The voice that had almost certainly been heard down in the dungeon corridor was growing distant once more but louder up here on the basement floor. “Where are you?” It questioned.

Closet and closet the voice sounds, like someone running toward you or otherwise running wild in the castle.

“Are you coming? Say something.”

This voice, this woman was lost. Or maybe you were lost. Either way, she wasn’t in the dungeon corridor anymore. Instead, she sounded somewhere on this floor?

“Come find me!”

Cole had been walking around aimlessly for a bit before he got the idea to seek out his sister and see if she wouldn't mind spending some time with him. Isobel usually kept to her friends, but maybe today she could be persuaded to be with her big brother?

He turned a corner into the basement and was about to head for the kitchen area when a loud voice stopped him in his tracks. "Who's there?" Cole called out. Looking left and right and back and front he waited to see by the sounds of it who was running towards him like a bat from hell. But nobody came.

He just then heard the voice again wondering if he was coming to find her/him? "Isobel is that you?" Cole questioned, irritation seeping into his voice and a little bit of fear. "Isobel if that is you then come out and we can play hide and seek properly like at home." No answer came so Cole stood still on the spot, thinking about the voice and coming to the conclusion that it wasn't really Isobel, but for all he knew someone else or even something sinister...He indecisively kept still waiting to see if the voice came again.

Listen.

Claudine wasn't sure what had happened earlier but all she knew was that a horrible falling feeling had taken over her then it had ceased abruptly as it came. What was more, she was almost gone. Like... literally. Sure, the Castle's occupant's had been translucent for sometime but this time it was worst.

Confused, she wanted to find a Professor with the hope of some explanation for admittedly, she was frightened by these happenings. That tenseness and fear rose slightly when she heard a voice asking “Where are you?”

Um...

Claudine abandoned her venture to the Staff Room immediately, especially as a familiar voice replied to the first. She moved closer to the direction of the voices. Was it really two students playing hide and seek?

Morgan had not recently been down in the dungeon corridor nor did he know about anything that might have been happening there. But he was on his way to.... well, he forgot where he was actually going when he happened upon the barrels near the Hufflepuff common room. And what were these two doing?

He didn't know that Cole kid, but it seemed like he lost his friend, Isobel, or something? And then Morgan heard a voice asking to come find them. He wasn't sure if it was that Isobel person or not, but they seemed lost.

"Well, where are you then?" he called back loudly towards wherever the voice was, soon spotting Claudine. "Sounds like his friend is lost," he told her, gesturing to Cole. "Let's see if we can find them." He knew how easy it was to get lost in this castle, especially if it was a first year. And he wouldn't mind helping out, since he forgot what he came down here for anyway.

It seemed that no matter how far he ran, the voice kept getting further away. HOW was that possible?? Was it here or not???

"We can hear you!" Malachi called in answer, leading his little group through the corridors. "We hear you just fine! Stop moving!" Circe, how was anyone meant to find anyone if everyone kept moving? This had to be the worst game of hide and seek in existence.

"Hell--"

Huh?

The Headmaster came to a stop as he approached the odd trio, none of which sported the colours of the barrel they stood before. Were they lost? Was he lost? What was he looking for again? Oh! Right, the voice!

"Have any of you heard a voice??" He demanded, taking a moment to try catching his breath. "Calling or...or something. I could've sworn it came this way." And he was done running.

This was not how he had intended to spend his time today but at this point in the term literally nothing seemed to be going his way regardless. But his strides were eager in that he just wanted to get to the bottom of all this, which was why he was reaching out to take a hold of Missa's elbow. "...what do you mean spell?" he hissed at her while his eyes darted around between the headmaster and the group of students that had gathered here.

He then glanced over at the barrels and immediately his thoughts drifted to his little sister. Were they trying to find a Hufflepuff right now?

Talk about irony.

The voice called out again, sounding more and more insistent that you find it.

“Hello, can you hear me? Are you coming to fi----”

Then it cuts off suddenly, leaving the basement entirely silent and eerie.

Cole grew more and more certain that it wasn't sister that was trying to drag him into a hide and seek game. It was someone else. It was more clear as first Claudine came into view, then Morgan and Eji and lastly Headmaster Trent. Not sure what to say Cole called out to explain with a nod. "I heard a voice call out that I at first thought was my baby sister some minutes ago but it wasn't. It is someone else entirely that seems to running around, maybe a bit lost. I don't know who it is but they sound desperate and insistant on that we'd find him or her. Maybe they are lost or hurt?" For all Cole knew that someone could be sick or hurt or have a friend that was that way. Before Cole got the chance to Headmaster Trent's question the weird voice was heard again before it suddenly went eerily silent. Feeling a chill run up his spine he looked over at Headmaster Trent for advice. "Shall we keep following the voice?"

