Early Morning Mischief

[Reuben Pendleton]

There were many similaries between Reuben and his brother, but it was their shared love for mischief that truly made them identical. It came about in the form of pranks, exploration, and an abundance of cheek. But whatever differences the sorting hat had found, it had dragged them up, kicking and screaming, to place the boys in separate houses. Determined to look on the bright side, Reuben had quickly declared after the sorting feast that the situation could have been far worse. Neither of them had been put in Slytherin. They hadn't been left unsorted, or been told they were too naughty and to take the next train home at once.

Rudolf, on the other hand, had not been so pleased about the whole affair. He demonstrated this with a series of snide remarks, most of which were aimed at 'that piece of junk' he called the sorting hat. Half an hour or so later, just before a professor came along and ushered them all to bed, he had finally come around. He'd still strutted off to the Gryffindor dormitaries with a haughty air of indignance, but it was an improvement all the same.

The next day, the sun rose high over the castle, illuminating its towering turrets in all their humble splendour. As planned, Reuben woke early and stole down the grand staircase, which took quite some time, because it kept moving at the most inconvenient moments. "Good morning!" said a knight in a gold-framed portrait to Reuben's left, and he heartily agreed. It was a good morning. Just the sort of morning for exploring the castle! Lessons weren't starting for a week, which gave them seven whole days to seek out every hidden passage and forbidden chamber the vast school kept hidden under its sleeves, but they weren't going to wait and give any Slytherins the chance to merit their discovery. Perhaps, if they were quick enough, they could even arrange a few tapestries so that they fell inconspicuously across their entrances.

When Reuben arrived in the entrance hall (for it was the only room in the castle both twins knew where to find), Rudolf was not there. "You're kidding me!" he hissed, and then looked over his shoulder in case any other early risers were listening. There didn't appear to be anyone in the near vicinity. Older students trickled in and out of the front door, but none of them paid much attention to Reuben. He stood against the wall with a growing apprehension. Rudolf had better not have overslept!

 

[Rudolf Lagowski]

Whoops. It was a word Rudolf had become very well acquainted with over his eleven long years. Or rather, eleven short years, since it was really only his parents for whom the days had dragged by. If he'd ever gone a day without getting told off, or forgetting something crucially important, it was likely only because he hadn't been caught. On this occasion, it had completely slipped Rudolf's mind to set an alarm for the following morning. Fortunately, he woke around ten minutes later anyway, when a straight-haired boy sneezed so loudly that the entire dormitory was startled awake.

Most of the children went back to sleep. Not Rudolf. He scampered around to the end of his bed, pulling out odd socks from the trunk he'd yet to unpack and flinging them, inside out, onto his feet. There was still an ache in his stomach where he'd eaten too much pumpkin tart the evening before. What could he say? The Hogwarts food was delicious, but it was also incredibly rich. Dinners at home largely consisted of stews and casseroles, the ingredients of which were hand sown and hand picked on the farm. Rudolf had never seen so many colourful dishes, and he'd simply had to try a bit of everything. He was beginning to regret this now. All that pudding almost seemed to weigh him down as he took the stairs to the entrance hall two at a time. "Hey, didn't I see you just now?" said a painting on the wall, but Rudolf was in too much of a hurry to stop and explain.

A few moments later, he skidded to a halt beside his brother, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

Their conversation went a little like this:

"What took you so long? We said six-thirty!"
"I... know... I forgot... to set an alarm."
"Imbecile."
"Shut up... Hufflepuff!"
"Gryffinbore!"

There were no apologies, but they'd exchanged forgiveness in the way siblings usually do - insults. Then Rudolf pulled a crumpled up map of the castle from his back pocket, and the pair started off down the hall. They'd made it as far as the door and turned right when they ploughed straight into another student.

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Amy couldn't sleep. She felt too excited, even though actual classes and school started in a whole week. Urgh. She wished she was with her brother Daniel, but that never turned out as she had planned. He was probably already in the Dungeons, asleep. Well, in the Slytherin common room to be exact, not the actual dungeons.

