She didn't know where they were going but the moment Felix plopped softly onto a step near the top of the staircase, she figured they...were here? Curious. Lex tilted her head and watched the feline for a moment, in case this wasn't actually a stop but something that had temporarily caught his attention. By the looks of it he was getting comfy. Personally she wouldn't have minded them making it down to the kitchen but here was good too. No one else around. Nothing to get on her nerves. Empty. Kinda like the rest of the castle now.

The Gryffindor flopped two steps below her kneazle and gave him a scratch behind the ear. "Gonna be a long term, Felix." She muttered. Her eyes glanced over the side of the staircase as it began to sway. Might have been smart to check where she was moving from but even then, she didn't think she could get lost in this place anymore.

"Cauldron cake?" She offered, fishing one from her candy bag. They could share this one. He wasn't all that caught up on sweets.

Marigold was heading to see whether Z or Ruby were somewhere she could find them - which was doubtful, considering the size of the place, but she was optimistic - but the staircases moved a lot, and she was trying to get back to her Common Room in surrender. Seeing the staircase she needed start to move, she hurried onto in like it was one of those revolving doors in malls. Seeing Lex on the stairs as well, with a cute pet, she walked closer to her and dropped down next to the cat.

And pet it.

Footsteps drew her attention from her candy bag she'd been all too busy rummaging through a moment ago. So much for the quiet? It was just as likely the person was only scurrying about from point A to point B and wouldn't stick around for that but she lost hope of that at the sight of....was that Marigold(?) approaching her and Felix. Of course she could have and should have said something but she hadn't seen a show since the feast and this could be more entertaining than watching the stairs move her about.

Hazel eyes locked on the kneazle whose tail had stiffened and his fur bristled at the girls advance. With a curious gaze she watched the girl pet at her kneazle but the fussy thing would be having none of it and pounced forward when she was close enough, hissing and scratching at whatever he could. Lex blinked, questioning how safe this one on a set of moving stairs but then...he was likely to land on his feet, wasn't he?

Still...she couldn't just let him continue. That would be...bad form or something. Finally, Alexa clicked her tongue a few times, calling him off.

Y'know when you've consumed a whole bag full of candy floss and drunk a whole two litre bottle of full sugar Coca-cola? That buzz you get? The excitement that seems to swell from the pit of your stomach and spreads up to your eyeballs and gives everything a little bit of a haze? Well... that was the feeling Sam had as he took an unguided excursion through the castle. CASTLE. Like, a proper, full scale, not-even-a HINT-of-ruin-fairy-CASTLE. With bells and knobs on!

It was a marvel to behold. A beautiful piece of architecture outside and in.. And, living in a castle wasn't even the best part about being here. Nope. The best part about all this, was the magic part. UNBELIEVABLY, Samson T. Blake, an unremarkable boy from an unremarkable town up North, was a wizard.

Wizard Sammy was making his way slowly up to the seventh floor where he was going to attempt to visit his cousin in her common room when he'd finished his tour. The Snake one had a password to get in which seemed bizarre to Sam that the school would go to such an extent to keep the houses apart. Still, it added to the air of mystery of magical-Hogwarts..

His tour, however, came to a standstill on the fourth floor.. as did Sammy very suddenly as the staircase he'd just stepped onto decided to MOVE without warning under his feet.

“Wooh! Woooooaaaah!”

Arms spinning in an attempt to keep his balance, he ran up a few steps so that he was in the middle and away from the edge. Face flushed, excited, nervous laughter erupted from his throat. He'd read about the moving stairs! Health and safety would have a field day in a state school with this!

His heart pounded as he clung onto the banister for dear life while hoping no one had seen that.

He finally let go and raised his camera to take a picture of the drop where he'd just been standing moments ago, deciding it was probably best not to show his mam this particular shot.

Now.. it'd be real neece if you stopped movin' soon, stairs..

Marigold blinked a bunch of times at the evidently-not-so-friendly cat and backed up quickly. Settling down again, she eyed the cat. She preferred her Nibbles anyway. She glanced back up at Lex, eyes resting on the Head Girl badge again before coming up to her face.

"Sorry," she said to both the cat and Lex.

On the final click, Felix returned to Lex, curling up in her lap. Not for a second did his eyes leave the Puffer but she wasn't worried. He'd stay unless he felt she was intruding on their territory again. Merlin, she should tell him she wanted to be alone more often. "Eh, s'alright. Least you didn't chip one of his claws. You'd never believe the hell I go through trying to file them right after his latest blunder." Quite the hassle it was. Even as she spoke, Lex picked up paw after paw and checked the claws. They were still in tact. All was good.

