The enthusiasm was appreciated and needed. AJ was a firm believer that a good attitude got you places. Happy people just won at life and usually got better results. It made sense to her because bitter people were always complaining and looking at everything that could go wrong while happy people looked at the glass as half full, and found solutions to problems. They were already at an advantage.

The jungle wasn't exactly walking friendly, but this was like a walk in the park for the fourth year. AJ was always exploring and challenging herself. The real obstacle for her would be when she needed to use a spell. That didn't always come easy for her. Lux was good at that sort of thing though. Just another reason why this team worked.

Buzzing was happening, and it was actually getting louder. "I dunno. I hope they aren't bees either." Enough bee stings at one time could really cause them some problems. "Is it just me or does it sound like they were getting closer?" At least with this obstacle course you could hear danger coming. It was eerie to keep walking knowing something was coming, but having nothing happen for what felt like centuries.

Crunch, crunch, crunch was the sound he ground made as she made her way through the jungle. Then, out of nowhere a huge swarm was heading right for them. "Incoming!!!" AJ's hand tightened around her wand and she felt a bite. "Mosquitoes, and.... what is that?" There was something else with the annoying blood suckers. AJ started to flail her wand around attempting to smack them. Use magic, dummy. "Stupefy!!!" Would that even work on mosquitoes? It was sort a try.

Adi winked at Ilia. "I like regular water.'' Who knew what germs were lurking in the fishy water. Was Henric choking to death? O_O Nooo, Henny couldn't die on him! Adi thumped his friend on the back. "Careful, Henny.'' It would have been nice if Adi could 'hear' what was going on in Henric's head He would have encouraged a prank on himself because he was always up for a good laugh... plus he was cool like that.
....................

They were off again! Wheeeee! Forest trekking with some of his good friends. On and on they went, mercifully no more insects attacking them. Though if any had, Adi would make no joke in conjuring up another set of birds.

Soon the group came across an ancient looking bridge. Naturally there were boards missing from it, just like you saw in movies. But Ilia was already taking charge. The Hufflepuff nodded enthusiastically at her. The Duplicating charm it was! "We can use the Incarcerous Spell to bind the duplicated board to the bridge and also re-bind the existing ones in case those old ropes are frayed out,'' he suggested, raising his wand to start on the duplicating.

"Geminio!'' Adi flicked his wand at one of the boards. ''Geminio. Geminio. Geminio.'' Woot! More boards for them. "I'll start with the binding and you guys can help me.'' They were hitting this teamwork thing off like bosses, yo! "Incarcerous!'' Point of the wand... and there went one board being bound to the bridge! AWESOMEEE! "Incarcerous!'' In no time they would be able to cross the bridge.

"Mama likes kangaroos - and she says I moved a lot when she was pregnant." He'd also had a jumping habit when he was a toddler, but that was because he'd misunderstood and thought she had said that he WAS a kangaroo. Easy mistake to make, yes? "I've also never known a Rooney before, besides myself." Did that make him weird? Did people usually know those with the same name as them?

He allowed her to read it properly and shrugged as she spoke. "I just.. It's habit." Everyone was so formal when he worked with them, or even if Mama had worked with them. Maybe he was too polite? That was a consideration for another time and not this precise moment before he was likely to die - as the sign had hinted heavily.

...

Bouncing baboons on a bowling ball!!

Even though Clara hadn't been able to finish her question, Rooney wouldn't have been able to hear it as his immediate reaction was to block his ears as he properly looked at what was happening. That didn't work much because his eyes were still being all buggified and the like. He decided right then to try the same spell that his partner was using, because it wasn't like he could smack them with his notebook -- HEY there was an idea! Wand in one hand, Rooney stood with his back against Clara and mimicked the spell she had just used. And of course, he used his notebook to swat the bugs from in front of his face. "Immoblo--OOOOOchoo!!" Ah. Probably should have covered his nostrils too. Snotty locusts had just left his nose caves and he was not going to apologise at all.

