It was looking like Lux was having an internal struggle, but AJ gave her all the time she needed to be able to cross over the bridge. The bridge was actually really shaky which didn't bother AJ at all, but she knew that Lux must be having a hard time even if she wasn't expressing it. AJ admired her strength. This was another obstacle down which meant they were even closer to being done with this whole thing! Not taking the full ten minute break really helped them out.

"We made i---" Before she could even finish her sentence and before her left foot had time to catch up with her right foot something was charging straight at them. "What in the..." What was it? It was huge, hairy and FAST. As it was getting closer AJ realized what it was. A giant spider. No big deal. The lion thought about her jar of pet spiders up in her common room. "Giant spider incoming!!!" Useful, she was. "Maybe he just wants a friend." Nothing to be scared of. Only this was Bellaire's obstacle course which meant that AJ should know better, but of course she went all roar, roar Gryffindor. "Here spidey, spidey." It was getting closer and closer, and she was going to reach her hand out to pet it, but..

ERM.

It wasn't a friendly spider at all. In fact it looked really hungry and AJ was about to be an appetizer, and Lux would be its lunch. Instead of petting it like she could any other giant creature she whacked it with her wand.

SMACK!

Right. Magic. Why did she keep forgetting that? What to do? While she thought about it, she tried to divert its attention and throw it of course. She had to save Lux.

"RWARRRRR!"

Because apparently she became a dinosaur under attack. Only the spider wasn't backing down, and she JUST barely escaped before her arm was a spidey snack. Merlin.

A spell came to her, and AJ was going to try it out. "Inflecto Telum!" Arrows were flying. Only thing was she missed because trying to aim and not die at the same time was super hard work.

SHE HAD MADE IT!!

Shaky from her ordeal and happy it was over with, Lux wanted to collapse on the solid ground and give it a BIG HUG.

So out of it, she didn't even notice the attacking spider until AJ was moving to pet it. o_O As much as Lux loved Gryffindors and wanted to be one, they could be pretty silly sometimes. This was one of those times. "I think it would rather make us its lunch." Giant spiders and people just couldn't be friends. Not that she was complaining, because they were GROSS. Only consolation was that Professor Bellaire wouldn't let her students get eaten - especially not after what had happened last term.

AJ started attacking the creature, and there was no way that Lux was going to let her do it on her own. This giant spider was going down!! "Inflecto Telum!!!" Arrows shot out of her wand, hitting their target. "Take that, you big meanie!" That's what he got for attacking them when all they had wanted to do was get through the obstacle course in one piece.

Uh alright... Just gonna let the girl crawl then. Hopefully she was aware of the fact that this was a JUNGLE and that there could be anything crawling around on the dirt underneat... So honestly, being carrying her wouldn't have been Zander's favorite thing to do, but he was willing if it meant she wouldn't get hurt. So he just gave her an 'aaaaaalright' kind of look as he turned towards the firstie who was TOTALLY freaking out.

Which was strange because normally it was ZANDER'S job to freak out.

Did she know she was stealing his thunder?

"Hey, it's gonna be alright," Bellaire was letting them out when class finished, right? Because Zander was getting hungry. Actually, he was even more thirsty than he was hungry thanks to all that running and flailing about from the stupid bugs. Speaking of which, Nat found water!! HUZZZAH, girl was actually good for something after all. ahem. What, who said that?

"Thank, Merlin!" He didn't waste a second before bending down and reaching into the water, trying to cup it into his hands for a nice si--O_____________O WHAT IN THE NAME OF MERLIN'S PANTS!?! Professor B couldn't even let them have water before ruining that too. She was evil. And Zander accidentally shouted, but not even about the pirañas. Nat's scream startled him more than anything in this entire jungle and he let out a loud "AHHHHHHH!" in response to her "AHH". Ahem. Cool. Calm. Collected.But then it stopped? Ten minute break? WHAT? Bellaire was being nice? DOUBLE WHAT? "... I mean, I've got some chocolate frogs but..." he reached into his pocket and pulled a few out, "I don't think they'd want to chase me just for that and some of the last few I have so really, it'd be a waste... Yeah, so no need to throw those out."

