Arista had stopped for a second and she missed all the sword fighting, how was tis possible!?? She sighed realizing tat she had indeed missed it all. She made a frown. Oh well next time she would for sure be in on the fun!! She picked up another plank and skipped her way over to the pile and dropped one down.

Yeap she was strong!!! She giggled knowing it was so not her!

OMG RACES!? She looked over at AJ who had just started. Eep they started without her she grabbed a new plank and started running with it. Just before she reached the pile she tripped on her feet and banged her knees on the ground.

Giggling she stood up and dropped the plank down.

Angel only spoke good things about her so that was a plus. Even if she didn't though, AJ would know that she was only teasing. The two sisters loved each other, but they enjoyed giving each other crap just as much. "You're welcome to join." AJ was always up for a sword fight.




"I'm already ahead of you there." Did she see, did she see. "I carried four planks together a minute ago. I'm going to try for six this time." how long did this potion last again? She didn't smash her claw that fine so she hoped that she would have success with this.



As she was in the middle of her race, a girl caught her attention from the corner of her eye. "Hey Arista!" She too had decided to be apart of the cool group. Once AJ had managed to to meet her destination she had clearly not won, but she wasn't in last place either so that was something. Noticing Arista fall down, she was going to offer her a helping hand, but the lion was already on her feet again. "All good?" She was smiling so that was a good sign.

Oh, were they carrying people now? ”I’m willing to be carried or to be the carrier.” Just throwing that out there. While she waited for the next fun game to break out, AJ went and attempted to pick up six planks this time. Whoa. She was wobbly, and didn’t know how this was going to work out for her, but she was going to try anyways.

The Slytherin got himself a plank and placed it on his shoulder like it was nothing. Lex. Noted. The boy grinned at her response and was delighted by it. Ethan liked cool girls, and this Lex person is one of them. "I'm Ethan. Hi!" the boy waved the plank in front of his face. "You wanna--" Ethan got distracted when Mo started talking again.




Whoa. He teamed up with Coop already and...wait. Wait! He doesn't have a partner yet! "Go get yourself a partner, Lex! The race is on!" Ethan hollered over to the badged lion and looked for a smaller person to dangle on his plank. And fast. He can beat Mo at this game since he's smaller, and more hyper. Haha!



"AJ! Grab the other end of my plank, quickly!" Ethan wasted no time and got his plank on top of his shoulder again and waited for the little firstie to dangle on it. They can work on their team's name after, because they have to catch up with Mo!

Everything was happening so fast people were moving around him busying themselves doing things…eeeeepp he needed to do more, grabbing some more wood he placed it in the frame like everyone else was doing and said "hey I have stuff to hammer over here?"

hopefully someone would come over and help him out because his arms started to shake.

Well, aside from the jogging, carrying two planks didn't seem all that hard. Of course, she wouldn't be saying that had she not drunk that potion. Psht, in normal circumstances she wouldn't be carrying planks at all. Not when she was of age and able to preform magic whenever and wherever! But this display of strength was actually nice. Because, Cassia knew that she'd never be able to experience the true feeling of being physically strong enough to haul heavy items. But now she felt as if she was in Mr. Kirby's shoes. That man looked like he could lift anything, and those plank of woods would be like mattresses for him. So yeah, she was going through the experience.

And the Gryffindor was being her fast enthusiastic self. Cassia wanted to get advantage of the head start she'd gotten but it probably was too late now that Lex had FOUR planks of wood. Wow. Now that's someone who drank a strength potion and wanted to show off. And win the challenge. Motivated by that, the snake picked up her pace. She had fewer planks so it only made sense that she'd be able to get there faster. And NO it wasn't cheating, pfft. The odds were totally equal.

Though, now Lex was like a couple of strides behind her, but the seventh-year kept going and only risked a second to look back and nod approvingly at her bestie. This was going really well, except that her nose was kind of itchy now. Of course, just when her hands were busy. Thanks a lot, skin.

But no! She refused to pause to scratch her nose, not until she reached the other pile at least. So, awkward nose wiggling was happening. NO ONE LOOK!
Oh, someone was talking to them! Cassia hoped the younger one didn't see any of the nose wiggling, she had reputation and all, wouldn't want to ruin that. Especially since she'd never personally met the lil ravenclaw before. And the said eaglette got many points, Cassia!points that is, for the title she used. The blond approved of this. "Hello, there," she greeted the girl back with a smile. "I'm Cassia," BUT she could totally keep calling her that. "What's your name?" Might as well busy herself so she wouldn't be thinking of the need to scratch her nose.

