"Nice to meet you too." Leah said and smiled briefly, oblivious to the fact that Agatha had glued her eyes at her bird. She could not help but jump slightly when the girl yelled. Again, she was concerned for people who could not control their anger.. Though this was a perfect situation to be mad at. The Hufflepuff shrugged as Agatha explained that she had thought of that. Not like it was the most unique idea ever.

Now Leah felt herself falling forwards, along with the older girl. She imagined tumbling down the MOVING staircase and end up breaking a couple bones like Hope last year when Agatha grabbed the handrail to stop herself. The second year held on to Agatha's shoulder tightly with her free hand and steadied herself, hoping that the stairs would not start moving and kill them all. Looking up, Leah noticed that she was grabbing one of the bird's legs.

Inhaling, she worked on untangling the other leg from Agatha's hair. Aww, poor hair. She needed some superduper shampoo or something. The girl kept a firm hold on the other leg, but not enough to break it. Not that she had the strength to. Merlin, why was this so hard?

'HAWK!! HAWK!!' The raven flapped its wings maniacally as it tried to free itself from the human's grasp. 'HAWK!! HAWK!! HAWK HAWK!!' Which basically translated to: LET ME GO. LET. ME. GO.

MERLIN, they were going to DIE!!!!

At least that was what it felt like having someone almost roll down the stairs on top of you. But they had stopped thanks to Agatha holding onto the handrail. "WHAT-" It was all she was able to yell before struggling to get up steadily and protect her face from Chess' crazy fit. "WHAT'S GOING ON" She shouted, her hair all over her face. No matter how much she tried to brush it back with her hands, her hair would only get more messy and all over the place. She couldn't SEE anything, only hear Chess going mental right above her head!! "DON'T LET IT--- DON'T--- I DON'T WANT TO GO BALD!" The Slytherin managed to yell as she spat her hair out of her mouth. EW EW EW SHE DIDN'T WANT TO EAT HER HAIR EITHEEERRR EWWW! "GET HIM OFF ME!!"

They made it to the staircase and the two started climbing. As he climbed further, he couldn't help but wonder and wish to learn more about Zander's love for Bentley. Replaying the whole interaction, he smirked slightly at Zander's profession of love for Professor Bentley. He slowed down so he could walk side by side with his mate. Aha! "So Bentley..." he began as he quirked an eyebrow at his mate. He gave his friend a friendly grin. So Zander did have a crush on her?!? Aha. Simon wasn't going to make a big thing out of it because Zander seemed kind of awkward about it all so he'd let it go. "Don't worry about it mate. I know what you mean. Professor Bentley is very pretty," he said with a kind grin as the two headed up the moving staircase.

Ugh. Step. Step. Step. Step. Step.
Step. Step.

"How many stairs do you think there are here?"

Marigold took a deep breath and tapped the banister with one finger as she ran through the possibilities in her head.

1. Hogwarts was alive
2. Hogwarts wasn't alive

Well, at least there wasn't a third option.

"Oh. What does it eat?" And more importantly, WAS IT TRYING TO KILL THEM!?

The bird and its owner wer practically yelling together now. Panicking, Leah screamed too, somehow creating a harmony(?) thing. "AAAAAARGH stop yelling!" she said, gripping the bird tighter, not letting it fly away. Now that she had both feet on flat surface she could get both hands to work on untangling the leg from Agatha's hair.

"I understand that you don't want to go bald!" the Hufflepuff yelled back. She SO understood. "I'm working on untangling Chess' leg from your hair, okay?" she added. It was hard because the bird was flapping its wings and all that. The second year patted the bird's head as calmly as possible. "Hey er, Chess, cooperate with me for a while and I'll.. give you my Cauldron Cake!" That was a lie, Leah would never give out her favorite food. Ever. Okay, one more strand of hair left. But was Agatha alive? She did not sound so just now.

"Hopefully not us." Ethan blinked as he looked down, then up and saw that the other flight of staircase moved. The fair-haired Slytherin squinted and had his brain running with ideas. The movement was definitely not just for practical reasons, but has a defensive property to it.

People who aren't familiar with the school, such as intruders will definitely get lost in here, all thanks to the moving staircase. Uh-huh. Ethan definitely was considering this theory based on his detectiveobservation skillz. "Come on, Marigold. We have to keep on moving!"

Noel was just really really really glad he was in Hufflepuff. SNORT. But really, he was, for ONE REASON ONLY. The common room wasn't in some tower, which would mean he didnt have to take these wretched stairs because seriously - Noel hated them

They were moving again. And Noel was just standing there, waiting for it to be done with it's shenanigans. Ugh.

Making his way down Hogwarts, walking fast, faces pass, and he's staircase bound? Actually, no. He wasn't walking fast. He was walking with turtle speed because after walking up so many stairs, it really takes the wind out of ya. Ever since the outdoors were overtaken by a RAGING EVIL STORM OF DOOM that's all he'd been doing: walking up and down stairs. Stairs, stairs, and even more stairs. Sometimes he'd be adventurous and take some more stairs. Really it was all so incredibly repetitive and he really needed to go working out or something because his legs were starting to get real sore.

As Zander made his way towards the moving staircase, he stopped. Stopped when he saw some other kid who had stopped? Oh. Well the stairs were moving so that'd just be a great excuse to take a break right? A break where he'd hopefully not look like a lazy bum because they were moving and he could just casually get distracted by talking to this kid so you know, he wouldn't look like he was actually just taking a break right? Right. It had been decided. Kid, you are a distraction now. "Hate when these things do that," oh casuuuuaaally reeling him in. Heheh.

