Nicholai frowned in distaste as the smell of cookies reached his nose. Ew. One of the 'cookies' sprung up in front of him and Nico passed through it...

He immediately patted himself down and was satisfied it wasn't a real cookie, only a hoop and not an ounce of cookie or chocolate was on him. He swerved around and passed through another cookie, closing his eyes and ignoring the smell as he did so.

Cale blinked as the hoops turned into delicious cookies right in front of his eyes. A number of the students looked like Christmas had come early, but Cale rolled his eyes--he knew they weren't really cookies. He flew towards the first one and closed his eyes as he flew towards it, but this one was just a hoop, as he had expected, and he flew through it with ease.

COOKIES in a FLYING final. How totally awesome was that? He loved cookies.. and he loved flying - and both were right here! YAAAY! His flying only seemed to have improved at the sight, and smell of such deliciousness.. probably because he was eager to get a bite from all of them.

Well, that was the plan in his mind anyway. When he reached the second giant cookie, he sorta reaslied that ... well, that he couldn't bite them. He was just flying straight through them!

"Awww man!" He huffed, looking back over his shoulder as he simply flew straight through a cookie/hoop with no taste of cookieness whatsoever. No fair! Now that - that was even more evil than the sparky electric hoops. Cookies that he couldn't eat? That was just down right cruel.

Anna sighed a breath of relief as the spinning and sparkling hoops suddenly returned to their original state. Hmm...now it shouldn't be too hard to maneuver through them---except, maybe that stubborn hoop at the beginning of the pitch that Anna still hadn't managed to fly through. No sooner had she gotten that thought out, than the hoops were changing again---this time to resemble large chocolate chip cookies moving around, growing bigger, and then growing smaller. The spinning "cookies" were making her a little dizzy, and Anna had to close her eyes for a moment to make sure she wouldn't faint right off her broomstick.

When she opened her eyes again, the smell of freshly backed chocolate chips cookies met her nose, and Anna sniffed the air hungrily. Not real, not real, not real... Making up her mind that she'd go straight to the house elves when this final was through and ask politely for a fresh batch of cookies---real cookies---Anna focused herself on what she was doing once again. Sitting up straight on her broom and focusing in on the nearest goal hoop, Anna darted forward and zoomed right through the cookie hoop before she even realized what was happening. Whoa. That was a little too easy.

Realizing that she had yet to tackle a few of the hoops at the far end of the pitch, Anna darted off in that direction and headed straight towards the nearest cookie---erm, hoop. She gained in on the hoop quickly, yet even though she was fast, the hoop was faster this time. Just as she was about to fly through it, the hoop shrank to an abnormal size and jetted upward and away from Anna.

Wide-eyed Whitney watched as the hoops morphed into cookies; and they smelled so good. There were chocolate chip, and oatmeal! "Cookies!" she yelled forgetting that she was doing a final. 'Oh dear.' and she automatically stopped yelling. But where were the hoops? Not sure what exactly she was supposed to do, Whitney just went straight for the center of one of the cookies. As she got closer she saw the amazing cookie change into a hoop. She flew right through it too. 'Three!' Knowing she was behind, she quickly went off trying to go through as many cookies as possible before they changed back to spinning, shocking hoops. Quickly, she went through five more.

Dominic let out a quite yelp when the hoop constricting his ankles suddenly shocked him. It wasn't that huge of a shock, but enough to make him zoom off in no particular direction in efforts to yield of the sparking hoop. Hardly seeing where he was flying, the fourth year seeker was actually headed right towards . . . Cale Newell! The annoying gryffindor prefect.

And just in the nick of time, the hoop grew again ... allowing him to easily turn his broom up towards the sky, flying over the head of Cale. Sweet!! Now back to those hoops--


-- or was that ugh!? Cookies!? Seriously, it was like these professors had no sense of nutrition at all. But wait, did Rapunzel just reach out to touch ... squinting as he zoomed closer towards his captain, he definitely saw her touch ... nothing?

