Ellie had her camera out. This time, as many of her recent camera sprees have been, was for the sole reason of wanting to take pictures. So here she was, wandering the halls of the castle, looking for interesting whatnots to take a photograph of. She was thinking of maybe heading to the suits of armor - they moved, making for much cooler end results, but the ugly witch statue caught her eye. Sure, it was hideous, but it was a part of Hogwarts, and therefore worth taking a picture of.

SNAP.

Conan was very lost. There were still places around here that confused him. It was a big place, and everywhere did point to somewhere else. And never the same place twice. And he had suddenly now found himself but a statue. A statue of a witch. Better than that Boris portrait. He was just bewildered. Like Conan was now.

His eyes widened. Girl with camera. Ellie!girl with camera. He wanted to run and hide. Maybe he could hide behind the witch. He crept behind the statue. Nope Ellie hadn't seen him.

One picture was enough. It was just a statue, after all. Not like it will change by the second shot. Just as she was lowering her camera, though, Ellie thought that she might have seen something move.

It wasn't the statue, right? She was fifty percent sure that this statue didn't move. At least not of its own accord. And she certainly didn't make it move...no one else was around to make it move... The girl was SLIGHTLY creeped out.

BUT, it could be Peeves. And she loved that kid...ghost...guy...spirit...thing. He was her hero that day in Divination.

She swallowed at the thought. That was the Divination lesson that sparked her interest in purchasing a camera. Oh, Reyn. He is missed.

Thank Merlin she had her camera now, though. Because she'd want it for the whole emotional reason now. Funny how that could happen.

But back to the mysterious movement. Yeah. Ellie crept towards the statue, camera at the ready.

Conan held his breath as he could here Ellie creeping forward. Oh no she would find him and take his picture. He looked good in pictures, but he didn't want to be everywhere. He was happy being little places. Like the fridge, or the walls. Not the school paper.

Oh no there wasn't another way round the statue. So he could run. Why did it have to be pressed against the wall. Suddenly he wished he was invisible or very small. But that would never happen. Magic didn't exist!

Once the girl'd gotten to the other side of the statue, she let out a HMPH. A HMPH of disappointment. It wasn't Peeves. It was just that Conan child. Ellie let her camera hand drop to her side. SO disappointing.

"What're you doing there?" Being mysterious? Tricking her? Not nice, Conan. Not nice.

Conan frowned as she humphed at him. "Whassat for?" Did she expect a famous person? He was kinda famous. In certain circles. Just not this one. Sigh!

"I was looking for....my contact lense." In the dark, behind a sofa. Cos you could see them. In the dark. She probably didn't even know what a contact lense was.

"Nothing... I was just expecting... something else." Someone esle. Or something. It was still undecided among the young Ravenclaw which category Peeves belonged in.

Ellie raised an eyebrow. "But it's dark..." It was hard enough to see contacts in the light, right? Weren't they clear? "You want some light?" He could do lumos or something. Or she could. She was feeling rather helpful at the moment.

Conan frowned again. She was expecting something else? Oh well. It wasn't like he was important anyway. "Don't worry. I realised it was in the back of my eye. It swirled back into position." Yeah he could see again. Woohoooo.

"What are you doing down here?"

Blink. "It was where?" It did what? Ellie wrinkled her nose. "Eeeeeww." Never will she have contact lenses. Never.

"I was taking pictures," she said, raising her camera up a bit. Hopefully he wasn't in the one she'd taken.

Actually... hopefully he was. That'd be amusing.

Conan giggled, "It went whoosh." He gestured a Buzz Lightyear helmet whoosh to her. That was the best thing that described it. He was smart that way. "Backwards. To the back of my eye."

"But its dark here. Photos don't look good in the dark."

Maddox was exploring, which was her most favorite thing in the world to do. There was nothing like it. She had a piece of parchment and she was going to map out the entire school.

She was hoping no one was around to she could explore in piece. She was wearing her best exploring outfit. Her leather pant with her purple chaps, cowgirl boots with her spurs. Around her belt was a compass, flashlights, hammer, chisel and a pack of Droobles Best Blowing Gum. Her blouse was a copy of a Greek starchart. She was ready for anything.

Maddox rounded a corner and found a secret passageway behind a statue. "Why would anyone want to remember that face?" she asked about the humpback witch. She was surprised when she saw two other people already there. "You two looking for fun and adventure too?" she asked pushing up her cowgirl hat to get a better look at them.

Eyebrow. Raise.

"Ew. No. Stoppit." Ellie held her hand up to him. Stop. That was gross. Just gross.

Darkness... uhmm... "That's what flashes are for." Muggles had flashes on their cameras too. She knew they did.

Ellie turned to a girl that had approached them. A girl that had JUST talked to herself. Like two seconds ago. Crazy person. Maybe they could befriend Jacob?

"No...," Ellie said. She knew adventure. Ice climbing and hiking with Little Professor was adventure. Taking pictures around a castle she'd been at for three years already? Not much of an adventure. Though hiking could apply, seeing as she was constantly going up and down seven plus flights of moving stairs. "'M taking pictures."

Conan was...being gross.

She nodded at the girl. The girl wasn't dressed for adventure anyways. And that camera wasn't travel worthy anyways. It looked like it would break easy. "So why are you taking pictures here?" she asked as she pulled a piece of gum out of her belt and popped it in her mouth.

She carried gum with her...in her belt... ODD. "Because I wanted to," Ellie replied. Mhm. What more did the girl need to know?

