Now he had to...cross a bridge? SERIOUSLY? When would Caleb EVER be in this situation? Never. Not even in OWLs had things gotten this crazy.

Well, he somehow had to cross this bridge. But how would he repair it? Reparo would do no good, the pieces were MISSING...hmm, wait, that was the ticket wasn't it?

He cleared his throat and pointed at the first board in the bridge. "Gemino!" he exclaimed, and with a flick of his wand, the board and duplicated itself. Caleb took it and placed it in the first open space, then pointed at his feet again and shouted "Gemino!" once again. And again. And again...he did this quite a few times until he had managed to make his way across, taking the boards and using them to fill the gaps as he walked across.

That wasn't too bad...time consuming, but not bad.

... He couldn't keep his mouth shut if he was trying to get rid of these bugs though!! Merlin, this Natalia girl was QUITE the character. But that wasn't the point here. The point was to GET AWAY from these bugs!! "Evanesco!" he casted behind him as he kept running forward, checking back periodically to make sure the others were still following along. He held his hand out for Amanda, not wanting the firstie to fall behind in the mess of trees as they went along. What in Merlin's pants was Bellaire thinking. Maybe she really did want to see Hogwarts students die.

Was this payback for Gregoire or something? Because Zander was willing to take one for the team and be the sacrifice. No need to put everyone in this kind of danger, y'know?

But either way, the spells seemed to be working. "Immobulus!" MUST RUN FASTER!! He let Natalia go in front of him, hoping that this way he'd be able to help her clear the path in front.... And then she was down. Uh. No this was bad. They couldn't waste any more time. They were finally getting somewhere. Also, uh, was she okay? He wasted no team reaching his hand forward to help pull her up. "You alright?" he waited for her to stand before walking a bit forward and turning around once more to make sure she was able to walk. "You can walk, right? Or uh, do you need me to carry you?" He actually had the muscle for it believe it or not. After carrying Sophie around the castle all the time. He could totally do it. Just it wasn't preferred, okay?

Next thing to face was...A GIANT SPIDER? Caleb blinked and backed up quite a bit. Wait a second, was this some kind of shout out to Gregoire? Some kind of hint at the fact that if he knew this stuff, he wouldn't have DIED? If so...this was a terrible, terrible lesson idea and he was surprised someone hadn't had a panic attack yet. He hoped this wasn't intentional...but even if it wasn't, he couldn't unsee it now. Or unthink it, more like...

Only one spell came to mind, besides Stupefy and Expelliarmus..."Incarcerous!" he exclaimed, pointing straight at the legs of the spider. Ropes shot out and quickly wrapped themselves around the spider, causing it to falter and fall down with a loud CRASH.

BOOM! Take THAT spider.

Right! Benny, Henric and Ilia safely across? Yep! That meant it was his turn to traverse the bridge. Adi placed his left foot on the first step, his wand at the ready. He was all set to cast the Levitating Charm on the bridge or himself if necessary plus he was sure he would have three certain friends ready and willing to help.

Step, step, step, step, step.

The bridge wobbled and shook but Adi was cautious with every step he took. That is, until he came to the final four or five steps. For some reason, the Hufflepuff took off running . WHEEEEEEE! This was BETTER than just walking slooooowly along. And hey! He made it across! WOOT! He turned back to look at the bridge which was now shaking violently. Anywayyy, back to his friends. “Hi, gu-‘’ Spider webs, Henric said? Adi stared around.

WOAH!

DOUBLE WOAH!

It was a gigantamungo spider! Adi was frozen in surprise for one moment before he regained his composure. He barely had time to look around at the other three. All four of them loved creatures. There was NO WAY they were going to hurt it. They were just going to restrain the thing, he was sure of that. He was also sure that the quartet could not escape by running away. An arachnid had EIGHT legs, yo! All the easier for it to catch its prey.

“Two of us can try keeping it back while the other two can use the time it’s distracted to restrain it!’’ Adi hurriedly told them before raising his wand again. “Inflecto Telum!’’ No, he wasn’t aiming the arrows AT the spider but rather IN FRONT of it. His goal? He hoped it would be enough to keep the giant arachnid away from the group and that the spider would be so obsessed with getting at them, it wouldn’t notice the others who were going to restrain it.

HUZZAH! They made it through the bugs alive! Norah turned, panting, to Puck and grinned. Team work, yeah? She'd totally helped and everything. THAT didn't happen every day. The panting didn't stop as she looked ahead and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand. Holy moley, that was a lot of sweat. Pushing away the hair that had gotten stuck to her forehead, she touched her throat with the other and shut her eyes tight. Water. She needed water. "...water? wear?" Her tinkling voice had been reduced to a croak and she knew this was IT. This was the END. Water was her ONLY HOPE. And Puck said she heard some. HER HERO. She KNEW she'd picked the right group.

