Sander couldn't resist any longer. He was envious seeing everyone bumping their cars at each other, so the next car that drove by him, the one who's driver was holding onto a red balloon and hurtled his car into the back of it.

BUMP!!....and then he quickly drove away to look for a another car to bump. On the way he looked up and grabbed a yellow balloon and held on to it, while he drove madly around.

Was this lesson going to be over soon?

In theory, Lux loved the idea of bumper cars, and in fact had wanted to play this game for ages... but they had been given a challenge to perform, and the constant bumping and crashing around made things way too difficult. She was in a totally paranoid mood, hoping that she would manage to get at least one more yellow balloon for her House before this game was over.

Spotting a yellow string, she reached out and grabbed it before starting to make her way back over to the yellow hurdle.

Sander saw that girl, Lucky, in her bumper car and couldn't resist the urge again. He drove his car straight into the back of her car.

BUMP!! BUMP!!!

and then like before quickly, he quickly drove away. He saw the yellow hurdle approaching and now remembering that he was still holding the string attached to the yellow balloon in his hand, drove over and tied the string securely over to it before heading for the next bumper car to collide into.

It was time to fleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee.

Except. Um. How exactly was he supposed to reverse this thing?

Tobias sat there, blinking, looking all around the car to work out what to do next. What? What was? HOW WAS HE MEANT TO WORK THIS THING?

He still held a balloon in his hand, and the yellow hurdle was VERY close by. Maybe... maybe he could reach it.

Toby figured it was worth a shot, at least now, while he had the chance and nobody was bumping him. He butt-shuffled the short way over and streeeeeeeeetched to reach, but his shoulder and back both gave a MASSIVE twinge of pain at the same time. He was still nowhere near the hurdle and the shock made Toby let go of the balloon string.

Before it went beyong his reach, Tobias grabbed hold of the string again and leaned back again, inside the relative safety of the bumper car. He screwed up his face and massaged his shoulder and resumed the search inside the car for the reverse pedal, so he could drive up to the hurdle properly and tied the balloon onto it without doing himself a serious injury.

Bart was bored of the balloons even though he had only caught one or maybe two. He didn't really feel like bumping anyone either, but he was having fun just running into whatever he could. Slamming his wheely thing to the right he let the car go around and around and around and around and around in circles. Why not this car was interesting and fun, when would he have this chance again.

Dizzy he thought he saw a balloon. Maybe he'd grab it. Putting his hand out as far as he could he reached for it, but missed. Turning in circles left this time he went around and around and around, but wasn't sure how to get back to that balloon so he just moved on.

Okay, note to self: That peddle to be pushed propelled one forward. Okay. Lex stomped the gas again while fixating on the wheel and rammed into the car in front a second time before she finally heard someone's loud protest...? Protest? Was that it?

Lex looked up--had to see who she'd rammed before she made plans to apologize. Not everyone got a sorry, you know?

Oh! "Hair Boy!" GRIN. "Yuuuup!!" Was ramming good or bad? She didn't know but she liked it. The Gryffindor had made the executive decision to continue along this line. "Lucky you get to be my first victim huh? It's quite an honour." BEEEAAAMMM.

Who else could she run into?

....And balloons...she needed to get balloons too but that would happen after she learned how to drive this thing which meant until that happened she'd be stuck ramming into more people. No complaints here!!! Driving was hard stuff. One could hardly blame her.

Ohhhhaaaiii red balloon right there.

Alex saw another blue balloon there for the taking. The only thing between her and that balloon - Sander's bumper car. She stepped on the gas and headed toward the balloon. Alex called out, "Sorry twin, but Ravenclaw needs points."

BUMP

Working around that car, Alex neared her target. She reached for the string aaaaand got it. Zooming around cars, Alex reached the hurdle and tied her balloon around it. Feeling that she had a lot oF catching up to do, Alex set off in search of her next balloon.

So Marigold had a muggle mother, so she expected to actually be okay at these bumper cars. But she had surprisingly never been in them, so, as expected from that statement, she was DREADFUL.

"Whoops!" she said, ramming into someone's car. She couldn't stop to see what had happened, because she was already careening towards another one. Zooming past a familiar face, she grinned and waved at Mitchell, which proceeded to make her almost hit him. Whoops.

OH. A BALLOON. She reached out for it, but that meant she wasn't as secure a steerer, so... yeah. She missed it. Trying to turn around to catch it again, something surprising happened.

She caught a different balloon..

o.O

She broke out into a broad grin, a bit confused, but still pleased.

"Woah." That was cool. The belly button piercing. Could she get one of those?

Alice was still trying to figure out how to reverse again when she felt another jolt, this time coming from behind. And it was huge, way bigger than the other tiny bump she'd felt from Ella. Merlin. It was brilliant. Could Schuyler do it again?

And why was she popping balloons? Strategy. Clever girl, that one was.


Aw. Was she leaving already? But Alice wasn't done bumping yet.