"Don't reckon you're in a hurry if you could stop to be attacked by a feline." She observed, now fixing her gaze on the girl once more. "Wandering?"

Upon the second day of arriving at the school and having not had the opportunity to wander around the castle, the newly appointed Ravenclaw had decided to venture out of the prison that was the Ravenclaw Common Room. Honestly, being cooped up all the way up there was like being trapped in a Disney Princess tower awaiting some prince to rescue you, at least she was sure that was what a lot of the girls mentality was. Rubbish. Layla simply couldn’t wait to get out.

Approaching the staircase with caution for she had been previously warned that they had a habit of moving of their own accord, the fifteen year old descended down one flight with the intention of heading out to the school grounds, perhaps to sit by the lake for a bit and dwell in her own thoughts. She was feeling slightly happier but not to the extent where she would actively seek out a conversation with someone.

Except maybe if that person was the dork standing in the middle of the staircase looking like a bit of a prat.

She walked along the hallway until she was stood at the top of the steps he was climbing, her arms folded across her chest, head tilted to an angle and an amused smile planted across her face.

“You’re such a doofus” she laughed as his arms flailed about before he finally regained his composure. “I’m surprised you ain’t broken multiple bones in the past.” Men were such clumsy fools. “The banister is there for a reason.” She resisted the urge to poke out her tongue although decided it was too immature for her to do.

If there was one person she was willing to talk to right now it would be Sammy. Thankfully, or unfortunately as she would tell him, the boy was family and he was the one person that would probably understand her right now. Or if not that he would definitely sympathise with her. Family meant you had to stick together and there was no way Layla was losing contact with her cousin at this present moment in time.

“I’m headin’ down to the lake, are you comin’?” In other words he would be because he had no other choice.

Marigold eyed the cat more and folded her knees towards her chest for protection. She liked pets, so this one created a big paradigm shift. Not all cats were friendly? GASP.

"Nope." Though if she was in a hurry, and got attacked by an animal, she wouldn't be in a hurry anymore, anyway. "It's become a habit, I think, after last year and trying to stay warm. By taking walks. Y'know."

Thank Merlin it wasn't cold anymore. Thank Merlin.

You'd think when you'd almost plummeted to your death, you'd get something resembling concern from those who had witnessed it.. but OH NO, instead, as Samson turned away from the jaw-dropping descent to earth where there had been sold stone moments ago, he was greeted by the laughing face of his cousin.. complete with insults. “The stairs move!” He enthused with a goofy smile.

He raised his camera again, taking a photograph of the Ravenclaw in all her arms folded and head-tilted glory. He liked those photographs that really captured the essence of someone.

“I've only broken me arm b'fore.” Twice. And sprained his ankle multiple times.. but they were football injuries. They didn't count as clumsiness. “There should be a warnin' though, like.” He said in all seriousness. “I coulda been a-gonnas.” And missed out on the whole Hogwarts Experience.. Terrible.

At last the stairs met with the other side and Sam took the chance to run the rest of the way, bounding from the top step to the flat floor at the other side where Layla was standing.

He could tell that wasn't really a question.. but he was happy to spend some time outside after all this excitement. Perhaps it would eliviate the hyped-up state he'd got himself into. He looked trepidly back at the stairs. “Aye, I could do with some fresh air. After you, Lala.” He gestured, giving her a friendly smile.

Yes, tell her the totally obvious Sammy. “You don’t say” the blonde replied sarcastically, a malicious smile on her face. “I didn’t realise! I’m a totally unobservant Ravenclaw, I should be a Slytherin..” Layla’s eyebrow shot up as she watched her cousin grin with excitement. They were the complete opposite sometimes and yet they got on extremely well. It was great to have someone you could bounce off of, that typical sibling relationship that she didn’t have with her brother. The age gap meant that Bradley was already almost in double-digits by the time Layla was old enough to want to play. Although her brother was protective of her, being the same age as her northern cousin drew them closer. Besides, Bradley had his own family now.

Sammy was getting a little snap-happy with his camera as he photographed Layla watching him. She rolled her eyes and pointed a finger at him. “Watch it mister, some girls ain’t keen on bein’ paparazzied.” Layla on the other hand didn’t care. She was sure these were probably for her aunt anyway.

Like her brother Sammy was into football. Unfortunately Layla was a bit of sport fanatic herself. It was something that seemed to run in the Ackerly-Blake family. Being at this school meant that she was unlikely to be able to engage in her sport loving, the only one that was played her was Quidditch and that involved brooms and height and quite frankly was NOT a sport. “An’ I’ve been playin’ Hockey for 10 years and I ain’t ever broken anything” Therefore he was clumsy.