"Looks fun up there," And it did. Was Ethan serious about lifting her? Yeah, she probably shouldn't. She wasn't as tiny as the girl carried by Mo.

And there were others passing her and in the race. Younger ones with MORE planks than her. That was impressive. And she had a very good reason as to why she didn't lift more, and she was trying to remember make up that reason now.

And just like that she had a taken. Without any hesitation, the first year grabbed the other end of Ethan's plank as instructed. "Let's goooo," she chimed. "We got this." Oh yeah. This boy had energy and AJ was petite so she didn't add too much weight to the plank. Of course they were all hopped up on strength juice so it most likely didn't matter much anyways.

Ethan wore his game-face on and waited for the extra weight on his plank. As soon as he felt the tilt on his plank, he secured his hold on the other end to make sure AJ won't fall. "Hold on tight! Let go once we get to Point B!" And Point B was where the builders were. As soon as he heard AJ's go signal, he went off and chased after Mo. "Chaaaaaaaarrrrrrggggggggeeeee!!!"

Speed. Speed was key! Hehehehe! They got this!

Well, apparently they weren't all the way through with constructing the beams, because just as Sophie asked how much more beam work they had to do, she heard Bay call out for some help. "Hammer and nails, right," she said. That'd be her. She fished in her pocket but soon realized she was out of nails. "Err, sorry, Bay. I'll be right back." Hopefully he'd taken a really good dose of that potion.

She dashed off and returned later with a handful of nails. She immediately placed one in the area Bay needed her to and began pounding away with the hammer. "Okay, how's this look?" she asked. "Any more areas need hammering?"

"Lots of fun," Maddie assured the older girl with a grin. Her arms would probably hurt EVENTUALLY but for right now, she was hanging tough. Strong Maddie was STRONG.

Cassia. The HEAD GIRL was Cassia. Maddie would remember this for reasons, mhm. She'd also pass the information along to Dima and Kyroh cause they were allies and all. It was good to have powerful people on their side! "I'm Maddie OR Coop. Ravenclaw FIRST YEAR." Soon to be ruler of the world right here, YUP.

And Cassia really needed to hurry up and get a partner cause Mo was already ready to rumble and SO was Maddie. "Better partner up, Head Girl Cassia!"

No shaking, MO! Maddie giggled and held tight, deciding she WASN'T going to fall if she could help it.

"OKAY." SQUEAK! And they were OFF!

The small brunette wasn't one for cheering but seeing as she LOVED to win, she wasn't going to keep quiet this time. "Come on, Mo! We CAN'T lose!" Not in front of the HEAD GIRL! Like HELLO, it wasn't like carrying a PERSON on a PLANK was hard. SHEESH.

Oh gosh, she was going to DIE.

"Holding on tight here." Yup, she totally was because as fun as this was, she didn't necessarily want to come crashing to the ground. That would hurt no matter how strong she felt right now. She knew these things. "Got it." She would let go at point b and wait to be announced the winner.

Man, Ethan was fast. With her hair blowing behind her, she couldn't wipe the goofy grin off of her face. This is kind of how she imagined riding a broom would be considering she had still yet to do that because of the rude threatening people. "This is awesome." She looked over at the pair that they were racing. Were they going to win? The end was so close!!! She could see the porch builders dudes clearly.

Lex beamed down at her. "Four? Working in some muscle, yeah?" Was that how it worked? Did muscles bother working when the potion was doing everything for it? Eh, didn't matter. Four was impressive stuff even if she couldn't tell how heavy these were while under the potion herself. "Lemme know how the six go" And they were all racing? Oh! She wanted a little person--but aw, Aubrey'd already been picked. Dangit. She had to keep looking.

Ethan. She'd remember that. Mhm.

"It's a proper legit race, then?" Now even more than ever she was gonna be needed a partner, anyone willing to dangle from the plank she was lifting. Just think how impressive they looked, Merlin. Someone needed to take some shots and send them in to the Daily Prophet...but then that idiot might see, the one who threatened them and think they were doing sports. Ugh.

"I need a little person!" She declared, looking around at their group that had already formed without her. Were there even anymore left? Didn't matter what year. The potion had taken care of all the hard work.