The spell did nothing for him, obviously, considering he had broke into a sneeze mid-incantation. "MISS CLARA??" The first year put his notebook back into his waistband and reached partially blindly behind him for the girls arm or at least something to let him know she was right behind him so that he could shout the listed spells at her. "I don't know what the wand movements some of them are! Maybe you do?" His wand back in his holster, Rooney used his arm to keep his mouth clear as he recited the list that he had memorised. "Gemino? Vera Verto? Avis? In.." Splutter. Ew. Bug crunch. Ugh. " In--Incarcerous? Inflecto Telum? Caught? Vipera Evanesca? Draconifor?" Luckily for them both, his wand wasn't being used for this because there would have been birds and arrows fired at poor Clara Wilde.

"Could we use.. the Caught spell? I th-- I think it said it restrain--" COUGH. "--restrained?"

Did Aunt Rhea have to do this kind of stuff when SHE was growing up?!

It was when the professor sent her patronus to them that Emma decided the first Transfiguration class of the year was bound to be scary. Really scary, they were in a jungle all by themselves and had to find their way out. Scary.

However it could be fun at the same time, it was like a big drawn out adventure that they were going on, where she was just exploring. Sure there would be obstacles, but Emma was one with nature. She very much enjoyed heading out into nature, being adventurous and exploring. She read what was going on and looked around at the other students. Many had formed teams and she wasn't sure whether she wanted to go at it alone or in a team. Maybe she would step out of her shy bubble and look for a time.

"Anyone in need of a teammate for this," Emma asked looking around shyly. Maybe she was shy, but she could mention that she was adventurous and liked to climb tress and stuff, maybe that would make her an appealing team member. "I do love to explore, so I have lots of experience in nature and climbing trees and stuff." Maybe that just sounded stupid, she would see.

'I'll have your backs'

........

Maggie had SO MANY THINGS to say in reply to this. But eventually didn't. She didn't want to antagonize Zeke after all. Not yet. Not when he could still be of use to her. So she let it slide, simply lifting her head slightly and grabbing her wand firmly. Right. Let's go. Also let's not die.

Walking next to Brooklyn for now (seeing as the inseparable Zeke and Hady were, well, inseparable), Maggie followed them further into the jungle. Would there be stations? Would someone explain things? Would they be tested individually? Would they-

OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG OMG



Her first reaction to the BUGS was to shriek and try and swat them away with her wand. Which was HIGHLY ineffective. Also she could no longer see the others. "Protego!" Okay. That was a....that was at least a start. Now what? Maggie had read the instructions and was currently trying to remember the spells they were supposed to use.

Being surrounded by water goblets didn't really feel like a good idea.

"WHAT DO WE DO?"

She did have team mates after all. They could at least try and be useful.

That seemed like as good a reason as any to choose a name. Clara's name, as far as she was aware, was chosen simply because her parents liked it. She would never know for sure, but that didn't matter. "Do you still move around a lot now?" She wondered aloud - he did seem to have quite an energetic personality. She smiled. "And I've never known another Clara other than myself." Odd, really, considering Clara seemed a much more common name than Rooney, but there you go.

She couldn't tell if he was trying to defend himself by saying it was just a habit, or if he was just stating that it was, but either way she felt the need to reassure him. "It's not a bad thing. I was just letting you know that it's not necessary." But if it was a habit, she could understand that it'd be difficult to break. Plus, she kinda liked being called 'Miss'. It made her feel important.

But those thoughts aside, she could see, or rather, hear Rooney trying to use the same spell as her to rid themselves of bugs, but he didn't quite get it out. Was it just her, or was the mosquito-and-locust-cloud getting larger? "Immobilus," she repeated, taking down another small clump of insects. They were still everywhere. This was not fun. NOT FUN AT ALL.

A small panic was starting to rise, but for Rooney's sake, she forced it down.

