Awesome?

HOOPS THOUGHT THIS WAS AWESOME? It wasn't AWESOME. Arden thought it was horrifying! Maybe if she were a complete chicken it would be different indeed! But a half deformed chicken thing?!?!??!!? NO thank you!

...."I HOPE not," she said, managing to cover her mouth before another embarrassing squawk could come forward. They felt like little burps just wanting to BURST out, and so she was very much trying to keep them under control. And for Hooper to be late and lose points was disappointing, but whatever. If Professor Holden really thought Arden was too into her studies to miss class, he was dead wrong. She was much more concerned about missing out on the ACTION. She was SO distracted by Hooper's appearance she didn't even hear Apollo offer to take them to healer, and if she had, she would have said NOOOO THANK YOU.

....................THE PUN WAS NOT APPRECIATED, REMY. Arden made a FACE at the older girl and stuck out her tongue. Really? Why was Remy such a jerk? First, she was rude to Hoops at the feast, and now she wanted them kicked out of class?! "You know what ELSE is distracting? YOU!" she said, unable to really think of an insult, nor did she want to insult anyone, but her feelings were hurt.

HURT.

And maybe Hooper's comment was a little rude, too, and Arden didn't like any of that. It made her stomach hurt! Why was Remy being so mean to them? She tugged on Hooper's sleeve and shook her head at him to pleaaaaaaaaaase be quiet before he lost more points.

And what were they talking about in class? Arden's brain..could not....focus........

The squawking coming from the younger students was awfully distracting, especially as Cailyn had been trying to watch her step as they’d begun walking through the maze. Although, there was every chance it would keep any dangerous creatures that may or may not have been lurking well away from the class. Hopefully. There was a part of the seventh year that was just hoping the only creature they’d come across was the sphinx. It certainly was possible. It tracked given the topic under discussion, anyhow.

Either way, her mind had gone more toward the earlier tournament. Especially since events that still seemed too recent reminded her of the historical events around the tournament in question. It was nearly enough to push the distractions out of her mind, and besides, Aria had brought up the IMPS tournament anyhow.

“Not all the participants survived the Triwizard Tournament, because things didn’t exactly go as the organizers had planned them to go”, she offered, raising a hand as she stepped over a branch on the ground. Coincidentally, it had been a Hufflepuff who hadn’t survived. She was definitely sure that none of that final task had gone as planned, though. And it was a bit nerve-wracking to think about how it had been a maze like the one they currently were walking through.

Trying his best to focus on the lesson at hand and not the fact that certain people were beyond annoying, Hooper turned towards the professor expecting to hear more about his lesson. Surprise crossed his face however when the professor proceeded to chew him out! “I’m sorry I’m late professor. I didn’t intent to turn up late as a chicken. It just happened,” and for the most part, he was being sincere. “I wasn’t distracting her though Professor. She was distracting me with her stupid puns.” his face Ernest now as he peered over at Arden. He didn’t argue his point any further though. He’d bring it up after class and not in the lesson.

Quickly, he turned to Arden and nodded a little, showing that he wouldn’t cause anymore unless he heard anymore sarcastic comments thrown in his direction.

“SQUUUUUUUAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWKKKKK!!!”

Instead, he chose to focus on whatever it was that the Professor had decided to teach them about today. Triwizard Tournament? Huh. He didn’t know too much about it if he was being honest but it surprisingly was one of the more interesting topics he’d read about at Hogwarts simply because it was so dangerous! “Didn’t one of them end in a draw? Or two people won or something like that? One of them was a Gryffindor too!” What was his name? Barry? No. Harry!!! “Didn’t Harry Potter win? He wasn’t even old enough to actually enter either. What a legend!”

Well. Her pun was poorly received by everyone other than Hooper, it seemed, which was not the intent. Even Atlas didn’t seem to care for it, which was whatever. (Although she appreciated Aria’s snort). She didn’t even look at Hooper as he muttered yet another mean remark. The boyfriend thing was not touching a nerve quite like it had at the feast. Perhaps the realisation that it was just a bunch of silly kids who were just trying anything to upset her.

Honestly, being told off by the teacher was upsetting and humiliating, and she bowed her head down throughout. “Yes, Professor Holden, I apologise.” She muttered back. Ya stand up to the bullies and get burned! Didn’t seem fair. She wasn’t going to cry again and give them the satisfaction.

