You know, there was some strategy to this kind of thing. Of course Gryffindor teammates would be great for this jungle of death, ‘cause bravery and all. Plus housemates probably had some psychic connection or something, he was sure. So although he didn’t really know Nat… Maybe this would work out? Until she just—Uh—???? ”Stuttering Prefect???” he repeated INCREDIBLY offended.

Merlin. Is this what he was to people? Sigh. He was just nervous, okay? He didn’t normally stutter. It wasn’t his THING. It just happened to happen at the feast whenever he was trying to be all Prefect-y. ”Erm, my name’s Zander,” incase she forgot. Mr. Stuttering Prefect. Thank you very much.

Anyways, yeah team sounded good. Now they needed a Ravenclaw.

You know, when he called out for Ravenclaws, he kind of meant experienced Ravenclaws with tons of knowledge and spells up their sleeves. He wasn’t really asking for a first year to ATTACK HIS LEG??? Zander didn’t say anything, though, but he did give her an incredible ‘UH??’ kind of look. ”Uh, you alright?” he offered her his hand, hoping that maybe she’d take it and stand up instead of continue to cling onto his leg. Luckily, Zander had a soft spot for firsties. Everyone could blame that on Amur Neverwinter.

He gave Nat a pointed look as she went on to self proclaim herself as group leader. Uhh. Zander was the oldest AND Prefect. Shouldn’t that make him the leader?? HM? Plus, Natalia was a transfer. Wait. Zander’s team consisted of a transfer and a firstie. That’s it. They were doomed. Again giving Nat a POINTED LOOK ‘cause she was probably scaring the firstie even more than she already was. Which if Nat hadn’t noticed, the girl was clinging onto Zander’s legs for dear life itself. So already pretty scared. Didn’t need to make it worse.

”Yeah, sure whatever. You can pick a name.” Did they really need a name??? Weren’t there more important things to think about here? Again, Zander turned his attention to the younger girl. ”Of course you can be on our team. I’m Zander by the way.” Reckon a firstie Ravenclaw was better than no Ravenclaw.

BENZI. WAS. SO. EXCITED.

Yes Noel? "What of it Wallace?" HMM? This was a JUNGLE. Probably full of tricky things they needed to run around and/or fight. Benzi LIVED for this stuff. Shame the best friend didn't understand. Honestly, this was one of the few things Benzi could not get tired of - obstacle courses. He was a little addicted.

Could they start now that the door had been slammed shut dramatically and instructions kind of given?

"See ya buddy. Yell if you need me," Benzi grinned and nodded to his friend, then strode confidently until he was past the first line of trees. He would be starting this off alone, as the sixteen year old was curious to see how well he could do before he got stuck. Or perhaps he'd be the smartest person. WHO KNEW. Survival of the fittest and all.

Okay, it was very hot. TOO hot. He was already sweating. Was the air made up of 75% water or something? And there were flies. He swatted at the one next to his ear, and frowned when the buzzing only seemed to intensify. More flies?

Benzi turned to his right, and blinked as he saw the MASSIVE cloud of insects heading his way. Bloody hell, Bellaire. EH. Benzi eyed all the insects with disdain, stopping himself from swatting them away as it wouldn't work.

Right. No mercy. He was about to take a deeeeep breath when he thought better of it, and covered his nose and mouth so that only TINY gaps between his fingers appeared. THEN he breathed, and felt safe no living thing would fly inside his lungs. "INCENDIO!" Benzi cast, watching as a large plume of fire erupted from his wand aaaaaaand... roasted only a bunch. Of course. Duh, Benzi.

Okay, he needed to speed this up. What could make fire and/or get rid of bugs? .... Erm. Making a campfire would only make things worse. What ate these things? OH OH OH there was that spell that transfigured objects into dragons! Two or three of those should do the trick.

"Diffindo!" he cast at a nearby tree, and set the branch he'd torn off it on the ground. BLOODY INSECTS GETTING IN THE WAY RAH. What was that incantation again? "Draconifors!" he tested it out, then practiced the wand motion before pointing down at the branch. "Draconifors!"

... Nothing. "Draconifors!" he cast again, with more feeling, and this time it worked, the branch morphing until it became a dragon. "Right, have at them buddy!" he grinned, and watched as his dragon started spewing fire left and right at those pesky insects. Now for another.

Okay…. What… even.