Squinting through the swarms of bugs, she tried to make out where Rooney was. "Rooney? I'm here," she said, feeling him, presumably, hit her arm. Ouch. Yeah, kid, she was here. Panic was starting to turn into annoyance with these biting creatures. "I know them!" She called back, probably louder than was strictly necessary. Because she'd already had a look at this list, it was already partially imprinted in her memory. "I can teach them to you as and when we need them," she said after he recited the list.

The caught spell? YES. "Oh! Very good, Rooney!" Ew, not the mouth, mosquitos. Could you really restrain little tiny insects, though? They were about to see. "Do you want to try that? I think the wand movement is just pointing at the target. I'll ... I'll try .. avis," she spluttered, avoiding swallowing more insects. She wasn't completely sure if birds ate locusts, but she was sure they ate mosquitoes.

"AVIS!" She cried, doing the hand movement - that seemed suspiciously like a bird - and watching as a small flock erupted from her wand. Thank heavens it worked first time. "You okay there, Rooney?" Clara asked, checking again that he was behind her, while slowly trying to make her way forward through the bug-cloud.

UGGGGGH!!!

The stupid bees weren't even bees!! They were locusts and mosquitoes. Swarmed, she flailed her arms to get the blood suckers away from her while AJ was blasting spells.

Right, she should probably help her partner. Oops.

Tightly gripping her wand, Lux drew two short and wide arches that were attached to each other. They looked a lot like the seagulls she drew. She could be a very lazy artist. "AVIS!!!" A flock of birds shot from her wand tip and attacked the insects. Haha, look at them go. Now who was the meal???

BEAM.

Lux really didn't like most insects besides butterflies, and she especially didn't like the ones that bit her and tried to suck her blood. It was gross!!

Grayson's instincts had heightened so naturally, when he felt a pat on his back, the boy couldn't help but jump.

HOLY FREAKING MERLIN WHAT THE--

Oh. Mikey. Alright phew. Calm down, Whitlock, don't let that part of you show. He had a reputation to maintain, after all. Clearing his throat and putting on a show of being dead confident -- which he WAS, thank you very much -- the Slytherin smiled at the Gryffindor. "Sounds fantastic! This is gonna be freaking awesome. We're gonna be freaking awesome."

See? Confident.

"So what do you think we should--"

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Er.

Buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

HOLY. FREAKING. Eyes widening, Grayson tapped Mikey's arm to get his attention before nodding over at the swarm of FREAKING BUGS WERE FLYING STRAIGHT AT THEM. HOLY FREAKING--

"Is there a spell to get rid of bugs? Conjure something that'll eat them? Or can we just set them on fire and hope for the best?" Honestly, Grayson didn't care what they did as long as they got rid of the freaking bugs.

Looking up at the looming forest with her grey eyes, Ophelia tried to think of this as an adventure. It was like exploring, but with the actual chance of death if something went wrong. So it was like EXTREME exploring. Which was the thirteen year old's favorite kind of exploring. Being only about 5'2, her family was always laughing at her when she tried to be all awesome and cool, so being extreme was something the blonde prided herself on.

But what did this have to do with Transfiguration, exactly? Wasn't Transfiguration mostly like changing goblets into cats or bracelets into sweets and then eating the sweet bracelets? When did this class start involving her possible demise? Not that Ophelia wasn't okay with the INTENSENESS of this class, but it was a drastic leap, no?

And then her eyes caught the sign and her heart leapt into her throat. Hogwarts students die? Well that was a little rude, don't you think? The third year enjoyed being death-defying, but the actual thought of it was a little terrifying. She did want to be the second fatality in two years! Ophelia was only a kid! A kid who loved photography and board games! Who would take her out of the forest? Who would tell her friend Austin, or her family? Would her family go on? There were four other children, so there was a good chance they would. Would that make her an afterthought? She didn't want to be an afterthought. SHE DIDN'T WANT TO BE AN AFTERTHOUGHT!