She saw the pond from behind the prefect and half-stumbled over to it, dropping to her knees at the water's edge. Waterwaterwater. Leaning down to stick her whole entire face in, she opened her eyes just in time to see...something. Hold up. What was in the pond? Was it dirtying her precious water? The nectar of LIFE? Her ONE LAST HOPE? Nuh uh. No way. NOTHING was allowed to do that, not even a scary fish. She pointed a finger at one of them and yelled "Go AWAY!" as loudly as she could while her throat still felt like sandpaper, but nothing happened. She couldn't magic ALL of them out of the pond. Norah needed a cup. Or something. Now.

Y'know, maybe it was worth losing a couple of fingers because WATER. She was desperate. Was that obvious? It was obvious to her, and very little was obvious to her at this point because water was too busy being the important-est thing in her brain. "I need a cup do you have a cup where are the cups help help help."

Feeling much better, not so dehydrated or muggy, Zhenya stood to leave to the next area. She wasn't sure what to do with the piranha goblet though. Should she take it with her and see if Professor Bellaire could transform it back? Leave it there, even though it was... well, it WAS a piranha? Put it into the water and hope the spell... wore off or something? Zhenya frowned, for some reason spending TOO MUCH thought time on this small matter. Something told her not to leave it, but something told her not to bring it either. What to DOOOOOO? She huffed at herself, put the silly goblet in the pocket of her robes, which she was still holding, and left the area. Stupid over thinking of everything. How was that going to help her with exams? HUH?

Zhenya kept walking through the jungle, not sure what spell she would have to perform next, and she was just about to cross over a bridge. Well, it was there, surely it was part of the path? BUT NO! She stopped just in the nick of time, and gasped as she saw what was there. There were missing steps, and it was too far in distance to safely jump across. She scratched her head, telling herself firmly 'YOU ARE A SEVENTH YEAR!' and rolled her eyes at her wishy-woshy dimness. Perhaps it was just being in wet clothing? Ehh... easy. "Repairo," she said, pointing her wand at the bridge, swishing her wand in the odd triangle movement. Nothing happened, and she frowned for a few seconds, before realisation cracked on her face. "Ohhhh," she said loudly, DUHZHENYA! It was transfiguration, NOT charms. How was she supposed to fix the bridge? What way could she transform the bridge? She couldn't stretch the steps, she couldn't really summon ropes and chains, as she wouldn't be able to fasten them on the other side. She looked around to see what could be done. All she needed was something to use as steps so that she could place them down...

"Nice work." Michael said as he placed his hand on Grayson's back and guided him away from the bugs that were now being eaten by the birds that they had conjured.

They hadn't run very far when Michael began to feel the heat draining him and the sweat was beginning to pour off him and his mouth was SO DRY. "I need..." He was just about to say water when all of a sudden a pond appeared before them. He headed over to it eagerly and was just to dip his hands in when something jumped out of the water.

"Was that...a Piranha?" He turned to look at Grayson with a bewildered look. Well this was just getting more fun by the minute wasn't it?

So many insects, EVERYWHERE, but where was Rooney?

"ROONEY?!"

Where was the kid? Clara was pretty sure she could still hear him, but she definitely couldn't see him through the thick swarms. Luckily, her spell 'Avis' seemed to be working, but not quite as effectively as she'd hoped it would be. Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic, she chanted to herself mentally, despite being exhausted and dehydrated. She could do this without panicking; she wanted to prove herself to, well, herself.

She fired off another Avis and another few Immobilus charms, a couple of which didn't worked because she wasn't concentrating properly. That didn't matter now, though, as she could see the end to the foul insects' terror. The mosquitoes and locusts were mostly eaten or immobilised and the swarm was considerably less dense. Time to get out of it. "Rooney, follow my voice," she called back, hoping he was still in hearing range, before shooting forward and jogging the rest of the way out of the bug-cloud .... but now that she was free from that, her mind was free to think about other things ... such as how tired and thirsty she was.

And, very conveniently, there was a pond.

........ That wasn't suspicious at all.

At first glance, nothing appeared to be wrong with the pond, but Clara knew that that couldn't be the case. Not in this place, and especially not when they were likely being tested at every point. Carefully, she crouched next to the pond, peering in, before looking around for something. A stick. Perfect. She held it at the end and dipped it in the water, swirling it around. Nearly immediately, there was movement below the surface and Clara freAKED OUT. She hated fairly large bodies of water anyway, but now there were Piranhas!?! Involuntarily, she let out a small scream, propelling herself backwards and landing on her gluteus maximus. Faaaaantastic.

No, she was NOT over it yet.

