Nicki quickly stuffed the gillyweed into her mouth and chewed it. 'Blech' she thought to herself for the weed tasted horrible. She quickly swallowed it and waited for it to take effect. First she felt a tingling sensation between her fingers and toes. When she raised her hands, she realized that she has grown webbed skin between her fingers. She immediately checked her feet and sure enough, they were webbed too. As she saw the others run into the lake, she quickly followed finding it awkward to run with webbed feet.

Alyssa took the Gillyweed that the Professor had handed out and put it in her mouth. She almost spat it out because it tasted like grass...not that she knew what grass tasted, but Alyssa knew that most things that were good for you, never tasted good, so she quickly chewed and swallowed it. Then she waited for the effects of the Gillyweed to take effect on her. She felt a tingling sensation between her fingers and on her feet. When Alyssa looked down at her feet, she realized that her feet had changed. Lifting her foot, she saw that she had grown skin in between her toes. She had webbed feet, just like she had webbed fingers, when Alyssa checked her fingers. 'Cool!' Alyssa thought to herself. 'I wish that I could have these all the time. I wouldn't need flippers at all'

O___o

August took the old-timey Muggle bathing suit and walked awkwardly over to the screens. Professors Dash and Williamson had obviously had too much fun picking out these for them all. Auggie quickly changed in the awkward, outdoor changing area and then returned in the hideous swim suit.

Next they had to eat Gillyweed which didn't look appealing at all. It looks like someone had balled up and knotted a bunch of asparahgus stalks. He held it clutched in his fist as he listened to the last of the rules and stuff.

Now it was time to go in. Auggie was starting to get nervous, he didn't want to see any Grindylows but he hoped that if anything went wrong the Professors would help.

With one last grimace, the Gryffindor popped the Gillyweed into his mouth chewed and then swallowed the stuff and jumped into the Lake with the others.

Rolling her eyes, Thea threw her Gillyweed into her mouth. The effetcs for her were almost instant. Gasping slightly, Thea felt salty tears begin to fall down her cheeks.
Staggering towards the edge of the lake, the Gryffindor began to pant slightly. Thea began wretching, and found that she couldn't breath. Fabulous. Before she choked to death, Thea dived into the Black Lake. This had better be good..

Once you have successfully dragged your loved one ashore, you might be surprised to find that the person closet to you is, in fact, no longer there. But where did he or she go? All students' loved ones seemed to have vanished and instead of a normal sized person lying on the lakeshore, nothing remains but a small, simple, handmade doll, looking suspiciously like an important historical figure who performed the same task as you.

Don't disregard your doll just yet as you grumpily make your way back to the class area. The task isn't quite over.

Amelia gasped as she reached the shore, tempted to collapse. She let go of Zayden for a moment and then slowly and with some difficulty managed to stand up. Her legs were killing her and so were her arms. She was out of breath and still had a bit of a panicky feeling.

After a moment of trying to get her composure, she turned around to check on her boyfriend... and he was gone, a small doll in his place.

"What in Merlin's beard?!" Amelia was tempted to say things even worse than that, but she didn't.

She was tempted to kick the doll, but instead she picked it up with a scowl on her face. It kinda looks like Harry Potter, she thought to herself as she started to make her way towards where the class had been held.

UGH! These Professors were pure evil playing with their emotions like that.

Jezzabelle pulled herself ashore, gasping for breath. She ached all over and she had already begun to cry just a little, but she had managed to bring her grandfathers body with her the whole way. When she looked down to see his face again she felt her heart break a little. Instead of her grandfather there was a doll in his place. She stared and stared and stared at the dreadful little doll. Tears of both sorrow and anger burned in her eyes and stung as they ran down her cheeks.

She wanted to throw the doll and call it all quits. She had actually thought that it was her grandfather at the bottom of that lake. Standing on the shore now, with nothing but the doll made her want to scream. She didn't care what famous person this was. That was a cruel trick and she wasn't going to easily forgive them for it. She made her way back to the class area not in the happiest of moods and held the doll by its leg, some tears still running down her cheek.

LuLu turned and heavily gasped at the dummy standing in front of her WHAT? "Danny," she panted, oh merlin it couldn't be her brother anyways he never came visit! He no longer cared.. exciting for nothing? ... She sighed

WHY woul proffesers trick them she swimming for her life to save a plastic dummie? Where wee the educational purposes???

