Helena returned his smile graciously and nodded, her dark curly hair falling in front of her face. She quickly brushed it aside. That's the key: pretend like you don't know I'm your secret stalker. She grinned, still fumbling with the edge of her bag slightly.

ooc: gotta go. goodnight.

Chris laughed. "So now I have a stalker. Which in some ways is cool. But it's mostly creepy." He said teasing Lena.

Helena nodded and sighed dramatically. Yeah.... I get that a lot. She grinned at him and began walking very slowly toward the main staircase - clearly allowing Chris to follow if he so desired. Helena hoped that he would. She enjoyed having someone to talk to.

"Your not really stalking me are you?" Chris asked Lena and then winked to let her know he was joking. But then he saw her start to walk. He followed her.

Helena smiled as he spoke and followed her and then replied, Of course not. Honestly, I only stalk the people I don't like. She smiled again - this time at him - and headed down the stairs.

ooc: entrance hall, perhaps?

Chris laughed. "Then I must remember to stay on you're good side." He told Lena. Stilling following her down the stairs.

occ: sure

Sam wandered down the corridor with a scowl on her face. The morning had not been nice to her. First she had gotten a Howler from her mom for being rude in Herbology, which she wasn't sorry for because it still made her giggle. Then she had lost her good scarf. And just now her "faithful" cat just ran away from her and is no where to be seen. Great day so far.

Juniper, as always, had a book open just under her nose. She had had far too many experiences with walking into people, though, so she was not actually reading it as she walked. She was more just walking with a book open. It was far handier to keep a book open to a certain page than to close it and search for that same page every ten minutes, though.

And it was a good thing she was not reading, too. There was a Gryffindor girl right in front of her. Juniper stopped short and closed her book. She knew that girl. Her name was... Sarah... Susie..... Stacey.. No! It was Stephanie. Juniper was almost positive the girl's name was Stephanie.

"Hi," Juniper said cheerfully, smiling at the older girl. "You're Stephanie, right?"

Deciding on going down to the Great hall to get lunch, when a familiar brunette came up to her calling her Stephanie? Ew. She would hate if that was her real name. Then again she wasn't thrilled with Samantha either. But she was bored, so might as well mess with the girl.

"Yeah, call me Steph though. Stephanie annoys me." she chuckled lightly. Sam had a little trouble remembering the younger girl's name as well, but she remembered the nickname she had given her. "So what's up Jupiter?"

Juniper blushed slightly. She had forgotten that Stephanie-no, Steph-did not like being called Stephanie. She would have to remember that. At least she had remembered the girl's real name, though. That was good. Juniper could be proud of that.

"Oh, right. Sorry, Steph," Juniper said with a small smile. Jupiter? Like the planet? Eh... oh well. She supposed her name did sort of resemble that of the planet Jupiter. "Erm. I was just reading about some spells that are useful in duels." She glanced about them. They were right outside the dueling arena. That gave Juniper an idea.

"Would you like to practice dueling, in the dueling arena?" Juniper asked Steph the Gryffindor. She had completely forgotten that Stephanie Steph was two whole years older than her and had that much more experience.

Sam couldn't help but let a grin fall onto her face as Jupiter called her Steph. Steph wasn't such a bad name. Maybe she should change her name soon. "No problem. People forget my name all the time." Ah! She was so witty. Heehee.

The Gryffindor listened to the little Ravenclaw as she began talking about the book she was reading. Ugh books. That was more of Vannah's department. But she grew interested when Jupiter began describing some spells she learned for dueling. That sounded fun. "What spells did you learn?" she asked, a friendly smile falling onto her face.

When the curly haired girl asked if she wanted to duel she nodded her head enthusiastically. "Sure! I'm a but rusty, so you might beat me." she chuckled. She loved Defense Against the Dark Arts, but she never really practiced it. "After you." she said, bowing lightly with a chuckle.

