Hogwarts was amazing!

But it was definitely way too big. Ambrose had gotten lost for the fifth time... in the last hour. Though even that didn't seem so bad, considering he'd found so many different things already. The first year guessed he'd still be finding things when he was in his last year.

In fact he could probably spend a life time exploring the castle and still manage to miss something! Afterall, some of the people he'd spoken to have mentioned that there were a number of secret passages throughout the school...

His attention turned from that to looking around where he actually was right now. Brown eyes examining the portraits. He slowly moved closer to them, watching them as they... moved?

Huh?

Kat had just finished lunch and wouldn't you know she was heading up to the music room. That was definitely the first spot she was heading this afternoon. That was her favorite place other than the greenhouses. Of course there were many places around that castle that she enjoyed.

Sprinting from the great hall to the staircase, she jumped on a moving staircase, taking her the wrong way to where she wanted to go. But it was okay, because just in ahead of her she spotted Ambrose. She watched him move closer and suddenly realized. That he didn't know.

"Yes, the portraits move." She was amused by the younger boys reaction, he was a muggle born of she remember correctly. To a muggleborn the moving portraits must be a sight to see. She had always seen them move.

Ambrose's brown eyes quickly moved over to the older Hufflepuff, listening to her explanation, before they travelled back to the portraits and watched them keep moving. It was still a bit weird to see, but exciting in it's own way. If his phone would work in Hogwarts and he had it he'd take a video to show his sister.

"It's... like a cartoon," he commented after a second, before looking in confusion at them again. "But these ones don't just repeat the same thing like in the daily prophet..."

So wizards had officially turned the boring art of portraits into something actually impressive and quite amazing.

The younger Hufflepuff boy reaction was just too cute. To be honest. "Yeah I guess so." Kat had seen muggle cartoons and had a few favorites. "They pretty much come and go as they please." Must be nice to just go do whatever you want to do.

Ahhh the life of a portrait, did they know how lucky they were? Maybe if they were lucky the portraits would strike up a conversation with them. She had heard that they did that from time to time. Kat had the luck of seeing the giant squid when she went out to the lake the other day. "What do you think about Hogwarts now that you are here?" She asked with much anticipation of his answer.

The many talkative portraits that fill the first floor now all show different states of cleaning decline with mold and dust everywhere in sight.

Some of the portrait frames do not only have a layer of dust on them, but spiders have started to lay their nests over them and in certain cases so thick that you can't even see the portrait owners.

Where is that grumpy caretaker? Why isn't he fulfilling his cleaning duties?

Tinka heard whispers from studentsies and other elfies that Misters Masters Flynn was not cleaning the castle. Tinka not wants to clean all the castle today. Tinka not wants to clean all the castle tomorrow too. But Tinka was good elf and Tinka wanted to helps. Her ears twitched when she saw the messes on the precious portraits and she sat down in front of them. "Dirty precious pictures! Bad bad Flynn. Bad bad. Very bad."

History of Magic was... well, it was fine, but it wasn't exactly thrilling. Sinead was all up for learning about the history of the magical community and she knew it was important, but they seemed to spend a lot more time on the boring bits than the interesting ones and at the end of the day, it just didn't match up to classes where they actually got to learn real magic.

This being so, she was in high spirits upon leaving the lesson, practically bouncing along the corridor at the thought of returning to her dorm and curling up with a book and her cat. The fates didn't seem aligned to make that likely, though- not concentrating, she nearly trod on a house elf who was just sat there on the floor. She stumbled in a bid not to trample the elf, losing her balance and throwing out a hand to catch herself on the wall- except, unfortunately, the wall was already otherwise occupied. Her hand caught in a thick tangle of cobwebs before coming to a rest on painted canvas, eliciting a cry of annoyance from the occupant of the portrait.
"Oh- I'm sorry!" she gasped to the elf and the portrait alike, snatching her hand away from the wall and examining it in dismay. Why was the castle so filthy? Hogwarts may have been large, old and draughty, but it was usually still clean for all that.
"What's going on? Are you alright?" She glanced again at her hand and wondered if she could subtly wipe the cobwebs off on a portrait frame. Then again- why wouldn't Scourgify work? With another apologetic glance at the house-elf, she groped delicately in her robes for her wand, trying not to get anything dirty in the process.

Roaming the corridor for exercise was all Art was doing this season, as it was too cold for his old bones to go outside, and he didn't want to be sitting in his office, letting his joints seize up. He was doing a round of the first floor corridor when he saw little Tinka, who seemed to be in a bit of a worry, and a young student who was... also in a bit of a worry, it appeared.

"Hello there, what's going on?" he asked, walking up to them with some concern etched onto his face. He looked around and noticed the state of the portraits. "Great Scott, they're filthy," he said, pointing out the obvious.

