"Quodpot is alright, sir," Jasper shrugged neutrally. Sports were sports. They were all fun to play, though some were better than others. Quodpot was was fun and all, but he wouldn't sit and watch a game if he couldn't participate. Hopefully there weren't any die-hard quodpot fans in the room. "But quidditch is more my speed." If they were sharing their opinions, he wouldn't be holding back. So when Jas heard the question from Alfie, he turned to look over at his Hufflebro, dormmate, best bud. "'They're not cool enough, Alf." And whatever Professor Holden said too. Probably. Cool must've been a factor as well, Jas was sure.

Also cool? Making Val smile. That extra essay he had to write? W O R T H I T. He laughed as he read her lips (nice lips) (plump lips) (they looked soft, her lips) and mouthed back with matching energy, "THAT'S ALRIGHT". He really didn't mind. Unless she was willing to kiss him to make him feel better? In that case, he could pretend to mind.

He was slightly distracted (thinking of lips) when it was time to move on to the activity, so he was a bit slow moving. But when he did make a move, he did so swiftly and made his way to stand by Valentina at portrait B. "Hey," he was 100% in his element today. Feeling confident. YOLO. "Sup mystery portrait - Think Val will go on a date with me?" Hm? Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge.

Well that was a remarkably helpful answer, and Evan nodded towards the portrait in appreciation, entirely forgetting that it was covered and naturally could not see him. One day, only 3 more to go. Though before he moved he couldn't help but hear the first year Branxton's question and be entirely impressed by the logical behind something seemingly so random. Evan had no idea if it was based in fact.

But honestly? It sounded pretty spot on based on their personalities.

On to portrait B. Evan stepped in front, careful not to bump into Cailyn as he did so. She'd asked an excellent question as well, and he kept an ear for the answer while coming up with his own. "What's your favorite thing about the house elves?"

'All that glitters is not gold'? No. Maybe. Yes, but Tolkien's was better and more apt right now. So when the Slytherin human(?) questioned it, Milo shook his head, and continued on with the next line. "Not all those who wander are lost."

And then he fell silent, accosted by a sudden realisation.

Which kept him preoccupied, but not enough to stay mercifully lost in his thoughts. The fastest way of figuring out how this game worked had been to try it. There weren't any rules, or at least, Milo - who had never played Who am I? or Twenty Questions or anything similar - didn't know of any. Probably it wouldn't have made a difference if he did. Probably he'd have gone up and taken away the coverings and reached his answers that way. "Skipping basic questions is not a detective skill." He said this to that same Slytherin, but his eyes remained fixed on the covered portraits.

It was strange, to hear laughter like that and not be able to see its source, even though he knew where it came from. Milo was no stranger to being laughed at, and he was not oblivious as to why, but there was never a time it didn't hurt, or sit with him in an uncomfortable way, or put him immediately on his guard, or all of the above. His face was not the kind to wear feelings or thoughts very often so they sat somewhere behind it, blocked and jarring and refusing to make space for anything else.

By the time he had been prompted to ask another question, Milo had already taken to ignoring the voices. He jumped down off his chair, more interested now in his new plan to go and seek out the Hufflepuff common room.

Ms. McLeod’s ears perked up. This was interesting. The portrait had such a lovely laugh, in her opinion. She mentally made a note of the traits she picked up in the portraits reply: persistent, kindness and had a knack of sharing out chocolates. Hmmm. Aria immediately eliminated two certain Founders.

“I see. That’s awfully nice of you.” She paused as she formed another question in her mind, taking time to choose her words carefully. “If you came across a Muggle born who was left to himself because he isn’t liked for his heritage, would you say that you would take him under your wing?''

Cooper felt like he must have sucked up the majority of the analytical genes remaining in the Branxton genepool because Mercer had all the whimsy. He really couldn't but grin over at Celyn after the break down in soupology from his little brother. "I see," he mused while ruffling his own hair with his long fingers before jotting down the question and quickly getting to taking down some notes on the portrait's reply. First was the obvious feminine voice, so that already narrowed things down a fair bit. He was still skeptical as to whether or not Mercer's question would have all that much use, but, remarkably (if one were to be presumptuous that someone's favorite soup be from their homeland) it was...enough for Cooper to draw a conclusion to. Little Mercer, the boy never with a plan who just dove in head first with his curiosity whereas Cooper would have probably spend a great deal of time trying to come up with perfect wording to get the most bang for his galleon with each inquiry.

