Four months he had been here and besides his little stint in bringing the twelve Christmas trees into the Great Hall, this was the first time that Seb had set foot into the castle since the opening feast. And it was the invitation he had received during that feast, for the reason why he was here on the seventh floor.

He rubbed the back of his neck as he stood at the top of the stairs and looked in the direction of the Divination Tower. Calista seemed like a nice young woman and he was berating himself for taking so long to take up her offer. But he had been rather busy and for some reason just a little nervous as well to come here. He had no idea why though.

As he walked down the corridor however, the sight of quite a lot of Gryffindors hanging around in front of the Fat Lady's portrait, caused him to raise an eyebrow. Why would they be out in the corridor? Seb gave a quick glance in the direction of the Divination tower once again before sighing deeply and heading over to where the students and Leo by the looks of it were milling around.

"Is there a problem here?"

Pulling some standard chocolate chip cookies from her bag, Kurumi handed them to Sarah - and anyone who wanted them really - and then turned her attention to the growing crowd. Merlin this was turning out to be a strange term. It ALMOST made her glad that it was her last one and that she would hopefully be spending the next term in Romania around something normal - like dragons and experimenting with hybrid breeding.

Yep, peeeeeeeeeeerfectly normal.

Kurumi breathed a small sigh of relief when the librarian showed up...and shot the portrait a LOOK when she said she had been sleeping. Well, that answered her question from earlier about whether or not the Fat Lady had heard her - she hadn't.

Rolling her eyes, Kurumi glanced over her shoulder when she heard more footsteps that ended up belonging to the Groundskeeper. "Seems as though the enchantments here have gone a bit...astray. We can't get into our common room and everyone who was inside was repelled out," Kurumi explained. It reminded her of the conversation they had had in his office about the enchantments on the train. Then there was the Restricted Section losing all its enchantments as well...

Did that mean that... Kurumi gasped for a moment and scooted a little c loser to the Groundskeeper and lowered her voice. "Sir...you don't think that other enchantments are...going astray as well, do you? Like those that make the castle unplottable..." They had been at risk at being exposed to the nonmagical world before...and the way all these enchantments were suddenly breaking and going berserk...the seventh year was beginning to get more nervous about the possible bigger picture.

Well...that certainly was a problem.

Seb had seen some unusual things happen at Hogwarts but he had never known the common rooms not allowing access, let alone throwing the students out. He frowned, not something he did very often if ever, and was just about to ask Leo what he thought when Kurumi sidled up to him and he raised his eyebrows at her question.

"I hope not." he answered honestly. "I did check the gates before coming up here and everything seemed in perfect working order." Unless the enchantments had broken in the time it had taken him to walk up to the castle.

No. He would know if that happened. He had put some of his own enchantments up and if they broke, he would know. Well he hoped so.

"Is it just the Gryffindor common room? Have other rooms been affected?"

She was feeling even better when Kurumi started handing out cookies. Well...some good came from this afterall. Her candy might have been stuck inside but all these generous people were offering substitutes. Sniffles. They were so nice. She reached over a little hesitantly, not knowing whether she was allowed to have one too; no need to have the prefect scowling at her when she wanted to sleep, it would have only made her miserable.

When Kurumi didn't protest she moved the cookie to her mouth and began munching on it while she waited for Mr. Kitridge to solve the mystery of the rude common room. "Thank you." Couldn't forget that part now.

Her eyes ran to the corridor when she heard footsteps again. Was this area always a well trafficked one? Meh, she wouldn't know seeing as usually she'd be in her common room if she was this high up.

"Shiny Ground's Keeper!" She said with a wide smile when she saw just who it was. She listened as he and Kurumi began discussing something about enchantments not working. Was nothing here working? Jeez, first the staircase, then the bathrooms, the common rooms and now enchantments??

Finally he asked a question she could answer. "No...from what I hear everyone's got the same problem." Well not really. " 'Cept the thing that kicked everyone out is holding my candy hostage." Pout. "Do you think you can do something?" Like blow the bloody portrait down and rescue it. Ahem. Please?