Okay, so Claudine was highly startled when another voice spoke. That voice turned out to belong to Morgan. “I think so. And he seems to not be sure if it’s Isobel.’’ She was about to set off with Morgan to track down the voice but not before Trent of all people showed up. What? How did he know of this voice? “We did. It wants us to find it… whomever it belongs to, rather.’’ Claudine threw a questioning look at the adult. “Why are you chasing the voice, Professor? Do you know to whom it belongs to?”

More students were gathering but the third year ignored them. She was still very much confused and even more so when the voice spoke up again. Her eyes widened when it ended without finishing the sentence.

What was going on?

Was this some sort of search party coming to rescue the lost, random voice? Morgan, a little confused, turned to see Kale's dad and that one Slytherin as well as a bunch of other students down the corridor headed their way. He was all ready to set off with Claudine to find whoever was lost and he looked between the Slytherin girl and the Headmaster as she told him as much as Morgan himself knew.

"There it is again!" Morgan turned in the direction of the voice as it spoke again, pausing as it cut off, waiting for it to finish. But it didn't. "That doesn't sound good.." he spoke his thoughts aloud to no one in particular, but then looked at the group again. "We should try to find them!" They could be in trouble. Maybe they were trapped inside the barrels. He started towards where he thought the voice might be coming from.

Yes, she could definitely hear the sound - until she couldn't and Eiji was pulling her away to him.

"Yes! A spell" she confirmed, looking at the weatherman nearby, "he was looking for some kind of magical hotspot - because his book said that is where the magic was?" she said, a bit unsure, "and when he spotted it, he cast this spell and the castle felt like it was falling down, and then we started hearing this voice"

It was freaky.

Before she could say more though, there was that voice again!

And then it was suddenly gone! Confused, Missa looked around, "where did she go next???"

The Slytherin merely deadpanned at his girlfriend as she spoke because she was literally making no sense to him and he tended to pride himself on understanding ramblings. Or at the very least be able to piece things together so that he could make some sense out of them. "...a magical hotspot?" he repeated skeptically.

Like with wifi or volcanic activity?

Everything Missa said only brought about more questions and more doubts about this stranger among them and his eyes narrowed to tight slits while looking at him now. What made him so special that he was able to perform a spell and have it succeed? "....did anyone else try to ca---" But before he could finish his question, Missa was off following the voice again. Or at least try to do so and as soon as Eiji rewired his own thoughts to focus on that...the voice had cut off midsentence.

Was this voice attached to one of those ghost-like students that would fade in and fade out?

"Why doesn't the weatherman just perform Homenum Revelio and put an end to this game of hide and seek?" he grumbled mostly to himself, since apparently Sunny Raine was capable of magic when everyone else was not. Assuming whatever it was was human...and alive. Eiji was saltily skeptical about everything at the moment and crossing his arms across his face.

Isla frowned as she followed Trent (as in directly behind him) from the dungeon corridor and toward the basement. She'd caught that glance he'd given her when he mentioned extra common sense. Sigh. Was it even worth arguing about? Nope. For one, Isla knew better than to argue with an adult, and two, she couldn't even remember the man's name right now. SO THERE.

She said absolutely nothing as she listened to the sound of the stranger's voice. Well if they'd STOP MOVING and just stand still, they could be found and followed! Then the voice stopped altogether. Great. Now they'd been following a voice that didn't even exist anymore. What if it was one of those weird ghosts that had appeared and disappeared in the Great Hall a while back? The ones that had dropped that article from a hundred years ago. CREEPY.

Anyway. What now?

Whilst he had remained quiet as the group followed the voice towards the barrels, the prefect couldn’t help but wonder what awaited them should they actually find the source of the voice. Whilst he was confused the Cole seemed to think the voice was coming from his sister? even though he thought the voice had come from Eiji , he continued to watch carefully, his eyes peeled for a sign of movement.

Despite the voice calling out to them and some of the children and even the headmaster answering its beckoning call, it still refused to actually acknowledge them? Could it actually hear them? “Maybe it can’t hear us but we can hear…”. He stopped talking as the voice began asking if anyone could hear it, only for it to actually cut off causing a sudden deafening silence. Something had obviously found it! Or someone? Maybe there was another person or creature searching for it too? Either way, it had been stopped midsentence and that didn’t bode well for their mysterious voice.

Whilst he didn’t want to put anyone in danger, he had to agree with Chloe’s brother (Morgan) although maybe sending some of the younger students away to get help and to get them out of the way and out of trouble might be a good idea. “I agree. We should find them but we shouldn’t rush into anything. The last thing we need is a casualty” . Despite the fact that his heart was beating faster than it had in a long time, the prefect couldn’t but enjoy the adrenaline. It made him feel…real. Something that he hadn’t felt since before he started to turn translucent.

Catching the tail end of something Missa had said, he turned towards her to listen carefully trying to piece together anything that he had found out whilst investigating with what she was saying although he could not add much to it although. Instead, he simply turned towards the headmaster and awaited further instructions. Whatever he was going to do next, it would happen on his say so.