Entrance Hall
 

http://www.snitchseeker.com/i/school/entrancehall.png


Welcome to Hogwarts! All guests and residents enter and leave the castle through Hogwarts' two great oak front doors. Once inside the Hall, you'll notice brightly polished floors, a majestic central staircase, large arched windows, and numerous doors and staircases leading off from the hall.

Take your time exploring this grand threshold.

On break now, so taking the opportunity to post. Alyssa will wait for others.
 

Alyssa walked into the Entrance Hall. She knew that she needed to start taking smaller steps, because she always ended up way ahead of the others. That was something that she needed to keep an eye on. But for now, she blamed her eagerness to see what the other House students had come up with, as the reason why she had arrived at the Entrance Hall first.

Alyssa was getting excited. All of them were now a step closer to solving the mystery as to who had taken the trophies. Until they knew who it was, she just couldn't believe that someone would have stolen them. Maybe someone had just 'borrowed' them to show it off to their friends.

One thing did bother her was the fact that none of the school staff seemed too overly concerned about their disappearance. Was that another clue?

'I guess we'll find out soon enough.' Alyssa thought to herself as she looked around and she waited for the others to join her.

Laura looked around to see who was already here, when she saw Alyssa she smiled and went and stood next to her, now all she had to do was wait for the others and hopefully then they could get to the bottom of what was going on.

Marching was hard worked which was why she gave up half way and decided to go back to walking like a Detective. Their way of getting around was much easier and required far less foot movement in anyone time. It was a good thing Vivi wasn't a Puffer or she'd have to pretend to be hard working which meant no complaining about the STAIRS she had to CLIMB back up to the ground floor. Whoever had the trophies had better know how to run fast if they found him/her/it/who cared???because she was gonna deck 'em for all her HARD WORK.

By the time she got to the Great Hall the half a smile she'd managed to maintain throughout the entire march was gone. It figures the Puffers would have beat them here and of all the Puffers Laura had to be there too. How disappointing. She gave a general scowl in her direction, not to start anything but because she didn't know where she stood with the girl. One second she was offering her candy and smiling then the next she was being rude. The girl was weird and Lex didn't have the time to figure her out; not with this super cool mystery going on.

Next she looked to the other puffer that was there, Alyssa. A much nicer girl. "Hey Alyssa!" BEAM. She looked around. Where was anybody else...?

"Are the other puffers coming soon?" They might have been like the lions who refused to run ahead but sugar was good and it was keeping her going so she got to be different OKAY?? When she thought about it...they were the only ones there...

Yeah...the others would be there soon. They had to...they had the other clue...

Alyssa smiled when she saw Alexa enter the Entrance hall and join both Laura and her. That meant that the other students would soon be arriving.

"Hi Lex. Yes the others are actually on their way here too. I just walk too fast and my strides are long. I'm surprised Laura was able to catch up with me." Alyssa smiled over at the younger badger.

"So the fact that you're here, most likely means that your house got your final puzzle too and came up with the same conclusion that we did. To meet up here, share what we each found and combine our efforts to solve the final piece of the puzzle." Those Lions had a pretty smart bunch of students too.

Sierra finally made her way off the last stair and stepped into the Entrance Hall. She'd climbed all the way down from the Astronomy Tower, and although she wasn't worn out, she was extra annoyed now. This thief was just leading them on a wild goose chase, and all the while, he or she was probably hiding in the shadows laughing their head off.

She turned the corner, half expecting to see the trophies just sitting there with the culprit standing in their midst. Instead, she was greeted with a room full of...Puffers?! So this is what she got from all her hard work?! The thief brought her to a room full of Puffers?! Oh, and one Gryffindor.

What luck...

"So I'm guessing you guys are following clues, too?" she asked them.

The minute people started moving, mainly her Prefect, Peyton followed them out. She wasn't too grumpy about the stairs this way around cos it was downhill and she didn't mind it as much as uphill. She had even hopped the last steps down, her bat still in her possession.

She caught up with Sierra and stood next to her, STARING at the people in front of her. Hufflepuffs. What were they doing here? Still searching for their gold? Weren't they supposed to be good finders and all that? Apparently, not.

Peyton glanced up at Sierra. Oooh, so...the clues might have led everyone here. School unity perhaps? Hmm. Clever. She glanced around and thought out loud, "No Ravenclaws?"

Oh, wait!

There was Lex and Laura! "Hi, Lex! Hi Laura!" she beamed with a high, finger-y wave.

She arrived a few minutes after the older girl at the Entrance hall and looked at the older girl whose name was Sierra and waited a few steps behind her. She had really no idea what they needed to do now and she hoped that nobody would ask her about her opinion. But when she looked around her and saw that the hall was filled with students she sighed. “Maybe are they hiding our trophy’s” muttered Sonea and looked suspiciously at the other students.

