Kye always took some time right after the feast to do some walking. It was so easy to get the exercise in when the castle was made of stairs.
She liked times like this, because the first years were already led to their dorms, and they were generally too geographically challenged to do much exploring.

The students that were out and about, didn't give her any trouble or anything. Perfectly aware of where she was, and which staircase she needed to get to the library, Kye made her way up to book central. How else, but with a book in hand already? She hadn't been able to finish these last few chapters before school started, and she HAD to know how it ended!! She was addicted to these mystery/suspense books.

She could hear the more obnoxious students echoing through in the background, but she had learned to mostly shut that out. Don't sweat the little things, she thought to herself.

Wait, what?! The staircases moved? They changed direction on you? AWESOME!!

The first year made her way up the staircase, taking care to watch for every movement just in case it decided that no, she was not allowed to go to that part of the castle. This was her first attempt at exploring such a huge building and Merlin, what would happen if she got *gulp* LOST?!

No, Ellie was not going to think about that.
She was going to continue on up the staircase and.find out just where it lead to.

Yes, that was what she would do.

Now if only she could shut down her mind. Now there was a challenge and a half.

But then... no... she could feel herself going... her foot had snagged... and down she tumbled.

You idiot, you absolute idiot

Before she had any chance of stopping herself

CRASH! BANG! THUD!

The clumsy first year found herself in a heap at the bottom of the staircase.

Kye wasn't startled easily. You didn't have much of a chance of sneaking up behind her without her sensing your presence hearing you. Among the echoes was a new noise. A rather abrupt and continuous noise that Kye was unaccustomed to. At first she thought maybe someone had dropped their bag or had tried to throw something from one of the higher floors (as they sometimes did, the idiots).

But no, this was different. Kye raised her eyes from her book, staring ahead for a moment. She followed her ears on this one and found a small clump at the bottom of a staircase below her. Kye looked around to see if the younger girl was with someone, or if maybe she had been tripped, but no one seemed to be around. With a raised eyebrow, Kye turned around and headed back down the staircase. She peeked curiously at the clump, wondering if it would jump up and yell 'I'm okay!' any second now.

Kye found herself now at the top of the clump's staircase, and headed down. Not wanting to startle the thing, she spoke.. probably awkwardly.

"Uhm... you okay?" Kye tilted her head and stopped about a quarter up the stairs.

"Youuu look like you need some help." Kye had decided it was her time to play hero, and searched for a hand to help the girl up. "You're gonna need to be a little lighter on your feet if you're gonna be roaming these hallways without knee pads.. or a bubble," Kye remarked, trying not to laugh but smiling slightly nonetheless. This girl was quite lucky there weren't a boatload of people on the stairs to remember this moment forever for her!

She was actually concerned though, because these weren't exactly cushion-y stairs. Cement-y though, yes.

The first couple of days of the new term had passed in a blur of emotions for Celestia. She had had moments of excitement, nerves, and perhaps every emotion in between. Returning to Hogwarts seemed like exactly the sort of adventure she'd been hoping it would be -- just like it had been when she'd been a student here herself. Wrapped up in her thoughts and sense of nostalgia, Celestia was casually climbing one of the many moving staircases in the castle with her arms full of spellbooks when her foot just sort of -- snagged on something.

Celestia frowned in confusion as she tried to bring her foot up onto the next step. Her confusion was swiftly followed by the horrible, dawning realization that she had somehow forgotten to skip one of the many trick stairs in the castle; her foot was tingling painfully as it continued to sink down below the trick stair. Celestia tried several times to subtly pull her leg free herself, but no amount of tugging worked. In fact, her foot seemed to be sinking faster than anything else as she tried to pull it up.

Oh, Merlin, now what was she going to do?

It had only been several days into the school year so Gunnar was still trying to find his way around the castle. There really was a lot of ground to cover, both inside and outside of the castle, and the first year was spending much of his free time exploring. Not only were there a lot of interesting things to be found, but he wanted to know his way around enough so as not to get lost.

The moving staircases were interesting enough on their own, never knowing where you'd end up if they started moving while you were on them, but he wondered if there was some sort of system or pattern to them. Maybe if he could figure that out, he'd have an easier time getting around. But for now, he'd just explore wherever the stairs led him to go, since he didn't currently have a class to get to.

As he started up the stairs, Gunnar noticed one of the professors up ahead, just standing there. Lost in thought? Trying to remember something? Gunnar wasn't sure, but he continued that way, intent on politely passing her.