Had Cassia sped up when she wasn't looking? Hardly possible given she was trying the whole constant vigilance thing but there was Cassia jogging on forward and Lex figured she'd put some power in her step this time. Four planks were nothing. They would NOT weigh her down while her bestie breezed through the place.

Around her she could see the other race was on too but she could hardly be a part of it until someone volunteered to hang on to her load while she did the whole impressive sweep to the other side with the other pile.

Her legs went into overdrive. Was the potion meant to work on them because her breathing had picked up regardless, until she was shoulder to shoulder with Cassia. "Told you I'd catch up." She said with a grin, keeping a steady pace with the snake as they neared the pile. At this rate she didn't much feel like speeding anymore. Not with it being five steps away...four....three....almost there! Lex was looking to see who'd stepped up first and consequently didn't know which of them had won but she unloaded anyway. "Ready to go again?"

Okay so it seemed that he would be one of the stone carriers. Fine by him, the potion was making it easier to deal with the load, or would seeing as he had only dealt with one small rock so far. The one still in his grasp. Ignoring the teammember (Kace) who was more interested in the fire building even before the pit was made, Benny was ready to start piling up what they needed to to set in place.

Another boy (Zander) mentioned doing different piles for different sizes of stone and rock which indeed would likely make it easier in the end. "That makes sense," Ben commented aloud, offering a friendly smile to add to his agreement. "That would mean this goes here," the Gryffindor mused as he set the rock in his grasp at the spot pointed out for medium. Finally he was done with that one.

But it was far from over as they had plenty more to move. The third year heading back to where the supplies were. Taking a handful of smaller stones in each hand, Benny deposited them in his robe pocket before taking two large rocks in his arms. Then he proceeded back to the would-be piles. The rocks on the large section, the stones in the small.

Hayden listened intently as Grayson explained what to do. She was really excited to learn a new spell, and she had to use it right away. Hayden went back over to where the rocks were and grabbed a big one. She could help carry as well as do the spell so they could get done faster. Instead of putting it in the pile of big stones that someone had suggested, she brought it right over to where they were going to start building. Then Hayden got another large stone - about the same size as the first one - and set it down next to the first one. Now to stick them together.

She took out her wand and practiced tracing the shape of the rock first. It wasn't that hard, it was just a big round shape. She didn't think it had to be exact, because that would be too hard. "Adhaero," she said clearly, tracing the shape of one of the big rocks. Then she used her strength to push it right up against the other. They stayed that way, stuck together. Hayden grinned at success and went to go get some small rocks to fill in the gaps.

Cosgrach had been silently watching how everyone was doing. He laughed at the plankers, noted FIYAH's 'perfect' design, and...

Looked at Sophie N when she asked a question.

"I think you are ready, yeah," he said as he observed their progress. Eh - what if all the beams weren't in their place? It wasn't like it'd collapse because it was short of 2 beams.

He BEAMED at her! Beverly had to remind herself that she had to keep it cool and not look like one of those ridiculous fan-girls her cousins turned to when they heard their favorite band. Grinning widely, she listened to her options.

One, two or three.

She decided. "It's good to see you, too," she mumbled shyly, tugging at the end of her coat sleeve. "I'll go with them." She pointed at group one, then waved and hurried on over. Too bad the potion didn't give one a natural cool streak.



Heading on over, she reached the group just in time when the boy she'd almost stolen his robe from met at the feast explained what the goal was. In all honesty, Beverly wanted to get this done as soon as possible. She wasn't out here because of the kindness that lay in her heart. No. She was here because she wanted to try out this potion. And homework. Examining her nails for a bit, while her housemate spoke, she glanced over at the rocks.

Just for the heck of it she wanted to carry the big ones. She was strong, wasn't she? Then she wanted to try it out and over power a boulder that, on natural circumstances, would crush her flat. When the boy finished, Beverly headed over to collect the rocks they'd need (the big ones), and didn't wait to hear about the Sticking Charm. She knew that. Duh.

Just because she could - and didn't doubt her potion brewing abilities - she grabbed two rocks, one in each hand, and raised them off the ground. She shouldn't have been able to do so one-handed. She should have struggled, or maybe even hurt her wrists, but that wasn't the case. The giant rocks were off the ground. As she weighed them in each hand, the Slytherin probably resembled a balance.