She knew that Bellaire’s classes were always…. different. But this? This was… Was terrifying and scary and she didn’t feel AT ALL like the grown up twelve year old that she was… Her heart was beating faster already and that wasn’t helpful at all… Right?

Okay, so breathe and settle.

OH! TEAMS. Best thing she had heard all … lesson? Oh Griffin, that wasn’t a great thought when she hadn’t been here for long.

Okay.. Teams. Looking around, she saw people pairing off and then she saw Puck asking if anyone needed a team mate. ”Me!” She said, rushing to stand next to the REALLY TALL girl. That was a good sign, right? Right. ”Is that okay?” She asked, eyeing the jungle around her…

This… wasn’t going to be fun at all.

HOLY.

FREAKING.

MERLIN.

While Grayson was usually a cool and collected guy -- sometimes -- THIS WAS SOMETHING THAT SCARED THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF HIM. Swearing had ensued in his head because guess what? They were stuck in this freaking jungle of a place. Thanks, Bellaire, thanks a bunch.

What made it worse was that they only had to use Transfiguration spells. Probably. Since this WAS a Transfiguration lesson.

LOLOLOL he was gonna die.

You know what? Whatever. What. Ever. He wasn't gonna let things get to him easily because he was Grayson Freaking Whitlock and he was gonna show this wildlife or whatever it was that HE WAS FREAKING AWESOME.

The determination was strong in this Slytherin.

And he kinda needed to find a group to work with. "Anyone still need a group or have a spot for one more?" Stupid people need not apply.

Zhenya was startled as the door closed and disappeared. OH MY GOSH! They were really going to die. What was Bellaire DOING? She heard a rustling over at some distance and looked over, to see a Gryffin patronus!?! What?? It was Bellaire's? It certainly sounded like her. Oh, and she was watching them? That was good. They weren't alone.

Above were little birds and rolls of paper. Zhenya grabbed one and unrolled it to see what it said. Instructions... a jungle obstacle? *gulp* She looked around to see everyone starting to either get into groups or go at it alone. Zhenya, who loved team work, often actually liked solo work. So, she decided to do it alone. At least that way, if anything did happen, she wasn't responsible for killing anyone else. She gathered her courage, and stepped towards the canopying trees. That must be the start of the jungle obstacle? She stepped under the trees and saw, heard, and felt a swarm of insects come AT her! She instinctively raised her hands to cover her face, swatting the bugs away. But it seemed the more she swatted, the fiercer they got. She dropped the parchment and backed into a tree, thudding against the trunk. "AgHHHHHH," she grumbled, trying to swat them away. EWW ONE GOT IN HER MOUTH AND SHE SWALLOWED IT. She coughed, covering her mouth with her robes to prevent swallowing any more, or even inhaling them. After a few moments of panic, she recovered only slightly, but enough to remember she was a WITCH. So, she pulled her wand from her pocket and pointed at the insects. "STUPEFY," she said, seeing that she wasn't near anyone else. No, wouldn't be good to stupefy a student. But it didn't do anything, and the bugs, which she saw were mosquitos and locusts, still kept coming. But stupid Zhenya, Stupefy wasn't a transfiguration spell. She reached down to pick up her fallen parchment to read it. What transfuguring spell would get rid of the bugs? She couldn't really turn them into anything, what's worse than a swarm of tiny insects? A swarm of huge insects (spiders). Or a swarm of pecking birds, that would HURT. But that was it! She couldn't transfigure them into anything, but she could get rid of them by way of hunter. She didn't even know if birds preyed upon insects, but it would work. She pointed her wand and said, her robes still covering her mouth, "Avis," doing an 'm' shaped wand movement. She had practiced the spell in studying for her exams that year, and had managed to perform it correctly. In an empty classroom, with no other distractions. But it worked - a flash of blue light, a BANG and a small flock of birds were conjured from her wand. "Eat them," she said, exhaling at the relief of the possibility of being saved.

"Hello again, I'm excited alright!"Henric replied them with a broad grin. He was glad that he was team up with all his friends again. Time to start the adventure he had been dreaming of!

Henric followed behind the group, ducking under the low lying branches and jumped over small muddy puddles as they went. Ow... something bit him on his arm, he glanced down to see a mosquito sucking up his blood. The nerve of this little guy, Henric tried to slap the mosquito but it got away too quickly. Then when he looked up again, he was surprised that they were all swarmed by incoming mosquitos.WHERE WAS HIS MOSQUITO REPELLENT WHEN HE NEED ONE? Oh wait..he got his wand. As he was about to conjure up the birds as well, Adi and Benny had beat him to it.Good good! Time to say hello to the birds,mosquitoss~~
He helped as well by conjuring more birds too,"AVIS!"