This guy looked just as angry at the stairs as Zander felt.

"I know right?" Noel tsk'd. Another thing on the LONG list of things he hated about Hogwarts. He wondered if this was all a pre-planned thing to make the students suffer and endure and be patient. Gosh.

"What I don't understand is, ALL these decades and no one thought of simply letting everyone levitate themselves all over the place" Noel said, turning to look at the boy. There had to be a charm for that, right? Even the muggles were brilliant enough to invent elevators.

"I am Noel, by the way" he told, frowning when the stairs yet again moved and so far away from where he actually wanted to go.

Zander let out a small sigh, and momentarily looked back to the annoying staircase. The were wizards for goodness sakes, couldn't they do something about this?! And just as the third year had that thought, the other blonde was apparently thinking the same thing. "YEAH!" Why was he so excited? They were literally just talking about stairs...

"Back home, they have elevators everywhere! You'd think that they'd install some into Hogwarts with all these floors?" People here laughed about how backward muggles were, but at least they could get up and down stairs without having to stand around for FOREVER!?! "Personally, I think that we should be allowed to at least apparate or something.... Even if we're not of age..." Was that dumb? That was probably dumb.

Noel? Hmm the name sounded familiar. Maybe they had some classes together or something? "Oh, I'm Zander," he replied mimicking the boy's frown because he didn't want the guy to know that he actually liked taking a break from all that walking! So he couldn't just let the guy leave right away! How do conversations work? "What year are you in, Noel?" He was obviously a Hufflepuff, by the looks of his uniform. Hm. He actually didn't know too many of the puffers. There was Lux and Adi, but... that's it.

OMG RIGHT?

"Yeaaah. Muggles are WAY ahead of their time, dude. No one gives them enough credit." he said, nodding. "My dad is a muggle, you know. Half the time, I am totally amazed at the things he does" Muggle things were close to magic. Like the washing machine.

"Apparation? I can't wait to learn that .." Yes. There were still a few things he was lookibg forward at Hogwarts. "Even if it's forbidden, I feel might accidentally still apparate everywhere. Because ... how awesome would that be??"

"oh yes. I know who you are. I have seen you around," he nodded. Seen him around .. not in a stalking way, of course - just you know in a observing from distant kind of way. "Second," he told him, "And you?"

YEAAAH! Exactly! Everyone always made fun of them, but nonmagical folk, ahem- muggles, knew what they were doing! "Yeah!" He liked this one. "Really? Both of my parents are muggles and so are my siblings," he admitted with a grin. Now that they were talking about how advanced muggles actually were, Zander didn't even feel ashamed to admit it or anything! Not that he would normally... Not ashamed, just more... Cautious.

Zander nodded his head eagerly at the thought of learning how to apparate. Just thinking of somewhere to be and then being there! Kind of like flu. But you wouldn't have to carry around a fireplace or anything! That'd be totally inconvenient otherwise. Ahem. "When I learn how to apparate, I think I'll make it a point to do it everywhere." Yep. It has officially been decided. "That'd be sooo cool." Ha, y'know, now that they were talking about cool things, conversation was too difficult! This was great. Did this mean he was maturing? Was this puberty?

... He knew who Zander was? Huh? Zander lifted an eyebrow, but then dropped it at the explanation. Oh yeah, well Zander had seen this guy around too. Probably in lessons. Hm. Like Charms. Everyone took Charms. "Oh, I'm a third year." Hehe. He was kind of proud of that. It meant that he had already completed two years and was all wise 'n stuff now. Heh.

Noel sat down on the stairs. The moving would probably be a while - so might as well sit down. "Really?" Both his parents were muggle? "YOU are the only magic one?" he asked, really fascinated cause Zander was really special you know?

Noel laughed, hearing the boy. "Righttt? That is so going to be my agenda. Goodbye walking." Bwahahaha.

"So .... do your siblings like get jealous of you?" he asked, totally in the mood for a conversation. There was nothing else to do in the castle anyway.

Noticing that the younger boy had gone ahead and taken a seat, Zander decided to join because all this standing on his feet stuff was getting unbearable, y'know? They really needed elevators. This was beginning to get problematic. Turning his attention back to Noel, he couldn't help but let out an audible chuckle at the boy's fascination. How come everyone thought it was so weird to be the only one? "Yeah, yeah I am the only magic one," Why was that so fascinating though!?

Zander laughed along with the kid. Man. He was kinda cool. Could Zander be cooool too?! He wanted to have an agenda!

Did his brothers get jealous...? Well actually, come to think of it... Zander had never really thought about it that. "I-I..." WELL DID THEY!? "Maybe. I mean they're always messing with me? And making fun of me?" Did that mean that they secretly wanted to BE HIM? "But.. They say all wizards are dorks, so I think that means they hate magic?"

Was that what it meant?!

Marigold followed Ethan (though she was most definitely calling him 'Eth' in her head now) and followed his gaze to other moving staircases. Why were they so intent on the confusing factor? IF Hogwarts was alive, and needed nourishment, why didn't the moving things eat them? Instead, they were just misleading students…

And the doors and walls that pretended to be each other… why was that? To get them lost instead of opening up directly to the castle's stomach? Maybe that was it!

"Maybe the castle's leading us to it's digestive system," she said in a nasally voice, due to the fact that her nose was wrinkled in disgust.