“Or you could pick up a book ‘bout Hogwarts an’ you’ll know it moves of its own accord.” She smirked at him. “I’m sure the school ain’t out to kill you, you just gotta hold onto the banister.” Like any sensible person would do.

Lala. The nickname that Sammy had called her as soon as she’d been able to speak. And it had stuck. She walked along the corridor and headed towards a staircase further away from the one which had moved. “We’ll go down this one.” Cos Sammy probably had a fear of that other staircase now. She walked down the steps, holding on to the banister as she did so. “Have you been out there yet?” she asked. She hadn’t had the motivation to leave the Common Room yet.

Were she a little less bored, she might have reminded Felix that he spooked people when he stared at them in that silently concentrated way he sometimes did but it might have been worth getting a squirm or two out of her before she left. Just passing time before heading back to her Common Room for that fireplace talk with Cassia. Lex reached into her bag, fishing around then pulling out a chocolate frog since, evidently, the kneazle wouldn't be sharing her treats with her this time. 'Least she could get right to the good stuff that he never developed an appreciation for.

"That's odd. I'd think you'd have walked as a coping mechanism for boredom. We burned books and blew things up to keep warm. Reckon it was more effective than a walk through a cold castle with snow pouring in." Buuuut she wasn't gonna question that all too much. To each their own and all that.

"D'you normally go around petting strange creatures while you walk?" A curious afterthought more than anything else.

Samson had read up on a few things about Hogwarts, the moving stairs being one of them.. but there was a hell of a lot of information to cram in before term started and Sam had much better things to be doing, like football practice and wasting time on the internet, to read the massive tome of information. Besides, some things were difficult to believe until you actually witnessed them. “Mehbees we should swap houses then.” Samson replied with a little grin. “Them girls in your dorm seem nice.” And there was also the living up high thing.. that was really appealing. The views from up there in the towers must be pretty spectacular.

“I read about it.” Sam replied casually. “But actually seein' this stuff.. with me EYES.. is a whole other thing.” Layla's indifference was perplexing.. but then she was a very different personality to Sammy. The bannister thing again. “That stops 'em?” He asked curiously.

Add the eye-rolling to that picture. Perfect. Sammy had just captured a spot on portrayal of Lala. “Diven' worry. I'll be careful.” He assured her even though he wasn't taking the blindest bit of notice.

Put girls in a pack and give them sticks and they turn rabid. He shrugged to her words. What did she want? A medal? He grinned up at the girl deciding not to voice his thoughts.

Other stairs? Sam liked ones what moved.. but he decided to just go along with Layla for no other reason than quickness really. He walked beside her. “Aye. Went out for a kick around earlier. It's dead beautiful.” Hogwarts, so far, was wonderful. “Have you?” He asked conversationally as he headed further down the stairs.

Did Sammy honestly think that he had the right traits in order to be a Ravenclaw. The fifteen year old gave him one of those looks before turning off to pay attention to where she was heading. “You know you’d make a rubbish Ravenclaw. You ain’t nothin’ like me..” And she wouldn’t fit in Slytherin, nor would she enjoy being cooped up underneath a dark lake in a cold and dingy common room. At least her common room had nice views and didn’t feel so claustrophobic. She didn’t enjoy the thought of sharing a room with others but at least it looked like she had space. “I ain’t even gonna respond to that” she replied regarding his comment on her new dormmates. She didn’t think much of them right now, nor did they exactly hit it off on the right foot.

Gullible much? “No. It just stops you from fallin’ off.” Obviously. And she was glad that he had actually picked up a book before turning up. “It ain’t that fascinatin’.” Seriously. The staircases moved and caused a complete and utter hindrance to the pupils trying to get to their lessons on time. “You Sammybam are WAY too excited for your own good” she smirked.

He’ll be careful, right. “Stop takin’ photos of me in unflatterin’ poses or it'll be me that you are havin' to watch out for” she warned him giving one of her signature 'looks'. She needed at least a five second warning beforehand or else she could be pulling a stupid face. “I hope you ain’t gonna post these on the internet.” He probably wouldn’t be allowed anyway, everyone would think he had gone utterly mad.

Oh so he had actually ventured out from the snake cavern and explode the acres of land the school seemed to harbour. “No, not yet” she answered. “What kind of school has that much land? I wouldn’t be surprised if they made the pupils garden it.” Hard labour in a private school, sounded about right. Layla didn’t do countryside living, she much preferred wandering out the school gets and getting the tube straight into the city centre.

