Know where the new place to explore was? Seventh floor, since Dot was going to stake out a place where she could wait for her Dima friend. Somewhere comfortable, 'cause sometimes he might not come out right away. Unfortunately, the whole corridor was just stone and torches and windows and NOT comfortable. At all.

Dot disappeared, and she was back about half an hour later dragging a cushion she'd purloined from the Slytherin common room. She set it down in the middle of the corridor, seated herself on it, and then set about waiting for Dima. Oh, and she also had a book to read, but mostly she was waiting.

He had already been waiting for Dot, though very discreetly. That little space behind Lachlan the Lanky? It was perfect for Dima-sized things, and since he'd barely grown an inch since the year before, he had no difficulty squeezing into the tiny alcove and awaiting the arrival of his best friend.

And there she was! Dima peered out from behind the statue's shoulder at her.

"Did you bring a cushion for me too?"

Dot didn't even look up when she heard Dima's voice, since she'd been sure he'd be there soon. Instead, she scooted over and flipped another page in her book. Now there was room for him. Too. With her.

"It's big enough for you. I was here earlier lookin' for a place to sit. Maybe we can just squish this whole cushion back there and keep it for waitings." She had a feeling waitings were gonna be a thing for them now. Dot closed her book and wrinkled her nose at him. "Tell me things."

Seeing as Dima would always prefer sharing a cushion with Dot to sitting by himself on another one, that was GOOD news. He squished in beside his favorite redhead, making himself comfy. "Think someone might take it? 'Sides, you can probably get into my common room by yourself. All you gotta do is answer a riddle." Which... Dima couldn't even do half the time. Waiting for older kids to come along and help him? It was a thing.

But Dot was smarter than him so it was okay.

"Tell you what things?"

As soon as Dima sat down, Dot propped her arm on him and leaned in all friendly-like. She didn't need permission to get into his space since his space had been her space since they were sharing a crib at nap time.

That was still the same, right? Dot gave him a quiet look from under her lashes, just to be sure.

"I dunno what things. What's going on in your common room. Who you met that I haven't. That you miss me forever." All the things she didn't know yet since she hadn't seen him in HOURS.

Figuring that this spot would be a nice quiet place to hangout for a while. Sure she loved being in the common room but sometimes it got way too crowded and loud even for her. She had the itch to draw something today. And why not this statue.

After heading out of the common room bad down the corridor to the statue. She walked around it a few times. Trying to spot any special or unusual details that she would come across. It appeared to be a pretty simple statue of a wizard reading.

She plopped down beside it. Put her bag on her lap and pulled out her sketch book and pencils. Now to get to work. She walked around it one more time. Oppps yeah small enough for a firstie. But not small enough for a small fourth year.

Ugh she was totally NOT stuck.

He had a handful of treats for his raven, tossing them up in the air and watching with absolute amusement as the bird caught each one and treated Paris back with a aerial trick. It was how the pair had spent most of the day, as they usually did back home when he had no people to keep him company. And since he couldn't find his friends, it was just the pair of them again today.

Right up until Eeyore perched himself on the statue, drawing Paris' eye to the girl seeming to be hiding behind it. Curious, he went up to her and examined her predicament. "Hidin' from someone?"

Well this was interesting, Cinna stuck behind a statue. Worser things have happened. She tried wiggling out again. It was know use. Someone have a butter of butter they didn't need? This was bad.

She stopped moving when she heard someone coming. She peered through the statue at the the person coming up the stairs. The dude and his bird. A raven? Who did that dude think he was Edger Allen Poe or something?

She watched as the bird!raven landed on the statue and dude had spotted her. Great. Was she hiding from someone? "No. I'm not hiding and I'm totally not stuck either." That was was. She was stuck. Very stuck.

"Then what are you doing?" He was pretty sure she was stuck. Why even bring that up if she wasn't? But Paris was nice, and didn't feel the need to bring up this very obvious point.

Instead he offered her a hand. "I can help you out, if you like." He all but ignored his bird. They could play more after she was free.

If she wanted to be.

What was she doing? Oh yeah. Sketching this statue that she was not stuck behind. Which she was obviously stuck behind but she wasn't ready to admit it. "Observing." She said with a laugh. "So I could work on that." She pointed to her sketch pad and pencils.

"No, I'm fine. but can you hand me my things?" She couldn't quiet reach her things from being not stuck behind the statue. He could totally stay around until she was done. Because then she would admit to the saturation and need to be unstuck. He maybe the only one to come by again for a while.

He thought she had an interesting observation spot, but to each their own. Certainly didn't leave much room for company though, did it? "You're working on the statue?" It didn't quiet make sense to him, but only because he didn't see her stuff until she pointed it out.

Oh.

"Yea." He picked up her things and offered them to her before sitting cross-legged in front of the statue, at an angle he could still see her. "I'm Paris. And that's Eeyore." He made a motion at the raven, who then flew down to perch on his knee. "Who are you?"

"Yeah, I'm drawing the statue." She nodded. Or at least she was going to try. There wasn't much room back there to do anything. She wasn't stuck, remember. but he did go ahead and hand her stuff. She smiled and him and took her things."Thank you."

Paris like the city? She bet he got that a lot. Just like she always got like the spice? She got that all of the time. "Mmmm Like the city? I'm Cinnamon." She watched as Eeyore landed on his knee. A pet raven now that was interesting. She realized that she was going to be able to see the front of the statue to see what to draw. Oppps she didn't think about that.

Well now she seemed to have another idea of a sketch. She went ahead and got to work on that new idea.

