Well lets see.... he started to rummage through his bag and pulled out the Arithmancy book "The Prof was saying something about having to get around these numbers...." he said as he flipped through the pages and found the chapter that dealt with number 2.

"Well, there's two of us.... " he started, looking at Rae "... and we're uh... collaborating-- 'cause we're trying to take this barrier down, right?" As he read further, this had him form a smile on his lips "And look at that... apparently it has a thing for colors orange and gold. I think we can use a bit of what we learned from DADA class". He took out his wand from his back pocket and aimed at the columns "Pingo Gold!" he cast as gold paint splattered across the columns and the invisible wall between its spaces. "Keep casting." he hollered to Rae as the columns and the invisible wall continued to be coated with gold paint.

After a while he noticed that a thin gap between the columns appeared where the paint would just slip through. He looked up and realized that the barriers were actually large double doors with the columns forming design on each panel. "Its a door." he stared up in awe.

He gave the door a push but it wouldnt budge. Taking out his wand he uttered "Alohamora". With that the doors swung slowly open, revealing the pathway to the other side. He looked back at Rae and smiled ''I guess that wasnt so bad. Lets go." he said as he took her hand and lead her down the maze.

Carr continued to jog lightly, pacing herself so she wouldn't tire out before she reached the end of the maze. Just as that thought occured to her, she spotted the end in sight and picked up the pace, running at full throttle. She put on the breaks and skidded to a halt just in time to avoid being rolled over by a large, concrete sphere. "No!" she shouted, annoyed. She walked over to the rock and began to try pushing it out of the way of the room's exit, but it wouldn't budge. She took out her wand and tried to Levitate it with magic, but no luck. "No, no, no," she repeated. She kicked it hard and then spent a few minutes dancing aroudn on one foot while holding the other. "Don't kick the hard thing," she told herself. "Never kick the hard thing. It does no good for anyone."

When she had recovered, she began to look around for something that might help. That's when she was slapped in the face by a fast-moving object. She fell back and rubbed her face and something bumped hard into her shin. "Ah!" she cried, hugging her knee to her chest. When she looked up, she saw several speeding objects bouncing around against the walls. She dodged out of the way of one, catching a glimpse of it from the corner of her eye. It appeared to be the number '1'. Carr blinked, confused, and was socked in the forehead by another one. They felt like they were made of hard rubber. Now she was annoyed.

Carr was too afraid of heights to make the Quidditch team, but in Muggle school, she had always been dodgeball captain. When the next 1 flew at her, she jumped and caught it against her chest. A second one pelted her way and she caught it the same way. When she did so, it bounced against the first 1 and the two melded together to become a '2'. She caught several more in the same way, each time, the number got larger, it grew in size. When she had caught seven of them, the '7' was half her height and it solidified in her hands, becoming concrete and, consequently, too heavy for her to hold any longer. She dropped it and, just before it landed on her foot, the 7 hovered in the air and flew over to stand upside down along one wall next to a bowl-shaped slab of concrete.

Something hit her in the back of the head and she was reminded that there were still more 1's to be caught. Seven more, to be exact. When she had caught them all, they hardened into contrete as well, and flew to stand, upside down and backwards next to the first one. The bowl picked itself up and set itself between the two 7's and the sphere rolled over to place itself on top.

"Fourteen," Carr muttered to herself. "Using order and stability to remedy karmic abuse of freedom." She looked highly annoyed at this revelation. Sighing with relief, Carr turned to the exit and finally made her way through to the end of the maze, looking quite bedraggled with a large, red '1' across her face where she'd been slapped by the number.

EEEEEEEP!


Neptune tucked behind the young Ravenclaw. WHY was he backing up? DIdn't he KNOW what he was supposed to be doing???


"Well GRAB it. Two's are good!" Neptune gave him a gentle shove forward. Go. YOU do it.

Kurumi jumped with excitement as her and Jenny finished their second task of the maze. They walked for a little more until they came across two GIANT dancing number 2 and number 7. The numbers - which had arms - grabbed the two and began dancing in a circle with them. Suddenly the two numbers began to chant:
Kurumi, forgetting the task at hand at the moment, began to chant along with the numbers before she looked at Jenny who seemed to be more freaked out than enjoying herself. "Right...no dancing..." Kurumi thought about the words and then it came to her. Number 2 and 7 had to be flipped upside down in order for them to be able to pass. Kurumi took out her wand and shouted "Levicorpus!# at the numbers who then dangles the numbers upside down in the air. Now it was safe for them to pass. "Let's go!"

Phew, he wasn't mad that she almost ran into him. "Um yeah, I'll work with you guys." Marie said as she looked ahead at the girl who was heading around the corner. "Maybe we better get up there with her and see if she needs any help." she said as she walked toward the girl.

