Vickers followed the trail of Ravenclaws from their towers down towards the Great Hall. When he passed the threshold there was a silent gasp caught in his throat-- where'd all the tables go? He thought they were supposed to eat?

But seeing those sleeping bags gave him mixed feelings. Firstly, that they would be sleeping in those tonight, and not his comfy bed and all his little creature comforts, which he is already missing terribly. But secondly is that they finally have something to sleep in, and given that its been a long day for him he really needed somewhere to just crash.

He selected a sleeping bag closest to where the dias was looked across the other row sleeping bags. The girls were assigned there werent they? Would it be ok if he reserved one for a particular feisty Ravenclaw? He tore off a bit of parchment from his book bag and stuck it on the sleeping bag....

Louisa Carter

She might take a while getting here, given her duties must've replicated twice fold at a time like this. If there was a silver lining to any of chaos... is that at least he gets to sleep near his girlfriend...

Thank Merlin she had the sense to follow the crowded line of students filing into the great hall. What was exactly going on in this castle at this hour?! Louisa was puffing warm breath at her hands after being out in the cold for so long, she could feel her nose starting to run and turning into a clowny shade of red. Ugh. Why'd they get the sporty head of house? It was this time of year when she didn't like walking to his office.

Anyways, the great hall was... turned into a slumber party theme. Louisa slowly walked through the wave of students scattering around, it didn't take long to notice that each house had its own section. She passed two houses before discovering the two rows of Ravenclaw, her eyes found the headmistress sitting on her chair too. Hmm. Louisa walked over to where Vick sat and beamed, "This is our last Hogwarts adventure, huh?" Taking out his stolen homework and handing it to him. "Who led you guys over here?" She put her hands on her hips and glanced around, trying to figure out why not many students were around yet. Were they lost?

Finally getting the herd of students to the Great Hall, the professor was relieved to see the Great Hall transformed into the perfect sleeping area. She glanced at the other sleeping areas and gave each professor a little knowing up and down nod. ....yes atleast they were all in for a long night.

She smiled, a little nervously, as she thought about the predicament and tried to figure out what could've caused this.....was it an outside threat or something within the castle....how long would they be locked out...what was the Headmistress' plan to get this figured out.

Gemma continued thinking as she stepped out the door and towards the kitchens....returning a few minutes later with a few trays of hot chocolate floating in front of her. She flicked her wand and the trays stopped in the air.

"Would any of my lovely Ravvies like a cup of hot chocolate before we get to bed for the night..." yes she was using the tactic that her parents used...give the kids something warm and they would quiet down and go to sleep quicker.

Blue just shuffled along, down the stairs to the great hall, every so often yawning and rubbing her eyes. She was still wearing Spike's much-too large jacket and her fluffy socks and her onesie that had a picture of Eeyore on it. She was still a little cold but just tired more than anything. Her hair was just all over the place and she would hunt down Bliss or something for a scrunchy to tie it back. What she really wanted, was to sleep. She didn't even care that every single student was going to be in the same place and snoring. She'd block them out.

She stumbled into the Great Hall and glanced up at the ceiling reflecting the night's sky. Twas kinda peaceful actually. A smile playing on her lips she picked out a sleeping bag and plonked down, running her fingers over the fabric. She was just about to tuck herself into bed when she realized something and then her eyes snapped open, completely awake again. Her rabbit. Her teddy. No WAY was she sleeping without it. She couldn't. It kept the bad dreams away. And was still upstairs in her dorm. She actually started to wibble but blinked the tears away quickly. She didn't wanna be a cry baby! But she hadn't EVER gone a night without her teddy.

She stumbled over to professor Cerulean. "Missus?" And gave a little tug on her sleeve, still blinking fiercely. WAIT. Was that hot chocolate?!

"I would, professor." Dora said, hazel-green eyes wandering the transformed hall as they entered. It was interesting to see sleeping bags in place of the tables. And all of the other houses were staying here too? AWESOME. She slipped past most of the older and taller students to reach the professor.

This wouldn't be so bad, she decided, if they got to be with everyone else.

Probably wouldn't get much sleep, but they could have fun.

Truth be told, Mick has never been a real fan of sleeping on the floor, but he and his fellow Ravenclaws have no other choice. The anxiety was building up inside himself and he was doing everything in his power to keep it under control. He didn't know if he had the right to freak out - but let's see? In the past hour or two, I've been kicked out of the common room. All of my stuff are up there, thankfully I have my wand, but still...Dad said Hogwarts is supposed to be a great place. WELL IT DOESN'T FEEL SO GREAT DOES IT!?

