With the face complete, Benny pulled on the reins to slow the abraxan and thus the carriage to a slow trot. "You too!" he answered as he returned the hug awkwardly. The gradually slowed to a stop and as Adi got out of the carriage, he debated the next move. They were finished and the professors hadn't said anything about what to do next. As if there was anything happening next. Other then the eventual end of class.

Finally the Gryffindor opted to guide the horse and carriage off to one side, cautiously stepping back down to the ground yet still holding onto the reins. Just in case they were needed for any reason. "Thank you...." Ben absently told the abraxan, rubbing him in thanks for helping them in their activity. It was too bad he didn't have anything to treat the creature.

Trying his best to make sure the carriage was steady Bay curved in and out of the paths.. he looked back as they were racing away to see if Lux was still holding on.. and yup she was.. he gave the reins another flick as he pulled to one side as he saw the snow pile getting closer and closer but Lux was all over it.

It got blasted away. "AWESOME LUX" he yelled back as he kept looking forward…. "it is fun" he agreed as the horse kept moving faster and faster.

"watch out! we have more things incoming" he tried to warn Lux but he didn't know if she could hear him.

Declan's grip on the reins tightened, his jaw clenched, and you could almost swore you could see steam coming off his head. THIS KID WAS DRIVING HIM CRAZY.

'D'ya think you can go faster' UGH. He swore that if these FOOL kept sassing him, he would turn this carriage back around! But, they did have a race a win. So, he snapped the reins in order to go faster. "Is this better? I'm afraid I left the turbo engine back at home."

Oh, Merlin he was so angry with kid, he was involuntarily furrowing his eyebrows. IF HE GETS WORRY LINES ON HIS BEAUTIFUL FACE, OH BY MERLIN.

Declan spotted an upcoming obstacle and sped up to avoid it before Grayson could do anything about it. Hmmph. Hmmph.

Mo grinned stupidly when Lex complimented his driving, although he had to acknowledge that he was doing a more than fair job of it. It helped that he was used to pulling up sharply on his broom, he supposed, since this employed many of the same muscles. Plus he rather thought he understood what their Abraxan was feeling. He was nervous about the explosions, rebellious about having to continue on the same path, and he did NOT like all the tugging on the reigns.

Mo wanted to tug LESS if he could help it, and he scowled broadly at Lex when she was grabbing at the reins. He wasn't trying to take her wand from her, and she needed to let him just be. All the tugging was confusing their Abraxan, and having two sets of hands on the reins was even worse. Mo tugged the rein from Lex's hands and redirected the Abraxan around the snow pile.

"You blast. Don't drive. You chose your job, remember?"

As Zander got on behind Simon, he prepared himself mentally for the whizzing snowballs and whatever obstacles lay ahead of him. The Abraxan began moving at a reasonable pace and then all of a sudden, they were going really quickly! Yes, they had made the right choice with the winged horse so far. Brilliant. The horse continued to speed up and Simon had to hold onto the railing of the chariot. He nodded and grinned. "Yeah, he really is moving at a rapid pace," said Simon as he re-steadied himself.

They came up to the area with all the whizzing snowballs. From the far left corner of his vision, Simon could barely see something coming towards them. Nope. It wasn't a snowball. "Heads up, Zander. Flying objects. I'll get them." Using the sideways v-formation that they had learnt in DADA, he waved his wand and said the incantation, "Reducto! Reducto!" The objects were obliterated and landed safely behind them carriage.

He went back to surveying the scene when he saw something glimmer in the distance. What, was that? he wondered as he squinted his eyes, trying to decipher whatever that mold was. OH. MERLIN. It was a huge mound of ice or snow? "Watch out up ahead we have an ice mound or something," he said, informing Zander. Raising his wand, he performed another spell to protect their chariot and winged horse. "Incendio!"

WHEEEE! They were zooming through this course really fast. It was almost hard for her to see what was coming up, and it was definitely hard to keep a hold of the side of the carriage.

As Bay warned her about more things coming up ahead, she got her wand ready and spotting the snow banks, she blasted them using, "Confringo!" The piles of snow blew up, raining down on them. "Awesome!" Were there more coming? Or was there a break in the obstacles?

Zander smiled widely as their horse kept up the quick pace. Things were going pretty well for the pair so far. Zander opened his mouth to respond to Simon when, EWWWW EUGH! A bug fly directly into his mouth. "EUGH PFFTT gross," the third year spat it out in utter disgust. Ew. Yeah, shutting mouth now. That was nasty.

But it looked like the bug wasn't the only thing he had to worry about. Flying objects!?! Was this safe? Uh Professor? Ahem, Professor-s? Zander, by instinct, almost let go of the reigns to pull out his wand, but Simon was already two steps ahead. Oooh. Yeah, that and Zander had a carriage to drive. Oops. "Nice one, Simon!"