Rounding the corner herself she stopped dead in her tracks. The biggest two she had ever seen was blocking the way. Well what were they supposed to do now? Marie being who she was just wanted to punch it and make it move but she knew that wouldn't work. "Um, I think we have a little problem here," she said turning back to Evan. What the heck was she going to do now? The thing was just standing there, not moving at all.

Thinking about what the number two meant she remembered something about unity. She looped her arm with Evan uniting them as a team. Now all they needed to do was grab the little firstie and unite her with them and they would be able to pass by freely. "If you loop your arm through hers we should be able to go by," she said to Evan as she looked over at the little girl.

After proceding for a while, Willow came to a hole in the wall. Looking left and right, she realized there was no other way and climbed in. The hole closed behind her and candles lit. There was a seven painted in orange goo on the cold cave wall. Next to it, in blue goo said:

Some mysteries go unknown. Hints around this room will show you what the mystery is, then you must use the books to solve. Once you solve the mystery, use the orange goo to write the solution on the wall. Then the door on the opposite side of the room which you came in will open.

Small items popped up on little tables all around the room. One table popped up right in front of her. [77717 49951 7135...] was written on the paper in front of her. Willow pulled out a piece of paper.

"The first two words are correct, but the last is WRONG!" a voice said.

"They are all correct! Move clockwise around the room."

Willow moved to the next table carrying her parchment. It had a picture a skull. "Easy, death."

Once again Willow moved to the next table. It had the word 'on' and the letters 'r/m/pl'. She wrote:
The next table had a mini house on it.

The next table had a stuffed ghost pic with the stuffed ghost in this room.

"Any possible answer is good," the voice said again.

So Willow went over to the wall and wrote with the goo

'Her house was torn down to build Hogwarts'

The door opened and Willow went through.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Evan Cartwright," he replied while waiting for Marie to make her choice. The girl didn't look very well... they'd better speed up.
Yay, Marie was going to work with them. Evan relieved. He trusted her knowledge more than anyone else's right now, and knew very well that she was the key out of here. Going over to the corner himself too, he shrugged. "They're harmless," he reassured her. Well, she probably knew it already, this wasn't a potions class to be set on fire. Nodding at her suggestion to show his approval, he caught the little firstie by her arm and they made their way into the number without any problem.

He let go of their arms as they were clear off the number with yet another decision to take for a route. Turning to both of them, he looked as if letting them to make the choice.

Louisa was still on her knees staring at the painting, her eyes were full of tears now. She missed her family so much and she was still hurt for the fact that they weren't proud of their witch-daughter. There turned out to be muggles who got offended by magic and not only wizards offended by muggles. Heh.

She got up and pointed her wand at the painting. After few minutes of pondering she knew what exactly she needed to do. "Let's see, mom's 33... Jason's 33. " She calculated fast, "It's 66!" Uh Ha! It worked! "And I'm 11 which makes 77!" She cried happily! and touched the block gently repeating in her head, I'm with them too... I'm with them too... Slowly the block started to sink down to the ground and disappeared.

Walking forward with tears in her eyes; Happy tears, Louisa was gaining back her confidence after that incident in the Feast days ago. She moved on and on till she turned left, right, forward and then right to face a 7-block. It wasn't just a block, it had weird shape.

Louisa sighed slightly but with a smile. She liked challenge. She stepped back a bit and gazed into the block trying to figure out what's wrong and how could she overcome this one.

Sophia saw them loop their arms through hers and run through the two. Once they were through, she looked around the maze. "Where should we go next?" she asked, pulling her wand out, just in case. "I think we should go that way." she said, pointing to the next right. "Oh, and nice to meet you Evan." she added kindly.

Yes, it worked. They made it past the two. Hopefully this meant they were going in the right direction here. Marie really didn't want to keep walking in circles all day long she wanted to see the end of this thing. Which she was not seeing yet.

Looking over at the little girl she smiled at her when she said she thought they should go to the right. "Well lead the way then, unless Evan here wants to go first." You know with him being the man of the group and all. Hopefully there wouldn't be anything blocking their way this time.

"Will do!" Sophia said, walking towards the next turn. "Wait a sec, what's your name?" she asked the older girl standing next to her. "I am Sophia." she said, smiling weakly. She still wanted to get out of here. Claustraphobia was really kicking in here. She kept cool, because you can't look like a freak in front of older kids, but in her mind, was freaking out a little bit.

...

O_O

WAS THIS GIRL INSANE??!??!?

"EH?! I can't GRAB it! It's bigger than me! And what's the point of grabbing it anyway??!?!?" Ty sqeaked, his voice unnaturally high as the scary two advanced towards them. "YOU'RE the older Ravenclaw, YOU do it!" he said and stumbled right back to her side after she had shoved him forward. He would have shoved her right back, but he was kinda scared of Weird Girl himself.

