Sitting at the base of the musty staircase is a very large pile of trunks. Each bears the Slytherin house crest. They arrived here during the feast and should have been delivered to the Slytherin common room after the feast. Seems like Hogwarts' remaining house elf ran out of time to do so.

Good thing it is not too far a walk from here to the dungeons?

Obvious place to start was the Entrance Hall, maybe the Courtyard. Entrance Hall was where their stuff got delivered initially though right? West walked in and saw immediately, with great relief, that their trunks were there. And every single one labeled Slytherin. Were they the only ones then??

West had to find his trunk. For reasons.

The next priority after that was Theo's, obviously.

...
....

....

"Accio trunk!" He said forcefully, focusing on his own trunk.

This proved to be ill-advised, given his trunk was on the bottom of the stack and dislodged itself in a rush, violently bursting through and knocking other trunks over.

West had to DODGE and somehow found himself on his back on the ground, still gripping his wand, and with his trunk hovering politely and looking none the worse for wear a short distance from his elbow. Well. That was... a start. He got up and eyed the pile. Maybe 'Accio Theo's trunk' wasn't a good idea either. Manual looking then. Sigh. The things he did for friendship, honestly.

A happy snake, Sky was not. While everyone was freaking out over the fact that their trunks weren't where they were supposed to be, she went looking for hers. And ended up in the Entrance Hall where........

________________THERE THEY WERE!!!!!

"Yay!" Although, as West had already demonstrated, summoning hers out of the pile probably wasn't a good idea. And shouldn't someone let the others know?! She shot off her boa constrictor patronus without thinking, then set to digging out her trunk.

Oh good. West obviously couldn't cast a patronus so it was useful that someone had come along that COULD. Was that a boa constrictor? Okay, who even knew Sky was that cool?

He got up and approached the stack cautiously.

"I guess we have to unstack them and start shuttling them downstairs." He mused out loud, looking back over his shoulder at Sky.

... really he just wanted to escape with his trunk and Theo's and leave the rest to it, but he didn't for some reason.

Oh yeah, because he hadn't located Theo's trunk yet. Ahem. West started levitating trunks from the stack as careeeefully as possible this time.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Well... that got them down, one at a time. But surely Locomotor would be better for shuttling? He tested it on the random trunk he'd just got down, since he didn't want to mess up with his own one, for reasons. "Locomotor Trunk!"

Kat followed West to wherever the fourth year went. Then they arrived at the Entrance Hall. Well that would be a great place to start trunk-hunting, to be honest. Looking around the place, something had caught Kat's eyes. Right there below the staircases were trunks.

Trunks with the Slytherin crests. THEIR trunks.

Oh so they weren't the only ones? Okay. Kat gave the Slytherin, who she remembered actually shared the sixth year girls' dormitory with her, a polite nod. You know, just to acknowledge her. Wasn't she supposed to be at the common room with the others? Kat better not catch her roaming the corridors and halls at night.

And then the patronus. That was useful.

Shuttling the trunks. Lots of spellwork then? Well, how can three Slytherins take all of these over to the dorms? "Isn't this too much trunks to shuttle to the dormitory with just the three of us?" Or they could wait for them to come over and find their trunk. I mean, that'd be a better option.

Under the disillusionment charm, Peyton made her way to the Entrance Hall. She was eager to see that Thor was safe and sound. If anything ANYTHING happened to her kneazle Hogwarts would be getting a letter from her lawyers. Her dad's lawyers.

All of the sudden, being sneaky made her feel all giddy. Like if she was on an adventure and she was the star.

Peyton arrived at the Hall and spotted Kat, West and another Slytherin she hasn't met. Then something popped into her head. She slowly crept behind West and tapped his shoulder once. Hehe.

Why not take advantage of the opportunity?

BOO.

"Oh you wanna stand here and guard them then?" West looked up from his efforts (still hunting for his besties trunk) "Me and Sky could take ours and go tell everyone to come get their own, but aren't they starting on the common room?" Or... they should be. That'd suck if they were just still standing there talking.

"I was thinking we could...."