Oh, well. She waved goodbye to the Head Girl, then shot a grin at her fellow Gryffindors. That had been AWESOME.

Who were they attacking next?


The seventh year had only just hit the gas pedal when something else RAMMED into her. Seemingly that little puffer kid with the cat and the quidditch skills and the pogo stick. Oh! Alice liked him.

Didn't mean she wasn't going to attack him back, though. When he started to flee, she hit the pedal harder and went after him, crashing into the back of his car. And she wasn't at all ready for the impact either, but that was the FUN part. Adrenaline junkie! Woohoo!

Why couldn't they do this every lesson?

She absolutely didn't know how to turn this thing around. Twisting the steering wheel this way and that Beverly got nowhere. At some point she might have tugged on the wheel in attempts to yank it off and throw the defective thing away. Then she might have kicked it.

There was no patience for this piece of--

Breeeeathe.

This is why she didn't do muggle things. They were stupid. Her dad was right. That made two things she had to apologize for. Taking a breather, she turned the steering wheel a little and the car when left. Then she pressed forward slowly. Apparently it worked the way she wanted it when she did things with patience. Pfffft. SHE HAD NO PATIENCE. A nap would be lovely right NOW.

But balloons. She needed to get all the balloons. Luckily for her a green balloon was not far away. Driving toward it in jerky moves, she managed to reach it. She clamped the string between her teeth. There was no time to lose. Speeding back to Slytherin's corner she tied the balloon.

Something just occurred. Something she had no control over. Something she HAD to do.

Beverly needed to use the loo. >.<

Sander was reaching up for another yellow balloon when all of a sudden something bumped his car from behind. He felt the jolt all the way up from his bottom, up his back and all the way up his neck. Even his teeth hurt. "Owww...who did that?" Sander rubbed his neck even as he turned around to see who the culprit was.

It was Alex, his name twin. Sander quickly steered his car around before belatedly remembering the balloon he had been reaching up for. Even though his arm hurt from that unsuspected jolt, he reached up and grabbed hold of the yellow balloon's string.

Holding on tightly to the string, he gave chase keeping an eye on Alex's bumper car. As he kept an eye on her retreating car, he first stopped at the yellow hurdle and tied his balloon securely to it, before he drove his car after Alex's.

"I'm right behind you, Alex, " he laughed as he called out to her.

No spinning for fun? It was an official game than. Sarah started forward.. her eyes looking for a red string, which would be attatcbed to a red balloon. She caught sight of one, and made way for it, but the balloon kept moving away. She finally reached it on held on tight to it as she looked around for a red hurdle. Finding one, Sarah tied it on. One balloon done

Alright now to see what else this mini car thing could do. Vaguely she could remember Jeremy telling her about him and his brothers trying some out at this...place. So unhelpful memory, just when she needed it to kick in, but no matter, anything he told her probably wouldn't help her right now. There were balloons and bumps to be made and--

VRoOOOoOOooM--CRASH!

Alexa blinked at the back wall she'd just bumped into. Whooooaaaaa. ONE MORE TIME! Not really knowing what she was doing she somehow got the car to go forward again then tried repeating the steps from last time. It almost worked too but at the very last minute she accidentally tugged at the steering wheel wrong and had the bumper car going in a backward circle.

"Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa." Uttered with every revolution she made. "This is SO COOL!!!" Mind you she didn't know how to stop but who said she wanted to????

Round and round and round she went until she heard a distinct popping sound that had her hitting the brakes immediately.

Blink........Popped a red balloon. Aw nuts.

How she had managed to go this far without some kind of interference was beyond her. She wasn't complaining though. She would always prefer an easy win even if that meant that she didn't get to take as many people out in the process.

Balloons. She needed more of those green balloons. She wondered for a moment if whether or not she should pop some of the other colored balloons. An evil smile spread across her face. Maybe she would do just that. Although, right now she would keep going until there weren't anymore green balloons left. If there was time left over afterwards then that would be a definite possibility.

Spotting another green balloon all thoughts left her mind as she pursued it. She wrapped her fingers around the string and headed off for that beautiful green hurdle.

Bay moved around all the bumping cars.. wow he was being so careful not to bump anyone it was like he was an old man driving… carefully calculating all his routes…

He spotted a red ribbon hanging down and he scooped it up fast, making his way to the hurdle he tied it tightly.

Delilah drove, careful not to bump into someone. She was starting to like this game.. but she was also kind of freaking out. Good to learn that she had some kind of a phobia about driving..

Oooh! And she suddenly bumped into someone else. "Sorry." Delilah gave the girl an apologetic smile and tried to reverse the car but somehow she accidentally pressed on the accelerator.... Oops. "What am I doing wrong!?" She flushed and gave the girl another small smile... when she noticed that a HUFFLEPUFF balloon was floating nearby. She quickly took a hold of it and somehow managed to manoeuvre her car to the hurdle, quickly tying it. Awesome.

... Another couple of balloons and she was done. Yep.