And he preferred SEVENS, people. If this was a gigantic SEVEN the- No. He'd still be freaked, actually. Gigantic numbers were SCARY.

Evan nodded in agreement, and went to the right way. There, another two meeted them with a note in front of it. It was in Pythagorean Number System. Getting on his knees, he urged both of the ladies beside him to help with the deciphering:

9514 45 632 3634 26 36529535 65 7639 517.

Looking up at them, he read the first few words: "Read me out... loud... to..." He fumbled with the longest one. That was a little hard...

"Um hi Sophia, I'm Marie. Nice to meet you." she said. "Now let's get out of here."

She followed Evan around the corner only to be greeted by another 2... and a code. Crud, now they had to figure out what the message was. Replaying the Pythagorean Number System over in her head she tried remembering what all the numbers meant.

Okay, so Evan had figured out the first 5 words, now onto that big word.

"Read me out loud to.... c...o...n" she started. This was harder than she remembered. Of course she usually had the chart right in front of her when trying to figure out a message. She started over again. "Read me out lout to con...t...i...n" Aha, she knew what that word was. "Read me out loud to continue...on..your...way." Yes, she got it. Putting it all together now she said it in one sentence. "Read me out loud to continue on your way." She looked over at the other two. "Just read that sentence out loud and we should be able to pass."

So they had these giant, and even more GIANT, sevens blocking the exit and they also had those crazy sixes and nines after them like a swarm of bees!

....

WHAT!?

"You want me to defeat these monsters while you take care of the little things?" she hissed back in disbelief, glancing to her friend before her wide eyes landed back onto the two sevens. It didn't matter anymore. She wasn't angry, she was just, frustrated. Why did she have to take on the big things?

Raising her wand up a little higher, to make herself feel a little more protected and such, her mind was running through everything it could to try and defeat these things. Her back of course, was to Destiny, but if she felt one little poke, pinch, or something going INTO her back, her hand was going to be connecting rather hard to her friend's shoulder.

Alright. Sevens were about the analytical side. Intellectual, knowledge, wisdom, but also magical since it's the most powerful number. Great, she had two most power numbers SUPER-SIZED in front of her. But....two? There were two of them, which would mean harmony, unity, and balance. So this was like, two situations in one pretty much.Yea Destiny, leave her to the big numbers. PFFT! "C'mon, c'monc'mon...think..." What to do?! She highly doubted threatening the GIANT GIANT seven would do any good, and the littler seven looked as though it's confidence just shot through the roof now that the bigger one was here.

But, seeing them both together, it was almost like Care of Magical Creatures class and she was confronted with a mother creature who was protecting her child. "The seat of knowledge is in the head, of wisdom... in the heart." she muttered, licking her lips and taking a step back. "In the heart...I'm sorry!" Truly meant from the bottom of her heart as well. What she was sorry for, she had no idea but she definitely was. Scaring the little seven? Probably not a good idea, however, part of that saying had caught her attention. Of the heart? Forgiveness...unity... With her knowledge of Charm spells, she could do something right?

Raising her wand, she made a a swish to the right, and then a circular motion to the left as she said, "Colorus revolvo Red." Of course, having pointed her wand at the two sevens, instead of them being big BLOCK WHITE numbers, they were now big BLOCK RED numbers. Just as she finished with the first spell, she made a jabbing flick towards them at the end, concentrating on pink stripes and hearts. Having squeezed her eyes shut, she opened them only to two bright red sevens, lined with pink stripes and pink hearts. Huh. Festive. Though, it didn't seem to work for a moment, until she saw the little seven shudder and disappear in thin air. The larger of the two sevens however, started advancing on her.

"Destiinyyyy...I don't think what I did worked on the bigger seven!" What happened to UNITY huh? "Violence isn't always the answer!"

GAH!

Evan hadn't unnotice that weakness in the smile. Sophie wasn't fine at all. They'd better get out of here soon.
Evan gave Marie thumbs-up when she managed the hardest word. Obeying, he said "Read me out loud to continue on your way." Looking over at Sophie, he waited for her to repeat it too.

Willow walked forward. There was a math problem.

Quote:

7+7/7+7-7=?

Well this was easy. "Two," she said. Then two minotaurs popped up. And a two sets of a two and a seven.

Willow screamed. She flicked her wand while screaming and it played the piano. They froze. The collars flickered. On the right minotaur she slid twenty-seven. On the left minotaur she slid seventy-two. She had expected the unexpected. And it was wrong.

The collars stopped flickering and the minotaurs unfroze. She flicked her wand. Piano didn't work. Another flick. Guitar. The minotaurs froze. She slid the numbers off and put them on the other collar. A door opened on the opposite side of the room hall. She got down and took a step.

