Alexa ran a hand along the paintings as she walked by. Just last year she'd given a few of them mustaches but the Goblins must have made off with them because there were none of those insight. Sadly enough her kneazle and sharpie marker had been left up in the Common Room so...no mustaches today.

"I bet you'd look lovely in ink." She said, cracking a smile as she stopped just before another one of them.

It was a stuffy looking woman. If you squinted just right it already looked like she was growing a beard SO it would have been welcomed. Lex glanced to the portrait next to the woman, an interesting one this was. A man on a boat with a snake. She remembered him, accusing her of stealing his boat back in her first year.

Okay, they needed to do something. She was bored.

This castle had A LOT of portraits. Like, seriously. Everywhere you went there was at least one portrait on the way. And they talked too. Most of them. Or complained. Or chatted among themselves. Or followed you through other people's portraits. Yeah, some were actual creeps. One had continued to follow her, shouting abuses at her about how she should readjust her tie or something. She wasn't even wearing her school robes, though. No less a tie. So what kind of insane portraits did this school put up? The man had only stopped shouting when she'd snapped at him and threatened to cut up his portrait.

That had silenced him.

So naturally when she rounded a corner and was presented with a whole wall that was just FILLED with portraits, Olly stopped to leave right away. Especially once she noticed that there was already somebody standing there. Somebody who looked familiar. Hovering on the spot for a moment, Olly considered her options. She could either turn back around and leave (though that would seem like she was running away) or she could walk past Alexa (which might lead to the other girl engaging her in conversation). Huh.

You know that feeling you get when you could swear someone's watching you...or not watching but actually there? At first she thought she was imaging things and kept focusing on the portrait, afterall these all had eyes that followed you and one tried piercing her with it's sword. Pffft. But then she couldn't shake the feeling and besides, she heard FOOTSTEPS, portraits couldn't do.

Turning slightly she spotted her company. Oh! Olly!

"Hey you!" She said, raising her voice just a bit. "I was just thinking this portrait could use some extra ink. What'd you think?" Lex gestured for her to come have a look at the painting in question. The figure itself didn't look very pleased but she wasn't asking it for it's opinion so what did that matter? "I have a few colours but they're all the way back up in my dorm and the walk wouldn't be worth it."

Did Olly have any markers on her?

IT'S A TRAP!

Olly didn't know which way to go so she'd hovered on the spot for just a second too long. Lex had spotted her. Okay, at least now the decision of what to do had been made. Had been made FOR her. Sort of. At least now if she turned on her heels and walked away Lex would DEFINITELY think she was running away. Or was just pointedly ignoring her. Huh. Well that was still an option too then.

While she still contemplated this for a moment, Lex suddenly started talking (OF COURSE, almost like this Cassia person) again. Wait. Was she...was she suggesting drawing on the portrait?! Olly kept her face void of any signs that she was just a tiny bit intrigued by the other girl's suggestion as she stepped a little closer to look at the portrait Lex was indicating. "I think he would disagree with you." She replied with a nod towards the figure in the portrait. However, there WAS a small smirk playing around her lips now. "Can't you just summon them?" She added, briefly glancing at Lex next to her.

Who cared if they hit somebody in the face on the way down here, right?

At first she thought Olly would have simply walked off even after calling to her, it was the look on her face that told her this but that didn't happen. Nope. The look on her face was one of...intrigued? Oh? Lex did her best to hide the amused smirk that tugged at the corner of her lips.

Not a complete goody goody, she could appreciate that.

Lex turned her attention to the portrait once more. "I suspect he would. I'd be more surprized if he didn't actually." She tilted her head to the side and ran a curious finger over his face. "Something along here and maybe a second hat here..." Her finger traced the lines of the portrait, completely ignoring the looks the portrait was giving her. "Doesn't matter. I'm not fond of the opinions of portraits." They all protested to everything. There was just no point in concerning yourself.

Her eyes shot to her. "A good question. I was just wondering how worth it it would be to have them." Her kneazle usually got rid of the evidence but he wasn't with her. "But now I have company, can I ask for a second opinion on this?"

