Adrienne wouldn't say that she was... skulking, exactly. She was just hanging around the swamp, giving suspicious looks to everyone that passed, arms crossed tightly and back pressed up against the wall so hard she could almost feel the bricks making imprints on her skin through her robes.

...okay, she was skulking.

But she had good reason! Her mood was fouler than the odour coming from the swamp, and that was saying something. She was bloody annoyed at everything, she'd woken up that morning to find it was that time of the month, and the letter she'd sent to Papa a week and a half ago was still lacking a reply. So Adrienne was hardly feeling up to to doing anything other that skulk, except maybe taking out her anger on random passers-by, if any were unwise enough to provoke her.

Freya had been exploring the castle, which was not uncommon for the fourth year transfer. She had an insatiably curious nature and the spacious castle had provided an outlet. One curiosity she had yet to explore was the mysterious swamp on the first floor. She had read a little about it and passed it a few times, but she had yet to have a chance to peruse it. She searched all around it, but there didn't seem to be any life. There was just a foul odor.....and someone who seemed to be in a foul mood? Ilia wasn't sure if she should just walk on by or interact with the girl. Would she make it better or worse? She decided she would give it a try and looked over to the girl with a polite smile. "Hello."

Oh look, some unfortunate imbecile had decided to come talk to her. Adrienne slowly raised an eyebrow, drawing out the expression as she looked the girl up and down disdainfully. A baby-faced blonde, how predictable. Evidently just as stupid as she looked, otherwise she wouldn't have thought it was a good idea to approach someone as clearly not in the mood as she was.

"Hello," Adrienne said, with a much less polite sneer. "Do you want something, or now that we've exchanged greetings can you turn your annoyingly perky self around and leave me be?" She then muttered a very rude word in French that would probably have left the other girl quite insulted if she understood. As it was, Adrienne was used to being able to say just about whatever she liked in French without anyone from here understanding, which let her get away with a lot of comments that otherwise would have made trouble.

Kace made his way to the weasley swamp. He never really visited this place in a while. I mean he knew of it but he just wanted to chill out here. This is where the famous Weasley Twins helped stopped the evil Dolores Umbridge. According to history she was a horrible woman who wanted everything her way under the ministry. In Kace's opinion someone should have put a stop to her. As he explored the swamp, he noticed there wasn't much to do but he wanted to walk on it anyways. He began to walk on it and it felt squishy. He grinned with glee but then he hoped this didn't cave in on him.

He began to walk and wonder why people weren't here as often. I mean obviously there was better places but this one was still cool.

Freya did not like the way that she was being looked at. As if she were a fish encountering another fish, being sized up as if to see if she were prey. Her attempt at being nice to someone who seemed like they needed it, was possibly a poor idea on her part as the girl seemed less than receptive to cordiality. Note to self......don't always go out of your way to be nice to other students...... She kept her kind smile intact though, attempting to be nice regardless.

Annoyingly perky? Ilia could honestly say that she had never been called that or anything like it before and her eyebrows rearranged themselves in quizzical disbelief at the other girl's commentary. The last thing she said was not in English. She wasn't fluent in French, but she did have some relatives that originated there. If she remembered correctly, that word was VERY impolite. She could feel her own eyebrows raise upon hearing the word, perhaps she was mistaken....though she was pretty sure with that inflection that she wasn't. "I was going to offer you some chocolate to sweeten your disposition, but it seems I would need a lot of it." Freya wasn't going to lower herself and be meaner , that wasn't her goal or intent. Goodness if it didn't seem the girl wanted a fight or someone to pick on though.

”STOP! What are you doing?!??!”

Marsha stared, eyes wide as she saw one of the older Hufflepuffs… Kace, she thought his name was. She’d only worked with him that once in Transfiguration with Puck… but even though she didn’t know him that didn’t mean she wanted the swamp to EAT him. At all or EVER.

”You need to come off of the swamp! The sign says that it is exactly like a REAL swamp, it will eat you!” Didn’t he know that already? Hadn’t he been here before and seen that? Had the swamp anyone eaten any of the students lately? Was the swamp responsible for the missing animals and rocks? No… that was silly, the swamp couldn’t move from this corridor… Sigh. She hoped that Duchess was okay, she hadn’t seen her since dinner last night. Hmmm. She definitely needed to go and find her.

As Kace was walking across the swamp and he heard someone yelling at him. He jumped so high he nearly lost his footing....

