She didn't seem too confident in what she was saying. "Are you sure? Where would someone even find paint in the school?" It wasn't like the castle was painted, so he doubted they kept cans of paint somewhere. Plus, even if it wasn't blood why would someone choose the color red? A Gryffindor maybe? Or someone was trying to frame a Gryffindor? Eino was very much convinced it was blood by now, and would only change his mind if someone would touch it and lick their finger. He was not doing that though.



"I wish I wasn't, sir, but I do believe I am." The prefect made him feel uncomfortable... even guilty. "It doesn't seem to lead anywhere, though..." He said following a very messy trail with his eyes than turning back to the prefect. "Maybe whoever did it ran out of, um, whatever it is that they used." Or maybe they weren't trying to lead them anywhere? The trailing wasn't very clear, after all. Just very messy and dripping. "It seems like it was done recently, too." Of course, since it was dripping.



Eino shrugged nervously. He couldn't think of charm that made paint permanent, but still even if was blood they would have been able to clean it, right? "Regardless of what it is, it seems like magic has been involve." But if even older students couldn't remove it then, would it have been done by someone with greater knowledge?

Once again his legs seems to have a mind of its own, as it drew the Slytherin lad far away from his usual haunts. On this floor he notices the blood drips first, then looked up to see thet dashes along the wall. Strangely enough he didnt find this unusual, instead followed the dashes backwards until it led him to the big red X.

Salander stares at the scribbling but couldnt decipher it. Not that he needed to, he always knew that a big red X means to mark something-- either something good or something very bad.

Hands in his pockets he keeps staring at the mark on the wall, oblivious for the moment at the chatter about him.

Fallon let out a sigh. She knew the girl had a point. It was just the fact that she had her own curiosity about this that she didn't want Tate to take over. She knew once Tate got there: they wouldn't get to do much.




As the other girl ran off, Fallon turned back to the Ravenclaw boy. Fallon nodded. "I'm pretty sure. It's more likely to be paint. then...blood." She wasn't the one to bring up the blood. One of the other students had. Maybe if she said it wasn't blood...it wouldn't turn out to be so.

Fallon looked at the trail they seemed to end in drops. It really didn't lead anywhere in particular. It was just...there. She looked at the group. This was strange...



Fallon looked to see a Slytherin boy had joined them. He was just staring at the wall. Maybe a new person's perspective would help. "Do you think this could mean anything?" She was standing next to him right now so she hoped he understood that she was talking to him.

Was the boy for real?

Treyen chuckled as soon as he heard the 'sir' part. How incredibly amusing the boy was. Kurumi may have taught him some manners or something, as long as he didn't bow whenever he apologized, then all good. "Just call me Treyen."

And...he could be right. They could've ran out of whatever the liquid was.

Paint.

Right.

"It doesn't have to be human, you know, if it's blood," he said, but his eyes were still on the Ravenclaw boy, "But Fallon is most likely right." Yeah, yeah, it was easier to think it was paint. Less messy too.

Eino looked from the boy to the girl, then back. If the old students said it was paint, then it probably was. "Okay, Sir Treyen." It was nice to have a name to refer to him, otherwise he would get all of his "sirs" confused. He knew many of them, he had even knighted some of them, but they weren't real, and this wasn't the time to recall them.

The two seemed very confident now that it wasn't blood, but only paint. Eino still wasn't fully convinced, but he had an idea. Someone should lick the paint. But that wasn't what he proposed. "Let's ask the--" He began as he turned towards the portrait but it was empty. "Has it always been empty?" He enjoyed talking to the portraits but he couldn't exactly where which was located. Still, it was a little suspicious that it was empty. Whether it had been emptied or had always been abandoned, it still indicated that someone had plotted this very well, too well.

Now that she could agree with. "Definitely," Vashti agreed. "We just need to find out what kind of magic." The magic used couldn't be too complicated surely. Maybe they were all just forgetting something very simple and obvious. She wracked her brain, trying to think up something to get rid of the X and its fellow red letters but continued coming up empty.