As for the next question, Remy’s attention was fleeting, but she ought to answer something in fears of losing Gryffindor more house points. She knew some knowledge of both tournaments, but it took her a moment to think about it. Spouting facts about specific people wasn’t easy. “All participants of the Triwizard Tournament, bar one,” Remy had forgotten her name, honestly, “were talented Quidditch players, and their athleticism could have helped them with their challenges.” Her hand dropped sloppily to her side after she had answered.

The fourth year may have found herself distracted by the all the squawking earlier but now she was doing everything in her power to pay better attention to the lesson at hand. With both Arden and Hooper, well Hooper mostly insisting that he was alright and Professor Holden sending Adam off for the Healer, things seemed to settle down a bit. Enough for her to focus on the next question and where she was walking anyhow. The last thing she needed right now was to trip and fall flat on her face.

Glancing around the maze as she followed Professor Holden and everyone else, Keigh took a moment to think about the question asked before raising her hand. "Didn't one of the participants of the Triwizard Tournament have a course placed on them during the last challenge? I think the was the umm.. Imperius Curse?" she paused for a second as if to think that over again. "It was Viktor Krum I believe." The Durmstrang competitor. It was really sad what they all went through in her opinion.

The keyword had been wicked actually, Professor Holden, but sure alright. At least Henry's answer was accepted. He still thought all the students who participated in that IMPS competition deserves a scholarship to uni. And everyone for that matter, actually. Uni was hella expensive, and it was a legit concern for Henry the seventh year. Not that he's thought deeply about life after all this.

ANYWAY!

One fact about any of the participants of the Triwizard Tournament or the IMPS Competition? Easy. First, Henry watched as Adam went off to find the healer or the potions master. Someone had to fix this chickenanigans anyway. But the question! Henry raised a hand. "Valerie Gray from the IMPS turned into an owl." Fun fact!

First 'squawks' were kind of tolerable but it was getting seriously disturbing. 'Can't you squawk on your own?' thought Luther. Moreover, the squawks made it very hard to think. As if the History of Magic was not difficult on its own. 'Think of a fun fact. A fun fact.' Tuning out the squawks as much as he can Luther said raising his hand, "Ugh, Hogwarts has won the Triwizard Tournament the most out of the three participating schools, sir." and ended it with a glare at the source of squawks. This was the best he could do with all those squawking. Wasn't there a way to use magic to focus better or something? A potion or a spell maybe? Luther wondered who he could ask.

The little firstie's smile became wide as the nice Professor appreciated her answer.

In the Tri Wizard Tournament? Hmmm. Tahani was thinking. This was when she heard the older Hufflepuff boy's (Henry)answer.
She turned to him and asked in shock. 'Turned into an OWL? How?,'

Tahani remembered this one incident she had read about in some book. 'I have heard that Harry Potter took the whole save-your-friends-or-they-poof thing seriously and tried to save everyone in the second underwater task. This also earned him additional points?,' she said.

Poor chicken student(Arden). She seemed pretty upset. Ash made a note to check on her later. Depending on how the lesson went, later might be soon.

"Building off of what Hooper said, Cedric Diggory and Harry potter both grabbed the trophy simultaneously, but it was all a trap and Cedric Diggory ended up getting murdered by one of Voldemort's followers. So... I guess they technically both won, but I don't consider it as winning when Diggory ended up dead immediately afterwards." It depended on how they were defining 'winning'. Ash thought winning never involved getting murdered.

The more Desiree heard of her classmates' answers, the more she began to doubt her own. Not the accuracy of her answer, but if it was the kind of answer she was supposed to give at all. Everyone else was focused on the purpose of the two tournaments. Was she not supposed to bring up the historical context? And why would Holden mention it if she wasn't?

The professor's praise eased her confusion, and she beamed, pleased to know that her answer wasn't completely off the mark after all. She considered Holden's follow-up question, trying to think of ways that the tournaments could've been distractions to let others take action, but - speaking of distractions - lost her focus with the arrival of a second chicken-person. Seriously, what was up with that? Was there some contagious chicken disease going around? Merlin, she hoped she didn't catch it!