"Good." Leo stated with a small sigh. It would have been much worse if some of the lions had been injured in the eviction from the common room. Luckily that was not the case. Locked in candy however were the least of their problems.

"Hmm, invisble force or even a ghost hauled you all out here. Odd very odd. I doubt though that the ghosts living in the castle are sinister enough to do this to all the houses at once." Leo thought out loud.

Leo was inspecting the area around the Fat Lady's portrait feeling like a detective when the Groundskeeper came up to them and asked what was going on. It was slightly odd to find the groundskeeper here in the towers but Leo was glad for the extra adult presence. It might help keep the lions calm.

"Evening Seb. It seems like all the four houses including the lions have been evicted from their common rooms by some type of super natural force. I ran into a few badgers and Professor Magnus earlier who also had been evicted." Leo explained to bring the man up to speed.

"Could you send Seren a patronus and alert her of the situation?"

Over hearing Seb's conversation with the Gryffindor prefect he shared what he had discovered earlier with them. "This is probably totally unrelated to why the common rooms are now locked, but my most expensive fishing pole have been stolen from my office. I noticed it earlier today after I got back from lunch." Pulling out the reel from his robe pocket he held it up. "This is the only thing that remains of my fishing pole."

"Hello! Sarah said to the Fat Lady. Perhaps the fat lady was like Sarah, a dep sleeper that no noise could interupt her from her slumber. Maybe she should ask Alexa to be her alarm clock in the morning. Making sure Sarah gets up on time. Sarah slept through all kinds of noise.

Finally an adult had come... the librarian"Hello Sir, glad you came. I think all of us are alright! I think the charms in this place have gone wonky" Sarah said.

Sarah was glad that she was able to calm her down and went into her bag and took out a chocolate frog. She was about to put it back when Alexa said that she did no want it, yet went to get it after Alexa wanted it "here enjoy". She was going to say that sugar was good for a person, yet she did not think it was good for Alexa!

Sarah then saw the gate keeper and when he asked if there was a problem she was going to say: understatement of the century.. yet she thought that that would be rude.
Sarah eyes lit up when she saw that Kurumi indeed had chocolate chip cookies. "Thank you SOOO much!" She said accepting the package. She took a cookie and began to munch it.
Sarah eyes widened in horror when she found at his rod had disappeared. He liked fishing or at least fished. "I also like fishing! In fact the only fish I eat is the fish I caught myself and seasoned my self. Yet I have only tried trout so I don't know about other fish" Fishing with the family was awesome and the eating it that night was also awesome. "Oh dear" Sarah exclaimed.

Only one person called him that and turned in the direction of the voice and his gaze settled on the young Gryffindor and a broad grin spread across his face. Yeah he had heard that she had gotten herself into some trouble but for some reason he just found her adorable. "Alexa! It's good too see you little one." He grin held some mischief in it. "I'm hurt that you haven't visited me yet. Must be keeping yourself pretty busy huh?"

Teasing aside though, Seb found the young girl's information rather interesting. So everyone was in the same boat. It was very strange. Alexa's question brought him out of his musings and he blinked at her. "Well I first need to find out how this has happened." He so should have stayed in his hut.

Looking at the Librarian, Seb gave the man a smile. "Hey Leo." He nodded his head as the man explained what was happening. "Yeah I just heard." He gestured at Alexa who had just told him the same thing and when asked could he send a Patronus, he immediately drew out his wand but before he used it, Leo gave him something else to think about.

He shuffled a little closer to the Librarian. "Sooo...what? Something is evicting the students from their common rooms to steal their stuff?" That seemed a little drastic. Or unless whatever it was, was looking for something in particular. But then why would it bother stealing a fishing pole?

"What does the Fat Lady have to say about this?" She was the one who let them enter the room after all.

It didn't go unnoticed by the 11 year old that the man failed to comment on her candy that was being held hostage. How ruuuuude. Couldn't he tell how distraught she was. Just because she didn't break a leg or fracture her arm in any of this didn't mean she wasn't affected. Hmph. Maybe if he'd lost something due to the recent mysterious events he'd understand but as things stood he was possibly clueless as to how she felt.

