Hufflepuff or not, try entering the common room and a face full of cobwebs is what you will get.

It seems the dungeons aren't the only place the house elves are slacking on cleaning. And to think, their own living quarters are located on this floor.

"Do the Hippogriff, do the Hippogriff!''

Flap, flap, flap!

Hehe.

A trip to the Kitchens is just what the bespectacled Hufflepuff needed to keep himself a float of everything that was happening. He had treated himself to some chocolate chip cookies and milk. Yes, yes, we know. He's such a kid, wasn't he? Anyway, he was flapping his arms as though hoping to lift himself off the ground. As a result, most of his concentration had been fixed on that and not on the sticky substance in front of him until it was too late.

He stopped rather suddenly as the things clung to his face, specs and hair. WHAT was this?!

Abby wasn't sure why she was down at the barrels but she stopped when she saw Adi stuck in the cobwebs and wasn't sure how to get him out of the cobwebs and why were they all of a sudden cropping up quite a few times already during the term

Brian was taking (as most Hufflepuffs generally did in their free time) a trip back down to the common room to curl up under the blankets to conserve body heat because December was cold. So cold but it just outright refused to snow, which made Brian just a little upset. What did the universe have against schoolchildren playing in the snow? He sighed resignedly. That's the weather for you -always unpredictable, never convenient. At least the common room had bedwarmers.

He had just turned the corner when he heard singing. And he didn't even have to speculate on the song, because there was some very off-key singing about doing the Hippogriff and Brian smiled, shaking his head a little as he moved closer. Who was it doing the weird flapping thing, anyway? He'd have to get the bloke to teach the song to him because it looked pretty cool. They could have a dance party in the common room or something. Hmm. Back to the pressing matter at hand, the flapping Hippogriff seemed to be pretty obscured by cobwebs. Weird. He was pretty sure the house elves cleaned the place pretty obsessively, especially since they were so near the kitchen.

Brian took a few steps closer and squinted. Was that- "Adi?" The prefect guy? Covered in cobwebs and flapping around like a deranged bird?

"Why are there so many cobwebs here?" Adi asked aloud, not realising that Abby had come up behind him. In his epic flapping, he just seemed to be making things worse but his brain did have enough time to process that he had encountered a whole load of cobwebs before... in Hogsmeade. Well, in Honeydukes to be exact. He didn't have time to think more about that because he needed to stay STILL!

But Adi continued to flap trying to get the webs out of his hair. "I bet Spiderman's webs are not as annoying as these.'' Ugh! He was loosing the battle here. The sticky things were glued to practically his entir eface and the grossest thing? Some were stuck to his lips. Eeeep!

"This is going to get you nowh-'' Eh, who was that talking to him? Couldn't they see he was busy? Hehe. Adi turned around to see Abby and fellow Puffer Brian! "Hey, guys! I got myself into a very sticky situation.'' LOL! Wasn't he just funny? Amused at himself, he swiped at the webs and stalked out from the clump that was blocking the Barrels. "How did these get here so fast?'' he wondered aloud. They had not been there when he left for the Kitchen.

Nessa had the fabulous idea of preparing a snack of chocolate chip cookies for her sweet little Hufflepuffs. And by preparing, she meant ask the house elves very nicely to bake some cookies for her to take to the badgers. She remembered when she was a student at Hogwarts her Head of House surprising them with snacks every once in a while and, while she was not their Head of House, she still felt a protective responsibility over her Puffs being that was her former house. And who didn't like snacks?

Carrying a basket of warm, freshly-baked cookies in one hand, Nessa made her way towards the barrels at the entrance of the Hufflepuff common room, only to find a congregation of students. Hmm, what was going on here? "You didn't forget the wand-tapping sequence, did you?" she joked with the Hufflepuffs that were there. With one of them a prefect, she was sure that was not it. Maybe they just didn't want to give away the secret to the entrance to the Ravenclaw in their midst though. But then her smile faded somewhat as she saw Adi's appearance. She wouldn't embarrass him in front of his friends, but the boy really looked like he could use a bath.

Anyway.

"Would anyone like a cookie?" She had plenty to share before she went into the common room.