Juniper grinned at Steph and reopened her book. "Erm. I read about theee... Furnunculus and incarcerous and the leek jinx." She skimmed the page she had opened to. "And that's all I can remember right now." She held up the book. "It's very descriptive. My mum gave it to me as an early birthday present." She did not mention that she would rather have gotten a puffapod as a gift.

A grin crossed Juniper's face as the older Gryffindor enthusiastically agreed. Wonderful. She had always wanted to practice dueling but never had. Maybe Steph could teach her some spiffy new tricks. Her face fell a little as Steph admitted to being rusty. Maybe she would not learn anything. But there was always room for improvement!

"Oh. Okay, let's go," she said, leading the way to the Dueling Arena.

Lyra began her search of the foggy creatures on the first floor. Apparently this was where Peeves was and she wondered where the others would be. She had a few things wrote down on the Grey Lady, which was enough for now but she needed more. She eased up close to the wall to peek down the hallway to see if there was a ghostly figure...somewhere...anywhere.

Robert walked along the first floor in no hurry to go back to the common room at all when he saw Lyra walking slowly and...oddly along the corridor. Smirking he slowed his steps so they were quite and edged his way up behind her. When she turned to look down the hall way he stopped right behind her suddenly and said, "Boo!" He laughed and looked down at her "What're you doing?"

Lyra was completely concentrating on one thing, any odd movement throughout the hallway until...

"EEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!"

Lyra screamed loudly when someone sneaked behind her to say 'boo'. Immediately, she placed her hand over her chest and closed her eyes. She was trying her best to catch her breath as she was inhaling deeply. "You scared Merlin out of me," she said out of breath, leaning against the way and opening her eyes to look at Robert. "Remind me to contact you when I need someone quiet and sneaky.

"I'm in search of a ghost," she said as her eyes looked down the hallway.

Robert grimaced as Lyra screamed and covered his ears, "Dear lord!" As she calmed herself he brought down his hands and laughed, "I will if you remind me not to do that again. Think you busted my ear drums there."

AT her explanation he followed her glance down the corridor, "A ghost eh?" He looked thoughtful for a moment then down at her, "Any particular reason?"

Elizabeth had just gotten inside from going to visit Macavity, when she thought she heard Robert's voice coming from the corridor. Raising one eyebrow in curiosity, a hint of mischievousness in her eyes, she turned to creep down the corridor, silently thanking herself for deciding to wear her ballet flats that day since they made no noise on the stone floor.

As she turned a corner, she saw him standing with Lyra, both of them looking down the corridor as they talked about ghosts. Sliently making her way behind the tall Ravenclaw, she grinned to herself before tapping his arm. "Any specific ghosts?," she then siad without announcing her arrival, remembering the discussion she had had with Ludo outside a while ago about Peeves.

Lyra smirked at Robert's reaction to her scream. "Serves you right," she said as a matter of fact then winked playfully. Lyra thought for a moment but then shook her head. "I can't say at the moment. It's a secret," she said then began to ponder over things. "Well, I can tell you some, but not all."

She leaned in closer making sure that Peeves was no where in sight, but like that would stop him. "You see," she began to whisper. "I need to...follow them around. See what they are up too." She paused for a moment thinking of her words. "Spy on them." OHHHHHHHH! She was a spy once more but where was her partner-n-crime. Spies-R-Us was in motion again. WOOT!

"OMG!" Lyra said as Elizabeth made her way behind Robert. "Honestly, you people need bells!" She began to giggle and shook her head.

"Actually at the moment, I am searching for any of them...Peeves in particular." As SOON as she said the name her eyes began to go shifty around the hallway. That little thing could pop out at any time.

Robert raised his eyebrow as she spoke, "A secret?" What could be such a secret to have her snooping around down here looking for ghosts... As she leaned closer to him he leaned down, "What they're up to....but why..."

Just then he felt someone tap his arm and he spun around to find Elizabeth there, "Bloody hell...." He laughed and turned toward Lyra, "Is this 'divine retribution'?" He looked at her curiously, "Why Peeves exactly?"