Olly simply watched Lex when she traced her finger over the portrait. Huh. Maybe she had misjudged the other girl a little. Because yes, the man would definitely look a lot better with a second hat. "He needs more facial hair too." The portrait guy was now looking at her, narrowing his eyes. "A monobrow maybe." And THAT earned her a full-on glare while a woman from a nearby portrait could be heard chuckling. Interesting. It almost seemed as if the woman was gloating. Oh, well, don't think you're safe, missy.

Feeling Lex' eyes on her quite suddenly, Olly briefly met the other girl's gaze before looking back up at the portrait(s) in front of them. Actually it hadn't really been a question as such. It had rather been a suggestion disguised as a question. So essentially Olly had hoped that Lex would just summon her markers. Apparently the other girl hadn't quite caught on, though. Siiiigh.

And then Lex asked her something else.

"What?" Second opinion on what exactly? Drawing on the guy's face? Was that it? Because Olly was very much for that. "I'm sure he deserves it." She finally said with a nod towards the portrait who was by now shouting random insults at them and talking about how students would never have DARED even DISCUSS things like that in HIS DAYS. Yeah, whatever.

Lex tried to be as objective in her opinions of the portraits face as possible. He was missing a lot of things if you asked her but only some things would work. She stopped tracing along the surface of the portrait and focused on Olly who was now giving her own suggestions. Facial hair, she had just the colour for that. "I like the brow idea, we'll get that in...how's about a fluffy beard. Men back then used to love them." Except maybe this guy because he didn't have one? Eh, details details. "His shirt is ugly, we should change the colour of it as well." Might as well while they were at it.

She tried looking for anything else that might have needed amending on the seemingly ungrateful portrait.

They were all good on this now yeah? If so...Lex drew her wand and gave a lazy flick in the direction of her Common Room, accio-ing several brightly coloured markers in a box. "These should do."

And Olly thought he deserved it. Good, they were on the same page regardless of the fact that the painting hadn't actually done anything wrong. Sticking her wand back in its holster she turned to the indignant artwork. "Shall we get started then?"

LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTIES.

"Forrest, Forrest," she said, trying to get his attention. There were SO many portraits and he'd probably seen them all already, but she hadn't and this was AMAZING. "Look at that one." Bristol pointed at it and grinned. It was a young woman, looking happily out at everyone and waving, so she waved back and bounced on her toes. Such friendly photos.

"You look lovely," she told the portrait before another one caught her eye and she tugged Forrest in that one's general direction. "Why does this one looked scared?" Turning to Forrest, she pouted slightly. All of them should have BIG SMILES on. Just like her. Did they have reason not to? The only ones she thought that might, were the ones at the top that seemed slightly dusty. Weird.

Olly was still scrutinizing the portrait as if she was trying to figure out a very difficult Arithmancy problem. Yes, this was some serious business. She nodded along with Lex when she suggested a few other alterations. "Yes. Definitely." Whenever 'back then' was. She couldn't really figure out how old the portrait was but it did look old. Or at least it looked like it was from around the time when fluffy beards were THE THING. The fact that the man didn't have one was probably the reason the woman from the other portrait was laughing at him. Because he suuuuucked.

His shirt?

Tilting her head to the side a little like she was looking at a very exquisit artwork, Olly pursed her lips. "Pink. I vote for pink." She finally replied with another few serious nods, her eyes briefly flicking over to Lex to make sure she understood. Which was why she was able to watch her summon the markers from her Common Room. Just like that. Olly was quite jealous that she could just manage that so easily. Now they had markers. And quite an assortment too. Perfect. Maybe they should silence the man in the portrait though.

Olly reached for one of the markers in Lex' hands and held it up to the man's face. Right. Let's go then.

Forrest nodded at his best friend. It did make sense. Although he still preferred adventures in books since he was the most coward he understood her too. So no hard feelings. Hehe.

"Astronomy." He grinned vastly. Bristol was going to meet the man soon! He was sure she would like him just as much. "I think it would be cool, yes. I wonder how you become one, though..." He obviously didn't know that you had to die first to be painted.

Hey! He would get the chance to ask one of them!

He followed her towards them and stood beside her as she examined them. Although he had seen them before, he was distracted and overwhelmed too and hadn't been following her. It took him some time to spot the painting she was on.

He giggled at her compliment, but kept silent. Portrait or not, he was shy around people he didn't know. Bristol was better at human relations anyway, so he'd let her do the talking.

Scared? Oh, that one. He shrugged. "Maybe it was painted so." She was the pureblood here. She would know better.

