The students follow the tracks down the stairs to the floor below. The strange footprints continue down the corridor, leading to a broken mop. a little farther along, the students find a tattered scrap of the caretaker's shirt... and are those bones?

Whoah wait is that "--Carl??" his Hufflebud is here too? He shrugged casually when the blonde boy asked if they were ok "Yeah we're fine-- although these guys think we've walked into some kind of weird twilight zone Hogwarts." he snickered. He wasnt in denial, more like sheer ignorance and the fact that this is a magical school. Weird is the norm.

Not that now isnt weird..... ok its more FILTHY that weird. Maybe if they explore a bit more.....

"Put some muscle into it Carl..." the Curly Top chuckled as the Hufflepuff came up with what looked to him a feeble illumination spell. He took his wand out and was about to show 'em how its done when he heard another voice (Sinead) coming from where they came from "Yeah over here!" he called out behind them.

There were several things Leon said that got the Gryffindor a bit confused, a bit scoff-y "Spray bottle? Where? And mirrored? I see no mirrors...." he said as he turned around whilst walking "And dude, this is definitely Hogwarts, what other school has a crazy moving staircase like this?--" he stopped short as they spotted the shoe "--where CinderFella leaves his shoe by the stairs...?" he started to chuckle "Duuuuudes Flynn is so messing with us. So who's gonna be his Prince Charming huh?" He turned and jokingly pointed at the Ravenclaw upperclassman "Leon, you're the oldest among us, you'd have to return his shoe and then marry him!" Loooooolz.

So off he goes following the tracks like they all agreed they would do together, if there was a part of him that did start to think it was getting a bit weirder than the typical Hogwarts day, he didnt show it.....

.... until they found the tattered shirt, and then the BONES.

Ok full stop. Tenacius blinked then pointed at the sight ".....Ok either Flynn is going all Tarzan on us or... he's having a severe nervous breakdown." he deadpans.

Carl nodded at the Ravenclaw who introduced himself as Leon. "I'm Carl. So we're exploring this place?" He said. Sticking together sounded like a good idea.

It was great to hear that everybody was fine. The atmosphere yelled DANGER at him, but maybe it wasn't that bad here. Just weird and dark and cold. "Hey, Tenacius... you know I sort of agree that this could be 'some kind of weird twilight zone Hogwarts'." He laughed. Leon's reasoning made sense to him. He approached the stairs to see what he meant by the spray bottle and shoe. Yep they were there, as well as track marks leading down the stairs. So somebody had been here recently and had not left. Tenacius had mentioned Flynn the caretaker. Perhaps he was here cleaning? But why leave his spray bottle and shoe around?

"Um, okay." The Fourth Year said uncertainly to Tenacius's suggestion. "Lumos! Lumos Maxima!" He said firmly, but the light remained weak. He thought he was pretty good at this spell. The cold must be affecting his concentration.

Holding his wand high above his head so that they could see ahead, Carl followed the group along the corridor, down the stairs to the floor below and down another corridor. Then they stopped. He looked over his friend's shoulder to see what he was pointing at. Oh no. "A breakdown that involves a tattered shirt and bones..." he swallowed and said in a shaky voice, "something's wrong. What does this mean? Do we have to get help?"

"Duuuuuude," was all the fourth year boy could say...again. He turned around behind him and tried to figure out where he had come from and where he should go. This place was supposed to be the sixth floor, but even though he was the new kid, he knew this was not what the sixth floor should look like. Okay, he was scared. He would never admit that out loud, but there it was.

He should probably get his wand now...

After a little bit of fumbling, he had his wand, and he held it so tightly his knuckles had turned a shade of bright, blinding white. Why did he have to be by himself right now? He had wanted a Defense Against the Dark Arts real-life challenge, but he hadn't been ready for it right this very second. His blue eyes were wide as he stepped forward and started trying to find his way.