Then noticing the huge block of ice ahead, Zander yanked the reigns towards the left. "HOLD ON TIGHT!" he yelled out to his partner. The Abraxan jerked around the other way, still going full speed and Zander almost went flying towards the other side of the carriage. Thankfully he caught on to the bottom of his seat before that could happen. PHEW. Noticing another carriage right ahead, Zander decided to shift their path yet again. This time he yanked the reigns to the opposite side. Poor horse was probably going to get real dizzy with all this direction changing.

Hearing Lux yell it kind of scared the horse thingy… "wahhhoooo there horsey… its okay.. just keep running" as soon as he said that he had in his head "finding Nemo" stuck in his head… "just keep swimming.." where he wasn't paying attention as the horse started to veer of course..

Pulling the reins he corrected the error and tried to make sure everything was steady for Lux… but knowing how bumpy his ride was in the front he knew it was only going to be worse in the back.. but thank goodness for right now for what he could see nothing was coming at him….. or was it?

How far along the course were they? She didn't know how many more explosions the horse could take before it finally gave up and took flight--on second thought, she'd like to keep blasting please. No matter how trained a horse was, she bet if provoked well enough it would take flight and she and Mo would get a real joy ride, one that wouldn't even be their fault!!!

Lex released the reigns without much opposition when Mo grabbed at them. No driving, got it. Not like she was regretting her job or anything. The blasting was the FUN.

The Gryffindor flopped back into her seat, feeling the carriage shifting this way and that again. When she lifted her head again she could see the finish line and others already there. It figured that happen but it was fine, the ride had been bumpy and epic. Her wands was at the ready for any obstacles, not looking forward to another swerve but anticipating it nonetheless. Weirdly though...there wasn't. The horse darted across the finish line before slowing to a trot and finally coming to a hault.

They did it! "Awesome!"

CARRIAGE! Uh oh. Uh oh. This was bad. Simon glanced over quickly at Zander, but the other third year had already taken charge. Hold on tight? Zander wouldn't have to say it again as Simon immediately grabbed the railing of the carriage in front of him.

Woah.

That was a REALLY sharp turn. Simon grabbed the front of the carriage hard to steady himself and clenched his teeth. And a very close miss too. Once they were speeding ahead and he was steadied, Simon grinned at his partner. "Nice steering, mate!" he said. Yeah, they made a great team! He glanced at their Abraxon who was charging ahead. Poor thing, he thought and hoped that the Abraxon would get a nice deserved rest after this race.

Another flying object came towards them? Was that a snowman? Stop it. He had to focus. "Reducto!" he exclaimed, moving his wand in the sideways v-formation. The snowman burst into small pieces of snow that had started to turn into ice. MERLIN. Simon blinked. He had forgotten how cold it was out here when they were racing. It was really cold out here, wasn't it?.

"Watch out! Incoming ice, hard snow, or whatever you call it. Don't worry, I've got it," he said, warning his partner. He quickly performed the Shield Charm to make sure that they wouldn't get hit too hardly by the newly formed ice. "Protego!" He cast the charm so that it encompassed Zander, him, the Abraxon, and their carriage. When the charm wore off they had more flying objects headed their way. Seriously? Were the Professors trying to kill them?! He hoped not. "Reducto! Incendio! Reducto!" he shouted as he moved his wand, trying his best to stop the incoming objects from hitting one of them or spooking out the Abraxon.

Things were getting bumpier and bumpier and it was starting to make Lux feel sick. Bump bump bump, she was being jostled around and there were a few times that she thought she would go flying out onto the ice. If that happened, she would be paying another visit to the Healer, so the girl made sure that she was holding on extra tight.

Spotting another snow pile, she cast Confringo at it. Of course the spell missed because it was hard to take proper aim. Another try missed as well, but the third one hit her target and more snow exploded around them.

“Eyes on the target, Mordaunt.” Ethan commanded himself mentally as he held on the reins and steered Gray away from the remnants of the ice that was put to smithereens by Lily. “Good shot!” The Slytherin called out and squinted as he tried his best to keep his focus on the carriage that carried Professors Fuller and Thompson. Just like in snowboarding, he’d have to weave through a slope, but should keep his focus on the finish line. In their case, their finish line’s a moving carriage pulled by a thestral.

“Snowballs up ahead! Hang on!” See? Forewarning’s effective and such. Ethan quickly looked to his right to see if there was any carriage coming in, and steered Gray in that direction to avoid the pelted snowballs.

THWACK!