He watched at the birds preyed on the mosquitos, delicious weren't they!? As soon as the mosquitos and locusts were getting smaller in numbers, Henric and the group continued walking towards the deep trail. His throat was getting parched after a long while. Oh look! A POND! Henric rushed over to the pond but stopped in his track.OH MERLIN! Piranhas!!!

No way he was going to put his hands in the waters.Uh uh..nope. Time to use his handy dandy wand again. He knew the perfect spell for this.
"Vera Verto!Vera Verto!" he casted for several times. He watched as each of the sharp teeth piranhas turned into gold looking goblets. NICE!

"Drink up! Everyone!"he offered to his group.

Amanda looked up. There was someone else there. A very bossy someone else. She hugged the leg she was attached to a little harder while the girl looked at her. "Why do you get to be in charge. Are you smart?"



"Umm.. Hi I'm Amanda" She said grabbing his hand. "Ummm sorry about that." She felt her cheeks turning pink as she looked at him. How embarrassing.

"Why does our team need a name?" She asked the both of them. "Can it be something cute and fun like: Glitter Ninjas?? We'd be like super cool but cute too." She looked at both of them with wide eyes realizing how stupid she sounded.

Fiddling with her book bag she looked at the ground "Umm.." This was why Amanda had a hard time making friends.

Kace was looking around for a partner in Transfiguration. He needed to find a group actually as well. Well that was intimidating at all. He began to walk around and then he noticed Puck, Norah and Marsha were missing someone. He decided why not and go and join them. "Hey guys it seems you need one more. You got a spot for a seventh year hufflepuff?" he joked with them a little bit. I mean he was kind of nervous for this assignment but if he was going to be working with others, I mean it couldn't be that bad.

Norah looked around frantically at the mention of partners. YES. PEOPLE. People were good for saving other people. As much as she wanted to prove that she WAS a real live teenager, there was no telling what would happen when stuff started to get scary. Man, they really needed to write a handbook about all this 'cause being a grown up during scary things sounded all sorts of complicated. When she spotted Puck, she marched right over to her with her head held high, trying to at least look a tiny bit brave. Puck was a Gryffindor AND a prefect, so she was probably the bravest person in the history of the universe. Or so the fourth year was hoping, because even pretending to be brave didn't appear to be working too well. "Hiya Puck. Can I join too?" She would've batted her eyelashes if her eyes weren't so busy being wide and fearful totally chill, ahem.

A grin made its way onto her face almost instantaneously upon noticing the girl next to Puck (Marsha). A firstie! NICE. Firsties were the bestest things, everybody knew that. Norah turned to the girl and did a little better job looking brave because it really mattered this time. Fourteen year olds had to look grown up especially in front of ickles, it was a rule. "I'm Norah, by the way." Just in case she didn't know, y'know? She kept on smiling because if she opened her mouth again something scared sounding would probably come out and ruin this whole entire thing.

And then Kace was there TOO. Man, with both of them here nothing bad could really happen riiiight? Right. Or so she hoped. All bets were off if spiders showed up. More looks to you, Puck. She was in CHARGE. What'd they do now, anyways?

WOOOOOO!!

They were going to rock this thing! "I am so ready!!" Smiling, she glanced at the piece of paper that her partner was holding. Hopefully no heights were involved. No matter, because she was excited to win this competition!

Following AJ's lead, Lux made her way further through the trees, brushing aside obstacles and trying her best not to trip on roots. Another faceplant incident like in Defence Against the Dark Arts was not needed. Fortunately the only thing that had resulted from that was a scraped arm. She lived and the Healer hadn't been needed.

As they walked, she began to hear something... Was it buzzing? "I wonder what's making that sound. Surely it isn't BEES." Because as far as she knew bees didn't live in forests.

Well that was just freakin awesome!! This was the kind of thing that Michael loved and so did Zahra. Only he couldn't see his girlfriend anywhere, apparently she has decided to skive off this class, she was going to be so disappointed that she did.

Michael had his wand out and he was deliberating on whether to go alone on this one or join a group? His answer came in the voice of Grayson Whitlock who not only looked like a BIG SCAREDY CAT at the moment but was also in need for some company. He sauntered over to the Slytherin and slapped him on the back. "We can partner up if you like, Whitlock." The other boy certainly looked as though he needed someone to hold his hand. Bwahaha.

