Beverly Wayne was officially crazy. Se kept yelling things at Cutty, who was thrashing his wand around, almost turning Beverly and Marisol into human kabobs. And it was...awesome!

Their Granian thrashed around, and Mari almost swallowed a snowball the size of her fist. She deflected it with her left arm and winced as the hard, cold lump hit her harder than expected. The first year knew she could look forward to a pretty nasty bruise, but...

"It is good!" Mari whooped excitedly. She haphazardly waved her wand about, yelling, "Evanesco! Evanesco! Take that, you snow of ball!" The Spaniard started to yell in her native language, but she didn't take notice of that. Snowballs tried to pelt them but epically failed. Beware the wrath of Cutty and Marisol Cruz!

"It's nice sometimes," he replied, still urging Dave to spread his wings and DO something other than TROT. Maybe he should have asked for an Abraxan instead. Even if they were scarier and more aggressive, they sure looked like they were actually moving. Unlike their horse right here.

Dima would have tried to make note of all the spells Sophie was using, but the kid was far too distracted to do so. Instead, he just let her do whatever she pleased with her wand and steered the Aethonan around a slippery path of ice. Yep! He was good at this, he was!

"Just peachy!" And look, they were nearing the finish line!

"I think you...pull him on the reins the opposite way you wanna go, right?" Caleb said. He didn't know. Did he look like a horse whisperer? But he didn't have time to think about that, because at the next second, there was a giant SNOW BALL flying right at their face!

Literally RIGHT AT THEM.

"Protego!" he exclaimed, waving his wand and pointing right at the snowball. It exploded with a loud SPLAT, and he was assuming that he had done that with his spell. "Keep going!" he called to her. The sooner they finished this course, the better!

So things were getting to be sort of normal now, and Sophie could see the finish line just up ahead. "Almost there," she said, pointing forward with her wand. She didn't cast. She was just pointing out the finish line. She could tell Dima wasn't very impressed with the horse. It wasn't flying, and she was sure that's what he wanted it to do.

Sophie actually thought they were going to make it to the end without anymore sudden interruptions. "Oh, look," she said to Dima. "I think we're going to make it to the end without--..." Whoaaaa. Hello, slippery ice!

Sophie tried her best to get her wand pointed in the right direction, but the ice was making that impossible. She finally managed to get it pointed to the ice. They'd learned a hot air charm in Herbology, and she could use it to melt the ice and give them a nice ground to get across! "Ventus!" she exclaimed. The ice began to melt, and they were soon crossing just plain dirt and grass. A second later, they crossed the finish line.

"Done!" she exclaimed. They hadn't been amongst the first, but Sophie wasn't too worried about that. She was just glad to finally be finished.

Look at their firstie go!

Beverly had this strange swelling sensation in her chest. It was a smidgen similar to that of when she tried something and got it right on the first try, or when she beat someone. Pride. LOL. That was funny. She's never felt pride for a housemate like that. Go Marisol!

"Keep shooting, Marisol, we're almost there." You too, Cutty. The finish line, she wanted to cross that. Preferably with all her teammates. If they were unfortunate, well...she still wanted to cross it herself.

Leaning forward a bit, as to stay clear of their line of fire and for concentration reasons, Beverly steered the Granian to the side slightly. Would everyone else get out of their way? JEEZ.

She was trying to win here.

Of course he had no morals. There was no time for things like that when THEY WERE IN A RACE.

He was also VERY glad with how fast the winged horse with going. The fourteen year old would compliment Declan but his ego was saying that he shouldn't. Unless this one decided to be NICE then MAYBE he'd think about it. Right now, though, he was trying to hold on for dear life ad not be thrown out of the carriage. Again, if that happened, it was ENTIRELY this one's fault.

They were getting close? Grayson immediately perked up and looked over towards the finish line. Huh. They really were getting close. Who would've thought that they'd make it this far? Well, HE did but idea of making it there without killing each other first seemed impossible. "Brilliant! Keep it up!" See? He could be ni--

Freaking Merlin, those rocks AGAIN. Hadn't he blasted them away, already?!

"REDUCTO!" Thank Merlin for that Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson and all that practice he had had with this spell. Now the large pile of rocks had been plasted off into smithereens..............

................. that were rocketing towards them. That wasn't meant to happen.