Old Augustus Flume was not pleased by the current state of his frame. He couldn't SEE out. Why couldn't anyone take pity on and old chap and clean away those pesky cobwebs? He was about to go back to snoozing when a hand land right on his nose "Oooof!" he called out. "That's my nose you're touching!"

The girl's hand had though cleared away some cobwebs so Augusts could peer out and down at the slytherin and house elf. "Are you two the cleaning party?"

Shaking her head Violetta waved dramatically at the sight of a handsome greying professor, from her dirty canvas frame. He would surely be her champion would he not? "Yoohoo handsome! Yoohoo! Can you be a dear and remove the mould from a girl's hair and dress?" The house elf and slytherin girl was for the moment forgotten.

"Oh!" Sinead started as Professor Newton appeared behind her, apparently out of nowhere, and temporarily distracted her from the portrait. "Er- good afternoon, Professor. I'm... not sure?" That was true enough; she was pretty sure the house elves didn't normally clean these portraits, but if they didn't, why was one just sitting here?

The portrait himself didn't seem entirely clear on the answer to that, either. She glanced at Augustus (as he was pronounced by a small plaque on the frame), unclear whether or not he was somebody who needed to command her respect.
"I wasn't sent here to clean or anything," she clarified. This was the weirdest. After a moment, she started, realising she still held her wand- that was something she could sort out, at least, with a muttered "Scourgify" at her hand to siphon away the cobwebs.

This taken care of, she felt slightly more in control of the situation and looked over at Augustus once more. "I could clean the cobwebs away from your portrait as well, if you'd like," she offered. That would probably be fair recompense for mashing her hand into his face. "Why are you so dirty, though? Isn't there a man who cleans here normally?" She'd seen him making his way through the castle many times, and remembered encountering him just along this stretch of wall on the way out of her first History of Magic lesson.

Oh no no no. Tinka squeaked at almost being squashed and scrambled to her feet. "So so sorry Misses. Sorry sorry Misses. Tinka bad. Tinka so very bad." She moved to the wall, just shy of the portraits and started to bang her head against the brick. "Bad bad Tinka. Tinka bad bad. Must not sit on the floor, Tinka bad."

A professor joined them and Tinka continued to apologise loudly in shrill cries as she hit her head upon the wall. She wished that she had a door to shut her fingers in as that hurt much more. Tinka bad. Bad Tinka. "Tinka sorry, Professor Sir Newton Sir! Bad Tinka bad bad."

Art heard something, from the Portraits, speak to someone. He looked around for someone else, perhaps it was one of his younger colleagues. But no, when he looked around there WAS nobody else. He looked towards the portrait. "Uhh m-me?" He laughed nervously. He took in the filthiness of the lady's portrait. "Hmm well a-alright then, yes, heh..." he took out his wand and cast the scouring charm on it.

"Good afternoon Miss Dance," Art greeted the young Slytherin. "Hmm... the whole castle seems to be like this. Y-yes Mr... Mr Flynn. He's our caretaker..." Art looked around although he knew Flynn was nowhere to be seen. "I don't know what happened to him. He's disappeared."

He was distracted by squeaking from the little Elf. Turning, he saw her banging her head against the wall. "NO!" he gasped, reaching down for the dear elf. He pulled his wand out and cast the cushioning charm onto the wall where she was hitting her head. "Molliare," he said. "Tinka! You're not at fault here," he said, trying to muster some authority into his voice. Perhaps that would stop her from banging her head. "Now... now I can help clean some things. We'll get it done in half the time." Unless Miss Dance, too, wished to help.

Class was over and Rosalyn was feeling hungry so it was a good time for her to pop over to the kitchen. Even though she had eaten only a couple hours before, sometimes she had a huge appetite. Other days she hardly ate at all.

Making her way down the corridor, she spotted a small group by the portraits. "What's going on here?" she asked curiously as she caught the last bit of what her uncle was saying. "I've been wondering what happened to him too. This castle is becoming so dusty." Making a face, she glanced at one of the portraits. They definitely needed some cleaning.

"I can help clean as well!" Since Flynn obviously wasn't taking care of things.

Agustus peered down at the slytherin girl from his still dirty frame and muttered testily "If you aren't here to clean, then why are you here in my corridor?" Sass was something that had never sat well with him.

Stretching inside his frame Agustus held back a scolding on his tongue as he responded to the girl again. "Cleaning away the cobwebs on my beautiful golden frame would be the least you could do for so violently disturbing my snooze." He didn't forget easily.

Gesturing to the professor Agustus sighed out "You should ask him! I haven't seen that Flynn chap for weeks. He usually cleans here, but he has obviously not been doing his duties since the state of all the portraits in this corridor is horrendously appalling."