Conan rolled his eyes at the girls as they mumbled, probably about girly things. Ewww he hated girly things. He frowned, "Why ain't you in your uniform?" he asked the newcomer. He thought you had to wear uniform around school. Except during the weekend. But then he just wandered around in his pyjamas for as long as he could. He had to dress for food though.

Why was he still behind this lady? He took a step back into the light, and ran a hand through his spiky hair. "So you taking a picture of me then? Or just the darkness?"

Ellie winced at the 'ain't'. It just wasn't a word. Improper grammer. Meh.

Buuuuut whatever. "Do you want me to take a picture of you?" She hadn't exactly intended to, but she certainly wouldn't mind. And she could probably convince him to do whatever she liked. And then develop it and give him a copy. See if he could figure out a way to not believe in magic when he saw his own picture moving. Bet he couldn't. Hah.

Ariadne had sent her Hufflepuff friend a note, to meet her in front of this statue on the third floor. She hoped Jory did get the note. Waiting for him to get there, Ari realized that if they were going to explore the castle, it would be better to do that logically, from top to bottom or bottom to top, but not like this, starting from the third floor.

However, she couldn't help it. The firstie was very curious about the Humpbacked Witch Statue, which, as her mother had told her, used to lead all the way to Hogsmeade. Oh, how Ari wished the tunnel wasn't blocked!

Jory made his way hurriedly towards the Humpbacked Witch Statue after receiving Ari's note. He was very excited because he knew he and Ari were about to start their exploration.


Turning the corner, he spotted Ari examining the Statue.
"Ari!" Jory called to her as he reached the Statue. "Wow," he said to Ari in awe, "I've never seen anything like this. This leads to Honeydukes, right? I heard some students talking about it."

Ariadne turned around as she heard her name being called. 'Hello, Jory!' she greeted the boy, with a large smile plastered on her face. 'It's pretty ugly, isn't it?' she commented, looking at the statue. 'Yes, it used to lead to Honeydukes, but now it's blocked.' the firstie sighed. 'Why did they do that? What harm would it be, anyway? Harry Potter was allowed to go, why can't we?' Well, Harry Potter wasn't technically allowed to go, he just snuck out. But the point is that the tunnel hadn't been blocked then.

'How have you been?' Ari finally asked her friend. 'Everything ok? Settling in well?' she wanted to know. 'Where do you think we should start? I think we should explore in an ordered way.' Ariadne hated chaos. 'So either the dungeons, or the towers. Your pick.' she chuckled a bit.

"Maybe it just caved in and they didn't block it on purpose," Jory told Ari. "And yes, it is ugly."

Jory tried to answer all of Ari's questions as fast as she had asked them.

"I've been great. Everything's good. Settled in quite well," he said taking in a huge breath. "how about you? Made lots of new friends from Gryffindor?''

He pondered. He, like Ari wanted to start in one place.

"Let's start from the dungeons. Is that ok?" he asked.

Ari realized she was back to her old habits again. Talking too fast and asking too many questions, for starters.

'I'm happy to hear that.' the girl replied with sincerity. 'Yes, my housemates are great!' she said, without hesitation. 'How are the Hufflepuffs?' Probably really nice too, if they were anything like Jory himself.

'Sure. To the dungeons then!' the firstie exclaimed, and started walking along the corridor until she reached the stairs which descended towards the depths of the castle.

ooc: I will post in the dungeons next

Taking a turn down the corridor with a tiny little reddish brown ball of fur in his arms, but quickly paused. This was NOT where he wanted to be. Not at all. He frowned, staring down the hall to where he knew a statue stood- well, slumped. No, this statue was no pretty sight, nor did it stand tall like a nice statue would. NO NO NO. This statue was evil. PUUUURE EVIIIL. And no one could possibly convince him otherwise.

So, The boy stood there, frozen with terror. If he moved, surely the thing would come to life, attack him, and Woody. Both of their lives would be over in a matter of seconds. So, he decided staying still was his best bet until some lonely first year came walking down the hall, unsuspecting of the large, mean, scary, TERRIBLY, FRIGHTINGLY, EVIL THING known as the humpbacked witch statue. He almost thought about sacrificing the dog, but no.. Eirian would be upset if he had to tell her what happened to the present she had given him. Not a good idea, Jayce.

Nika was walking around in the corridor and decided to do some front rolls. Who cares if she did it anyways. Not like there is anyone here in the first place. So there Nika sat doing front rolls in the middle of the corridor.

That's One........
This is boring.....

That's Ten..........
When will this end.....

That's twenty.......
Only thirty more to go.....

That's Thirty..........
This is taking a while......

That's Fourty.........
I wanna sandwich......

That's Fifty.........
DONE!

Now to go get that sandwich!

And with that Nika was off!

Presley was dissapointed to realize that the secret passage she'd discovered was blocked off. Since her second day here she'd been trying to find a way out of the castle grounds. She wanted so badly to explore the village of Hogsmeade, but first years weren't allowed. She knew you could get there across the lake, but Presley wasn't a really strong swimmer, and she was honestly a little afraid of the giant squid. She'd tried to climb the front gate earlier, but something always prevented her from reaching the top. The forest freaked her out, and there were always people hanging around the whomping willow. This was Presley's last option, and it was crushed to dust. Well, she'd have to find a new, better way of getting out. Hadn't her uncle once mentioned something about a passage in the room of requirement? She'd check that out next.