What a sweet kid, Clara thought. "Thank you, Rooney Bronwyn," she said, giving him a rare smile. "I like your name, too. I've never known a Rooney before." But there was a first time for everything.

She looked closely at the paper, taking in every instruction for a second time. It couldn't be too difficult to get through the jungle-place, right? There wouldn't be any real dangers .... just things that would appear dangerous. Though, she would need to be in the mind set that they were serious, for a couple of reasons:

1) because that was the point
2) because Rooney was probably in that mind set, too

Another smile from Clara. "You don't have to call me 'Miss', you know?" Of course, she didn't mind if he preferred to call her that, but it did seem a little odd. Granted, it was similar to her calling him 'kid' or 'kiddo': something she was likely to do at some point. "By myself?" She repeated, crinkling her brow. "How about we cross that bridge when we get to it. I'm sure you'll be able to keep up." Clara was going for the 'slow and steady wins the race' approach, after all. She didn't feel comfortable leaving a first year alone in a place they believed to be dangerous.

No time to think about that now, though. They were off.

Clara led the way, continuously checking to see if Rooney was with her. He was. Good little 'claw. "Have you go- ugHHH!" UGH. WHAT. WHAT WAS HAPPENING? The redhead blinked several times and flinched every time she was bitten, trying to get her bearings. Were these mosquitoes and ... locusts? She reacted immediately, half shoving Rooney behind her (not that it made a difference, the bugs were EVERYWHERE), and shot out spells. "Immobilus! Immobilus! Immobilus!" She cried, aiming at different groups of bugs in turn, then swatting them out of the way. She tried to wrack her brain for more spells. What could eat locusts and mosquitoes?

...HECKLES. Eden couldn't REMEMBER the dragon spell. She racked her brains for it....locusts were still POURING out of everywhere--the snake she had conjured had downed on locust already and was curling up for a nap. SEE? Snakes were so chill. Gosh, why couldn't Bunz see that?!

But no matter. She had gone with her first thought--" What's that spell again?" she asked. MERLIN. "AVIS--" she cried, in the meantime, because, well, she didn't wanna' just STAND here.

A flock of birds erupted from her wand tip and began to squawk around, swooping down to catch some of the disgusting bugs. Were locusts 'bugs'? Eden thought they were insects. INSECTS.

Oh. oh. OOOOHHH!

SHE REMEMBERED THE SPELL.

"DRAGONIFER--" she pointed at the snake she had conjured and....

It didn't work.

FKEHGFEUQHGIEUGHLREP;GTIGH

Of COURSE this was the kind of lesson Bellaire would create for them. Caleb jumped a bit when her patronus showed up and started giving instructions, and all he could think about throughout the whole introduction was Gregorie. If he'd known all this...would he still be here? Caleb still got the chills thinking of him. Even though he KNEW that none of this would really be able to change things, since the prefect hadn't even been THERE, but still. It made him all...squirmy.

But he didn't have time to think of that now. Onto the maze! Lots of mazes this term, eh? That was ok. Caleb liked getting his hands dirty. Unless it was in herbology. In that case he was happy just reading because plants were dumb.

He took his first few steps into the first phase, underneath the canopy trees. Almost immediately, he was attacked by a swarm of bugs. BITING bugs. FANTASTIC. Just what he wanted....as he swatted away the bugs from his face, he ran over the spells they had been given in his head. What spell would work best? What could he do...

OOOOOOH WAIT. He had an idea!

He pulled out his wand and pointed out in front of him. "Avis!" he cried, and with a loud BANG the birds came out of his wand in a flash. It was weird, especially since he'd never done the spell before and it was a lot more powerful than he expected...but he was relieved it had worked. Sure enough, the little birdies - three total - started flying around, eating up all the bugs like they were at a buffet. They were probably in birdie heaven right now!

"I am pretty well set on not dying. I don't really have time for death right now." She grinned back at Adi as he gestured to the sign. Adi was a lot of fun to adventure with and a very positive force which brought out even more of Ilia's daring side. "Always, Adi my friend. One can never have too much adventure so long as they come back alive." Which, despite what the sign said, she was fully intent upon doing.



