Anna followed Lyra's gaze, watching as professor after professor filed into the room. Were they going to get into trouble or something? Hopefully not. "Lyra!" Anna whispered. "If anyone, you always know what's going on. So go on...spill it. Who put this mirror here, and why? ...and is it some sort of bad thing? There must be...four...five professors in here now." Anna glanced back at Lyra and then towards the door. "Think we should leave?" she asked, stepping towards the door. She quickly turned back around and faced Lyra again, though. "Well, nevermind. I guess we could stick around for a little while and see what happens..."

Cale watched the bickering between the professors and a few students, getting more confused by the minute. All this talk was bothering him, and he felt like he had done something wrong by coming in here and finding the mirror on accident. He knew that mirror had been trouble...he had felt it in his gut. And Anna didn't want to listen to him! Booooo.

Suddenly, the talk of ghosts came up and something rang a bell in his brain. MYRTLE! She had sent them here! Well, not necessarily ordered them up here or anything, but she had said something about this portrait that he had only just remembered. "Professors--if you don't mind me adding something...I think that ghost Myrtle might have something to do with this. Or at least, she KNOWS something about this," he told them. "I think that other lady ghost knows too--you see, we were all in the Prefect's bathroom talking with the two ghosts and Myrtle wanted to be juvenile and have all of us spill a secret, and she said that there was a ghost on the sixth floor who didn't like to be tickled, and then the lady ghost practically flipped out and they both disappeared." he recalled. "Maybe THEY know something about how it got here."

"Oh, that's right!" Anna exclaimed, suddenly glad she hadn't made her way out the door a few seconds ago the way she'd originally planned to. "You see, Kayla Winters, the Hufflepuff prefect, invited all the prefects into our bathroom a few days ago. When I got there, Myrtle was already inside. Cale's right...she was the one who put the idea into our heads that something unusual was up here. I'd kind of cast the thought aside, though, as I actually ended up finding the room by accident." Anna promptly closed her mouth and glanced at all the professors, wondering if someone...somewhere...would figure out something sooner or later.

Glancing at the panting Jake next to her rather doubtfully Nancy had just opened her mouth to say something along the lines of What on earth had gotten into him to just give a note about something as important as this to some random person but Professor Forrester beat her to it. The only difference was that she probably wouldn't have been that angry with Jake and certainly hadn't deducted any points from Hufflepuff, mainly because she wasn't able to take points from any student. Right...

Nancy bit her lip slightly as she listened to the professor's and Jake's discussion about the note for the headmaster which wasn't exactly going well, at least not for Jake. He's in Slytherin, Sir. That's what Jake had said for his defence which caused Nancy to open her mouth to add something even though she'd actually keep quiet during the whole thing since she wasn't exactly too keen on losing housepoints herself. "It was Cam, right?" She whispered to Jake before adding a little louder her face turned towards Professor Forrester, "Sir, I agree with Jake here, the Slytherin boy really is trustworthy so there shouldn't be a problem with that." Of course it had been wrong of Jake to not go to the headmaster himself but at least he hadn't given the note to someone he didn't even know or anything. It could have been worse.

Shifting a bit Nancy leaned back once again onto the wall behind her while eying Jake rather anxiously. He wasn't crying, was he? Was he? She decided that as long as he didn't burst out in tears right there there was no need to ask or do anything about it. So Nancy just resumed to look around the room for something that would help them solve this mystery before her head jerked around to look at the Gryffindor Prefects as Cale spoke up. Myrtle? "Maybe someone should go get them then...the ghosts, I mean." She said to no one in particular before waiting for some reaction.

Nick was hovering just outside the door of the room, listening to the conversation of the students and the staff. He heard one of the students mention the word "ghosts" and decided that this might be a good time to make his presence known. Just at that moment he flew into the room, calling out "Good day, everyone!" as he inspected the group, floating over them. Surprising how many people were here.

Lyra turned her head as yet another staff member made their way into the little room with the beautiful mirror. Well, all mirrors were beautiful to her, this one was just...different. Her eyes gazed at Mr. Groundskeeper for a moment until Banana started asking...or better yet accusing her of knowing something.

Lyra opened her mouth to speak but only short noises such as "er...uhhh...hmmm" were the only things that came out. She was speechless and she was NOT having that. She opened her mouth to speak again, but nothing came out. She knew nothing and couldn't express that she knew nothing. All she did was shake her head as her eyes glared at Banana for a moment. This was not the time to place the spotlight on her, she wasn't looking her best after her little crying spell she had.

But then Cale spoke, THANK GOODNESS! "You have to tickle something," she asked as she placed her hands to her side. No one was tickling her, that was for sure, unless they didn't want to hear anymore. She had yet to see Myrtle but the other ghost lady to had to be "You mean the Grey Lady," she corrected Cale with a smirky look on her face. She had a name too and that was the only ghost she had met.

Her eyes looked back to everyone standing in the room as if she were waiting on someone to say something.

Jake pulled his hands away from his eyes, rather annoyed. And then there was a chocolate frog in front of him.

