She was serious about being bored of this game, honest. There was too much physical exercise involved. Though, if she really wanted to go down her desired career path, she would have to get used to reasonable amounts of physical exercise.

HOWEVER, Zander had set off something inside her, and she couldn't just ignore that.

It was like ...... a desire to not to back down. Ever. If she backed down and stopped changing red flags to blue, he would win and she would lose. It wasn't even about Slytherin or Hufflepuff, or even houses, any more. It was him and her, war-ing it out.

She briefly locked eyes with him across the clearing, and ....... headed towards the Slytherin flags, hopefully putting him off her scent. He wouldn't suspect a thing. Okay, so, she didn't actually believe that, but it was worth a shot. Once there, she pointed her wand at one slightly hidden green flag. "Colovaria," she muttered, imagining it turning blue. Clara smirked a little when it did. Success.

Waaaaaaaait a second. Norah brought her running to an abrupt halt at the sight of a yellow flag. She was still on THEIR side? Her she was thinking she'd made a heroic entrance onto the enemy side and it turned out she'd come right back to where she'd started. LAME. Why did the forest-y stuff down here have to make everything so confusing? But then....that meant that blue flag she'd turned yellow back there was her partner house's flag? Whoooopsies. She reached a hand up to push some curls out of her eyes and let out a loud huff of air. Way to have a good memory, Kittredge. Chewing on her lip as she contemplated her options, she then turned on her heel and raced right back to where she'd come from, in search of that blue flag turned yellow. You couldn't just stab your partners in the back, y'know, that was MEAN.

The fourth year kept her eyes on the ground as she ran, more in search of where she'd fallen than in an attempt to keep herself from falling AGAIN, 'cause who needed safety, anyways? Not her, apparently. Aha! She skidded to a halt right in front a particularly pokey-outy root on the ground right next to a perfectly bum-sized area of disturbed ground. That HAD to be it. Looking up, she saw a familiar yellow through the branches and pointed her wand at it as she approached. "Finite!" There! All better and back to blue. Now she wasn't a traitor at all, so THERE. And now she had to run alllll the way into enemy territory, right? If she could find it, anyways. Who knew if she'd be able to do that.

Norah put her wand flat on her palm and said "Point me" just like she'd read in that book when she was trying to learn to be a real live detective. The wand spun to point somewhere to her left, but it didn't take long for her to realize that just 'cause that was was North it really didn't mean she had any idea where to go. WHATEVER, it was a cool spell, okay? Okay. She took off in the direction of the wand anyways, 'cause maybe North was just a good way to go. Sure. That sounded right.

Eye. Twitch.

Why were the lions and snakes attacking each other? What part of being on the same team did they not understand? It was poor strategy if you asked him and they clearly forgot that should one of them go down the other would be completely decimated. To each their own. Wasn't like the other team was faring any better.

Maddox noted the dramatic fall in the blue flags left on the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff Fort. Wouldn't be much longer now--unless they decided to keep aiming at each other instead. Never could tell with these children.

He stretched where he sat and gave a yawn but was otherwise attentive. With the exception of the occasional munch, nothing could distract him.

OOC: Another reminder you can neither attack the same house twice NOR fix a flag twice in a row.

Ah, see. Toby had remembered to change his tie back when they were still up by the bridge. He'd not noticed that anyone else hadn't changed theirs back, but then he barely really looked at anyone else's ties or whatever unless he was specifically trying to work out or remember what house they belonged to. Casually super unobservant, y'know.

CAPTURE THE FORT, THOUGH! THAT... was something Toby had never heard of before. But it sounded like a game, and games were fun, and fun meant happy, and he could definitely get behind that. He listened to the rules, blinking and processing and looking around the big ditch as he worked out what... was going on. Basically, he knew the Hufflepuffs and Ravenclaws were on the same team. Basically... he needed to turn flags yellow. In fact, if he was on a team with Ravenclaw, it meant maybe turning their flags back to blue if he'd found they'd been tampered with? Toby could do that. Helping was protecting, and he was a Protector.

