Dusting was Tinka's least favoritest of her favorite chores, but only because she didn't get to use her whisk-y whisk. Today she got to dust some of the portraits on the first floor before going back to her whisk-y in the kitchens.

Time to make these frames shine!

Toddles wanties to gets out of the kitchens. Yes Toddles dos. Toddles walkies rounds and sees Tinkas. TINKAS! Toddles beams yes he does. "Hiis Tinkas!" Toddles greets Tinkas yes he does. "Needs helps Tinkas?" Toddles asks beings the goods elf.

Iris sat in her portrait looking more annoyed than usual. She always enjoyed watching the students going to lessons. It was the best part of the year in her eyes, but today she was not happy, no she was down right irritated.

She sniffled and glared, "You there, house elf, make sure you get these cobwebs." Pointing towards the corners of her frame. "I can't see a thing and it's making it very unwelcoming to students."

Why would anyone want to visit her if those cobwebs wouldn't go away. She had never had so many on her before.

TODDLES!

"Tinka be glad to see Toddles! There be lots of dusty dust to do around here." And cobwebs, why those be here?! The picture lady be noticing them, too!

"Tinka be sorry, Lady Iris, Toddles be sorry too," the elf squeaked in a high voice. The little elfsy ears drooped and the bony elfsy hands began to wring. "Tinka punish herself when Tinka get back to kitchens, Tinka shut away her whisk-y for whole hour!" The little elf shuddered at the very thought of no whisk-y!

So the elf hurried to get out her duster and went to work straight away, taking special care around Lady Iris.

Iris looked at the house elves, she wasn't one to complain, especially to the elves knowing how hard they did work. She just didn't want the cobwebs on her frame anymore and it seemed like they kept getting worse and worse.

"No apologies needed just get it done please." She eyed them before looking around to see if any students were around. "You need to make sure the other portraits get cleaned as well. It is rather odd to see so many cobwebs around."

Were the elves being a bit lazy lately? She swore she had just seen them the other day.

What’s great about being a Sixth Year? He gets longer breaks in between classes, allowing him to do other things that interest him. Aside from hanging outside the castle and mastering his ollies with his skateboard during his breaks, the young man also has been spending some time in the library, researching about codes and ciphers. In fact, he was able to borrow good books from the school’s collection. Said books were tucked safely under one arm as he made his way towards the fourth floor, to have its lease renewed under his name.

From the Snake’s pit, Ethan passed by the first floor, and immediately saw two house elves cleaning. It’s a bit odd because he’s not used to seeing Hogwarts house elves cleaning while classes are on-going. It didn’t take long for the sixth year to have his nose tickled by dust particles. The Slytherin waved off the dust in front of him as he passed by, afraid that he might choke on it.

He didn’t choke, but he did let out a sneeze. Still clutching the books under his arm, Ethan made a funny face as he paused in his tracks and sneezed into the crook of his other arm. “Ahhhchoo!” Sniff. “Sorry ‘bout that. Excuse me.” The Slytherin mumbled and eyed the house elves, and the portrait being cleaned.

Cobwebs, eh? That’s odd. The portraits are usually clean all year round, right?

Abby was wandering past the potraits when she saw the cobwebs on the portraits and an older slytherin boy and thought to herself the portraits are usually so clean what was going on

"Bless you" Iris looked to the student that just sneezed. "Are you alright? I'm sorry about the cobwebs, these House Elves are trying to take care of it." They better at least be getting to them.

She eyed the two elves before turning her eyes back to the students. "Hello there, are you having a good term?" Finally she was getting to see some students and hopefully have a chat. There would have been loads of students by now if these bloody cobwebs weren't around.

Toddles sees Tinkas cleanings the paintings. Toddles does sames. Toddles gets dusties and cleans the cobwebs likes mistress says. Toddles bes good elfs. Toddles no bad elf. "Toddles is sorries misses. Toddles sorries to Lady Iris.." Toddles bows to mistress. Toddles cleans rights aways. Toddles hears studenties comings and hears sneezies. "Is studenties alrights?" Toddles asks studenties.

Ethan just stared, realizing that he had never talked to a portrait before. He’d seen people do it, yes, but not him. He thought it was kind of funny. “I’m alright, Ms...” Er...what’s her name? “Your ladyship.” The Slytherin made a funny face again, and a loud sneeze escaped from him again. “Ahhhcchhooo!!” SNIFF. “Merlin’s socks...” he murmured to himself as he wiped his nose with his robe.

Then one of the house-elves spoke to him. Ethan shrugged, made another funny face, “Aaahhh...” Yep. His nose changed its mind. “I’m fine...er...” What’s his name again? Twinkle? No, Ted? No, not Ted... “Tod.” Close enough. It’s kind of hard to remember their names, okay? They all look the same, for crying out loud.