Grown ups.

"I don't think it could've been the ghost either Sir." She'd never seen the ghost steal candy before so it couldn't have been them. "But then...does this mean there's something else moving around the castle, locking people out?" Trying to gather them for one big feast...O___O

She was not food and didn't like to think that anything thought of her that way...

Ah hah! So he lost his fishing pole. how does that feel Mr. Doesn't Care About Candy??? STARE.



Lex took the chocolate frog and pocketed it for after she was done with the cookie she'd taken from Kurumi. It was important to keep on top of the sugar, never know when you'd need a sugar rush...or just a hyper firstie in general....

Then she suddenly realized something. "Sarah! You're in your night gown aren't you!" Yeah...she was quite the oblivious one most times. "I hadn't even noticed! Do you want to borrow my robe?" Her skirt and shirt were doing a pretty good job so she didn't really need it anyway.



Good to see her? BEAM! "It's good to see you toooooo!" And as for the lack of visiting..."Ummm...yeah...pretty busy...with um...school work..." She didn't want to tell him that she'd been up to no good and got sent home at one point because then he might have been disappointed in her. When he said that, she assumed he didn't know any of the stuff that went on and she was hoping to keep it that way. She couldn't have the Shiny Ground's Keeper thinking badly of her, nooo. If he did then he wouldn't find it good to see her anymore!

"But I'll visit you soon!! I'll even bring you some chocolate frogs too!" Because he was nice enough to deserve them. Yup.

Oh. He needed to find out what happened first. Well it was pretty straight forward. She was sure he'd figure it out then everything would go back to normal and she'd have her chocolate frogs again. There was nothing to worry about now that he was here. "Okay!"

And even he thought something was going around stealing stuff...

Oh, what was this? Actually, who was this?

The Fat Lady lowered her arms from above her head and once again wiped the corner of her mouth with her hand, just in case she was drooling. Only this time it wouldn't have been because of sleep. And once she was satisfied that there was nothing wrong with her face, she put on a charming smile of her own for the librarian. "Good evening to you!" She gave a wave of her hand towards the students around before speaking again.

"Why, Mister Kitridge! My lions know better than to say the password while snakes are around!" In case he didn't see them, she pointed at the two of them.

And there was always one, wasn't there?

The Fat Lady rolled her eyes at the dramatic girl and decided not to grace her with an answer to her questions. It was obvious that she had been sleeping! She even stretched! But just in case that wasn't believable enough for everyone, she placed her hand over her mouth and yawned.

"I don't evict, I only emit." She yawned once more. This time out of boredom. All she wanted was gossip.

And she was sure the other portraits were going to be gossiping about her after today! Having two men visiting her portrait at once? What was the special occasion?

The Fat Lady watched curiously as the two men spoke, leaning forward to hear what they were saying. And still, gossip that she didn't want to hear about. Thieves, ghosts! She continued to miss the entire point of students being evicted from their common rooms. "Thieves, you say?! Don't let them take me!" She stood from her seat and cowardly hid behind her chair.

That was what she had to say.

Waiting for the Fat Lady to hopefully give them some helpful information Leo turned to Sarah. "I think you might be on to something about the wonky charms." It could be one reason why the student’s had been evicted from their common room but he had a feeling that the problem were more complex than just wonky charms.

"You do? Well eating fish is good for you and it’s rumored that eating fish makes you smarter. I advice you to not fish in the lake on the grounds. I did that last term and I got a stomach bug to show for it." Not one of Leo’s finer moments at Hogwarts, luckily though Cecelia had cured him without too much effort.

"On second thought, I think its better that we alert the Headmistress first about the lock out since she needs to make urgent sleeping arrangements." Pulling out his own wand Leo non-verbally uttered 'Expecto Patronum' and from the tip of his wand a silver hawk hovered in mid air for a moment in front of the librarian before it flew off with its message to the headmistress.