So not.

Maggie's wand was still pointed at Zeke. Who was now on the ground. Which was sooooort of satisfying to see to be honest. He was beneath her. Literally. She stepped forward until she was right next to him, wand and eyes on him. Then she kicked his shin. Not hard enough for him to be seriously hurt but hard enough for it TO hurt. That's what you get.

With one last glare, she tried to focus on the problem at hand again. They did have to make it out of this forest eventually after all. Vera Verto. Right. Well they needed something to transform into a goblet, right? "Accio Piranha!" She said, pointing her wand at the pond now. They could just transfo-

Okay.

There was a piranha flying her way now.

Oops.

With a shriek she ducked. CLEARLY she hadn't quite thought this through.

Still watching the fish in the water as they got even more frenzied simply because of her having put the fern frond into the water, Brooklyn rolled her eyes as she heard Maggie cast a hex. She imagined she knew exactly who that was sent to, even as she heard Zeke’s shield spell and then the thump of someone hitting the ground. They weren’t going to get anywhere if they just turned around and hexed each other. But then, if it really was survival of the fittest…she wasn’t planning on being hexed.

At least Hady had responded to her question, even though by now she was pretty much convinced the fish were piranhas. She couldn’t think of any other kind that could chomp off the end of a leaf, and once again, she wasn’t testing the theory with her own hand. She wasn’t stupid. She’d glanced over to see Hady looking at the note from Professor Bellaire, though. They’d figure out something, and until then, she was just going to keep an eye on the water. Piranhas couldn’t jump, could they?

She’d already had her wand out, anyhow, even as she’d taken a step backward from the pond as Zeke had made his suggestion. Sounded good to her, and she had the perfect victims. They’d be safe if there weren’t any piranhas after all…

“Vera Verto!,” she said, tapping the back of one of the piranhas three times with her wand as it had come near the surface, pulling her wand back before it could chomp a bite of the wood. She’d grinned as the piranha transfigured into a goblet, aside from the fact she still had to get it out of the pond. “Accio goblet!” There, now she had a goblet anyway, and she quickly dipped it into the pond again to fill it with water so she could get a drink. Everyone else was on their own. Definitely as another piranha had zoomed past her on its way toward Maggie.

It swayed a little, but ultimately their team work was sound and the bridge held securely. Once Ilia reached the other side, she noticed spider webs, but her focus was on her group. She stopped directly in front of the bridge and had her wand at the ready, to help in case the bridge was not so forgiving of heavier occupants.

Her eyes fixed firmly onto Henric as he started crossing. Nervous looks, but he was doing well. Her wand was aimed directly onto him, ready to spring into action at the slightest creak or crack. Thankfully he made it though, and she grinned at him once he spoke. Until he mentioned the spider webs. "I think we'll have a fight on our hands once we are all across." She whispered to Henric as she watched out for the older Gryffindor's crossing. Once Benny had joined them on the other side she nodded to him. "Hello again."

Now it was Adi's turn. The bridge seemed less stable as they went and she was concerned. Perhaps she should have gone last...... Though she was pretty sure between the three of them and himself, that even if it did start to collapse, they could bring him across safely. She took a deep breath, knowing once the older puff was over it would be rough going. When Adi started RUNNING across the last steps it made Ilia a little concerned, but he was fine of course. He began to speak, but noticed the spider webs as well.

Once they had all made it across, the spider started coming closer. It was massive....some form of acromantula she was sure. Good ol' Adi was ready immediately with a plan and fired arrows to distract the large, hairy, beasty. Ilia, ever the daring child, volunteered herself to help distract the creature. "Stupify!" She stunned it for a moment as she to the opposite side from Adi.

SPOILER!!: Snake & a Lion

Quote:

BAHAHAHAHAH.. the look on her...... whoa!

Zeke, wand still in hand had enough time to cast a quick shield charm, "Protego," to save his live from being tickled to death in a deadly forest, cause really... the irony of it all. Of course, just because he was able to produce the charm it hadn't stopped him from diving for cover too, allowing himself to crash to the hot and moist ground where he had just been standing. Gross. THIS was pretty gross.

"You over it yet?" he asked, looking up at Maggie, grinning. Hehehehe.

BUT... Hady was right, they'd get a chance for dragons eventually, for now he'd have to live without.

And as for Brooklyn, she voiced interesting thoughts.

Piranhas? And Hady wanted a cup?

"I know this one!" he exclaimed, putting the pieces together, even if he was still laying on the floor, wand aimed defensively at Maggie. "We need to use Vera Verto!"

Quote:

No, she was NOT over it yet.

So not.