Thank Merlin someone else agreed that it was paint. Vashti nodded at the Slytherin girl's comment, but then her eyes widened slightly when Treyen spoke. "It doesn't make it any better if it belonged to an animal," she said with a small frown. "But yeah, still probably paint," she added quickly, not wanting to think about any possiblity that the red stuff wasn't paint and came from a living creature.

Fallon looked at Treyen. Eww. He might have just made it worse. "I know it's not necessarily human blood...doesn't make it any better Treyen. I still see how it could be blood though..." She was glad when he backed up the paint thing though. It got the blood off of her mind.

She smiled at the Ravenclaw girl who agree too. It made her feel better. It wasn't blood. If she kept telling herself that: it would be true.



Fallon looked back at the portrait, well where one should have been. She really didn't know the answer to his question. "Dunno. Never really paid attention." She kind of wished that she had. It would make right now so much less awkward...

Whaaaaat?! No, no, kid, no 'Sir' at all!

Sir Treyen sounded kind of cool, though, made him feel important, like a knight! So, maybe he'll let it go...if the Ravenclaw boy was going to refer to him as such, well, he had no problem, truth be told. Which is why he smiled, mostly to himself, because there was nothing funny about this...

...ACTUALLY. It was going to be super hilarious if this was only a prank and they were getting worried about it. Seriously.

And Treyen followed the boy's gaze to the...hey, were did the people in the portrait go to? Better not to say anything to the boy, right? Because, as a matter of fact, Treyen had no idea whether if the portrait had been occupied by someone or not.

He blinked at the girls, though. They both seemed to think the same, and in reality, yeah, it didn't make it any better, but still, "We use salamander blood in Potions, you know, and other types," yes, he was trying to make it better, "Maybe this was all that was left from the Storeroom," since the fire may have destroyed some ingredients and whatnot.

"Or, again, just paint, or...that thing we drank at the History of Magic lesson, you know, the cherry stuff?" SUPER CONCENTRATED cherry stuff.

Yeah, who was he kidding? This was no cherry stuff, and probably not paint.

He heard someone speaking next to him which sounded like a question was asked. He turned his head and saw a fellow Slytherin looking at him. Oh she mustve asked the question "Uhm...." he mumbled looking back at the big red X and back at the girl and shrugs "...X marks the spot? " No he's not being a smartypants, just saying what he's thinking out loud.

Wait... tasting? Wha???? "Hey if anyone wants to have a lick of that thing be my guest." That didnt look delectable to him at all. So no. No eating the wall for this Slytherin boy today uh uh.

Kurumi was jogging the corridors again when she spotted a crowd of people looking at the wall. At first, all she saw was a rather large and suspicious looking X along with some text that was hard to make out what it was saying. In her mind, she instantly thought that Mr. Viking had written on the wall. He made no sense when he spoke, so she assumed the same was for his writing.

Then, her eyes widened a bit. She had read about red writing on the walls of Hogwarts before and THAT time hadn’t been good.

MERLOIN’S GHOST! SOMEONE HAD OPENED THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS AGAIN!

Jogging a bit closer, Kurumi saw many familiar faces. “S-S-Someone trying to start a scavenger hunt?” she asked innocently popping her head between Salander and Vashti. Kurumi peered a bit closer and did probably one of the dumber things to do in the situation – stuck out her hand and pressed it against the bottom part of the right side if the X. It was a little wet and sticky to touch.

Hmm? Empty portrait? Vashti hadn't really paid attention to what else was around the red stuff - redness and largeness of it was rather distracting. She kind of shrugged, having no idea whether it was always empty or not. But these portraits usually had people in them, didn't they? And they could move. "Maybe whoever's supposed to be there went to a friend's portrait?" she suggested. But wherever that was, she had no idea, so it probably wasn't much help.