As Sebastian shuffled closer Leo shrugged. "Maybe, I don’t know? Until we can unlock the common rooms and go in and inspect we can’t be sure if any student belongings have been stolen. Who knows maybe I’m the only one in the whole castle that has been robbed." That idea was highly disturbing but possible.

Leo turned from the groundskeeper to Alexa and said. "Let’s not jump to conclusions. I’m sure your candy is safe in your dorm. The common rooms are probably locked because of some charms that have gone wonky. Let’s stay calm, okay?" Now stop thinking up horror theories with big monsters being in the castle. It helped nobody and would only raise hysteria.

Leo quickly turned to face the Fat lady’s portrait when she finally spoke to them. It was apparent right away that the Fat Lady had no knowledge of what was going on and hadn’t been involved in the eviction. "Mrs Fat Lady how come you haven’t let the lions back in? They’ve must have given you the password before the snakes arrived?" Glancing over at Sarah and Alexa he waited for confirmation that was what they had done.

It couldn’t be as simple as the portrait wanting to keep the lion common room protected and had thus in the presence of snakes not emitted anyone back into the cr? But that didn’t explain why the students had been evicted in the first place. Hmm.

"Nobody is going to steal you Mrs Fat Lady. Would you like me to ask the headmistress for a body guard for you until we solve this crisis?" Leo tried to sooth the portrait who in fright tried to hide behind a chair.

Mmmhmm. Just like his daughter she was. Seb had an urge to laugh and tell her that he knew why she hadn't come and visit him, but it appeared she didn't want him to know and he would go along with it. "Well I'm glad that you are working so hard." He wasn't trying to make her feel guilty. Well maybe he was just a little.

The mention of chocolate frogs brought a smile to his face though. "I like chocolate frogs and cauldron cakes. They're my favourite." Hint. Hint. "I look forward to your visit."

And hear he thought he had been talking quietly. Apparently not. Seb looked over to the fat lady's portrait and he gave her an apologetic smile. "Don't worry lovely lady, no one is going to steal you while we're around." He tossed her a wink before turning back to Leo, while thinking that they would need something rather large to be able to carry her portrait anywhere.

That sounded like a good idea and he was glad that the librarian had taken matters into his own hand because Seb had actually forgotten what that he was supposed to be sending a patronus to the herbology Professor. He stowed his wand away as Leo's silvery hawk took flight to find the Headmistress. "Good thinking." Glad someone was on the ball.

Seb glanced at the fat lady for a moment, hoping to see inside the common room but knowing that was just a futile effort. He returned his gaze back to Leo and raised his eyebrows. "That must be some impressive fishing pole." If that was the only thing stolen that is. "Was it gold plated or something." He chuckled before giving Leo a slap on the back. "I'm just kidding."

It probably wasn't the time for jokes but it didn't look like they were going to be able to solve this problem between the two of them. "The thing that worries me the most is how did the person or whatever it is get into the common rooms without a password?"

Sarah blinked that someone had finally noticed or at least said something about her being half dressed... "Yeah, I am!" She had not noticed? Perhaps maybe her nightgown did not look much of a night gown after all, and Lexi just recognized it because she knew that Sarah slept in it. "Are you sure I can borrow it?" Sarah said

"Well I always say that when something goes wrong in Hogwarts it only means one thing - Dark Magic". Well in most cases at least, barring Elijah taking off his top and things.

"Yeah, I sometimes go with my brothers. There is a trout farm near were we live and we go there, yet occasionally we fish by the brook near my house" she lived on a farm. "Don't worry, I have been so busy to fish, and it is much more fun when done with my brothers... alone it isn't much fun..." Sarah said.

Turning to the groundskeeper she said "I can try tell the password again if you want... " if the snakes are not around of course

For someone so young Sarah really had her head on her shoulders and she put words to what Leobald was thinking but not voicing. Trying to not worry he replied. "It could be dark magic or it could be just something simple and easy to fix." But he highly doubted it considering that all four common rooms had evicted their students at the same time.

"I completely agree fishing is something you should do in the company of other’s unless you need to clear your head." Which was what he had done last term and that had earned him a healer visit.