Maggie's wand was still pointed at Zeke. Who was now on the ground. Which was sooooort of satisfying to see to be honest. He was beneath her. Literally. She stepped forward until she was right next to him, wand and eyes on him. Then she kicked his shin. Not hard enough for him to be seriously hurt but hard enough for it TO hurt. That's what you get.

With one last glare, she tried to focus on the problem at hand again. They did have to make it out of this forest eventually after all. Vera Verto. Right. Well they needed something to transform into a goblet, right? "Accio Piranha!" She said, pointing her wand at the pond now. They could just transfo-

Okay.

There was a piranha flying her way now.

Oops.

With a shriek she ducked. CLEARLY she hadn't quite thought this through.

Quote:

Still watching the fish in the water as they got even more frenzied simply because of her having put the fern frond into the water, Brooklyn rolled her eyes as she heard Maggie cast a hex. She imagined she knew exactly who that was sent to, even as she heard Zeke’s shield spell and then the thump of someone hitting the ground. They weren’t going to get anywhere if they just turned around and hexed each other. But then, if it really was survival of the fittest…she wasn’t planning on being hexed.

At least Hady had responded to her question, even though by now she was pretty much convinced the fish were piranhas. She couldn’t think of any other kind that could chomp off the end of a leaf, and once again, she wasn’t testing the theory with her own hand. She wasn’t stupid. She’d glanced over to see Hady looking at the note from Professor Bellaire, though. They’d figure out something, and until then, she was just going to keep an eye on the water. Piranhas couldn’t jump, could they?

She’d already had her wand out, anyhow, even as she’d taken a step backward from the pond as Zeke had made his suggestion. Sounded good to her, and she had the perfect victims. They’d be safe if there weren’t any piranhas after all…

“Vera Verto!,” she said, tapping the back of one of the piranhas three times with her wand as it had come near the surface, pulling her wand back before it could chomp a bite of the wood. She’d grinned as the piranha transfigured into a goblet, aside from the fact she still had to get it out of the pond. “Accio goblet!” There, now she had a goblet anyway, and she quickly dipped it into the pond again to fill it with water so she could get a drink. Everyone else was on their own. Definitely as another piranha had zoomed past her on its way toward Maggie.

Hady didn't think arguing and attacking one another was really going to get them anywhere at all. She gave a nod of her head to Zeke when he said he knew the spell they needed. That was a good thing at least they'd be able to have a drink before moving on. Walking to her friend she held a hand out to him offering to help him up as she ignored the ranting going on around her.

With a glance towards Brooklyn she saw that the spell had worked however she wasn't keen on trying it out on a Piranha. Nope so not gonna happen. There had to be something else she could transfigure. A rainforest had other animals in it! Scanning the area around them closely mainly near the water she spotted a pair of small red eyes.

With a small grin she knelt down near the water but not to close of course to see it was a small tree frog. Before it could get away she three taps on it's back and pointed her wand at it. “Vera Verto!," she spoke clearly and firmly watching as the frog turned into a goblet. Picking it up she looked at the pond and after checking that no piranhas were near she swiftly dipped the goblet into the water filling it. She had no problems sharing really...well with some people.

With a glance towards her buddy she gestured him over. He could either make his own goblet or share with her if he wanted either was fine with her.

Suddenly it all made sense. She had to MAKE more steps. Transfigure them. And what from? The EXISTING steps. DUH! She felt silly now that she realised what it was that she had to do. Secretly she blamed the slight dehydration and mugginess. She felt like an idiot, to have thought it would be so simple to use a repairing charm on the bridge. She got onto her hands and knees right at the start of the bridge and managed to wobble one of the steps free. She placed it on the ground, and she knelt up so that she could cast the spell. It was the easiest way she knew to do it, to have it on the ground in front of her, rather than trying to do it when it was already on the bridge. She would figure out how to actually fix the bridge as soon as she had made enough steps. She'd done this spell twice before, successfully, but she was still a bit unsure about it. It wasn't an everyday spell for her, so she carefully practiced how to enunciate the spell. "juh-MIN-ee-oh, juh-MIN-ee-oh, juh-MIN-ee-oh," she said, repetitively a few times. Easy for the hand movement, a flick of the wand.

Okay, for real this time. "juh-MIN-ee-oh," she said, flicking her wand at the step. Happily, she watched as two steps were now in front of her, rather than just one. "juh-MIN-ee-oh," she said again, flicking her wand at the original step. There were now THREE! She looked over to the bridge, counting she needed another two. "juh-MIN-ee-oh," she said twice more, flicking her wand at the original step twice. Five steps now.

