Exploring the castle had become more than just a thing Emmeline did when she was bored -- it was a necessary distraction. From stupid feelings, letters, meetings, and homework and stuff. She couldn't think about any of that if she wanted to find a secret passage in the castle before term ended! Today, she'd decided to visit the third floor corridor and look for clues, partly 'cause both Professor Marchand's office and the Hospital Wing were on this floor. Which meant two of the only three grown ups she really trusted lived up here. Not that she wanted to see the inside of the Hospital Wing in a someone's-hurt way for a looooong time. But she thought maybe Mr. Healer wouldn't mind a visit if she gave up on finding clues.

Maybe. There was always Roscoe and Bumi if Mr. Healer was too busy, maybe. Plus, Phantom lived here too. Anyway, the first year was very absorbed in thoughts about the staff and their pets that lived on this floor when she almost ran riiiight into someone. She'd managed to stop in time, yes!!!! Emmeline was constantly running into people, but mostly things. Her thoughts tended to run off in different directions and her feet just kind of carried her, you know? Anyway, she couldn't see the boy's face but it would be totally rude to just almost run into someone and NOT say hi so, "Hii!" Nope, she wasn't going to say anything else 'till she saw who it was.