Adi introduced Ilia and the older boy to each other and she nodded politely to him again. "Pleasure to meet you I'm sure." He seemed to be few of words, but that was nothing she would be against. When first meeting someone Ilia was normally much quieter than she was being right now. Being around Adi and Henric however, tended to increase the fourteen year old's willingness to interact and use her vocals. She couldn't help but smile a little at the Gryffindor's comment as he started them off.



Adi seemed so excited, it rubbed off easily onto others. Ilia tossed her long blond plait of hair behind her as she followed, watching Henric follow close. She couldn't help but laugh at Adi's comment, hinting at their adventure with the willow on the grounds. "It will be hard, but I will do my best to contain myself." She said with a giggle. She was surprised when Adi cried ouch, and she startled a little. There was nothing large attacking him and he hadn't fallen into anything.....must be an insect. Seeing Benny cast the bird summoning charm , and the other boys following suit it became rather apparent that her guess was right. There were still locusts and probably mosquitoes around, so Ilia chimed in. "Avis!" That should help take care of any thing left.........and birds were cute and pretty and she liked looking at them.....



It was rarely a lesson that Ilia didn't know exactly where her best friend was and she tended to be close behind. It was sweltering and she didn't tend to do as well in heat as she did in cold, thirsty was an understatement. A pond was close at hand , but that gave way to immediate suspicion as far as she was concerned. She saw Henric rush over and she called out. "Wait!" It seemed like he had seen the danger in it though and stopped.

Stopping to watch the piranhas , she hoped that was all that was that was wrong with the water. As she was distracted, Henric began to use a nifty little charm and she decided to help. "Vera Verto!" Fish cup.....interesting enough right? She was still suspicious and wondered why they wouldn't just use agumenti though. She cautiously tasted the water as she watched the boys. "Mmm, nothing like a little piranha slime to perk you up." She said teasingly as she waited for the boys to drink.

"Yes, I know your name. ZANDER. ZANDER ZANDER ZAAAAANDER." Natalia repeated his name multiple times in case he forgot that she knew his name. GEEESH. She was only fourteen-years old, not old enough yet to have memories slipping out of her mind that fast.

While talking to the Ravenclaw firstie, Natalia purposely ignored Zander's gazes. Yes, he was the oldest one in the group and among the top authorities in the school besides the staff... which was EXACTLY why Natalia did what she did. It would be fun having a little mix-up, wouldn't it? And of course, kind Mr. Prefect Zanders wouldn't mind giving the new fourth-year transfer a little opportunity for leadership, right? RIGHT.

Besides, Zanders haven't voiced any objections to her automatically taking over, SO, yay!

Aaaaand he even agreed to allow Natalia giving the group a team name!

"We need a team name," Natalia tried to explain matter-of-fact-ly to the first year. "because it promotes team spirit!"

Except, Natalia was never the best at... names. "The Terrific TRIO!" Well, how was it? It got a little nice ring to it, sort of. "The Thundering Trio?" Maybe? "The Threatening Trio? The Tigerish Trio? The Torrid Trio?" Nope? None were good? "Okay, let's just go with the Thundering Trio." There, done.

When the little firstie inquired about Natalia's intelligence, she simply STARED. If Natalia was really that smart, why would they need a Ravenclaw for? Would they desperately enough to find a first year Ravenclaw?

Clearing her throat, Natalia leaned over to Zander and muttered in a quiet tone. "Are you sure this one is bright enough?" Well, but supposedly if the first-year was sorted into Ravenclaw by the all-knowing Sorting Hat, then she must have some value. OH WELL. Now that she have officially joined the amazing Thundering Trio group, there was no going back on the rosters list!

"Alright guys, Zander and Amanda," Crown on, staff in hand, great! "we're going to win this! We need to team up and ANNIHILATE whatever gets in our way. We can do this if we all work together!" Ooh yeah, getting some confidence in her little speech! "LET'S CHAAAARGE!" Maybe they should also come up with a battle cry.

His conjured birds were soon joined by first Adi's then Henric's and finally Ilia's. It wasn't long after that the insect population had been drastically diminished and finally down for the count so they could move onto the next phase of their journey. Benny was glad for that for he certainly didn't want to have to dodge anymore locusts and mosquitos. But then there was no guarentee that what was to come wasn't worse.

The Slytherin slipped into the lead as they moved on which the sixth year was totally fine with. To each his or her own and they were working together as a group after all. His thoat seeming a bit dry, Benny was a little hot and thirsty. Almost like a mirage in the desert, they were faced with pond that they came to but it wasn't an easy fix. The Gryffindor saw the movement of something in the water before the piranhas made their full appearance.