But how was she supposed to put the bridge together? She knew there was the shoe-gluing spell, but was that only for shoes? She certainly didn't want to get her shoes stuck. She could conjure up some rope or chains and link the steps down... or... this might work... she placed one of the steps down where there was a cap, lining it up nicely. Her wand came out and she pointed it at one side of the step. "Epoximise," she said, then turned to the other side of the step and did the same. She gave it a shove and a wiggle and was relieved when it STUCK down. She grabbed the next step and put it just in front of the first one. "Epoximise," she repeated on both sides, giving it a wiggle to make sure it was stuck down. She repeated this for the other three steps until finally... she was at the other side. She breathed a sigh of relief. All that NEWT study was sort of paying off it seemed.

Henric took his place on the bridge and again Benny was watching intently, wand in hand and spell just behind his lips if need be. He caught muttering from his teammate as the younger Hufflepuff moved across their handiwork but couldn't quite catch the exact words being used. Maybe something to do with the boy looking down but that was only a thought. Thankfully it didn't matter much after awhile as the second person was soon across and it was his turn onto the bridge.

Two across...two to go.

Benny tentatively moved for his first step despite the fact that Ilia and Henric had already made it. He might be tall and lanky, but he was still weight on the bridge. And just because it had held up so far didn't mean it would stay that way. The sixth year moved cautiously yet steadily, his wand still in hand while his opposite limb was ready to grab hold of something if he started to fall.

...and then he was over.

"Hello," he echoed, turning to watch as Adi began his journey. His Hufflepuff friend doing when when all of a sudden Adi took off running towards them and he tensed. Was something wrong? That's when he noticed the owner of the webs and he was reminded of the stories he had heard the previous term from his house and dormmates and momentarily froze. Uh oh...not one of those!

Bellaire wouldn't do that...or would she?

His struggled thoughts were interrupted as Adi spoke up instructing them. Two fight...two restrain. His bestie was the first to cast, fire arrows at...or before the spider. Benny worked to remembe any useful spells, the first coming to mind more a defense one than a transfiguration but he used it anyway. "Arania Exumai!" he cast throwing the spider back, not registering at first that Ilia had also fired.

Oops....three attackers and a restrainer.

Well, Zhenya was at the other side, and even though she wasn't scared of heights, she decided not to look down. So onwards she went.

Until she stopped dead in her tracks.

OH

MY

MERLIN!!!

"AAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!" she screamed, and ran back, over the bridge she had built, thank MERLIN it was still there, or she would have fallen to her death. Once over it she dived behind a rock and started crying. *PANICATTACK*

After what felt like 10 minutes of crying, shaking, hyperventilating, Zhenya's mind cleared a little of the anxiety and she started to get a bit angry. Why was there a GIANT SPIDER in this jungle? How did that thing get in there? It wasn't for a few more minutes of absolutely frustrated crying and shaking that she finally realised Professor Bellaire had put it there on purpose. Purpose being TRANSFIGURATION! She took a few more moments to regain her composure. She got out the goblet that was still in her robe pocket, pointed it at the cup and said "Aguamenti." The goblet was soon full of crystal clear water, which she had a drink of. After finishing, she put it back in her robe pocket, wiping her now cold sweaty face dry. Her heart had stopped hammering in her chest, her hands were only a little shaky, and she was able to stand. Try again?

This time she put her robes and cardigan back on, to free her hands, and she inched her way over the bridge, still intact. Once she was at the other end, she stopped for a few moments.

Okay, there was a giant spider there. What was she supposed to do? It was a nasty vicious disgusting thing. It probably wanted to eat her. Well, she would destroy it first. She had a brainstorm of a few spells she could use. She could shoot arrows at it, she could repel it, bind it or encase it. She wasn't sure what would work. She inched closer and closer to the area she saw it, and there it was. It was... clicking and moving towards her, those 8 legs sending shivers all up and down her spine. She flinched, repulsed by it. "STUPEFY!" she cried out, her wand moving in a vertical line. The spell shot out, towards the spider, but had no effect. "INFLECTO TELUM! INFLECTO TELUM! INFLECTO TELUM!" she yelled, in an oddly high-pitched voice. Arrows shot out of her wand, hit the spider, but fell to the ground. They were no use. Her heart had resumed its hammering in her chest. "FLIPENDO!" she cried, wiggling her wand to perform the hand movement. She spider seemed to stop, budge back a bit, but still kept coming at her. "OH MERLIN!" she cried out, feeling some tears springing to her eyes. Was this it? Was this the end?