A Beverly Wayne balance.

Cris grinned over at both Jasmine and Lux when they commented on first his push up technique and then his Crane kicks. "Thank you..thank you," he replied as he bowed to both girls.

Okay play time was over. Glancing over at Bay who was helping with the beams. "I think we're done placing the beams, Bay," he replied before turning to Sophie as she posed another question.

"Yes the beams are all in place and so are the planks of wood. I guess we can proceed with the rest of the porch....uh...which is what exactly? The Professor nixed the railings and roof idea. So do we just put up the pillars?" Cris directed his question to everybody before looking over at Bay.

"It's your design, Bay. Any suggestions?"

Marigold continued with the rock carrying, now somewhat trying to fit it into the formation that Gray and Cutty explained. It was quite hard, though. She made a face towards Gray, but if he saw her or not she didn't care. She just kinda sat and moved rocks around. She was trying to help, 'kay?

Zander noticed one of the boys (Ben) in his group speaking up about his placement idea. So it was a yes-go! He smiled back at the friendly boy, "Yeah, that's right! By the way, I'm Zander," he said happily. As he turned his attention back to the piles of stones, he noticed they were growing bigger and bigger!

Yay, now they could finally work on the placement and stuff! Zander grabbed a few of the small stones that his fellow Gryffindor (Ben) had just placed in the pile, and brought them over to to agreed fire pit spot! He placed the two next to each other to start the circular shape of the pit. He'd let Kyroh and Hayden do the sticking stuff. Besides, it'd be a good idea to get general placement down before sticking things all together!

SPOILER!!: Lex ^_^

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

Ohai little person she didn't know. Lex gave a nod to the girl's 'hi' much too fascinated with the four planks she was now prepared to lug. Her brain was having a bit of a delay and she'd forgotten the whole strength potion thing. It was neat. "So then...we're just gonna lug 'em from point A to point B. Doesn't sound too hard. Thanks...er....." Name please?

"Yeah, not so hard." Leah said conversationally. "Leah Abbott." she said. Yep, that was her name. The older girl did not mention her name but the second year could tell that she was the Gryffindor prefect.. Alexa? She did not care much anyway.

SPOILER!!: AJ ^_^

Quote:

Originally Posted by PhoenixStar

Angel only spoke good things about her so that was a plus. Even if she didn't though, AJ would know that she was only teasing. The two sisters loved each other, but they enjoyed giving each other crap just as much. "You're welcome to join." AJ was always up for a sword fight.

After putting down the four planks, Leah could kind of feel the potion wearing off a bit. "I'd love to have a sword fight with you, AJ, but I don't know, is there a race going on right now?" she said, grinning, looking around. Yess.. older people carrying firsties on planks and racing. Looking fun! She wanted to carry a firstie too.

SPOILER!!: Lex ^_^

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

"It's a proper legit race, then?" Now even more than ever she was gonna be needed a partner, anyone willing to dangle from the plank she was lifting. Just think how impressive they looked, Merlin. Someone needed to take some shots and send them in to the Daily Prophet...but then that idiot might see, the one who threatened them and think they were doing sports. Ugh.

"I need a little person!" She declared, looking around at their group that had already formed without her. Were there even anymore left? Didn't matter what year. The potion had taken care of all the hard work.

Running over to the starting line (?), she realized that she was MUCH smaller than the other runners. Therefore, it was much suitable for her to be carried. Someone needed a little person! Looking up at the tall girl, Leah asked, "Do you think you can carry me?" She wasn't a first year after all, but she was small for her age.

Ethan ran as fast as he could. He didn’t even look if he they were past Mo and Coop already, instead, he stayed focused on Point B. “Almost there, AJ!!!” he hollered at his passenger with a wide smile on his face. Oh they were so gonna win! Vic-to-ry! Uh-huh! He caught sight of the builders and Professor Cosgrach laughing at them. He would have given him a wave but, he’s got a dangling first year up his plank so…

Anyway. Point B! “VICTORY!!!” Time to hop off AJ. This boy wants to do a victory dance. Mhmm.

"Mmmhmm." Beaming from ear to ear as if she was telling her mum that she had just received a good mark from school. She wanted to make the mama lion proud. "I will." but first she had a race to win. Maybe she would get back to all the carrying once she won that thing. She hoped Lex would join the race too. It looked like she was looking for a taker now.