Aka, chocolate frogs were not leaving his hands, okay? Next idea please.

Running further into the obstacle course, Cutty could see the bright reflection of artificial sun cutting through the thick canopy at a horizontal angle. From what he could see it was not stationary and it danced a bit upon the leaves and trunks.


Water.

He could dunk in there and maybe the few remaining insects would lose interest in him with their tiny buggy attention spans. Cutty skidded to a stop, knocking a startled capybara into the body of water and watching as it sank in a champagne of blood and bubbles. He did not hear it scream.

Don't go in there.

Cutty turned, annoyed with the insects and fascinated with the new found use of this particular body of water. "Arresto Momentum." He said firing at the swarms very worst stragglers. He needed water, though and dipping ones hands into a piranha infested river was a no go. This would be the time to use the animal into goblet spell...or it should've been. That is, if he loud, murderous and inconsiderate arrival at the river hadn't scared off all of the wild life in the immediate radius.

All that remained was himself and the piranhas. Ever one to turn crap into poo-pow (that is to take something utterly useless and make it into something useful such as floo powder), he ventured out and circled the perimeter of the river until he came to a large rock that hung over the water. He looked to see if anyone was coming and then took his wand to his finger. "Diffindo." His wand aimed for rocks and then with the last of the magical burst he directed it to his own fingertip cutting it deeply. Perfect. He placed his bleeding finger over the water and squeeeezed.

The piranhas soon began to gather after a moment or two of chumming. His wand still in his good hand, Cutty went fishing. "Accio Piranha." SHWOOOSH! A tiny russet and silvery body broke the surface of the water and landed with a soft flop next to the older snake boy where it continued to flop aggressively. Cutty kept his eye on it even as he stood. Aiming his wand to it he said, "Vera Verto.", then calmly watched as it took on it's new form. A striking metallic goblet with a gradient sheen to it.

Cutty chortled and walked over to the goblet. "Episkey.", he said taking a moment to heal his self-inflicted wound before picking up the goblet. He exhaled and inhaled once as he tilted the tip of his wand over the rim of the cup. "Aquamenti." He wasn't about to risk Montezuma's revenge.

Toby was stood right there on the bridge, brow furrowed in concentration as he tried to work out what exactly they needed to do here. Conjure... a bridge? Had they learnt a spell like that (and wasn't there a kids' story with a spell like that)? Find a way to fly across? Transfigure a tree into... something? He had no idea.

But at least he wasn't too worried about hanging out on this bridge while they thought. Toby had a general attitude of 'no fear' today. Not just because he was lowkey invincible but also because he'd come to the conclusion that Bellaire wouldn't actually let anything happen to them. This class was definitely not dangerous at all.

Perhaps he was a little too optimistic about life sometimes.

"Huh, wha-...?" Toby said, suddenly brought out of his musings and back to the present by a suggestion from Eden. Ooooh, duplicate. Now there was an idea. The Hufflepuff was just going through his (admittedly patchy) mental catalogue of spells when Eden's next few words mad him turn back around.

"What? Eden, no..." She looked... sad. Well, not happy and smiley, which always meant sad in Toby's eyes. He didn't waste any time before wrapping his arms around her and giving a quick squeeze, returning the hug from earlier. "You're a brilliant partner! I don't think I'd have thought about duplicating the steps, but I think that's how we do it!" He let go again and smiled wide, really hoping he could boost her confidence here. C'moooooon Edeeeennnnnnn. "D'you remember the spell? Is it... like... gemini or something? ... Wait, no... that's a star si-... uh... constellation. And a star sign." Sorry, Airey.

Anyway... Gemini? Domino? Neither sounded right.

Eden met his eyes before he hugged her, which she just returned with pats on his back. He was a lovely human, he was. She was lucky to have him as her buddy on this crazy TRANSFIG ADVENTURE.