"PROTEGO!" A shield erupted around them and the horse. Bits of rocks bumped into the shield as ricocheted off, causing Grayson to smirk in delight. Sucks for anyone behind them, really. Not a care was given about that, as long as THEY and the horse weren't the ones to be hurt.

Zander grinned at his new friend as he nodded his head in agreement. Yeah they totally did make an awesome team. Only, like, THE most awesome team. Hogwarts had better watch out because if these two ever worked together again, all the other students are toast. Heh. Especially now that both the boys knew how to use the hot air charm mhmm.

Speaking of hot air, Simon was right. The poor Abraxon was probably real cold standing out here in this weather. The Gryffindor took off his blanket that he had been using the whole lesson, and carefully draped it around the winged horse. "Hopefully that'll help," he offered with a shrug. And if not? There's always the hart air charm? And Zander wasn't even shivering anymore! All the adrenaline from the race must've warmed him up.

Marisol's teeth chattered in the frigid wind. Her robes billowed out around her as they moved rapidly forward. Dang it. The eleven year-old's spells were growing weaker, for her arms were getting tired.

She distantly heard Beverly cheer her on. Aw, shucks! She felt a bit stronger and got back into the groove of things. Mari found that she could ignore the called if she pretended it didn't exist.

"Thanks!" Marisol shouted out to Beverly.

The firing stopped and Beverly would have wondered if one of two behind her had fallen off if it wasn't for robes flowing everywhere. It was getting colder the faster the Granian sped up. Being in the front, Beverly got most of the hit, but she was riding a winged horse. She could brave through it.

She heard Marisol's thanks and grinned to herself. A little encouragement could go a long way. Though, Beverly likes using those ways for other kinds of gain. As for this one, she didn't want to get hit by a snowball and get thrown off the Granian.

"You can hold on to me," she called back. The firstie was probably bouncing all sorts of ways seeing how small she was. "And--"

She didn't get to finish. There was a bank of snow AND a snowball heading their way. She gripped the reins tight. "We're going to jump, guys." Meaning hold on tight and DON'T FALL. "And get that snowball!"

She ducked just in case Cutty got more ideas of stabbing things with his wand.

Marisol sighed. This was crazily fun. She quite liked Beverly, and Cutty was entertaining in a weird way. The first year placed her arms around the older Slytherin girl, because their ride was getting shaky. Then Beverly yelled and stood up like she was going to jump. They were headed towards a giant snow bank!

"Okay!" Mari said to the wind. She braced herself for the fall and closed her eyes. Her knees shook as she jumped.

This was a good way to get over her aversion of human contact. It was, and she didn't even mind when Marisol actually listened and held on to her. Beverly sort of felt like a protector, which wasn't a bad feeling at all. Was this how Kennedy felt when he helped people out? Meh. It wasn't THAT bad.

Snapping the reins just in time to let the Granian know when to jump, Beverly braced herself, flowing with its movements. When the winged horse hit clear path, she breathe in relief. THEY'RE ALIVE.

"Okay, Marisol," she said, "I need you clear the path of snowballs." Like now. There were a few coming there way. "You too, Mordaunt!" she said louder, just in case he hadn't heard her.

Was he daydreaming again?

Ethan nodded in acknowledgement as he made a face and tried to slow down Gray. Merlin, this horse is FAST. He seriously couldn’t feel his face anymore but his eyes are already watering from the cold air. The Slytherin however opened and closed his mouth to keep the blood flowing up his face. See? This is the reason why snowboarders and skiers wear masks.

The Slytherin concentrated on what he was doing that he didn’t realize Lily pointing her wand at him and casted the hot air charm. He did however note the change in temperature inside his layers of clothing, switching very fast from cold to warm. “Thanks Lily!” he hollered over his shoulder to acknowledge her. Oh and heeey! Snow’s melting on his face. Good. Good.

Ethan cringed as his partner retaliated with a series of blasting curses, and protection charms around them. Merlin’s pants. Someone should remind him not to mess with this woman.

It wasn't that bad! The snow was soft for one thing, and the horse didn't seem too shaken. Marisol breathed. Huh. She had not realized that she was holding her breath. Her nails were digging into Beverly's shoulders, so Mari let go.

Was this activity purposely getting harder and harder? The first year didn't know, but she'd better get those snowballs out of the way. Cutty didn't seem to be paying attention. He was not easily fazed.

Marisol noticed that her entire left arm was black and blue. That one snowball had been bigger and harder than it seemed at the time. And it was her wand arm. Dang it! Mari lifted her wand weakly and kept casting spells, though she'd rather they got to the finish line soon.