"This place is a mess," he mumbled to himself. He could hear voices up ahead, so he decided to follow them. He'd worry about who the voices belonged to later. Right now, he just didn't want to be the only person around that he could see. He almost fell when he stumbled on a flight of stairs, but he caught his balance and kept going. The voices kept getting louder and louder until he finally reached the sources of the sounds, and MERLIN was he ever so thrilled to see some of the other students.

"Alright, so...somebody tell the new kid how to get out of here," he said, trying not to panic.

”Oh,” she tilted her head, thinking really hard. Normal in space, but not at Hogwarts. That’s weird. And then, just as Zoryn went to ask if she could try her Prefect's cruiser…. Someone else approached.

Man it was a PARTY over here!!!

The TALL kid (Leon) was talking now and Zoryn looked ALL the way up at him. Wow. It was a long way up. Or maybe she was just a long ways down. Either way, she wasn’t going to remember his name in two minutes. ”And I’m ZORYN!” Just so he knew.

As for the weird thingies in the air… Zoryn agreed with Tenacius, ‘cause he was smart. Just dust bunnies.

........

Okay and the next ten minutes were a blur. Because everyone started talking and Zoryn was tuning it all out because she was WAY more concerned with chasing around all the spore-y thingies in the air and trying to catch them in her hands.

She did, however, follow the group as they wandered further and further down the corridor... Though she was much less concerned with playing detective and MUCH more concerned with catching all the air spots! That and she totally missed the bone stuff.

Zoryn just wanted to collect as many of the dust bunny thingies as she could! HEHEHEHEHE. She giggled, skipping past the group (that had stopped to talk about something or another aka BONES) and collecting more and more sporey thingies in her cupped hands.

HEHEHE.

She was gonna catch them ALL!!!!!!!!

ONE!!

TWO!!

FIVE!!!

SHE HAD SO MANY!! SHE WAS SO GOOD AT THIS!!!

Soon they were joined by several more students. Kitty nodded in turn to each of them, allowing Leon to explain things to the first few. With so many students gone, it was only a matter of time before a teacher or two decided to investigate.

She shrugged at Tenacius's question on plants. "Maybe. Have you seen anything like these tendrils in the Greenhouses before?" Because honestly. this was all very new to her. She took out out her camera and snapped a picture of Zoryn in mid-jump.

"Bones!" she squealed, pointing at the bones on the ground. "Are they human?" she whispered in horror, wondering if they had stepped into an alternate Hogwarts filled with Hags instead of humans. If she were not too scared she would have bent down to examine them.

Just then they were joined by a fourth year Slytherin student. "Don't be scared," she told him, coming closer as she talked and trying to sound calm herself. "We don't know what this place is, but we agreed to stick together in case there's something dangerous. We've already found bones over there, see, though of what I don't know. If you're scared, you can hold my hand." That wasn't too awkward a favor to grant, was it?

Okay well it was clear that this was the Gryffindor Prefect and not the Ravenclaw one and Leon ran a hand through his hair as the kid spoke.. "Yes, well I mean we ARE in Hogwarts..just maybe not the Hogwarts we know. " He explained as he sighed a bit.. Alternate Dimension kid! Space stuff? He was just talking about War of the worlds with Juno!

He smiled at Carl and nodded. "It's nice to meet you Carl! And yes, exploring but sticking together. " Because the last thing he wanted was to lose track of anyone in here!

7th year and all that!

"Hello Zoryn!" He said as he smiled down at the bouncy first year, thankfully she seemed more into catching spores than you know.. the clues about this place.. so that was good!

Leon smiled at the new guy. "Hey, I'm Leon! And at the moment I'm not sure how to get out of here.. but just stick with us, yeah? "

And that was when Leon saw it..

Bones.

The dark haired boy felt a chill go down his spine and he swallowed hard. His first instinct was to get everyone back to where they had come from and see if they could find a way out of here. He wanted to keep these kids safe..

He looked down at Kitty and knelt down to gently poke at the bones with his wand..

"I'm not sure.. " He said softlyx

"No one panic though.. and still stay together.. Safety in numbers.. " He reminded them all.

Euw. Yuck. Gross.