No cookies. Oh wow. Professor Vindictus really was Professor Torturer.

Shaking his head, he ignored the intoxicating smell in his nostrils and flew towards the cookie, flying right in the middle of it. Except that it allowed him to pass easily through, as it grew this time right when he passed through it. How many was that? Meh. Oh well.

The illusion disappears and the hoops are the same as they were when the task started.

He was a little disappointed that those delicious smelling cookies weren't actually ... edible, but Clifford was even more upset when they disappeared altogether - turning back into those original, boring hoops. So what? He hadn't been able to eat them but they sure did smell scrummy. His stomach was still rumbling!

In fact, those cookies and his rumbly stomach were beginning to distract him, and when the hoop he was approaching moved quicky to the right, Clifford accidentally flew straight passed it. BLEH!

Miranda grinned when she saw the cookies. She was to delighted by the wonderful smell to try to figure out where they had come from.

Grinning she sped towards one of the cookies and opened her mouth as wide as she could. Maybe she could take a bite! Mmmm cookies...

She was nearing the delicious baked goods, closed her eyes to taste the sweet crunchy thing when suddenly, upon not feeling the solid thing she opened her eyes bewildered. Looking back, she saw that the hoop was back again. Miranda pouted.

Cale narrowed his eyes when he noticed that Dominic I'm-right-all-the-time-and-never-happy-with-anything Denton nearly tackled him in the air, but managed to pull away just in time. If Cale wasn't so afraid of being docked points for shouting, he would have told the little pompus Hufflepuff to watch where he was going. But he kept his mouth shut and turned to the final hoops in the challenge.

There were no cookies, no sparks, no nothing. They were moving up and down and all around like before. He smiled, since this must mean they were nearing the end of their first challenge, and he flew through the nearest hoop he hadn't gone through yet, slowing down before he zoomed through the hoop which was moving in a zig-zag motion through the air.

Nicholai thought he was getting the hang of it now; it wasn't about doing it quickly it was about concentrating and reacting to the movement of the hoops. He ducked under one that would have smacked him across the teeth again and pressed himself low against the broom to get through a fairly small hoop. He veered left and dodged through another before heading to the edge of the array of hoops to try for the last one. It did not want to be flown through and Nicholai spent a fw minutes chasing the thing before it apparently gave up and he was suddenly through it. He looked around again for the professor and spotted him in the stands looking extremely comfortable and pleased with himself.

Nico wondered if he should make another pass through the hoops; sure that he had gotten them all twice but figuring it would be better to be over cautious.

Going a little delusional from the wonderful smell of freshly baked cookies, Whitney was a little happy to see the cookies go. Than, forgetting how hard the hoops were, she suddenly missed them again. Seeing as she'd done okay the first time, she went in all directions trying to get through a hoop. Two more. Suddenly as she was passing through one it got smaller and she couldn't fully fit through. Whitney had to back up and try a different hoop.

Daphne kept her gloved hands firmly on the broom stick, zigging and zagging through the obstacle course. The rings were back to their original state, no spark and cookies. She felt like being a little daring, doing a barrel-roll through one hoop as it expanded to the size of a hula-hoop.

She giggled and quickly turned her broom around and watched one hoop moving up and down very quickly. She eyed it as it neared the ground, and she knew what she wanted to do. She sped down, almost appearing to collide with the pitch. Then she suddenly pulled upward and flew through the hoop with ease.

Punz had made up her mind to hold her nose with one hand and fly her broom with the other - that way, the intoxicating cookie-smell wouldn't bother her. So far, this tactic was working....until the cookies disappeared and the hoops went back to normal.

"Aw, shucks," Rapunzel mumbled, secretly happy though. Now she could solely focus on doing some fancy flying. The next hoop she came to definitely took both hands on the broom - it was both shrinking and spinning through the air. Clenching her teeth, Punz clung to her broom and did a whirly spin through the hoop to get to the next one. That probably looked pretty awesome from below...