Then Treyen was talking about salamander blood. He had a point, but she still didn't want to believe that it was blood of any kind. Using it in a potion was one thing. Using it to make some sort of message on the walls? That was completely different and felt completely wrong. So it was paint, plain and simple. "Still," she said but argued no further. Besides, he'd kind of agreed it was paint or...cherry stuff? Whatever that was. Better than blood, anyway.

Oh hey, when did Salander get here? And why was he going on about licking the stuff on the wall?? Even if it was cherry stuff... "I don't think anyone's going to lick it," she replied, shaking her head.

And now a new voice was asking about a scavenger hunt. Vashti looked and found that Kurumi had appeared beside her. "I don't think so," she answered, her eyes scanning the giant X and the small trail of dashes that only went a little ways away from it. Wasn't much of a hunt if the trail didn't go anywhere. "It's a very small scavenger hunt if it is."

Lola was out from her severe stomach problems, emphasizing all the pain with her groaning. Why was her stomach revolting against her? She even felt light-headed! What did it mean? Was it the magic of Hogwarts? Was it sending her messages--did it despise her, did it want her dead, WHAT DID IT MEAAAAAN?!?!

Out of the corner of her eye though, she spotted a group of people.

OOOOOH!

Groups of people were like sparkles and glitters for Lola Jones.

"GUYS! Guys! Is this a club meeting? I wasn't invited? I wasn't invited???" She questioned theatrically, with a big booming voice to attract everyone's attention. What were they all looking at...?!?! SHE was not invited to this little meet and greet. Lola was offended! How dare they! As she neared closer to the group however, she opened her mouth widely in exasperation and horror!

"JUST AN X?!" WHERE IN MERLIN'S BEARD WAS THE O?!

Humans can't live with just kisses. No. Hugs were just as important. This was blasphemy. Lola was shaking her head, tsk tsk tsking to the one who did this, and glancing to the others if they had the same thought in mind! UGH! At least it was written in red paint, the color of lov... hold up. That wasn't paint, was it?

SUDDEN REALIZATION STRUCK LOLA JONES.

"OHHHH. That's baaaaaaad... it's bad, isn't it?"

/slow

Haha. Funny. Treyen chuckled at Salander's comment, at least someone wasn't taking the X too seriously. But as Prefect...shouldn't he?

The boy looked from Salander to KURUMI! What was she doiiiiing?! His eyes widened as she touched the...paint? Oh, well, Treyen was definitely hoping it was paint now. It seemed kind of silly at the same time, you know? X marks the spot. And a X was right there.

His eyes never left Kurumi, oh, no, wait, they did, because Lola arrived, and how could he not look at her, right?

"Where you expecting other letters, Lola?" he asked, smiling her way and oh-so-totally placing his arm around her shoulders, "If this was a club meeting, you would've been the first to know," he smirked, AND COMPLETELY RETRIEVED HIS ARM.

If the club meeting thing was ever happening, she'll be the first to know, so they could all change the place and time of the meeting, right?

Eyes on Vashti, "I know, a very small one, since they're already leading us to the end," because most Scavenger Hunts ended with 'X'.

Kurumi, her hand still in the middle of the sticky red stuff, looked over her shoulder at Vashti. She supposed the Ravenclaw was right about it being a very short hunt. It DID say 'X marks the spot' and there the X was as big as life. "I guess...so..." she said slowly as she tried to remove her hand...

o_________O

It was stuck. Not good...

Kurumi then heard Lola appear out of no where and her cheeks burned a deep red. Hopefully the girl was over call Kurumi her savior and master. Kurumi wasn't sure she could handle her turning into Queen Flobberworm and wiggling around on the floor again. "H-H-Hello Lola," she smiled as she continued to tug at her hand that was stuck to the wall.

Yep, X marked the spot alright.

Kurumi then felt someone's eyes locked on her. NO! Cookie Hater was here?! It felt like a different sort of gaze - not the sort that made her feel like she was going to have a hole in the back of her head. Turning her head a bit more, she saw that it was Treyen and he had an expression on his face that didn't look too good. "Is...Is something wrong?" she asked him with a nervous smile. Other than the obvious of her hand being glued to the stone wall.

