It was a good thing that Michael had learned a thing or two from his parents. He was able get out of bed without disturbing his room mates, creep downstairs and get through the portrait hole without waking the fat lady.

He moved down the wall a little just in case she should wake up and want to talk his ear off or call one of the Professor's. Seeing how it was after curfew and all.

He hoped Alexa wasn't going to be very long. He felt very exposed out here. So far he had managed to keep out of trouble and detention and he was really hoping to keep it that way. But he supposed doing a detention with Alexa wouldn't be so bad.

Lex was ready, she'd been looking forward to this and no amount of stiff joints or muscle pain would keep her in her bed on this of all nights. It was time to put the invisibilty cloak to some good use. MUCH more exciting than sleeping through the entire night.

After Lex had made sure the last of the firsties had shut their bloody light off and gone to bed she'd headed for the Common Room instead of her own dorm and slipped out. The only matter now was waiting on Michael. The girl was slouched against the wall, practically touching the Fat Lady who hadn't said a word to her but had fallen asleep. Merlin she loved this thing.

Seeing Michael emerge from the Portrait Hole she watched him take some cautious steps and followed quietly behind him until he stopped. Good he was being cautious at least.

"Alright, get under here, we've got a castle to see after dark." She whispered, a hand seeming to reach out of nowhere in the dim light to grab his and pull him under the cloak. No time for idling around in empty corridors with tattle tail portraits.

It was probably lucky that Michael was expecting Lex to be under the cloak because he might have given out a loud yelp to have a voice suddenly at his ear and a hand dragging him in the dark. Although he did jump a little but managed to keep his mouth.

"Bloody hell Alexa." He hissed once he was under the Invisibility Cloak. "Give a guy some warning next time." Not sure how she would do that considering they supposed to be quiet and all.

"So where are we going?"

With his hand in hers, she actually felt the moment he jumped even if she could barely make it out in this poor lighting. Merlin, just because they expected all students in bed and no one walking the corridors didn't mean they had to make the lights dimmer. Were they trying to give her a hard time? Well it wouldn't work. This was still happening.

"Sure thing, I'll just send off some flashing lights and loud noises--invite the Headmistress while I'm at it and make a party of it down in the dungeons after because that's where we'll be heading." She whispered, conscious of the fact that they were still close enough to the Fat lady to make her uncomfy.

Lex released her grip on him and spread the cloak more evenly between them. As they'd checked in her bedroom mirror, they could both be covered nicely and not a spot on them was left exposed. Just like they practiced.

"Dunno yet." She replied, ushering him forward. "I was thinking we just get a look around, see what happens after we've all been forced into our dorms, you know?" Think of all the things that could happen in the castle at this hour? "Saw this weird ghost the other day in the Tower Patch. Maybe we'll run into it again." As spooky as that would be given the time of night it was, it would still have been EPIC.

It was really rather dark so he couldn't see her face but he certainly got the sarcasm from the tone of her voice. Michael was glad that it was dark, meant that she couldn't see the hurt look on his face. She had never spoken to him that way before.

"Wow! Grumpy much." He muttered. It had been a simple request in his opinion. She didn't need to bite his head off.

Not wanting to annoy her anymore, he moved forward with her, making sure to keep his body parts covered. "Weird ghost? Weirder than the ones that liv - er reside here?" He almost said lived. And ghosts did not live.

"What did this ghost do?"

It wasn't until Mikey said it, that she realized she might have come off a bit harsh. The worst part was, she had no idea why. It was happening a lot recently and wasn't working for her, this crankiness that came out of nowhere needed to go back to nowhere. Lex took a deep breath. "Sorry, didn't mean to snap." She muttered, deciding she'd have to work at controlling it. Was this something the Healer could fix as well? She'd add it to her list of things wrong with her when she went to pay the woman a visit. Terry made a joke about her getting old, Jun too and she found neither funny.