Okay, she was getting a bit out of hand there, wasn't she? Collecting her thoughts, the Ravenclaw took a deep breath and listened to the Professor. Survive? Easy enough. She survived in woods before, even all night when she had gotten lost. This had to be the same thing, right? Although, the using spells part would be a bit difficult. Ophelia didn't pride herself on her knowledge of spells and such and so she wasn't quite sure how this would go. But Merlin's beard, she would try.

Um...Benny had to admit that he had opted for the water that was in the pond based on the fact that it was there. Because it fit with the whole idea of relying on what was put before them. Surely aquamenti could have been used without a goblet...right? At least that was his reasoning for not playing the smart safe card like Adi had conjured fresh clean water to drink and refresh himself with.

Oh well.

After a coughing fit from one of the younger members of the group, they continued on. So far so good was the way through the jungle adventure but soon enough they were at a more complicated issue. A dilapidated bridge that seemed like the way across whatever was beneath him. Did it matter if he didn't look?

The ideas raised by both Ilia and Adi and sense so Benny jumped right in to help. Since the two fourth years seemed to have the hang of the board duplicating, the sixth year lion opted to assist his friend with the tying up of the boards to the bridge to fix the holes. "Incarerous!" he cast upon a board he had grabbed and put in place, the conjured rope doing well to secure one end. A repeat of the spell working on the other end. One down...however many more to go.

"Incarcerous! Incarcerous!" Two more spells and points and another board was secure and he could move further down the line of the bridge. Benny was careful not to move too fast and rock him and his fellow teammembers while they worked. Or risk miscalculating himself on how far the bridge now went. "Incarcerous!"

Another board. A few more inches.

The team moved forth with Natalia skipping along, humming a cheerful tune as the peacefulness of the forest delighted her. When Zander grumbled some words that she couldn't decipher the first time, Natalia turned around, but his voice was cut off by the invasion a swarm of bugs and mosquitoes.

WHY BUGS?! WHYYYY.

Natalia's first instinct was to cover her face with her hands, yes, anything BUT the face, especially the eyes. She could feel slight prickling all over her skin. Was that Zander speaking to them? Use shielding spell? HE SWALLOWED A MOSQUITO? DISGUSTING. "THEN DON'T TALK. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT." Of course, she didn't intent it to sound rude; she was really attempting to be helpful this time!

Hearing Zander casting the vanishing spell, Natalia couldn't tell from her position whether it was working or not. The vanishing spell would manage the situation effectively if there weren't so many PREDATORS to take care of; it would take FOREVER to annul all of these pests. The Shield Charm would work, definitely, but how would they would they be able to move out of the scene? "Immobulus!" Aha! There. Now that all the bugs were frozen in mid air, the team was free to move forward.

"RUUUUUN!!!" Natalia shouted as she dashed away from the scene of the blood-thirsty mosquitos before they began to mobilize again. Hopefully the firstie was able to keep up with them, if not, the fourth year trusted Zander to take care of that-

"OUCH!" Before Natalia could catch her breath, a tree root caused her to stumble and plunge face-forward towards the ground. Her reflexes prevented her face from kissing the ground but collapsed on her outstretched arms. "OW." *SIGH* That was definitely NOT a good idea to extend her arms for support. Maybe it was time she should really started working out...

Oh Merlin!!

Michael was beginning to wonder whether partnering up with Grayson was such a good idea. The boy was so jumpy. He had no time to give him a ribbing about it either because they were now surrounded by BUGS!!

"They're too small to set on fire. We're likely to set everything else alight." He had just raised his wand to cast a shield charm when he noticed that another student trying the same thing to no avail.

Apparently they were not going to be able to take the easy way out of this one. He ducked out of the way of a few oncoming bugs that were trying to attack his FACE!!

"I think we should do the Avis spell and let the birds eat them." Yes?No? Michael decided to just go ahead anyway, the BUZZZZZZZZING was starting to get irritating.

"AVIS" He bellowed and watched as birds flew out of his wand. Come on Whitlock, your turn.

The birds seemed to be doing the trick... kinda, which was GOOD. Toby conjured up a few more to try and thin out the locusts, but there was only so much space in a little bird's tummy, right? Sooooo... the dragons might help here.