She headed back for the class grumpily and upset

As Alyssa finally made it to shore, she lay back on the ground for a second before leaning forward to check on Claudia, but to her heart almost stopped beating for a second, when she realized that Claudia wasn't lying in front of her. Alyssa quickly stood up and looked around. She couldn't have let Claudia float back into the water, did she? Alyssa was about to swim back out when she noticed a small handmade doll lying where Claudia should have been. She picked up the doll and looked closely at it.

'No this has to be the sickest joke EVER!!' Alyssa thought to herself when she realized why the doll looked very familiar. 'I can't believe that the Professors would play such a dangerous and nasty joke on us. Someone else must have tricked them into doing this.' Alyssa thought angrily to herself as she shook the water out of her eyes and hair and stomped back to the class area.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Narrator

Once you have successfully dragged your loved one ashore, you might be surprised to find that the person closet to you is, in fact, no longer there. But where did he or she go? All students' loved ones seemed to have vanished and instead of a normal sized person lying on the lakeshore, nothing remains but a small, simple, handmade doll, looking suspiciously like an important historical figure who performed the same task as you.

Don't disregard your doll just yet as you grumpily make your way back to the class area. The task isn't quite over.

She got to the surface and saw ame had dissappered and a doll was put in her place. She stood up and walked back to the class area while carrying the doll.

Sierra continued to pull her future stepmother to safety. It was really wearing her down. Not that the woman was heavy, as she wasn't, but pulling someone through water isn't exactly easy. She gently placed the woman's body onto the ground and collapsed beside it. She closed her eyes and just breathed for a few moments, enjoying the feeling of taking in fresh air again.

Finally, her eyes fluttered open, and she glanced to the side of her. O_o But where was... And what's... A GRYFFINDOR?! A doll at that? ...of Harry Potter. Okay. Where. Was. Her. Father's. Fiancee. Looking over and seeing that there were others with the same doll, Sierra realized they'd been tricked.

W³ and The Scabs had TRICKED THEM. She stood up, snatched the doll away from the ground, and then made her way back to where the class had been held. She was wet. She was tired. She'd just endangered her life.

...for a doll.

Quentin finally pulled herself onto shore, gasping for breath. She'd done it, she'd gotten her little brother to safety. He was safe. They were safe. She pushed herself up so she could make sure he was okay, but he was gone. Where was he? She started frantically looking around, "Danny?" she asked loudly. Where could he have gone? "Dan, this isn't..." she spotted a doll where he had been, "Funny."

Had this all been a trick? What the hell! It really wasn't okay to play with people emotions like that! Make people drag their loved one out of the lake then throw a Harry Potter doll at them 'Oh yeah, we were just joking- their safe!'

She had a bone to pick with those men, picking up her doll she marched toward the professors.

Finally August's head broke the surface of the water and his gasped for breath, the cold air filling his lungs. As he was about 12 feet from the surface he had felt the last of Gillyweed recedeing from his system and the gills leaving him.

He quickly dragged his sister up onto the dry land, panting heavily and his body pulsing with fear. What had happened to cause this?! She was supposed to be back in Manchester with his parents. Where were they?

Wait....where did she go? August looked around for his little sister but then just saw a doll with black hair and glasses.

Bloody hippogriffs.

The Gryffindor snatched up the doll and stalked over to where the Professors were. So not funny.

Jory frantically broke the surface with Grace safely in his arms. "What was she doing here?" he thought quite alarmed she was here. "She's supposed to be at home with mom and dad!"

He pulled Grace and himself up onto the ground. But- but, where was she now? All Jory could see was a small doll resembling Grace- blond flowing hair, blue eyes and all her other features.

"What the..." Jory said aloud. "This isn't funny.'' He'd been worried sick for his sister.

The effects of the Gillyweed had worn off when he was still under the water. Breaking through the surface he drew in some deep breathes before swimming over to the edge.

Scabior blamed the children who had taken forever to collect their so called hostages. Instead of going 'wow, they collected someone that I love, I better bring them to the top', they acted like 'wow, they collected someone the I love, let me stare at them in shock like a moron'.

Pulling himself out of the water, Scabior quickly shook his head, making drops from his hair fly, before walking over to where the students gathered. "Good job-" He said loudly, sneering and clapping his hands together . "You've managed to save the great Harry Potter....doll, all of you must be.. so proud."