When her portrait regained its glamour Violetta beamed broadly at professor handsome as she chirped happily almost jumping up and down in her frame "Thank you, thank you professor handsome man! It feels so good to be clean again." Beckoning the handsome professor closer with a finger she asked "Do you know where that caretaker dearie is? I've heard some conflicting theories from my portrait besties on the sixth floor." .

Aroused from her sleep by the shrill cries of the house elf that was banging her head against the wall under her frame Iris opened her eyes and surveyed the scene. The fossil known as Agustus was as per his usual drawing a lot of attention to himself and Violetta was flirting with a professor.

Yawning and making a face Iris gazed over at the female professor and demanded "My frame is clearly the most dirtiest in this corridor. I deserve to be cleaned first."

The wall was suddenly soft to the head bump and Tinka backed away, confused. "Tinka bad, Sir Newton Professor Sir." And just for his having to interfere, Tinka would have to shut her fingers in the door later. Another Professor arrived and the house elfs ears began to twitch at an alarming rate. This was bad bad bad. Tinka had only needed to clean clean clean and this would not be happening. Two instances of finger slamming to make up for it later.

"Mr Flynn must be sick! Tinka will makes him soups!" After she had cleaned up here. And she went straight to cleaning Iris' frame as instructed. "Yes Misses. Tinka clean Misses Iris. Tinka do it."

The next couple of seconds seemed to pass before Sinead really had a chance to get her head around it, still too bemused by the whole situation. House elves were seriously weird- but okay, Professor Newton seemed to have taken care of that. And the portrait was talking to her, and now another Professor Newton was here, and how would they know which one she was talking to-

Glancing between the portrait and the teachers with an increasing frown, Sinead settled for a quick "Good afternoon, Professor," to her History of Magic teacher, before looking back at the rather irritable portrait who seemed to consider her his personal attendant. Still, fair was fair.
"Scourgify," she murmured, passing her wand around the frame and leaving it nice and shiny clean gold again. Except for that bit in the corner. Oops.

Once this incriminating evidence had been hastily scrubbed away with a tissue from her pocket, she glanced back at the teachers, neither of whom seemed to be able to provide a very satisfactory explanation for Flynn's absence.
"Why doesn't somebody just ask him why he isn't working?" she asked with blunt logic, looking between the two of them. Really- it was his job, and he couldn't have literally disappeared, could he? Somebody must know where he was. Maybe just in bed, if he was ill like Tinka said.

Rosalyn smiled at Sinead. "Good afternoon Miss Dance." In her confusion, she had momentarily forgotten her manners and that made her feel rather rude though she didn't have time to dwell on it because one of the portraits was asking to be cleaned first.

Before she could jump to it, Tinka had started. Such wonderful house elves though it made her sad to see them so hard on themselves. "You are not bad, Tinka. You are being a great help." Even though the elf had been talking to her uncle, Rosalyn felt that she could answer as well. That, and clean! With the use of magic they would have the castle looking good as new again. Until Flynn returned.

"We can't ask him," she said before biting her lip. "I haven't seen him. Maybe he's been stuck in his bed feeling ill." It would be bad to make anyone worry, and as far she she knew he might be in bed. Where else would he have possibly gone off to? It was the only explanation that Rosalyn could come up with as to why he wasn't doing his job.

After coming back from building snowmen outside, Olivia walked into the castle and past few portraits before stopping and actually glancing up. Her eyes widened. "Woah." She had never taken into account how many portraits were actually here. There must have been nearly twenty or so. And apparently some of them talked. She hadn't ever heard a portrait other than the Fat Lady speak. She continued staring up, admiring the sheer number of portraits in this room. "Incredible."

Natalie was taking a walk. She had done some homework, but had taken a break partway through to get some food and to relieve her brain of excess thinking. She could only stare at a textbook for so long, she was discovering.

Blueberry muffin in hand, Natalie walked up the stairs from the great hall, only in a mindset to wander. She walked down the corridor where another girl seemed to be looking at the portraits. Maybe it was something Natalie took for granted, because it wasn't until just then that she, too realized how many portraits there were. The young girl paused a few feet from the older girl, following her gaze up the wall.

Huh.

Wow. This was impressive, wasn't it? Olivia continued to stay still, ignoring her surroundings completely, and wonder about all the paintings. It took her a good moment or so to realize that there was someone standing next to her. She turned her gaze and saw someone else there. It was a first year who look very familiar to her. Had they met before? She also had a nice looking blueberry muffin in her hand. Mmm.. That looked good. "It's all pretty impressive, huh? There's so much history up there." Olivia grinned. One day, she would love to be able to name all of their names.