The only truely frightening thing about this castle was the moving staircases. When Noelle had first got on one, she had almost fallen due to the staircase moving while she was trying to get on it. Of course, she was distracted by all the students, and trying to find her common room, but still. SHE COULD HAVE DIED.


Only.... not really because she had only been getting on the second floor. But now, Noelle was on the fourth floor, trying to get up to the fifth floor. The staircase had already decided to move just as she was about to get on it. Now she was waiting for it to come back. She didnt think her tiny little body would have survived that fall if she had fallen then.

Noelle sighed as she waited. Come on moving staircase!

All Rooney wanted to do was get back to his common room in the quickest way possible, but he had been held up by a lost first year two floors down and that had been the critical thirty seconds that left him now waiting for the staircases to be done moving. Taking his notebook from the back of his trousers, he flipped to the inside cover and looked at his diagram of where the staircases would go and ultimately for an alternative route to get to his destination. He looked between his notebook and the stairs a few times and then beside him as he was joined.

"They'll sort themselves out in a moment." He informed the first year. Or so he assumed she was a first year because she definitely wasn't in his year and he didn't recognise her as an older student.

More so, she didn't look like an older student.

Noelle danced and jiggled as she waited on the stairs. Why were they so darn slow? She hopped from foot to wait. Energy running through her body She just wanted to get to her common room. Was that too much to ask?

Hearing someone beside her, Noelle glanced at who it was. She wasnt shy but in huge crowds. Even then it was a pick and choose kind of thing. " I know... but why are they so slow? The first time I stepped on one... it started moving before i could get fully on it!" she told him, her hopping from foot to foot stopping. It seemed the energy had moved to her mouth. He had said one sentence to her and she had run off the mouth at him.

"I'm Noelle Grace Summers. First Year Gryffindor." Because thats how everyone introduced themselves around here and also... because she wanted everyone to know. Wanted them to know her name and that she was a Gryffindor.

Rooney shrugged, and considered her question himself. It hadn't occurred to him that the stairs moved slowly, but he could see her point. But he read into her question a little more than he normally would. "I think it's so if they move when you're on them.. It isn't enough to knock you from your feet and over the edge. Could be a fatal fall." If she wasn't scared before...well she probably was going to be now, huh? To compensate for his awful behaviour, he reached into the pocket of his robes and offered her a sweetie with an apologetic smile.

Soz kid.

"Rooney Alexander Bronwyn. Second year, Ravenclaw." Brother of Calliope Rook, Brinlee Eve, Luca Reid, Deacon Cruz and Teddy Matthew. Son of Tamzin Lianne and Dexter Nico. Officially, anyway.

Noelle considered what he had said. So... thats why they moved slowly. Noelle, who was a ball of energy most days, didnt pause to think about it. " Actually.... that makes a lot of sense... " Noelle said to the boy.. who just introduced himself the same way she did. She smiled. "Nice to meet you Rooney! Thats a unique name!" Noelle stated and continued to wait for the stairs.

FINALLY!

They were here. "SO did you come to Hogwarts last year as well?" Has met a lot of transfers and just wanted to make sure. Besides, small talk was always nice. Noelle was forever trying to make friends. Strangers were just people you haven't met yet.

"Why thank you, Miss Noelle Grace Summers. I'm a fan of yours. The contrast between your first and last is interesting." Winter and summer relations aside, though, it was a well-rounded and healthy name. And he was sure that it suited her in all of the ways that her parents had given it to her and their reasons for it. "When is your birthday, Noelle Summers?" Had she been born in December and that was the reason for her name? It was all a big question.

None that she had to answer, but he would appreciate it muchly.

As he stepped onto the stairs that had stopped moving, he nodded. "I started last year with my sister, yes."

He was so prim and proper. And so inquisitive! Noelle glanced at his tie and saw the blue. Yep! She knew it. Ravenclaw! She smiled when he complmented her name though. She was quite proud of her whole name, which was why she told it to everyone and anyone.
"[B]Thank you!! I love my name![B]" Of course she knew that he probably already knew that because he was so smart.

'I was born in September. September 18th to be exact." she wasnt sure why he needed to know that but it was probably something to do with how smart he was and him trying to figure something out. She would let him too.... she just wanted to know.. "Why?"

Oh! He must be a second year then! "Thats amazing! How did your first year go? Any good stories? Dragons? Knights in armor?" Because thats the first thing you thought of when thinking of Hogwarts.... adventure.

"Because your first name is associated with Christmas and the Winter season." September was neither of those, unless positions of holidays and seasons had shifted since this morning. When he last checked his ever-changing calendar. He'd had it since he was born, Aunt Candice had gotten it for him and it was one of his most treasured posessions. It had everything he had ever taken part in, thought about doing and actually done in it. All twelve years of his life.