AIR! Finally..

Beezus pushed herself a bit more and breathed heavily as she got out of the water. She had managed to to save herself and Erin before the effects of the gillyweed had worn off. But when she tried pulling her friend to the lakeshore..all she could see was that she was pulling a doll that poorly looked like Harry Potter instead. What in Godric's name was happening?

O_____________O

She stared at the doll for a while before standing up, she was still soaking wet and it was cold. She was about to head to where Professor Williamson was and ask him about this when suddenly Professor Scabior got out of the water and spoke up. "Professor, what happened to..errr--those people we saved earlier?" Beezus questioned immediately as she hugged the doll.

Now above water and back to normal, Gideon swam until his feet could touch the ground with Kacie held over his shoulder. He then walked through the shallows to get to the edge to the lake, dropping his one of his knees at a point not far inland. The boy reached up to grab his sister's limp form and lay on her on the ground to see if she would be alright, only to see the true appearance of the doll once it passed into his line of vision.

What in Merlin's beard?!

So it wasn't Kacie but a trick...a trick the professors had both played on them. The history of magic part of the class no blantantly clear especially as he heard said professor making a snide comment about the fake 'rescues.' Gideon sighed as he got back up to his feet now shivering once more since he was out of the water. Okay so they fell for it but he had to rub it in and be so callus? The boy remembering why he wasn't a fan of the man from last term...too Slytherin for his liking.

Wondering if he ever had a loved one greatly harmed before his eyes? Maybe he wouldn't be acting the way he was if he had.

Eino looked at his doll intently, turning it around and examining it, then looked up at Professor Scabior. The great Harry Potter? If he is so great then why did he need to be saved? At least now he knew who Harry Potter was, though he was disappointed to find out he was not an elf. He would keep the doll and give it to Io, she would probably enjoy practicing voodoo on it. She was very good at it. Plus, she would like to hear about how the doll looked like her before it looked like a doll, and how Eino retrieved it. Eino finger brushed his hair as he waited for the next portion of class. What would they be taking care of, dragons? Dragons were in the Triwizard Tournament too, right? It had to be dragons.

Will came walking out of the water like it was no big deal, which it wasn't, but then again the Care of Magical Creatures professor was more of an outdoorsman than the History of Magic man. His mesh bag with the lobablug was slung over his shoulder but before returning to the class, William summoned a bucket to his side, filled it up with lake water, and then carefully, gently, set the lobalug within. He set it to the side and marched up to the class.

Man. Wetsuits were so much more awkward on land... when they were wet. Shifting from one awkward, no longer webbed foot to the other, Williamson cleared his throat and frowned at his coworker. "No need to berate the kids, Scabbe--- Scabior."

They'd all put forth a decent effort. That was what counted. He looked to the class then and gave them an tight-lipped grimace smile. "So..... I can tell by most of your faces that you aren't exactly.... pleased with us right now...."

Nervous!Gulp!

"But, I assure you, despite what my colleague might have said," he resisted the urge to smack Dash on the back of the head, "There was a method to the madness. The dolls," he eyed the Ravenclaw girl, "were charmed to look like your loved ones while underwater, with the charm obviously wearing off the instant you reached land. So no, we didn't capture or attack any of your family or friends, and no, we didn't set out with the goal to drown anyone." And hopefully the students that had still been down there when he left had surfaced by now.

"So...." to go back to his question, "Why do you think we sent you down to the bottom of the lake in a modified re-enactment of the 1994 Triwizard Tournament? What sort of.... affective objective do you think we were trying to accomplish here?"

The first question was basically the second only reworded for the younger kids. Heh. See what a good teacher he was? Totally not an evil dark wizard hellbent on drowning the population of Hogwarts. Totally not.

Phew! She made it, breathing deeply having only given a few precious seconds left to hold her breath after her gills and webbed feet disappeared. Now what, she had to get to the Hospital Wing, have the Nurse check on her then Owl her dad and... wait. Kimalia looked in her hands. It made her sink to the ground on her knees. It was just.. a doll?

A Harry Potter doll.. what sort of trick was this? Kimalia was incredibly curious about this enchantment, but had no idea were to begin with asking. All she could do was look around at everyone else who was holding the same doll with similar expressions as her face.