"It's- Draconifor!" Toby said, in a mix of explanation for Eden and actually casting the spell as he slashed his wand from left to right, aiming at one of the birds he'd conjured and picturing it turning into a DRAGON. "With a C."

... nothing... nothing... SIGH. "DRACONIFOR!" An exuberant slash of the wand happened before Toby went back to trying in vain to bat the insects away, and when he looked back? LITTLE DRAGON.

He looked at Eden, squinting through to swarm to see if she'd managed anything. "I think- PUH- I think we should try to move *COUGH COUGH* BLEH! -... move on!" They had birds and snakes and at least one little dragon, flying around (or lazing on the ground), eating snakes, and all that. Toby's dragon was being particularly feisty. It was... unpleasant to watch it eat, actually.

Hoping Eden was okay with it, but so desperate to move on he wasn't sure he was willing to wait, Toby grabbed the girl's hand and tugged her onwards through the jungle, trying to escape the locusts and mosquitos and leave the creatures to their feasting. At least a few followed, but occasionally Toby conjuring more birds and send them back with, "Oppugno!"

Okay. OKAY. This was better, right?

Wrong.

"I'm-" Toby panted, slowing right down until he'd stopped, and leaning against a tree. "-so thirsty." He panted slightly and stuck his tongue out, as though trying to drink up the moisture from the humid air. Some water would be reeeeeal good right about now.

Zhenya looked through half closed eyes as the birds she had conjured moments before were eating the insects. But then they disappeared. Maybe she just wasn't concentrating on the spell enough. After all, she was trying to cover her mouth, nose and eyes from the pests. "Avis," she said again, moving her wand in an 'm' shape. More birds were conjured from her wand, and she pointed her wand out, concentrating on the spell and the birds and what they had to do. They kept eating the locusts and mosquitos, which was good because SHE certainly didn't want to eat them. And there was no running past them into the next part without getting rid of them. That wasn't how the jungle worked. After a few moments, it seemed all the insects had disappeared. She dropped her wand hand and watched as the birds disappeared, and she moved on, her robes still pulled up over her mouth and nose, in case another swarm came at her.

Zhenya walked a little bit and felt some sweat trickle down from her hairline, down her cheek and dripping from her chin. Another one dripped down her back. She started to feel the icky damp feeling of being covered in sweat, and she stopped by a tree to remove her robes, and her cardigan. She unbuttoned the cuffs on her shirt and rolled them up. That wasn't heaps better, but a little bit. She fanned herself but that didn't really help. It was so humid in here now. She hated the humidity. Dry heat she liked, but didn't like to feel wet. Especially with a uniform on. And great - now she was SO thirsty. She became easily frustrated with herself for not bringing a drink with her. She was hot, wet and thirsty. Not a good mix for the seventeen year old snake.

Kace heard Puck mention the girls name is Marsha. She seemed like an adorable first year. She can of course try to help. Well good thing we have Kace here to do the complicated spells here. I mean no pressure or anything. He already knew Norah and she would help too. She payed attention in classes right? Of course she did. Now it wa time to enter the maze. He gulped and went inside with Puck to the forest. He heard the swarming of mosquitos and locusts and they needed to be eliminated. He heard Puck's idea and it sounded logical to him. He nodded and he would show Marsha how to do it. He didn't need any casting because he already had long pants on and a long sleeve shirt.

He heard Puck's question and he thought about it. "Hmmm do you think a long protective shield would work?" he asked. "Like Protego against the bugs? Or which creatures can eat insects like mosquitos and locusts?" An excellent question. "WAIT! We can use Immobulus to stop the bugs in their path!" he said thinking out loud. What did the others think. They needed to think fast.