He was still trying to work out the finer points of the game and the rules when Quigley started them off, and he looked around wide-eyed with a 'wait I'm not ready' look, before finally jumping into action.

Of course, Toby wasn't one to stand around much. There wasn't much protecting he could really do, as there was no stopping people from changing the colours of the flags, after all. His plan was to just keep sprinting back and forth, on the offensive, and then back to do damage control. It was good for expending energy.

The red ones were easier to see, what with the green flags being hidden by natural camouflage (well... kinda), but it was a GREEN flag that Toby happened across first, completely by accident. He'd actually been running for a red one before spotting his new target through the trees. Though it was more of a pain to reach, Toby immediately changed course and pushed his way through to that flag instead.

"Colovaria!" he cast, pointing his wand at the flag and imagining the same yellow of the tie that still dangled loosely around his neck. Toby stood there long enough to watch the green fade and change to yellow, then turned heel and started sprinting back the way he'd come, to go back and see if there were any Hufflepuff flags that needed saving.

Turning her attention back to the Hufflepuff/Ravenclaw side, Lux couldn't help but notice that there was a severe lack of blue flags. Pout. That wasn't cool. She wanted to revert them all back to normal, but had no idea which ones were originally blue since she had been too busy attacking enemy flags

Hopefully a few of her teammates would have this covered, because she was not leaving enemy lines just yet.

Biting her lip, Lux scanned the area some more. Problem was there were only so many places flags could be and she was running low on new ground to cover. Maybe heading back into the trees would be a good idea. So long as she didn't head more than a few feet in things would be okay. Lux was smart enough not to wander into wooded areas alone even with the help of magic. Maybe she was just paranoid because of the Forbidden Forest - and with good reason too given what happened there.

Curiously she peeked around tree trunks right at the edge of the clearing.

AHA!!

Pleased, she pointed her wand at the red flag. "COLOVARIA!" There. Now it was yellow

Okay, so, Clara couldn't see where Zander was any more, but he didn't appear to be in RavenPuff territory. It had been a little while since they had made eye contact and became enemies, so, surely it was about time to attack Gryffindor flags again, no?

She'd had her little breather. It was time to get stuck back in.

Clara took the time her time surveying the land, finding it ridiculous that she was even bothering to do so. What had gotten into her? Those thoughts aside, and focusing back on the game, it definitely seemed to be Gryffindor that were holding their own. Currently, at least. She didn't like that at all, but she wasn't feeling up to any more jogging, and certainly not sprinting. Instead, she strolled across the clearing like she owned it, right up to an unguarded red flag. "Colovaria," she said after a beat, wand pointed at the flag, and her own house colour in her mind. Instantly, the flag switched from red to blue .... she felt triumphant.

Alright, so Benny was deciding that fixing the flags was becoming hard. As soon as he managed to get one back to red there was another away from the color. And Zander and an opposing team member seemed to be all intent in swapping the same flag back and forth. Now that was just crazy. The Gryffindor was beginning to think that there was no point defending and they should all go after the other teams.

So that meant Huffie and Ravenclaw for him...the latter getting fewer and far between. He was about to go look for a blue one to finish it off except he remembered that had been his last one. AND the nearest enemy ones were all yellow. It looked like those would be what he wanted to go after then, the sixth year getting up close and taking aim at the nearest one. "Colovaria!"

One new red flag to add to their number.

"Fine,Ethan...I will worry about mine too, but we are not going to give up on our forts!"Henric told Ethan before pointing his wand at a red flag which was supposed to be originally a Ravenclaw flag. "Finite!"he casted. There...well he just hoped Ethan won't change it back again.But Henric had a feeling that Ethan would so when he spotted one green flag barely visible behind a tree over at the other side, Henric automatic response was to run towards it. He was not going to save the green flags anymore, because you know...he forgotten that they were his enemies in the first place. Time to rectify the matter once and for all! And when he finally got nearer, he took aim and recited the spell over to the flag,"Colorvaria!" Poof! It magically changed to his house colour.