His thoughts were beyond frantic, but so far he has managed to keep it together on the outside. What was making him more nervous as he followed everyone to the Great Hall was whether or not the Great Hall was going to be dark. If they're going to sleep in a dark room, he's going to have major issues with the situation. I hate the dark. The dark hates me. My worst times happened in the dark. Don't take me to the dark! I HATE THE DARK - but all was calm when he saw the beautiful, starry sky that was the bewitched ceiling of the Great Hall. And the moon from outside provided some natural ligthing through the windows. Mick's thoughts slowly quieted down. The anxiety of not feeling safe was still lingering, but he was calming down. That's a start...

After hearing that hot chocolate was being offered provided comfort, he needed that. Everyone needs comfort at a time like this. Mick briefly raised his hand for some hot chocolate before sitting down on the floor, wondering if the surprises will end soon.

Eliza followed Professor Cerulean into the Great Hall with the rest of the Ravenclaws she had been waiting outside the common room with. Seeing the plush purple sleeping bags reminded her body how tired it was. She longed to snuggle up into one and sleep as long as she could. She knew the next day would probably be very tiring and confusing, so she really should get as much rest as she could. She couldn't help but want to stay awake just a little longer though, to see if anything new developed. She decided she would take the professor up on that offer of hot cocoa while she put off sleep.

"Thank you for the hot cocoa, Professor," she said as she accepted a mug from the tray. Even though the adults couldn't provide them with answers, she was glad they could at least provide treats and a place to sleep. Why they couldn't just conjure up some real beds though, she would never know. She picked a sleeping bag and sat crossed legged on it, testing her resolve to stay awake a while longer. She felt her eyelids growing heavier by the minute, but she kept telling herself At least finish the cocoa. Stay awake that long at least. Something might happen and you wouldn't want to miss it! So there she sat, slowly sipping the chocolate goodness, watching the steam swirl up from her cup, and watching the other students file into the hall.

He was rolling his sleeping bag out and trying to prep it for the night when he felt that familiar presence coming near him. He turned just as Louisa headed towards the Ravenclaw side of the hall and sat himself at the edge of his sleeping bag. She looked rather flushed from the cold wasnt she? He kinda wanted to rush up and kissy!hug her in all her pink cuteness but he was also very aware that the eagle eyed Headmistress was sitting at her throne a few paces away.

So instead he kept to where was and reached out when Louisa finally handed him back his homework. "Well I was kinda hoping this was the kind where I wasnt locked out all of a sudden from most of my things..." he grinned. He glanced around at the Ravenclaw row of sleeping bags, not quite as filled yet compared to the other houses "They must've stopped by somewhere... checked out other friends from other houses, or maybe the Library, most of our textbooks are locked away in the dorms." Which gave him a bit of an anxiety about the following day's lessons.




He pushed that out of his mind as he stood, and just then Professor Cerulean came with a tray full of hot chocolate. He took a couple of cups gratefully "Thanks Professor Cerulean." he smiled before handing one of the cups to Louisa "This should warm you right up..." he murmured to the Head Girl.

Get to bed for the night? A bit of that anxiety crept back to his features "Professor, with most of our things left up at the dorms, what are we going to do about change of clothes? Or that a lot of our books and notes arent with us?" Part of the benefit of having dorms in the same building is that they didnt have to lug around so many things between classes or from one day to the next.

Uuuugh.

So...FINALLY the school was recognizing that they hadn't been able to sleep in their dorms...about time. It was all the headmistress' doing, most likely...making them suffer...Elliot was still VERY bitter about losing points...well, the lovely Headmistress needed to know that PINK just did NOT go well with her fiery hair! It was awful!

*grumps*

So the blonde made her way down to the sleeping area...and there were very FEW...and none of her friends...uughhh. Great. so she was sleeping next to strangers.

She heard the hot chocolate offer..and grumbled something about just wanting some hot tea. TEA. She slipped past the professor, just ignoring the offer, and saw Eliza...that little firstie. She waved to her and gave her an approving nod. Hehe. Elliot had liked her enough. But she saw a boy...who looked..glum? Sad? Weird? She was bored, and very...well, she just needed some human contact right now. Books couldn't talk back...well most books couldn't anyways.

"So I see I'm not the only one distraught about this whole...situation," she started, clearing her throat so her voice wouldn't sound gruff from underuse today. She wasn't being nice; she was't trying to make him feel better. She was just talking. She plopped down beside him and smirked a bit.