"Beepboopbeepboop..." Carlton continued to make firetruck sounds as he walked through the disgusting yucky thing.

OH, LOTSA PEOPLE.

Carlton blinked as he saw all the students gathered in the sixth corridor that... Wasn't really the sixth corridor at all.

"Beep." He only recognized a few of the students. And then he looked around him.

EVERYTHING WAS YUCK. NO. He didn't like it. And he would be late for Transfiguration.

"Buh-bye." Carlton turned around the way he came from but where was the non-icky corridor? He spun around facing the students again.

HELP. "What IS this?! I want things to back to what they were." NOW, fix it older students. Tall, older magic-knowing students. FIX.

All the noise the students were making did not go unnoticed. Somewhere lurking in the shadows, a pair of eyes snapped open, and if the students listened carefully, they could hear a strange snarling sound. Something wasn't happy about being disturbed. And it was HUNGRY too! Mmm... students!

Brent took a moment to look around and observe what everybody else was doing. Was this a common place here at Hogwarts? It didn't...look common. Somebody yelled about bones then, and Brent turned to look that way. UGHHHHH. Yes, those were bones. He felt his stomach do a little flip as he was starting to put things into place. Yup. This was not a place the students went to often. If at all.

The Ravenclaw prefect was talking to him. "Scared? Oh, I'm not scared," he lied, trying to play it cool. He didn't want to give the impression that he was some wimp. Then she confirmed that no, this was not a place they went to often. He nodded when she mentioned they stick together. "Yeah, for sure. i came down here by myself, and it was a little freaky." Okay. A LOT freaky. Then she offered to hold hands with him, and to Brent, that translated only into a girl was asking to hold hands with him. He grinned at her. "Thanks. I think I'll try to look like a macho guy for a little while first, though."

"I'm Brent, by the way," he said, hearing all the intros around him. He'd go into the whole 'fourth year Slytherin' thing, but nobody probably cared right now. Instead, he just froze in his tracks. "Uhhh. Does anybody else hear a snarling type sound?" Please say no.

Darkness. That was what she saw. "Lumos!" she whispered, lighting her path. This was weird. She lowered her wand and watched the floor. Gross. Just ignore it. Ignore it. Walk. Walk faster.

As she continued walking through the portal, she heard noises. Follow the noises. Those sound like human voices. She almost began running towards them but stopped. What if they weren't human? Olivia gripped her wand, taking a deep breath, and readied herself for whatever was ahead of her. Something about this made her stomach start doing somersaults. Suddenly she wished that she could have escaped the weird portal-ish, creepy ameoba looking thing at the end of the sixth floor corridor but it had called to her. It had called to her as if it were a siren. Was it luring them to something? To their death?

She eyed the walls and noticed that they looked almost flesh like. She bit her lip, fighting back a scream. Keep walking... Just keep walking. She didn't like it in here. Were they in something's stomach.....? It sure felt like one of those tv shows where a couple of kids ended up in an alien or beast's stomach and all died.... She closed her eyes momentarily, trying to quieten those thoughts. The thoughts continued and all she could do was focus on the voices. They sounded human.

She continued walking. Were those students up ahead? Oh hey! Yes, there was Brent and Tenacius and Zoryn and Kitty and more! Friends! People she knew. Phew. "Hey guys! Are you really here or am I imagining it? Can someone pinch me?" Was it even real? She eyed the students around her. Did they know where they are? "I have a bad feeling about this place..."

The more student voices were made the louder the snarl became. Whatever it is was following the student's voices ... and the smells. Dare you stay and add to the pile of bloodied bones or live to tell the tale on your way out? Better decide now or never. That shadow sure was looking larger.

OOC: You have roughly 24 hours to return to the real Hogwarts through the portal.

Snarling.. that did not sound good!

And it was getting louder, and if those were bones..Then.. Merlin..

"Guys! We need to get out of here! Now!" The older boy started to motion towards the stairs..

"No one panic but we need to get back to that Portal! I suggest we all move as quickly as possible and stay together! " No one was left behind, not on his watch. "C'mon., lets go! "

Dude. Zoryn was gonna need bigger hands.