She smiled at the man, only to sigh. ”Oh, I didn’t think of that… I didn’t realise that would work.” Marsha sighed. There was just SO much that she didn’t know yet. WHY didn’t she know it? She wanted to know everything. Maybe instead of just reading, she should take her books with her and use some of the practise rooms, this term. After all, her Tad always told her that practise made perfect… or as perfect as anyone could get. Nodding to herself, she made the promise to start doing more practising as well as reading.

However, for now. It was battle time, which meant more practise anyway. Hehe.

As she darted towards the enemy lines, she smiled as her first flag took colour. Wasn’t that awesome? Hehehe. As she looked around, she figured any flags that weren’t Green or Blue were fair game. So, from where she was, there were three suitable targets within close-ish range. Looking around her for Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs, she sneaked up the ravine a little bit towards a blue Ravenclaw flag. As soon as she was close enough, she held her wand out and said ”Colovaria!”.

Sophie was deeeeep behind enemy lines still, reaching the far back and... actually, the further back she went in search for flags, the less she saw, which meant... oops. Had she gone TOO deep into the ravine? Was she out of bounds, having strayed too far from the group?

It seemed so. Whoops.

So Soph started her trek back toward the Ravenpuff's own base, but she still had to get all the way through the Slytherdor's playing field first. So the prefect moved with quick, light feet through the ravine, hopping over rocks and ducking under low-hanging branches on trees and dancing around bushes, all the while looking for another flag to target. She could see a few bodies through the trees - ones belonging to Slytherins and Gryffindors who were undoubtedly guarding their flags - so Soph kept away from them and looked for ones that weren't being actively protected.

Her gaze was on her shoes and the ground beneath her as she navigated a particularly tricky area of terrain, weaving around rocks to avoid twisting her ankle and that's when she saw it - a green flag whose fabric was sticking out just underneath the bush she was just about to pass. Hah. Tricky, but not tricky ENOUGH. "Colovaria!" Sophie cast, envisioning the green flag changing to blue, and stood a bit taller and more proudly when the charm was successful.

Aaaand then she continued her speedy trek back toward the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff side. No one had been defeated yet, right? HER HOUSES WERE STILL GOOD?

Hehehehe. That was one Hufflepuff flag and one Ravenclaw flag… Now, it was only fair to aim for a Hufflepuff flag next. She didn’t want to be biased but it wasn’t like she could aim at the Slytherin flags; they were on the same team as the Gryffindor’s after all. Okay, there had been no red flag over here originally and there was nooo way she could aim at their original flags and turn them back to redness from here, so she simply had to hope that some of her team mates were focusing on turning their flags back to green or red.

She, on the other hand was going to continue turning flags! Lalalala. This was so much fun. Hehehe. Sneaking up on a Hufflepuff Gold flag, she held her wand up once again and said ”Colovaria!” as she did the correct movement. WHEEEE!!! Watch that gold bleeeed into RED! Wasn’t it just amazing.

Sighing slightly, Marsha once again wished that she had known about this charm before. It would be so cool to be able to redo her bedroom at home… though, why hadn’t her Mama thought to do this before now. Hmmmph. Silly pink room. Her room would be red as soon as she could make it happen. Why hadn’t she learnt of this charm BEFORE Christmas, then she could have redecorated over the break. Now, she would simply have to wait. SIGH!

BUT. Back to the game!

Once Zhenya was back in SlytherDor territory, she noticed there was a YELLOW flag in amongst all the green. Well, as well as a few other colours. But she wasn't the only SlytherDor playing defence, so she would just pick at one, and someone else could try another one. Teamwork and all - YEAH!

She walked up to the yellow flag, being in her own territory she didn't have to move with stealth anymore - woo - and she pulled out her wand, which she had put away to sneak back to her territory, and pictured the familiar green colours, "Colovaria!" she said, pointing her wand at the yellow flag. It turned GREEN! Smiling, she looked around and saw that, whilst a few other colours remained on the SlytherDor territory, she would bugger off to try changing some more enemy flags.