Maggie was definitely the unknown in this situation, possibly even more than whatever was in the jungle ahead of them. Brooklyn knew she and Hady worked well together, and she remembered Zeke last term during the mapmaking. She remembered he’d been the one to get them into the Chamber of Secrets, so that meant she knew he’d be useful. Not to mention she knew he at least meant it when he’d said he’d watch Hady’s back. Brooklyn was hardly offended by the suggestion she needed someone to watch hers. She could take care of herself, but she also knew it was so much easier when she had someone to do it for her. All queens had guards after all, and if he was going to offer…

It was possible she’d had the least response to that sentence, as the four of them had stepped into the jungle after the others who had already done so. All she was doing was listening, to the sounds from the students ahead of them, to the sounds of the jungle. Listening, and mentally complaining about the heat and the humidity. Professor Bellaire hopefully wouldn’t be quite as strict about appearance by the end of this. It would be impossible to look perfect after making it through a rainforest, after all.

She’d stepped away from Maggie as the girl had shrieked, narrowly avoiding being hit by the flailing. Unfortunately, it didn’t mean she avoided the cloud of bugs, but she’d pulled the note she’d gotten earlier out and lifted it over her face moments before she’d gotten a faceful of locusts and mosquitos. Ew, she thought, considering just trying to hex the bugs before she heard Maggie’s shield spell. Followed by the second shriek, and she sighed. This was going to take forever.

“Maybe we need something that’ll eat the bugs?,” she suggested, her voice muffled by the note still held inches from her face. She’d seen the bird spell listed there, and the dragon spell she so wanted to cast again. She wanted to get Balerion back. But that would mean finding a rock, and she’d have to move the note in order to do that. She wasn’t planning on that happening until she knew they’d gotten rid of the bugs.

While replicating boards , Ilia still almost chuckled out loud. The thought of fish slime bothered the boys so much, she drank it just to go with the flow. It wasn't like it was bad....magic piranha's probably left little if any residue. The fact it bothered them so much , especially her poor Henric and Adi, just made her want to laugh.

To more serious matters though, she kept replicating with the boys until they had enough boards to practically make a new one. Adi had already started binding the boards to the bridge and they were making great time on it. "Excellent work Adi!" She saw Benny start helping too and smiled. "Fantastic boys, we'll be over that bridge in no time!" She added in a few of her boards with a few "Incarcerous!" and within short time, they practically had made a new bridge.

Now came the real test though...............who would check the fruits of their labor? Breathing in a little she eyed it completely over to make sure that they didn't miss anything. Walking up to it, she placed a foot on the first board. It didn't creak or crack.....so she put weight on it and STOMPED. She watched the bridge sway a bit, but nothing gave way so she figured it was pretty safe. "I will go first to test it, since I am the lightest." Not saying they were big or anything, but Ilia was pretty light.....any of the boys could probably throw her over their shoulders and walk off with her.....if she didn't hurt them for doing so.

"If you boys could be so kind as to be ready with the levitating charm in case it breaks?" She stepped onto the bridge and slowly started making her way across, holding onto the rope with both hands. Her wand was secured in the holster up her sleeve, should she need it. She felt like an adventurer for real. It was probably a little dangerous, but if she didn't have her back to them, the boys would be able to see the elation on her face.

EWWWW!

BUGS!


Amanda hated bugs. This was not going to be fun. She questioned why she had thought this class was a good idea. A particularly nasty one flew at her face and she had no idea what to say so she did the only thing she could think of, started swatting the bugs with her wand like a bat.

It wasn't the most effective way to go about it but it was working for her. She looked at the others casting spells and realized that she was using a wand to hit things instead of for magic. Darn her Muggle brain. She was still getting used to the idea of this whole magic thing.

She hoped nobody had noticed her smacking them around and started trying to think of spells that would help. "Ummm..... Stupefy!" She yelled at one of the bugs. She closed her eyes and opened them back up. "It worked!" She exclaimed. For once she had figured something out on her own!

Was it something he said?

Between Hady's arched brows and the deafening silence, he was SURE he'd said something wrong... but for the life of him he couldn't think what it was, nor did he really care. Nope.

ADVENTURE!