Amy decided taking a walk would probably lift her spirits. Usually, she wouldn't be up for getting into trouble, but what the heck. She didn't care at the moment. Besides, it's not like anyone could catch her. Or would. If there were other older students awake at this time of morning Amy would be surprised. But thankfully, she didn't encounter anyone else besides a couple of first years as she made her way out of the Hufflepuff cellar, out of the common room, and around the castle. The first year may and may not have memorized several parts of the castle. She had nothing else to do so that's what she had spent her time doing yesterday with Daniel. Well that and studying as much as possible. She wanted to have a little freedom before school started and the year got busy.

She halted. Wait. First years? She turned back the way she had come, only to be met face to face with a body. "Ouch," she mumbled. Her suspicions proven correct, Amy stood back to properly look at who ran into her. She recognised one of the boys from her house. She grinned. The other boy who looked identical to him must've been his brother. She didn't know either of their names, but she sent them a smile their way anyway. "What are you two doing up so early?" Amy was always curious as to who would cause mischief. She loved pranks and the like. Next time she ran into some other firsties she would bring her brother along. Together they were kind of unstoppable.

 

[Silus Hollister]

Silus was bored out of his wits. He wasn't used to having to sleep so late. He sneered. Apparently no one else in Ravenclaw house was up. They were such bores, he thought. Hadn't met one yet that didn't seem to always have their face shoved in a hefty tome. He detested reading. It was like torture. It wasn't like he couldn't read well, he could read most anything with ease, but they held no interest for him whatsoever. He'd much rather be doing something enjoyable or productive than being stuck pouring over the history of some dumb old war, or reading about how to do something. Why would anything read about how to do something? I believe in learning on the job. And who desires to read about dead people? he thought moodily.

He felt like he was imprisoned with the silent treatment. Not only did he not share their strange passion of reading, they were so painfully shy and awkward. Perhaps he would have rather been in Hufflepuff had he the choice. At least they did things instead of fumbling and stuttering their way about.
Not able to sleep for any longer, he crept out of bed and snuck out the common room. The halls of the castle were vacant. Silus grinned mischievously. What all could he do when nobody else was about? He was near the entrance he heard voices. Ugh.... he thought. It was probably some stuck up prefect ready to deduct house point from whoever was up and about too early. A few seconds later he realized the voice he had heard were much to young and much too many to be a prefect.

He supposed it would be interesting to see what they were up to. Of course, he could always strike it out alone, but right now he could use some company, other than that of his housemates. He groaned and trotted towards the voices.
The voices belonged to two boys and a girl. He towered over them all but he estimated they were near his age. He crossed his arms and leaned up against the wall the wait for the girl to finish speaking. No need in interrupting people that early in the morning. He smirked to himself.

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Apparently, Reuben and Rudolf had not been the only students with the bright idea of getting up at the crack of dawn. Eugh, perfect! How many more were there? If the twins were to be the first new students to discover the school's hidden passageways, they were going to need to get out of this situation, and fast. Not only that, but if there were first years wandering about, there would almost certainly be a few prefects, too. Reuben didn't feel like being handed a detention on his very first day.

"Never mind that," he said in a hurry, before Rudolf had the chance to interject. That little swine's wisdom was the last thing they needed to hear. "What are you doing up so early? Don't you know you'll be thrown in the dungeons if they catch you breaking any rules?" This, of course, was complete drivel, but he said it with such conviction that anyone with less knowledge on the school's workings might just have been fooled. In reality, he expected that the prefects who wouldn't turn a blind eye would simply tell them to go back to their dormitories. There weren't even any house points to be taken away! But desperate times called for desperate measures, and Reuben was absolutely not prepared to escort a girl around the school with them. He bet his galleons on her having at least a few cooties.