These paintings were so interesting. If she hadn't known about magic most of her life, she would never have ever guessed that paintings could MOVE. As it was, the only pictures she'd ever seen all move, so it was the muggles' 'frozen' images that amazed her most of all. Magical paintings just seemed like a normal thing to her. Unlike capturing only one frame of a moment in time, because having the whole moment seemed ... fuller.

How do become a painting? Bristol didn't know exactly all about it, but she knew enough. She scooted slightly closer to Forrest and whispered, "I think you have to be .. dead." She'd never seen one of someone that was still alive, anyway, so that was what she was going to assume. "Also, I think it just includes spells. Complicated ones." That was just a guess, she'd never actually been told how to make one.

Hehe, Bristol liked Forrest's giggle.

Interesting. "Maybe it was," she agreed, because honestly, who knew? "I bet if we were paintings, we'd be GRINNING." That was a given for her, as she rarely stopped smiling. She wasn't too sure about Forrest, yet, but she noticed that he smiled a lot when she was around. She'd be smiling more because of Forrest being around, too, if it was possible for her to smile more. She might hurt herself if she tried to test that.

Dead? Dead dead? Forrest gasped dramatically and looked gravely into her eyes. But it sorta made sense, because these people lived in portraits.

Dead. Anyway. Ahem.

He didn't comment on it. Instead, he was just going to ignore sad stuff, and focus on happy things.

"I suppose so," he said with a lazy grin. He truly grinned a lot with her, so why not? Hehe.

Okay, NEW places! Grabbing her again without a warning, he walked towards the stairs.

So far there was an idea for a beard and the brows would be fixed. Okay. Good enough. She tried thinking of anything else but then she remembered the time she coloured Oakey's face and stole his badge. Back then she'd just gone along with whatever worked, this time would be no different. That being the case they could get started.

Pink?

Such a horrid colour...but then...she wasn't trying to make the portrait look nice so..."Pink will work. He'll simply love the colour." Now the next question was whether or not she actually possessed a marker in that colour. Collecting pink things wasn't exactly a hobby of hers. Lex looked through the box of markers. "Her we go, just the right shade of pink." Though really, there was no such thing. All shades of pink sucked.

Olly had already gotten her marker to the man's face, for now she would take his jacket. Alexa began drawing patterns, just your average scribble here and there, nothing extravagant for the old suit. Eventually she'd colour the patterns in to make it one solid colour.

"This is quite the relaxing art." She commented, casually ignoring the portrait being taken as a blank canvas. This was good stuff.

Argyle had been wanting to get to work on cleaning the portraits for a very very long time now. She'd been cleaning floors and cooking food and being very happy with that, but those portraitses were needing a good dust too!

The old elf arrived at the portraits at the very first chance she got, feather duster and dusting rag at the ready.

There were some studentsies here now, but that didn't stop Argyle. Not one bit! She couldn't see what they were doing, but didn't trouble to find out. She had work to do after all!

"Arglye cleans the portraitses, she does! They's been wanting cleaning too long! Never fear, Argyle cleans them now!" she squeaked as she started dusting the lower ones first.

Olly was completely engrossed in her work. Her work being adding lots and lots of facial hair to Mr. How-Dare-You here. Because that was one of the phrases he was currently using on repeat. How dare she? Well for one, she didn't exactly care what he thought. And two, he was just a portrait. And he looked ugly. He should be thankful that her and Alexa were making him look more presentable. Yeah, he would definitely thank them later.

Okay, probably not.

"Mhm." She hummed in agreement to Lex' words, adding yet another line of hair to the man's eyebrows, moving her hand out like she was Picasso and the marker in her hand was an expensive brush. Et voilà! WHOA, had the man just tried to bite her hand. Not that that was possible through the painting but she shook her head at him nonetheless. "Now, how dare you, Sir?" Olly scolded him with, using the marker to tap against the portrait for emphasis. "Now-"

However, they were suddenly joined by somebody else. A house elf. Olly briefly looked over at Lex, her eyes widening slightly while she waited for the house elf to tell them off. Which she didn't. Huh. A smirk started tugging on her lips as she crouched down to be somewhat close to the house elf's height. "Do you like to draw, Argyle?" That was her name, right? At least that was what she kept on saying.