Dominic looked back at the cookie/hoop he had just flown through in time to see the illusion disappear and the hoop was back to normal. No sparks. No cookie. Nada.

Though what was with that expression on Cale Annoying Newell's face? Had he forgotten his mascara or something? Maybe it was just running down his robes. Nonetheless, the expression was definitely not a friendly one. Shaking his head, he turned back around towards the front and narrowly avoided colliding with the tail twigs of a young Slytherin girl who'd had been sitting near him in charms (Whitney). "sorry!" he murmured back towards her as he flew on in pursuit of his next hoop.

Keeping track of the ones he already flew through was perhaps the hardest part. Though he saw a clump of rings engorging and shrinking off in the distance and flew towards them, awaiting the right time to pass through. Much like quidditch, timing was of huge concern. As concentration. None of which he seemed to have today. Determined nonetheless to fly through at least two more, he made a dash for the hoop in front of him. He could do it...

Finally---the hoops were back to normal again, and Anna no longer had the urge to zoom up to one and eat it. With that distraction out of the way, she was free to attempt to fly through the remaining goal hoops. First order of business was getting herself through that stubborn goal hoop in the beginning that would never let her through. That hoop was just eating away at her, and Anna was determined now, more than ever, to beat it. When she'd located the goal hoop in question, Anna darted off down the pitch and in the correct direction. The hoop was currently bouncing up and down, shrinking and growing every now and then, as well.

Anna stopped midway through her journey, a plan forming in her mind. She'd determined that if she were to dart forward just as the hoop was shrinking and high in the air, she could easily be able to fly straight through it---in its expanded form---by the time she reached it. Having discovered that, Anna patiently waited for the hoop to shrink, and when it did, she darted forward. Just as she reached the hoop and made a move to fly through it, it expanded once again and allowed her to fly all the way through.

Anna stopped in mid-air and just stared at the hoop, in awe that she'd finally tackled it and beat it at its own game. The only thing left to do now was to fly straight through a few remaining hoops at the far end of the pitch.

Miranda was definately going to owl her mother to ask her to send some cookies...

Looking ahead Miranda noticed there seemed to be three hoops in a row. They werent moving or anything. No sparks, no wobbling. Well that seemed easy enough!

But as soon as she got through the second one, alot more hoops appeared, making a sort of tunnel. More hoops appeared as she went, going up and then down. To the left and ending to the right.
Miranda gulped. This was going to be tricky.

Miranda pulled up her broom as she shooted upwards. Suddenly the hoops appeared making a tunnel to the right. When she thought it was the finish, the hoops appeared making a tube straight down.

It seemed like this was the end, Miranda grimaced when she was nearing the ground at full speed, but she couldnt move anywhere!
Suddenly, only feet from the ground, the hoops made a path to the left.
Oh my gosh! Miranda's heart was beating fast.

Looking behind her, she could see the hoops dissapearing. Looking infront again, Miranda almost knocked into the rings when the tunnel made for the right again. Whoa!
Finally she was at the second last ring, and noticing that they werent multiplying again, she breathed out and was at last out of the maze.

The hoops change their appearance once again. Now they're daisies with faces. All sing in loud squeaky voices.

Nicholai grimly flew toward the.... daisies...

He flew through one of the illusions and turned to look at the professor where he had spotted him in the stands. Nicholai continued to occassionally sweep through the illusions, knowing he had well and truly passed through all the hoops now, but not wanting to stop just in case. He had to close his eyes on each pass because the faces were creepy.

The voices were worse but easier to ignore.

Maddox raised his left eyebrow and glared at the singing daisies, that used to be hoops. He sighed and tried to get through the aweful singing. He slowly went through each hoop. The singing got louder and even more squeakier to him once he got closer. It was extremely hard to concentrate going throught the center. Once he approached the first one, he bumped one side of the hoop. It hurt a little, but that aweful screeching wasnt helping his balance. 'Cmon' Mads you can do this,' He thought to himself. He approached the second hoop and passed through it with ease. He went through the others just as graceful.

