Lost! Cady Julite Stoltz was absolutely, hopelessly lost and it wasn't the first time in the few days since term had begun in this strange Scottish castle either. It was those ridiculous moving staircases that moved, she was quite sure of that, she had been doing just fine before one of them had shifted whilst she was going in what she at least suspected was the correct direction in the scheme of things. Still, the place was for more confusing then her previous school, at least Durmstrang had only been spread over a few low floors due to the appalling weather, trying to keep the heat in was much more important then this balmy Scottish autumn. Not only was it that however, the moving staircases were confusing at best but there seemed to be a distinct lack of people around, granted it was early in the morning, but Cady had thought she would at least be able to find a ghost or a portrait willing to come to her aid. No such luck. Then wasn't that always the way? She was the new one here, the one with the strange accent, the transfer student who hadn't spent many years roaming the castle. People thought that just because she was a sixth year she would know all those things, but she didn't, and this place was getting more confusing the more lessons that she happened across, they were spread all over the castle and getting to the right place at the right time was a regular nightmare for the Ravenclaw.

Sighing the red-head rounded the corner into a strange room full of what seemed to be armour, although she really couldn't understand why the school felt the need to keep this dusty part of history. Finding herself staring at a particular dusty looking specimen with a large spike on it's helmet the young witch turned her body around to face the way she had come, realising once more that she was no closer to the Ravelnclaw common room and the books she needed for her lessons that she had been when she finished her solitary breakfast in the great hall half an hour in the past. The girl preferred to break her fast alone with the company of the news, both local and foreign, to keep up with a world that she was constantly leaving behind. Cady was meant to be free, she had spent her life on the road and that was the way she preferred to keep it, she felt almost claustrophobic in this place standing still and knowing it would be two years before she moved on again. This young girl had seen the world, had seen many things and it was hard to keep her mind engaged with the usual foolishness of those her own age. Cady had seen pain enough to tear a family apart, the stress of moving constantly from pillar to post and never stopping, she had seen the war and the great darkness from a thousand different angles. Hogwarts may have held magic for many, but for the young witch it was just another place in a long list in her life, the moving staircases were a novelty but it was just another school, with more friends she would learn to love and leave.

Such was the life of an ambassadors daughter.

Twirling around the room Cady stopped to put down the papers in both English and French dialects on the floor, her heeled loafers clipping the cobble stones with sharp noise, punctuated every so often by the swish of material from her robes. Shrugging the blue trimmed fabric from her shoulders the red-head stared at herself in a usefully placed mirror, big blue-green eyes staring back at her thin boyish frame and European looks. Twisting her auburn locks first into a french plait and then forming that into a twist the girl studied her fine bone structure with her hair pulled up and anyways from her pale skin smattered with the ends of those annoying summer freckles. Her feelings were some what benign that morning, ever since the suns soft rays had woken her from the folds of sleep she had been strangely detached from this place, she wasn't lonely yet, she was used to being the new girl after all. The soft pitter patter of rain drew her attention to the window, away from the ethereal girl that she saw in the mirror. Blue eyes swept over the early morning sky and she wondered whether it was raining in London, or should she say at home now? She wondered whether her mother was looking out at the same rain and wondering how her daughter was fairing in yet another foreign land. Cady shook her head, knowing how ridiculous that sentiment was, her parents had grown used to their only daughter's absence, perhaps it was better that way, for all of them. Now approaching her majority the red-head could not but fear for the moment that she left home, would her fathers love for her mother evaporate then as it had when he realised she was his only heir. Would he turn on the woman he had loved for nearly twenty years as he had turned on the daughter he had once adored. To many maybes. It haunted this young witch like no other the idea of leaving the woman she looked up to and loved in the care of man that had turned into a monster. Leaving home would be bitter sweet, just like a new school. Cady sighed once more, leaning her forehead against the cool glass, eye stills watching the horizon.

Hugging her arms around her petite frame the girl did not hear the approaching footsteps of some other, instead she scooped up both her robes and papers in her arms determination once again setting in. She would have to find the common-room if killed her, after all this girl wasn't ever one to be late for lessons, and even less the kind of person to use being new to all this as an excuse. Spinning her body around once more the girl pondered on the strangeness of this room and the place it could possibly hold in a castle school such as this, shrugging the girl smoothed out the pleated skirt that was standard fare for this school. Still Cady had put her own edge on the school uniform with her patent heeled loafers, soft woollen over the knee socks and shorter then average skirt. People would barely realises that the socks rather then a statement were something behind, a way to cover the purple black bruises that coated her limbs. The same went for the cute long woollen grey cardigen she wore oner her shirt, tie and pearls combination, that way nobody could say the long thing lines that were red raw, a reminder of dark magic wielded in hatred. Nobody could ever know, and besides all those marks would be gone by Christmas, school was freedom from that pain, freedom from having to be the pureblood girl that her parents wanted. Hogwarts was a new beginning, another new chapter in her life, one that had been short but full of hate. Still, the red-head did not feel sorry for herself, but a deep resentment towards the pureblood stigma that expected so little of her and yet so much too.

Raising a well defined eyebrow at one of the particularly weird suits of armour the girl made for the door.