"Hi, Professor," he greeted as he stepped foot on the step she was currently on. He recognized her as the Transfiguration professor, but couldn't quite remember her name. There were a lot of new names for him to remember, okay? He was sure he'd get them all soon enough. But for now, Professor should suffice as that was her title anyway. But when he went to lift his foot to take the next step above, he found he couldn't move it. His foot was stuck!

"Uhh.. what's going on?" He grabbed a hold of the railing as he tried unsuccessfully to pull his foot up even harder. He turned, giving the adult a questioning look. Oh! Was she stuck too?

Kimi knew he had to make his way somewhere but he was lost again typical and for someone who's common room was by the kitchens he was one floor up on the moving stairs ugh it was always typical that he got lost even though it was his fifth year at Hogwarts

These trick stairs were painful; that was yet another lovely detail that Celestia had somehow forgotten after graduation. She glared balefully at the stone as her leg sank another inch or so under the step she was perched on. Honestly, these things were rather dangerous, but then, Hogwarts had never been exactly safe, had it?

The Heads of the school and their staff members tried every term to keep students as safe as possible, but the reality was that chaos was almost guaranteed to reign in a castle stuffed full of young wizards who had yet to master their powers. She imagined that foreign schools of wizardry faced similar challenges every year. Perhaps Hogwarts was merely the most famous...

Celestia was jerked from her thoughts as she heard a voice greeting her. She spun around as quickly as she could manage with her leg sinking through the step and called out, "Mr. McCaul, wait--", but she was too late. The first year Slytherin boy had fallen victim to the vicious staircase as well.

"Well, Mr. McCaul, it seems we've both fallen victim to one of the many trick stairs at Hogwarts," Celestia informed the boy with a sigh. As she answered him, she paused briefly -- his name was McCaul, wasn't it? -- but she was almost sure that it was. To be quite frank, by the time the Sorting had reached the names starting with "M", Celestia had not been paying as much attention as she perhaps should have been. Not to mention the fact that Celestia had always been bad with names; it had taken her weeks to memorize the other professors' names, and there were naturally far too many students for her to have them all down perfectly so early in the term.

Still clutching a stack of spellbooks to her chest with one arm, Celestia rubbed her forehead wearily with her free hand. There was a way to get out of these steps, but as far as she could remember, she and the other Gryffindors used to simply lift each other off of the offending step. That strategy didn't seem to be working out so well thus far. She turned to the Slytherin stranded beside her and asked, "Are you expected somewhere, Mr. McCaul?" Perhaps someone would turn up looking for the first year...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saz Hale

Kimi knew he had to make his way somewhere but he was lost again typical and for someone who's common room was by the kitchens he was one floor up on the moving stairs ugh it was always typical that he got lost even though it was his fifth year at Hogwarts

One of the drawbacks of being in Gryffindor was the fact that the common room was SO FAR from the kitchens. Hufflepuffs really had it made with being practically next door to it, but that didn't mean Isabel wanted to be in that House. No offense to the Puffs, she just didn't fit in there AT ALL. Not like her mother had. So now she had to go down a bunch of floors just so that she could get a snack.

And on top of that, her bag decided to rip right in the middle of walking down the stairs. UGGGH!!! At least there was someone around who could help her. "Hey, Kimi. Do you mind..." Isabel trailed off, knowing that he would get that she wanted him to help her pick up everything that fell. But first off she fixed the bag using magic so that nothing else could fall out. Yep, she really needed to perform that spell so that way more could fit inside, but at the moment she couldn't remember WHAT it was and there was the more pressing matter of finding some food. The house elves had better have cookies or brownies prepared though at this point she was not being super picky.

Kimi saw Isabel and saw that her bag had ripped and said "Oh hey Isabel do you want a hand picking up everything that fell out of your bag" Kimi was glad that Isabel had mended her bag by magic but still it was pretty embrassing to have every content of the bag all over the moving staircases

Mr. McCaul? Huh?

Though his foot was stuck fast into what appeared to be a broken step, Gunnar turned his head for a quick glance behind him, looking for an adult male presumably named Mr. McCaul. Seeing no one, he turned back to the professor. "Trick stairs?" He looked down at his foot, grimacing slightly. "Is that a thing here?" Why didn't his parents tell him about it when they were telling him of the other things at Hogwarts?

Oh... was he Mr. McCaul? The formalities most of the teachers used with the students was very strange to the first year. He was a kid, not an adult. His dad was Mr. McCaul... er, McCarthy, not him. He could understand the students using those titles with the professors as they were adults and should be addressed with that respect. But why the other way around? Weird.