“Watch them all” said Sonea to Little princess and placed her rat on her shoulder. She didn’t thought that the trophy’s were here in this room because there were too much people, one of them would already have found them if they were here. She wondered if they would find more parchments with another riddle written on it.

Laura and Alyssa at the end.
 

Oakey walked down the stairs and gathered with the rest of the group that was forming in the Entrance Hall. So far it seemed to just be the Snakes, and his house plus Alexa Cambridge. "They aren't." Oakey said to the little first year Slytherin with the weird pink rat on her shoulder. In fact Alyssa, and Laura were supposed to head down with the group. At least they were eager to find out who took the Trophies. "They're with me, no need to be so watchful."

Now to head over to those two. "You two are really quick. Have you spotted anything here yet? Any sign of the Trophies?" Alyssa, and Laura both were able to find the second clue in the kitchen so maybe they found something here before he arrived.

Quoting just Oakey but sees Sierra and the rest xD
 

Alyssa's heart began to beat a little faster when more students began to arrive. Sierra and two Slytherins arrived and so did Oakey. This was good because the appearance of more students from the other houses meant that they were closer to finding the trophies.

"Hi Sierra. Yes we're following the clues too and I'm guessing you guys were told to come meet up with the rest of us here." Alyssa told Sierra while waiting for Oakey to join both Laura and her.

The moment he did, Alyssa leaned over to whisper in Oakey's ear, "No there's no sign of the trophies here but I don't think we're supposed to find them here. The last clue said that each of the house's had a word and that we're supposed to combine the words which will lead us to another part of the clue or maybe the hiding place of the trophies. Our letters form the word TO. I'm betting that the others have found letters that form other words too."

Speaking aloud to everyone, "I wonder where the Claws are? I'm sure they must have found the final clue by now. From what our last clue said, we're all supposed to work together to solve the final puzzle."

Christmas arrived at the entrance hall and saw Alexa had already arrived and there were several other students from other houses there as well and stood quietly beside Alexa

It bothered Alice that so many other people were here. Why WERE they here? Clutching tightly to the first clue from the trophy room, she gravitated to her other Gryffindors. Lex had one clue and Melanie had the other, right? "Why are there others here?" She glanced around in confusion, her eyes flicked to each face before landing on her lions again. "OUR clue lead to here. Maybe they're all lost." They could help point them in the right direction, maybe, but it was the GRYFFINDORS who were supposed to be there.

Right?

".. what if they took our next clue?" THOSE THIEVING SLYTHERINS. Hadn't it been a Slytherin that stole Selina's bat? Or the Hufflepuffs! It was THEM. "Why are you all here?" There were Puffers and Slytherins.. even a handful of Ravenclaws. She didn't know WHY, though.

See? It was things like this that had her thinking. Puffers were always so eager to do stuff. She was eager too but not to get stuff done. Nope. It was more to know the 'how's and 'why's of stuff which was what she was really looking for in this whole mystery. The 'who' was kinda important too but not really. That person still needed to get what was coming to them.

She nodded briefly at her question. "We did. It said to look for you guys as we figured we'd run into you guys up here." She looked around. She was actually expecting to see the Claws here first but that obviously wasn't how things were working out. Maybe they got lost...? "You guys were on a wild goose chase too, yes?" At least now she knew they weren't the only ones being given the run around. She felt better now.



HEY LOOK THE SNAKES!

Yet another house that had arrived before Ravenclaw. She was beginning to think the lot of them might really have been lost or something. "Uh-huh." To answer her questions. "Took us as far down as the dungeons before making us come back up." And the question asked by the Slytherin Prefect told her that the snakes had also been playing detective--just not as good as she was because she was being Detective!Vivi and that made all the difference in the world. Duh.

"What letter do you guys have?" Juuuust curious. They all had a letter on their parchment...didn't they...? Or was it only them...?



And Peyton was here too! Lex grinned over at her. "HAI!" So these were the snakes who were first on the scene. Most of them were probably just lagging behind, too lazy to do much else. If the clues took them all over then it would have taken them too and she didn't see them as the type to like all the extra exercise.

"I'm surprized I haven't seen any Claws either. Pffft and to think they're supposed to be the smart ones." They most likely still were but she just wanted to take this moment while she could and actually, she was now very amused because the thought of the Claws trudging around was kinda funny. They didn't strike her as hard working either.



Then there was a voice she didn't know. She turned and saw a girl...first year maybe saying something about them taking the trophies. If she wasn't already amused by all this stuff happening she would have been offended. How ruuuude. "We did not." Yeah, even though Oakey had spoken up she felt the need to say it herself. "We're looking for clues too." Then she stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out the Parchment she had found. "See?"