You wouldnt think a bloak like him would be graceful, but its possible.

Halfway through the eighth or ninth ring (she'd lost count), Rapunzel blinked and nearly fell off her broom when she suddenly realized she was hovering the middle of a flower.

A daisy, to be more precise. And one that smelled dangerously real.

"I...I allwergeez!" Punz stated loudly so Vindictus could hear. She was just managing to hold on to her broom as it was - she didn't need to sneeze her way off now!

And then the flower hoops started singing. GREAT! Like rubbing salt in the wound! Punz winced and flew forward, heading toward the next singing daisy....but she couldn't hold back a sneeze any longer.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHCHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" came the sneeze at about 95 mph straight out of her nose. The thing was so powerful that Rapunzel's broom actually went in reverse like her nose was a rocket booster! Now she was going to have to re-fly through that stupid singing hoop AGAIN!

Daphne was flying back up after her dive when she saw all the hoops turn into flowers. As she slowly approached a hoop for closer inspection, the squeaky song coming from the flower's mouth forced her to put both her hands over her ears. Slowly traveling through the hoops would be out of the question, the noise would drive her mad. She stopped the broom and approached the faced flower with decent speed.

It wasn't fast enough, and the noise quickly rose to a level that forced her hands back over her ears again. She lay across the broom gripping the handle with her elbows to have some control. This caused her to veer slightly off course, but she was able to fly through the hoop without a problem. Unfortunately, steering with one's elbows turned out to be more difficult than she imagined, and Daphne slanted sideways, losing her balance. She quickly gripped the broom with her right hand and returned to a more traditional, stable upright position.

Anna giggled as she heard the sudden sound of loud, squeaky singing. She looked up to see that the hoops had now changed into daisies with faces. Spotting a daisy nearby with a odd, plump looking face, Anna smirked and headed off in that direction. Mr. Plump Daisy Man was currently singing some stupid song called "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"---how appropriate. Speaking of broomsticks, Anna grabbed a tighter hold on hers, leaned foward and darted right through the loud, plump daisy. Ha! Score one more for her!

Nearby, Anna spotted a young, overly-high-pitched daisy singing something called "Pushing Up Daisies." Anna smirked at this hoop, as well...determined that she could soar through it and shut it up, as well. However, Anna sound found out that this little daisy had something else planned instead. Just as Anna made a move to fly straight through it, the hoop bounced out of the way and darted---loud singing and all---down below.

"What the..." Again, Miranda's jaw dropped when she saw the hoops turning into flowers! And they were sining!

Flying nearer she heard the song more clearly, and got lost.
"On the good ship lollipop, Its a sweet trip to a candy shop, Where bon-bons play..." she sang along while flying through the flower.
She stopped, terrified of a loud sound coming from the right. Looking over she saw her captain flying backwards!
Miranda covered her mouth to stifle the giggles. It seemed like she was sneezing too, was she allergic? Oh dear. Miranda felt bad about that.

Dominic narrowed his eyes as the next thing he heard while nearing another hoop was . . . singing. And horribly too, where he wasn't even sure he could CALL it singing. Honestly, this was probably the worst song ever that the words were hardly decipherable.

Zooming away from the hoop, which he only then noticed had been transformed to appear like a ... gah!? Daisies with faces!? Torturer! Seriously; it was as though Professor Vindictus was trying to keel all senses of Badger Quidditch Team before the game. Although his evasion from the singing flowers didn't go so far as he soon got caught up in a "windstorm" that blew him the other way, where the fourth year lost control over his broom.

No wait. That wasn't a windstorm at all. ICK! He was covered in slimy gooky stuff . . . tumbling backwards on his broom, while clutching it for dear life, Dominic squinted through the speed to see ... his captain!? YUCK! He was now covered front and back and all around Rapunzel Black's snot! It was as though karma was coming back at him for saying it would be an easy final . . .