 

[Rudolf Lagowski]

"Aaaooww!" shrieked one of the twins. It was tricky to tell which one the sound had been elicited from, but fortunately it seemed to be a yell of shock, rather than pain. Rudolf hopped back at once, blushing as red as the Gryffindor badge pinned to his chest. A girl! They'd bumped into a girl! A string of apologies and gallant gestures were forming themselves on the back of his tongue, but fortunately he'd gotten no further than opening his mouth when Reuben broke the silence.

The dungeons? Well that was a load of rubbish, if ever he'd heard it! Still, Rudolf was pleased the opportunity to be valiant had risen again. "That's hogwash!" he exclaimed, ignoring the throbbing pain in his foot where Reuben had just stamped on it. He put on his most charming (in his opinion) smile and beamed it impishly at the girl. "We were just going to take our own tour of the castle. These maps they gave us are rubbish. We reckon there's loooads of stuff they didn't put on it." His foot was really beginning to hurt now. Still he pressed on. "You know, like hidden passages and things. You wanna come?"

In his haste to impress the girl, Rudolf had completely misunderstood why Reuben was repeatedly crushing his toes. As it turned out, a few yards down the corridor had arrived yet more unexpected company. This time, it had come in the shape of a Ravenclaw first year. Rudolf groaned. Why did he have to be so loud?

 

[Madeline Walden]

Maddie had always been an early riser. Growing up on a farm all of your life would do that to a person. Life at Hogwarts was so completely different compared to her life back home. For a start, it was the grandest building she had ever been in. Maddie couldn't believe the splendour not only in the Great Hall, where she ate with her fellow students everyday, but throughout the whole castle. Right down to the candelabras in the, seemingly unimportant, corridors. She couldn't comprehend the ornate and magnificent detail that went throughout the castle. Maddie's favourite part of the castle to spend time in was the gardens. Spending time amongst the flowers made Maddie feel serene. That part of the castle reminded her of home and helped to negate those feelings of homesickness that sometimes plagued her.

With the gardens in mind this early morning, Maddie quickly got dressed and made her way down from Gryffindor tower. She reached the ground floor and was about to leave the castle when she heard voices coming from across the entrance hall. Maddie turned around and saw four figures, who appeared to be of her own age. She thought she recognised one of the boys from her own house and decided the garden could wait. Not one to pass up an opportunity to meet new people, Maddie bounded over to the group, she hoped she wouldn't be intruding too much. Catching the end of the conversation as she walked closer to the group Maddie asked "Sorry, what's this about maps?" she turned to the boy who she recognised from her own house. The brother, she thought, seemed a bit rude so she didn't want to address him. .

 

[Amy Rosemary]

Amy fought the urge to roll her eyes, if she did, she would most probably start an argument here and now, and it so wasn't the time or the place to do so. Besides there were more and more students around their age coming their way. Oh, wonderful. "I couldn't sleep and wanted to take a walk. Unlike some people," she huffed at how rude he was being. It wasn't her fault she bumped into the two brothers. They bumped into her. To be honest the Hufflepuff girl was surprised at his tone of voice, she kind of expected him to be nicer at the very least. No matter. At least her brother had the decency to be nice. At the invitation, Amy's smile returned and she beamed. "I'd love to, thank you!"

Noticing the other students, she turned around and greeted them, sending a small smile to the other girl. She seemed nice. Maybe making new friends wasn't so bad after all. She walked up to her and said brightly, "Hello, I'm Amy, nice to meet you."

She turned back to the twins. "By the way, I don't think I know your names," she hoped she wasn't sounding too rude or talking too much. "I find secret passageways really interesting. I'm always up for an adventure. I'm a very curious person." Amy was being bubbly but she didn't care; she loved meeting new people and she figured it couldn't hurt to talk to a few classmates.