"INCARCEROUS!" She yelled, pointing her wand with as much force as she could muster, right at the spider. She was relieved to see ropes conjured from her wand, binding to the spider. The ropes somehow wrapped around the body of the spider, closing its nasty mouth, but some of its legs were still in use. "Flipendo!" she said again, and the spider budged back. Not much, bur more than before. She started calming down a LITTLE, but the spider wasn't yet restrained enough to be incapable of coming after her. "Incarcerous!" She said again, more ropes shooting from her wand and binding around the spider. Was that enough? She wasn't sure. Probably not... She looked around at the surrounding area. Sure she could cast Incarcerous a few more times, or flipendo and try and drag the spider to the bridge and get it to fall over the side, but she just wanted to get away from it. "Caught!" she said, seeing vines nearby creep out and attach themselves to the spider. At least that would keep it in restrained to that area. Hopefully. But just for good measure, she was going to try something else. "Incarcifors," she said, pointing to the spider, and the trees around it. The tree directly above the spider transformed itself into a very shabby looking enclosure. It wouldn't hold forever, it didn't look sturdy, but the spider was enclosed in it, with ropes binding it. She quickly ran as fast as she could away from the spider.

"BREAK TIME, 10 MINUTES!!!!!"

Sophia's voice echoed around the jungle/classroom. As soon as it did, everything froze. There were no biting insects or piranhas or charging spiders. "Night" quickly fell and brought with it a cool gentle breeze, while the 'sky' was littered with beautiful stars.

If you check your pockets you'll all find essence of murtlap to sooth those stinging bites. Keep abreast of the time because there will be no warning when the time runs out.

"CONSTANT VIGILANCE!"

Zhenya was still running through the jungle, her chest heaving, burning, but she didn't want to stop. What if the spider got out and was chasing her? She had surely made that thing angry.

And then every nerve ending on her body fired, she was sure her hair stood up that very second. But it was okay. The loud and sudden noise that had frightened her was Professor Bellaire. 10 minutes break time. Zhenya stopped running, relieved out of her mind. She looked up as it appeared to be getting darker and saw stars. Oh that was so beautiful. She sat on the ground, and put her hand in her pocket to pull out the piranha goblet again, but found something else in there. She pulled the goblet out, setting it on the ground in front of her, and pulled out another small bottle. Essence of murtlap. Oh wow! She put a few dabs on her neck and face, where she had been itching. Sure it was those mosquitos. Then she rested her back down until she was flat on the grass, looking up at the stars. Bliss.

The water and the rest felt so good. In fact, AJ would be A-okay with just camping out here for a while. If it weren't for those jerks in that water that would gnaw into her she would jump in and really cool off. There wasn't a spell that came to mind that would freeze the fish to where she could do that though. Better not try it out since her partner needed her whole to finish this little obstacle course of Bellaire's.

Time to move on. Her and Lux both had their fill of water, and honestly AJ was excited to see that they would be faced with next. Even though the lion was drained, she would not be stopped.

Mosquito bites were the absolute worst! As she followed her partner along their trail she scratched herself all over. Looking down she noticed that a spot on her arm was actually starting to bleed. The pain was a welcome sensation over the itching. AJ would take it.

Soon they came to a bridge, and call her crazy but Lux didn't seem to like this obstacle at all. "You okay?" AJ needed her partner's head to be in the game, but at the same time Lux was a friend and AJ wanted to reassure her that everything would be okay. "Just don't look down," she said with an encouraging smile. It had to be the height thing that was getting to her. The fourth year had no problem at all with heights, and she would try to do most of the work for them so Lux wouldn't have to.

"It's definitely too spaced out to jump over it." And Lux didn't look like she would attempt that anyways. "We obviously need to make more boards." But how? "I got it! We can just double them. Gemino should do the trick." Just as AJ was about to raise her wand to give the spell a go she heard a booming voice that belonged to none other than the transfiguration teacher herself.

Break? Was this a trick? Soon a breeze hit her face and her hair blew out behind her. "I can breathe again." The muggy and humid air was replaced with cool and refreshing air. "Maybe we should take advantage of this break and keep moving?" Or relax and enjoy it. It was only going to last for ten minutes. It was her partners call.

AJ shoved her hands into her pockets and breathed in deep. Her hand felt something hard. Did she stash a chocolate frog in there and forget about it? AJ pulled out a bottle and examined it. "What's this?"

Henric turned his body just in time to face the giant spiders charging towards them. Luckily, his friends were quick to react by countering their own defensive spells at the creatures. What spells he should use?! His brain was so scattered, he didn’t know what to do in a situation like that so his yelled out the first thing he could remember and that was the spell to shoot something up in the air.

“ALARTE ASCENDARE!”

One of the spiders was lifted up a few feetbut fell back down onto the ground and just rise up again on its feet. He could have sworn the back of his conscious mind laughed, “Yes, that would make it any better…Henric, you just made the animal more angrier….thanks to your oh so wonderful cast! Haha~” Deng it! He needed to find another defensive spell quick before the spiders got to them. Adi had told them to cast out the restraining spell. But how?! Oh Merlin, what was the spell again, he racked his brain once more, feeling a little helpless. You know what…he would just going to wing it and hoped for the best it worked.