She had SO many of the little dust bunny thingies. Like an entire collection of them. And she didn't know where to keep them 'cause her hands weren't gonna have any more space for more.... Hmmmmmmm....

She quickly turned around to make sure no one was watching her (and luckily they were all pretty distracted with something or another at the other end of the corridor) and when she was sure no one was looking, she stuffed some into her shirt. This wasn't weird, right?

Now her hands had MORE ROOM for more of the spore-y things!!!

And then that kid who had introduced himself earlier (yeah, she definitely didn't remember his name at all) was yelling at everyone to go back through the portal... But Zoryn didn't want to go back to the portal!!! She wanted to collect more of the floaters!! 'Cause she was gonna start up a collection and put them in a jar by her bed 'cause it'd make really cool decoration and maybe she could have TWO full jars and even give one to Faith!!!

So the first year just ignored the tall boy for now. ALL THE FLOATIES!!!!

HEhehehehe. EHhehehehehe. Hehehehee.

So pretty.

...

Brent's eyes got really large, and he found himself walking backwards a few steps. "Holy Merlin," he whispered, unable to talk above a whisper. His Ilvermorny friends had warned him that STRANGER THINGS happened at this school. He was just starting to really like it here, and now he was going to DIE before he completed even a single year here.

"Okay, I don't know WHAT that is, and I really don't care, and I don't want to stay to find out," he said to the others. "...and that sorting hat didn't make me a Gryffindor for a pretty dang good reason." HE WAS OUTTA HERE. "Hey, uhhh, Zoryn? Pretty sure we're gonna be eaten if we don't head back the way we came." Thought you might want to know.

He nodded toward the older dude who'd said they needed to GO. "I agree. LET'S GET OUT HERE!" he exclaimed. Brent took a few steps back toward where he'd come from then turned around and began headed off.

He looks back as he can hear more voices joining them, many of which he recognized from his other classes (Brent, Carlton, Olivia) See it feels like Hogwarts already, just dirty and dank and--

-- WHAT WAS THAT?

His head snapped towards the direction of the sound. That... wasnt a dog. He knew that much. He heard the other Hogwartians start to titter and panic, then Leon told them to scram like pronto. "Right... ok." he nodded as he slowly backed away, still staring in the dimness of the--

"Wait....... are those eyes?"

He can see the eyes. Which means the eyes can SEE them!

Yep exit stage left!

He turned to scram, then skidded to a halt when he realized that Zoryn was still preoccupied with those dust bunnies spore things "Zoryn we gotta go we gotta goooo...." Should he just pull her along? No she got shorter legs. He's carrying her. Time to pump up those non-existent muscles.

RUN! RUN back to where they came, past the broken mop, up the stairs, down the dank corridor..... "GUYS HOW DO WE GET OUTTA HERE?" are they even in the right corridor? "Why is everything the other way around????"

Now he notices it.

The Ravenclaw guy was telling them to run? Right. She wouldn't question his authority or wisdom. Plus she had heard snarling and a shadow approaching. Okay. Time to leave. At Tenacius' comment, Olivia's eyes widened. Yeah... She thought those were eyes. Gulp. "Those do look like eyes... Ace..." But first..... Alright, first years. She glanced about. Looked like Brent and Tenacius were taking care of Zoryn. Now.... Where was Carlton? Ah. There! She reached out and grabbed his hand. "C'mon Carlton! Let's go." They needed to make sure that they got all the first years out of here. At Tenacius' comment, she stopped moving. Which way now? Were they done for? What if they went back to the portal? Olivia pointed over her shoulder (which was the direction that he had come in and the direction Brent was headed in). "This way! Towards Brent. I think this is the way to go back or at least it's the way back to Hogwarts?" she offered.

"Are there any spells we can cast to stop or slow whatever that thing is?" she asked. Perhaps an older student would know.. Then again, what if magic didn't affect it.

Good Good.. they were running!