"Wha- oh... thank you... Barry," he said uncertainly, accepting it. Whaaaaaat? Ahh, Barry was cool. Even if he did call him Jakey. Jake looked at Nancy and nodded once. His eyes were red where he'd been pressing on them, and things were a tad blurry, but oh well.

People were talking of leaving again. "If you do go, then I think the thing that has GOT to happen is the one thing that is advised not to happen, but I've already explained it. You gotta tickle the sleeping dragon, maybe with the Portrait closed?" Jake looked around, inwardly cursing his age. Nobody listened to first years, and it sucked. "Because of the school motto... Something along the lines of 'Never Tickle Sleeping Dragons...'" And don't ignore me this time, you... tall people.

"Sir Nicholas," Jake exclaimed as the ghost entered, knowing it had been a matter of time before one had. But Jake had expected the Grey Lady or the Bloody Baron, the latter of which would be impressed with his little Slytherin buddies. "How much did you hear, sir? What do you reckon we should do? Or... know?"

Upon hearing Myrtle spill their secret, and after making a rather dramatic departure from the prefect's bathroom, the Grey Lady raced upstairs as quickly as she could; only to be waylaid briefly by Peeves.

By the time she reached the secret room behind the portrait, it was already filled with students and professors alike who had already discovered the mirror. Professors?! They couldn't be allowed to...Something would have to be...It would be disastrous...What would he..They had promised....Her mind was a twister of thoughts.

Thoroughly conflicted, she remained just outside of the room for the time being. Sir Nicholas was already present. Perhaps he would have an idea...

Lifting a pale hand, she beckoned for him to join her, keeping her face impassive so as not to alert the students to her tumultuous thoughts.

"Good day, Sir Nicholas," Anna greeted, smiling politely at the ghost. She then fell silent, truthfully not knowing what else to do. Maybe she should point blank ask Sir Nicholas if he knew anything about the mirror. It couldn't hurt, after all. "Sir Nicholas, do you know anything about this mirror or how it got here? It seems to be quite the mystery and none of us can figure it out. Have you heard anything mentioned?" she asked. Anna took a small step backwards towards Cale, a little nervous about the question she'd just asked.

Just as Cale had brought up his theory on the ghosts, two of them showed up. Sir Nicholas, and the ghost Lyra had just told him was named the Grey Lady. "Wait!" he called, hurrying up to the two of them. The Grey Lady was clearly anxious, and it looked like she wanted to talk to Sir Nicholas in private. "Erm, could we talk to you both for a second?" he asked, looking at both of them. He hoped they didn't think he meant any harm or anything...he was just looking for some answers. "Please?"

What the-?!

"Why won't they listen to me?!" Jake asked Nancy, not troubling to keep his voice down. "I've said it too many times now! Nothing!"

Well then, I'll just eat my chocolate and youuuuuuuu won't get any! Ha! That's right, all for me! Mine, mine, MINE!!!!! Pity I'm not chocolate's biggest fan... and the fact that sugar might have a slight tendency to make me... Hyper.

"Bwahahahahahaaaaa," Jake muttered, and hoped that the Prefects with selective hearing would work it out soon.

Still waiting for either the Prefects or the professor or at least some other students to show some reaction to her suggestion of searching for the ghosts Nancy crossed her legs while looking back and forth between all the people that were inside the room at the moment. Wasn't there anyone who knew what to do now??
A small shriek escaped her lips as out of the corner of her eyes she noticed all of a sudden the presence of a ghost, Nearly Headless Nick to be more specific. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down again but just as she was about to ask Nearly Headless Nick about the whole thing and what they were supposed to do another ghosts appeared out of thin air. The Grey Lady. Well, she had to know what was going on, right?

There was no need to say something herself, though, since Cale raised his voice asking the two ghosts to please answer some of their questions. Hopefully they would agree. Upon hearing what Jake had whispered Nancy put a finger towards her mouth to tell him he should be quiet before saying in a whisper, "We need to manage to make the ghosts talk to us. Maybe you can bring up your theory again afterwards." Hopefully Jake wasn't going to go all whiny now but they really needed to be as quiet as possible now so as to not interrupt the ghosts if they were going to say something. Maybe there was time to discuss Jake's theory later, with or without the ghosts.

At the sound of someone laughing quite loudly, Anna whirled around and came face to face with that Hufflepuff kid Dominic had been talking to in Diagon Alley. "Jake...right?" Anna asked, smiling at the young boy. "Were you...talking to me? To us?" She wasn't sure who'd he'd been talking to, but she wanted to ask just in case. "If you were, then I apologize. This mirror has me so confused...so puzzled...that I can't really concentrate on everything that's going on around me."

"Ok, fair enough," Jake whispered back, trying to keep his voice as low as possible. "But there were no ghosts earlier. It's probably because I'm a first-year," he shrugged, slumping back and waiting. Jake kneeeeeew that he would become restless veeeeeery soon, and the high and mighty would probably try and boot him out again, so he tried his best to sit back and stare at his knees, munching the frog.

Sugaaarrrrrrr...

Wrups...