"...Spiders." Well..he wasn't lying.

Bored. Bored. Bored. AJ had been on adventures, played on the playground and yet she was still not satisfied. Too much energy, and not enough playtime was enough to make any Gryffindor go slightly mad.

Before long she found herself aimlessly wandering around the castle without any particular destination in mind. Her eyes landed on the staircase. Oh yeah. This could be fun since she knew they moved. When they would move was anybody's guess so that was an added bonus.

AJ ran over and climbed the stairs and stood there. Nothing. C'mon. This was going to get boring and fast. "MOVE." Did the stairs even take commands? It didn't seem like it. Ugh...

Candice was back from her jogging routine and was about to go back to her common room on the Seventh Floor. She didn't ahve any trouble at all with the staircase. Apparently today the staircase decided to spare her some trouble.

She was on the fourth floor when she heard someone shouting. AJ? Or was it Angel? But it couldn't be Angel, since she's not the kind of person who liked to shout? "AJ?" Fingers crossed that she's right. "Hi! What are you doing?" She asked while walking closer to her. "Are you harassing the staircase?"

Stomp. Scream. Stomp. Scream.

Only nothing was working. Of course it never occurred to the girl to ask nicely... it never seemed to cross her mind, really. AJ was getting bored fast, but she was oh so restless. What was a girl to do? Just as she was contemplating kicking the side of the stairwell, she heard a voice.

Turning her head in the direction of said voice brought a smile to her face. "Sup, Candice." What an opportune moment to happen across the fifth year. "I wanted to go for a staircase ride, but I can't get it to do anything." Story of her life. "I wouldn't have to harass the staircase if it would cooperate." Just saying.

"Know a secret? I was just about to kick it." A beam was on her face as if she had just come up with the perfect solution.

Noelle grinned. No one was as inquisitive about her name as he was... or they didn't point it out. Either way, it was nice to finally be told her name fit well... because her parents had planned it that way. "Papa used to say he was covering all his bases.. " SIGH. Noelle missed her living and adoring parents.

Her thoughts were pushed aside when Rooney said something about spiders..... Spiders?? Visible shaking was occurring.

"There aren't anymore right?" Noelle asked looking around. She HATED spiders. Traumatic experience dealing with spiders when she was itty bitty......well... more itty bitty.

Climbing up those stairs making her hungry. She wished that she grabbed something from the Kitchen before going back to her dorm. But what's done is done.

And speaking of stairs. Apparently her housemate didn't get any luck with the moving staircase. "Nothing much. Just got back from jogging." And she didn't need to ask the same question to AJ because she already knew what's up with her. Harassing the staircase. "Staircase ride? That sounds fun. Still have room for me?" Maybe with two people on it, the staircase would move?

Secret? She LOVED secrets. Huh? She's about to kick it? "But then you gonna hurt your feet?" And broke her nails. Because the staircase was hard as a rock.

Jogging. That sounded boring. Yeah, AJ was athletic but just running around aimlessly got boring. "I need music to rock out to when I jog." Otherwise, it got old. AJ needed to have her attention grabbed in order not to want to move on to the next thing.

A huge smile appeared on her face as soon as Candice not only agreed to her little adventure as being fun, but she said she wanted to join her. "I insist that you join me." Who was she to deny her friend fun? And if this staircase ever got to moving, it wold be waaaay more entertaining than jogging.

"Maybe so," she said with a shrug. A little bit of pain never hurt anybody, and AJ was not scared. "If I would have been running late then this thing would have moved hundred times." Wasn't it funny how that worked out. The lion started to jump up and down hoping that would trigger something.

She need to stay in shape so she could still do some diving with her uncle next summer and the only thing she could think of by doing some jogging around the school grounds. "Yeah. I sometime need that too." But today she just need a very peaceful and quite jog.

Candice grinned when her fellow Gryffindor said that she's insisted for her to join her. "Cool!" She hoped that this staircase going to move soon. Or she might joining AJ kicking this stupid stairs.

"Really? it did that? When I was running late it never move. I have to yell at it a couple of times before it finally moved." And she was pretty sure the portraits were not happy with the yelling. "So what should we do then? Kick it like your original plan?" Because she kinda tempted to do that too.

"Used t-- Sorry. Bases all covered, yes." He would have apologised further, but Noelle went into a panic about things and they were running out of time to move up the stairs before they moved again. Really, honestly, they were. But this was his own fault, and not hers. He was the one that had answered her question with apparently the worst thing in the world..?