They were racing. This Ethan kid was a nice competitor. She had a feeling that they were going to win. Even though AJ technically wasn't doing anything she thought that they made a pretty good team. "We're smoking them." Yup, she was keeping an eye on the competition since all she had to do was hold on.

"YAAAAAAAY!" Fist bumps happened. "Awesome job Ethan." The firstie went straight to her victory dance. She flailed around with her arms going in every direction while going in circles. Winning was an awesome feeling.

Grayson was getting antsy. And FAST. Can't they just start working on the firepit already? Because if they lingered any longer, they were going to be out here for the rest of the day and he WOULD like to have dinner, thank you very much.

And will you look at that? Culloden had agreed with the plan. SMIRKETY SMIRK. Wasn't this a good feeling?

An even better feeling was teaching someone something and seeing them doing it perfectly. Major ego boost, that provided. "Brilliant, Hayden! Keep it up, mkay?" Thumbs up. And he did notice that look from Gold. Uh huh. "Don't tire yourself out there, Gold." And cheer up, mkay?

And a nod towards Beverly who was carrying two rocks at the same time. "Welcome to the team." Uh huh. Robe stealer. Not going to forget about THAT anytime soon.

Er. Then his eyes went over to Kace. "I think we'll go with amphitheatre this time, mate, 'specially since Culloden already knows." WINK. "But that's not a bad idea." They'll certainly keep it for next time, mkay? Speaking of more bright ideas, Zander seemed to have one. "I like that. DID EVERYONE HEAR THAT? Separate the rocks into different piles depending on size. And maybe the stone carriers can help by adding the correct stone to the correct pile?" Juuuuuuuuuust a suggestion but a brilliant one, if he may say so himself. Uh huh.

And there was teamwork going on. A nod of approval went towards the two Gryffindors (Benny and Zander). This gave him an idea, actually.

"If you want to work with someone, you can. The team," As in the teams within Group One. "that builds the most will get some sweet treats from yours truly." And they won't be poisoned or anything, these lucky buggers. He was actually being NICE. Take it or suffer in silence, people. "LET'S GO, TEAM!"

They were going to make the BEST firepit, mkay?

Speaking of, he was going to get started by lifting two smaller rocks and setting them down somewhere towards the area where the middle of the firepit was going to be. Uh huh. Then Hayden and Kyroh can put the pebble-sized rocks in between them. HE deserved sweet treats after this. Sweet MERLIN.

What? Candy? Hayden liked the sound of that. She looked over at the boy (Kyroh) who she'd offered to help earlier. "Do you want to team up?" He was doing the spell too, wasn't he? If they were doing the same thing, it sorta made sense for them to team up. But it was alright if he didn't want to. She was just having fun building. It was a lot more fun when lifting the stones didn't take so much work, and she got to learn a new spell.

Hayden went back over to the pile of rocks and carried a big one back to the pit. She did that a few more times, putting the rocks in the separate piles. She decided that it would be easiest to build the outside layer of big rocks first, then the medium, and the small ones last. She brought a big rock over to where she'd already started building the fireplace. "Adhaero." She traced the outline of that rock and stuck it to the side of the others. Aaaand, it stuck! She was glad the spell wasn't too hard.

Hayden looked out to see where the rest of her group was. They weren't too far away, so she addressed them. "Hey guys, if you bring me stones I can stick them together." But then she remembered that they had to go in a circle, and it should probably look good. So Hayden looked around and found a stick. She traced a circle in the ground as an outline for the fireplace. There, that would help to put the rocks in the right places.

Now that everyone had helped to nail down the planks onto the beams, Cris looked around wondering what to do next. The Professor had said no railings and no roof, so what else was there to do.

He looked over at the rest of his fellow porchbuilders.

Did anyone have any ideas?

OK, Caleb had no real clue what was going on but took the older Slytherin's lead. Cutty's idea sounded cool, but WAY complicated, but Caleb knew exactly what he was going to do - get rocks. BIG rocks. He could feel the strength potion making him stronger, and he flexed his fingers anxiously. Yes, he didn't really need to know HOW exactly to put it together, but he could do the heavy lifting!

Walking over and finding one of the bigger rocks for the base, Caleb picked it up with ease and then brought it back to his group, setting it in the circle that would make up the bottom of the fire pit.