He stopped suddenly. He had several ideas but that wasn't the problem. Would they have to pay a knut for EVERY one of these trunks to get them past the turnstiles? Or did it only block living things? And if it blocked living things... West eyed his trunk. His trunk would totally be blocked. Maybe.

"How are you at banishing spells?" He asked instead.

And then someone tapped him on the shoulder.

Which... okay, you don't tap a snake on the shoulder when he's holding a wand. You just don't. West, by reflex, dropped the trunk he was in the middle of levitating, right where said shoulder-tapper's feet were, and jumped back, wand at the ready.

Oh.
Oh.

Err... Hi Peyton.

Move all of them downstairs?! But then again, it did seem like the right thing to do.... ugh. Sky really just wanted her own trunk. "Guess so..." So she pulled out her own wand and cast a Wingardium Leviosa on the trunk nearest her, floating it. Then she had an idea, upon hearing West's spell. "Maybe we can stack them into stacks of three each, then Locomotor them down to the dungeons?" Make less work for them, and things would go faster as well.

Then several things happened at once. They were joined by one of Sky's fellow sixth years, who's nod she returned; she heard some slight scuffling which spooked her a bit then West completely dropped his trunk. Okay..... "You alright there, West?" Because fourth years didn't drop their trunks like that.....

Stand here and guard.

...

Maybe. "That could work," Kat said. If that was the only way they actually had to do so that they didn't have to levitate and use the locomotion charm on them. "However I think you'll have to use the disillusionment charm to get there." If they decided to leave Kat behind and guard these stack of trunks behind them, she couldn't be so sure they wouldn't get caught. It was late and professors could be around the castle. The sixth year was not going to allow the loss of points. Not after that point race from last term. Another tie with Hufflepuff and Kat was seriously going to break things and faces.

How was she at banishing charms? Not that they didn't learn them in their previous years. "Definitely not horrible." She had been practicing.

THUD.

Dropping something in the middle of levitating caught attention. It wasn't like West would just drop it right? And with his wand at the ready. Uh, okay. Kat looked at wherever the fourth year was looking at and then saw Peyton. Did Dylan send her here?

Smart. The disillusionment charm. Worked well, she must say. "You can take it off now, you know," the prefect said. If Peyton knew how to place that on herself, she'd know how to take it off too. Cause if anything happened, Kat would probably be responsible for it. For Slytherin, at least.

With a light squeak, Peyton bounced back as the trunks fell on the floor. She would have giggled, but West had his wand out. Right, right. You don't sneak up on a Slytherin. But...she did it. Not even sorry. "Didn't mean to startle you, West," she said, walking past him and patting his shoulder as she went.

She stood by Kat and nodded, smiling at her. "Okay. Dylan said I should for precaution, you know." The disillusionment charm made her feel like a really cool ninja, but it was time for business. Though this wasn't the last time she'd be under the charm, she decided.

Glancing at the pile of trunks, Peyton spotted a pair of bright yellow eyes at the bottom of the pile.

Ahhhhh!

Running toward it, she shoved everything aside, pulled the golden cage toward her and tapped her wand on the lock. "My poor babyyyy," she cooed as Thor the kneazle peeked out of the cage and pounced on her, snuggling her neck. She cradled him in her arms and turned to face her housemates.

So she found her stuff. Could they go now?

Probably not.

"Why don't we shrink the trunks? It'd be easier to carry them if they were tiny," she said, hauling her trunk up.

"Its okay Peyton." He didn't mind that much... but it was just lucky nothing worse had happened than just dropping trunks. West listened to the discussion.

"Stacks of three works. We could stack them outside the common room and people can bring them in, or maybe Professor Lafay will help." Paaaaaaaaaause.

"I can't shrink mine because of whats inside of it. And because we don't know what is inside all of the trunks, we should be careful, we might mess something up by accident." Since they were just kids.

He grinned tiredly at Sky. "I'm fine."

So... sigh. Guess he was volunteering.

