Starry skies and Gardenias

Chapter 7

Isabella was the first one to wake up among her other dorm mates. 

So she got dressed, packed her bag and checked it over five times, just to make sure she had everything. 

And set off to the Great Hall.

Did she mention that Hogwarts seemed to remind her of a labyrinth. 

It was a mess. A complete, utter mess. 

She had timed it yesterday night. It took fifteen minutes to get from the Great Hall to the Gryffindor common room. 

But here she was, half an hour later, still roaming somewhere around the third floor, or what she supposed was the third floor.

She kept well away from Peeves, the poltergeist, as the Prefect had told them yesterday on their walk to the Gryffindor tower.

Well, she could always ask the paintings. . .But that just felt awkward. 

Isabella groaned and moved to the nearest window to look outside at the grounds. 

First day, and she was already lost in this castle. The only thing good about it was that she was early. Even if she spends an hour more roaming around, she'd be on time.

Well, her plan of avoiding everyone didn't seem to work, because she ran into a ghost on her journey to find the Great Hall.

This ghost was strange. Even stranger than Nick.

She remembered seeing him. Over at the Slytherin table. 

The ghost had blank eyes and a gaunt face, his robes stained silver with what she supposed was blood, and with chains around him.

No wonder he was called the Bloody Baron. . .How did he get so bloody again? She didn't know. Nobody seemed to know.

It could be an act of remorse, judging by the chains. . .

No, that seemed a bit far fetched. 

It was more likely that he was cruelly murdered as a prisoner, hence the chains and bloodstained robes. Yes, that did make sense.

Isabella steeled herself. It was either another person, or the Baron. Well, the Baron it was then.

"Um. . .Mr Baron," she called, extremely worried if she was addressing him right.

The ghost who was drifting past her stopped. Then he slowly turned around and Isabella could hear a faint clanking from his chains.

"What?" he said, his voice a hoarse whisper.

"Could you— could you help me find the way to the Great Hall? I'm a bit lost," Isabella said sheepishly.

The Baron gave a soft groan, and clanked his chains around some more before saying,

"Take the right corridor from here," he pointed at the end of the corridor. "Then go downstairs for three floors. Don't stop, until the stairs change. Then you'll see the Entrance Hall, from there you know where to go,"

"Oh, thank you, Mr Baron," Isabella said gratefully and hurried off in the direction the ghost had told her.

Whatever were they thinking? Letting children navigate their way through this mess of a castle without any map or guidance?

Someone ought to make a map for this place.

Thankfully, the Baron's directions were perfect, although she had to improvise here and there because the stairs moved around so much, Isabella finally made it to the Great Hall.