You would think these moving staircases would be a lot more magically. Like the steps would move up and down with you. Perfect for an extremely lazy person. Though Dante had to admit they were pretty cool the way they are right now.

Dante might have been daydreaming a little because before he knew it the stairs where doing their thing and well moving. "Awesome" How cool would it be to grind down these or slide down them on your bum. If you timed it perfectly you could get all the down to the floor.

But if you did not....Well you better hope a Professor or older students see's you or well...

You just hope it was worth it.

HUGH WANTED THREE THINGS.

A spaceship, street cred and an escalator. These moving staircases were HARDLY impressive if they still expected him do all of the work with the climbing. Help a brother out magical school. Get some escalators up in this place.

Also, he was in delicate shape. Exercise was minimal and for all intensive purposes he was okay with his voluptuous curves. With all this walking he was in danger of losing all that.

So he bitterly walked up the steps, yo. It could be heard in the haunting manner of his footsteps. NUUUU. Just no more movement, please.

And then he saw a SMALL PERSON IN GREEN. That meant they were blood/house mates. Hey little....

What was little person DOING?!

Dante was actually waiting for the staircases to move. He did not want to be caught off guard when it does and be thrown to the side. That would be seriously uncool and make him look like a spaz. He wanted to be calm and cool.

Not spazzing out on a staircase because it was moving.

So here he was just standing in the middle of a staircase waiting. That is when he saw a housemate walking on the staircase he was on.

"Dude watch out. It is about to move"

He did not even know where to.

Hady had no idea where she was going. What she did know however was these stairs could seriously get a kid lost! What with all the moving about and suddenly changing courses on you. I mean really?

Lucky for her though she was only trying to explore and find something new. Walking up a flight of steps she froze mid-step and leaned against the banister. There was a sudden movement and once again the flight of steps she'd been on changed direction. Letting out a huff of frustration she rushed up the rest of the steps and onto another flight. In her rush she didn't take notice to anyone else on the steps....

"Yeah," Hugh called back looking up and down the lame non-escalator stairs, "They do that." Funny little man. They were called the MOVING staircases, were they not? Brah, that was their function.

The moving didn't frighten him or catch him off guard...more so made him bitter. Too many stairs. Too much climbing. Not enough breaks and snacks.

It's like they WANTED their students to all be in good shape.

Bad faculty. Let the people decide if they want to be subjected to working out or not.

Hmm....

He did have a point. This was the moving staircase after all. It would be strange if it was not moving. "True. The only good thing is we don't have to use these to get to the kitchens." Way too much walking that would be. Even with the moving. Maybe this was one of the older kids who was not weird. Lotus was the only normal one he has talked to yet.

Now if the steps moved to it would make these all the better. But that would escalate things too much for this old fashion school. Puns For The Win. Plus the name would have to change To Moving Staircase and Steps.

"Though they making exploring the castle more fun"

Truth

Eden had been at school...what, a month? Two? Two. It was November. And today had been tiring. Classes were tiring. Homework was tiring. Not seeing her Mam was tiring. And she missed Roddy. At least she got to bring Daisy with her.

She wasn't paying attention. This was quite typical for the Ravenclaw, though. Her thoughts always made her a bit spacey about her surroundings. So when she stepped onto the staircase...she didn't notice--IT WAS THE MOVING ONE.

YIKES!

A little yelp escaped her mouth--and she covered it before she looked like a LOSER. UGH. She held onto the railings and....well...this was great. JUSt great. She would be VERY lost now--unless she waited for it to switch back again. Except she was a bit too scared to MOVE. Her blue eyes flickered around the staircase--there were a few other people stuck on it--well, Eden tried to stay calm....

BUT DURMSTRANG NEVER HAD MOVING STAIRCASES. WHAT WAS THIS?

Toby was managing to create some real memories of the moving staircase. Just recently he'd attempted to skate down the railings and ended up giving himself a concussion, and then a few years ago, maybe in his second or third year, there'd been the time he tried to pogo all the way down it. That... that had been another concussion. Loadsa concussions in this place... huh. How about that.

But now he was here for something a little less exciting, but STILL kind of exciting in its own way. Magic photos.

Toby went up and down the staircase for a good long while, trying to find the best vantage point to take a picture. Eventually, after a lot of humming and hawing, Toby found a good position right near the bottom of the staircase, and looked up. He pointed his camera up at the many moving staircases and... CLICK!... just as the staircase he was on started moving.

He took the photo, sat on the stair he was on, and placed it on the stone next to him while he rooted around in his pocket for his wand. Finally finding it (in exactly the pocket he usually kept it in, go figure) Toby shifted around better place the now-developed photograph.

