Olivia had spent the whole morning exploring around the castle! She couldn't believe how many nooks, crannies, and secret rooms there were here. It was incredible. It felt like every direction she glanced in, there was always something else to be explored.

Eventually she found her way up to the fourth floor where the library was. She was about to turn into the dreaded place when something else caught her eye. A tapestry? Olivia hadn't seen any other tapestries around the castle save for the one in her common room. She approached it slowly, wondering what the story behind the object was. There must have been some story behind it but what?

As Katherine was on a quest to know the castle she had been living in better (she hadn't had the time to do that for the past 3 years due to reasons), she stopped by this tapestry as well. This was supposed to be the biggest and a quite historical one, wasn't it? So she took a few steps towards it, but another girl's head was blocking her view. Hmm... the girl was standing a bit too close to her liking, but Katherine didn't have much choice, so she got level with her and eyed her like everyone did if they came to stand next to another person.

She felt like someone was watching her. But then again, that could have just been her imagination. She glanced away from trying to figure out the story behind the tapestry to find that she wasn't alone. There was another girl standing beside her and watching her. Huh. Olivia glanced at the girl for a moment before offering the other girl a friendly smile. "Hey! Admiring the tapestry too?" Well yeah, duh Olivia, the other girl was probably here to see the tapestry too. Way to point out the obvious. She turned her gaze back to the tapestry for just a moment before she realized that she had a question that perhaps the other girl could answer. It was a long shot. "I feel as if there has to be a story behind this. Do you think there's one?"

Katherine returned the smile. Of course she wouldn't be able to remember every face in the castle, and she was one of them - Katherine didn't know who she was, except that she looked like a nice person.

"Yeah," she said, "and there indeed is a story behind it. About 40 years ago, a mysterious book was linked to it that froze off the professors, so the whole corridor was sealed off." She read that from Hogwarts: A History, but she didn't need to point the obvious... or did she, given students generally hadn't even heard of it? "It's all written in Hogwarts: A History."

Nah, Katherine stopped being idealistic long ago - she didn't even JUDGE the girl for not reading it, nor for not knowing the history of this ancient castle.

At least, she tried her best not to judge, and to silence the small voice in her head ('When I become a Minister, I'll make every single student read it, I'll even not admit students who fail an entrance exam entirely based on it, this is so stupid, they come to a school unaware of its -'), she said "I'm Katherine Moss, fourth year Ravenclaw." She was a Gryffindor, Katherine bet.

All written down in Hogwarts: A History? That's amazing. She had started reading the book but had stopped way before she had reached that chapter. A book that had been linked to this tapestry. She eyed the tapestry as she continued listening. "Fascinating." And really cool (yet also terrifying that an object could have that MUCH power). If it ever got into the wrong hands... Then that would be bad.

With a smile, Olivia nodded at Katherine's introduction. "Nice to meet you! I'm Olivia Holden, fourth year Gryffindor. I'm a recent transfer from Beauxbatons. Have you been at Hogwarts your whole time?" she asked curiously.

Katherine nodded. It truly was fascinating, the fact that it was written down in Hogwa - no, hold on, she was trying to become friends here with a new girl she hadn't seen before, so she shouldn't be judging, not even in her mind, because that would dictate her tone and expression.

Ahem.

Ah, this explained why she didn't know the girl. But wasn't it lovely that they were both fourth years? And how Katherine wasn't even wrong to guess that she was a Gryffindor? "Nice to meet you too, Olivia." She smiled back. "Yeah, I have been." Except for that minor break last year she had to take - but no need to bring that up now.

"So you're half French?" This was juuuuuust the beginning of the questions she was going to ask to Olivia.

Olivia took one final look at the tapestry for a while and glanced at Katherine, listening to her speak. Wow. She had been at Hogwarts for her whole schooling career? Lucky. "What's your favourite part about Hogwarts?" she asked as she tiled her head slightly to the right. It was something she always did when she was curious.