Oh no he didn’t! The Slytherin’s used to snow and snowballs and snow fights okay? But that snowball did hurt his ego a bit. A quick look to his left and steered Gray in that direction, overtaking a carriage. “If I knew there was a race, I would have brought my snow goggles with me.”

“Let’s go, Gray!” Yeeeeeehaaaaw!!!

His bottom was starting to hurt, he wished he had a pillow with him because every move was just hurting his bones. Risking the danger of looking back at Lux to see if she was alright he saw that she didn't look to well.. "you alright??? did you want me to pull over?" yeah he knew this was a race and all and it was for class but if it was making his girl feel horrible or sick or just ANYTHING he would stop in a heart beat.

as soon as he said that though he saw her move her wand and he couldn't see.. there was snow everywhere like he was in a snow globe. "AHHHHHHH" he said as he really hoped this horse knew where to run… "stay on the path" he thought because he had no clue where he was right now.. thats until the snow went away and he could almost see the finish line..

"only a few more minutes left" he yelled back hoping that she could hear him… "just hold on lux.. were almost done" he thought as he slapped those reins again and pushed the horsey to its limits to get there faster.

Honestly, Lux really would like to stop because she was feeling nauseous, but she also knew that this was a race and she would feel bad if they came in last place because she was feeling sick. Bay was being so sweet though; no surprise there because he was ALWAYS sweet. "I'll try to be okay." Yeah, she was not going to be sick in the carriage if she could help it.

Oh gosh, more veering. That as not helping matters, but fortunately Bay managed to get them back on course again. Thank goodness they were almost done this race, though of course there had to be more obstacles in their way. These Professors really didn't want to make this easy for them. Trying her best to hold in there, she sent some more Confringo spells at the snow banks coming up ahead so that they blasted away.

Arista was cool to be the one who control the winged horse? Nice. Candice followed her partner toward where the Aethonan was. She was SO excited to do this race. She hoped the Aethonan was a fast one because they have a race to win.

Candice raised her eyebrows when Arista called her by her surname. "Just stick with Candice from now on, yeah?" Because calling her Messer was just weird. She climbed into the carriage after her partner and settled in for now. Wand at the ready. "We're set, Royal." She better know how to control his thing.

Oh wrote Lux was being so brave he would have to take her on an extra special date after this but he really hopped that she wasn't sticking it out for him. Bay didn't care if they finished but if she says she's alright then he will trust her judgment.

Seeing snow banks explode ahead of him he yelled back at her as he tried to streer around it. "awesome were almost there......" he stopped...

He didn't know what to tell but he managed to say "sooooo many of them ahhhhhh" he bumped into one and the carriage was super bumpy but bay managed to get through it. He wondered if Lux could deal with so many banks by her self. He did his best to help by trying to drive extra careful.

"Oh, come on!" This was insane. Jostled around some more as Bay hit a snow bank, Lux knew that he was trying extra hard to be careful for her, but the snow falling everywhere wasn't helping. "Sorry, I'm trying my best." Of course she knew he wasn't bothered by this, but still she felt bad because it was her job. With her wand, she managed to blast other snow piles away, obviously resulting in more snow raining down on them.

"Confringo! Confringo! Confringo!" Why had they made the last bit so hard? They could have decided to be nice, but nope. That didn't seem to be the case at all. Could this thing be over soon so that she wouldn't feel sick anymore?

Zander held on to the reigns as tightly as he could. His poor hands were getting all sore, but he couldn't give up yet! The pair was already making such great progress. It would be a shame to stop right now in the midst of all this excitement. AND AHHHH MORE OBJECTS! Zander hardly had enough time to even acknowledge the compliment from his partner because the professors were busy TRYING TO KILL THEM.

"Great spellwork!" he shouted. Thankfully Simon was really quick with his spells and BOOM snowman explosion! Ice went everywhere and BRRRRRRRR cold. Snowman bits, very cold. Yep. Extremely cold. Zander wrapped his blanket around his body even tighter than before and made a mental note to remember gloves next time. While the third year was busy thinking about how COLD it was, he completely forgot that he had a horse to steer! OOPS!

Oh no. Instead of going straight ahead like they were supposed to... The horse had other plans. It started turning around going back to the... starting line? "AHHH NOOO!" Taking the reigns tightly in his hands, Zander yanked the horse in the correct direction. "AH so-so-sorry m-m-mate," Zander shivered. "I'll get us back on track and ahead in no time!" Oops. But it looked like they were almost halfway there? So that was good right?

OK so Lux could handle herself.... But the only thing that made his job harder was all this snow... Knowing that they were so close to the end he didn't say anything.. He just wanted to concentrate on getting them to the end safely.

Turning right then Turing left.... Over and over again until they made it passed the crazy amount of snow banks he saw that they had finished.. Pulling the reins to him to make the house so bay got off and went to go help Lux out of the carriage.