There was a life lesson to be had there.

"Cullen Skink is a Scottish dish," he pointed out to both Mercer and Celyn - though Mercer was already bounding forward and on to the next portrait. Leave it to a Branxton-Moretti hybrid to solve riddles through food. There was just one female founder who came from Scotland, so that rather summed that up. "Finnan haddie, it's a cold smoked haddock. A type of fish." A hot soup, so, so much for Mercer's initial theories - though he did find his interpretation of Salazar Slytherin's to be amusing.

Jotting down his answer to the first portrait, he followed Mercer to the second and adding to his notes some more. Cooper felt the pet question could be more telling than soup...but watch him be surprised yet again.

Delilah gave a light laugh. So she took it that the portrait felt the same way about brussel sprouts as Delilah did. Her eyes took on a slight look of confusion. "What's a dundee cake?" she asked. She hadn't intended for that to be her next question, but if Portrait A wanted to answer it, that'd be cool, too. She didn't really think it'd help her identify the founder either way.

While she waited for the first portrait to reply to the question...or afterthought, really...she turned to Portrait B. "If I were Muggleborn...," she started. "...which I'm not, but let's just pretend for a second. Anyway, if that were the case, would you want me sorted into your house?" she asked.

Interesting. 'sickening red and a scared lion' was the portraits answers to Rosa's questions. She was by no means a skilled detective, but something about how the B portrait answered her questions made her think it wasn't being truthful with her.

Thinking and thinking Rosa smiled as she asked looking at the portrait."If you find a friend that is lying hurt on the grounds after being attacked by an angry troll that is looming two meters away, what would you do? Would you stay to help your friend and attack the troll because you value bravery and loyalty to a friend or would you turn around and flee the scene to tell a professor because you care more about your own skin being safe than if your friend is hurt?"

There was a lot going on. Ravenclaws being smart, first years asking stupid questions, and most of all, she found that as she listened to the portraits answer questions, she kind of thought she knew which were which. Maybe not 100% sure, but she was pretty close. Portrait one sounded like she might be Ms. Rowena Ravenclaw, and the last portrait seemed like Gryffindor himself. So…

She cleared her throat to get her brain to think of a question. Victoria thought that sounded like an easy enough task.

“I have a question for portrait B!” She announced with a smirk. “What is your opinion on love and do you think true love EXISTS?” She crossed her arms as she waited for a reply. It might seem random, but maybe the idea of love had just been on her mind lately. Friend love….romantic love. Parent love. It was what made her the person she was today, all the various kinds of loves, or lack thereof, that she noticed made people act the way they acted. So. She would see how this portrait answered her.

Summer was trying to figure out the next question to ask when the Professor answered her question. "That would be cool, just imagine the founders having a game of ice hockey!" Summer wondered what Slytherin would be like in that game.

"Do you think they went swimming in the summer?" Summer smiled. "Maybe they played water polo?" Summer thought the Professor might know more because after all he was the History of Magic Professor right.

After a couple of moments, she turned back to the portrait and as if a lightbulb went off in her head, she asked it another question. "Are you the mother of another ghost in the school?" Summer had heard one of them was the mother and one was the daughter, that was right! Right?

OOC: you have 24-28 hours for replies

Oh was Professor Holden Australian too? Celyn wasn't sure how she'd hadn't realized that last year, but she could hear his accent creep through in his words and he basically confirmed that when he mentioned his former school. Or maybe he was half-Australian, like her. But it was kind of a cool coincidence and her questioning expression had turned into one of pleasant surprise, complete with a typical Celyn smile.

"Oh it's okay!," she told him when he apologized for leaving it off. She did understand the reasoning for not including them all, even if she didn't at first. She originally though the lesson was going to be about Wizarding schools, not just Hogwarts and its founders, which did make more sense. Though she wasn't sure why any others were included then in the first place.