"Yeah, it's Jake," he nodded. Ooh, a smile. A niiiiiice one. Nice people were good. "I was kinda... talking to the room at large..." Jake explained, looking sideways towards the mirror. "Why was it hidden, though... in such an obvious place, where people were bound to find it?" Jake repeated his other theory, the one Nancy had alerted him to. He'd mention the tickling of the dragon later.

"That's one of the few things I can't work out... like someone wanted it to be found... or, you know, not..."

Hugo was thoroughly confused. He was clinging to Evolette's arm when two ghosts burst into the room. Merlin's Beard! Sir Nicholas and the Grey Lady! Now where was th Fat Friar and the Bloody Baron? Surely Slytherin and Ravenclaw ought to be present at this historical discovery too? Pssh. "Good day Sir and Missus!" He called, beaming at the two ghosts. The Grey Lady looked a little...pale. Hmm. He noticed Curly Boy Prefect and Perfect Miss Greingoth badgering the ghosts for answers. He pushed his way over to Cale, frowning.

"Oi, what's going on?" Hugo asked the seventh year, who'd he'd met previously in the boy's toilets. "This is weird, if ya ask me. Totally unatural. And," he whispered, lowering his voice, "The Grey Lady looks a little...suspicious. Edgy, y'know. Weiiiird."

Evolette had not been paying much attention, until she felt the iron clad grip that Hugo had on her arm, disappear. With a noise of disapproval, she trudged after him. Only just noticing that Cale had appeared, how long had he been there?

Tossing a glance around the room, she noticed that it had become extremely crowded. Woah. She must have spaced out or something.

Cale looked over at that one Slytherin bloke, whose name he couldn't remember at the moment. He remembered meeting him once in the bathroom--gah, he KNEW he was the guy who liked his hair as much as Cale liked his own, but what was his name?

HUGO! Yes, that was it! Evolette's friend! Duh, Newell. "Well, I think the ghosts might have something to do with the reappearance of this mirror--or they know about it at least," he added. He looked over at the doorway where the Grey Lady was--she hadn't actually come in but Cale had seen her out the door, and probably blown her cover earlier, but they needed answers! "Myrtle was blabbing about this place earlier in the Prefect's bathroom," he added to the Slytherins.

Lyra looked at Cale once again. "You know, where is Myrtle," she began as she placed her hands on her hips. "If she told the Prefects about this secret place, then why is it she cannot come out and face everyone who is in the room now inquiring about it." She knew she was provoking the little girlie ghost but come on, face the fact that she could snitch about it but not turn up.

Cale sighed and rolled his eyes. "I dunno, most likely hiding. I mean, if YOU went and blabbed about something secret that clearly got another one of the ghosts upset, wouldn't you want to get somewhere far away from the mess?" he asked.

He realized a moment later that he was talking to Lyra, and he had a feeling she'd be more content watching the consequences unfold from a safe hiding place. "Wait, nevermind, don't answer that," he said with a sigh.

For once in her life Paris was silent as two professors walked in and stared at the mirror. She wanted to poke Jake in the back and tell him to shut up and just do what Professor Forrester asked him to do, but no he had to run his mouth and she was silently happy that the puffs had lost some points even if it was her friend who lost them.

She was surprised at the appearance of some more ghosts. It igged her that one of them was the Grey Lady. "Oh great," she mumbled.

"Oh no don't call Myrtle," She begged Lyra. "This is a perfectly lovely place without that ship wreck," Well at least there weren't any taps for her to flood.

Nick saw the Grey Lady come into the room just behind him and flew quickly to her side. Hopefully the Baron and the Fat Friar would be joining them soon. He wasn't going to be the one to begin the explanation of what was happening, oh no!, it wasn't in his place to do that, but he was happy to provide reinforcement and add to the story if need be. If there were actually any explaining to be done. He was certain that Peeves and Myrtle had already done their fair share of damage, as it were, and now it was time to try and fix that.

Ah, both Anna and Cale were here. Nick raised a hand in greeting to acknowledge them. He wanted to spend more time with both of them, he liked them and this was the first chance he had really seen Cale personally. Perhaps at a later time, he thought to himself.

She walked over to the ghost she hadn't met you. He might be a nice ghost to know. "Good day sir." She said smiling slight at him. "Paris Greenwood. 3rd year Slytheirn. And who might you be?" She asked him. This was the first time she had ever seen this ghost before.

The Grey Lady appraised the male Gryffindor prefect for a moment as he asked to speak to herself and Sir Nicholas. He could ask whatever questions he wished, but she was not speaking on the subject. That responsibility belonged to someone other than she.

As her gaze wandered the room, she heard Myrtle's name mentioned. Her lips tightened into a severe expression before she realized that Sir Nicholas was at her side.

She glanced towards him meaningfully before looking back at the students. There was no way that she would be able to speak to Nick in this room. They needed to speak alone. With a slight nod of her head, she floated further out of the room.

"Wait" Ray said all of a sudden. "Can you tell us what is happening at least?" He asked. "I mean not even a hint?"

Nick, taking his clue from the Grey Lady, began to drift towards the entrance to the room, further away from the gathered group of students and professors. There were so many of them there, and what was happening was truly none of their business.