"Yes! Tenacius! Just follow after Brent, he's going the right way!" Okay, Zoryn and the other little one was being taken care of. Was that all the first years? He wasn't sure.. "Kitty! Carl! C'mon we need to go!" He said as he started to run up the stairs behind everyone..

He wasn't leaving one single person behind and they would all get out before he did!

"If you see the portal. Jump through it! Don't look back! " He yelled at everyone, he was the oldest! He would make sure people got out.

Any sense of excitement and fun ended the moment they heard the snarling. At first Kitty wondered if she had imagined it, but then it came again louder - something was coming in their direction and everyone was running.

"Someone help us!" she screamed, just in case there was an adult around. Then she stumbled, sending her camera flying across the floor.

Without even stopping to think, she turned around and ran back to retrieve her camera. She put it away in her purse and drew her wand, then rejoined her friends.

AHHHHHHHHHHHH!

There were six million things happening all at once, which got Brent's heart pumping at outrageous speeds. Somebody else was taking care of Zoryn, so Brent looked behind him to see if anybody else was just dragging around for whatever reason. When did Olivia get in here? "I don't know," he told her, "but I think we should just run for it." There was a huge shadow that seriously looked to be getting closer to them, and Brent had a feeling that whatever the shadow belonged to probably knew a lot more magic than some school kids did.

"Everybody just stop standing around and trying to figure this out! Let's just GO!" he said. Okay, he'd given everyone all the help he could. If they still wanted to stand around after that, so be it. He was gone, though. He started running back in the direction he came from. There were bones nearby, but he didn't have time to give them a second though. The portal was up ahead, and he was jumping through it. Hopefully the others listened.

As soon as he reached it, he literally took a dive toward it in hopes of going back though to the proper side. "HELPPPPPP!" he yelled to anybody who might be on the other side.

OOC: I'm guessing he can just jump back through it? If so, that's my intention here. XD

His head is spinning, his arms were aching, his sense of direction is totally off kilter, and that didn’t sit well with Tenacius Salander

"Zoryn, I gotta put you down for a moment… " he panted as he set the Firstie back down on the floor, but he still held onto her with one hand, the other immediately wielding his Alder wood wand. He heard Olivia say to follow Brent and that he does, on a quick pace as he ushers Zoryn along "Get a shield spell up Olivia." oh what an opportune moment to use a spell Professor Hirsch taught them "Protego Fianto Duri!" he cast the shield spell out toward the direction of… whatever that is.

And if it suddenly attacked them, he's got another stunner at the ready.

He shifted his gaze rapidly between the students making their way back through the portal and that snarly looming shadow with eyes. Is that ALL of them that came in here? Prefect duties all done now yeah? Can he go save himself now please? He followed the person ahead of him and jumped through "Geronimoooooo…."

And through the portal he crawls, familiarly weird but not quite, given the first time he went through it he kinda zoomed past everything. And then he could see Hogwarts-- CLEAN Hogwarts! And Noelle and Professor Stewart and kids all the kids!!! Theyre ho--

*B U M P*

Ouch that was his head hitting against.... what is this?... glass? shield? WHY IS THERE A TRANSPARENT BARRIER NOW AND THEY CANT GET OUT OF THE PORTAL??????

"HEY!!!!" Tenacius beat his fists against the shield with all his might, hollering at the people on the other side. Can they hear them? "LET US OUT!!! I MEAN IN!!! I MEAN GET US OUTTA HERE!!!"

Carlton was NOT pleased.

He scanned the other students with narrowed eyes. He needed someoe older, stronger and smarter than him to get them both out of this mess. But before he could reach forward and SNATCH Brent by simply clinging to his leg they had all started to move around and Carlton lost sight of his saviour. Nuuuuh!

Then panic erupted and someone was shouting they needed to leave and then Zoryn was flying in the air, being carried by Tenacius. There were people everywhere! Even in the AIR!

His hand was suddenly caught and he was dragged along. Carlton's little legs started to move as fast as he could, which wasn't fast. He looked up at the hand snatcher and beamed when he recognized Olivia.