BLOOODDDYYY MERRRLLINNN

Jeez she didn't have to shout whoever she was. He knew it wasn't Emmy though. He turned around and noticed the little girl. He worked with her in Transfiguration with Puck. He chuckled and didn't want her to have a full blown heart attack so he walked off the swamp. "Don't worry Marsha I got it covered. I was on the part of the swamp that had a lot of support. There other parts of the swamp that are weak.." he said pointing to the right. He wondered what she was doing here anyways. "Besides I like a little adventure." he grinned. "So what brings you to these parts anyways?" he asked.

Eyeing him slowly, Marsha didn’t really believe that he was safe. He was WALKING on a SWAMP after all. That didn’t scream safety to the Welsh girl, in ANY way. Frowining, she folded her arms across her chest as she watched him walk off of the swamp. As he did, and he hadn’t fallen in, she smiled at him and let her arms fall to her side almost as if she wasn’t worried any more.

”I didn’t know that…. But it all looks the same. How do you know for SURE that you were safe.” Regardless of what the older students said, she didn’t think she would ever trust herself to walk on the swamp. Nope. She was a Gryffindor, but she wasn’t stupid. Nope.

”I’m still exploring. I haven’t managed to figure out the whole castle, so I’m trying to walk down all of the corridors and things so that I can’t get lost.” She didn’t like getting lost… Especially if there was any way to stop it from happening.

Rooney had been here every day for the past week at this exact time, trying to pluck up the courage to get within ten steps of this swamp. Today was going to be the day, though. Three whole footsteps now were between the first year and the swamp and he was already having to hold his breath and was thinking intently about pinching his nose. This was definitely gross. He was sure that given the chance, Calliope would take futile action to copy this stunt for herself. It was completely her type of thing.

Once he was used to the air around him, Rooney let out the breath he was holding and moved his hand for the notebook that had been in his back pocket.

HAD been.

....... Where was it now?

Maggie had found the swamp quite some time ago by accident. And ever since then she'd tried to steer clear of it, sometimes even going out of her way to avoid this particular corridor. Why? Well, frankly because it was gross. It smelled gross. It looked gross. Just. Ew.

Today however she'd been lost in thought and had automatically taken the shortest route. Which incidentally led her past the oh-so-famous Weasley Swamp. When her nose picked up the smell it was already too late to turn around. Okay. Maybe if she could just hold her breath and run pa-

There was someone there.

Someone little.

Someone very little.

"If you fall in I'm not pulling you out." Just FYI.

Roo looked behind him and raised an eyebrow. "The probability of me falling in is less than the probability of you falling in." Miss Thang. He didn't sound at all sarcastic, sassy or annoyed - in fact, Rooney had a smile on his face and was glad that she'd said that. Just in case he did fall in. Because then he knew that someone would be getting in trouble for not helping him get out of there. That someone, was of course, her.

"There are three footsteps between me and this thing. I'm just looking." And smelling, because it wasn't exactly a welcoming smell and even at three footsteps away he was sure to be smelling this for days. Pungent was a word he would use for this.

Pungent.

And Princess over there.

.........

"You're a Ravenclaw, aren't you?" At least he spoke like one. And that – in this case – wasn't exactly a compliment. It wasn't ever meant as a compliment really. But some Ravenclaws Maggie didn't mind. They weren't that bad. This one though. Well, she hadn't quite decided yet.

But he was definitely intriguing enough for her to stick around. For now.

"Why three?" That wasn't really what she wanted to know. "Why are you looking at it?"

"Yes."

... Did he look like one? Was it his hair? His neatly tied laces probably gave it away. Rooney woke early each morning to tie them up because when the strings were twisted it niggled at his brain and he couldn't keep up with his main thoughts at all. Couldn't actually keep up enough to make notes on anything. So luckily, today was a good day in his laces life.

"Three isn't ten." He said, voice calm and upholding his already-there smile. "And because I want to know how it works.." You know..because it wasn't like swamps were his main academic knowledge.

Kace nodded and saw the girls point. "Yeah yeah I know. I guess I was just taking a chance being the daredevil I am." he grinned just joking around a bit. He heard the word exploring and that is all he needed. He grinned deeply and said, "Well you have come to the right person, exploring is like my middle name around here. I love walking through the castle. What have you explored so far besides the swamp?" He was just curious to know what he should cover. "Might I suggest going onto the grounds and seeing some of the creatures especially the Thestrals.." he nodded because even though they were invisible, it was cool to know they still existed. "But I think we should go explore the kitchens." he suggested. He wanted some food.

Of course he was.

Ravenclaws were interesting though, Maggie had learned. Even though she would have preferred to interact with this one somewhere else. Somewhere where the air didn't want to make her throw up. Breathing through her mouth wasn't exactly attractive either. But she was somehow managing it without anyone noticing it. Hopefully. Not that she wanted to impress anyone.