Holding out his hand for her to take "you were... Just amazing.... Are you alright? " he wanted to give her praise but at the same time checking to see if she was alright.

Cutty's body slid to the left with Bev's turn. "I wasn't daydreaming!" He said quite unconvincingly in his defense. He leaned forward, got a good grip on the sides of the carriage and ducked a bit, though not before a lock of Beverly Wayne's cherry-scented hair whipped across his face and obstructed his view momentarily.

"FLII...!", he began stopping himself before he snipped off the ends of Beverly's hair and instead directed his energy toward the oncoming snowballs. "Reducto!" He said reducing them to smithereens like Professor Romanos had taught them.

They were definitely in the home stretch now; Lux could see the finish line getting closer and closer. Of course it was hard with all the snow falling, but she didn't care. That was enough for her. Happily, she watched as they crossed the finish line and the carriage was stopped. Thank goodness!

Taking his hand, she made her way out of the carriage unsteadily, almost falling over. "My head is spinning so much." She felt like she was going to throw up. Fast horse rides in a carriage were not for her. "You did a great job, but I don't want to do that ever again." Weakly she laughed while trying to stop feeling sick.

"Thanks!," said Simon as he pulled his scarf closer to him in order to keep warm. The flying objects had stopped for now... but they would be back soon. They always came back. He took a second to catch his breath and then he realized that it had gotten colder. He shivered. Brrr... The temperature was dropping by the minute. Soon enough, they'd be icicles. Or so he felt that way. He rubbed his hands together quickly to warm himself up. It helped a little but it wasn't going to keep him warm for long. He was about to turn around to start when all of a sudden the horse had other ideas. He glanced over to see how Zander was doing and saw that he wasn't paying attention.

Wait! Wait. Where were they going and was that a gigantic block of ice they were headed straight for!? ERMEGAHD! ZANDER WASN'T STEERING ANYMORE- THEY WERE GOING TO DIE! Simon felt as if he was going to fall out of the carriage so he grabbed on the carriage even tighter before. Nope, he was not going to die. Today was not the day! He had so much living to do after all.

Silently panicking, Simon almost went to grab for the reigns but Zander had already got them and had fixed the Abraxon's direction. Phew! That had been close. When his partner apologized, Simon played it off cooly and decided not to let his partner know that he had been internally panicking. Nope. He was all good. They were both good. "No worries, mate. It happens! We'll just catch up to them!" he said meaning every word.

Then the flying objects started to come back at them. Simon narrowed his eyes. Greaaat. Then he started using defensive spells as well as "Reducto!" and "Incendio!.

Seeing that when she got out of the carriage she was a little off balanced bay steadied her shoulders and brought her in for a quick hug before letting her go.... She was shaking.. And didn't look to good.

"okay I think you should sit down right here as I go tie the reins up and I'll come back for you so we can get some water and maybe some toast will be a good idea.. " everytime he was like that his mother brought him toast so he hopped that it will work.

Leaving her he went and tied off the reins as he started his way back to her he gave the horse a few good pats on the neck as he said " good horsey " he was a good horse he got them through the crazy race.

PHEW. That was a close one. Luckily Zander had snapped out of his inner thoughts before it was too late. They could've hit a giant block of ice. OR WORSE another carriage! But thankfully he got ahold of the reins again and all was well.... for now. So no need to panic... This time around Zander had to be SUPER careful. He didn't want Simon thinking that he was a totally dunderhead.

So yes, so much care. Full of care. Zander 'Care' Adair. Yeah. He looked extra hard at the path set in front of him. ICE BLOCK STRAIGHT AHEAD? No problem. This time he even started yanking WAY before they reached the obstacle, so that the turn was a lot smoother. Yeah, Zander was totally coordinated with all these things. The turn was so nice and gradual that it almost felt as if they were gliding on the ice. Ah. This is the life.

NOOO MORE OBJECTS! Zander looked back at Simon (but only for a second) and gave him a small nod. He knew what to do. Now, EYES ON THE PRIZE, Zander. AHHH GIANT SNOWMAN! At least Zander was actually steering this time. Heh. Phew. Driving a carriage with a giant winged horse that's super fast and powerful, while being pelted with a bunch of flying objects and dodging big ice mounds, isn't too bad. Actually it was kind of like therapy.

The hug made Lux feel a little better just because it was Bay, but sitting down really was a good idea. Plopping to the ground, she watched as he went to deal with the horse. He really was good with this kind of thing. "You really did an amazing job there." No way would she have been able to steer as well as he had. "And toast and water sounds lovely." Toast was always amazing when she was feeling nauseous; it was the only thing that she could keep down then. "And maybe when I feel better we can have some hot chocolate."