A questions. Being a transfer, she had become used to having more questions asked of her. Jacob and Etta had asked her what felt like a MILLION questions the other day by the playground so she didn't mind anyone asking her more. "A quarter French. My mother's family is French," she explained with a small nod.

Katherine considered the question for a moment. What was her most favourite part?.. The answer was obvious, she just wanted to think for a moment to see if there was another part she liked better, but no. Despite everything...

"Library," she said with a small smile, "such a typical Ravenclaw, huh?" Hehe. "Because of all the books and the peaceful atmosphere." If only she could read everything and know everything...

Oh. She nodded. "Where do you like more?" A question she'd also asked to Mason, because Katherine was so curious about the other two schools in Europe.

Favourite part of school? The library? Interesting. "Perhaps!" joked Olivia, chuckling at Katherine's response to her question and shrugged her shoulders a little. "Though my brother, Simon, would certainly agree with you. That was his favourite place when he was here. However, he was a Slytherin." Though he had been a Slytherin. Perhaps he should have been a Ravenclaw? Though there must have been a reason why he ended up in Slytherin. The Sorting Hat worked in strange ways... though Olivia certainly had a few theories about it.

What did she like more? Hogwarts or Beauxbatons? Hmm.. Excellent question. "Both have their pros and cons. I do enjoy Hogwarts. It's more challenging to me. The Professors also seem to care more about your progress which is nice." And there were plenty of adventures too. "However, I'm not a fan of the Poltergeists." Their pranks weren't funny at all. They were just plain mean.

Katherine smiled. She could SEE why a Slytherin liked the library too - she, personally, liked Slytherins the best other than Ravenclaws. She didn't know her big brother, though, so she didn't say anything.

She listened closely to her explanation. Those made sense, and she was secretly proud that Hogwarts professors cared more about students. At the Poltergeist talk though, she rolled her eyes and exclaimed an "Uh!" that CLEARLY suggested she was done with them. They had ruined her intellectual moment with the cute guy Samuel, after all. She had to wash her hair 10 times after that and Samuel would always remember her with the dung bomb smell.

"I hate them," she said angrily, "I don't even know why the Headmasters don't shoo them away." She didn't really know how ghost magic worked, but then again, they weren't really ghosts.

Olivia was glad to see Katherine roll her eyes at the Poltergeists at the school. She was about to ask a question when her companion informed her that she hated the poltergeists. Hate was always a strong word to use. Olivia was about to open her mouth but cautioned herself not too given how angry Katherine seemed.

"They do cause a lot of trouble. Can the Headmistress even shoo them away?" asked Olivia with wide eyes. Olivia didn't doubt the Headmistress' power but she didn't even know anything about ghosts or poltergeists. Was that even possible? "I'm guessing that you too had an unfortunate run in. I did too. Dungbombs and leeches." Just thinking about it made her shudder. Ugh.

Katherine shrugged. "I don't know, but - I mean, the Headmasters are supposed to be among the most competent wizards, aren't they? I'm sure she's capable of that." Or should be. This wasn't the poltergeists' school - and they had tripled over the three years Katherine had spent here!

"Dungbombs for me too - and how boring and unimaginative is that? They ruined a very intellectual conversation with a really -" cute guy, she was about to say, but caught herself. She didn't want anyone to know that, and she also didn't want to call Samuel 'cute' yet. So she said, with juuuuuuuuuuust a tiny bit of a pause in-between, "- smart guy."

Yes, Skylar knew she probably should have found an older student to come looking with her, but honestly the monster never seemed to attack when there were larger groups of students. And even though by wandering around the castle by herself, she was putting her own life at risk, just not having a Hogwarts seemed to be a greater risk, somehow. Plus, if she were to just bind the monster with ropes, it would be sufficient, wouldn't it?

She could conjure ropes and do other basic defense spells, which would maybe be enough ... At least to hold her own until someone more experienced came to her rescue should she come across the monster and scream loud enough.

"Lumos" She said quietly, lighting her wand to create some extra light.