"Um, it's Gunnar. Gunnar McCarthy," he said, gently correcting her, though he wouldn't voice the thoughts he had. "No, I guess I'm not expected anywhere right this minute." Though he didn't want to stay here all day either. "How do you get out of the step?" He looked to her for advice considering she was the adult and seemed to already know about the trick step, but considering she was in the same predicament, it didn't appear that she knew herself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Saz Hale

Kimi saw Isabel and saw that her bag had ripped and said "Oh hey Isabel do you want a hand picking up everything that fell out of your bag" Kimi was glad that Isabel had mended her bag by magic but still it was pretty embrassing to have every content of the bag all over the moving staircases

At first Isabel wasn't sure if Kimi had taken the hint or not, but she was relieved when he asked if she wanted help. "Yes please." She was grateful for that because otherwise it would take longer and she really WAS in a rush to get food. Thank Merlin she had reached the first floor and there wasn't TOO much farther for her to go now. "I really need to master that extention charm."

Laughing, she was grabbing items here and there and placing them back into her bag. Hopefully it wouldn't rip again.

Oh dear, she had gotten another first year's name wrong. Celestia shot the Slytherin a sheepish smile and replied, "I'm so sorry about that, Gunnar!" Perhaps she was going to have to take another look or twenty at her roster lists before classes really got going; otherwise she'd be calling most of the students by something other than their names before long. At least Gunnar didn't seem too upset about her mishap -- though truthfully, she was trying to think of a spell that would help them out of their situation. She couldn't exactly Transfigure the step into something else or Vanish it, so her mind had wandered into the field of Charms, which was likely to take a while.

"Oh yes, trick stairs are all over the place at Hogwarts. The staircases like to change as well," she informed him with a slight smile. "Don't worry, you'll get used to them." She would have to go through the staircases herself to get the hang of where all of the trick steps were.

The fact that he wasn't expected anywhere was rather disappointing; Celestia supposed that she might not be beyond yelling for help. She didn't fancy being stuck here all day, and as for getting out... "Well, when I was a student here, someone else came along and physically pulled you up onto the next stair. I'm not sure if the stairs will actually react to magical means of getting free of them or not." She felt a slight blush crawling up her cheeks at this; it was embarrassing to have to admit to a first year student that she didn't know things about the castle, but she certainly wasn't going to lie to him.

After some more fruitless tugging and ruminating on useful charms, Celestia heaved a great sigh as she came to the inevitable conclusion that she would need to call for help. The trouble was, she was afraid to use magic to attempt to remove herself or Gunnar from the stair in case the step reacted badly. Perhaps if she had still been stuck here by herself, she would have attempted to levitate herself onto the next step or some such thing, but she wasn't willing to chance anything happening with a first year also stranded here.

Celestia sighed softly to herself again as she withdrew her ebony wand from her wrist holster, and pointed the wand resolutely upward. A few seconds later, red sparks shot straight up into the air -- the universal sign that someone needed help at Hogwarts. She turned back to Gunnar and explained, "I'm sending up sparks to avoid shouting. I'm sure someone will be here soon..." This was a major staircase after all.

Skipping down the staircases toward the bulletin board, upon hearing the cast list was up and posted, Skylar was eager to see where she'd be cast. Honestly, though, she'd be okay with just being like a backup dancer. As long as she didn't have to sing. She didn't even necessarily want a huge role, because she had enough on her plate as it was and was okay with just a minor role. Or whatever.

That was when she stopped short at seeing a small first year whom she recognized as one of her new baby snakes and her new Transfiguration Professor. Awkwardly stuck in the staircase? OH NO!! No one had told them about the trick steps!!!

"Professor! Gunnar!" she said, careful to not get too close, lest she get stuck with them. Actually, she often forgot about the step too and that was after taking the stairs for the past five plus years. "Here, take my hand for support, and just wiggle your foot... And has the staircase moved recently? Because when it moves, it's easier to move with the stairs?"

He didn't venture to the upper levels of the school often. Certainly not if he could help it, Latin club being the one exception. But he needed to owl a personal letter to his daughter, so towards the top floor he ascended.

He tapped on the banisters as he waited for them to reach their destination; the rhythm from a song that had been stuck in his head since class that morning. Yet another cauldron had met an early and unfortunate demise, so it was fitting to say the least.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Another one bites the dust." The lyric was muttered under his breath, his head slightly bopping in time.

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.

"Another one bites the dust."

