lia Barros]

Lia took a small step forward as the boy stood up and announced that he'd been waiting for her. Frowning slightly, she stared at him, trying to determine if they had already met. The boy was her height and looked to be the same age. The past few days had been a blur of faces, and she had met a lot of fellow first years as everyone eagerly bounced from one person to the other, asking about names and houses. But Lia was fairly sure she'd never seen the boy before in her life. Then again, she wasn't the greatest with memorizing names or faces. It had taken her years to learn the names of everyone in her grade back at primary school.

"Not really," she replied, in response to his question. "I think the History of Magic classroom is back there?" Lia pointed to the hallway she'd just come from. "Aren't there multiple staircases on this floor?" Or had that been another floor? "I'm sure if you walk a bit, you can find one." She added as an afterthought, "Unless they've moved." That was the frustrating thing. Sometimes the stairs skipped entire floors, leaving her stranded.

 

[Bradley Ahn]

She just... stared at him for a moment. Brad couldn't help but raise his brow a little as he just stared right on back. He did wonder what she was looking at, it was almost making him feel a little self-conscious about his appearance. Was there something on his face? The Hufflepuff frowned a little, almost anxiously running a hand back through his hair, messing it up even more than it already way before cocking his head a little to the side as he just blinked at her. Maybe he had surprised her by stating that he had been waiting for her when really he was just waiting for any old person to come along to help him find his way back. Though he was still trying to play it cool like he wasn't completely lost and this was all part of the plan. He was supposed to be in this corridor, of course, he was, he didn't get lost. Totally not.

"Sure there are," he offered with a bit of nervous laughter, flashing her a smile like that was going to change anything, "I just need to know the fastest way to get back to them, is all. I've realized I'm late... for something." He couldn't think of some event he would be late for, but he wasn't going to waste time trying to think up of something just to impress this girl. "So, help a guy out, please?" He even used his manners, which was incredibly rare as he normally just demanded people tell him these things.

 

[Lia Barros]

The boy confirmed her guess that there were multiple stairwells. Well, that had to improve their odds of finding one, right? "Sure," Lia responded when he asked for her help. She didn't have anything better to do, and it would probably help her learn the layout of the castle. "But I don't really know where the nearest one is."

Lia moved past the boy towards the opposite end of the hallway, her eyes scanning the walls. As expected, nothing was labeled. She couldn't understand why. The tour they had received from the prefects had hardly covered even a fourth of the castle, and they hadn't received maps. "I've been walking for a bit, and there weren't any in that direction," she said, gesturing vaguely to the hallway she had come from. She'd taken so many turns that she doubted she could retrace her steps and find the initial staircase that had led her to the floor they were currently on. It'd be better just to continue on. "Maybe there's one up ahead." She glanced behind to see if he was following her. "What are you late for anyways?" Hopefully it wasn't anything important since this could take a while.

 

[Bradley Ahn]

Did he actually believe that he knew how many staircases were connected to this floor? If she did that would be surprising because he never really thought he was one of the best liars out there. But at least she was actually agreeing to help him out, without thinking he was just completely lost and didn't even know which way he had come from anymore. Yes, his sense of direction really was that bad, but no one in this school knew that and he was hoping to keep it a secret from people for as long as he possibly could. Though no doubt that whole plan would fall through when he tried to show someone something and got lost.

The fact she didn't know where the closest staircase was located didn't even bother him, at least he wasn't wandering around by himself anymore. "They must be in the other direction, then," he concluded with a smile and nod of his head. That made perfect sense, if she had been walking in one direction and hadn't come across any, then they must all be in the opposite direction. Or up ahead like she suggested, he didn't actually know these things. "What I'm late for?" His face fall a little, trying to look as calm as possible as he stumbled over his words trying to think of a good answer. "It's...well..." He swallowed a little, anxiously wringing his hands in front of him, "I was just going to meet a... friend... is all."

 

[Lia Barros]

He smiled, agreeing with her logic, which made Lia flash him a small smile of her own. The fact that he seemed to think her conclusion was reasonable made her feel a bit better. Surely between the two of them they would be able to find their way out. How large could this floor possibly be? And it wasn't like they were in completely uncharted territory. Assuming he wasn't a Slytherin, he had to pass by this floor every day on the way to his house from the Great Hall, just like she did. It was only a matter of time before they found a landmark they recognized or stumbled across someone else.

Lia was only half-listening as he began to respond to her question, her mind already at work trying to create a mental map of the parts of the first floor she had already seen. However, his hesitation caused her to turn to her full attention to him. Lia frowned as he suddenly started to fidget, tripping over his words in an attempt to answer what she had thought was a very simple question. "You sound really sure of yourself," she said, her voice edged with sarcasm. She rolled her eyes. "You don't have to lie to me. Just say you don't want to tell me." Still, she wondered what kind of first (or second?) year could have an appointment so important and secretive he had to lie about it.