"I'll be watching you though." Because she liked watching things but also because the girl was thinking up theories and those never ended well. She wanted to see the disaster coming before it got there thank you very much.



Then Christmas got there. Lex beamed at her when she stood next to her. "Glad you could finally make it." She teased. "I think we just needed the Claws to get here then we can..." But she trailed off as the first Ravenclaw student showed up.



Dear sweet MERLIN! no wonder they all took so long to get there! Just look who they had heading the whole thing. Lex shook her head. It was a pity when all the brains had graduated from a house--especially a house meant to be smart--and left them with mindless idiots like the Ravvie Quidditch Captain. See, this is why Vivi shouldn't have left. More head shaking.

"Took you long enough to get here?" What'd you do? Forget how to read?



Blink. Blink. O.O

She looked over at Alice who had joined them by now when she went off about the others stealing their clue. Ummmm...well that wasn't exactly how it went..."Alice...the parchment told us to go looking for them and I'm guessing their parchments told them to do the same thing as well." Why else would they all end up here? Coincidences happened but not so often. Not really anyway.

She looked at everyone present before turning her attention to her fully again. "I think we might need to their clues so we'll have to be nice or something." She couldn't resist the face she made after saying that.

The blonde had made her way from the library to the entrance hall slowly, knowing they'd need to wait for the other houses to show up before they could put together all their clues. No use rushing if they were going to be waiting on people, yeah? Yeah.

Too many people. There were just too many people here and Ella knew that there was going to be some butting of heads. That was always the way with strong personalities, yeah? Everyone wanted to be the leader. The blonde frowned slightly at the thought of possible arguing and took a seat on the staircase, flipping through her notepad.

Time for some doodling? Yes, Siree.

Not going to quote cuz it will be a nightmare xD Waits for Oakey to reveal the clue
 

Alyssa watched as more students showed up, including some Ravenclaws. 'Good we have representatives from each house here. Now we're getting somewhere.' she thought to herself wondering where her other house mates were.

She looked at Alice as she asked why they were all there. "Well the last clue told us to be here and we all interpreted it as saying that we needed to share our clues with the rest of you and combine all our efforts in order to find the next clue. So that's why we're here." Alyssa explained to Alice.

Then she turned back to the some of the others who seemed to be suspicious of each other. "Hey look, none of us stole the trophies. If we did, would we be helping to look for it? I know that it's hard but we need to stop suspecting each other and start working on figuring out the next part of the clue. We are ready to share our piece of the puzzle. Is anyone else going to do the same?" Alyssa asked the other house members.

She looked at Oakey. "It's all yours dude."

Sky had followed her prefect and housemates down to the Entrance Hall, of course. Only, what she expected to see wasn't what she saw. At all. Nope, instead of the trophies it was two of the other houses. Er..... bunch of Hufflepuffs and a Gryffindor, anyway. So, what? Were they supposed to team up with the other houses now? And where were the Ravenclaws? Had they just decided this whole thing was pointless and gone back to their common room?

One thing she knew though. She was going to let Sierra question the other houses. She seemed to be better at it than herself.

She got left behind again. Meh. But not this time, for here she was running just a little bit behind their Captain. How she was able to catch up was beyond self explanation for when she arrived at the Whomping Willow, her housemates were gone, but she saw the note and followed what was written on it. Smart move, that note.

When he stopped, she did too and that's when she noticed the crowd.

They were ALL here. Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws and Slytherins. Hmm.........

Beezus edged closer to Milton. "I think this where the "No longer can you do this alone, You need some others to get into the zone." part of the last clue comes in?" She suggested.

Hiiiiiiiiiii Sierra.

"We did! It looks like we have to work altogether from now on." She told the she-snake.

Then Alyssa spoke up.

Suspecting each other? Really? So far, her eagles haven't been throwing suspicious looks at each other. Nope, they all trusted each other. "I don't think any of us here..." She send glances to each one of them present there. "...would take the trophies. It's school property so hiding them would basically mean a date with Professor Lafay at the dungeons. So, I agree with Lyssie."

Biting her bottom lip, she said...""A word you all hold and when later combined will give the location you must find," the Ravenclaws had that passage on our last clue. So..." The brunnete's forehead creased as she began thinking. A word? A word that each of them had? Each house was holding?

The further they walked, the more Mo was sure that the clue was actually leading them to the Great Hall. It said first two doors and then another and it talked about what was obviously FOOD. That was the Great Hall. Only, as soon as they made it into the Entrance Hall, everyone was there.

They'd all been fooled by the clue. It must be so hard not to be smart as a Ravenclaw.