She followed the group, trying to push those thoughts out of her mind. Hmm… what's in the center of the maze? She thought as Holden mentioned they were nearing it. Probably something super important! Whatever it was, she could hardly wait to see it! But in the meantime, there was another question to answer. What do you know? She knew this one too, thanks to stories from her dad! Being a huge daddy's girl was coming in handy for this class!

Her hand shot up, and she said, "The IMPS Tournament had four challenges; the most controversial of which was the third. The task was to free a loved one from a locked cage in a frozen environment, which many competitors believed to be unethical." Some professors did too, like her dad, but that went without saying. Anyway, she couldn't blame the competitors. If somebody locked her dad in a frozen cage, she'd be mad too!

Since Caes wasn't familiar enough with the events that took place during the Triwizard Tournament or the IMPS, he found himself looking along the maze. Taking in the sights in between all the answers and the squawks going on from the part-chicken students. I really hope its not contagious... He was tempted to volunteer getting help when another student was already in charge.

So in the end he resigned to listening quietly partially taking in the information that was being said.

Simon tried his best to focus on the lesson at hand instead of the students’ shenanigans. He did feel bad when he saw Remy’s reaction to his comment. Perhaps he had been too harsh? He’d go find her after class… after he had spoken with Mr Hooper. Simon was grateful that Adam sped off on the mission that he had assigned him. He hoped that he could find either Macini or Hernandez quickly. His patience was wearing thin for squawking.

But anyway… fun facts, right? The show had to go on even if he wasn’t feeling it either. Aria jumped in first. “Yes! He did win. Kyle Baker was a Pukwudgie too!” He nodded, adding on to Aria’s fact. Simon tired his best to ignore the side comments and missed Miss Toros’ one because he was listening to Cailyn. It was true that not all of the participants survived the Triwizard Tournament. “Thats very true. We lost a talented young wizard that day…” Then Mr. Ridley-Rush jumped in to offer an answer. Good. Seemed like the kids were moving on… “He did ‘win’ but it was at a great cost… I don’t think he perceived it as a win.”

He turned to Remy and offered her a grin at her fact. “Very true! Great fact, Miss Gaeltheos.” Keighley was next to offer a perspective. She was correct. “Indeed Mr Krum was placed under a curse. What curse was that class?” he asked, looking to see if anyone would answer his impromptu question. Henry offered a fact about the IMPS tournament which caused Simon to nod. He remembered reading about Valerie Gray and hearing his sister describe her as other worldly. He knew Miss Gray was very talented by all accounts. So he nodded at his fact. Next was Luther who turned the conversation back to the Triwizard Tournament. “Hopefully we’ll win the next ones too.” Even though Simon’s sister had attended Beauxbatons for a short while, Simon would forever be loyal to Hogwarts especially the houses of silver and green and now black and yellow.

Simon chuckled at Tahani’s question and turned to look at Henry. “Professor Hembree, the floor is yours,” he said, hoping that Henry would jump in with the answer. Then Simon moved to address the fact that Tahani had shared. “He did. He was quite noble.. but then again perhaps too moved by his emotions from another perspective. Then again, he went above and beyond to save his friends. I think this action volumes of his character.”

Now Ash had gotten to the point that Simon was referencing earlier and he nodded. “It doesn’t feel like winning if you lose someone… I agree, Miss Fox. I think Cedric was the hero who saved Harry.”

Simon liked the direction that Desiree took this question and the answer she proposed because it set up the activity that he’d have them do quite nicely. He nodded. “It was rather… frightening and unethical… but do you think any of the former challenges were exactly ethical?” he asked, trying to understand her perspective on it more. He slowed his pace as they reached the centre of the maze. “Great facts, everyone!”

At the centre, the class will find statues of former Headmasters and Headmistresses of Hogwarts scattered around the edges. There’s a few tables along the edges with wizards chess but there’s a nice spot for the group to work on a large activity. There’s also a table with supplies available if the groups need to draw or physically design something.

“Right. Now that we’re at the centre of the maze, we’ve come to our first activity. We are designing our own events for a Wizarding Tournament. Now I want you to work by yourself or with another student. Your task is to choose a skill, moral, and/or value to test a participant in. Once you or you and your partner have decided on what skill, moral, or value to test, then you will design your own challenge.” He paused. “You’ll have an hour to come up with your challenge’s design and then we’ll regroup here for the next set of instructions. I’ll be walking around and available to answer questions.”