 

[Silus Hollister]

Silus was greatly amused by the two twins. The Gryffindor boy couldn't have made their mischievous intentions any more clear and out in the open, while his twin, who was aware of Silus' presence, was in the process of dancing on his brother's foot, in vain attempt to get him to pipe down. It eventually served its purpose, but far too late if Silus had plans on turning them in. He thought about it of course, but he knew he'd be missing out. Running his hand through the wavy chocolate mass of hair on his head, he turned his attentions on the blonde. He sent her a devious smile and neared the group.

Just as he had stopped to stand beside the blonde, he heard the padding of footsteps from behind him. He grinned and slid his hands in the belt-loops of his pants. "You know, next time you plan on doing mischievous deeds, perhaps you could make a little more noise?" He smirked at the Gryffindor and tossed his head back. "Apparently yet another disregards the rules as well."

And soon enough, a dark headed girl made their way towards them. She soon made it clear to them that she'd overheard the last --and most vital-- bits of the secret conversation. Silus rocked back and forth on his heels. It seemed as though he would be the only Ravenclaw breaking the rules. He sighed to himself. What imbecile put a talking hat in charge of sorting the students? FAIL.

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Amy, huh? Well, if she liked adventure... then maybe she wasn't so bad, after all. Reuben's lips curled into a sheepish smile. "I'm Reuben," he said, though he still didn't offer her a hand to shake for fear of catching some kind of girly disease.

There was not long for introductions before the trio were approached by two more students. So much for sneaking around the castle by themselves! Still, maybe Reuben would be grateful for the company. Five pairs of eyes were, after all, better than two. With this many first years, there could surely be no secret passage or hidden door well concealed enough to evade their prowl. OK, so they wouldn't exactly be secret any more, but Reuben was willing to overlook this minor detail.

Resigned to the fact the first years weren't going back to their beds any time soon, Reuben softened into a grin. At whatever unlikely chance, it seemed the twins had gotten away with any premature detentions. For now. Every second that the group spent out in the open, the more Reuben's nerves grew. All it would take was one prefect or one professor, and they'd all have been doomed for sure. The young Hufflepuff decided to take some initiative. "Right," he said in hushed tones, glancing over his shoulder. Nothing. Thank Merlin. "I'm sorry I said you'd get thrown in the dungeons." That one was for Amy, and now that it was out of the way, he hastened to the point. "But if we want to find anything cool, we'd better do it before a professor comes and sends us all back to bed. We can introduce ourselves once we get out of here. Rudolf - you've got the map. Where are we going?"

 

[Rudolf Lagowski]

This morning was getting better and better! "You won't make any friends if you keep getting into trouble," Rudolf's dad had warned him before the start of term. How wrong he had been! The curly haired Gryffindor only wished he could've seen the look on his parents' faces when he wrote home to tell them about their first adventure.

"I'm obnoxious!" Rudolf introduced himself happily. Moments later, Reuben addressed him by his real name anyway. Eager to oblige, he unfolded the map that he had inadvertently crumpled up again when they'd bumped into Amy. It was a fairly standard map. The most important places - such as the classrooms - had been printed in bold ink; but Rudolf for one had a far different opinion on what was important, and it certainly wasn't the classrooms. As such, he'd already taken it to his own hands to circle every likely place they might find a hidden room or tunnel in bright red ink.

The nearest circle to their current location had been ringed around the words 'First Floor Corridor'. Underneath he'd scrawled something barely intelligible about a stone statue near the flying professor's office. It was vague, but at least it was something. Rudolf held the map out flat in front of him for the fellow first years to gather around, if they so desired. "OK, so at the moment we're here," he said, pointing to the room scribbly labelled 'Entrance Hall'. "Apparently there's something dodgy about one of the statues on this corridor. It's kinda close to a professor's office, but Dad said it's worth checking out. Any objections?" His eyes swanned across the group, searching their faces for hesitation. If anyone wanted to chicken out, now was their chance.