"Our word is THE," Mo announced as he nearly ran right over Beezus in his haste to report on their findings. People were talking about sharing their words, right? And their word was obviously THE. "What other words are there?"

lol Alexa (also, mention of Beezus and Mo and Milton)
 

Snakes
 

She was still looking suspicious around her when somebody spoke to her and told her that everyone was looking her for the same thing, the trophy’s. A few minutes later gain she saw a student from a other house and the girl showed her a parchment who was different than the ones she had saw in the hands from her own housemates. And this girl again said her that everyone here was searching for the trophy’s. But she was not sure if she could believe the students who were talking to her, one of them was a student from Hufflepuff and the other student was from Gryffindor, and because she was still new here on Hogwarts and didn’t knew much students from the other houses, she remained cautious till some of the students from HER house were telling her that she didn’t needed to be suspicious. She could trust the students from her own house, she was sure of that!

But if she stayed here, away from the others she could not hear what was going on and she decided to stay closer to her housemates. It was not difficult for her to find the Snakes here in this room, they were probably the only worthy people in this room and concentrated on what they were saying. “T-H-U” mumbled Sonea and thought about what those letters could mean. “Do we knew what the letters are from the other houses?”

Everyone and Alexa...
 

Now this was just tiring ok. They practically went from east to west....not odessa but west the direction. Anyway, she now was pretty ticked off at whoever set this up. Why not place all the clues at the same place and like on the same parchment. The snake dragged her feet down from the observatory which was a loong walk!

Following her house-mates she noticed that they had gone ahead of her while she was shuffling. Ehh...She got tired ok. Picking up her pace, Cassia made it to the entrance hall kinda panting. She paused sucking in breath then she walked further in and she blinked..

Woow..A lot of srudents..

She searched the faces and smiled at whom she liked, ignored the one she didn't like and looked for her friends. OH LOOKIT IT'S LEX. Cassia waved enthusiastically at her bestie. "Hey Lexa," She called over. The trophies can wait she had to greet her lioness first.

Paying attention to what the students were talking about, Cassia picked up a couple of words and processed them. It was obvious that the other houses had been solving clues and moving from place to another as well.

"Umm...We got T-H-U..Maybe it's some kind of a message. " She said looking at the faces around her. "Could it be HUT..Or UHT" But 'thu' and 'uht' meant nothing. Not that hut meant a lot but it IS a word at least.

What did the other houses get again? She tried picking up some words since it was like chaos here. But in a good way.

Everyone and Penelope
 

Really? Accusing each other of taking the trophies was kind of silly, yeah? Ella shook her head and continued doodling the Quidditch Cup. That was until someone joined her.

"Hi Penelope," the fifteen year old replied, smiling back. She shrugged at the question, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I just figured I'd wait until everyone arrived, is all. Besides, I don't like trying to talk over people. It seems a bit silly." And she looked over at the mass of students now crowded around.

"Looks like someone from each house is here now. Want to go see what they've found?" And she she smiled a little, standing up. She was quite curious to see what other words had been uncovered.

...

THE and HUT? Hmmm..."We found TO..." BLINK. "What if...What if it's Professor Newlin's office? That could be described as sort of a hut, yeah?"

No quotes
 

What? What did she mean it was all his? He wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't the one with the clues. "Alyssa you've got one of the clues, if you're asking me to handle it from here. I'm gonna need it."

Oakey listened in on everyone, including Ella who had somehow sneaked her way into the large group of students, and told them all what their clues spelled out when combined together. Guess he didn't need Alyssa's clue to figure this out. "So We have 'To', the Snakes have 'Hut', and the Claws got 'The'." Oakey looked around at any of the Lions that were present hoping one of them will chime in to reveal their clues, although he was pretty sure where it was telling them to go.

No quotes either :P
 

Okay so now they were all here. Time to figure this thing out...or attempt to seeing as the smartest among them were being led by an idiot. The indignity of it all still got to her. She looked over curiously at Kendall when she spoke. Whomping Willow? "No far! Why couldn't we have gotten to go there instead of the dingy dungeons?" She rather liked that tree. It was her friend. Yup. It totally was. "But that doesn't excuse him because he's an athlete so he should be fast." And even if that wasn't the case it still was because well, it was Milton, duh.

OH AND CASSIA!!! "HAI!!!" She gave her bestie an enthusiastic waaaave. That's what bestfriends got when you greeted them. They got hugs too but not this time on account of she had to remain serious and stuff. Detective!Vivi wouldn't get distracted for hugging. Nope. So she set her attention to the people talking about their letters and the words they spelt.

That was pretty neat but they didn't make much sense.

"We got 'O' then 'G'...but...og isn't a word, I should know." Cue a very proud nod because she had a smart moment. Everyoone knew that that wasn't a word. "So...um...og...--"

...

O__O

OHHHHHHHHHHHH!! "GO! It's go!!!!" Even SMARTER moment! Heh. "Okay so let's see....To...The...Hut and Go. Go to the hut!! That's it! Guys! The hut!!!....The Groundskeeper's Hut most likely. Come onnnnnnnn!" And she was now bouncing again. When they got there a certain Not Shiny Groundskeeper would have some explaining to do.