OOC: Hi friends! Now we’re at our mini activity!! Mini Activity: Work in pairs or by yourself. Decide what skill/moral/value you want to test out of your participant. Then design your own challenge for a wizarding tournament. You will have 2-3 days to work on this.

Ah. Aria had not known that Kyle Baker had been a Pukwudgie. She inclined her head, a gesture of thanks to Holden for the additional information. Not to mention her fellow classmates provided a great deal of information, some of which Aria hadn’t known or had forgotten. She glanced at Caes on occasions because he was so silent, though she supposed that he was taking in everything since he might not know much on the topic.

And so they had arrived at the center of the maze. Ms. McLeod expected something grand to be here but apparently not? She lightly squeezed Caes’ arm. “Partners?’’ she asked him and beaming happily. Do say yes, brother! “Shall we design something to test the participants’ skills? Maybe their adaptability or critical thinking?” Moral compass and value sounded boring to her, but still… if that was the direction Caes wanted to go in, she would follow him. He was lucky he was one of the few she’d do such a thing for.

Somewhere between checking on the little Ravenclaw (who he was pretty sure was named Milo) and trying to keep up with walking with the rest of the class while half listening to the discussion...he had lost track of said little Ravenclaw. Uh, well, everything would be fine...right?

Anyway.

Atlas did not really feel like contributing to this particular discussion about intention (it all just felt like bragging rights to him anyway...kind of like the whole House Cup system and, well, he was competitive ish but just not for this sort of thing) and instead his thoughts were kind of swirling and fuming on ... other things. Not only had he lost track of the little Ravenclaw bloke, but he also lost sight of Remy around the time that the professor was calling her aside in front of everyone else to mutter something kind of lengthy at her...while the clucker got asked to see him after class. Sure. Whatever. Whaaaaaatever.

Side shuffling around the perimeter of the class as he caught up more (thank you longer strides), Atlas tried to find Remy or just anyone who would help scratch his itch of irritation...he actually found himself engaged with the next question. But only because there was a tangible bit to himself and therefore it made the history feel more relevant than like...really really old news. Working in Diagon Alley this summer had introduced him to a lot of people, one of them one of the very names shared by his peers - though he had NOT known she could turn into an owl. Or was it just a one time thing? Yes, 'Professor Older Student Whose Name Escaped Him at the Moment', do go on. It had been an accidental sort of lunch with Valerie Gray, one in which he had spent most of it just sort of gawking at her because she was like...out of this WORLD and spoke really differently compared to anyone else he had ever met. So, Atlas could have offered up knowing her Espresso Patronum order (because after a run in with Antonia and absolutely butchering his own order...he paid attention to what others picked) but he remained quiet...until Professor Holden spoke again. And then, well, Atlas couldn't quite help himself.

"Actually, professor, Kyle Baker was a Horned Serpent, not a Pukwudgie, and very close friends with Valerie Gray...who was a Wampus. She actually works in Diagon Alley now, at Noltie's, which is how I met her and she had VERY little good to say about the tournament other than her friend won and the runner up was someone from Hogwarts, a Gryffindor, that she could tolerate coming in third to and considered a friend as well." In fact, she had spoken so harshly about parts of it and in language that dad would have called 'robustly colorful' that his ears had turned red and he dared not repeat any of it. Which, well, Desiree had already touched on part of that anyway with her mentioning of that particular task.

Glad to have stopped walking...Atlas had been expecting their little sphinx friend to make an appearance here and was genuinely surprised she was not. Shoving his hands into his pockets as the task was handed out, the sixth year rolled back on to his heels and sighed a little under his breath. He was, truthfully, grateful that it seemed like it would just be theory today and speculation...but he wasn't so sure about putting himself in the gamemaker's position. What would he even want to test of someone? Integrity came to mind but he wasn't sure how to really go about doing that...

So...he would just hang around the perimeter here and...see if someone caught his eye (or he them) to partner up with. He would have gone into the crowd more to look for Remy to partner with, but seeing how things were playing out thus far...it seemed like space would be better. He would find her after class. Unless she found him now and therefore his overthinking turned irrelevant. Maybe he could spot Vanna and they could botched another project together.