Rooney put a supportive hand on her shoulder and nodded. "No more. None at all." Well, if she didn't go looking in the cracks of walls and under her bed. Maybe in the bathrooms too. Dark and damp places.

Noelle was distracted by the spiders and her eyes were darting every which way. She knew just there were big huge spiders lurking in every corner now. You know how you realize you have a bug on you and then you brush it off and kill it but you still feel as if bugs are crawling all over you? That's how Noelle was feeling right now.

"i won't go looking through the cracks. Or any... Damp and dark places." Oh! They were going to miss the staircase! Jumping up, she saw it had come and was already starting to move. Noelle grabbed Rooney's wrist and pulled him up on the step before they missed it.

"Im sorry. I didn't want us to loose our chance on getting on these things."

Rooney smiled, took his wrist back and places his hand into his pocket. "I think you'll be fine. House spiders will be harmless, I promise. Besides, you're a Gryffindor. Isn't the stereotypical trait that you're brave?" Roo wasn't positive that that was true in the entirety of those sorted into the house of lions. They could keep their idea of it, but he was CERTAIN that not all of them were defiantly brave, outlandish and ready to face uncommon terrors.

Spiders were common terrors, however.

"Where are you heading, Miss Noelle?"

It wasn't so much as the house spiders than the huge humongous outrageous spiders that Noelle was terrified of seeing. House spiders were icky and ew but she could deal with those..... one at a time. Now a whole swarm... and she might be heading for the hills.

"embrace but I don't think people can be brave all the time, and people have their little.... quirks. I have a few of them. One of them being spiders... I'm not a fan." Which was entirely too true. "I love other things!"

Noelle studied the studious boy a moment before answering, "I was heading to the common room... well.. my common room. I need to of some homework. Where are you headed Mr. Rooney?"

How he had managed to get to the fourth floor was beyond him but the longer he stayed in sheep form the easier it was to get used to walking on four legs. Another obstacle came when he entered the moving staircase area. First he was stuck in the Gryffindor Common Room portrait hole and now this ...luckily this little Ravenclaw had helped him out earlier but he couldn't ask for help now...

He waited until the stair in front of him was on the top where he stood and then Sheep!Yoongi looked sideways because he learned that he could not see well in front of him and took a step. He walked down the stairs that already started to move again and thanks for the sudden movement he missed a stair and let out a loud "BAAAAAAAAA!" in shock.

He couldn't wait to get downstairs and be in the open field. He was SO going to try grass now that he was a sheep!

"Oh? Which other things do you love?" If she was using that word, then what were these special things that she was so invested in? There were very few things that Rooney could say that he loved, and all of them had the surname Bronwyn, and the other was the feeling in the pit of his stomach when he stood on stage and a spotlight hit him.

"The same. -- Not.. Not your common room, but my common room because I have reading to catch up on." Actually he had five books with six chapters each to read. 30 chapters to make notes on before bed if he could stay awake that long. As soon as he got tired, he had the habit of going to sleep because his brain was not working at it's best then.

what things did she love??
Noelle grinned at the things that flashed across her mind. "Theres physical things and not physical things. Like, I love my horse Saber. She's the best. But I also love the smell of pumpkin but hate the taste of them." Noelle was random. And she loved her random world.

Whoa. So much stuff! "Wow!! Are you forever doing school work? Does it just get harder with each year?" Was she going to make it through all seven years?? She couldn't imagine being perched up doing homework. She loved the outdoors.

Heh.
Another thing she loved.

Was Miss Noelle Summers aware that she talked a lot for someone who made very little points? And that 'not physical things' was a bad description of an object. Maybe she needed that reading that he was doing later. Of course, his intentions were to read about transfiguration theory and not physical and not physical things, not the smell versus the taste of pumpkin. "Not forever. Just when I have time." Time which he didn't mind setting aside for absorbing words from a page.

"That's the point of school, is it not? To test us as the years pass by?" Or was he under the wrong impression about education?

Noelle had a lot to learn. She knew this but she didn't want to have her nose in a book all seven years she was here. He was making her uncomfortable. She got the feeling that he thought he was smarter than she was.. Which he was being older and a Ravenclaw, but the matter of factness could do away. Noelle nodded at him and played with the hem of her shirt. "Well that's good..." She stated but didn't know what more to say.

"Yes with the tests, but that's not all school is for is to take tests." She was doing okay in classes but this was her first year. She still had a LOT to learn. "I mean.. I just don't want to have my nose in a book and a quill in my hand every second of the day and night." That was it.

Noelle bit her cheek and looked at the staircase. She smiled at him because she felt like he could use a smile. Then she turned her attention back to the staircase.