Everyoneeeee :3
 

Huh.

When Kat arrived at the Entrance Hall, it seemed like EVERYONE was there. So every house did get to hunt for a single parchment and find out to get another parchment? Is that even...? Ugh. Whoever was pranking them was obviously being stupid. He or she was messing with all the students in this school. Now what would Headmistress Pink say about these hmm? Kat was wondering what the heck was happening around Hogwarts these days. It's unpredictable, and totally not fun. Who wanted to search the entire school for a parchment with nothing but a clue to where you could find the other parchment? Certainly not Kat. The energy would be more useful if it was for Quidditch. Wrong decisions for this mystery creeper. Right, for everyone. "Hello."

The first thing she then heard was Alexa screaming. Go to the hut. Say what? Kat had just arrived with her search group and now they were instructed to go to another place? Tiring maybe. The blonde sighed. Should they go? Yeah. If she wanted all of this things to end now, she had to go there now. And yes, the Groundskeeper Firth had some explaining to do actually.

Really, he should have just stayed here. Not that he'd known that here was were he needed to be. But it would have saved the wasted journey to the Whomping Willow. At least Eliza had been kind enough to tell him though, and left a notes for others that might have been even more unfortunate than him in being waylaid. She was a good 'Claw, that one.

His stomach growled, and he looked down at it sheepishly. It had been a LONG time since breakfast, and he took a licorice wand from his pocket and sucked on it as he eavesdropped on the various conversations going on. He'd barely had chance to read the clue, let alone digest why they were all meeting here, so he just lent back against the wall and lightly tapped a foot.

Yum. Licorice wards really were the best.

One point did get his attention though. "How many other huts are there?" he threw out there. Mr. Firth's hut was certainly the first hut that came to his mind. Though what that had to do with missing trophies was anyone's guess.

The groundskeeper wouldn't have stolen the trophies, would he?

...you mean they had to work together?!

BLAHHH. Didn't that just sound like the PUFFER thing to do. What was wrong with a good, old-fashioned race to the top, hmm?! That was more up her alley than a group project. She frowned in disapproval as she looked around. Lions. Badgers. Eagles. Snakes. Oh, my!

There were mutterings here and there, some of which Sierra made out, until finally she heard Alexa over the crowd of people.

GO TO THE HUT?!

You mean this whole crazy hunt ended with a trip to the HOT GROUNDSKEEPER?! Oh, happy day!

"Go to the hut," she said, nodding at Alexa. "That makes sense now. So we followed all those clues...to gather letters...that mean for us to go to the hut." She shrugged. "Well? What are we waiting for? Let's head for the hut then!"

Sorry guys
 

Laura was just standing there, waiting to see what was going on, she was a bit nervous with all the other students around and the look the mean Slytherin Girl gave her, made her shuffle behind Ella, she wasn't going to come back out until it was safe.

Christmas just stood and waited for some of the other students to make a move but she was a bit scared

Too many to quote, so no :P Everyone.... Also, *kicks Peeves*
 

So, going to the hut, then? Which meant that the groundskeeper was behind this. Seemed a little weird, since Sky was pretty sure his eccentricness ran about as far as his brogue. But whatever. She could do with a bit of fresh air anyway. And the fact that the other houses were there didn't bother her as much as it seemed to bother some of the others in the Hall. Just meant that she wouldn't have to speak up and explain things when they all suddenly showed up at Mr. Firth's door.

Speaking of which........

"Let's go!" she agreed, starting that way.

Hey SNAKIES, LEMME FOLLOW U
 

The dungeons were pretty cool if Edita had to gloat. They had cool stone walls and a cool fireplace to match and awesome looking colors but it was true that it could get pretty freaking boring in there. A lot of her housemates were too busy looking like they had something stinky under their nose (Eddie would wage it was their own dirty underwear) than talking and being entertaining. There was a portion though, that seemed that were up to something secretive and had left the common room in what they thought was a discrete manner.

It was good thing that Edita had an inquisitive mind and sharp instincts and she could smell an adventure from miles away.

She had sneaked up on the older students as they discussed clues--words on pieces of parchment--out loud and got the gist of it. There was also some other talk from what looked like Ravenclaws and Eddie just rolled her eyes at them. They sure talked a lot. She would know. Her friend was one.

"Go on, then," she whispered from behind a particularly tall (taller than her) student. "Let me follow you."

As Cassia stood among the many students she couldn't help not remember the last time so many random students got together and discussed. Yup, the deadly, vicious plant that gulped down two professors. Why does it always seem that only Cassia remembers this. The third year couldn't that memory off her mind. She hoped to though.

Back to the clues..