Hearing Sarah’s password offer Leo shook his head. #Thank you for that Sarah but I don’t think that will be necessary." There were still snakes around after all.

Leo was beginning to grow very fond of Seb but why did he feel the need to slap him on the back every so often? He didn’t mind it so much but it was odd. "Wh--? Oh right no it’s not a very impressive pole. No gold plates or anything like that it just holds sentimental value since it used to belong to my great grandfather George." Leo replied distractedly. And had been passed down from father to son for a few generations in the Kitridge family.

There was no time to respond to Seb’s next comment before a nundu patronus floated up to them and spoke in Headmistress voice. "Mr Kitridge and Mr Gibbons escort the lions to the Great Hall. I’ve made sleeping arrangements for all the houses there."

The nundu patronus evaporated on the spot as the Headmistress voice went silent. Glancing over at Seb he said "I guess we'll have to continue our detective work some other time but the only person(s) that could get into a common room without a password would be a ghost or a poltergeist." Otherwise the Fat Lady would have heard or seen something but she clearly hadn’t.

Turning to the lions still milling about in the cold corridor he said "Everyone, we are going to the Great Hall. You are all going to be camping out there for the night while we staffers try and figure out what is wrong and unlock the common rooms. Professor Bentley will be there to answer any questions and help you with sleeping bags and other necessities."
Waiting for the lions to group in front of him and form a line Leo hoped that the other staffers had found more clues then they had done.

After a good few hours of looking and asking around, Theodore found the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Which meant that he had to lurk right about here, without being caught by the portrait... This would be where she'd turn up, right?

Theo stood against the wall, all sassy-like. He was twirling a chocolate cupcake about in his hands. He was gonna use it to entice Penelope. A few Gryffindors had passed and gave him looks, but he was SURE that she would appear at some point.

He needed pee.

Even though it was probably useless, Penelope decided to stop by the Fat Lady's portrait and see if it would open today, or at least if it was close to opening or something. She'd really like to be able to use her common room again and sleep in the dorm bed. Not that she minded the sleeping bags in the Great Hall all that much, but still, sleeping on the floor certainly wasn't the same as in a bed, and sharing a room with hundreds of students was much different from sharing with only a few.

When she finally reached the portrait though, she spotted the Slytherin boy standing against the wall - Theo was his name, wasn't it? He was one of West's friends and played Quidditch, but that was all Penelope really knew about him.

"You need something?" she asked, curious. Did he have a friend he was waiting on or meeting here or something? And why did he have a cupcake?

Theodore shuddered slightly as he waited for Penelope to show up. The Gryffindor odor of this place was giving him the heeby-jeebies. Hearing a voice coming from the OPPOSITE way of his gaze, Theo turned around to darkly glare at the lion who disturbed him.

But oh, result - it was Penelope. So he beamed. "OH. Oh, I'm just waiting for my Gryffindor friend." Uhh, uhh... who was in Gryffindor that he knew? "Ali-ce Fischer. I am waiting for my friend Alice Fischer." Sounded legit. *sigh*

"I'm actually doing a fun activity. With Alice. We are gonna make paper hats for everyone in Gryffindor house. Do you want one? I'll just need to measure your head." He stepped closer to the girl, but waited for permission before he touched her hair.

The plan? STROKE, SNIFF, THEN RUN.

Oh, he was waiting for Alice? So he was one of Alice's friends too. Interesting. And...they were doing an activity to make paper hats for the Gryffindors? That was...very interesting. And random. But it sounded like something Alice would do, she supposed. Maybe she'd give them all big sticks too so they could whack things.

He had to measure her head though? Penelope raised an eyebrow slightly but then shrugged. "Okay." She didn't see any problems with it. Probably wouldn't take long anyway.

Okay?

Well, okay then. Theo blinked a couple of times, and before he knew it, he was stuck. "Well, I don't have any measuring tape so I'll use my hands." He nodded to himself. Nothing creepy about that. Theodore stroked his imaginary beard, then gently placed his hands around her whole head until his fingers were ALLLLLMOST touching. He pulled them back quickly and shook his head.