No matter though, because they were moving on and so was Celyn. "Yes, of course!" she told Cooper who asked him to join him and his little brother and the other adorable first year Ravenclaw. Were first years always this precious, or just Mercer and Milo? The seventh year collected her things as well and followed Cooper over to the portraits just in time to hear Milo ask the portraits at large their names. She giggled along with the portraits boisterous laughter. That would probably be considered cheating, though she didn't hear any rules to say otherwise.

"What a thoughtful way to figure that out," Celyn commented to Mercer as he broke down what he thought each favorite soup to be. Some of them did seem like a reach, but it was inventive, she would give him that. She gave Cooper a light giggle about it though when he gave her that look, but then turned contemplative. "Oh... I didn't know that." That wasn't the type of thing she would eat, so she didn't know much about fish soups.

Celyn paused before hurrying over to the next portrait with Cooper and Mercer... though Milo... she wasn't sure where he was wandering off to. Anyway! "So.. that one must have been Rowena Ravenclaw," she began, looking at Cooper for confirmation before jotting that down. She wasn't sure if she was Scottish, but she knew that Helga Hufflepuff had been Welsh like her. And it was a female voice, so that was her process of elimination.

Okay, little Mercer asked about a favorite pet, so Celyn figured she should ask something as well. Hmm. "What was your favorite place in the castle when you were here?" Hopefully that told them something as well.

The answer from portrait B got an eyeroll from the Ravenclaw. It didn't take much to figure out who THIS one was. And he knew which Portrait A was too. So now all he needed was to determine who was male and who was female out of the other two. He'd wished he'd been paying better attention to the others answers.

He decided to skip portrait C, believed he'd heard a feminine voice coming from under the covering. And he'd rather ask an odd question of D, if it was who he believed it to be. Evan approached the portrait. "What came first, the chicken or the egg?"

Valentina was standing in front of the potrait still, trying to figure out what her next question should be. She overheard Victoria ask something about true love which made her smile widely. HEHEH. But, anyway - just as she opened her mouth, Jasper was standing right beside her.



"Jasper Botros!!" She exclaimed loudly, surprised and shocked all at once. She stared at him for a second before turning to see where the professor was, cheeks turning slightly red. "You are ridiculous." She shook her head with a little smile, punching him in the shoulder lightly. "You better hope Holden didn't hear that or you just might end up writing another essay."

... and that was when the potrait responded. UMM. Pureblood??? wait, hello? What a weird question. Feeling some kind of way, Val chose to ignore that ( she'd rather have jasper answer that, honestly ) and ask a question of her own.

"What was your favourite subject when you were in school?"

Mercer was DELIGHTED by that answer from Portrait B, and he flashed Cooper and Celyn a pleased grin. Do they see how this was going? Being a Hogwarts student was dead easy. "I like snakes too. We have grass snakes at home, although they don't come out much when it gets cold." Basilisks weren't really snakes, so to speak, but they were related.

Onward! Mercer took Celyn's hand as he headed for Portrait C. So caaaasual. "Hello, nice to meet you. My name is Mercer, and this is my friend Celyn." His voice dropped to a whisper. "She's beautiful. You can't see her, but she is. ANYWAY. What do you like on your pizza?"

Salem-Rain thinks she knows who is who from the questions that was asked and what she had read about the Hogwarts founders but, she thought she would ask a question. "This question is for portrait A. Each founder is known for owning an object. Is the object you owned something you hold or something you wear?"

A slow, pleased smile crept up on Aria’s face. This portrait was definitely Ms. Helga Hufflepuff. “Thank you very much. You have been most helpful,’’ the young woman remarked pleasantly. “Have a lovely rest of the day!’’ With that, Ms. McLeod gracefully made her way to Portrait A. This time, she hovered {not literally} around the group of students crowded there. There were definitely a few good questions being asked and she made mental notes as was done with Portrait C.