"HAI, Olivia! I stepped through the portal." At least that was what the older Slytherin boy was calling it.

His feet stumbled over something and he fell forward, face down on the floor. Carlton huffed and kicked the thing that had caused his fall. It almost looked like bones. Kind of like the ones he gave his dog when she was cute. He shone up and crawled over to get it.

"En Garde!" He was on his feet now, lunging forward with the bone in his hand.

Silly snarling thing, Carlton would give it this bone and maybe it felt better. He'd lost track of Olivia and started to walk in the other direction towards the snarling noise. Professor Hernandez had told him that animals can get agressive when they're sick, maybe it was a creature that escaped and was just feeling sick? Poor creature. Carlton would save it. Clean its litter box, feed it warm milk and give it tonic. Just like in CoMC!

"Heeeeeeere, little creature thing...." Oh where art thou?

Carlton was positive that the only scary thing that existed at Hogwarts was Peeves and the giant squid. There was not a scintilla of fear in him when he marched forward. This was a school! The thought didn't enter his mind that it could actually be dangerous.

While people were conversing, Carl looked around nervously and saw something moving in the shadows. He squinted his eyes - was that Flynn? - and saw a pair of eyes snap open. He did not miss the strange snarling sound either. There was a creature in there!

He stood rooted to the spot with his eyes fixated on the creature until he heard Leon telling him to get out of the place. Right. The fourteen-year-old began to run up the corridor, but came to a halt when he saw somebody... trying to communicate with the creature. "Hey! Don't - we have to get out of here!" He yelled and got hold of him under the armpits, knocking the bone out of his hand. How was he not intimidated by the whole situation? "Come on, let's go let's go let's go." He ran up the stairs, carrying the First Year.

He followed the group along the sixth floor corridor and towards the Portal. Then he slowed to a stop when he saw Tenacius banging his fists at the Portal and yelling at the people at the other side. They were stuck??? He put the young boy down and approached the barrier. He could see everyone out there. "Help!!! We're stuck!" He waved his arms. Could they hear him? If not, they could tell how desperate he was to get out, right?

Olivia nodded at Tenacius' comment to cast a shield spell. Right. She was on it. What protego spell should she cast? Was the creature something dark? Would it even be affected by it? Protego horribilis would work! But could she muster the power and strength needed to cast that spell. She'd try. Turning to face the creature, she quickly drew her wand and cast, "Protego horribilis" Unsure if that had worked (as it had been her second time to cast that spell), she resulted to casting a quick, "Protego Fianto Duri!" She then turned back towards the portal where Brent, Tenacius, and the few others had headed towards. She looked down at her hand and found that Carlton had run off somewhere. "Carlton?" she cried. Her heart raced. Seriously, this first year was trouble. What did he think he was doing? And where did he disappear to? Her eyes landed upon the first year being found by a Hufflepuff. Oh phew. She sighed, gave the Hufflepuff a thumb's up and headed towards the portal.

Olivia was about to jump through the portal when she saw the result of Tenacius' jump. There was a barrier? She ran up beside Tenacius, trying to run her hand over the barrier. Was there anything they could do to break it? "Can we break the barrier somehow?" Was that even an option? Though if they broke the barrier what if that creature got out? GULP. She turned around, readying her wand to fight whatever was coming towards them.

Wait a second.

She turned around eying the barrier... Something wasn't right... She didn't know what compelled her (perhaps sheer curiosity?), Olivia decided to stick her hand through it gently. Olivia jumped when she saw that her hand could indeed get through. "We can get back... I think?" Unless this was an exit to another dimension.

Chaos.. it was utter and complete chaos..

Not only was that shadowy thing bearing down on them but apparently they couldn't get through? And then now they could?

"Everyone in! Now! " Leon wasn't messing around and he literally started to push people through.. That monster was coming! And he wasn't going to let anyone get eaten on his watch..

He put his hand through the barrier and saw it went just fine.

"We can get through! So move it! " He turned back to face the shadow thing and put another shield charm up..

"Get through the portal guys now,, before I pick you all up and drag you with me! "