The minotaurs woke, but the door stayed open. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Willow screamed. She tried to run around, but the left minotaur scratched her arm. It started bleeding immediately. Blood dripped on the ground, but she got out to see the red dot. She was done. She was finished. And she dropped to the ground. "My arm, my arm!" she screamed and it was still bleeding, but it was slower than earlier.

"Read me out loud to continue on your way." she said, doing as the older students did. She definatly needed more practice at Arithmancy. After she said the sentence, the two vanished, making it able to pass through. "Alright, where to next?" she asked the other two people.

Evan shrugged, looking over at Marie first and then to Sophie. "We both made some choices, so it's up to you now." They should be about to finish this. Maybe one more number and they'd hit nine to be out...

Sophia was a little confused. Was he talking to her or Marie? Oh well. "Well, we could go that way." she said, shrugging and pointing to her left. She just wanted to get out of here.

Salander continue to run down the maze, taking Rae along with him. Several times they encountered dead ends and wrong turns that lead them right back to where they had already been. After marking the walls with gold paint to help them figure out where they are they finally found a path where they feel a breeze coming up ahead. In their excitement they ran towards the clearing....

.... and nearly fell into a chasm in the middle of the floor

"Whoah back up!" he gasped in alarm pushing himself and Rae back onto solid ground. He looked around and saw that there were giant blocks of stones in geometric shapes scattered on the floor. Taking out his wand he cast "Wingardium Leviosa" lifting each of the shapes into a standing position. He looked at the 7 giant stones then at the giant square hole. "This looks like a puzzle... " he murmured. "Mobiliarbus" he cast onto the largest piece-- a massive triangular rock-- onto the gap. When he let it go it remained floating in the hole "These stones cover the gap..... looks like they have to be fitted into the hole so we can use them to cross to the other side."

He continued lifting the stones, fitting them and moving them around, analyzing their shapes and how they fit relative to one another. About halfway through Salander was getting tired, the massive stones werent light and moving them around and trying the other stones was testing his patience and his endurance. But he fought to remained focused at the task. He wanted to succeed in getting out of the maze, he cannot quit now.

After a few more stone lifting and moving finally got him to set the final piece-- which to him looked like an oddly shaped rectangle-- onto the last gaping hole. The stones suddenly glowed to life and settled down solidly, allowing them to cross over. ''That's it! Lets get outta here!" he exclaimed as he grabbed Rae's hand and ran across the now stone floor to the other side, to freedom.

YES!

The two disappeared once they had all read the message out loud. Looking around Marie seen there were a couple ways to go. Taking Evan's lead however she let Sophia decide which direction to go. Looking to the left when the girl said they should go that way Marie hoped that was the way to the end. If not then they would just have to turn back and go the other way. Grabbing Evan by the arm she pulled him along after Sophia. "Come on, lets follow her, hopefully this will take us to the exit."

Kurumi was beginning to feel tired as the effects of the chocolate were wearing off...she sure hoped that her and Jenny found a way out of this maze soon. The numbers 2 and 7 were going to haunt her forever...probably even result in nightmares.

Jenny was so dizzy after those two numbers grabbed her and Kurumi that it took her a while to stand still before following Kurumi. Those numbers still look dangerous; they looked ready to grab her at any second.

After a few right turns, the pair finally came across another obstacle. This time it was a little stream full of numbers 7's and 2's. Happy that it wasn't a riddle or some kind of logical puzzle, Jenny was about to walk through when all of a sudden, her foot got stuck. Surprised, Jenny yanked her foot out when she suddenly sank. "Aahh!" She quickly grabbed onto the floor of the maze and got out of the stream just in time. It even wasn't a stream at all; it was a giant river!

"Okay," Jenny said, still panting. "I guess we have to sort these 7's and 2's into bridges so that we can walk across. Can you help, Kurumi? I'll do the 2's and you can do the 7's, is that fine?"

Quote:

Originally Posted by fire_faerie

...

O_O

WAS THIS GIRL INSANE??!??!?

"EH?! I can't GRAB it! It's bigger than me! And what's the point of grabbing it anyway??!?!?" Ty sqeaked, his voice unnaturally high as the scary two advanced towards them. "YOU'RE the older Ravenclaw, YOU do it!" he said and stumbled right back to her side after she had shoved him forward. He would have shoved her right back, but he was kinda scared of Weird Girl himself.

And he preferred SEVENS, people. If this was a gigantic SEVEN the- No. He'd still be freaked, actually. Gigantic numbers were SCARY.

"For the love of Merlin, what is your problem?!" Neptune was backtracking through the maze. SURELY there was more than one way out, right?

And SURELY there was someone better than this TY person to help her?


"Just run away! Run this way!!!" Neptune SO didn't wait around for the little boy. In fact, she dropped to her hands and knees and crawled quickly AWAY.