If you asked the Ravenclaw why she spent so much time up in the towers and upper floors of the castle, she would give you the simple answer that it was where Professor Noble was least likely to be. It also had a lot to do with her Common Room and her lab—But Professor Noble was added incentive to stop roaming the dungeons in search of rats and avoid anything below the third floor without absolute need.

That being the case, the 15 year old walked freely, with a little pep in herself even. Just like the man, she too was humming a little tune to herself. It was a decent enough day she supposed, despite the ghastly weather outside and she was looking for it getting better within the hour.

Book firmly tucked under her arm and a doll perched comfortable on her shoulder lightly clinging to her hair to avoid falling she made her way to the stairs.

The library was her destination, her intent to return her current read and find herself a new one. While she walked, she considered the sort of book she’d next like to get lost in while she waited for her latest brew. It wasn’t until 5 steps down the stairs that she saw who was coming up.

Jessa felt all the blood leave her face immediately and all her muscles threatened to shut down which left her frozen and staring for a few seconds before enough common sense kicked in for her to turn and take the long way down. Unfortunately, by then the stairs had already started moving, leaving her properly stuck with the last person she ever wanted to run into.

"And another one gone, and another one gone..another one bi-"

He stopped as he become aware of a student in front of him. Prefect Eagle no less. And it came as a little surprise to see her so...peppy. She certainly wasn't that in his classes. Although it didn't last long, apparently. Whatever the reason was she'd decided to turn back, the staircases were now moving and she was stuck on them.

Unfortunate. And for a reason only known to him, that put the barest ghost of a smile on his face.

Noble tucked the letter he was holding under his arm, and lent casually back against the banister he'd previously been tapping. "Bad luck."

And was that a doll on her shoulder? Iiiinteresting.

"Understatement." She muttered, barely audible unless within a few feet of her. Of all the times for the staircases to give her a little extra exercise they chose THIS MOMENT WHEN HE WAS ON THE STAIRS TOO.

What was he doing all the way up here anyway? This was well out of the zone he typically targeted and the whole thing honestly left her a little disoriented. The Headmistress, sure, Professor Vance or Mr. Kennedy were also expected but.....not him, never him this high up in the castle and her mind was currently blanking too much for her to consider any reason he may have had.

Was this real right now?

She tapped awkwardly at the railing by her, unsure what to really do but suddenly feeling hella self conscious. For one reason or another, the man ALWAYS seemed to be scrutinizing her. Almost like he was trying to figure how else to ruin her life. The Ravenclaw, now feeling the rest of her trying to crawl out of her skin, instinctively reached a hand up to her shoulder, palm out and waited for the doll to hop on. She'd feel better knowing it was in her hand.

"I didn't catch that," Noble said pointedly. He didn't appreciate people talking under their breath, especially not Ravenclaw Prefects who had the cheek to try and steal from his office. And that was without mentioning the scar that still graced his right arm.

Bitter? Maybe.

He frowned as she raised a hand to her shoulder, his gaze fixed on the doll, lips pursed. It was almost as if she was waiting for it to move, and that was curious indeed. Because he'd confiscated a whole load of them before Christmas. Mundane ones. And yet this one she seemed to have a connection with.

It wasn't just a child's toy, that was for sure.

Jessa felt her mouth slip into a scowl even as the doll--Lise was the name of this one--climbed from her shoulder and into the palm of her hand. It took a lot of tweaking, and there was still a ton of tweaking to be done but compared to the others, Lise had the most work done and would soon be ready to be compared to the undead cat and kneazle.

THEY were a whole different story and still very much in the works.

The doll's movements weren't the reason for the scowl however, it was the Professor's prompt to repeat whatever she'd just said. Why did he even care? "Nothing. Just talking to myself." It was the simple answers that usually got her further with this man. All the time she took to get into explanations, half the time they just backfired.

"Just...it's curious you're all the way up here." She continued, allowing a glance at him before turning her gaze back to Lise.

Not a lie; she really DID wanna know what he was doing up here.

"Hmm," he grunted, a clear tone of disbelief. It wouldn't surprise him at all if she'd said something derogatory, and she was now trying to cover herself. She didn't exactly have a good track record in his eyes, for all the fact that she'd been keeping her head down in class of late.

Almost...too far down, when he thought about it. He didn't on the whole though, since she was actually following the instructions, and there were plenty of others who, for whatever reason, weren't. Zoryn Spinnet, to name one.

"No more curious than your doll just there," he countered, eyebrow raised. The one that had apparently taken the step onto her hand of its own accord. Him visiting the owlery to send a letter, which he was visibly holding, was much less interesting than that.