“IMMOBULUS!” he yelled and the spiders began to suddenly stop in their tracks. Goodness! Did his spell worked?! It was the first time he had ever used it on anything, he had no idea he had the skill in him! Then a loud booming sound came out from all around them, Professor Bellaire distinctive voice was heard throughout the jungle/classroom. And Henric realised, aahhh…it might not be his spell that caused the creatures to be immobilise. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t glad to hear his professor’s voice! Those spiders were not attacking them anymore...fuuuu...and they could have a chance of escaping, didn't they? What would he do without his friends...really.

Ten minute break? Good, after that encounter with the spiders, Caleb needed a little break. But before he knew it, those ten minutes were up, and it was back into the fray. Thankfully he had only one little obstacle to go, and then he was DONE.

Alright, so...was that Bellaire? Just hanging out across a ravene? Ok...that was odd. He would rather get like, 100 house points for completing this instead of a nice little break in the shade and a cool drink, but whatever. How did he GET there? That was the bigger question.

HMMMM...he spotted a rather large rock, about the size of his fist, nearby and he got an idea. Pointing his wand at the rock, he yelled "Draconifor!" as he pictured a nice, decently sized stone dragon to take him to the other side. He didn't need anything THAT big, he just needed something large enough to take him to the other side without collapsing into pebbles before he got there.

The rock twisted and turned and grew quickly, turning into a nice stone dragon that gave a purr of approval as it uncoiled it's tail and stretched out it's wings. "Hey Stoney!" Caleb said with a grin, referring to it by the same name he'd used last term. The dragon leaned down and stretched it's wings again, letting him climb onto his back. After he was settled on the dragon's back, it took off into the air, and in just a few flaps of its wings, he was on the other side with Bellaire. He hopped off and immediately laid down on the grass, ready for a nice break. That had been a LOT of work.

That was definitely a good moment to fall.

She was okay, though, hopefully. Her arm just felt a little bruised after the plunge, and so did her knees, but she certainly did not need anyone to CARRY her around. Natalia felt ABSOLUTELY able to support herself through the rest of her journey. "Nope, I got it." The fourth year insisted assuredly as she attempted to support her knees... ehh.. NOPE. Okay knees, listen up and be strong... ahh... OKAY SERIOUSLY.

"I'm just going to crawl a little bit, okay?" Natalia spoke with a slight chuckle and a sheepish smile. It appeared that she didn't have to crawl a very long way (two steps by foot) until she came across... water! A pond!

OH MERLIN was she THIRSTY!

"Zander! Amanda! Come here, there's water here!" As Natalia began to dip her dirt-stained hands into the water, dark movements emerged from beneath the surface, taking her by bewilderment. "What are those things moving?" They appeared to move in water like fish do, but they were definitely a lot bigger in size than normal fish. Natalia began to notice their glistening, yellow eyes... then...

"AaaaaaahHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Just when the piranha jumped out of the water, it froze in mid air. HUH. STRANGE. Ten minute break, huh? GOOD. Natalia starred curiously at the fierce-looking piranha. "We should probably think of a way to get rid of these things while we can... ten minutes, the professor said." They might as well use this time for useful pondering.

Ahhh! EVERYONE was attacking the spider. COOL! Adi supposed that could work just as well. It might tired out the creature quicker than usual. While the others did that, he was about to switching things up and cast The Incarcerous Spell "Icarc-''



Whyyy was everything still? It took him a second extra to realise Bellaire's voice had BOOMED around the Forest, giving them a ten minutes break. Adi lowered his wand and at that precise time, he realised just how tired he was feeling. Not exhausted as in countless cricket matches over the summer but just plan, normal tired. The back of his neck sill itched where he had been bitten by the mosquito but the breeze felt good against his damp skin so that sort made up for the uncomfortable itch.

"Good job, guys!'' Really. They were all doing so AWESOMELY! He absently stuck his hands in his pocket, his left one connecting with something in there. Adi examined the contents. "Essence of Murtlap!'' How thoughtful of their Professor. Wasting no time, he slapped on some of the substance to the back of his neck. Oh yeah. MUCH better.

Eden's goblet resembled a snake less than Toby's goblet resembled a frog. For some reason, this made her feel like she was doing all right. Also, slightly guilty for feeling this way, but no matter. It wasn't like she was going to gloat at Toby or anything. Plus, he had remembered all the spells so far and stuff. Eden wanted a memory like that!