The snake walked over to where Lex was standing and telling the Gryffindor's clue. OG..There was no such word, Cassia wanted to point that out but then Lex figured it out that it was GO. Wow, smart. Was Lex part Ravenclaw or something? "That's smart, Lexa." Cassia said with an approving grin of hers. Because her opinion mattered. A lot.

So to the Hut they were headed. The thirteen-years old rubbed her hands together excitedly. They were going out to the grounds so it must be interesting and cool and stuff. Or it better be! Because Cassia didn't like the idea of having spent her time solving gathering and solving clues around. Not that she solved them all but still, her presence must have helped solving clues. Because she was that important.

Hearing the prefects say it was time to head out, Cassia took a step forwards and the step developed into a bounce as she got startled by a voice from behind her. Spinning around, Cassia blinked down at the little girl. Cassia liked those because they made her feel tall and old. "Here's a tip," She started, "Don't sneak behind people because they might have awesome fast reflexes like me and hex you thinking you're a threat." Which wasn't very true, since Cassia's first thought was to flee. The little girl didn't have to know that. "Sure you can follow me," She grinned feeling important. "I'm Cassia. Who's you?" The girl did have a name, right?

Alyssa was surprised when she heard the clues. Go to the Hut. The only huts she knew that were on the school grounds was the Groundskeeper and Professor Newlin's, but it seemed that everyone had already concluded that it was the Groundskeeper's.

They were all ready to go out there and confront him of taking the trophies but Alyssa paused and tried to speak to all of them before they headed out.

"Everybody please wait!! We all agree that the clue leads to a hut, and we have concluded that it's the Groundskeeper. But we just can't march up there like a lynch mob and accuse him of taking the trophies without proof. What are we going to say? Oh we know it's you because we got these clues from parchments that appeared out of nowhere that pointed us to his direction?" Alyssa told everyone. She hoped that there were still some of the students waiting to leave to hear her.

"People we need to have and show proof. These parchments aren't just enough. Besides has anyone thought about who sent them? Could it be the same someone who wants us to blame the Groundskeeper? Remember he is still the groundskeeper and deserves our respect." Alyssa tried to reason with other students.

Mo frowned at all the hurry-up-and-waiting and stomped his feet impatiently. "No one is accusing anyone of anything. The clues lead us to the hut, which is probably where the next clue will be located. I don't suppose at all that just 'cause we had to go to the Willow, that means a dumb ol' tree snuck into the castle and stole from us," Mo argued.

Logic. Ravenclaws had it. They were lucky the 'Claws were attending this party. "So that's to say that I'm gonna go to the hut and look around. I think I need at least one person from each house to come too, but I don't need everyone if some of you want to stick around and do other stuff."

He turned and headed for the doors leading back outside, not worrying much whether or not anyone followed.

Sarah had been watching the proceeding with a look of bemusement on her face. It allfitted together now. Yet was the gameskeeper hut the only hut in hogwarts? That was what Sarah remembered. "Wait Alyssa- i don;t think the gameskeeper took it. I like to judge people favourably and all. Yet I am sure if we go there we will see." Yeah accusing people was against Sarah';s policy of only thinking the best of people. It was hard especially when in came to Lafay and Bellaire yet one had to. Sarah quite liked the idea of digging for treasure in the dirt outside his hut.

"Anyway, talking about pumpkins doesn't make them grow, so lets go to the hut and take it from there... go with the flow and besides we can discuss while we walk. Thinking while standing still is a waste of time" said the Sarah who always liked to be on the move.

Then Mo began heading for the door and Sarah was quite relieved. Another person after her own heart! So she began to follow him too

"We're not going to blame the groundskeeper," Sierra pointed out. "We're just going to the hut, like the clues tell us to. We don't even have to involve the groundskeeper unless he's just there and wants to help out." It would be a plus, though, to have Hottie Groundskeeper at the hut when they got there. At that point, it's be 'Clues? What clues?' as far as Sierra was concerned. She'd just strike up conversation with Firth and let the rest of them worry about the awards.

Spotting some Ravenclaw boy heading for the exit, Sierra turned and followed him. He had the right idea--head for the hut. Sierra also hoped the culprit was there. She'd been wanting a face-off with him or her since that very first clue was dropped.

Why were they all still standing around like they hadn't just heard her shouting that they had to go to the hut and find those trophies??? Merlin, you'd think the whole lot of them were Ravenclaws. Having to think things through, pfffft, lame.

She tried listening to them debate about the whole thing, well actually they were on board. It was Alyssa who thought differently. Honestly, she expected better. Only Ravenclaws were meant to look into things which wasn't really happening seeing as Mo was throwing a tantrum--yes that's what it looked like from this side of the hall--and he left. He was a Ravenclaw and he wasn't giving it much thought. Good enough for her.