"Uh-huh," the eleven year-old grunted to her team.

The pace they were going at was perfect! They were gliding towards the finish line like butter. Well, for him it felt like butter. Poor Grayson, back there, was holding on for his dear life. Heh, heh, heh. Any other day when it was nice and sunny, he would be feeling super majestic cruising through the air like that, but right now, the cold air was piercing his skin like needles. He was hoping nothing would freeze and fall off. Oh, the horror!

WAS HE BEING NICE?!?! WHAAAAAAAAA?! The cold air was getting to the poor kid. They needed to get to somewhere warm and stat!

Just as he was, (*sigh*), going to compliment him as well for doing a DECENT job at taking out the obstacles in their way, Declan's eyes grew wide at the sight of the cloud of bits of rock shooting towards them. WHAT WAS HE TO DO!? They were going too fast for him to hold on to the reins with one hand! He's going to have to take the pain for their assurance to be alive. The boy ducked his head, waiting for the impact,

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhh...Ahh?"

Nothing hit him or the horses! Declan looked up to see Grayson managed to cast a shield fast enough to protect them all. EXCELLENT JOB, GRAYSON! Ahem. DECENT job.

There were nails digging into her shoulder, ouch ouch. Beverly rolled her shoulder when Marisol loosened her grip and let go. Feisty and strong little one. Bev wanted her on team even more. She could do with strong people. Not prissy ones. Or wannabes. Or stupid heads. Or...the list went on.

OH.

THERE IT WAS.

"The finish line." She pointed on ahead. Did they hear that? They were almost there--wait, who was grunting, and WHY were they grunting? If they were going to vomit Bev demanded they get off now. She didn't do vomit. Nope.

"You guys okay?" she asked. "Just a bit more. Blast those snowballs and we're done." They were THAT close to the finish line. She urged the Granian to go faster. A little more and...

THERE WERE THERE.

“Let’s go Gray! Just a little more…we’re almost there!” Ethan bent forward like a horseman would and spoke to the Granian. “You’re doing great!” The Slytherin kept his eyes fixed on the finish line even if he’s already having a hard time seeing. Stupid, cold air. This is going to be a painful remember for him to not forget his snowboard mask and goggles ever. He could swear his lips is already a shade of blue and his face streaked with snowflakes…what with the blasting of snowballs from Lily.

“I can see the finish line, Lily!” And that means she should hold on because with that, another yank of Gray’s reins sent them racing forward, faster towards the finish line.

They might not be the first one to reach it, but boy. He’s glad that the activity is almost over.

MERLIN.

Marisol had seen the finish line and know that they would make it. It was kind of a matter of attitude. They could only be- what, a 100 meters away? Mari really wanted to give up and get an ice pack for her arm, which was ironic, since she could practically reach up and grab one, but they were almost there.

"Yeah," Mari assured Beverly, "It is well." She Vanished some more snowballs. Where did they go? Marisol remembered reading something about that. Maybe she'd made the parchment into a spitball. Well, keep Vanishing! What did that matter right now?

Marisol blinked and they were there. Yes! She was so relieved. She hopped off and onto the ground. Take that!

"Good work," she congratulated her teammates.

"I don't really care about what horse we use. It's probably best if I don't drive because I don't have any experience driving carriages with winged horses. Did they really trust first years to drive the carriages? It was cold, and Penelope wanted to be warm inside somewhere. This activity would be interesting.

Javy, the Creature Professor had been taking control of the Thestral. Steering it past the many obstacles.. while Piersie, the Charms Professor, dealt with adding more obstacles for the students. Poor students.. luckily they didn't have to ride on for too long, since the distance would only make it more difficult to return the winged horses back.

Anyways, by the time they made it to the designated finishing point, Javy could make out the many teams of students arriving. Now who would be first? Why, none other than young students Mr. Aditya Rehman and Mr. Benjamin Atreyu. "Mr. Rehman and Mr. Atreyu, congratulations on finishing first! Five extra points for each of you." Soon after, the second team arrived after. "Mr. Branxton and Miss Cambridge, a well done to you and three extra points to the each of you." Smiling as he got out from the carriage to see everyone else arriving. "Excellent. Class is dismissed now everyone, the homework shall be posted momentarily."

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ooc: Class is now over. Thanks for coming to participate with us everyone. =)