Lex took the corner first as they headed into the next corridor adjoining the one that housed the Fat Lady's Portrait. "Lots weirder." She confirmed with a nod and a whisper. "It just kinda floated up to the plaque by Burbage's memorial then zipped right through us when it noticed us and left."

It wasn't one of theirs, otherwise they would have at least stopped for a 'hello'. Lex made it her business to be on friendly terms with most of them.

"Couldn't quite make it out before it bolted through us though. I don't suppose you've seen anything funny?"

"It's okay." He murmured. She was entitled to have a bad day. It happened to everyone. Hadn't he been in a bad mood on the train to Hogwarts and taken it out on one of his friends? Apparently he needed to man up and not take it so personally.

His dad did warn him about the effects girls could have on you.

Well that was slightly weird. The ghosts around here did not purposely float through you if they could help it. And they were always happy to have a chat with the students, well maybe not the Baron so much but the others did.

Had he seen anything funny? "Besides quite a few students sprouting grey hairs and the constant complaining of aching bones." He wasn't blind or deaf. "I haven't seen anything."

"But could a ghost cause that?" Michael paused for a moment deliberating on how delicately he could phrase his next question. "I've...er...noticed a few differences in you." He took a subtle step away from her just so that it would make it harder for her to punch him. "Did they appear after the ghost went through you?"

"It's not actually." She corrected, still keeping her voice low just in case. "I was heading down to the Great Hall just yesterday and heard some other students talking about crankiness or something. One of 'em had grey hair. This can't be normal or a coincidence." At the moment the Gryffindor wasn't worried. Lots of things stressed people out and made them cranky from time to time, she just wanted some answers for the grey hair bit...and she was hoping this thing wasn't contagious, whatever it was. Lex saw some symptoms that she for sure DIDN'T want.

The Fifth Year paused for a moment, feeling her foot step on a part of the cloak that was trailing along the ground. Another step and she might have tripped on it. Ugh. If it weren't for the fact that getting caught wasn't an option she would have given them some light.

Ah and he hadn't seen much. Granted greying children were a HUGE thing but they weren't what she meant, making them nothing. She gave a slow nod, not sure he was even looking at her to see it. "Not sure the ghost did it...I mean I've been run through by ghosts before and nothing ever happened except the horrid chill that comes with it. 'Sides, I already had a good lock of grey by the time I saw the ghost." Making it even less likely.

She noted the way he created some distance between them but didn't say much. He'd noticed changed, she didn't think he wouldn't. Half her hair was grey now. No one could miss it. Sigh. She didn't want the rest going grey, she liked her hair the way it was.

Well yeah that was weird. And it was too much of a coincidence that so many teenagers were getting grey hairs and being cranky. "Hmm, have any of the students gone to see someone about this? And can't the Healer fix it?" He had been told that the Healer could fix anything.

So apparently it wasn't the ghost that had caused this but it was not one of the normal ghosts that hung out at Hogwarts? "It's not that ghost that was here before was it?" Michael had heard from some of the older students about a ghost causing trouble at the school. It had happened a couple of terms before he had got there but maybe it had come back.

He wondered if they could stop somewhere for a moment, this crouching over was making his back ache. "Should we try going down a level or two?"

Lex squinted in the dim light, trying to look ahead in the new stretch of corridor they'd walked onto. This was the one that housed the staircase, yes? "I dunno about anyone else but Lottie and I plan to go see her tomorrow. We were giving my grey hair a week to go away but it's just gotten worse. The Healer should be able to get it blonde again....I hope." Strong hope because she didn't want to keep half her hair grey. Looking in the mirror would become a difficult task for her. "It doesn't look that bad, does it?"

And what was Mikey on about...? A ghost that was there before? "You mean that isfret guy back in my first year?" She remembered him real well. Bloody idiot made the Shiny Grounds Keeper leave. You did NOT just go around eating people's wombats, jeeeez! "Not him, I'd have recognized him and I had Felix with me, he wouldn't have flown at me with a feline there." Who would have thought a great and powerful ghost would be afraid of cats? It kinda killed the 'great and powerful' if you really thought about it.