Great...just great.

Then Henric stepped forth and gave the best plan; Changing the fish into water goblets! "Brilliant..." he mused as Ilia followed suit with the transfiguration work. "Vera Verto!" he cast, trying it out himself for good measure before claiming a water goblet of his own from the collection of conjured objects that he filled up with liquid. Benny then silently saluted his group and took a good sip. Now that was refreshing for their next leg of the task.

Puck looked down to the voice talking to her. Oh goodness, she was precious…and she was going to need to be helped wasn’t she? Seriously, this was dangerous wasn’t it? Letting first years muck around in a jungle without any training really. “Hey Marsha,” she grinned down at the little girl.

“Of course it is! C’mon when we survive this we’ll have to all do something fun…our group, like get ice cream…or chocolate” she grinned over to her, because really, ice cream wasn’t bad people. She did grin when she heard Kace speaking.

“Marsha, this is Kace he’s a friend and a seventh year. He can help both of us with the more complex spells” she nodded and grinned and then hey! NORAAAAH gosh, she loved meeting little Norah. “Hey Norah,” she beamed at the younger girl whose sparkly shoes had won her over. Seriously. Girls with sparkly shoes that talked to flowers were precious beyond words.

“Okay…you three ready?” She asked as she took a few steps into the forest and heard the swarming sound of the locust and mosquitos. “Okay…we need to do something” she muttered and then looked to Kace and Norah. “You guys remember the class where we made clothes from plant fibers?” she asked the two of them. “because we could change our skirts into pants and protect more of our skin that way” she explained and looked at the swarm that was coming toward them.

“Or find something to eat them.” She muttered. “Dragons could work,” she grinned at the thought of the dragon…”or we could try birds? Snakes? Creating any number of creature to eat the bugs?” She was offering ideas.

Tapping her wand she spoke aloud, “the wand movement was pointing,” she muttered. “and the spell is Summitto Vestis,” she continued to think about the venture in general. “We had to concentrate on what we wanted to change the fabric into,” she informed for Marsha’s sake. “Let’s hope this works,” she muttered as she pointed her wand at her own skirt. “Summito Vestis” she cast as she brought up an image of cargo pants into her head. There. That was better she thought as she felt her shirt’s material shift and stitch itself into a pair of black cargo pants. They were breezy, light, not too startchy and stiff…and hey, it worked. Now her legs were covered.

“What do you think we should do to combat them?” She asked and glanced at the encroaching winged insects.

Oh, man! Ilia could be funny in her own way. Adi loved that reply to the comment she had made about dying. "I hear you!'' he agreed and holding up his hand for a high five. "We are both going to make it back. We'll kick all the mean things in the jungle butts!'' OH YEAH! LOOK OUT ALL YOU BAD THINGS OUT THERE! Hehe.
...................

Oh looky! They were ALL working as a TEAM to defeat the evil insects! No doubt every one of those birds were enjoying themselves. And hey! No more 'ouch' from Adi! GOODBYEEEE, INSECTS! "Awesome job, guys!'' He was enjoying the team work. Annnnd so off the group went again. Gosh, it was getting HOT! Well, hotter. Adi was feeling uncomfortable in the heat and the long sleeved clothing he was wearing; he was sweating. It was the down side to wearing the things but he knew it was for his own safety. No wonder he preferred the cold... the heat sucked, yo!

"Anyone else getting thirsty?'' he asked the other three. He was seriously considering holding his wand up to his mouth to use Aguamenti but hardly were the words out of his mouth when Henric was rushing forward? O_O Adi looked closely in front of him. Oh! It was a pond! AWESOME! He rushed forward too. WATER, GLORIOUS WATER! But then Ilia was warning them to wait. Huh? With a quizzical look, Adi peered closer at the pond. Eeep! Piranhas! Mean fishies with the mean teeth.

But Henric was already fixing their dilema. "Good thinking, Henny.'' The older Hufflepuff took one of the goblets offered, examining it. "I've got to make sure you aren't giving me a goblet that's only have transfigured.'' You know... for all the times he had teased Henric. Adi had to be careful of revenge. Hehe.

"I'm not drinking piranha slime, Ilia.'' No way! No scaly, fishy water for him. "Aguamenti!'' Wheeee! Fresh, clean water! "Finite!'' Adi chugged it all down. Now he was all set to go again! "Ready when you guys are!''