Next approach. This was it. He patted her head at first, then subtly glided his hand down her silky locks until he reached the very ends. It WAS soft... West would be so pleased.

"Oh, snap. You know, I think your head is just too big." Or small, whatever made her feel better. "No need to mention this to Alice." Or anyone for that matter. He bent forwards and SNIFFED hard before turning on his heel and dashing away.

SO SUBTLE. Like a mouse.

No measuring tape? Hm. Penelope hadn't really thought of that. Could they transfigure that cupcake into measuring tape? That'd be a waste of a cupcake though...and she couldn't be the one to do the transfiguring since she didn't even know the spell for it, and she wasn't sure if he did either. So maybe not.

He seemed to solve the problem anyway by deciding to use his hands. So she nodded and waited for him to start measuring...

...and this was an odd way to measure. Stroking or combing her hair was more like it. Um?

Her head was too big? "More like my hair is," she remarked. It was really long after all, and he clearly knew that since he'd run his hands down it. Seemed to her that he was more interested in that than her head really.

And then he SNIFFED it and...ran away. Penelope blinked once, trying to make sense of what had just happened...and then just shrugged.

Strange Slytherin.

Whatever she was doing before, it wasn't as important as receiving the message from the Headmistress for...whatever this was. Naturally, she almost assumed that anything having to do with the upper floors, well, there were indeed closer professors. Nevertheless, Medea hurried up the steps, two at a time becoming one at a time...and then...

She finally made it to the Gryffindor entrance, disliking stairs like never before.

The message sounded urgent. The charms professor had an inkling why it did too so with the front of her swooping dress in hand, so she could move faster up the stairs, she arrived slightly and only slightly out of breath. There was no sweat though, she had stopped to dab the little beads away.

Aho, so Medea was there already..well if they needed the both of them this must certainly be something serious.

She dropped the front of her dress letting it sweep the floor again and moved closer to Medea.

Her expression, clearly said..'explain.'

She supposed her Annex being destroyed had a lot to do with what was going on here as well.

Oh, so Sophia and Medea were there too? They really were in for something complicated, weren't they.

Isabelle had climbed so many flights of stairs, having started down in the Great Hall, that she was slightly flushed in the cheeks. Taking a few deep breathes, she nodded her head at the two women and mustered up enough breath to speak. "Medea, Sophia... Called into action too, I see."

This really was serious.

Anastasia was the last to arrive at the Fat Lady's portrait, arriving not LATE but ON TIME. The rule was that the party didn't start until the Headmistress walked in. All the others were just early.

And this was certainly not going to be a party. Pausing at the top of the stairs to catch her breath, the redhead beckoned the librarian to join the group of the female professors and then she herself joined the group.

"All right, staff," she planted herself firmly in front of the Fat Lady's portrait and stared the woman down. "We've got four locked common rooms and four of us, plus Mr. Kitridge if he joins us. We need to start firing off spell after spell until we blast this thing open."

As for the Fat Lady? "Madame," the Headmistress put on her best smile, "we might need to move you...." before she was damaged in action.

Leo had escorted the Gryffindor student's down to the Great Hall and Seren before he retreated back up to the Fat Lady's portrait again. Spotting Isabelle, Medea, Sophia and the headmistress already milling about in front of the fat lady he first hestitated about joining them.

They were the professor's after all not him.

But when the headmistress beckoned him over Leo strolled up to the group of ladies catching the tail end of the headmistress orders. Unholstering his wand he asked all the women, but mostly the headmistress. "Do we cast our spells all at once or one at a time?"

Would the walls make the spells bounce back at them?

Spinning on the spot, Isabelle nodded towards the Headmistress when she approached, in acknowledgement of her instructions, and gave a grin to Leo when he walked up behind to join them. Right. So that was five of them then. If they couldn't band together and get it done, then this really was a problem.

Flicking her wand out, Issy gripped it tightly in her right hand and and flexed her wrist. She looked across at Leo when he spoke, clearing her throat to make a suggestion. "I tried using a blasting spell down at the barrels, but it just rebounded off and hit a wall. We should certainly protect ourselves if we cast all at once."