Marsha was having sooo much fun. She climbed further up the ravine, going higher than any of the flags were situated. She cut back down in front of a large boulder before using it to steady herself behind a large tree. As she crouched down she spent a few minutes waiting to try and see which Ravenclaw flag would be the best to get to.

She noticed a few members of Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw moving around between the flags keeping them safe and trying to turn them back to their own house colours. Frowning at the sight, she looked up to keep an eye on the Green/Red side. Hmmm, maybe she would go over there soon, and turn some flags back… though she was so little she could easily hide behind the bushes and attack flags. Hmm…. Maybe later if the game kept going.

Having sneaked around the back of three - THREE - more bushes, a rock and a tree, Marsha finally came across a lovely, isolated ravenclaw flag. Holding her wand out towards it, she said softly, ”Colovaria.”. With a grin, she smiled as it changed colour to red and she slinked away from it. Moving back up the cliff so that she could hide before large boulders and bushes.

Teeeeehhheeeeee. Finallly being small was coming in useful.

Now they’re talking. The pace was faster now, and Ethan could not help but grin with excitement. Crouching, and swatting away small branches away from his face, he emerged from the deepest area of the enemy’s camp, and spotted a yellow flag right away. Not his fault that the colour stood out, and that it was an easy target. “Colovaria!” Yeaaaaaaaah. Hufflepuff just got owned. For now.

Ethan quickly made his way back to their camp and saw Sophie Brown change one of his flags into blue. Ehehe. EHehehehehehe. No no no, you can’t do that missy! “RESISTANCE…IS FUTILE!!!” Ethan called out, and quickly pointed his wand at the proud blue banner and changed it back to green. “Finite!”

Ah yes. Yes. Better.

Having decided to try and sabotage the other team, or... play the rules, really, Zhenya proudly marched across the battlefield. No more trying to hide. She was a proud SlytherDor! If only she could get some red battle paint and smear it over her cheeks. But she didn't have any, so she would just proudly wear her green colours. As she approached the RavenPuff side, she darted towards the yellow flags. Muahaha!

"Colovaria!" she said, pointing her wand at a yellow flag, picturing the green colours in her mind. The yellow flag changed to green, and Zhenya turned around to dart back to the SlytherDor side.

Back at the christmas coloured fort, she looked around at the flag she was about to change back from blue to green, but saw that Ethan had got there first. All good, she looked around for another flag to change back.

So all of a sudden the game was in full swing and honestly, Tia found herself growing BORED. Not that she didn't want to help her house, because she totally did and the fact that they were partnered with Hufflepuff was cool too, but just all this physical exertion was exhausting!

So many obstacles. She was not climbing all over the place on the hunt for green and red flags. NO way, she would just stay right here on her home camp and DEFEND her flags.

Like when she spotted that Gryffindor firstie lurking - oh no she did NOT! "Colovaria!" Tia shouted, fixing the red flag back to blue, as she scoured for the search of other flags needing fixing.

Welp, that was the last of it, wasn't it?Maddox watched with a controlled humour as the last of the Ravenclaw flags was taken down.

Shame that, they put up a noble fight while it lasted but now there were none left. Rules were rules--especially when he'd been looking forward to this bit. Maddox climbed the rock he was sitting on so he was now standing on top, facing the battlefield. Quite reluctantly he cast a sonorus charm, bracing himself for the damage it would no doubt cause.

"The time has come. Ravenclaw, you have been eliminated. That being the case..." and a pause for dramatic effect while he allowed the smirk. This would be his favourite part.

"Everyone attack Hufflepuff."

OOC: There are no more blue flags remaining on the Ravenclaw/Hufflepuff Fort which means Ravenclaw/Gryffindor/Slytherin will now all be aiming to take out the rest of the flags on the Hufflepuff side <3

Zhenya was looking around on Christmas fort to see if there were any other flags to change back to green, but she couldn't see any. So, she went to turn around and attack, but was stopped by the voice of Professor Quigley. The loud voice of Professor Quigley. She did notice there were no more blue flags. Oh, too bad for them. Well, it didn't matter. They were now SlytherDorClaws!! GO TEAM!