A visit to the Gryffindors was necessary, with many of Leah's friends - and non-friends - being Lions. She had missed all said friends over Christmas and it was great to see them again. Especially one particular Fifth Year. But something in front of the entrance to the Hufflepuff Common Room led her out of her thoughts.

COBWEBS. And friends. One of them was covered in cobwebs himself. She tried to stifle a laughter. Ahem.

"Hi guys, Professor. I'll take a cookie," Leah said and grabbed a cookie amidst the confusion. "It looks like the house elves have stopped cleaning or something. But everything was fine when I left the Common Room." So what happened?

Swat, swat, swat!

What part of this was getting nowhere did Adi not understand? All that happened was that some of the web would stick to his fingers when they made contact. Ugh! Adi looked up from reaching for his wand when the familiar voice of Professor Glendower spoke. "Hi, Professor! No, we didn't. Someone forgot to clean the entrance here.'' And just SEEEEE the consequences! There was one absoloutely dirty badger here.

COOKIES! "Yes, please!'' was the webby boy's response but was distracted by Leah's arrival and her stifled laughter. "You can go ahead and laugh, Leah.'' Hehe. Adi did know he must look funny. "Scourgify!'' Wheeee! His face and specs were web free! He repeated the spell for his clothing and then finally on the general area of the Barrels.

"Yeah, what Leah said. These webs weren't here when I left either. It reminds me of all those webs that we over in Honeydukes.'' Surely this was NOT a coincidence.''

Oh, wonderful! Nessa turned as she heard Leah's voice and acceptance of her baked goods, and she gave her a big, bright smile. "Here you go, dear.. help yourself." She brushed aside the paper napkin on top of the pile of cookies, allowing it to fall to the floor as she held the basket in front of the girl to select a cookie. And then Adi wanted one too so she smiled brightly at him as well as she then brought the basket towards him to pick one out.

She watched vaguely as the prefect cleaned himself up, then looked past him at the entrance at all the cobwebs before he cleaned those up as well. "Hmm, strange," she murmured. "I haven't heard any discord from the house elves lately, but maybe I should check on them to make sure they are better able to keep everything spic and span." Maybe there was some sort of issue there, though she didn't know of any other area in which they might be lacking. Even if Adi said the cobwebs were reminiscent of ones in Honeydukes. "That's an interesting coincidence.. I wonder if there are house elves working there too.." Certainly not the Hogwarts one though.

Cookies! Omnomnom. "Thanks, Professor! This is awfully nice of you, fattening up your Hufflepuffs like this,'' joked the sixth year Cookie Monster. All free of cobwebs, he bit happily into the treat as he surveyed the group. Four Puffs including him and one Claw.

"We should check on them,'' he agreed with Glendower. "But Professor, I wasn't gone that long. I didn't spend long in the Kitchen plus it isn't a long walk between here and there. Even Leah is sure the cobwebs wasn't there when she left. Did a giant spider spin these web so quickly?'' O__O Was there a great, big arachnid on the loose or something? But on the subject of the sweet shop... Maybe it's a coincidence, maybe not,'' he muttered. "I wonder if it's happened with anywhere else in the castle.'' If it had, it would seem that a very sticky situation was spreading to Hogwarts.

"I just love my dear Hufflepuffs," Nessa beamed at Adi as he helped himself to a cookie. She was happy to bring them a special treat every once in a while. She looked at all of them, her smile faltering ever so slightly as her eyes laid on Abby for a moment. Oh dear, she hoped she didn't feel bad hearing Professor Glendower say that. "I love all of my students," she corrected herself with the same bright smile, and it was true. "Cookie?"

A cookie sounded good to her too, actually, and she pulled another cookie out of her basket for herself, carelessly allowing another napkin from the basket to fall to the floor. Mmm, these cookies weren't half bad and she ate while listening to Adi, her eyes drifting past him to where the cobwebs once were. "Well, that's pretty strange," she said between bites. "Are you sure they weren't here a little while ago? I don't see how something like that would just suddenly appear.. and I haven't seen any giant spiders lately." She tried to say it in a joking way but after what had happened last year, she knew it wasn't really a joking matter. But it wasn't like that was the cause of this, just lack of cleaning most likely.