 

[Bradley Ahn]

The benefit of having someone else around now meant that if time really just fly by and they got caught after curfew, he wasn't alone. Now he had someone else to back him up when they said they were just lost and couldn't find their way back to the common room. But curfew was hours away yet, and that would mean they would miss dinner as well, which was just inexcusable. While he might not like Hogwarts very much, he could say that the food was very good and getting to eat whatever he wanted was a rather big benefit. And Bradley always did make sure to eat a lot so he normally went back to the common room completely stuffed.

He had hoped that she wouldn't notice the fact he was stumbling over his words a little, though, of course, that didn't happen and she picked up on it. "I am sure of myself," he was rather quick to respond, stubbornly sticking his nose up a little, "And I'm not lying about it either. I have a meeting with a friend is all. I was just thinking about the best way to phrase it." That was a complete lie, but he wasn't about to just give up and tell her the truth that he was completely lost and had no idea where he even was anymore. He couldn't even remember what floor he was on if he was being honest.

 

[Alkander Avaskantiras]

Early that day, Alkander has set exploring the castle that now was his new home. As a boy that had a fascination for ruins and old places, this castle was only presenting opportunities for new discoveries and secrets awaiting to be found. He roamed around for ours. He climbed up and done the Grand Staircase several times, he walked the long, meandering corridors of each floor, he noted down the location of his classes and found a couple of rooms concealed behind tapestries and small bookcases.

Alkander was very observant when he wanted. After hours of walking around, he had noticed that some identical portraits were located at more than one floor. This along with a conversation he overheard at Gryffindor's common room, had him come to a conclusion that was a network of shortcuts in Hogwarts where secret passageways were connecting different floors. The boy had paused in front of the portrait of Mirabella Plunket at the Ground Floor, looking suspiciously at it. He could bet all his galleons that he had seen an identical portrait somewhere on the First Floor while exploring around. He couldn't help but believe that possibly as secret passageway was hiding behind those portraits.

Like the portrait of Gryffindors common room, access wasn't going to be granted without a password. Alkander watched the witch in the portrait squeezing in her embrace with affection a large fish. Most first years wouldn't be aware of Mirabella Plunkett's story but Alkander loved magical history and mythology. He knew pretty well that the redhead witch had fell in love with a merman once but when her parents forbid her to marry him, she transfigured herself into a haddock and disappeared. Alkander's focused on the thrashing fish desperately trying to escape Mirabella's embrace.

"Erm...haddock?" His grey eyes flashed with excitement as the portrait slid upward and revealed an opening with stairs leading somewhere up. He quickly checked that no one had witnessed his discovery and stepped inside, the portrait sliding down again behind him. Thrilled with his accomplishment, he climbed the stairs taking two at a time and reached a narrow corridor that took him at the back of the identical portrait, somewhere at the first floor. As soon as he reached close enough, the portrait slid up as well and he jumped out of it without noticing the pair of students passing right in front of it at that instance.

Alkander managed to avoid crashing into them at the last moment. "Oops! Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!" He apologized for ambushing them like that. It must have been startling to suddenly see a person jumping out of a hole behind a portrait. "Are you guys looking for something? Maybe I could help." He asked them as the portrait slid back down to hide again the shortcut. They looked like they were trying to find their way back to somewhere.

 

[Lia Barros]

Lia tried not to scoff as he immediately went on the defensive, insisting that he had merely been trying to figure out how to phrase his response. "Yeah, sure, whatever," she said dismissively. How hard could it possibly be to phrase, "I have a meeting with a friend"? It was clear he was trying to conceal something. But she was a complete stranger, and she didn't see what the boy could gain in lying about such a trivial thing to her.

She turned to focus on the task at hand, half-heartedly trying a couple of doorknobs. Maybe one of the professors kept their office on the first floor. "Do you remember what direc-" She started violently and stumbled back. A hole had suddenly appeared in the wall next to them, and another boy had jumped out. Lia stared, her mouth slightly agape. She'd seen a couple of ghosts by now, but the figure in front of her wasn't silvery and translucent. No, he was definitely a real person.

"What...? How...?" Lia nearly shoved the new boy to the side as she quickly made her way to the spot in the wall where he had appeared from. A simple painting of a woman cradling a fish hung in front of the spot the boy had materialized from. In her shock, she just barely registered the newcomer's question. "Yeah, the nearest staircase..." Her voice trailed off as she tapped the painting, earning her a glare from the woman inside. Lia turned to the strange boy. "How did you do that?"