The buzzing he had heard, very soon turned into a SWARM of bug things... like, a CYCLONE of bug things. Holy crickets.

....

Zeke swatted about at the air in front of him, though bugs wouldn't KILL him, would they?

....

"We freeze them," dduuuhhhh... was Zeke's response, but as was about to cast the charm, realised just that. It was a charm. Were they allowed to use charms? Professor Bellaire hadn't exactly instructed SPECIFICALLY to use transfiguration, after all, her words were to use the BEST WAY to like survive the phases... as far as he could tell so far in his three years of study, was that charms were by far more useful.

But then Brooklyn mentioned something to EAT the bugs??


"What? Like ... lizards? birds?" OOHHH, were there rocks? They could totally turn them into dragons! Dragons were lizards, and they could breathe fire onto the bugs! CRISPY BUGS! "I say we find rocks and use draconifors."

Henric nodded at Adi's suggestion and started to cast the binding charm at the boards they had replicated together.
"Incarcerous!"he bellowed and watched his magic did the work. Nicee..a new somewhat mended looking bridge was formed, thanks to their great teamwork!

And when llia volunteered herself to test out the bridge, he couldn't help worry for her. She was the lightest in the group..true...but Henric didn't want any harm came over his bestfriend. "llia be careful where you step,"he told her, not liking a bit of this. Henric hold the rope by the side, hoping the bridge would not sway too much. He held out his wand just in case. Henric turned to Adi, he was good at levitating spell, not long ago he did it on him back at the treehouse.

"Adi, you know what to do,"he cast the prefect a knowing look.

With the two seventh years AND a cutie pie firstie at her side, Norah was beginning to get a little less scared and a little more excited. Only a little, though, 'cause there could still be spiders somewhere around there. She beamed up at Puck, her eyes wide as she listened to what the older girl had to say.

Pants? GENIUS. She reached up to slap the prefect a high five because man, that was smart. No wonder Puck was a prefect. Norah opened her mouth to say she forgot the spell, but closed it quickly because Puck was already on that too. The Gryffindor was on a ROLL. She pointed her wand at her own skirt and cast, "Summito Vestis" AAAAND PANTS! She looked down. Okay, maybe still a skirt. The fourth year glanced at Marsha, hoping she hadn't noticed the failure, and pointed her wand again to have another go. "Summito Vestis!" C'mon c'mon c'mon she wanted pants juuuuust like Puck's. HUZZAH. Maybe they were baggy in weird places but at least they were pants. That totally counted. She looked down at her purple trainers, complete with sparkly laces, wondering if she should try to transfigure them too so the jungle wouldn't ruin them or something. Of course it occurred to her that she didn't know how to transfigure shoes, so they'd have to do. Puck'd probably help her fix 'em if they got ruined anyways.

HELLOOOO BUGS. Norah looked up quickly from her shoes because important matters were going on up there. Important matters like bugs. She normally LIKED bugs, but it wasn't nice to swarm somebody's head without warning. Way to be impolite, bugs. She was gonna get you out of her way....somehow. UM UM UM think fast! Kace mentioned the spell and she went for it. RUDE, BUGS. They had to stop. "Immobulus!" Did anything happen? She narrowed her eyes. "Immobulus! Immobulus!" She saw two bugs fall like, well, flies, but there were so many more. "Immobulus! Immobulus!" The fourth year turned frantically to Puck. "This is gonna take CENTURIES. Is there any other way?" Was there something that could eat bugs? Like a lizard? She didn't trust her ability to conjure a whole entire dragon but there had to be something. "AVIS!" A trio of birds shot from her wand. "EAT THOSE MEANIE BUGS FOR BREAKFAST!"

Was that too loud? That was too loud.

Eden slapped her forehead. "A C." Of course. OOOPS. "Draconifer--" she cried, frazzled because a locust just smacked into her ear and the buzzing sound was majorly freaking her OUT. Ugh. A little dragon spit out from the end of her wand, and she didn't have a chance to see if it was doing its job or not--Toby was tugging on her hand, and she just...she followed behind him.