 

[Madeline Walden]

The young blonde girl turned to Maddie and they exchanged pleasantries "Nice to meet you i'm Maddie" she replied smiling at the girl called Amy. She looked around the group in turn, there was a dark haired boy who looked very sullen who seemed to enjoy observing the plans unfold. "I wonder what his plan is" she thought. He didn't seem unapproachable but he also didn't seem like a 'chatter'. Maddie wondered if he would be joining in on this little adventure.

When one of the twins, known as Reuben, explained the plan Maddie did everything she could to prevent herself from from jumping up and down and shouting with excitement. This was the missing aspect of her experience at Hogwarts so far, a little adventure! However, she realised the present situation called for calm and for cautious behaviour so as not to draw attention to themselves. Which would be a little hard as there were five of them.

"I'm in" Maddie said grinning and turned to the brother, who she gathered was called Rudolf, the one in the same house as herself, "That sounds like a good plan!"

 

[Amy Rosemary]

"It's fine," Amy replied with a shrug. It wasn't a big deal, she knew it wasn't entirely his fault. Being out here this early in the morning wasn't the best of ideas either, and Amy understood why he said that in the first place after Reuben explained it. She was so in, she wasn't backing out now. "I'm in too," she said to who she now knew as Rudolf. She smirked a little at how he introduced himself. Making new friends at this time of day sure was exciting. She liked it. Amy glanced at the map, where there were red circles. She knew her way around the castle, but apparently there were other places she missed. At this she was all eyes and ears. "If your dad said it's worth investigating, then why not? It sounds like a great idea." The plan sounded a lot more intriguing after Rudolf said his dad told him it was worth the exploration, after all the blonde girl assumed he had been educated at Hogwarts New Zealand, to know these places so well. She couldn't hide her excitement. Amy was ready to check every passageway there was to figure out - or at least until someone found the first years and busted them.

The Hufflepuff girl realised they'd have to be extremely quiet, otherwise who knew what could happen. Especially as there were five of them, it probably wasn't going to be easy but it was worth the sneaking out to find places they'd never find in maps. They might be the first people out of their year group! With this thought in mind, she was more determined now to look around the castle. Next time she would bring her brother along, she decided. It wouldn't be fair otherwise. At least she wasn't alone. That way, she wouldn't feel guilty about leaving her brother alone. Oh well, there will be other opportunities for that. It wouldn't hurt to keep it from Dan, right? It's not like she would do it all the time, Amy was too honest about that. She wouldn't be able to keep so much from her twin anyway. Maybe authority figures, but definitely not her brother. Her thoughts were interrupted by Maddie's voice. "Let's go!" she said happily. Better sooner than later.

 

[Silus Hollister]

Silus leaned back against his spot on the wall as the two girls exchanged pleasantries and chit chat. He stood their intently picking at his nails. The warm, bubbly, social-butterfly type, that was not him, and he didn't wish to waste energy on pretending that was the case. It'll be interesting, seeing how all this goes.

I don't favor sharing much, so I'll keep a look-out for anything promising for myself. He thought as the chatting continued. Sneaking about the castle in a large group, such as this, would certainly be more challenging than what Silus was used to. But he was sure it would pay off. In this case, more eyes than two would be helpful in uncovering hidden passageways and secrets.

It was now a bit quieter, the girls had finished, and it seemed everyone was ready to move. "I'm in, of course. I'd be up in bed now if I didn't want to take part of the mischeive." He said with a smirk. He pushed off against the wall with one foot and stood next to the blonde, who had introduced herself as Amy. The corners of his mouth perked up slightly. She amused him. She definitely didn't seem like the type to go gallivanting around with mischievous intent.

 

[Xiochtle Lief Morta]

"Great I'm up early" Xio lied since she didn't even slept at all. She stayed in bed for a few minutes but then heard a little "creak", being an observant that she is, she somewhat knew that that "creak" wasn't from a rat or something, it was definitely from a person. She quickly got out of bed and sneaked out the common room. There she saw a boy, which is tall for his age. "I guess I'm not the only one who's up early." She thought. The boy then continued to walk away. She thought if she should follow the boy or stay in bed and read some books. "Ugh books! Maybe i'ts time for me to get my curiosity going." She told himself.

