Searching For Pia
SEARCHING FOR PIA
Searching for Pia was fruitless. She didn’t attend any of her morning classes that day.
I then went to the Hufflepuff Library thinking she’d be on her work shift. But she wasn't there either.
To top it off that library worker who was also on the Hufflepuff senior quidditch team was there.
He was quite tall… but that didn’t even in the least intimidate me.
He stared down at me and snarled, “Leave Pia alone… and get the hell out of our library.”
I did leave – because Pia simply wasn't there. But I would have to get the name of that Hufflepuff guy. He'd pay for speaking to me like that.
o0o
It was around lunchtime – and one thing I’d never been able to do was to locate Pia at lunch. But, that wasn’t going to stop me from searching for her anyway.
I entered into Hogwarts Proper (the original school) and began skulking around the first floor… I had nothing better to do than skulk... so I skulked.
I had asked a couple of third-years if they’d seen Pia. Of course they hadn’t heard of her.
Then I heard a pssst, pssst.
I looked at the wall and there were several portraits on it.
“Over here,” said a man in one of the portraits. He was waving his arms.
The man in the picture was pale, blue eyed, and black haired. He also had several small tattoos. As I neared the portrait I saw a nameplate on it that read, Regulas Black.
I came close to Regulas’ portrait and he whispered, “Are you looking for a blonde girl by the name of Pia?”
I couldn’t have believed my luck… for once something was going my way.
“Yes!…Yes!" I said desperately.
Regulas looked at me with a smile and said, “She went to the second floor I'd say about two hours ago. Check there or on the third to see if she went any further."
I was grateful to Regulas… but I couldn't help but wonder why he was doing this for me.
So, I asked him, “Why are you doing this for me?”
Regulas replied, “I know you’re a Potter… but you're also a Slytherin. And also, I was bad… but not all bad.”
o0o
I bounded up the stairs to the second floor. I passed by a the unused sports-room that I remembered was haunted by a pathetic ghost. I'd heard that lately the ghost was so horrid that nobody wanted to bother him.
As I neared the room I could hear birds singing.
I also saw Professor McGonagall speaking to Freddie McFlurry, who was a squib and also the head of the janitorial staff.
“Mr. McFlurry,” McGonagall began, “If this ghost, or phantom… or whatever he calls himself continues to harass our students I'm going to exorcize him myself and place him in a bottle of soap flakes!”
McFlurry was worriedly wringing the hat he held in his hands and spoke very respectfully to her, “I apologize Professor… I sincerely do. I’ll have a talk with that ghost again…though it’ll probably do little good.”
Professor McGonagall gave McFlurry a kinder look and said, “Relax Freddie, it's not your fault. But I can't understand why that memory ghost is throwing such wild tantrums these days.”
McFlurry answered, “I’m not sure myself Professor, but I’ll look into it some more. Most of the student body never enters that unused sports-room – however, the first-years don’t always know… and they get a big surprise if they enter while he’s there.”
McGonagall and McFlurry began walking down the corridor away from the unused sports-room.
As they walked away Professor McGonagall said to Mr. Flurry, “Well that should be easy enough to remedy. We’ll post warnings outside the sports-room for now… and I'll try sending some owls to the first years.”
As they neared the end of the hall McGonagall said, “Also… see what you can do about all these sparrows that keep showing up everywhere… especially on this particular hallway.”
McFlurry nodded to her reverently.
I thought to myself, ‘McFlurry is a much better caretaker than that rancid man, Mr. Filch.’
I was glad Filch had retired which led to the hiring of McFlurry. He was a good man for a squib.
o0o
There were no paintings on the second floor, so I had no idea where to search for Pia.
However there were paintings along the stairwell wall leading to the third floor.
There was a painting that had three little girls who all curtsied to me as I approached.
The girls all wore identical white dresses, however one girl was yellow haired, the second red haired, and the last girl was dark haired.
The little red haired girl said to me, "Regulus has told us that you’re looking for, Pia, the girl with the blondon gold hair.”
The other two girls placed a hand over their mouth and giggled.
“Yes… Yes!" I said with excitement.
“She never came up to the third floor," the red haired girl said. “She must have gone back downstairs at the other end of the hallway. We’re not sure because there are no paintings on that particular staircase. She must have gone down to the first floor and then exited straightway.”
I blew the little red haired girl a kiss and watched as her cheeks turned red. The other two girls just giggled.
Suddenly I heard the clock strike three. I was late for my appointment with Madam Pomfrey.