Presley had walked up with the Hufflepuffs after making sure Awar was okay, and it seemed the Ravenclaws were just getting there too. And Elliot was chatting with some boy? Whatever. Presley gracefully sank to the ground right next to them. "Hey." she tried to smile. This however, was a situation in which not even Presley could be cheerful. It was cold, and they got to sleep in sleeping bags on stone floor? Yay! Not. "Did you get chucked out, or were you already outside?" Mostly because Presley wanted to figure out exactly what had happened, and since she'd been outside the common room at the time, she needed another person.

"ME TOO," Aidan called, jumping up and down and waving his hand in the air. Just to make sure he could be seen.

This was so much fun! Like mystery meets camping out. Only, the boy really didn't care WHY they were locked out of their Common Rooms. It just meant they got to do fun stuff. Like stay out past curfew and have a giant sleepover in the Great Hall. AND GET FREE HOT CHOCOLATE!

The Ravenclaw continued to jump and bounce and tiptoe his way beside Dora, near the professor, so he could get his hot chocolate. And Dora got a, "Hi."

With a rather messy hair, Beatrice joined the flood of her fellow Hogwartians that made their way to the Great Hall. She had been ready to sink into her bed after that stressful 'trying to play Cupid' day. Gerald Rush and Juliet Kim had almost succeeded into draining her off her blood.

And now...THIS.

Locked out from their own Common Room! The only consolation with that was that every house had the same dilemma, not only them.

Stepping inside, she immediately noticed the hundreds of sleeping bags on the floor. Meh. They were sleeping on the floor. Shaking her head to get rid of the drowsiness that was starting to engulf her, she quickly shuffled off to the area assigned to the Ravenclaws.

She barely got to identify who were already there when she heard Professor Cerulean offer them hot chocolate. Ugh. Who would want hot chocolate before bed? It would certainly give them nightmares. So, she lightly shook her head and smiled at the woman.

"Aidan, don't drink too much of that. You might not sleep well." Beezus told their little Seeker. "You too, Dora." She added, grinning sleepily at the two then eyeing Eliza and her mug of hot cocoa, sending her a look that meant she should limit herself with the drink too.

Blue! As the young eaglette tugged on the Professor's sleeve, Beezus did the same with her. "Where are you going to sleep?" For some reason, she was fond of the girl. Therefore, she was being a tad protective. Why...she didn't know.

Oh, and if it isn't Mr. and Mrs. Ravenclaw. "Good evening Lou, Vickers..." Nod. Nod. Slight waving.

And there was Elliot! "Ell...." Beezus called the blonde in a somewhat eerie voice. Who was that guy he was talking to? He looked...gloomy. He wasn't enjoying this too? Then she saw Presley approach her friend and nodded at the girl. Where are the other Ravenclaws? Seriously...Milton, Indy, Maximus..even Spike wasn't there!

"Ellioooooooooooooot.." *YAWN*

Hot chocolate? That was probably the only perk from walking from the ground floor to the seventh floor, only to find that the common room had kicked them out, then going all the way back down to the ground floor again. That was a LOT of stairs, all right? And Max didn't even have any comfortable clothes to change into to sleep in. So that was a bummer.

"Count me in," he replied to the professor who offered, finally taking the opportunity to remove his outerwear and plop them down at the feet of the nearest vacant sleeping bag in the Ravenclaw section, purposely close to where Vickers and Louisa seemed to be camped for the night. Upon kicking his shoes off and properly reserving his spot, he hurried to take a cup of hot chocolate - "thanks," he said - then sat down right on top of his claimed sleeping bag, legs crossed pretzel-style.

He sipped at the beverage, acknowledged his friends and housemates nearby, and proceeded to people-watch. And his gaze did wander over to the Hufflepuff section to see if Em was there yet.

Dora was kinda staring at the girl who'd clearly been one of those kicked out of the dorm they shared, and also waiting for the hot chocolate that was broadcasted when she say Aidan. Or heard him was more like it. He was probably the most excited student in the hall, she observed. More excited than even the hufflepuffs.

"Hey, Aidan. You get kicked out?" He was probably in the common room if so 'cause the first year was too excited to have been sleeping recently.

"I don't know how much sleep I'll get." She replied to Beezus with another sweeping glance of the hall. Dora was too alert and attentive at the moment to get any sleep done. She hadn't even planned on getting any sleep when heading back to the locked common room, just grabbing a few things.

Plus she didn't trust the entire school enough to sleep with them all. She barely trusted her dorm mates.