Some may be disappointed that their name didn't sit in the Goblet, or that it came back in a puff of ash, but Mercer was delighted as he spread the ash on his face as battle paint. Whatever was coming, he was going to be a champion, okay?

He was so delighted, in fact, that he ignored chicken!arms Arden gutting him with an elbow, and he didn't look askance as a second chicken joined the class a few minutes later. He didn't even notice when Milo went silent and ill-looking, even though he heard the chicken!arms girl claim she was poisoned by house elves. Being a chicken wasn't DEADLY, though, ok? So it wasn't poison.

"ATLAS. Let's hide in the hedge and scare people. And if they scream, they're chick... cowardly. So we're testing people for COURAGE or something." Mercer latched onto the first friendly face he saw, his teeth flashing white in an ash-darkened face. First face, and first idea. It didn't do to think about things for too long.

She had known her fact would have made the lesson seem more somber, but it didn’t make it any less true. However innocent the Triwizard Tournament had been meant to be, although she rather suspected it was meant to be fraught with danger anyhow, it had been pulled into other wizards’ schemes. Dark wizards. It needed to be remembered, after all. Things rarely went as planned.

“It was the Imperius Curse”, she offered in response to his question regarding Viktor Krum, even as she had shifted over to one side to begin her thought processes regarding the task at hand. She’d read enough of the histories of the second Wizarding War and the event preceding it to know that much. Unforgivable Curses were rather terrifying, therefore she remembered them.

Like Atlas, she had partly hoped the sphinx would have made an appearance, but she understood why the creature may not have chosen to as well. The forest was a maze of its own after all.

The task itself was another story, and instead of immediately looking for a partner, she had gone over to claim a piece of parchment to write on, listing out possible ideas for a moral or skill to test. Bravery, innovation, teamwork (if the task was meant for a group)…once she had options, then she could look for a partner to flesh the idea out.

Oops. The distractions of the lesson had caused him to quote the wrong house for Kyle Baker. “Thank you, Mr Flamsteed. You are absolutely correct. Kyle Baker was a Horned Serpent. Not a Pukwudgie. Aiden Jones and Irene Avery were from that house,” he nodded graciously.

He didn’t know that Atlas had met Valerie so he listened, nodding to him. “Thank you for sharing..”

OOC: Please continue to partner up! Thanks for the correction- this is why I shouldn’t do phone posts!

Daniel had been listening to his professor and classmates the entire journey to the maze's centre, but he hadn't spoken up. It wasn't because he didn't know anything about the topics; in fact, he was knowledgeable about the 1994 Triwizard Tournament. He had to admit that he knew very little about the IMPS competition though. But he was concentrating solely on the ground, trying not to trip over the branches.

As they reached the centre of the maze and were instructed to either partner up or work alone, Daniel had intended to go solo but instead went against his better judgment and decided to find a partner instead. He searched the faces around him, overhearing Mercer calling for Atlas but what he said next had not reached his ears. Mweh, who cared anyway.

He tore his gaze away from the oddly placed statues around them before he noticed Cailyn taking a piece of parchment. She appeared to be doing the task on her own, but it couldn't hurt to ask. She was also in Hufflepuff House so they may gain double the points if they worked together. "Cailyn" he said quietly, approaching the older girl's side and looking down to see if she had already scribbled on the parchment. "Can i work with you?"

The Imps tournament she had read about of course but the competitors and tasks hadn't stuck in her memory as well as the triwiz tournament had. Picking out a parchment and her quill from her bag Bella jotted down some notes as more facts were shared. She was glad though when Professor Holden moved them on. The first activity was to design a challenge where you tested a participants skill or moral. This was hard. Raising her hand Bella looked around at her peers "Does anybody want to be my partner?" Resourcefullness was a good skill to test or the ability to fly on a broom maybe?

Moose only really half listened to some of the answers given to Holden's second question as they made it to the Center of the Maze. His mind was still focused on the whole Muggleborn Cult answer given by that 3rd Year Badger. It all didn't matter really. Moose just had to get an A in his NEWTs for History of Magic and it's sayonara Hogwarts. Also he would need to pass a few other NEWTs obviously but that was beside the point. History of Magic was going to be his biggest obstacle.