“Is everything...okay though?” Ethan thought the sight was unusual since the place was always clean. He has been passing by that corridor for three terms now, but this was the first time he’d seen the place with cobwebs. The house-elves aren’t slacking with their cleaning duties, are they?

Tinka flapped her elfsy hands and ears when the studentsies started sneezing. She knew that one, he was a Slytherin and had been here a good long while, yes he had. He was a good studentsy, yes he was.

Still flapping her elfsy hands, she squeaked out a high pitched answer. "Sir need tissue!" Before he could respond, CRACK! she had disappeared. And then after a few seconds, CRACK! she returned, handkerchief held out for him to take. "Here sir goes, please use and Tinka take care of it right away, sir!" Here eyes twinkled in anticipation of the very thought!

She merely shook her head at his other concern. "No no no no, sir not be worrying about us elvesies. We be cleaning just fine, we just be forgetting about Miss Iris. Sir not be worrying!" Just to prove it, she hurried to pick up her duster and get back to work.

They had been forgetting Miss Iris, humph! "You have been forgetting many of the portraits." She snapped back towards the elf. It wasn't just her portrait and she was a bit on the cranky side from looking through cobwebs most of the morning. "No apologies Toddles, just getting the job done and keeping it done is apology enough."

Painted eyes moving back towards the student she gave him a small smile, "Please call me Iris. I hope your sneezing doesn't last. Is the entire castle like this or just our corridor?" She gave a pointed look at the elves, if it was the entire castle she'd really like to know what they were doing that was more important then keeping the corridors clean.

"What year are you in young man?" She knew he was a Slytherin based on his robes, but she always enjoyed to know the years.

With his notebook in his hand and a coded note from Ethan Sherlock Holmes in the other, Simon ran up one flight of stairs and then down a corridor to the portraits. It had been too long since he and his best mate had hung out and today was going to be the BEST DAY EVER. They would solve crimes and it would just be like the day they met. Oh, how Simon missed those days when they weren't both so horrendously busy studying for examinations. Despite missing those days, Simon was grateful that he spent more time on his coursework. He needed to get good marks if he wanted to be a Professor. In fact, he needed to be an expert.

When he came around the corner, he found his blonde friend speaking to a couple of house elves as well as a portrait. "G'day to you all! How's your day... Aaaah!" he began, bringing up his arm as if he were to sneeze. Nope, he wasn't going to sneeze. He scrunched his nose. Ugh, he hated the feeling of when he had to sneeze but never could actually sneeze. Yuck. There was a lot of dust around here. Glancing up, he noted the cobwebs. Spiders? he wondered. "Sorry about that. It's rather dusty around here. How are your days going?"said with a small smile gracing his lips. He nudged his mate with his elbow and pretended to tip a fake top hat at his mate. "I came as soon as I got your note, Holmes," said Simon flashing his mate a happy grin as he held up Ethan's note.

Ethan was about to thank the very girly house elf when he made another funny face, and let out another sneeze. Oooh, whoops? He forgot to cover his mouth, and he might have sneezed directly at the house elf who was now holding a tissue for him. "I...uh...thanks!" he said as he got the white material from her and blew his nose with it. "Sorry about...sneezing on you," she was fast with apparating, so it wasn't really his fault that he accidentally sneezed on her? Still, he felt rude about it and apologised. Yes indeed, he was a good studentsy! "Mind if I keep this first?" he asked as he wiped his nose with the handkerchief.

The Slytherin backed away from the house elf as she took her duster and started to clean. Err, more dust!

Ethan, while wiping his nose, looked up to see that most of the portraits were covered in cobwebs and dust. Uh-huh. It was a sight to see, because again, it was the first time he'd seen the place that way. Blue green eyes then looked at the talking portrait, "It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Iris. I'm Ethan." No need to tell what year he's in, yeah? That will be too much information, SINCE he could be in a possible crime scene. "Just this corridor, I suppose." he replied as he looked around him. "If anything, ma'am, this area is the dustiest." he said as he made another face and sneezed into the handkerchief Tinka gave him.

And a follow up question about his year? Not good. "Seventh." Surely, he looked like one, yes? He's seventeen already, so he definitely looked like a seventh year.

"How did this, happen Miss Iris? I can tell that it wasn't this dirty yesterday..." Well, he had to change the subject, and get down to investigation. There's no time to waste when it comes to sleuthing, and, where IS his Watson?

FINALLY.

He'd left the coded message conspicuously around their common room, so he was sure that Simon was bound to show up sooner or later. Their main destination would be the Library, by the way, but obviously, his Watson had caught up to him at the first floor of the castle. Immediately, Ethan offered the handkerchief to Simon, but retracted back his hand when his nose decided NOT to sneeze too. Yes, yes, he hated that sensation.