She tried to pull her hand free again, but it was still stuck.

Great, now what was she supposed to do?!

Aurora was on her way up to the owlery when she stumbled on a group of people on the fifth floor. They were huddled around what looked like a big red X...

"Erm, what's this?" she asked them, a little confused. It said X marks the spot... she guessed anyway, it was a little illegible.

Ariadne got lost again due to the moving staircases. Honestly, you'd think she'd be used to the castle by now, after more than four months. But no. Walking along the corridor, she noticed a large group of people. The Gryffindor recognized Kurumi and Vashti among them, though she didn't know the others. Curious as always, she approached them and asked:'What's going on? What's with the X? Does this have anything to do with the ship?' More and more questions were forming in her head.

As more and more people started going to the fifth floor corridor, Hugo was quite curious as to what was all the commotion about. He sprinted up the stairs and saw Kurumi, Eino and a bunch of other people standing in front of a red X on the wall. Hugo curiously moved through the bunch, and trying to get to Kurumi and Eino. "W-what is this?" he asked the two. He looked at the X. It was red, dripping on the wall. It couldn't be... Blood, could it?

Fallon just nodded at Treyen's suggestions about the 'blood.' She still hoped that it wasn't blood. That cherry stuff did sound very interesting to say the least...and then the Slytherin Boy [Salander] pointed out the obvious with the writing. Oh well. She didn't know the guy so she couldn't say anything.

Soon their group of people had grown quite some bit. Fallon looked around at all of the confused faces. The girl who'd run to get the headmaster wasn't back yet. Club meeting? Fallon gave the girl [Lola] a very confused look. She was glad once the girl understood what was going on. The talk of the scavenger hunt brought Fallon out of her slight little daze. This was NOT a fun way to start a scavenger hunt.

Fallon smiled at Aurora. "That's what we're trying to figure out." She liked the little Snake. And the a Gryffindor [Ariadne] asked a question that she'd never considered. "Didn't think of that. I guess it could though..." That ship was another weird thing that had shown up at their school this term.

She gave the new Ravenclaw [Hugo] a slight smile. "That's what we're trying to figure out."

Ryden had been walking peacefully down to the corridor in the direction of the staircase when she suddenly registered that she could not pass due to the abnormally large amount of people blocking her way. What in the world were all of them doing here? Was there some sort of party going on? But why HERE, of all pla-

O_____________O

The fourth year stopped dead as her chocolate coloured eyes spotted the wall, and the red dripping thing became visible to her. And by red dripping thing she was sure that it could be only one thing - "Blood." Her voice was scarcely over a whisper and all of her own blood drained from her face as she suddenly felt faint.

WHY WAS THERE BLOOD ON THE WALL?! "B-b-b-blood." Backing away, she hit the opposite wall of the corridor and took a few deep breaths, calming herself down and forcing herself not to vomit. She would NOT. It was ok. It wasn't blood. It wasn't. Just red paint. JUST RED PAINT.

Looking up again, she noticed for the first time that there was an X on the wall and some lines pointing in the direction she'd just come from. What? What was down there? Eyes narrowing, she took care to breathe only from her mouth and made her way slowly to the group. "Treasure hunting, anyone?" she asked, her voice a little stronger than before although she was still as white as a sheet.

NOT BLOOD, RYDEN. Stop it.

"So, we're all stood round a mysterious X on the wall that might be painted in blood but we're not sure and it might have something to do with the ship but we're not sure and we're basically nor sure what any of it is about..." said Aurora matter-of-factly and looked closely at the X. "Has anyone tried smelling it to see if it smells like blood? Or followed that trail..? And had anyone told Professor Tate?" she added as an afterthought- never usually one to resort to authoritative figures. She was very very curious.