"From the back?" He was confused, but not really questioning her art. If she wanted to draw from the back, then he was going to watch her and be fascinated. Maybe even draw HER.

He nodded, giving his birds chest feathers a few strokes before, his eyes glued on the girl behind the statue. "Better than the city. Cinnamon like the spice." Paris grinned. "What house are you in?" It was impossible to see her robes with her behind the statue.

Mmmm. Cinna hadn't planned on getting stuck behind the statue. She nodded, "From the back." She didn't want him to know that she had changed her mind about what she was doing. Him and his bird. Yep she was drawing that city boy and the bird.

She watched the boy and the bird. Why in the world would anyone want a bird.... Raven as a pet. Sure she had ducks. But a raven? They were terribly scary looking, wasn't they? Laughing as he spoke. "Better than the city, huh?" Well wasn't someone full of themselves? "Better than the spice. Cinna, you call me that. Everyone else does. I'm a Gryffindor." Obviously couldn't he see her robes? Oh wait probably not she was behind a statue.

Right. Perfectly logical.

A bit difficult, but he wasn't going to question her art until he was done and he could see the entire finished product.

"Aye." He confirmed. 'Cause people were always better than places, see? They were also better than spices. "I like that name. What year are you?" She looked close in age to him, but again he didn't want to take any guesses out loud or assume anything.

Cinna started on her sketch. looking up at the boy and his bird. Trying to not make her new plans of her sketch subjects look so obvious. Shhh. It was a surprise. Nod nod. She tried remember things so she didn't have to look but at them so much. She kept her eye on the statue too to show that she was "working" in the statue of course.

"Thanks, I like your name too." She looked up at him and the bird to answer his question. "I'm a fourth year. You?" He could be too much older than her if they weren't the same age. She figured that they were the same age, or pretty close.

Paris knew when he was being sketched. He'd sketched and painted too many people, and tried doing it without being noticed, to not know that face. The fourth year was good to pretend like he wasn't noticing though, and kept on stroking Eeyore's breast feathers.

"I'm fourth year too. Transfer." Which was fun and new and EXCITING. Everything was better than being homeschooled. "Have you been here since first year?"

Cinna was doing a great job or so she though she was doing a great job of secretly drawing. She was nearing the last few pencil strokes of the feathers on the raven. Yep she still didn't like birds very much. Except for her pet duck quackers who was at home.

"Nope. This is my second year here. I was homeschooled my first two years." She nodded do much better than being homeschooled. There she was finished with the sketch. "I'm done!" She stood back up from behind the statue. Now she need help to get out from behind the stupid statue. She tried wiggling out again.

Okay, so she had reached the statue. Looking up at it, she couldn't help feeling creeped out even if she'd seen it many time. Those Hogwarts statues just never got less creepy in her opinion.

Drawing her eyes from his face, she knew that she needed to get to work if she and Cinna were going to search this area for the fairytale book. There was a small spot behind the statue where the book could have hidden, so after lighting her wand she peered behind.

Cinna followed Lux over to the statue. She was soooo tempted to to jump behind her and scare her. Hehehe. Instead she headed to the other side of the statue looking for that crazy book.

Ugh. Nothing she looked around a few other places around close to the statue and around that part of the corridor but seen nothing. "See anything Lux?" If not maybe they should make their way back to professor Cassie and the others in the group. "We should head back. Maybe someone seen it, or maybe they have it already."

Nothing was lurking behind the statue, that was kind of disappointing. And there wasn't anything immediately around it either. Lux could guess that Cinna wasn't having any luck either.

Shaking her head, she had to agree that heading back was a good idea. "Come on, maybe they found it!" she said trying her hardest to be positive. Linking arms with Cinna again, she made her way back to the main group.

Making his way down the stairs from the divination classroom Benny found himself stopping at the seventh floor. He didn't even know where to even truly begin his search, anymore than when looking for the book. "Better try something..." he mused to himself as he perched by Lachlan's statue. At least if he got some sort of clue there would be one idea of where to go from here. He did only have one hour tp search after all, he couldn't try to look everywhere.

And that was the purpose of having the scrying materials after all.
With the handheld mirror already in his grasp Ben was sure to start with that option first. He was thankful that since it was technically class time there wasn't that many people around to serve as a distraction. He even moved into the space behind the statue for more cover. Then he closed his eyes and cleared his mind before opening them once more when he was ready.

"Where is the stuffed dragon..." he mused aloud as he stared into the reflective surface. At first it was just him in the mirror like normal. But then after a while he noticed tall columns...of something. Stone or trees, Benny wasn't sure, but it wasn't a normal reflection. He checked behind him. It was enough for now, the fourth year moving from his perch to head out to a new spot. Maybe he'd notice those columns somewhere.

Zander was honestly just wondering along the seventh floor rather hopelessly at this point. All he needed was one single sock. It couldn't possibly be that hard to find. Some others brought there pets! Those things would never stay in one place, so really he had it easy. Yet, why was it so hard?!

Stopping at the statute this time, he looked down at his map again. Maybe there was an easier, more precise way to do this? Hm. Grabbing the crystal from his bag-- again, having to fish it out because of the pile of random socks-- he looked at it intensely before--

HA WAIT A MINUTE!! It did yes or no!

It did yes or no!!!

"Hey, Crystal... Have YOU seen my sock?"

A circle? Wait, what did that mean-- YES IT MEANT YES, yes?

??????? Taking that as a yes.

"Have you seen my sock here? In this specific part of the castle?"

YA--no. Man. So it wasn't here?

Maybe by towers it meant... The Ravenclaw tower?