She walked in a slow and silent pace, assuring that she should not be seen. After following him for some time, Xio saw the boy stopped and smirked. "This guy is seriously up to no good" she guessed. But then the boy continued walking towards the entrance, she realized the boy must heard these voices coming from there. The boy entered a little more towards the entrance making him gone from Xio's watchful eyes. She was about to follow him when she saw a few prefects on the far edge. "That was close." she said.

She waited until the prefects were gone and went to where the boy is but not too close just enough for her to listen the conversation of a couple of students. Which she estimated was around 3 students.

"We were just going to take our own tour of the castle. These maps they gave us are rubbish. We reckon there's loooads of stuff they didn't put on it.You know, like hidden passages and things. You wanna come?" said another voice which obviously came from another voice. "Hidden Passages? Maps?" her thoughts were disturbed when another girl interrupted "Sorry, what's this about maps?"
"Yup, exactly my thoughts" she mentally agreed.

With heightened curiosity, Xio carefully listened to the conversation happening. Some chit-chats annoyed her especially the girls', "They talk to much and should focus more instead, psh." The talk continued until I heard the boy-which I followed said, "I'm in, of course. I'd be up in bed now if I didn't want to take part of the mischief." Xio knew since he's tone somewhat matched his appearance.

"You should take part too." her subconscious mind said. Xio dismissed the suggestion, it's impossible for he to be with other people. She was about to go back to her room when she suddenly twisted her ankle and made a loud "Thud."

"Biscuits."

 

[Silus Hollister]

Silus' body stiffened at the sound of a loud thud. He had entertained the suspicions of being followed, but had thought it was the dark-haired Gryffindor girl he'd sensed earlier on. Apparently he was wrong. He scowled rather fiercely. He didn't like being wrong. Not one bit. He growled and heard a muffled voice rumble some unintelligible word, that oddly sounded like, "Biscuits."


"Alright, I want to find out who's been following me." He growled. He turned swiftly on his heel and stalked towards the noise, not caring about whether the others followed or not. He was mainly focused on discovering not only who had been tailing him, but why. None who followed the boy in his past had good intentions. Not too far ahead he found a figure who had apparently fallen upon the stone floor. He hoped the this hasn't caused any attention from unwanted prefects or professors. As he neared the figure, he bent low in order to jerk whoever the hell it was up. His harsh expression softened slightly as he saw it a girl, and one in his own house.

Well who would have thought? Perhaps he should give Ravenclaw a chance after all. He offered out one of his arms to aid her in getting up. "Who are you, and why have you been tailing me?" He said in a low voice. It was calm, but demanding. He wasn't as angry as he would've been were it someone more threatening, but that didn't mean he was necessarily jovial. He sighed.

 

[Madeline Walden]

Even though Maddie wasn't supposed to be involved in the original plan that the twins had concocted for this morning, she was nevertheless thrilled to be participating in the adventure. Foolishly, Maddie had never even thought that this grand old castle would have secret passageways, but now she realised that was a naive thought. Of course an old castle like this would be full of secret rooms and mysteries that were just waiting to be discovered by curious first years.

Maddie grinned at Amy, she was beginning to really like the blonde girl despite only knowing her for a few minutes. "This is going to be fun" she thought to herself. The boy in the corner who was quiet and solemn declared that he too would be joining in on the adventure. Maddie raised her eyebrows, she didn't think this would be the boys thing but she was wrong. People were always surprising though, you should never judge a book by it's cover as the old saying goes. Maddie flashed him a small smile, hoping to make him feel a bit more included.

As this was happening a loud thud came from behind them, Maddie turned and saw a girl on the floor. Before she had time to react the sullen boy was already marching over to the figure on the floor mentioning something about being followed. She hoped they wouldn't be held up for too long, there was so much to find and they could do with getting on. Maddie waited on the sidelines while the boy questioned the girl. She seemed rather clumsy. "We could do without having her joining us, she might draw attention to us and could slow us down" Maddie reasoned.