Zhenya ran towards the yellow flags; SORRY ADI AND LUX, and whipped her wand out at the first yellow flag she saw. "Colovaria!" she said, pointing her wand at the yellow flag, and smiling at the now green flag.

Sooooo, Heather had basically stayed behind a tree for most of the game because, well, she found the instructions confusing. But now that they were teaming up against one house, it was pretty clear.

Moving out from behind the tree, she crept over to a yellow flag. "Colovaria!" Boom. Yellow flag was now red. What, she was a Gryffindor. It only made sense.

...Dude, where had Ethan Mordaunt even come from? Sophie was STILL pretty deep in the ravine on the Slytherdor's side when the Slytherin boy came BOUNDING past her and changed the flag she had just turned blue. How... had he even seen her do that when she was so far in? Hadn't she seen him back all the way at the other side of the ravine attacking the blue and yellow flags when she left it? Hadn't he been PRETTY DEEP IN THE RAVENPUFF SIDE? WHERE HAD HE EVEN COME FROM? IT WAS A CONSPIRACY.

Soph just shook her head at her friend and kept her mouth shut. He'd saved her life once before so he was forever immune to Sophie making playful jabs at him. It was only fair. But she was STILL certain that something mega fishy was going on here because this whole game STILL seemed to be tilted in favor of the Slytherdor side. Was there an Ethan clone? Was THAT it? Had to be.

Making quick work of getting AWAY from Ethan, Sophie ducked behind bushes and trees and got away from people once more - still slowly but surely headed back toward her own side - and, when she headed toward an untouched red flag, she raised her wand to cast at it... but then she heard Quigley's voice.

WHAT? All the Ravenclaw flags were gone? WELL MERLIN. If Sophie was the only one that she'd seen out and about in enemy territory attacking... she just assumed that meant her comrades were behind taking care of the flags and keeping them blue. But it seemed that... well, she had no idea where her housemates were. At least the Hufflepuffs had done a good job of holding their own, though they'd neglected to keep their partner's flags blue. And... now that meant Tobes and the Hufflepuffs were her enemies.

Sigh.

There was no real use in holding back now and being sneaky, so Sophie just ran at full-speed to get back to her once-home base, but now it was enemy territory. Hufflepuff was heavily outnumbered, so it was best to just go all-out and do what she could. They didn't need to protect the green or red flags either because... really, if all the Ravenclaws, Slytherins, and Gryffindors just were on the offense and attacked the Hufflepuff ones, it would be game over in no time. If she was a Hufflepuff, she would've just been trying to defend her flags and keep them alive, but... really, there was no point. Hufflepuff was going down, and that was the end of it. There was no coming back after this.

It took her about half a minute to get back to the dividing line between the two opposing sides, but once she got there... Merlin, it was madness, wasn't it? Quigley looked all too pleased with himself, too, and Sophie tried to catch his eye to give him a knowing grin as if to say you're enjoying this far too much before hurrying along to find a yellow Hufflepuff flag to target. And she very much hoped she didn't pass Tobes along the way. She felt BAD that she wasn't on his side anymore. But... she did all that she could.

The main thing she noticed as she made her way into Hufflepuff territory was that the yellow fabric on the flags stood out so much more than the Slytherin's flags had, and so did the blue, for that matter. STILL RIGGED. But it really was easy to catch a glimpse of yellow as she moved further into the terrain, and when she spotted an unguarded, bright shade of sunshine yellow out of the corner of her eye, Sophie moved toward it, and didn't even hesitate to point her wand at it. "Colovaria!" she cast, and the yellow became blue.

Sorry, Badgers. No mercy. This was what just had to happen.

Marsha had a smile on her face as she heard Professor Quiggley point out that they had no Ravenclaw flags left. YESSS!!!! THEY WERE WINNNING THE WAR!!! Bwahahaha. Lets go guys. Only the Hufflepuff flags to go now. Hehehehe. They were sooooo going down.