Walking down the corridor, twirling her hair around her finger, Stella noticed a crowd looking at a wall. "A wall?!" she thought to herself, "Why are they looking at a wall?" She walked towards the crowd and looked at the stone wall. At first she didn't see anything unusual, but then she noticed a red 'X' on the wall. "X marks the spot," she mumbled to herself looking at the writing under the 'X'. She took her wand out of her pocket just in case something will 'pop-out' of the wall. "Maybe there's something behind the wall?" she suggested to the worried crowd of students.

Club meeting? What? Exactly what sort of club this would be, Vashti would like to know. It wasn't a very cheery club, that was for sure. But fortunately, the loud girl eventually figured out that the X wasn't anything good. Treyen was talking to the girl now, and he agreed that it was a small scavenger hunt. So Vashti nodded before her attention was turned back to to Kurumi.

Who had her hand in the red stuff.

That was...probably not good.

But why didn't Kurumi pull her hand away?

"Are you stuck?" Vashti asked, hoping the Gryffindor wasn't. That really wouldn't be good. It was bad enough that they couldn't remove the stuff itself. If they couldn't get a person's hand off it either...

Suddenly several more students showed up, most of them she recognized. It was Ariadne that posed a question Vashti also hadn't thought of until now. The first year had a point. It couldn't just be a coincidence that the ship would show up and then an X appeared on the wall a few months later.

But then- GAH! Another person who was going on about the red stuff being blood. It wasn't blood - it was paint. Or the cherry stuff Treyen mentioned. This was repeated over and over again on an endless loop in Vashti's mind. She simply refused to believe that the stuff on the walls would be something so gross.

"Let's not jump to conclusions," she gently told the panicky Ravenclaw girl, hoping she would calm down and stop saying that word. And, fortunately, she did, moving on to the subject of a treasure hunt.

"The lines end there though," she said, pointing to where the drippy red dashes ended abruptly. "And an X would normally be the place where the treasure is located..." X marks the spot, and all that. But what was this X supposed to mark?

... Someone was talking to her. Turning, Ryden came face to face with a girl that looked perhaps her age or a little older. Jump to conclusions? Nope, no, she wasn't doing that. Shrugging a little at the comment, the brunette fiercely fought against the belief that the writing on the wall was blood and instead focused on the girl's following words.

"Yes. But some maps have more than one X. Perhaps this X marks the starting point?" the fourth year said, frowning a little at the wall. As the initial shock wore off, she found that her curiosity was growing by the second. What was it? Ryden could honestly say she had no idea, but it was definitely not what that other girl just said. About something being behind the wall. Or was it?

It was highly unlikely, Ryden decided. "And," she added to the Ravenclaw next to her, "perhaps the lines are pointing in the direction of the next... erm, checkpoint? X? Treasure? Whatever it is that the person who drew this wanted to mark?"

NOT WITH BLOOD.

Sierra had just stalked away (angrily, mind you) from that blasted room which refused to let her in, when she came across a group of students gathered randomly in the corridor. She walked until she came to a stop by Salamander, although why she randomly chose Salamander, she didn't know.

"Well, sink me!" she exclaimed. "What are ye corsairs doing 'round here?"

She peered around at each member of the group, her eyes finally falling on the red X that apparently marked the spot. "Hmm," she mumbled, "who graffiti'ed the wall?" Could have come up with something a little more clever to say, hmm?

Okay... Lexi HAD left from the Spirit Room in the OPPOSITE direction of the stupid Slytherin bilge rat, but she found herself turning around and marching off in that direction eventually.

And all the same she CLEARLY should have been around this way it seemed. They were all ridiculous. "Blimey! You lot must be as stupid as ye look. X marks the spot... You lot are nothin' but a bunch of landlubbers! Argh!" CLEARLY it was talking about treasure. BOOTY if you will.

Glancing at the little Slytherin (Sierra) Lexi squinted her good eye and pulled a face. "It's ye who knows where the booty is. DON'T YE?! Well go on then you filthy bilge rat! Tell us where it be!"