"I'll stay here then, I guess. Make sure nobody messes with our stuff. And you guys can take some trunks, including your own stuff, and tell everyone their stuff is here? Obviously we don't want to force everyone to come for their own since they'll all have to pay to get back in." He sat down on his trunk. No point mucking about with things any further until they had decided for sure what to do.

Kat was following the conversation from Peyton to West. The other sixth year (still didn't know who) was sort of... quiet. Oh well. If she didn't wanna speak and stuff, then okay. Kat couldn't do anything about it cos it was definitely not her choice to let her fellow Slytherin speak. Shrug.

Then... hang on. Leaving West and here? That was a risk of points. Kat was kind of thinking about that for a while until giving out a sigh. "Alright," she said. West can stay here while they hurry up to the common room. Kat trusted him enough that he wouldn't get caught. After all, someone needed to watch for the trunks. He better watch out though for staff people, you know.

"'Kay, guys," she said to the two others, Peyton and the other one. "I think we should get going now." Kat called them and made her way back to the Slytherin Common Room. Then she disappeared.

West had a point there. She didn't want to risk damaging her stuff or getting blamed for other people's belongings, so she nodded. "Okay. I'll use the Locomotion Charm since..." She was cut off as Thor snuggled at the crook of her neck, emphasizing her point.

Needy kneazle was needy. And since he'd already stressed enough at being ABANDONED here underneath ALL the trunks, Peyton didn't want to distress him even more.

She grinned at West when he volunteered to stay and guard the trunks. What a gentleman. "We'll be right back," she told him.

With a flick of her wand toward a few trunks, Peyton muttered Locomotor, turned on her heals and followed Kat.

Theo was here, only because he had been ordered to be here. But now that he thought about it, why hadn't he come down here in the first place? Of course he would want to help out his friends with this stuff. So, really, it was no sweat at all. The only thing he worried about was his meeting with Professor Lafay.

West. There was West. Good.

"Sup?" He said, surveying the situation. Just West with all these trunks? "You just... chilling?" Theo asked, then sat on a trunk next to his bestie. Didn't really care whose it was. Chilling, yes that was a much better idea.

*POP!*

The shouting studensies voices were gone when little Toddles appeared in the Entrance Hall like he was told. His orb-like eyes swiveled quickly in their slightly bloodshot sockets until he found a short boy and others studensies sitting with the trunksies.

"Sir, are this the trunksies belonging to the studensies in the Common Room under the water? The ones with Green on their clothes like you?" He looked up at him with big, worried eyes. Toddles hoped this boy wouldn't shout at him too. Toddles was doing the best he could, there was just too many things needing his attention.

"Yeah... I don't really wanna leave our stuff out here, y'know?" Because who trusted anyone and what if some professor decided to sell all their things for money?

"And I was looking for your trunk, wasn't going to go back without it, but its under all that stuff I think." And he really needed to feed his Nile Monitor soon.

Blink. Elf.

The only elf apparently.

"Yes that's right, this is all for the Slytherins, the ones in the common room under the lake. Are you going to help us move them? We can't do it on our own." Not without paying each time they passed through the turnstiles.

The boy hear him. And didn't yell.

"Toddles is right? Well then yes Toddles will be helping you take them there." The little House Elf walked over to the pile that the boy and his friend were sitting on and snapped his little fingers.

The pile of trunks, with the two Slytherins on top, instantly levitated about 3 feet off the ground and hovered nearby the little Elf. "Will we be ready now?"

*blink*

Sure. He nodded.

Theo hadn't even been aware that West had found the trunks, he was too busy having an emotional breakdown to think of the minor details. But he wouldn't doubt that a few of his personal belongings would make him feel a little more at home. Cos he really wanted to go HOME home right about now.

"Oh, seriously?" Theo groaned and cast a look over to the huge pile of trunks.

AGH, ELF.

Theo jumped a little when the creature popped out of nowhere. He reaaaaaaaaaaally didn't like those things, but did kinda appreciate them more since the castle was crumbling apart without them. Where were the rest of the stinking elves?

And then he was hovering in the air. Theo rocked back and forth, then leaped off of the trunk and onto the floor.

Frowning at chu, elf. FROWNING.