"I agree with Mo! We don't know who has the trophies but we've been following the clues so far. Why stop now? This could be the final one and I don't wanna stand around thinking of ways to be polite to the Ground's Keeper." No offense but that didn't sound very fun and it didn't sound like the Gryffindor thing to do either so guess who was exempt from all that. That's right. THIS girl!

"I'm coming too!" Announced. It was better than staying here and pretending to be a 'Claw. Oh but before she left. "Thanks Cassia! I've been having smart moments all day! I'm being Detective!Vivi until this mysteries over. You should come too."

Then she bolted after the upset Claw that was acting more like a Gryffindor. Good stuff.

While more students piled around, Peyton tapped her hand on her side, impatiently. She really just wanted to know who took everyone's trophies, give them a good whack upside the head, eat sugar buns and call it a day. Was that too much to ask? She stuck her hand inside her pocket and a slow grin stretched her lips.

Oooh!

There was a lone gummy bear from earlier in her pocket. She popped it into her mouth, then paused. Yep, still good.

It was when there was a lot more talking that she glanced around. Clues. Letters. To the hut? Putting the pieces together as she listened, Peyton was ready to bolt out of there and go to the next place. But there was lots of jabbering. Until a Ravenclaw boy spoke up. Yes! They should go now! But it wasn't him Peyton followed. She walked right after her Prefect.

Let's get this done, yeah? YEAH!

Oh? Well, that made sense Penelope supposed, so she nodded. Trying to talk over people was a bit silly, but sometimes it could be fun. At least when Penelope found it necessary to get a point across. Right now wasn't one of those times however. She was perfectly fine with letting the others do the work of figuring out the clues. The clues weren't that complicated or long, so they probably didn't need her anyway, but she'd decided since the first clue that she wanted to find the trophies, so she'd stuck around anyway.

But yeah, maybe it was about time to see what everyone else was figuring out so she'd know where they were going. "Sure," she answered Ella with another nod, getting up and walking back over to the group.

And it seemed they'd all decided they were going to a hut? Professor Newlin's or...the Groundskeeper's? Sounded fine to her. She wasn't sure why people were making a big deal about accusing others, especially the groundskeeper. She was pretty sure the clues hadn't said anything about who was behind it, only where to go. So no big deal.

Anyway.

Off to the hut we go!

Sorry should have phrased myself better
 

Alyssa began to shake her head when the students began to say that only she was accusing the groundskeeper of taking the trophies.

"No No you've got me wrong. I'm just saying that I agree with everybody that the hut being mentioned could be the groundkeeper, even though there's more than one hut on the grounds. I'm not saying that he is the culprit. I'm just saying that we should be careful how we approach going there to search the place. We can't make it seem like we think that we are accusing him when we all know that it might not be him." Alyssa tried to clarify her stand.

"I like Sierra's approach...and Mo's." Alyssa told everyone before sighing in defeat. 'Okay let everyone think that I was accusing Mr. Firth. I'm done thinking what people think about what I think anyway. Alyssa, it is time to let others do the talking and you keep your thoughts to yourself. Legwork is what you do best anyway. ' she thought to herself as she followed the others out the door.

eep sorry for the lateness but peeves was everywhere on SS
 

Edita blinked as an initial response, one of her hands inside her robes as she fingered her inside pockets blindly for her wand. "Good tip," responded the brunette, side-stepping around the girl whose name she now knew to be Cassia. "I'll remember it, thanks. I'm Edita but everyone just calls me Ed or Eddie. That works too." There was also her last name but she was distracted by movement. "We better go if we want to find out what is going here."

Edita had her doubts, she just wanted to know where the trophies belonging to past members of her house were.

Tis okaay *pokes peeves* :(
 

The third-year's ego got boosted up hugely. Not a good thing at all. "I give the greatest tips." She nodded thoughtfully at the girl. "I like Eddie. And welcome. Though this tip is exclusive for Slytherin students. And cool ones." She added. Cassia took it on her conscience to enlighten the girl about cool people and un-cool ones. All Snakes should. Glancing around at upset Mo and Lex who obviously couldn't wait to get out and head to the Hut, Cassia turned to Eddie, "Yes. Let's go see about those missing trophies." She said motioning with her hand.

And so she started following the others. Did Eddie follow?

Mo's first stop was sort of a no-brainer. If he had to think of a place that had the most portraits to jab with his wand, it was definitely the Entrance Hall. The walls were lined with old men and women in funny dresses and a large number of very hilarious hats. Mo started near the bottom of the Grand Staircase, tapping carefully against the canvas as the professor had demonstrated.

And it did not appear that an inhabited canvas particularly cared for the poking. "Sorry," he mumbled before moving on to pokepokepoke at another portrait.