OH! They were only charmed? To look like their loved ones? And now..they're just dolls? Merlin! The shock and fear it gave all of them. She was even shaking as she touched her best friend's face and those Professors..those Professors..well..obviously, they tricked their students in believing something that might've even costed their lives!

Yet she couldn't just voice her thoughts out now, could she? She might even be sent into detention if she did. Instead, she calmed herself and said. "Thank you Professor for clearing that matter up." She was really thankful though.

...They still weren't finished? More questions coming their way so basically, not yet. Beezus raised her hand. "Professor Williamson, I suppose your objective for sending us there was for us to experience what really took place during the 1994 Triwizard Tournament," she answered as she hugged the doll more. She was cold so to speak.

Alyssa shuddered when she realized that it could have been her twin that had been captured by the Merpeople, and so was kind of glad that it was just trick that the Professors had played on them to teach them another lesson. The fact that they had to re-enact the 1994 Triwizard Tournament was a bit ironical and coincidental to her considering her family's history, but she wasn't going to tell anyone that. So she pondered the question that the Professor had posed the class.

She raised her hand and said,"Professor could it be that your objective was for us to learn that sometimes sacrifices needed to be made in order for lives to be saved. That we can try to be heroic and save everyone, but that could be at the cost of our own and that is a hard choice to make?" Alyssa hoped that her assumption was correct.

Amelia was so mad at her Professors right now for playing with her and her fellow students like that. But she was also glad that Zayden was safe. That didn't stop her from clutching her doll so tight she was worried she might rip it.

She raised her hand at the question now. "I think we had to do this so we could have first hand experience as to what happened during that incident. And to also see that sometimes we have to make sacrifices for other people, but we can't save everyone. Which was also the intention of the Task when it was done in 1994?" Or so that was what she thought. Maybe they had made the Task for the Tournament to just be mean and screw with people.

But then they also were rescuing real people then, and not just dolls.

Kennedy gasped for air as he made it back up. He gently set his mom down while he regained his breath. That was a close one. Now, a scary thought crossed his mind. If his mom woke up and found that she was at Hogwarts...Oooh, she was going to be REALLY mad. Of course, he would blame it on the professors and let them have her scolding. He wasn't taking their blame for them. Pssh.

As his lungs finally breathed at a normal rate he looked sideways and...WHERE WAS HIS MOM?! Had someone kidnapped her? Seriously, someone here had a thing for his mom...and he absolutely didn't like that. At. All.

He looked closer and saw a...Hero doll? Of course he's read about the Great Harry Potter, but...

This was all a scam. Kennedy stood up and took the doll. It was not cool. Not AT ALL. BUT, since that meant his mom wasn't really here he wouldn't be scolded...nor grounded.

After settling down, he thought about the question. Why would they send them down to the bottom of the lake thinking that they were going to get attacked, just to find a VERY dear family member floating. Hmm... To scare the living daylights out of them?! That wasn't the answer, but he was still a bit flustered because of the whole situation.

"Professor," he said, raising his hand. "Was it so we could relive history and experience it in our own way," he said. Sure, he read about the event, but for him it had felt different than he ever imagined, and maybe it also did to everyone else.

Dragging his body on shore, Kurumi collapsed the minute she was entirely on dry land from enhaustion. She had made it...thank MERLIN! Her face sort of in the sand, Kurumi winced when the first thing she heard was Professor Scabior's voice. The cry of a werewolf would have been more welcoming.
....

WHAT?!

Kurumi looked at the body that SHOULD have been Jonathan's and now saw a goofy looking doll. THAT.WAS.NOT.FUNNY. She didn't care what the purpose of the exercise really was, risking their lives over a DOLL was not a proper method of teaching.

Did the Headmaster know about this? Did he approve of this lesson? Yes, the man was always preaching about constant vigilance and telling them not to die, but what would he say when his OWN PROFESSORS had led them into danger and possible doom under false circumstances? Hmm? What about THEM apples?!

Now THAT was the understatement of the century. Her eyes narrowed and she let go of her doll, allowing it to hit the ground.

Yep, Jonathan was going to laugh at her.

Kurumi simply stared at the man, unsure if she really wanted to answer him or not. She did NOT want to encourage this sort of activity. Reluctantly, Kurumi raised her hand. "To bring history to life for each of us? Perhaps this was not just to us a sense of stepping back in time, but to also have us each take some sort of personal lesson from it?"

Like...never trusting these two professor ever again?