Closed The road that lies ahead

[Riley Fisher]

Riley was snapping pictures of one of the dark red roses that were outside. When she spotted a plague that read out to whom this rosebush was dedicated to. It was sad story about a first year girls that apparently had died. Riley wondered what the whole story was and how she had perished. Were there dangerous in the castle that students should know about. Things that they should avoid otherwise their faiths would be sealed the same way like had happened to the girl named Rose. Riley turned around to see if she could see anything dangerous in the rose bush. ''Poor girl'' she said softly. Wondering if anyone was still around that knew the full story.

 

[Conan Elliott]

He'd heard one of the older students talking about 'The Rosebush' over breakfast, so he did have to wonder what they were talking about. So, he decided that he wanted to and poke around and see if he could find the rosebush in question. It didn't take him very long to find what he was looking for. And, as it turned out, he was not the only one here, looking over at the girl and her camera before his eyes gaze returned to the bush. And then he peered down at the little plaque, almost instantly wrinkling his nose up as he read it. "Some kid died?" He hadn't heard of people dying at Hogwarts before. He did rather hope this wasn't a common thing.

 

[Riley Fisher]

''Apparently'' Riley replied without actually looking to who was talking. ''I wonder how she died and if the threat is still out there.'' She secretly wanted to go to the bottom of the story now. The plague had been pretty vague, it had her name and some basic information. Nothing about how she died or where she had died. The rosebush was here because of her, but Riley wondered if roses also had been her cause of death. ''What if everyone is keeping it a secret?" Riley finally looked up and looked straight at the boy that she was sure was a fellow first year as well. ''I am Riley by the way.'' She said with a smile.

 

[Conan Elliott]

How could some kid die at Hogwarts. He didn't think it was even possible to actually die at school. "Does it not say?" He did have to wonder at the posed question, leaning over to peer a little closer at the information. But apparently, the cause of death wasn't deemed important enough to write on the plaque. "Why would they keep it a secret but then plant a bush advertising it?" That didn't make much sense to him. If it was supposed to be a secret, then there would be no commemorative plant in the first place. But then he blinked, realizing he hadn't actually introduced himself. "Oh, sorry. I'm Conan."

 

[Riley Fisher]

Riley was still thinking about how the girl supposedly had died. There were some plants that could be murderous, but it could also be the some freak weather event. Riley had nothing to go on, but a name. She could try the library to find an old yearbook and check if that possessed more information.'Nope, the plague is super vague'' Why would you give a commemorative plant, but leave no information alongside it. Shouldn't it say something first years shouldn't do or a warning for trespassers about a murderous something close by. Riley smiled and looked at Conan. ''Do you think whatever killed her is still out there?'' Riley wondered ''Or would they have disposed it by now.'' The latter was probably the right thing. Riley was definitely interested in this murder mystery.

 

[Conan Elliott]

"Well, that's just weird," he did have to mutter, kicking at the ground absently as he eyed the stupid little plaque. You would have thought they would have at least told people how this person died. If only to dispel worry first years might have about the fact it was possible to die at school. "Nothing say it was actually a something," he did have to point after a little moment to think about it, "Maybe it was just, natural causes or something like that?" People died of illnesses and stuff all the time, so maybe it was something like that.

 

[Riley Fisher]

The plague wasn't going to help Riley solve the case of the dead Ravenclaw girl. She looked around to check if there were any other obvious clues. There wasn't even a date on when it had happened. ''There isn't even a date on when it has happened on there, so it could be two years ago or like two hundred'' Riley shrugged, this wasn't helping the case of trying to solve what had happened. She wondered if there was a Professor that knew anything about Rose and the bush that was planted as a remembrance. ''True, but with so many students passing through the castle, statistically there should have died more than one in the how many years this school has existed.'' Riley spoke ''There is only one of these special vague plagues, so it must be something important.'' At least that she had seen.

 

[Conan Elliott]

He squinted a little closer at the plaque for just a moment when Riley said there was no date. "Well, it says she died in year one. Whenever that was." He hadn't really paid much attention to the history of this place to know how long ago that actually was. And he supposed she was right that there was a high probability that more students might have died over the years of the school being open. "Maybe it was special because it was the first one or something," he offered with his own shrug. "But, come to think of it, I heard that there's some rock near the lake commemorating another student. But I haven't had a chance to explore there yet."

 

[Riley Fisher]

Riley was sure that they were in year forty three so that meant the girl had died forty three years ago. Which wasn't too long ago, but maybe too long that the Professors at the school were still active. Maybe one of them was a student alongside the dead girl, but she knew it was going to be slim pickings. ''It is forty three years ago'' Riley mused ''This is year forty third year of this branch of Hogwarts.'' Riley knew it because her dad had told her so. He was a big historian and loved to talk about things like these. ''So maybe it had happened when they were still building bits of the castle.'' Although the castle wasn't extremely close to the rosebush. When Conan spoke about another commemorative spot Riley interest was peaked once again. ''So multiple kids have died at Hogwarts and no one knows why or how.'' Riley mused, that did sound like a safe learning environment. ''Lets tackle one at the time though.'' Riley smiled and was still puzzled by the plague that was right in front of her.

 

[Conan Elliott]

He was actually surprised she knew that. Conan hadn't really paid much attention when it actually came to all the boring history stuff. "What, like it was some kind of accident?" He could already imagine a bit of the roof caving in or something equally tragic. Though it was kind of sad, so he decided he didn't really want to be thinking about something like that to begin with. "I mean, we could probably just ask a Professor and they'd be able to tell us what happened." He imagined that most of the staff would be pre-informed about this kind of stuff. Or there might be something in the library. But that would require doing actually research and he really wasn't that invested to want to go trawling through some old, dusty books.