Angel had thought about having a partner with her but then she decided in the end that she would actually go solo, after that horrible Maze in Defence Against the Dark Arts, nothing Professor Bellaire could throw at her would surprise her... Angel actually had found that DADA lesson worse that she had found any other lesson before in her life.

Angel looked down at the grown and then she looked back up... she was determined that she would get through this... nothing was going to stop her. She was going to be a Gladiator and she was going to get through this, so when the Professor was ready... she was ready for the first task.

It was a shame he didn't get far when a PATRONUS emerged, informing them of what was happening. This made more sense. MUCH more sense, and on top of that, he was thankful for the parchment too. FUN!

He was grinning, widely. THIS was going to be great. Awesome, even. Shrugging he nodded, "I'm cool with that, I'll have your backs," because that was the gentlemanly thing to do, right? He was itching to get started, even if he was going to rough it with a group of girls - not that they couldn't handle anything, he was sure they could, though he did sneak a side glance at Maggie. Was she going to be okay with this? Probably not, but he'd let Hady and Brooklyn comfort her when she broke down... she WOULD break down, that was his prediction, she was too girly to not be distressed by all of the dirt and bugs.

"Let's go, wands out," he instructed, taking the lead as he was eager to face these challenges.

He trudged deeper, cracking underfoot mingling with the sound of breathing and NATURE. That's what that sound was right? It had a kind of buzzing to it though... a definite buzzing.

Ilia high fived her adventure buddy with a smile. Adi was a lot of fun. "Hopefully we won't have to kick butts, but if we do we will be ready." She nodded happily. If she didn't have to hurt a critter it was better.
----------------------------
Benny got the idea and joined in with Henric and herself. Adi seemed like he was going to , but it appeared her comment had put him off. He used Aguamenti as she had considered doing herself. She didn't want to make it seem like there was no purpose in having done what they did though, so she drank the water anyways. The other boys did and it tasted fine. All water on earth had fish slime in it at one point. "A little fish slime never hurt anyone Adi.....just extra flavor." She winked as she took another gulp. That was enough for now though, she knew aguamenti well enough.
----------------------

Once the boys had their fill, it was time to keep moving. Once they trekked a little ways they came to a bridge. The problem was......it was missing a few essential things like....steps. She gauged it, it was rickety and old and the steps created to large of a gap to safely jump. She wouldn't want to jump on an old bridge like that anyways.......You would probably fall through if you tried it.

She looked at the still good planks and the next move dawned on her. "We need to make more steps." She looked back to the three boys. "We can use Gemino, but there are quite a few lacking so I will need your help." She smiled and started casting, aiming to replicate the sturdiest looking boards. "Gemino!" Mr. Bridge, you are becoming useful whether you like it or not.

Henric was already halfway gulping down his goblet of the pond's water but he choked when he heard llia's comment. FISH SLIME?!

"WHAT!"Henric coughed, beating his chest to get the water out of his lungs. He frowned, holding his goblet away from him,"Blimey...why did I just drink this?!" And when Adi mentioned the Aguamenti charm, he couldn't believe he forgotten about it once more! Urgh...the perks of living in the muggle world...you tend to forget that you're a wizard sometimes.

Pfft...Adi thought he would do something like that? Mind him...he had thought far better sweet revenge on his fellow prefect puffer. Oh it would be sweet..alright..very sweet indeed...knowing Adi's weakness was exactly that.
He shrugged, not telling a single thing about his plan.
"Don't worry Adi, the time will come and it won't just be the half transfigured goblet you have to worry about," he thought evilly inside his head and grinned to himself. Shall he put some of 'Henric's Tenderness Potion' as well in the mixture.Huhuhu....

"Yeah llia, it didn't taste half as bad...but I did get the copperish tangy aftertaste after I drank this...Adi,Benny..you guys should try some,"Henric chuckled. Alright, time to move on to their next stage.

Yikes...a broken bridge! How were they going to cross that? Fortunately, llia and her smart brain was first to form up a plan. Oh right! The Gemino charm! He nodded and went to find a good and sturdy wood plank so he could help replicate more of them. One wasn't enough and they needed more.

SPOILER!!: Zeke

It was a shame he didn't get far when a PATRONUS emerged, informing them of what was happening. This made more sense. MUCH more sense, and on top of that, he was thankful for the parchment too. FUN!