 

[Bradley Ahn]

While he was pretty sure it was a terrible lie and he was going to have to do better than that, she didn't press any further into the matter, and that was something he was thankful about. Though he was sure he just made it sound as though he was hiding something. Which he was, admittedly, but almost like he was trying to hide that he was meeting up with a girl for a date or something stupid like that. And he was really not doing that, though he wasn't going to mention that, or the fact he was lost.

Instead, Brad just focused on where they were going, trying to find his way back to the staircase so he could head to the fourth floor and the common room. This was quite enough exploring for one day, but no doubt he would only end up getting himself lost trying to find the common room. Maybe he could convince this girl to come with him so he could just follow behind her and pretend he knew where he was going all along. It might work, though he was sure he would eventually be able to find his way, he had walked there more than anywhere else so he shouldn't get too lost trying to find his way.

However, those thoughts were quickly pushed from his head at the sudden arrival of a boy stepping out from behind a portrait. "What the hell!" He exclaimed, taking a surprised step back from the boy, glaring just a little. "What were you doing standing behind a picture? Is this some kind of joke, hoping to scare someone as they came along or something? It was not very funny."

 

[Alkander Avaskantiras]

Although a tide of remorse washed him up for unintentionally ambushing them, the spark of discovery was much stronger and had ignited his grey eyes with excitement and vigor. He chuckled heartily when the boy asked about his business behind that portrait. "No, no, no! I didn't mean to scare you guys!" He quickly dismissed that misunderstanding. "I just discovered this secret passageway on the ground floor!" He started explaining with apparent ebullience in his voice. "I heard some older students talking about a network of secret passageways, connecting different floors. I was just wandering around earlier and noticed that there were two identical portraits of Mirabella Plunkett; one on the ground floor and this one." He paused for a moment to catch his breath while pointing at the portrait behind him. "I remembered her story from a book I once read on famous personalities of the wizarding world so I figured out the password and here I am!" He concluded, his enthusiasm remaining undying.

He had another pair of identical portraits in mind that he came across earlier and he wanted to check them out. These two looked like good companions to his quest so he decided to persuade them to join his cause. "I know the way to the staircase. I can get you there in no time." He offered his assistance, something he was always willing to do when he could. "I'm planning to go back to the second floor and check out another portrait. If I'm right it will take us to the ground floor. Would you like to join me?" He asked them both and a hint of mischief crept across his face. "Honestly, I could use some partners in crime." He admitted. It was more fun exploring in numbers.

 

[Lia Barros]

Lia's eyes widened at the words "secret passageway." She had figured that with a castle as convoluted as Hogwarts, there had to be hidden corridors and inaccessible rooms and the sort. But at best, she figured they were concealed by locked doors, not paintings. Did that mean there were also revolving bookcases? Trapdoors? If she hadn't just seen the boy step out from behind the painting, Lia might not have believed him. Once he had finished explaining his theory, Lia nodded. "That makes sense. I thought a couple of these paintings were repeats." She had just chalked it up to a bad memory and deja vu. "What's the password for Mirabella's portrait?" Lia glanced back at the woman, who stayed silent.

The young girl immediately accepted the newcomer's invitation to join him in searching for more passageways. "Of course!" Lia suddenly remembered that she was technically supposed to be helping the original boy find his way out so he could meet... well, whoever he was supposed to be meeting. "Well, I'm down at least." She glanced the original boy questioningly. Surely his meeting couldn't be nearly as exciting as this. Turning her attention back to the newcomer, Lia asked, "How many secret passageways do you think there are?" Based on what she had seen so far, the castle seemed to have hundreds of paintings.

 

[Bradley Ahn]

A secret passageway? He had to be joking. Like that was actually possible. This might be some old castle, but he highly doubted there were secret passageways behind portraits. That all sounded highly suspicious to him and he narrowed his eyes a little at the boy who had just popped out in front of them. He had to have been just hiding and waiting to scare them and Bradley was not going to believe otherwise. But the girl seemed to believe him, and that was rather annoying and he had hoped she would at least be on his side about this. "Whatever," he just muttered a little under his breath, rolling his eyes a little and folding his arms a little tighter across his chest as he looked between the other two.

Help him look for these non-existent secret passageways? Hell no, there were much better things he could be doing with his time and he had no intentions of getting any more lost than he already was. "I think I'll pass on this hunt of yours," he responded with a shake of his head, uncurling his arms and shoving his hands into his pockets, "I still have somewhere else to be and would just like to get going." He would look extra stupid if he changed his story now, so he was going to stick to it, just until he was by himself again and knew where he was heading without having to worry about getting lost in another corridor.