Magical Hogwarts

October 31st 2005

Edyta rarely took time away from the dragon reservation. When she wasn't studying or working with the beasts, she was playing in the reservation Quidditch team, working in the local hostelry to supplement her meagre income, or sleeping. But the fact was that despite her hard work and experiences so far, she had barely travelled aside from summer schools and the idea of an actual vacation was entirely alien to her. So when she'd read about the haunted manor in England it had sounded like a great way to spend a rare night off. She'd mentioned it around the reservation and before long a small group was planning to take the portkey to Eldritch Manor.

And then of course, things started going wrong. One keeper got a serious leg burn and was advised not to travel for 48 hours until it fully healed. Another received word of a surprise party for his grandmother's 99th birthday. A third was simply too tired for such a late night, until Edyta was the only one still planning to go.

The fact it was in a country she had never visited and didn't speak the language didn't put her off for a moment. On the contrary, she rather fancied the idea of proving she could travel alone and enjoy herself. Besides, she had perfected translation charms years earlier, so even when she unexpectedly had to work late and thus had no time to change out of her dark green flying leathers, Edyta didn't hesitate when she gripped the old boot that sent her spiralling into the unknown.

She opened her eyes to a wonderfully eerie spectacle. The manor looked like something out of a forbidden novel, mists swirling around the damp grass, shadows seeming to move of their own accord and uneartly screeches echoing from unseen throats. Edyta grinned and walked forwards, albeit with one hand resting lightly on her wand. Most of the other visitors were in couples of groups. After the second person had greeted her she was even congratulating herself on the English phrases she had memorised. Maybe she wasn't going to need a translation charm at all.

Closer to the manor, she paused to watch a shadow creeping closer to a small group looking to be a little younger than herself. Recent graduates, she assumed. Edyta also assumed they had seen the shadow too as it began to morph into the unmistakeable outline of a Hebridean Black. "Now that's some clever magic" she muttered to herself as the group suddenly noticed what was looking over them and let out a collective shriek. Edyta had turned away and didn't see how the shadow was grasping onto their hands and clothes. She was close to the entrance to the castle now and followed a stranger through the door. More shadows danced on the walls as candlewax drips echoed on stone. A moment later, the door slammed shut behind her, and Edyta let out her first squeak of surprise. Her heart began to beat a little faster even as she reminded herself she could stroll calmly away whenever she felt like it.

To her right, the dark wall seemed to yawn, opening itself into a corridor lit by an eerie red glow. She was just turning to looking that direction when something freezing cold and slimy grasped the back of her neck. Edyta shrieked and spun away, crashing into the person who had entered just ahead of her. "Excuse me" she gasped, her voice strongly accented. Whatever had grabbed her was nowhere to be seen. But now they were alone in the entryway, and the only possible route was the dingy red corridor.

Eira had come to the Eldritch Manor with a friend to celebrate Halloween at the Haunted Masquerade. To wine, dine, dance, and mingle. In fact, the witch had a perfect Halloween themed gown that played off of a spider sitting in the middle of her web. The spider web design cascaded down as the skirt, additional black strips for legs, and a black corset and sleeves, along with a black lace eye mask. She was excited to be able to attend, her auror training and work schedule aligned perfectly to where she didn't have anything overlap.

The muggleborn was to meet her friend inside the manor, though upon apparating to the site, it was spookier than mentioned in the invitation that was sent out. A carved pumpkin rolled past her, cackling in an otherworldly tone before it caught sight of her and rolled right up towards her. A little shocked by it coming after her, she took several steps back. Its weird, twisted smile was ready to gnaw at her leg. She swiftly kicked it like a ball with her closed toe white heel, catapulting it toward the forest edge. Maybe the theme was supposed to be scary? It was a haunted manor. From word of mouth from coworkers, the previous year's party was fun supposedly. She looked around briefly before making her way quickly into the manor, the less time outside, the better. Eira wondered if the outside was this way for security purposes and the inside was more what she imagined? The skirt of her dress tugged briefly, and she tugged back. How dare someone tug on her dress, she put it together herself. She turned to give whoever it was a glare, but nobody was to be seen. With a huff, she smoothed out the fabric.

The ballroom was supposedly two halls down and to the left, and that was where she was meant to connect. Shadows moved about on the wall in the foyer, candles flickering. What should have been a long corridor ahead was a blank wall. She pulled the little map of the event's layout out of her dress pocket, examining it. Clearly somebody messed up. The entry door slammed shut as one of the shadows plucked the invitation she held right from her grasp, effortlessly. The wind from the force sent a shiver up her spine, and she let out a startled gasp. The shadow vanished into the wall that stretched horridly and became a long red corridor, she stepped towards the opening, not really paying much attention to what was happening around her. Eira's eyes fixed at the dim red corridor before her and took a pause, her stomach was giving her signals that something wasn't right.

There was loud shriek behind her, and Eira let out a startled shriek herself as the individual crashed into her. She steadied herself, her focus now on the girl, the accent not one she heard before. "Are you alright?" she placed both hands on her shoulders for a moment, before dropping them to her side. She looked around, nothing to be found.  She had to calm herself down, her heartbeat racing too quickly to really think. She examined the young woman before her looking for any sign of injury, and in better lighting she could probably take a better guess at what it was she was wearing, but it was green, and not a usual suspect for affairs such as these. "Your outfit is an interesting choice," Eira forced a smile on her face.

"I-I think the party is down this way," she motioned toward the corridor. it was the only option they had. She wasn't going to get dolled up for a masquerade and let a startling beginning ruin her night. She was going to be brave, she told herself, and with an inhale she stepped into the threshold of the corridor. The former Ravenclaw let out a nervous laugh, "I haven't been here before, so I don't know what to expect."

Heart racing, Edyta's instinct was to push herself away from whoever she'd just crashed into and drop into a defensive stance, but working on a dragon reservation tended to sharpen one's reflexes and observational skills both. In a fraction of a second she took in the fact that it was another girl she had encountered, about the same age as herself and slender; dressed in an exceptionally pretty outfit and disappointingly wearing a mask so Edyta couldn't see her face. Edyta felt herself blushing slightly and was glad of the poor lighting that would hide her reaction to the not-at-all-unpleasant sensation of gentle hands on her shoulders.

"I am..." she began and then paused, her small stock of English phrases entirely unsuitable for these circumstances. "Excuse me. I do not speak English" she said as the girl dropped her hands to her sides. That gave Edyta the moment she needed to raise her wand and cast the translation charm she had hoped she wouldn't need, just in time to hear the comment on her outfit.

"I cast a translation charm" she said experimentally in Polish, watching her companion's face closely. When she saw understanding rather than confusion, she continued in her own language "Thank you. I am a trainee dragonologist in Romania and I came here straight from work. Your gown is...magnificent." She, too, managed a smile, her earlier shock all but dismissed as a clever but harmless hex. It was a shame none of her colleagues had been able to attend, because she was realising for the first time that visiting a haunted house alone wasn't the best idea, but at least she wasn't alone any more. Then a little belatedly, she added "Oh, excuse me. Edyta Ciesynska", and wondered if she was supposed to shake hands. Didn't British people like to shake hands when they met?

"Let's hope you're right" she said grinning, gripping her wand firmly as they approached the only way out "I have never been here before either." For the moment Edyta decided she was quite happy to let someone else lead for a while. Hopefully the ballroom would be just at the end of this corridor, which felt colder than expected and had an eerie, thick mist swirling around at knee-level a little further ahead. As they started to walk, an low moaning sound suddenly rose out of nowhere, seeming to have no point of origin and... was that something moving in the mist?