"I'm doing quite well, Watson, minus the sneezing." he said as he gestured at the dirty portraits. Ethan winked at Simon because it was worthy of an investigation. "Have you seen this corridor dirty the past few days?" He asked.

Iris had been about to talk with the boy some more when another joined them “Good day young man.” She nodded in her portrait, it was so nice to have the company. “My day is looking up now that the cobwebs are being cleaned and I have some students to talk to” She couldn’t be happier at the moment really.

Seventh year, well that was nice, “Are you nervous about your NEWTS?” Most seventh years were always nervous about those. She watched the other portraits as they moved around and tried to avoid the issues. “Well that’s not good. I know a few of my friends on the third floor have mentioned the cobwebs as well, but this is just ridiculous.” She didn’t want to blame the house elves, but what was going on?

Trying to think a few minutes she couldn’t fully remember. “An elf was here yesterday morning, but I’m wondering if he didn’t fully get it all cleaned.” Why would they be back so fast if it was actually cleaned? Iris hated judging them, but she was fully judging right now.

Toddles hears Master Ethan callings Toddles Tod. Toddles thinkies it is a nicknames. Toddles not knows. Toddles likes it thoughs. "Master is okays though? Master not needs anythings?" he asks Master Ethan. Toddles hears Tinkas explains and nothings wrongs. Toddles needs to cleans is alls. Toddles uses duster to duties paintings yes he does. Mistress Iris says toos. Toddles dusites others portraits. "Toddles is good elfs. Toddles helps dustings. Yes he does."

Toddles sees other master (Simon) and thinks to helps him. "Toddles sees master. May I helps masters?" Toddles be good elfs to studenties. Toddles like studenties. Toddles still dusties yes he does.

NEWTS? Well, he’s not taking that anytime soon—oh. Oh. Of course, he lied about his year for security reasons. Ethan simply shrugged and opted for a safe answer instead. “I shouldn’t be worried about it ma’am. I’ve got wonderful professors who are ready to help me get through it. I passed my OWLs with flying colours...all thanks to them.” Yes, he needed to give all the credit to his professors, because he figured that being self-centred CAN spell trouble for him. He’d let his grades and qualification do the talking.

Third floor, cobwebs...he and Simon should GO check that place out next. Well, after he’s done returning the loaned books from the library, that is. Ethan did cast a quick glance at Simon. His best bud should start writing down some information, because Lady Portrait had dropped clues.

More information was given, and Ethan nodded along as new questions formed in his head. “With that being said, surely, the house elves aren’t slacking, ma’am.” He said as he glanced at Tod and Tinka. He and Simon could rule them out from the scene. “The whole school always look spic-and-span to me, regardless of its old age, so this,” he said as he pointed randomly at the dirty portraits, “is quite unusual, given that it was cleaned yesterday.” Cobwebs and dust can’t accumulate that fast in just over 24 hours, right? “Have you seen...anything, or anyone suspicious lately? How about the other portraits? Do they have such observations?” Ethan shifted the books under his arm as he gazed back at the portrait.

As for the house-elf, “Don’t worry about me Tod, I’ll be fine.” He said as he grinned at the tiny house-elf. “Er...yeah, you missed a spot over there.” He said quickly, pointing at a random portrait who was trying to blow away a cobweb from his face.

Lulz.

Look at that, a child that was praising his professors. Iris couldn't be more proud of this school then she was at this very moment. How amazing it was to hear a child say positive things about adults. Too many times in this very spot she heard the negative. "Have you told them? It is wonderful to hear that our staff is doing so well for you."

As she listened to the boys her head shook to his question, "No, that's not true. There was a time the elves slacked in their work because they were too worried about a baby elf." She eyed the little one with them. "Things were becoming very messy during that time." She had heard about a fire as well. "I haven't seen anything suspicious, but with all the cobwebs and dirt it is hard to see through our portraits. "

Maggie still thought the whole idea of this homework was ridiculous.

Actually, Professor Flamsteed was ridiculous. Like. A pet rock? She still wasn't over that. And then he'd managed to lose it. And now they were supposed to help him find it again. However, it was an easy enough task so she'd quickly made that poster. With a reference to the moon and everything.

Walking down from the second floor, Maggie stopped by a particularly ugly portrait. Like. Why would anyone want to portrait THAT? And then the next question naturally was, why on EARTH would they hang it up in the castle? She wrinkled her nose at the portrait. And then quickly pulled out her wand, grabbed one of the posters (she had even ANIMATED it like, she was the awesomest wasn't she?) and hung it right over that particular ugly portrait.

Ah yes. That was a lot better.