One of the studentsies started speaking to old Argyle, and the elf looked up for moment before going back to dusting.

"Argyle likes to clean, miss! Clean and cook and scrub her floors, oh yes."

Argyle stopped dusting again and looked at the girl through wide elf eyes, a big elf grin on her little elf face. "Why does miss asks Argyle about drawing? Argyle is a house elf. Argyle cleans!"

She still didn't notice what they studentsies had been up to.

She'd gotten just about all the spots on the man's shirt and even noted his rude behaviour toward Olly who'd been kind enough to try fixing his face so he didn't look so much like a troll. The least he could do was give a muffled thank you or something of the sort. Lex was about to point out just how ungrateful he was when she noticed a little house elf scampering around, going on about cleaning?

She lowered her marker and gave her a curious look before looking to Olly who'd asked the elf about drawing. Could the girl have been thinking the same thing she was??

"It's grand you like cleaning and all." Maybe they could get her to clean the portraits when they were done? We'll see. "But I think she's more referring to your work with sharpie markers. Do you like drawing on things? You can help us out."

Lex gestured to the disgruntled man in the painting. "He needs a makeover and we could use your help." All help was accepted.

Cleaning didn't look very fun and look how happy they were making this man. Probably the highlight of his day, you know? "Hey Olly, you get the feeling the nice lady in that other portrait might be feeling left out?"

Argyle cleans!

Yes, yes, of course she did. That's what the house elves were employed for right? Cleaning. And cooking. And stuff. Olly was VERY greatful that they were back too. Since she couldn't imagine having to cook for herself like the other students had had to do last term apparently. Though, she STILL had promised Schuyler she'd teach her how to make pancakes one day. And then there was the birthday thing. Right. No, but she was digressing.

Back to the house elf and their mission.

Olly glanced back up at Lex when the Gryffindor started to talk to the house elf as well. Had she caught on to what she was thinking? Apparently so. A conspiratory smirk started tugging at the corner of her lips as her eyes flicked back down to the house elf to see her reaction. "Yeah. Sharpies, you know. Like this one." She'd reached for another one of the markers Lex had summoned earlier and held it out to the house elf.

Oh but the Gryffindor was talking to her again. Her eyes moved from Alexa's face to the portrait of the woman who had up until now been pretty much cheering them on. Now she was awfully quiet all of a sudden. "Oh yes." And with her eyes back on the house elf in front of her she added, "What do you think, Argyle?" They could get the house elf a ladder or something, yeah?

"Sharpies? What is sharpies, misses?" Argyle asked curiously, but continued to dust. The darling studentsies were still talking to her, so with a snap of her fingers the rags began dusting the portraits on their own. It didn't do quite as good a job as the manual labor Argyle loved so much but she could always go over them a second time.

Once the elf's full attention was the studentsies, she finally realised exactly what they were doing. Her eyes went wide and suddenly filled with tears as Argyle grasped at her ears in distress.

"Oh bad Argyle! Bad Argyle left the portraits for too long! Argyle let the portraits get so dirty the studentsies thought they were for drawings!" she wailed in despair. "You mustn't do that, misses! Argyle will clean them, she will! Right away! Argyle is sorry she waited so long."

Now that was some innovation right there. This was why magic was good. Now the elf could give them her full attention and they could explain this whole business of sharpies. Lex watched Ollie show the elf the sharpie, surely she'd understand what it was for. If not, she would have seen their work of art up to this point.

Olly was good for things like this. Not the type to stick up her nose and quote the rule book. Further proof of this? Olly agreeing with her that the woman did in fact look like she'd been left out. Lex grinned at her, about to make suggestions when Argyle started...er...wait...CRYING???

O_O

Oh no no no no! Merlin's beard, she hadn't made a house elf cry since her first year. "Um...Argyle, no, don't cry." They were just paintings, jeez. She rubbed the back of her next awkwardly and looked down at the panicking elf. If she got too loud it would draw attention, the wrong kind of attention. "Listen! Don't worry about it! That's not what happened. The portraits are already fairly clean and we'll help you clean them....when we're done." Seriously. "So stop crying and help us then we clean when we're done, 'kay?"

She liked finishing what she started.

