Chapter 3

Rachel smiled as she stared out the window. The sun was just coming up in the distance and she had gotten up early just to paint it. It was set above a darken forest and quiet countryside with scattered patches of lingering white . It contrasted sharply with the loud, concrete New York City. Here, the sound of her skinny brush flitting across the canvas was the only noise in the room. It was hard to decide which one she liked better.

Her room was really nice, she decided, in a medieval-ish kind of way. The bed was very comfortable and plush and she almost couldn't bring herself to wake up early enough. Minerva-or McGonagall (she wasn't quite sure what to call her)- didn't specify a certain time that she was going to get her, so Rachel had decided to get ready early, just in case. They also didn't seem to have clocks either so who knows what time it actually is now.

Rachel absentmindedly dipped her brush in a warm yellow and began applying it to the painting. She smiled again happily. It was so good to be doing some actually painting. Recently, she kept getting bombarded by visions and headaches. It was getting increasingly harder to hide this at Clarion. One time she even passed out in class. The nurse decided she was dehydrated, thank the gods, and let her off with a warning to drink more water. She had been dazed, she remembered, because of the aftereffects of the vision. It was a simple vision compared to most, all blacks and white.

Rachel glanced down at her canvas and nearly jumped out of her skin. While she had been sitting there, thinking about the vision from school, her hand was recalling another. The red, which she had been using, stood out in vivid streaks against the white, like blood. Scarlet lines creasing and bending in an almost circular figure. It dripped down the woven material in seemingly random patterns. But Rachel knew better.

She sighed heavily and put down her paint brush. Maybe this was enough painting for today. She set aside her canvas and carefully put away her paints. Crossing the chamber slowly, she stopped to savor the feeling of the warm fuzzy strands as they tickled her feet. The soft rug was definitely her favorite feature in the room. Kneeling next to her suitcase she placed the ruined painting on top of her pile. Who knows when she might need it. She wondered if they would give her an office or something. It was better when she could hang her paintings up somewhere.

She stood up and dusted herself off, glancing down at her clothes as she did so. Rachel hoped all wizards didn't dress the same way. They had some freaky outfits. Especially Dumbledore's moon and sun spotted robe. Actually, it doesn't really matter what they wore, so long as she doesn't have to wear it too.

Where was Minerva? Shouldn't she have been here already? Just sitting here waiting was getting really boring really fast. Rachel was suddenly stuck with an idea and tentatively opened the heavy wooden door to her room.

They wouldn't mind if she looked around a bit, right?

She stuck her head out into the hall. Empty.

She turned back into her room and shut the door with a quiet thump. Probably should put out the candles first. Wouldn't want to burn the place down on her first day. Rachel went around the room, blowing out each candle, careful to avoid the hot wax. The light streaming through the window was enough to work by. After a moment of hesitation, she pushed her bag of paintings under the bed. She wouldn't want anyone to find them. That would be disastrous.

Finally ready, she ventured outside her room. This too, was the same medieval theme as the rest of the castle. Torches lined the hallway eerily. She decided to go back the way she came; to the main castle. It would be a good place to start. There was that staircase she remembered-and the paintings. Minerva had been very vague when describing them, just saying that someone had put an animation charm on the paint – whatever that meant. Some were still sleeping, snoring even. Like they were alive.

"What are you doing out of uniform?" A voice called out sharply behind her. She turned around quickly.

There was no one. A few paintings stared out at her sleepily from their perch on the gray wall.

"Look up!"

So she did. The woman glared down at her from her frame. She sat in front of a comfortable-looking desk. She wore an old-fashioned blue dress and tiny silver glasses. Was the painting speaking?

"Are you talking to me?"

The woman rolled her eyes.

"Do you see anyone else around?" The sarcastic tone was obvious.

"But…how?"

"Magic, silly."

Rachel debated this internally for a moment. Was the woman an actual person that existed or just someone made up? But then how would she come to have a mind of her own?

"What's your name?"

The lady looked down at her skeptically.

"Professor Joanna Walsp, former charms teacher." Charms sounded like a class, but she didn't want to risk looking stupid just to confirm it.

"What happened?"

"I died." She said rather bluntly.

"But then how….." Rachel trailed off.

"How am I talking to you now?" Rachel nodded. She smiled secretively. "Magic."

It became clear after a few more questions that she wasn't going to be giving any other answers. Rachel told Joanna good-bye with a promise to visit later. She quickly ascended the staircase and found herself in another hallway. Several more portraits and paintings glanced at her curiously, but none made the effort to talk to her.

Left or Right? Rachel was pretty sure she had walked in from the left, so the right it is. Into the unknown.

This hallway was bigger and more open. It was clearly used more often than the slightly musty lower rooms. Suits of armor stood by in neat lines on her right side. The stone corridor looked like something out of old Camelot films. Which reminded her, did that mean people like Arthur and Merlin existed too? Note to self: Ask Minerva or Dumbledore about Camelot. Another note to self: Ask them for a map.

Rachel glanced out the large windows that lined the hallway and wondered if she should go back to get a jacket. The cold English-or possibly Scottish(Another good question)-climate was very different from the mild Clarion weather.

BANG

The small crash behind her made her jump a mile into and air and whirl around at top speed.

But again, there appeared to be nothing behind her. Thoroughly unnerved, Rachel took a deep breath and walked rather quickly onto the next corridor, feeling the stares of the faceless metal armor on her back.