She was on a hunt for the portrait that liked being tapped. It was a refreshing change to the other portraits in this place. They didn't like getting tapped very often, in fact some of them had the nerve to argue with you when you did take the time to show some interest by tapping. They should have been grateful anyone decided to drop by them for a bit.

Annnnyyyways, Her first stop after leaving the Great Hall was the Entrance Hall. Why? Simple. It was the closest so there wouldn't be much walking.

After getting there she realized someone had already beat her to the portraits. She skipped over to him, mid-tap, and stared at the portrait hoping something cool would happen. When nothing did happen she decided to speak up. "Well that one was a bust. Just how many have you tried so far?" Because yes, Mo, she was talking to you, not the portrait behind you...although...she might have been talking to them too if he wasn't there...

"I've tried a few," Mo admitted, putting his hands on his hips before heading over to poke poke poke another portrait. "But this place doesn't really make sense, does it? He said somewhere more unpopulated, and everyone in the school walks through here every day."

Still, he jabbed at another portrait just in case. "So a portrait in a lonely room. Use for emergencies... so would people be exiting from higher up and coming out through here? Or exiting here and hiding out somewhere safer in the castle?"

Lex thought about what he'd just said for a moment. She was understanding what he was saying at first...but then he started doing that thing where he acted like a metaphor. Everyone knew she wasn't good with those. So she just gave a slow nod and answered what she could make sense of. "This place isn't unpopulated at all. I walk through here all the time and there's usually heaps of people just lounging around or going some place else."

As for the other part, she was going to answer to what she understood of his trick question. "It isn't safe either." Did that answer the question? She gave it a bit more thought. "If I was running from something I wouldn't choose here, I'd go deeper into the castle..." Hey, would you look at that, she did answered the question...sort of...that's what he was asking right?

Yeah, maybe she'd just say what she was thinking and hope he picked an answer from it. "The way I see it, we're looking for someplace that most people probably wouldn't even know about, you know because he said it's not a very populated area. Usually areas like that are out of the way and don't run across people's minds often...where do we know fits that that description?" Then again, if it hardly crossed people's minds, how would they think of it? Hmmmm...

"No, exactly. This place is all wrong. But if you think that people would be running FROM the Great Hall to a place deeper into the castle, then we need to find a nearly deserted place near the top of the castle." Mo scrubbed at his hair briefly before nodding. "I have some thoughts. You can follow me if you want."

He raced up the Grand Staircase into the castle.

Why the top of the castle? What ever happened to the nice snug and cozy room on the floor they were currently on so they wouldn't have to go bounding up staircase after staircase? He was a Ravenclaw, he had to know the distance between the top of the castle and where they were currently standing, yet, he was gone.

"Hey wait up!" He said she could follow then he ran off. Didn't he remember that she had shorter legs than him and couldn't climb as fast? How ruuuuude--

Already half way up the stairs! The boy was quick! Not wanting to waste anymore time she bolted after him. Ugh. She'd need a chocolate frog or three when this was all over.

Muggle Studies Lesson#2 Homework: Post 1
 

The moment Alyssa reached the bottom of the staircase after leaving the Muggle Studies lesson, she walked over to a less busy area of the Entrance Hall, unrolled her campaign poster and placed it on the floor.

First she had to make 4 additional copies of the poster. She had remembered seeing her father use the duplicating spell to make duplicates of some documents he had wanted to send to various places. The spell incantation was Geminio and the wand movement was just a tap on the object.

So Alyssa took out her wand, tapped the poster and cast the duplicating charm, saying,"Geminio". She watched as the poster duplicated itself, with one poster splitting itself from the original. Now she had two posters. Alyssa touched her original poster again and it duplicated again. Now she had three. She touched it again, and now she had another one, which made that four posters. Touching the poster another two more times, she watched as another poster split from the original, which gave her a total of five and then six posters. She quickly ended the spell saying, "Finite" to prevent the poster, or any of the others, from accidentally duplicating even more.

Now that she had five posters lying on the floor, Alyssa picked up four of them and rolled them up before stuffing them into her backpack. Picking up the fifth one, she walked over to an empty space on the wall and holding it up with one hand, Alyssa pointed her wand at it and said, "Adhaero" sticking the poster to the wall.

Alyssa had chosen the Entrance Hall because this was one of the busiest places in the school. Almost everyone in the school walked through this hall many times a day, and that was what she needed. The more people who saw this poster, the chances of more people voting for her candidate was higher. Now that she had hung up her first poster, Alyssa headed down the staircase leading to the floors below.

post 3
 

Laura decided that this would be the perfect place to have poster number 3, she knew that loads of people would use this hall daily which meant that more people would see it, she looked around for the perfect spot and once she found it she realized just how lucky she was, she took out her wand and pointed it at the poster "Geminio!" Laura took the copy of the poster and then she went over to the wall and stuck it up.