Theo immediately kept his distance from the tiny elf, in case it had germs or something, because they looked SUPER unclean.

Woah.

Woaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

West broke into a smile. "We're ready, lets do this thing Toddles." Or y'know, the elf could and West and Theo would riiiiiiiiiiiiiiide it out. Or... West would since apparently Theo wasn't having any of it.

West got a grip and stayed on the trunk though.

The one studensie sir didn't want to sit on the trunks anymore? No matter, Toddles could carry them and he could lead the way. He could!

The other boy seemed happy though and Toddles liked the studensies when they were happy. Not sad or mean. "Alright studensie sirs, to the Common Room room?"

Without waiting for an answer the tiny elf began to march towards the room he just left, the large pile of trunks with the Slytherin on top levitating behind him and the other boy hopefully somewhere nearby.

Sophie brought the yellow vacuum cleaner with her up to the ground floor. She waved and smiled at a couple of students she knew - and some she didn't know as well - as she made her way there and stopped right in front of the main entrance of the Castle.

That was a lovely place to work! She had always found those doors pretty. So big and mighty and nice! The Hufflepuff smiled up at them for a moment before pulling out her wand and looking around. That was a pretty big place!!

Sophie then considered professor Flamsteed's answer to her question at the end of the lesson. She could try some variations of the spell now, couldn't she? Hmmm...

...Should she?? The girl bit her lower lip as she thought about it. ..........Yes!! She'd do it!!! sdjkfsdjkfndjkf

Holding up her wand, she tapped the vacuum. "Vacavus Maxima!"

Hm... nothing different seemed to happen. Sophie watched the vacuum for a bit then shrugged. She would just see how long it would last this time, then.

So there the badger went, walking around the whole area in front of the big ol' entrance doors. Lalalalalala.....

There sure were a bunch of crums and dust and even earth around there. Merlin! Where did all of the students walk around to get so much dirt on their shoes and robes? That was odd.... Welp, good thing she had cast a stronger Charm then, right? Or not, because it seemed to not have such a difference in the sucking process. Not that she noticed, anyway.

SLURP! o____O was that a WHOLE Chocolate Frog package???

Quazi stormed into the castle through Hogwarts' two great oak front doors, pausing for no one. "Sturnik, you know which objects to get. Tumplin, Hemlor, all your lists are here." She ripped the list of collection items into fourths, handing them each a scrap of the parchment and keeping the last for herself. "You know what to do. If any students get in your way, make them move and keep working. Our sole purpose is to collect." They knew.

With Hogwarts taking out loans and such, going broke and not paying the bank back.. Merlin, they knew this day would come. Quazi and the others were only doing their job in keeping Gringotts' running as well as it had been before the school's vault was emptied.

"Everyone know what to do? Good. Let's get a move on it." And with that, the female goblin marched through Hogwarts, ready to perform her task.

Sturnik followed the overenthusiastic Quazi all the way from London to Hogwarts. King Ragnuk the First, she was enthusiastic.

Sturnik on the other hand didn't enjoy repossessing items. But is was his job as a single male goblin amidst lots of lady goblins Head of Security to make sure this went smoothly. "What did you get Pumpkin?" he asked.

He then blinked several times. Ragnuk's Great Ruby Sword! That came out wrong. "Tumplin." he quickly corrected. That probably ruined the chances of them going out for fungi later.

Maybe he should give a shot at a line to Hemlor? He could casually toss his bag over his shoulder and drop a clever line about wondering if the children should be repossessed too. Perhaps they were worth some money. Ragnuk knew that it would take nearly selling the castle to redeem this awful situation.

Ooh. That made Sturnik want a castle. Perhaps he'd put a bid on Hogwarts when the time came.

Behind Quazi and Sturnik came Tumplin. She was a nervous of the task ahead, but knew that what must be done, must be done.

She faltered when Sturnik...spoke...to her? Then blinked it off. Nevertheless, she let him take a peek at her list from Quazi before folding it up and putting it in her pocket.

Tumplin nodded at Quazi's orders and continued across the Entrance Hall, further into Hogwarts.