"Wingardium Leviosa!" she swished and pointed her wand at her goblet, and it dipped into the water slowly before coming back up, as guided by her wand. Hehe. She grabbed the goblet from midair and DOWNED the fresh, cool water like it was LIFE GIVING. MAYBE IT WAS. She sipped until she had downed alllll of the liquid and collapsed, dramatically, on the ground. "Oh thank Merlin...gosh..." she was panting because she had drank SO FAST.

....was it getting...darker?

Eden sat up and shivered. "Tooooby--" she grabbed his hand and squeezed. THIS WAS SCARY. Dark. Eden normally wasn't scared of the dark, but right now, she was....especially since she didn't know what the heck was in store for them next...."Toby--" she whispered. "If it gets too cold, just know, I'm not against the body warmth method."

MHMM.

BREAK TIME.

Toby was still drinking deeply, with his eyes closed to maximise the experience, but he could still tell when the darkness began to fall. All at once, he stopped drinking and looked around. It WAS a bit chilly, Toby could only really tell because he'd been so warm and sweaty before and now the cool breeze was sending a chill right through him. Right on cue with Eden, he shivered too.

"It's okay, Eden. We'll be-" Oh, and she had his hand. Toby turned to look through her, still squinting as his eyes adjusted to the sudden nighttime... and found himself giving a snort of laughter. Man. Hahaha. Ha. That wasn't even FUNNY, but Toby was still a little giddy. All the ADVENTURE and EXCITEMENT had a tendency to make him go a... like that.

But yes. In all srsness.

"Me neither. We can do that if we start to freeze or whenever," Toby replied, giving a nod. "We'll be fine." He checked his watch on the wrist of the hand that held the now empty goblet. Bellaire's voice had said ten minutes... maybe one or two minutes ago. Plenty of time left.

"D'you think we do the rest of it in the dark?" That was EXCITING. ADVENTURE. "And-"

Toby paused. He'd just shifted around, his usual fidgety sort of movements, and realised there was something in his pocket that hadn't been there a few minutes ago. Setting the goblet down, he just went ahead and reached for whatever it was, not even considering that it might be part of a DANGEROUS obstacle or that maybe some kind of dangerous animal had gone and made itself at home.

"Hey look... murtlap essence!" he explained, having popped the top of the phial off and given it a sniff. "Did you get any bites from the bugs? You can use this!" It hadn't occurred to him to use it on his own bites, or that Eden may have had some of her own.

What was Hogwarts? Military camp?
All this running around in classes was NOT good for his skin and he had worked YEARS of washing his face with products to keep it as clean and flawless as it was now. Sweating was not something he enjoyed and he definitely regretted going to Hogwarts instead of staying at Charms School. At least students did not die there judging by that big sign.
Still, after the patronus had left and they were literally thrown in the wilderness. Yoongi looked around for any partners but then decided to go alone. He had always thought he worked better and faster when there weren’t anyone freaking out around him. Mostly because he was heavily influenced by emotions. If one starts crying , he would cry too. So ….solo it was.

He grabbed a scroll of parchment between his fingertips because a bird just …yeah… and read it. So it was a competition. A survival of the fittest game. Whatever, he was not interested in that, obviously a Professor would not let them die for real in her own classroom. Too much paperwork.

Stepping under the canopying trees, Yoongi looked around at the beauty of it. This wasn’t so bad. With his Phoenix wand in his hand and the instructions paper in his pocket, Yoongi walked further, wondering why the first phase was so easy. A low buzzing noise reached his ears and he shivered. He knew that sound all too well. Mosquitoes usually went to him during vacations. Even they liked him. Well, he couldn’t argue with that because he was lovely if he said so himself but he did not like it.

His neck began to itch and he knew he was stung. He had to do something because he now saw the locusts and quickly remembered the hint that was written. Bet those are tasty….bet those are tasty…can you eat them? Roast them in a fire? But the fire spell was for shooting fire arrows. It would even take a skilled archer hours to hit them all. No it had to be something else.

As he thought, Yoongi ran as he did not want to stay in one place and after nearly reaching phase 2 he got it. He spun around on his heels, held out his wand and shouted. “AVIS!” a few birds were conjured , others vanished. He grumbled under his breath and slapped his arm to kill a mosquito. “Avis!” he said louder and with more determination now and a flock of birds appeared from his wand and began to attack the locusts and mosquitoes, eating them up. His skin was itching. His beautiful skin was itching! He ran towards phase two and tried not to scratch his skin.

..........Wait...what? break time? ugh he knew lacking behind was a bad idea. Where were the others even? Oh well.. as he entered the second stage, Yoongi sat down on the ground and watched as everything froze. He could use this time to come up with a plan. He grabbed his instructions paper but also felt something else in his pocket. Taking it out, Yoongi let out a breath of relief when he saw that it was murtlap essence. He would use that first and then with a lumos wand light he began to read the instructions, memorizing them in his mind.