"Alacer!" he said confidently, making sure to remember and concentrate on the intent of the spell as he tapped the photo sharply with his wand, right in the dead-centre of the image.

And, just like that... movement. Instantaneous. Toby was amazed and SUPER pleased with himself; usually it took a second or two to get moving, like an old machine that wasn't used to moving and needed to steadily ease itself into it. But NOPE, here the spell was, working STRAIGHT AWAY. The staircases in his photo swung around from floor to floor just the way they were doing above his head.

Beaming, Toby added that photo to his pocket with the others and picked up his camera again. He stood, continued down the stairs he was on and exited the staircase there, not paying attention to what floor he was now on.

Four down, one to go.

Fuller wanted movement captured, right? Well what better movement than THE moving stairs!!?! None. That's right. This plan was ingenious, or at least that's what Zander thought. So he walked down three whole sets of stairs. Or was it two? Anyways, he lost count but he walked all the way down from Gryffindor tower in order to get this so Fuller better be happy.

He walked to the bottom of the staircase and stood far enough back so that the whole flight was visible in the frame. Oh, and that's when he took out the camera and put it to his eye. But it was kind of hard to see, so he had to close one and squint through the other. After a few minutes of concentration, he decided that it was the best it was gonna get and CLICK!

Okay so this was probably a super boring shot, but what more could he do!? At least they were moving!! He really did try. Then, looking at the still photo, he tapped it with his wand and whispered a ""Alacer!!!" YAY. So now he had a photo of the switching stairs.

Cool.

Man, how come homework was so boring?

After the small incident at the Whomping Willow Beverly and Chomper took a water break on the moving staircases. It had been dead scary, but that adrenaline rush? That had been...something. Glancing down at Chomper, who was currently eating an orange on her lap, she patted its head with extreme gentleness. She might seem like this serious, always-in-a-bad-mood person, but she had a heart. And her heart was divided in several pieces right now, and Chomper was currently the owner of said pieces.

"Don't ever do that again," she said after downing all her water. "I don't want to get detention for setting the Whomping Willow on fire in your honor." If she did it she wouldn't get caught. She was Slytherin like that.

Gathering her belongings and guiding chomper into her robe pocket, she searched for the set of stairs that would take her down to her destination. One thing that annoyed her about these stairs was the waiting part so, being Beverly Wayne, she did not wait. Instead she jumped.

Zeroing in the moving stair case heading her way, Beverly backed up enough, and when it was time she ran down a few steps to gain momentum and jumped across the brief void and onto the next set of stairs.

It was exhilarating.

Only this time she jumped so had Chomper. It wasn't the first time he's done it, so she didn't freak out like the first time he had, but she still kept her eyes on him and wand ready in case he needed a boost.

At the next jump he did Beverly decided it should go down on photograph. They were almost at their floor so it wouldn't even be a big jump, more like a tiny hop. Lifting the camera to eye level she pushed down on the button right as Chomper made his little leap of faith.

How cute.

Taking another deep breath for concentration, she closed her eyes, then snapped them open. Tap. "Alacer!" It moved. The photo moved moments after she cast. She didn't have to wait the amount of time she's waited. This. Was. Great. SUCCESS.

Oh crud. Staircases MOVING. Time to jump.

Luck seemed to be partially on Toby's side today. From where he'd stepped onto the moving staircase at that precise moment, there seemed to be a clear path right down to the ground floor. He started down the steps as quickly as he could, before everything could move and mess up his path.

For some reason, something in Toby's mind told him it would be a good idea to try scrying as he went, as a time-saving sort of thing. He'd actually held up the crystal in front of him and waited for it to steady and had gone down two whole floors before realising his error: the crystal wouldn't hang still if he was charging around like a maniac. Oooooops. The Hufflepuff stopped mid-staircase, one foot on a lower step than the other, and waited.

And thought of a question while he waited, TOO, because that was quite an important part.

And then finally...

"Are my wings... somewhere near the Entrance Hall?" That was where it had painted on the map, right? Seemed like a logical place to go.

Once again, the crystal moved in circles. Thinking about it logically, though, it would have been hard to tell if that was REAL scrying, or if the crystal merely hadn't settled from his running down the steps. Either way, Toby was heading to the Entrance Hall, though that may have been his destination regardless.

He seemed to ignore the fact that, aside from that first instance of trolling, all the crystal had really DONE was go in circles. But shhhhh, shhhhhhhhhhhhh. He was busy BELIEVING over here.

And Toby believed his way all the way down the staircase and to the ground floor.