This hallway was even bigger than the last, if you could even call it that. It was more of a balcony that led to more corridors and multiple staircases. She leaned out over the edge of the railing and craned her neck straight up.

You'd think that after years of monsters and hallucinating creatures, she would stop being surprised. But she was not expecting to see dozens and dozens of staircases, stretching on to forever. And that wasn't the amazing part. They were all moving. Some fast and some slow they changed levels, balconies, or some even didn't seem to lead anywhere. Candles literally floated around the entire ensemble, moving precisely out of the way of the flights of stairs. They cast a bright, almost cheerful glow on the complicated scene that just accented the whole 'magic' theme they had going.

"Wow." Rachel whispered under her breath and ran to try out the moving staircases. She was careful to jump over a missing step in the stone work and continued to the top of the stairwell, which was lined with intricate marble railings with a tiny platform at the end. It reached straight up to what she was guessing was the second floor. But just as she reached the end, the stairs gave a sudden jerk and she fell against the hard stone, detailed flower work digging into her side. She grabbed out wildly at the banister and managed to keep herself from falling.

"By the gods." Rachel muttered and firmly resolved to hold onto railings from now on. Especially on moving staircases. She straightened and realized that the staircase had moved directly to her right to connect with another balcony on the second floor.

As soon as the stairs stopped moving, Rachel hurried off before she could fall again. It was then that she noticed the second flight of stairs to her left, just waiting for her. And because she is Rachel, she started up those steps too – while keeping a firm grip on the banister.

This time when the staircase started moving again, she was ready. Rachel was about half-way up the stairs when it jerked to her left, spinning out like a clock hand. It stopped at a single corridor on the third floor. She jogged lightly up the stairs. She thought she was pretty athletic, but she didn't really have too much competition in "exercise class" at Clarion. Nevertheless, she was breathing hard when she reached the top step. She got off quickly and looked around.

The light granite of this part of the castle was brighter than she expected. Rachel ran her hand along the wall of the corridor. It was rough and very uneven though it seemed to be following a particular pattern that Rachel just couldn't place.

The hallway took a sharp turn right and opened up over a courtyard. The windows here were wide and tall so it seemed more like columns than windows. She ran to the railing and leaned out over the courtyard. Snow still piled into small lumps on the grass and the yard around them glistened from the melting weather. Four cobblestone paths led to a center circle with a few benches nearby. This too, was empty of human life.

Rachel breathed heavily and watched as a puff of frosted air dissipated into the frigid morning wind. She stood there for a while, just staring out at nothing in particular and thinking….

The sun slowly climbed the sky bit by bit and few people in dark clothes strolled unnoticed through the courtyard, but Rachel remained pensive. She was finally broken from her reverie by a loud yowl.

It sounded vaguely like a cat but it was so raspy and hissy that it sounded much more like a snake. Rachel jumped in surprised and whirled around, looking for a serpentine monster, perhaps a Lamia, which she'd seen before.

Instead the irritated looking scraggly cat just hissed at her again, watching her carefully with intelligent yellow eyes.

"Uh – nice cat." Rachel tried to sound soothing as she slowly backed down the hallway. Her muscles, which were kinda numb from lack of movement, protested loudly.

"Nice cat."The creepy cat glared at her and swiped its claws on the stone as if to say I don't like you. But it didn't make any movement to follow her as Rachel cautiously approached the T-shaped intersection at the end of the balcony. She ducked out of view of the cat, which for some reason made her as nervous as some monsters, and began walking somewhat quickly down the windowless corridor.

She made a series of turns deeper into the castle and tried to remember where she came from. She wandered down the corridors aimlessly, looking for something familiar. Minerva must be looking for her by now. She was starting to get hungry. Rachel sighed and finally admitted it to herself: She was lost.

Just as Rachel approached the next turn, voices drifted through the hall. One voice, really. The voice was masculine and resembled an angry growling about the disrespect of kids these days. His voice was scratchy and mean and Rachel decided that she did not want to meet him. His voice reminded her too much of some of her dad's friends, the ones who disregarded others misfortune and worked only to improve their own fortunes. Sometimes she counted her father among them.

Her decision was only strengthened when the cat came bounding around the corner. That same devil cat that she saw before. Somehow it had found her again and from the sounds of it, it had brought a friend. The cat grinned at her as if to say I've got you now. Rachel had nothing against cats, but this one didn't seem on par with normal cuddly cats.

Rachel did an immediate backtrack and started jogging back the way she came before the strange cat's friend could find her. She must have made a wrong turn somewhere, because yet again, nothing looked familiar. Even the style of the stone had changed. She sighed and leaned against the wall for breath. Maybe she should go back. Just because the cat was evil didn't mean the man was. Maybe he could give her directions. But there was something that just told her to stay away from the guy.

Rachel stood back up again, but with a sudden rapid force a splitting headache erupted and the drab corridor began to spin in crazy kaleidoscope patterns. She blinked her green eyes at black spots and grappled randomly around for the wall which seemed farther away then she thought it was. That was probably the reason she missed.

"Damn." She whispered as the floor rose up to meet her and the blackness of the vision clouded over.

A/N:Cliffhanger! I know you all hate me now. I was going to put in the vision, but I already went past my limit for this chapter. Hope you liked it. Next chapter might be in Harry's POV. Just a heads up.

Quick Question: Does anyone know if Rachel has to sacrifice food to a fire? I'm not sure if that is just demigods or everyone involved really…

PLEASE TELL ME WHAT YOU THOUGHT OF IT!