”Not that curious.” She double countered, tightening her grip around Lise. The doll gave no response and seemed only vaguely aware of the man a few stairs down from them at first. It didn’t wiggle or move out of turn though its head did turn in the odd direction here and there to give off the appearance of being aware.

“Animation charms are easy. They don’t require any special talent to get done.” She explained carefully. “Could’ve just as easily been a quill or some origami. Anything.” Making it very common indeed.

“I suspect you may be right though. The envelope he was holding hadn’t escaped her attention. Now that she was properly thinking about it, things were making a lot more sense. The man wasn’t necessarily moving his base of operations to the upper floors, it was likely he just had something to send off. This, of course, made it FAR less curious than the doll, as he’d said, but only if you knew just how much Lise was capable of.

Jessa loosened her grip when she felt the doll tugging against her hold. Despite the instinct to keep it close, the combination of charms and wards etched into it left it with a predisposition to remaining concealed as necessary. It didn’t take long for the doll to reclaim its spot on the young girl’s shoulder, nestling itself beneath her hair.

“Important business?” She enquired politely, trying to divert his attention from the porcelain, blonde figure atop her shoulder.

He watched the doll turn its head, considering it carefully. Was this a Christmas project, or was she up to something else? He couldn't decide just yet; he had a definitely feeling something was up though.

"Sure, animation charms are, should you wish to write from afar, or fold a paper crane," he confirmed with a curt nod. He hadn't done either particularly recently, but had in the past. Charmed origami had been a standard way of sending a memo at his old office. Regardless, his eyes narrowed, his tone roughened. "This isn't just an animation though, is it?"

Did she take him for an idiot? Maybe the doll wasn't conscious, but it was at least somewhat aware of its surroundings. Much more than a simple animation as taught on her charms syllabus would be. He hadn't seen any sign of her directing it into her hair, for example.

"Personal business," he corrected. No, he wouldn't be telling her what about. Nor would it be obvious from the address on the envelope, although she might be able to work out his daughter's first name. Abigail. Not that it was news that he had a daughter. The Prefect must have seen the photograph of her when she'd decided to plunder his desk - it was in pride of place there, after all.

Jessa was nodding along, only half paying attention while he commented on writing and the like. Yeah, animation charms were dead useful. Almost everything in her lab had or had been placed under an animation charm at some point or the other. It just kept things more efficient and left less room for error. By now the Ravenclaw could cast an animation charm in her sleep and allow the object to take part in complicated actions. Anything she charmed would thus be far more meticulous than if she'd done it with her own hand. This wasn't to say she was hopeless without them, but when conducting experiments precision was critical. If she could afford to do better, she would.

Jessa caught the way his eyes narrowed. It happened just before the staircases came to a complete stop. Her cue for a quick get away if you asked her. Slowly, without trying to draw TOO MUCH MORE attention to herself, the Prefect started her way back up the stairs, one slow step at a time. "Does it matter what I've got mixed in there?" She asked, holding her tongue to prevent the smart remark of him changing to a Charms Professor all of a sudden.

"She's not hurting anyone, she's not making use of potions and she's making marked improvement." Okay so maybe there was a potion element, in the skin of the doll, but for now it was still largely porecelain while she waited for the solution to kick in. Jessa suspected Lise would be feeling more and more human within the fortnight.

"Right, personal business. You're a busy man. I'd hate to keep you." With Lise gripping tightly to the neckline of her shirt, she took yet another uneasy step. How far down the staircase had she gotten for Circe sake????

Did it matter? He supposed not. "Just curious," he replied, eyeing her down his nose. Whilst he might have given her the impression her notes had been burnt, most survived and were safely stashed and locked away in his office where he could read them at his leisure. He was a researcher, after all; curiosity drove him as much as anything else. Her experiments were interesting and decently enough thought out, though he maintained they were inappropriate for being conducted on her own at Hogwarts.

"If you do need any potions, you know where my lab is." His tone was curt, but not unfriendly. He had a strong suspicion he wouldn't be seeing her there even if she did need to do any brewing, but she was welcome if she did. She might even be pleasantly surprised. For now though, he eyed the doll her shoulders. Above all else, he hoped she hadn't opted to protect it like she'd protected her former lab. If that doll found its way anywhere near the potions corridor, it'd end up in the pile with the other confiscated ones, whatever the magic placed upon it.

Busy? Not particularly. He was happy to procrastinate on the marking awaiting him once he returned downstairs. Noble supposed it'd be silly to linger and let the staircases divert him too far away from the owlery though. Abigail had asked for a quick response.

"I'll see you in class bright and early tomorrow then."