The monster's senses were still going bonkers. All of the scents were leading it this way and that, up and down the corridors. It had returned to latching itself onto the ceiling, making its way throughout the castle undetected. Now its stomach was beginning to churn. The smell of human flesh was making it the hungriest it had ever been.

And the sight of the girl on the fourth floor was making the monster's mouth salivate. She was definitely a lot smaller than some of the others it had come across ... and she was alone. Easy pickings.

Hanging from the ceiling, the creature silently moved itself so that it was directly above the girl. Its lips were licked with a long, skinny tongue. Unable to control itself, some of its saliva dribbled out of its mouth and onto the girl's head.

Kitty had just returned from the bathroom (with all the searching for the monster, THAT still had to be done sometime) when she heard solitary footsteps walking down the corridors. What in the world? Her hand reached into her robe pockets for her wand as she crept towards the sound of the noise.

"Skylar, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be alone-" Her words caught in her throat. She saw it. The monster, on the ceiling - dripping saliva down from its mouth as it hung hungrily above the younger girl.

Kitty's reaction was lightning quick. She pulled her wand from her robes, aimed at the monster and fired a spell. It was probably not the right spell, but it was the first one that came to mind. "INCENDIO!"

That was weird ... there was something off about the smell in this area of the fourth floor and Skylar ... was it raining?! Reaching up to touch the spot on wet on her head, Skylar recoiled almost instantaneously as she heard her name. That was NOT rain .... and she froze a moment upon seeing the offensive Ravenclaw Prefect scolding her for wandering out alone. "I ... I was just ..."

But before she could explain, her eyes flicked above her where there was flames now.

WHAT IN THE WORLD?!?

"Incarcerous!" she called, thinking of the first spell to come to mind. If this WAS indeed the monster that was hyped about, what better way to act than by capturing it with likely FLAMING ropes, thanks to Kitty's fire spell too.

Though it was in a slight daydream, thinking about how delicious this one would taste, the beast's hearing was much better than that of a human. It knew the moment that he and the girl were no longer alone. When a spell was casted at it, it jumped to the side as a grim sound left its throat. The spell went by its head and scorched a part of the ceiling.

And then the girl it was about the pounce on noticed that it was there, it jumped out of the way too, latching itself onto the wall. The ropes whizzed right past it. If they wanted to try to catch it, they were going to have to be much faster than that and catch it totally off guard.

Reacting quickly to the situation, the monster grabbed hold of the tapestry on the wall and let it drop on the two girls as it made its escape down the corridor and out of sight. It was determined to get a hearty meal before it left this place ... and the creature knew that it had better grab someone quick.

One moment there was flames and the next it had gone completely dark and it took Skylar a moment before she realized she was covered with the tapestry that had been hanging on the wall. A moment too late.

"Depulso!" she thought quickly as she could, as the tapestry banished off herself and the Ravenclaw prefect.

A moment too long because all she saw was something dash off down the corridor in escape, something that was likely about to kill herself (and Kitty?). And despite her better judgement - which would have been to return to the Slytherin Common Room, Skylar found her adrenaline was flowing as she sprinted up and ran in the direction that she thought the creature was moving. Perhaps she needed a quick explosion spell for something to work effectively.

"Reducto!" The third year shouted in the general direction, feeling somehow that it was useless. Her wand pointing in front of her ....

While not hitting its target, her Incendio had distracted the monster and made it leap out of the way. Then Skylar cast Incarcerous, which would have been a very good combination if the monster hadn't ducked both spells and thrown the Tapestry at them.

She barely had time to cried out before the tapestry covered both of them. This tapestry that she'd spent so much time admiring and studying its secrets, and even once or twice wrapping herself in it, that tapestry was now being used against them as a weapon. And then it was off, Skylar's Depulso having banished it away, completely unharmed.

"Wait, Skylar, come back!" she shouted, running after the younger girl and the retreating monster. "It's...already...gone!" she panted with the effort of shouting and running at the same time. Yet even as she called her back, she kept her wand out in case it hadn't really gone or in case they actually did manage to catch up with it.