From her stand point behind the enemy lines, hidden firmly behind some form of bush… thing. Hmmm, maybe she needed to pay attention to her family when they were trying to teach her about trees and plants and nature and things… buuuut the Welsh girl couldn’t help it. As soon as she saw animals she wanted to talk to them over the trees. Whoops.

However, slipping form behind the bush to move down the ravine towards the base of the bridge again. Climbing quickly down a steeper section, she managed to tuck behind a tree and then a boulder as she waited for one of the Hufflepuff’s to pass her. Then she darted to the left and pointed at one of the Hufflepuff flags, before she said ”Colovaria!” quickly. As soon as she saw it changing to red, she turned around and slipped back behind another shrub… bush, thing. Hehe. She suddenly was liking being small.

EVERYONE ATTACK HUFFLEPUFF?

That meant Ravenclaw had 'lost', then? That meant that the game was coming to close, right? She hoped so. While Clara wasn't the most unfit person in the world, she had done more exercise than usual during this game and she was beginning to tire out. She was also conscious that she still needed to get back up the ravine once it was all over. So much exercise, and so early in the morning, too.

With all that in mind, Clara figured it would speed up the 'ending the game' process if she went against her instincts and targeted Hufflepuff. They were nice, but, do you know what was nicer? Naps. Not having to be outside at 9 ..... okay, more like 10am. But, again, she wasn't going to be doing any more running. She wandered across the field, easily avoiding sticks and rocks, into Hufflepuff territory. Yawn. "Colovaria," she repeated, wand pointed at the flag, and this time with the colour red her mind - the lesser of two evils.

Ew, but if it ended the game faster, then so be it.

WAIT, WHAT?

WHY WOULD YOU MAKE EVERYONE ATTACK THE MOST GENTLE AND LOVING OF HOUSES? Was Quigley mad or just cruel? Brian flailed a little, sprinting back to the Hufflepuff fort and pointing his wand at a now-red flag. NO. He would not stand for his house being trampled on. GRRR. Badgers growled, right? Badgering along.

"Finite!" Yesssss, turn back to yellow. Good flag.

Now he'd just run over to the other side and pointing his wand at a green flag, he tried to catch his breath. COUGH. SPLUTTER. This was just inhumane. "Colovariaaaaa!" he said, dramatically turning the flag yellow before running back to the hufflepuff fort. He was not going down without a fight.

Pant. Heave. The things we do for love.

As she sprinted through the trees, Norah had begun to doubt she'd ever find the enemy side, when all of a sudden she was back where they'd all started, right in front of Professor Quigley. Was that good timing or WHAT? Magic.

She immediately wished she hadn't found Quigley 'cause he was the carrier of VERY bad news indeed. All attack Hufflepuff? That wasn't very nice, y'know. While she had paused to listen to the announcement, the fourteen year old sprinted into enemy territory at lightning speed this time, waving her arms frantically 'cause this was the REAL DEAL. It was probably hopeless if you thought about it rationally but she didn't because since when was being rational any fun? That's right, never. Or not that she'd ever experienced and fourteen years was a lot of years to be experiencing stuff, okay? It took a good minute of weaving through trees before she saw the dark green of Slytherin standing out against the duller green trees. AHAAAA! GOIN' DOWN, MEANIE GREENIE FLAG. "Colovaria!" she shouted, much louder and more dramatically than was necessary. Well, Norah thought it was necessary but normally that wasn't a good enough excuse for yelling. With the formerly green flag now bright yellow, she didn't stop (for THAT long) to admire her handiwork before shooting off in the opposite direction with a loud battle cry.

Brian came back only to find that Clara was turning their flags red. What betrayal! Brian gave her the most hurt look he could muster and ran over to the once-yellow flag. How could you, Clara? Shure, Quigley had made them do it but did she really HAVE to listen? Loyalties. Hmph. No wonder she wasn't a Hufflepuff.

"Colovaria!" he proclaimed before running to the other side of the field, saluting a fellow Hufflepuff Norah as he went. They were in this TOGETHER. A TEAM. Hufflepuff spirit, yasssss.