It was kinda' realistically creepy in here...like an actual jungle...and every little crunch of a twig--crush of a leaf--Eden was wincing and being a major BABY about it. This was...this was intense.

For some reason, Eden loved it.

Toby stopped, and Eden, too, leaned against the tree and panted...."Me--me t-too--" she said, fanning her face with her hand as she peered around for some water..was there a nice stream anywhere? "You think Aguamenti would work?" ....for some reason, Eden doubted that it would. That would just be TOO easy, wouldn't it?

....She stood up straight...."Is...that a little stream over there?" she pointed, taking Toby's hand again and pulling him along. "WE CAN'T LET OURSELVES DIE OUT HERE, TOBIAS. "

With all four of them duplicating and binding, the bridge was in NO TIME as new. "GOOOOO, TEAM!" Adi grinned at Iliea. "Thanks! Right back at you!'' Now they had to move on to actually getting across. He eyed the bridge, having watched enough movies to know that the innocent looking bridge could be dangerous if the ropes snapped under their weight. But then again, they were thee wizards and a witch. They could save themselves if anything untoward happened... right?

But gosh! Ilia was brave! She walked right up to the bridge and actually slammed down hard on it with her foot. Adi was about to protest but Ilia had made a valid point. She was obviously the lightest. Oh yeash! The Levitation Charm! "Yeah, be careful but we haveyour back.'' Yep, yep! NO ONE was going to die. Sorry, forest. NO tributes for you.

Adi threw Henric a smirk despite the seriousness of the situation. Henric must be secretly relieved to know Adi cod manage that Charm as he had found out at the Treehouse. "Don't worry, Henny. I'm the maser of that charm.'' Hehe. Anywayyy, "After Ilia makes it over, Henny, you go next then Benny.'' He had to make sure the younger ones were over first as well as his bestie.

A streeeeeam? What? WHERE?!

Toby's thirst was all-consuming and the idea that there was drinkable water nearby in the form of a stream was like mUSIC TO HIS EARS. Even though he was still recovering from the run and the heat and the humidity and the thirst, he didn't complain when Eden grabbed his had again and yanked him after her. EVEN THOUGH HE WAS EXHAUSTED, EDEN.

"Technically..." Toby gasped, because of, like... thirstiness. "We're still in. Probably. Unless we... *pant pant* ... portkeyed some...how." Merlin. He needed to drink some- wAS THAT A POND? "Look!"

It WAS a pond.

Toby dropped to his knees by the water's edge and released Eden's hand. He was all ready to go ahead and DIP HIS FACE RIGHT IN when, just a few inches from the water, he saw them. "AAAGHHH! BITEY FISH! BITEY FISH!" The thirst was making him LOOPY, and word's weren't coming. What Toby meant to say was 'Eden, don't touch the water, I think there's piranhas in there, wait a moment.' But... "BITEY FISH."

MERLIN, GET IT TOGETHER, FULLER-THOMPSON. Toby knew he was being cray, so he took the liberty of slapping HIMSELF around the face. PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER, DUDE.

Ahem. Nothing to see here.

"We... need something to scoop the water. To avoid the... bitey fish." Whatever they were called. All Toby knew was that they had real gnashers on them. Definitely very bitey.

'No muggling you way out.' Xavi took that to mean that any survival skills he had ever learned in his life were now completely useless. If he couldn't use magic, he couldn't use anything. Suddenly a thought struck him and he wondered vaguely if mago-pop, a magician he'd seen a few year back, was a real wizard. His tricks seemed pretty unbelievable to Xavi.

He stepped under the trees and was instantly surrounded by thousands of mosquitos. They didn't bother him so much, mosquitos, so he swatted them away with his hands, thinking about how itchy he was going to be later from all of these bites. Maybe there was a spell for that.

They didn't go away when he swatted at them, and definitely at least one, more likely two had gone into his mouth. He shuddered and kept walking. Usually swarms of bugs like these didn't follow you if you walked far enough.