But when would she be getting her stuff back?

'Aidan'!

The boy turned at the call of his name. ...Only to be ordered around. Who made Beezus the boss of him, eh? "I'll drink as much as I want, BEE-ZUS," he retorted, sticking his tongue out at the older Ravenclaw.

"YEAH! It was sooo cool!" Aidan answered, nodding vigorously. "Where were YOU?" She missed out, man.

...And in case Beezus got mad at HIS answer, he'll just agree with Dora. This was too exciting to sleep anyway. He didn't want to be a BORING BABY with a BEDTIME.

Vivi had been bringing up the rear of the group, as all good seventh years should *ahem*, and one glance told her she was probably going to get last choice of the sleeping bags. It didn't really matter, did it? This was surely just a temporary situation, and she didn't care if she got stuck on the cold floor for a short period of time.

Plus it was sort of an adventure. Right?

"Easy on the sugar, Champ," Vivi gave Aidan an eyeball as she passed, especially considering he was giving Beezus lip over how much hot chocolate he was drinking. How many glasses had he had already? Would there be a shortage? She ruffled his hair and winked at Beezus before moving on.

Her roommate and best mate appeared occupied at the moment, so Vivi pulled up a spot near Max. "What's the word? Are we staying here all night? Several nights? It looks like everyone has been relegated to this place, hm?"

"Yesssss." Milton swiped a cup of hot cocoa off one of the trays that Professor Cerulean had in front of her. "Thanks," he said as he walked away and blew on it to cool it off.

Spotting several of his teammates all joined together, Milton made his way over to them and picked a sleeping back and plopped down on it. "Good evening," he said coolly, sipping on his hot cocoa. Ow. Still hot. He glanced around and saw that a lot of the Claws weren't even there yet. Interesting.

"It was cool?" Dora tried to figure out what was cool about being thrown out of the common room. So hard that she stopped focusing on everything around her and tried to imagine what being tossed out on her rear from the common room would be like, and in the end came to the conclusion that it was just Aidan being weird.

At least someone was enjoying this entire situation.

"I was talking to Vindictus Viridian's portrait. Only just found out about the lockout when returning to the common room." She'd really been trying to get into the room of rewards, but like all the professor portraits, he was more interested in educating her in his field. The girl didn't really mind all that much since he was full of good info about jinxes and curses.

She went back to eying all the older students (and everyone else), growing kinda tired of waiting for her cocoa. "Think the professors are gonna sleep here with us too?" Make this whole thing even weirder?

It was obvious that these kids were still active, their facial expressions were still too vigilant to hit the sleeping bags. Was she the only one wanting to doze off now?

"The Professors will surely make certain that we all get some sleep." Yup. No matter how short it was. Following the girl's gaze though, she began to doubt. Most of their peers had wakeful faces.

Did he just...? Yes, he did. Their little seeker stuck his tongue out at her! Beezus' eyes widened for a moment before narrowing on him.

SNORT.

Why, his sister wasn't like that! "No." she shot back firmly. "Too much of everything is NOT GOOD." And that includes hot chocolate.

See Aidan?! Mama Chaser was even agreeing! Hold your horses on that drink, boy.

She caught the wink from her fellow Chaser and grinned at her, mouthing a 'Thanks Mama Vi' as she did.

Erm. How did the girl became their Mama again? SHRUG. She couldn't remember, but she liked calling her that so it's staying. D'aww. She just remembered Vashti, and how she was their Mama when she was still around.

Oh, hello there Captain Oblivious.

"Good evening Coco.." she replied to his greeting. "Be careful on your cocoa, you wouldn't want to live the rest of your life without a tongue." That was just a friendly reminder.

*YAAAAAWN*

Was everyone against him on this? And he thought Vivi was the cool seventh year. "Oiiii," Aidan whined at her.

But took the hair ruffle as a sign that she was joking and he was free to continue as he was. So he didn't say much else. To Vivi.

"But you can't have too much hot chocolate." So her point was moot. Plus he had permission from Vivi. And Professor Cerulean - a grown-up, mind you - wouldn't have offered hot chocolate if he was allowed some.

SO. THERE.

"Idon'twanttogotosleep," he grumbled quietly in response to Beezus, so just Dora could hear him.

It WAS cool, Dora! Aidan nodded excitedly in response. "We were all just minding our own business and then BAM!" he shouted for emphasis, "We were being pushed out the door. BY NOTHING." Nothing he could see at least. So maybe it was Peeves...If Peeves could herd four Common Rooms at once. Because given that the other houses were here, Aidan figured they must have been evacuated the same way.