"Not just Peeves in particular," Lyra began, keeping her voice down as she didn't want to wake them in her direction, she just wanted to spy, find out what they are doing. "I want to stalk, to see what they are doing, why are they here? I mean, what if we could find the story as to why the ghosts are back?" There had to be a reason, she just knew it. "Don't you wonder that yourself? I think everyone does..."

Elizabeth smiled at Lyra, trying not to laugh at the comment about bells. Trying to keep an innocent look in her eyes, she said, "I can't help it if I don't make nay noise in these shoes. Besides, if you're really trying to spy on anyone, I would think silent movements are an advantage." She raised an eyebrow again as Lyra then brought up Peeves, wondering if the Huffie had known what she had been thinking about. "Why would you want to find Peeves?," she asked rhetorically, before grinning mischievously at Robert's response to her appearance.

"Do you think you need divine retribution for something?," she teased, before turning back to Lyra. "I know Professor Truebridge is wondering why the ghosts are back. One time when I was talking to him, he got really interested when I said the Grey Lady had talked to us," she siad, glancing at Robert again. "And then he asked me to let him know if I found anything else out about them."

Anna turned the corner and found herself strolling down the first floor corridor. She'd been bored and had just been making her way around the castle, trying to figure out what she could find to amuse her on this boring Thursday evening. As she walked, Anna caught site of a few students gathered up ahead. Hmm...where there was a gathering, there was usually a reason to gather---and more often than not, it wasn't simply to "just talk."

"Lyra Noir!" Anna called out, walking up and joining one of her best friends and the group standing near her. "What's going on around here?" Anna smiled and nodded a greeting to the others, not wanting it to seem as if she were ignoring them.

Lyra tilted her head to the side and snickered. Her hand immediately clamped to her mouth as Robert and Elizabeth were too funny. "Robert is there anyone in this school who does NOT flirt with you and your tall self?" She rolled her eyes and was about to walk down the hallway a little further but stopped dead in her tracks when Elizabeth spoke.

This was one professor she had yet to meet and...hmmm..."Maybe we need to go and visit this profes-WHAT...is wrong with all the sneaky people?" She jumped in her shoes once again. She really had to stop all the jumpiness but she couldn't help it, she was on a mission and that required spying...which in turn required...stalking. Jumpy situations called for good lookouts.

"Bananaaaa," Lyra said calmly as a smile appeared on her face, but it was not just any smile, it was the mischievous smile, the one that stated she was definitely up to something.

Robert shrugged, "Umm...then..." He looked at Lyra curiously, "I'm not sure. I mean what if they just decided to come back and there's no big mystery. You'd feel kind of silly then wouldn't you," he said with a smirk.

Hearing Elizabeth he laughed, "She does have a point. Can't be wearing loud shoes when you're playing super spy. Would kind of defeat the purpose." Looking back toward Lyra he looked curious, "Maybe she has a masochistic desire to get picked on by Peeves..." Looking back at Liz he laughed, "You could say that. I just scared Lyra half to death." As she spoke about Truebridge and his desire for information he looked thoughtful, "Hmmm...he's kind of odd you know that....Why would he be so interested in the ghosts?"

His thoughts were broken as someone came up yelling Lyra's name. Turning toward the Gryffindor Prefect he nodded a greeting and turned back to Lyra, "Umm...let me think...I can only think of one person..." he smirked and leaned down toward her, "Come on you know you have fun..."

"Ohhh, I know what that smile means," Anna said, her own face forming a mirror-image smile of Lyra's. "What are you about to get yourself into, and how can I be involved?" The best thing about being friends with Lyra Noir was that Anna never had to worry about missing any of the interesting happenings going on around the school. If something good was happening, Lyra was always either already a part of it, or knew how to become a part of it.

"Oh, you two are talking about the ghosts, aren't you?" Anna asked, picking up on bits and pieces of the conversation. "I think it has something to do with this treasure hunt we went on last school year. During the hunt, we accidentally knocked down a good many of the school's walls. Do you think we possibly upset them or freed them or something?" Anna asked, shrugging while she asked that question.