"Maybe some dust was stirred up when you left," she shrugged, finishing off her cookie. She wasn't all that concerned with it. "I'll make sure I talk to the elves before I leave. Just to be sure nothing's going on there.." She hated the thought of something wrong or them being too overworked that they couldn't do their job properly.

After heading away from the Dungeon corridor, decorated with newly green cobwebs, Zhenya made her way up to the sub-level; the kitchens. She knew that the Hufflepuff common room was up here, and there it was; behind the barrels. Zhenya went and stood in front of them, smiling to herself. Imagine the surprise of the lovely Hufflepuffs to come to their common room, and find their barrels decorated in Slytherin colours! Zhenya wanted to hide and watch them appearing, but of course she didn't have time for that. Not with all the study she had to do.

She decided to change all of the barrels into Green and Silver. "Colovaria," she said, pointing her wand at one of the barrels, picturing the metal to be shiny silver, and the wood to become green. It transformed into a Slytherin barrel. "Colovaria," she said, pointing her wand at a different barrel, picturing the Slytherin colours. That, too, became a Slytherin barrel. She repeated the spell on the remainder of the barrels; at least the ones she could see. Soon enough, they were all Green and Silver.

Hehehe, sorry Puffers.

It looked like someone had gotten here before Eden...but she smirked as she saw the green and silver barrels. WELL THEN. Eden could totally TOTALLY change these to blue and bronze, mhm.

Whoever the Slytherin was, Eden was a bit smug to change them all to HER house colors. Ravenclaw was superior. IT WAS. Especially to Slytherin >.>

"COLOVARIA!" she cried, pointing her wand at each barrel in turn. She made them STRIPED like she had done with the book in the library. Heck yeah. A Hufflepuff would come along and probably change them back to the normal colors--or yellow, who knew--but oh well. It was on Eden's log that she had changed them.

Five copies of her just finished poster in hand, Lux made her way out of the Hufflepuff common room and stood in front of the Hufflepuff barrels. Her plan was to hit all the common room entrances as well as the student bulletin board in the hope that her notice would get the attention of fellow students. She wanted Pebbles to be returned to Professor Flamsteed.

Finding a good spot on the wall just to the right of the first barrels, Lux placed the poster against the wall. Hopefully this was more or less eye height. She didn't see herself as being particularly short but she wasn't exactly tall either. It would be weird if she was a little taller than Bay because she was used to being a few inches shorter than him unless she wore really high heels. Then she was more or less the same height as him.

Anyways.

Once she felt that she had the poster in the position she wanted, Lux took her wand out of her pocket and used the Sticking Charm to fix it in place. There.

Satisfied with her work, Lux headed off with the four remaining posters so that they could also be adhered to the castle walls.

For some reason Maggie had ended up near the Hufflepuff Common Room. Not that she'd been IN there before but she knew it was around here somewhere. Of course that piece of information didn't exactly help her finish her Astronomy homework. Eh. Yes. She should do that instead of standing around out here. There was no one interesting in sight either. So maybe she should just-

Oh. Look at that.

Someone had already put up a poster of Pebbles. Interesting. Would be a shame if somebody were to put theirs over this one, right? Heh. So naturally Maggie made her way over to the other poster and after pulling out her own, positioned it over the other one. Riiiiight over it. So it was pretty much impossible to see. Ah yes. Perfect.

She pulled out her wand and made sure it stayed that way.

Adi grinned at Glendower's correction. Yep, she loved all her students but she just had to love her Hufflepuffs more. It would be understandable, you know. Hehe. "We love our History of Magic Professor right back.'' Spread the loveeeeee! YEAH! He was not afraid to do that.

"Uh, Professor? You dropped something.'' Glendower was not a litter bug, he was sure. She probably had not noticed that he napkin had fallen. The Hufflepuff bent to snag the thing. He'd dispose of it later. "It is. And I'm VERY, VERY sure, Professor.'' Both him and Leah could not be wrong. Giant Spiders! Exactly what Adi had been thinking! "Nor have I,'' he said in a light tone. "Maybe it's a student doing this for a prank?'' Possibly someone with a weird sense of humour. "That would be a good idea.'' Talking to the house elves he meant though he doubted they would be careless in their work. They were always on top of things.