Aria heard words like wisdom, creativity and Cullen Skink. Wasn’t Cullen Skink a Scottish soup? Wasn’t Rowena Ravenclaw Scottish? Mhmm. This portrait was definitely Ms. Rowena. Aria decided there was no need to ask any question there and so she skipped off to Portrait D. By the process of elimination, it meant D was either Slytherin or Gryffindor.

“Hello there. Can you tell me who would win in a fight: a lion or a snake?”

SPOILER!!: Answering Holden’s question

Desiree positively beamed when Professor Holden said her answer was nicely said. She considered his question for a moment. There was no doubt which Beauxbatons house she would want to be in, but was Papillonlisse really the best fit for her? She knew she was definitely not Ombrelune material! Maaaaybe she could’ve been a Bellefeuille… the nurturing part sort of sounded like her, but she wasn’t sure about the rest. She thought back to the Papillonlisse traits. Mr. Sorting Hat had said she was kind like her dad, and she was decent at the arts. Not like her dad, but she was good at ballet. She could (somewhat) play piano, and she liked to sing and draw.

“I’d like to think I’d fit in Papillonlisse,” she answered the professor’s question. “Of the three, those traits sound most like me.”

Blink, blink. Desiree was totally lost on this activity. Were they allowed to ask the portraits just anything? She didn’t see how random questions would help them identify the founders in the portraits, and besides, that seemed kind of rude. Unsure what to say, she listened to her classmates’ questions for a minute. Maybe that would give her an idea of what to say or what not to say.

Portraits A, C, and D sounded friendly. Portrait B, on the other hand… Desiree thought he sounded like a big meanie-face! Then he said that about muggleborns. Hey! Her dad was muggleborn, and he WAS! NOT! TAINTED! She wished she knew the spell to rip that portrait like Prince Adam’s, or better yet, set it on fire! Unfortunately, she didn’t know how to do either, so she walked right past that one on her way to talk to a nice portrait.

She stopped in front of Portrait A. “Hello there!” she greeted with her best princess wave, realizing too late that the portrait couldn’t see it. Duh! Stupid Desiree! “Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions. You told someone else that you value creativity. Do you have a favorite form of creativity?”

WHOA. She had seriously hit the jackpot with that question! She smiled widely at the comment from Portrait B, although not because of what he'd meant by it, but because he'd basically introduced himself as Salazar Slytherin. "By the way," she said, as she jotted down her thoughts about Portrait B, "I wanted to be in your house very badly, but apparently the hat thought otherwise. Anyway, thanks for letting me know who you are!"

So she'd had a little talk with D and then B, so now it on to A and C. She scooted on over to Portrait A. "Hello! Since I don't think you're Ravenclaw or Slytherin, let's ask you a Hufflepuff or Gryffindor question!" she began. Why had she listed her own house last in that lineup? She should start changing that! Anyway, she looked back up at Portrait A. "How about...are there any goblin-made objects you are partial to, such as a sword, maybe?" That was a kind of boring question, but she was a first year, not a professor. Her background knowledge was sort of limited, and this one was pretty well-known.

Just hand him and Celyn pompoms, you know?

Chuckling as Celyn voiced precisely what he was thinking, he tickled his temple with his quill and showed her his notes. He would say something along the lines of 'great minds', but it did feel somewhat self explanatory at this point - especially for seventh years like himself. Hopefully the smile and little wink conveyed that well enough. Portrait B's answer was much more on the nose and, well, there really was little left to interpretation there. Mercer, who was NOT taking notes, was looking incredibly pleased with himself (cue a chest puffed with pride from this Ravenclaw) and Cooper hung beside Celyn for a couple of beats while his little brother savored his moment. "Basilisks," he hummed while jotting down Salazar Slytherin. "You know...your brother told me about trying to breed one of those." Which, knowing the man as he did now, was both shocking and not at the same time. He felt confident based on this answer what the response to Celyn's would be...but...one did never know what may come out of the mouth of a portrait.

