Nerida smirked as she came by The Fat Lady's portrait. She wasn't a Gryffindor, she was kinda wondering if she would snap at her. Her brother told her that she had done that to him once...Then again her brother was a bad boy. Nerida gripped her wand and then took hold of the vacuum and then jabbed her wand at the vacuum and said "Vacavus," With a loud vrommm the vacuum came to life. She sucked up the dirt and gunk that was on the floor and in the corners and then slid it up against the wall and against the frame, she didn't want to go against the actual picture due to her being afraid of what the Fat Lady might do..."There you go," she muttered mostly to herself.

After exiting the Gryffindor Common room and making past the turnstiles, Melanie stared at the area around the portrait entrance. Her wand was out and she was still singing with the vacuum cleaner floating behind her. Yes, she was now quite fond of this levitating spell. It just proved how she didn't necessarily need upper body strength to carry it or someone (like a dude) to carry it for her. Because Melanie, she was an independent young lady who would be an adult in less than a year. That was also the reason why she was singing the song she was now.

"I don’t want to spend my parent’s allowance as my own, I’m too old for that," she sang, lowering the vacuum cleaner and giving a little wave to the Fat Lady in her portrait. Melanie stopped singing to greet her before resuming and trying her best to not be rude the lady in the portrait. She understood that the Fat Lady may just be bored sitting the portrait and watching the entrance. She probably didn't get many bathroom breaks or much company which meant she probably didn't have many people to talk to.

And Melanie tried not to think about that because it'd nag at the back of her mind, telling her to stop singing and start to have a conversation with the poor lady. "Isn’t it a given to not be burdensome to them? That is why I am proud of myself," Melanie sang, a little more quietly now, because if she sang too loud then the Fat Lady might not appreciate it. OH. Or the two could sing together though she wasn't all too sure how the portrait would feel about it. Melanie lifted the hose of the vacuum. "Miss, I'm just going to do some vacuuming now," Melanie said, tapping her wand against the hole and saying "Vacavus."

The sixteen-year-old girl started to suck up the dust around her and anything else that was there. Whether it was crumbs from an old snack long time ago or dirt from a trek through the greenhouses, the vacuum sucked it all up. "Boy don’t say... I’ll take care of you, I’ll cherish you... no... no," Melanie sang, allowing the hose to go under the portrait. It must be very dirty around the portrait with the house elves not dusting and all that. Which meant it was up to Melanie to do it. She felt like a little superhero, honestly. She had a superpower now - cleaning and it was up to her to make sure it was dust free. That made her giggle to herself and stop singing before giving a giant smile to the Fat Lady. She wondered if vacuuming around the portrait tickled the lady... probably not but that would've been interesting.

Resuming her singing, Melanie also resumed her homework-ing and cleaning.

This seemed like a good place to start vacuuming. Probably inside the common room too. And the dorms. But Penelope wasn't gonna go in there just yet. Right now she was just gonna focus on this entrance to the common room here.

Having levitated the vacuum from Professor Flamsteed's office (because she was NOT carrying or dragging this thing all around the castle when levitating it was much easier and required less effort, even for her who typically failed at spells and avoided using them), she set it down a few feet from the Fat Lady's portrait. The corners and edges where the walls met the floor seemed a bit dusty, didn't they? She would fix that.

Penelope picked up the hose thing and tapped it with her wand. "Vacavus." Then she guided it along the edges of the walls, making sure to suck up all the dust and lint and hair and...whatever else was there that was dirty and not important.

It was funny how people expected beaters to have at least some upper body strength, and it was even funnier how Alice had none. Levitating spells, she had decided, were for people with puny arms, and while she was completely convinced that her non-existent biceps existed, she had to resort to using magic to get the vacuum to move anywhere. At all. It was rather disappointing and disheartening, but she would work on it later.

Right now, though, she had sucking to do.

"I'm here," she announced to the world, also known as Penelope, when she arrived, setting the Muggle slurper down a few feet away from the Fat Lady's portrait. "Once we're done here, want to go up and work on the dorms?" Alice picked up the hose and tapped her wand against it, looking at it expectantly. "Vacuumus." Wait, that wasn't it, was it? Had she forgotten the incantation already?

Well. Well yeah. She had. So Alice was going to just.. rattle off random words until one worked. "I mean, um, Vavavus. Wait, don't tell me. Vamavus. Vacavus. Vana- oh, got it." Her hands maneuvered the hose thing, which had started sucking, around the rim of the portrait hole.

