Study of Stairs solo

This will be my seventh free day in the last few weeks that I have sat outside the Great Hall, watching and taking notes on the mysterious moving staircases. Many hours have I sat here looking up and observing any patterns the stairs follow and move.

The first couple of days that I spent marveling at their graceful yet grinding swaying and slow swinging didn't reveal any pattern. They looked to be very random and almost chaotic. 142 individual risers moving about continuously above and below in this tower all the way up to the 7th floor and even the Headmaster's Tower wing. It was entrancing, but I didn't learn anything from or fully appreciate this magnificent creation of Rowena Ravenclaw.

After coming back a few more times on my free days and spending considerable time all day, I discovered a few constants or rules for how they move:
1. A staircase stays stationary after moving for at least 7 minutes, and no longer than 17 minutes.
2. A staircase is always anchored to and rotates from the bottom platform that it is connected to. The stair going up travels to another platform somewhere else on the floor above, usually to another tower.
3. Rails, stanchions and bollards always raise up or grow just before a staircase moves to prevent accidental falls and such. This can give a warning of how a staircase is going to behave if you're paying attention.
4. Dead-end stairs occur in 13 different locations and stay stationary for exactly 13 minutes every time. You will have to discover for yourself which stairs do this, that is half of the fun!
5. It takes stairs between 23 seconds and 53 seconds to reposition.

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