Or maybe it was THESTRALS. Cause Aidan knew they existed, but he couldn't see them.

But she was talking to a portrait? "I guess that's cool too." Those were always amusing to talk to. But still not as cool as being invisibly kicked out of the Common Room. "Who's that, though?" Vindictus Viridian?

Aidan wrinkled his nose at her question. "No. Professors don't sleep." DUH. Everyone knew that. Professors were like enchanted puppets whose sole purpose was to teach. He was positive they didn't even eat. They just pretended to.

Elliot smirked at Presley as she took a seat next to her and shook her head. "Presley," she nodded, and sighed. "No. I was outside...I would have been livid had I been thrown out..." she grumbled, rolling her eyes.

Her gaze flickered around the room, searching for any of her other friends..Max? Ariana? Hannah? Hmm. She saw ariana at her own house...hmmm. Too bad Max wasn't in Ravenclaw. Meh.

She looked back at Presley..."it's all very odd, isn't it? Hmmph. Did you hear about all the jabberknoll dying?" she asked, her eyes lighting up a bit at the mention of some clearly juicy gossip..."I was there...I witnessed it!" she aid excitedly, smirking a bit. She hoped Presley would ask for the story..for it was an interesting one to tell!

Yes. Elliot was sooo a witness. *nods*

[/QUOTE]

She heard her nickname...that she only allowed really a few people to call her..now..she would have to inform Presley that Ell was acceptable, now. She turned her head towards Beezus and raised an eyebrow..."What's with your voice?" she asked, looking at her friend as if she were...a bit crazy.

Elliioooooooot? Elliot raised her eyebrows even MORE...if possible..."yes? Am I so lovely and charming and all that that you have to say my name twice?" she asked, smirking haughtily..hehe...where was Beezus' boy, anyways?! Hmmm? She refrained from asking, though...since the game..she didn't even know how they were right now...were they together officially? Or no?

"We should talk..later..in private..sometime..." she told the brunette with an official nod...and stuff. Yeeep.

Vindictus shook some ice and snow off his robes as he walked slowly through the Ravenclaw sleeping area, unaware that the frozen bits were raining down on unsuspecting students. So someone had contacted the headmistress and now she was using my idea that I delivered via patronus. Grrr. Well, that's what I get for being busy with non-school related details and declining her afternoon tea requests. Live and let learn, I always say. But I still owe her one but pink is absolutely out of the question!

Even though he was feeling cold, he took off his sweater and held it against his chest. He just wanted something of his to hold for comfort, since his pillow /or blanket was out of the question. Mick's cup of hot chocolate sat on the floor, against his sock covered foot for a little warmth.

He looked up from the floor and at everyone else, he noticed there was a variation of emotions in the room. Some looked comfortable with their friends, some were nervous yet calm. Mick thought that maybe he was overreacting about this whole thing, but his fear of the dark is nothing to laugh about. At least he kept his anxiety under control.

It had come to a surprise when he realized someone was taking notice to him, a fellow Ravenclaw. The fifth year boy at first glanced at her with a bit of confusion, but then his face changed to a bit of relief. Mick had decided that it wouldn't hurt him to talk to someone, talking always helps. He provided her with a small grin as she sat down next to him. "I'm just a little freaked out, I guess," he said, quietly.

Being quite the sugar-lover himself, Max supported Aidan's wishes for a bountiful amount of hot chocolate. But, like a sensible human being, he was not going to argue with a group full of girls who were ganging up on the kid. He looked on with remorse as Vivi joined him.

"Dunno yet," Max offered unhelpfully, taking his attention away from Aidan to straighten up his pile of clothes at the foot of his sleeping bag with his free hand. "Everyone still seems pretty clueless on what caused it all... so I'd imagine we'll be here awhile, at LEAST for the night, yeah, unless someone makes a marvelous discovery of some sort." But... wouldn't it be kind of fun? Spending the rest of the term having a giant school sleepover every night?

...Until he remembered that all of his belongings were being kept from him. That part wasn't too cool.

"But I'd imagine they'll be doing everything in their powers to at least find a way for us to get back in, right? Even if we don't find the source of the problem?" So maybe they didn't need to worry too much.

Just as he opened his mouth to comment on how the headmistress may handle the situation, Max got splashed with fallen snow from their head of house's clothes. "Thanks, professor." Max raised a hand to wave sarcastically at the man's back. He turned back to Vivi to add, "Maybe Professor Vindictus will have some insight."

Or not.