Olly simply continued to hold out the marker in her hand towards the house elf when she asked what a sharpie was. Err, this, right there, right under your nose. She even nodded at it and was about to say something when Argyle made the rags clean the portraits all by themselves. With just a snap of her fingers. Wow, part of her was quite jealous there for a moment. She wished she could just do that too. Just like that. Just with a-

............whoa, what just....WHAT?

The Hufflepuff had almost fallen over, she was so surprised when the house elf suddenly started wailing and, hang on, CRYING too? Were those TEARS in Argyle's eyes. Oh no. No no no no no no. This was bad. And the house elf was LOUD so this was like double bad. Not quite sure what to say Olly tried to get to the nearest part of Lex that she could reach - which was her foot - and started hitting it with the palm of her hand repeatedly.

DO SOMETHING!

"It's not your fault!" Oh, look, Olly had found her voice again. Well done. "The man in the portrait was being rude." Well, AFTER they'd talked about drawing on him but shh. "It wasn't because we thought the portraits were there for drawning purposes." Was she making this any better? Probably not. But it was worth a try. Though, Olly really wasn't exactly an expert on calming down crying house elves.

Oh Argyle was for it now! Letting the castle fall into such a state for so long! Hopefully this 'sharpies' was easily removed from the portraitses, and could be done without further damage/bothering the paintings inhabitant.

The elf held her ears and sobbed as she rocked back and forth on her feet, tears streaming down her face. If Algamus saw the paintings before she could clean them, what then?!

But then the studentsies were talking to Argyle, and she found herself staring between them, hiccoughing.

"Misses doesn't have to help old Argyle," she squeaked. "Studentsies is here at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry to learn, house elves is here to clean!" Argyle's tears slowed and she suddenly shook her head so hard her ears flapped. "No, no. Both misses is very kind but Argyle shall clean while the studentsies learn!"

Argyle sniffed a huge sniff and looked up at the portraites. "Misses should not be drawing on portraits. Argyle is not wanting the nice misses to get in trouble."

Olly was tapping her leg and the house elf was still crying. All in all they were getting no where with this. The house elf seemed inconsolable and if she got any louder Lex would find herself spending an evening down in the dungeons with Olly and whoever happened to walk by. This was the first floor, yeah? She began weighing her options. Professor Romanos wouldn't have been so bad...Hadley either....Lex didn't know much about the HoM!Guy but he blew stuff up...this would be fine--unless the HEADMISTRESS was the one to show up.

Yeah....on second thought, quiet Argyle, this all just got really serious.

Alexa let Olly have another try at soothing the poor thing but that obviously wasn't working that well because there was MOAR crying. jvsdkfguisgfi! STAAAAHP!

"Okay okay, stop, look." Lex held out the box of sharpies and made deliberate movements to get the marker back inside. "See? No more drawing? Now you, no more tears, right??"

If the house elf didn't want help then fiiiiine, no help here, but PLEASE, the crying, just no. "Olly's done drawing too, aren't you Olly?" She asked, giving an exaggerated look to the box for her to put her sharpie in there too. "Nothing to worry about, we won't get in trouble." UNLESS YOU KEEP CRYING, MERLIN!

It was only a moment later that some of Alexa's words registered in Olly's brain. Hang on. She didn't want to clean the portraits. Why would she wanna do that? She didn't even want to help the house elf. If Lex wanted to then she could go right ahead. Olly, however, would not be helping. That was what the house elves were there for right? It was their JOB. And yes, that also entailed cleaning up after her and Lex had drawn on portraits.

Oh good, the house elf was protesting anyway.

LOUDLY though. Way too loudly.

Olly's eyes darted up and down the corridor for a moment to see if anybody else was around here. Because it would be quite hard to explain the drawn-on portrait to a passing professor. Or the crying house elf. She'd actually planned on leaving once they were done. Nobody would have every known it was them and it wasn't that bad anyway. There was so many better things she could think of the top of her head to get detention for.

Making a house elf cry was definitely NOT among them.

But Lex had apparently succeeded in calming the house elf down somewhat. Phew. Olly straightened up again (so she was ready to run away in case somebody HAD heard them after all) and briefly looked at the Gryffindor. "Sure." Totally. She quickly put the two markers back in the box Lex was holding. Hopefully that would be enough for the house elf now. "You can...clean in peace now, Argyle." Because they would LEAVE. And quickly too.

Right, Lex?