But she didn't exactly want this little Ravenclaw to run around saying she was a mouthbreather either. Literally.

The boy's next statement was accurate but not exactly an answer. So Maggie just frowned slightly and tilted her head, somewhat irritated. "How a SWAMP works?" What was wrong with this one? "Read a book maybe." He was a Ravenclaw. Didn't they like spend their time in the library anyway?

Marsha laughed softly at Kace as he said he was a daredevil. Suuurreeee. Though, he did always seem to pair up with Gryffindor’s so maybe the hat had struggled between the house he was meant to be in. Heck, she had seen it with her own family; that most people could have been in two houses and sometimes even more. Maybe Kace was just that awesome. Hehe.

”Random corridors… I found the Butterfly House and the kitchens… the lake, obviously. I’ve found the creative room off History of Magic… Adi and Zander have shown me the Creature Housing...” She paused, trying to think of anything else important she had found that wasn’t a corridor or classroom. Hmm… No, she didn’t think she had found anything else of importance.

”Well… I am hungry… Maybe we could look at some things on the way to the kitchen?” She asked him, her head tilted as she tried to figure out where she wanted to go.

Aahh so Marsha had been exploring with Zander and Adi. Nice idea Marsha nice idea. "I need to go to the Creature housing, maybe we can go on an adventure sometime." he said just offering a suggestion. "What did you think of the butterfly house? It seems pretty cool right?" Hey he could admit it, he as a dude though butterflies were cool. No shame in that. "Oh well I am hungry too. You know as a boy we gotta eat and eat." he grinned. "Yeah sure we can find things, I always love looking at the portraits to see what is inside them.." he said and began making his way to the kitchens.

Marsha’s eyes lit up and she nodded. Any reason or excuse or opportunity to go and see the animals and creatures in the creature housing was a good thing as far as Marsha was concerned. ”Yes! Adventures with Creatures are great.” Hehehe.

”It was really pretty! And alive.” ‘cause that was totally a thing. ”But I don’t know where it was, so I haven’t actually managed to find it again… But that’s okay. I figure I have another six and a half years to randomly stumble across the butterflies… it makes it a little more special that way.” Or, that was what she was telling herself.

”Awesome. Come on, you can show me some of the awesome sights and hidey-holes on the way to the kitchens.” Hehehe, after all… what was the point in being friends with the oldest students if they didn’t pass their knowledge on to you before they graduated? Heheheheh.

Oh. Haha. Funny. She was funny.

Rooney nodded, laughed a little and nodded again. How funny was it that she wasn't funny? Read a book.. Was that because he was a Ravenclaw? "I prefer to conduct my own research before consulting anothers ideas on the matter. Self sufficient." He almost commented that she should try that herself, but didn't because Mama had told him that Aunt Elodie only said that because she was a troublemaker and enjoyed annoying people who annoyed her. Now she, Aunt Elsy, was funny.

"If you count how many times it bubbles in a minute, you can work out the chemical reactions, air traffic and flow with a few simple equations." Or something like that, Rooney was actually just noting everything possible down to create a fact file and determine his project details from that. Even the fact that it kind of smelt like muted potatoes around here. Someone may have thrown one in years ago.

Or this girl smelled of potatoes.

.............. Human experiments were off the cards though, right?

Kate hurried up to the first floor with her wand gripped tightly in her hand. She had suddenly looked at the time and realized the homework assignment was due soon, and she still had a lot of casting left to do. She actually dropped her wand dashing up the stairs and nearly tumbled trying to go back and get it. Okay, chill, Kate. The homework assignment is not this serious...

Reaching the first floor, Kate dashed around until she came upon a nasty swamp that she knew was once put their by the famous Weasley twins. There were loads of things in that swamp she could change to the color blue! Mainly the grass, which was plentiful all over the swamp. Kate stopped at the edge of the swamp and focused on the grass.

Getting a good mental picture of blue grass, Kate pointed her wand forward. "Colovaria!" she exclaimed. The grass began changing into the blue she had pictured earlier. "Colovaria!" she said again, because casting twice always made her feel like the deal was sealed. Kate held her focus until the grass on one side of the swamp was completely blue. Awesome.

Historic site or not, cobwebs and bugs seemed to infest this section of the corridor. Corners and around the roped swamp was small dirty balls of filth, as well as little bugs speeding along too fast for anyone to catch.

WHAT is going on in the castle? What are the house elves doing??

Abby was passing the swamp and saw the bugs running around and thought what is going on with the castle and why were the house elves not cleaning the castle anymore this was a bit worrying