He was grinning, widely. THIS was going to be great. Awesome, even. Shrugging he nodded, "I'm cool with that, I'll have your backs," because that was the gentlemanly thing to do, right? He was itching to get started, even if he was going to rough it with a group of girls - not that they couldn't handle anything, he was sure they could, though he did sneak a side glance at Maggie. Was she going to be okay with this? Probably not, but he'd let Hady and Brooklyn comfort her when she broke down... she WOULD break down, that was his prediction, she was too girly to not be distressed by all of the dirt and bugs.

"Let's go, wands out," he instructed, taking the lead as he was eager to face these challenges.

He trudged deeper, cracking underfoot mingling with the sound of breathing and NATURE. That's what that sound was right? It had a kind of buzzing to it though... a definite buzzing.

Hady was rather calm as she watched the Patronus arrive giving instructions on what was to happen in the Professors voice. That was pretty cool and she briefly thought about when she'd be able to fully cast her own, she was getting there with it. The thought was cut short by birds dropping papers of instructions which she quickly read over and folded up putting it into her pocket.

She wasn't fussed at all by Brookly accompanying them as she knew Brooklyn and herself worked well together so there was no problem there. Maggie though, she wasn't entirely sure her other female housemate would do well with this situation. However it didn't matter there was no time to worry about it.

Zeke had agreed for the girls to join him but his comment on him 'having their backs' earned a raised eyebrow from Hady. She didn't want anyone thinking she needed to be watched over, protected. She could handle herself rather well. Keeping quiet though she pulled out her wand which she already had her hand on and follwoed Zeke forward into the forest easily falling into step at his side.

Was it too late to ask for another teammate? ‘Cause Zander wasn’t sure how he felt about this Nat girl after all… She was kinda like a second Zahra. Just when the Kettleburn girl was due to graduate too. The universe hated him. It was official. He only just gave her a reluctant nod as she began to sing-song her way through his name. Uh. Yeah. Zander Adair. That’s the one. She could stop saying it now though, ‘cause uh… Merlin. Where was Sophie Brown when you needed her?

Looking away from the transfer and instead to the Ravenclaw, he offered her a small smile as she got up. ”Oh uh, don’t worry. It’s alright.” Trying to be reassuring and all. Professor Bellaire knew how to be real intimidating, huh? What a great way to welcome in this batch of first years. The sign was a GREAT touch. Made the place REAL homey. ”Nice to meet ya, Amanda.” And yes, he wanted to second the ‘why does our team need a name’ question, so instead of answering he turned to Nat too.

Also, could someone explain this obsession with glitter? ‘Cause every single little girl he knew loved that stuff. Did they all plan it? What’s so great about glitter anyways!????

ANYWAYS just to clarify here, Zander wasn’t letting Nat be the leader. They didn’t have a leader, okay? They were a TEAAAAAAM. Apparently they were the Thundering Trio. Uh. Ok. ”Sure,” could they go on now? Or was there something else Nat wanted to establish first?

…. And now she was questioning the lil’Ravenclaw? Actually Nat, Zander would rather have the firstie on the team so ”Yeah! I’m completely sure.” He flashed another smile towards the little girl. Not that he really knew if she was bright enough or anything, but Nat was being RUDE and Ravenclaws were a brilliant lot.

And for the record… Zander wasn’t about to charge, but he did give the little Ravenclaw’s hand a small squeeze as he stepped into the forrest. Let’s do this, gang. The Gryffindor continued walking into the forrest, turning to the two girls to give them a small grin. ”Hey, this isn’t all that—“

O__________________O

WHAT IN MERLIN’S NAME WAS THAT??? And before he knew it, there were bugs EVERYWHERE!! UH. How were they supposed to stop this exactly??? UH. Was there a spell that could transfigure a branch into a mosquito net or something ‘cause uh DUCK! Zander was jumping up and down at this point trying to swat all the bugs away. Ahem. Totally cool calm and collected. Ahem. THERE HAD TO BE SOMETHING THEY COULD DO.

”I’ll try vanishing them maybe? OR uh a shielding spell?? Can someone try a shielding spell??” He was still swatting the air at this point ahem. ”EUGH—I think I just swallowed one,” BLEGH!! He turned around to spit out whatever it was that flew into his mouth before EUGH okay he’s gonna keep his mouth shut from now on. Well first, ”Evanesco! Evanesco!” Sooooooooo it might be tedious, but would it work?