Cleaning with these things was really boring...when you were alone, that is. So it was a good thing she'd arranged to work on this with Alice, and her friend showed up right then.

"I see that." That she was here. Penelope glanced over her shoulder from where she was bent over, sucking the dust in the corners up with the vacuum hose. And it seemed Alice had the same thought she had just moments ago. "Yeah, we could do that. And maybe the common room too?" Both were still pretty bad, after all. It would require a knut to get in, but fortunately, she had a knut in her pocket she could spare.

It seemed Alice had forgotten the incantation...and Penelope would've helped her out, but she said not to tell, so the fourth year went back to her cleaning...until it seemed to have stopped? What in Merlin.... Really?

"Vacavus," she said right after Alice did, tapping her hose again so that the sucking started again. She finished off the rest of the wall and moved on to the next one, finishing that one quickly so her spell wouldn't wear off again.

"The common room, too. That one's just as dirty. We'll have to go under the beds, too, the bottom of mine is filthy." Penelope wasn't going to ask why Alice knew how dirty it was below her four-poster, right? Because it wasn't like she kept boxes of important things under there and checked them every so often for reasons. Obviously. She obviously did not do that.

When her hose stopped working again, she tapped it with her wand once more. "Vacavus." The portrait looked clean enough, so she followed Penelope to the walls and started doing the edge of another one, attempting to go slowly and get all the junk (the hair, the dirt, the dust, the insects, etc.) before her vacuum stopped working again. Which it did pretty quickly. How often did she need to cast that spell, honestly?

"Done now?" Alice tried picking up the vacuum again, straining her non-existent muscles non-existentially until she couldn't anymore, giving up and levitating the thing again. "Pepper Imps," she told the Fat Lady, waiting for the portrait to swing open again and making her way into the common room.

Domestic Anya continued to wander around the castle looking for things to clean. While she did, she couldn't help but admire how clever it was to use this to help clean up the castle.

The Professor deserved a gold star. You know... if Hogwarts could afford any.

Anyway... Anya thought a good place to end her cleaning spree was at the entrance to her common room. She spied Alice and Penne... so she decided to cover the far end of the hall. She wasn't in the mood to socialize. Oooh... but she was in the mood for ice cream. She would need to reward herself for a job well done soon.

She tapped her vacuum hose with her wand and cast "Vacavus." She then ran the hose down the hall along the edge (where the dust had gathered). She then did the same thing down the other side of the hall. She smiled at how well the area where the floor met the wall looked.

She then turned on her heel and headed to turn her vacuum in. She'd let someone else handle the middle of the floor.

Mildly out of breath, Alistaire Firth arrived at the Fat Lady's portrait. He was checking to make sure students weren't loitering to gossip but were actually getting back to bed as instructed. Between Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, he figured it more likely that those in his former house wouldn't honor the Headmistress's wishes. So he had come here first.

Listening carefully, he waited to see if any conversations would reach his ears. However, he was pleased to find that the Lions seemed to have at least moved their discussions into their common room. Good. I've had enough excitement for one night. Now it was off to check Ravenclaw House.

SO MANY JEWELS!!!!!!

She had no idea when she was feeding her pockets with them that they'd be so many! Really, her pockets DID feel heavier but she never expected soooo many. Hiding behind that statue and counting them off with Aidan had lifted her spirit majorly and now she couldn't remove the grin.

SO MANY!!

Lex took cautious steps as she headed to her Common Room after saying goodnight to Aidan. Every sound she heard had her ducking or running and she was about to run into the corridor that housed the entrance to the Gryffindor Common Room and the Fat Lady's Portrait when she heard another set of steps. Carefully she peered around the corner and saw Mr.Firth...checking maybe?

She slinked back and waited until she heard the steps growing fainter and fainter. When she couldn't hear them anymore she took another look.

Good, the coast was clear. Lex bolted to the portrait and whispered the password frantically, over and over. The goal was to head inside and hide the jewels before anyone else came looking. SERIOUSLY couldn't the portrait move faster???? JEEEEZ! She actually wanted to keep these, not land in detention!

Finally the portrait swung open and she bolted through the hole. SAFE! Wasting no more time she scurried up to her dorm. Stuff needed to be done before she slept.