Aww, wasn't Adi sweet? Many of her students were, but she did have to admit that she had a special place in her heart for her Hufflepuffs, even if she wouldn't say it out loud. She didn't want to show any favoritism, that could come off as unkind and unprofessional.

Hmm? Nessa gave the prefect a questioning look. She hadn't brought any napkins with her, just the basket of cookies, though that might have been a good idea what with the crumbs and all. "Oh, no, that doesn't belong to me," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know what that would be doing on the floor, someone must have been very careless. But thank you for cleaning up after the litterbug," she beamed at him. "Five points to you, dear." See? Her Hufflepuffs were so helpful.

A prank.. she thought that was certainly possible, though she hadn't thought about that before. "Perhaps.. I know teenagers can sometimes do things like that for fun," she shrugged. "But I will talk to the elves just to make sure. I think I'm going to head into the common room and see who else wants cookies. Were you going that way?" Talking to the elves surely could wait until after that.

Marsha had a box in her hand. It was pretty, the one they had gotten in class was plain black… but that was a little boring so she had used her lovely colorvaria charm to change the box to a gorgeous purple colour. Purple was good, it didn’t hint to a specific house or gender… so it was a good colour to choose as far as Marsha was concerned.

However, she couldn’t decide where to leave it… she wanted somewhere that was open to a lot of the students… maybe one of the houses specifically…. OH! The Huflepuff’s…. After all, they had lost one of their older students… and she didn’t want to leave it for the Gryffindor’s to find as that was too close to home for losing .um… Cinna? Was that her name? She thought so… and she was pretty sure the Hufflepuff was called Lux. Maybe? She assumed so though.

Looking around, she wondered if she would see any of the Professors down here, maybe the Headmistress would be looking for more cobwebs etc. Oh well, if Sha didn’t see her - hopefully she was trying to find a way to kill all of the spiders so that they could end the term on a high note instead of in terror… Maybe?

Placing the box on the floor about five feet in front of the kitchen portrait - she wondered if that was in the open enough… maybe? She hummed and hayed before she shrugged and left the box where it was. Either a Hufflepuff, or a hungry professor or student would find the box; and either way she hoped they liked what she had put inside the box.

Dot didn't spend all her time hanging around the kitchens, but she was a Slytherin and they were SORT of along the way to her common room. Sort of not really, but whatever. She liked this passage too, because it smelled like food and because she liked to poke at the bricks to see if the Hufflepuff common room appeared.

It didn't, but she wasn't trying very hard. Probably if she tried, she could sleep in any room in the building she wanted. Including the Headmistress' pretty canopy bed ('cause of course the Head had a pretty canopy bed).

OH A PRESENT. Under other circumstances, Dot probably would have left the box alone, but considering she was aware of the Astronomy homework, any box was fair game. "A present for me. How nice. It's basically my birthday, only not at all." She sat down right THERE on the barrels and opened the box.

The box wasn’t held together with much, just a silver ribbon that was wrapped around it and tied in a box across the top of the box.

When it is opened the first thing that will be seen, is a white piece of material with a black design on it - upon closer inspection, this is found out to be a scarf. There are a pair of chocolate frogs, a bunch of fresh grapes and a bottle of new nail varnish, identical in colour to that of the box. Once these five items have been removed from the box, there are three quote!pictures to be found.

The twelve year old hoped that male or female, the student would at least find something in the box that made them smile… even if it was just a little bit. They had had a tough time lately and she figured that like when you tidied your room; it would get worse before it got better.

Oh, that was a LOVELY gift, and there was no way for Dot to know who had given it to her. Definitely worth opening the box, rather than living in anticipation of what was inside (a lesson for Mr. StarMan professor to learn, mmhmm). She huggled the objects against her chest before tying the scarf up in her red hair.

Maybe whoever gave this gift would see the scarf and know she'd received it? And maybe that person would let her KNOW. So she could hug him or her properly.