 

[Xiochtle Lief Morta]

After that loud "Thud", Xio heard someone said "Alright, I want to find out who's been following me." quite angrily. "Double Biscuits."

Xio immediately tried to get up but failed. She heard footsteps approaching which made her desperate to move faster but then saw five figures appeared on near the entrance. Her legs instantly became noodles, "Why do people always get the best of me." Xio gave up and just glued her eyes to the floor as usual.

She saw from her peripheral vision that The Ravenclaw boy which she followed earlier bent low to see who she was. "Who are you, and why have you been tailing me?" the boy exclaimed in a low tone. She held her head up but not too high, just enough to see the others. She quickly noticed the brown haired girl for she has this "look" on her face and oh how she knew that face. Xio was surprised with herself when she suddenly stood up with grace and confidence. "I suggest we should find some place more...private." Her tone cold and stern.

She walked and walked until she felt that the place was secure enough then she started talking. "I am Lief Morta.Ravenclaw." She decided to exclude her first name for certain reasons. "And I have my personal reasons for following you." She said as she looked at the boy's eyebrow instead of his eyes. And then she circled her eyes to the students around her and gave them her most confident face. "I want to join this so called adventure of yours."

"I hope this new found braveness will last longer." Her inner voice pleaded.

 

[Reuben Pendleton]

Reuben gave a shrug. If he'd had it his way, he wouldn't have let anyone else on this adventure. What harm could one more do? He padded across to the girl who had fallen, and was half way to considering lending her a hand when she stood up herself. Reuben's eyes narrowed to small hazel crescents. The girl - Lief, as she revealed herself to be - had a dubious air of confidence that the young Hufflepuff had not neglected to notice. Perhaps it would have passed most by, but since real confidence (or perhaps recklessness) could be found in the abundance in the Lagowski household, Reuben had developed quite the sixth sense for noticing when it was feigned. He didn't say anything. In fact, he thought she was really quite brave.

"'Course you can join!" said Reuben, flashing the Ravenclaw his most reassuring smile. Then he turned on the group. "Now come on, it'll be breakfast soon. Are we going exploring or not?"

Along the corridor they crept, with all the grace six pairs of first year legs could have. They made it to the staircase and ascended, past the portraits and over the trick steps. At one point they almost ran into a professor, but he seemed rather preoccupied and passed by without so much as a glance in their direction. Eventually, the group emerged on the first floor corridor, and the twins led them to the statue near the Flying Professor's Office. "Well, here it is," said Reuben, looking a little disappointed. It was a plain old statue of a knight. He tapped it once or twice with the tip of his wand. Nothing. "Any ideas?" he asked glumly.

(God mod approved by everyone)

 

[Amy Rosemary]

She already liked the brown haired girl, Maddie seemed to be an awesome person and Amy hoped they'd become good friends soon. It was good to have friends from other houses too; that way it didn't seem like she only stayed with people from Hufflepuff. Of course, she loved her house, and she figured having more friends would probably be better, unlike back at home.

Amy frowned a little when she heard a thud, and turned around, only to find another girl about their age on the floor. Lief, she introduced herself as. Amy shrugged her shoulders a little when she asked if she could join the adventure. One more person couldn't hurt right? It wasn't like they'd be found out just because there were six of them. The more the merrier, maybe more ideas would be shared that way. With that thought, Amy smiled and as they made their way up to the first floor corridor, couldn't help but think that it was an enjoyable experience. She hadn't sneaked about a place with loads of other people around who could wake up at any moment in a long time. She missed the excitement that came along with it.

Once they found the statue, Amy raised her eyebrows. Seriously? Surely there was a way to find the passage hidden behind the statue? Wait. Behind? "What about moving the statue to the side? Maybe there's something behind the statue."