Originally Posted by Artel

History of Magic was... well, it was fine, but it wasn't exactly thrilling. Sinead was all up for learning about the history of the magical community and she knew it was important, but they seemed to spend a lot more time on the boring bits than the interesting ones and at the end of the day, it just didn't match up to classes where they actually got to learn real magic.

This being so, she was in high spirits upon leaving the lesson, practically bouncing along the corridor at the thought of returning to her dorm and curling up with a book and her cat. The fates didn't seem aligned to make that likely, though- not concentrating, she nearly trod on a house elf who was just sat there on the floor. She stumbled in a bid not to trample the elf, losing her balance and throwing out a hand to catch herself on the wall- except, unfortunately, the wall was already otherwise occupied. Her hand caught in a thick tangle of cobwebs before coming to a rest on painted canvas, eliciting a cry of annoyance from the occupant of the portrait.
"Oh- I'm sorry!" she gasped to the elf and the portrait alike, snatching her hand away from the wall and examining it in dismay. Why was the castle so filthy? Hogwarts may have been large, old and draughty, but it was usually still clean for all that.
"What's going on? Are you alright?" She glanced again at her hand and wondered if she could subtly wipe the cobwebs off on a portrait frame. Then again- why wouldn't Scourgify work? With another apologetic glance at the house-elf, she groped delicately in her robes for her wand, trying not to get anything dirty in the process.