Cooper had literally only glanced down at his notes for a couple of seconds, mostly prepping for their third portrait ... which would really be the last one they needed to interview since they could sort out the final one by process of elimination, when by the time he had looked up Mercer had grabbed Celyn by the hand and was off. Shaking his head, Cooper followed a few steps behind and may have heard a bit of the stage whisper his little brother had going on there. Which, well, Mercer wasn't lying. "A bit of follow up to the toppings question, if you please," Cooper interjected. It was about time he too contributed to this activity rather than being the supportive shadow. "Would that pizza be with a thin, stuffed, or thick crust? Or none of the above and more of the deep dish variety?"

Did someone say Jasper Botros? Hmmmm? He grinned as he turned to look at Val and promptly mouthed "Whaaat?!" in reply to her exclamation. Heh. Another essay though? He shrugged. "I'm not worried." Professor Holden was cool.

Maybe History of Magic wasn't all that boring after all. But back to that date. "That a yes?"

.....

Did the portrait actually ask him if Val was a pureblood? Jasper scoffed. "Does it matter?" For the record, he wouldn't mind learning more about Val if she did wanna tell him that stuff. Just saying. "Cos it sounds like none of your business, bro."

This was an incredibly interesting activity, getting to ask questions of the founders' portraits. Guessing which hidden portrait was which didn't seem like too difficult of a task, especially as Ivy overheard a few of the questions other students were asking and the answers they received, but that didn't take away from the intrigue and the fun.

Well, other than the response that Portrait B gave about so-called "tainted blood." It was bound to happen that someone would bring that up with the intention of finding that particular person. But it was still irritating to hear. And that was putting it mildly.

Anyway, she decided to step forward and direct her own question to Portrait D. "Would you consider yourself more of a morning person or a night person, and why?" It wasn't specifically tied to the houses or anything, but the four were such unique and different individuals among themselves, and Ivy liked getting to know more of their personalities.

Well Summer knew who portrait C was, now to find out about the other portraits. "Okay, Portraits!" Summer was thinking really hard. "This is for you all except C!" Summer felt bad about leaving C out but well she knew who that was. "I have a very personal question for you!" Summer whispered. "Were you deeply in love with another founder." She had heard rumours, she might as well find out if they were true.

Waiting for an answer from portrait B that never came Rosa started to second guess the questions she had asked so far. Maybe she shouldn't have given the portrait a scenario to answer? Trying to not get down in the dumps over the fact that the portrait she was standing in front of suddenly had gotten untalkative she just concluded that that meant that Salazar Slytherin's portrait was hiding behind the veil.

Listening to the questions that her peers asked around her she tried to discern some clues to which founder was which. Moving over to portrait D for a little talk Rosa greeted "Hi Mr or Mrs portrait! Did you have a favourite class when you went to school? Also do you have favourite place in the castle?"

Victoria caught Val's eye as she asked her LOOOVEly question, and she smiled a little at her older friend??? acquaintance??? before looking back at the portrait. Jasper was like....really into Val. Like more than she had ever observed before.

AND THEN he asked the portrait about if Val would ever go on a date with her - and V short-circuited. "Wait, you like VAL?" she spit out at Jasper, unable to keep it to herself for long. HOW had she never noticed before?! And WHY was class taking place right in the middle of some VERY important stuff ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! The AUDACITY.

She made a FACE at Jasper and folded her arms, a little miffed, to be honest. Of COURSE Jasper liked cuteeee blonde OLDER Valentina. She hoped Lisa hadn't heard that, and that was if Lisa still liked Jasper, which as of this summer SHE HAD. And since Lisa claimed not to like Daniel after the opening feast fiasco, she was sure the girl's feelings hadn't changed. HMPF.

And also, like, also, V was a little miffed that that was probably why her TINY and INSIGNIFICANT, like TOTALLY SMALL crush on him hadn't been reciprocated. Even if V hadn't told him. V hadn't told anyone. Weren't boys supposed to read your MIND when you liked them???????????

Maxine was pretty certain that she had Portrait D figured out. Hello Godric Gryffindor ... she hoped that was right. "Thank you for your time!" She added with a small smile and a courtesy because that seemed appropriate and turned her way toward another group of people asking questions to the Portraits. What could she deduce from what the other students were already asking them.

Turning toward Portrait A this time. "Yes, same question what value do you value most?" Maxine tried to think ... "Wait did someone already ask you that? I'm sorry"