Moose kept to himself as he thought of some kind of moral value or whatever that Holden had asked them to think on for a challenge to present for one of these kinds of tournaments. So he went to the back and looked glaringly at almost all the other classmates. If his eyes caught the glimpse of anyone else to either ward them away from him, or pull them into a partnership it not matter to him. He kept his thoughts on what could be a good challenge.

Now that he heard the responses others gave to the question, it looked like they were moving on to being tasked a.. project? No, they were assigned a task to create.

Partners? "Of course," Caes said with a small smile to Aria, "Do you think with testing their skill it could be more... physical?" How so, "Have it like a timed trial to race to a certain path?" He was spitballing. He was definitely leaning towards adaptability. "Or avoiding some sort of traps," Those were his ideas so far, maybe his sis had other ideas more brilliant.

With the fair amount of information that was being given out, Keighley was starting to wish that she was taken some sort of notes. Not that it would be a good idea for her to be doing so while she was walking around. So hopefully she would remember a fair amount of what she was hearing and so would her siblings and cousins so they could double check information with one another should they need to.

When they reached the center of the maze, the blonde looked around at each individual statue and then all of the tables. Her attention then once again returning to Professor Holden as he explained the activity they were about to do. Working with a partner was always more fun than working a lone soooo.. right away those bright baby blues scanned the faces of those around her for anyone that didn't already have a partner. Yes, she looked for certain faces first but.. unfortunately they couldn't always be partners.

A small graced her lips when her eyes fell upon the face of a familiar older student. "Ashley! Would you like to be partners with me?" She laughed softly at herself for being a little louder than she had intended to be.

You were quite welcome, Professor Holden.

Well...Mercer did tick all the boxes off what he was subconsciously looking for with a partner. The kid had the enthusiasm of a compass trying to find magnetic North here at Hogwarts and would dive in head first no matter what the task, which meant Atlas could (more or less) supervise on the sidelines.

...but what had he done to his face? This kid, honestly.

Having missed the whole ash situation while his attention lay elsewhere, he patted his pocket for his wand first of all. "...you...want me to get all that off your face for you?" The Gryffindor would not really consider it a look that would strike terror in anyone's heart...but it sure did bring out the Ravenclaw's eyes. Big time. "That's...an ace starting point," he nodded with a gentle sort of encouragement. Hated the idea though, no offense. "I would say that is more of a test of...spookability rather than courage though. What ideas do you got rolling around in your head for a test of integrity?"

Courage, eh. There were likely to be tons of those concepts floating around and were the most standard of proceedings with these things. Make teenagers face off against dangerous creatures, face great peril, yada yada yada.

Ash was looking for a partner too... and she was a little self-conscious about partner work. People might like her now, and she always did lots of work in projects, but she was still worried she'd somehow end up as the only one without a partner. She was very happy for a familiar face asking to partner up, whether the other girl had thought of her as a top choice or not. "Yes, Keighley. I'd love to be partners." She found her sudden worry dissipating. "How do you feel about a task encouraging teamwork, not necessarily with another competitor but with a person? Maybe the competitor has the option to rescue a student in 'trouble' but it would slow them down. Then they have to pass an obstacle that is easier to do with an assistant but much more challenging alone?"

There was probably something else Evan could have contributed to question 2, like some of the stats of Viktor Krum or the fact he had been at the aforementioned Quidditch World Cup that had caused such unrest before the TriWizard Tournament. As for IMPS... he really knew nothing, except he believed he heard something about one of the Hogwarts participants having later married some obscure musician or something - a fact he'd only mildly noted before from mention with Chase. But his classmates had a well rounded responses, and he was both fighting distraction regarding the young kids in the class.

... And maybe also the fact he'd tripped and fallen a bit behind.

Finally reaching the middle with his peers, he perked a bit at the task at hand. Evan liked brain challenges the most - surprising for a Ravenclaw - but pairing out with someone else might give better more well rounded task ideas. Scanning the group and skipping over those already partnered, Evan noticed Moose, who he'd not spoken with a lot before, despite their year mate status. Hiking his bag a little more over his shoulder, the Ravenclaw made his way over towards him. "Want to try working together on this?"