Hannah was on her way to the green hurdle with her green balloon in tow when it happened. Completely caught off guard by the jolt, she accidentally released her balloon. "Hey!" she said in an unfriendly way. Didn't the girl know that she was on a mission. "You made me drop my balloon." Okay, so the girl had said she was sorry and she obviously didn't mean to hit her. "Oh, no matter." All she was managing to do was waste time.

Before allowing the girl any more of her time, Hannah zoomed off chasing after her rogue balloon. She got the point of the whole bumper car thing, but she that didn't mean that she was wanting to get bumped or anything. She was really just mad at herself for letting the balloon slip through her fingers. It was still the other girls fault though. There was no denying that much.

After Caleb had tied the green balloon to the post, he spotted a Gryffindor near by who apparently didn't know where the gas pedal was on his car. Weren't they the DARING ones? OH WAIT. He was the one who'd had like a total mental breakdown in DADA, right?

Deciding that maybe a good JOLT would get the old man out of his shell, he floored and the gas and headed straight towards him.

Sarah was out looking for another nalloon now. Up ahead she spotted a red balloon that was moving against the ceiling, she made her way towards it. This one kept on moving away, much faster than the other one did. Sarah uped her speed, she was gaining on it.. nearly nearly
She was so close.. she could nearly reach it..
BUMP! She went straight into another car. It was a fellow lion driving it... and that lion was holding her balloon.
Wait, had Sarah been chasing after the wrong balloon all along? That was embarressing

EEEEEEEEEEEP.

Toby don't squeak. Nope. Not at all. Maybe a little.

He hadn't been expecting the impact and quickly grabbed at the steering wheel of his bumper car so he didn't flail all over the place. When he looked back, Toby saw ALICE FISCHER again, and he grinned. Ehehehe.

Finding that he still had no idea how to work the car, Tobias decided to just jiggle the wheel and alternate pedals until he was free from where he'd managed to jam his car. He was effectively button-mashing, but it TOTALLY worked. Soon he was free and ready to do this. They'd all be driving ages but Tobias still hadn't tied his first yellow balloon.

After he got control of the car, Toby drove around the edge of the fray maybe bumping into Alice Fischer again on the way, and maybe not. He passed a few collisions but found a more or less empty straight to the yellow hurdles, where he'd just come from. Before anyone could block his way, Tobias ZOOMED down the free 'lane' and came to a sudden halt just short of the hurdles, but close enough that he didn't have to reach too far to tie the balloon, which was what he now attempted to do.

"sorry" Sarah mumbled an apology. She was now on the look out for another, unclaimed red balloon. She looked over her shoulder and spotted one. Great. She turned arround, one..t han twice. She was quite enjoying the spinning. Onwards to the next balloon. Sarah made her way forward, careful not to bump to much. She reached forward and held onto the string. Holding on, she looked around for the red hurdle to tie her balloon to.
There one was!
Sarah spotted a red one and leaned over and began to tie the balloon on. She did a double knot, to make sure that her balloon did not come off. She then finished it with the a bow. All done. On to the next baloon

WHY. WAS. THIS. SO. DIFFICULT.

Tobias frowned and fumbled with the balloon string. All he wanted was to get the darn thing tied on so he had at least captured ONE balloon. But the Hufflepuff was having problems in that his fingers weren't cooperating at all and he had to really squint at what he was doing.

How long he worked at it, Toby didn't know. What he did know was that EVENTUALLY he had tied the string up, securing it with a QUADRUPLE knot to make extra sure it didn't float away. That done, he zoomed away from the hurdles, on the hunt for a yellow balloon. He didn't really hold out much hope in being able to tie another one to the hurdle (how long did they have left?) but it was worth a shot.

As Alex drove on, she heard Sander's voice and turned to see him riding behind her. He was gaining ground and Alex knew she was probably in trouble. "All's fair in love and house points", she called to Sander. Trying to keep one eye on his car, she headed for the nearest blue balloon. Pulling the car alongside the balloon, Alex reached for the string.

Tessa continued to zoom around, laughing as she narrowly avoided another collision. She was in pursuit of another balloon and had just reached out for it when- it got away again.

Growling to herself, she quickly chased the red balloon, bumping another car as her attention was drawn away from what was in front of her! "Sorry!" she called again, and navigated around the other cars.

FINALLY! She grabbed the balloon string and towed it toward the red handle. After tying it a few times- to make sure it didn't escape, she zipped away in search of another balloon.

Okay, so...how many of the balloons had Sophie managed to gather so far?

...

One. That's right. One. PFFT. She was going to get more, though! She turned in the opposite direction and headed off in search of a second balloon. She saw one, but of course it was all the way across from her. She looked around thinking maybe she'd overlooked a closer one, but no.

Sigh.

She headed off again and pretty soon reached the second balloon. She grabbed it and held it tightly as she moved toward the green hurdle. Reaching it, she quickly secured the broom before she could lose it.

HA! Two balloons to her name.