Lex nodded at his question, having been thinking about it himself. "We are, just need to find the stairs in this dark place. Did we already pass that statue?" It was somewhere near the stairs if she was remembering correctly.

Louis buried his face in his hand for a few silent moments as he tried to remember the password to the common room. He knew he should've written it down as soon as the prefect announced it. But with this new old age of his (did that even make sense?) remembering even the simplest of things had become a challenge.

After an epic number of failed tries and the Fat Lady mocking his lame attempts, the Gryffindor boy gave into his fate - to wait for another Gryffindor to enter or exit the common room, while in the lovely company of the Fat Lady who had begun singing at this point.

Schuyler had trekked up all the flights of moving staircases and was now walking along through the seventh floor corridor. There were a considerable amount of complaints from Gryffindors about the hike to their common room, but this sixteen-year-old could appreciate it. It worked the legs, you know?

Also supplied ample time to think when you were making the trek alone.

As she neared the portrait hole, she noticed red trim on black robes that signified that it was another Lion standing before the Fat Lady. Why wasn't he going in? She slowed to a stop next to him and gave a smile. Her eyebrows raised with the inflection in her voice, "Did you forget the password, or has the Fat Lady just captivated you with her singing?" Her eyes flickered to the portrait and the latter scenario seemed rather unlikely.

Was she going to stop yet?

Louis couldn't understand why the Fat Lady hadn't been hung in the detention room instead of on the entrance to the Gryffindor common room. Her singing, teasing, and thirst for gossip seemed more fitting for a room designated for punishment. The boy could hardly hear the girl that had approached him a few moments later, only really understanding what she was saying by reading her lips.

Mm, captivated by the Fat Lady's singing? "I was always a fan of bad opera," he said, which only caused the portrait to scream louder. Apparently the Lady didn't like jokes. "No, yeah, I forgot the password," Louis confessed with a sheepish smile, eyeing her robes for a moment. Fellow Gryffie. "You wouldn't happen to have a better memory than me, would you?" As in, please give me the password because I'm half-deaf at this point.

Schuyler threw the painted woman a pointed look. Really? Really. At least the usual gossip was better than this. Now they had to suffer a boisterous, Wagnerian woman with a voice that shattered glass. Could barely hear a word over it.

She made out that the boy had said something about opera. And yes, that he'd forgotten the password as she suspected. She gave a quick nod, not bothering to give a verbal response when their friend here was so bent on filling their ears with such on-key singing instead. Her hands cupped her mouth and the words came out in a firm tone that wasn't quite a shout, "Dragon's dung."

Sounded quite similar to 'dragon's tongue,' didn't it? Nope. Dung.

The portrait swung open on its hinges, yet the singing never ceased.

That had to have been the longest walk of her entire life. You know...next to the walk this morning down to Herbology and the walk last week to CoMC--okay okay she was gonna count it next to the walk to the dungeons for class too.....What was the point she was making again....? Oh yeah, long walk, she'd just had one and was ready to collapse. There was meant to be lunch coming up soon but there was still plenty of time and she could use a nap.

Meow.

Lex glanced down at her kneazle that had accompanied her down to the library to find that book she needed for History of Magic. Needless to say she didn't find it. See why she didn't go there often? Anyway, meowing kneazle. "I know I have homework to get done Felix, stop rubbing it in." She grumbled. Charms homework to be exact.

She caught the look he gave her. "You're not gonna let me sleep unless I get it done, are you?" Lex knew her kneazle well enough. She would collapse in her bed and he would use his claws to get her up. UGH. "Fiiiiiine." With an impatient sigh she drew her wand from it's holster and did the circular motion above her head.

"Senectus Reversus!" Then an impatient look to the fat lady as she rattled off the password. Come on, open up. Nap time was coming. Once the portrait swung open she grabbed him off the ground so they could crawl through. "You do realize I don't have a mirror and don't know if it worked anyway, right?"