She smiled a little..."Okay...well...yeah, I do, actually--I use it a lot to copy my notes in case I lose anything." Eden lost almost everything. It was really lucky she somehow made good grades. HA. "Close, Toby--it's Gemino--" she smiled. "Like...the gemini twins, yeah--" she was sure Clara had told her that gemini was Latin for twin at some point.

Pointing her wand at the last step on the bridge before the gap, she cleared her throat. "Gemino!" and another little step appeared...hmm. Glancing over at Toby, she nudged him kindly. "We got this, Toby..." she said softly, her face relaxed, but she looked..very proud. She was proud of HIM because he was just amazing and stuff. "Let's keep doing this until we get them all--GEMINO!" she cried, again, and she would keep doing this until all the steps were filled in.

They would be across in no time!

The water looked inviting to take a sip of. I mean Kace's throat was quite parched and he wouldn't mind a sip. Then he heard Puck's suggestion and he agreed. There could be parasites in it and cause some dangerous side effects. He saw her cut bark off a tree and he tilted his head and wondered what in the bloody merlin was she doing? Apparently she was testing out the tree bark with a spell he never heard of. "Where did you learn that spell?" he asked Puck. He saw Puck collecting supplies and all that and he let her do her thing. He had no complaints there. Then he saw Norah do her thing and she was pretty smart.

He saw Puck drink out of her leaf cup and he asked, "Can I borrow it?" and then he took it and took a pleasant sip. Yesss that felt nice. It felt like bliss. Now onto Phase 3. "Yeah let's move on.." he said and was walking and they came up to a bridge. Hmmm what shall they do. They need to make more wooden planks to walk across. "Well it seems we can't jump over the bridge. We need to make more wooden planks.." he said thinking out loud. "Any ideas?" he asked out loud to his group members. Then he remembered a spell and snapped his fingers. "Wait nevermind.." He found a board near the side of the bridge. He picked it up and got his wand out, he casted the spell with a flick of his wand, "Gemino!" and then he saw multiple boards come to life.

Woaaahh now that would be useful! He grinned with pride and now they needed to put these on the bridge.

GEMINO. That was it. Well, he was CLOSE.

Toby gave a grin and nodded with such enthusiasm that he was pretty sure the bridge started swaying even more, not that he was too bothered by it. He still had his wand in his hand, and so it was no time at all before he was doing exactly the same as Eden, and duplicating the steps of the bridge as they went.

"Gemino!" he cast, taking gradual steps across as the path across started to appear. Eden was still behind him on the bridge, likely filling in the large gaps he was leaving behind. But, because it was EDEN and they were friends and he wanted to make this a smooth and secure route across, he added another spell to the mix. "Incarcerous."

That was USUALLY used on alive things, so Toby obviously never practiced it much, but he had a good enough handle of the spell that he could conjure the ropes, and they would wrap around the newly duplicated steps and existing rope of the bridge, securing it all together for a sturdier way across. "Gemino! Incarcerous!" Big step forward. "Gemino! Incarcerous!" Big step forward.

And so the pattern continued until they made it all the way to the other side.

BIG GRIN from Toby.

"Sweet! It-" But he didn't finish that thought. Because not a moment after their feet touched solid ground, Toby saw them.

Spiders.

Big.

Running right at them.

Suddenly, all Toby felt was panic. He forgot, completely and utterly, that he was in the middle of lesson, in a classroom, with an obstacle course. It didn't matter. Because THOSE were spiders and they looked HUGE and VERY VERY REAL.

For a split second, Toby stood there, fixed on the spot, eyes wide and terrified. But it didn't last for long, because his need to get AWAY FROM THOSE SPIDERS was much stronger than his terror. Or maybe they were the same thing, and he was driven by panic. Either way, he grabbed Eden's hand again and tried to RUN. Run where? WHO KNEW. JUST... AWAY. There was no screaming, just a terrified set of squeaking noises.

Spidersspidersspidersnooooooooooooooooooooo.

Norah beamed at the compliment and brushed some dirt off the bum of her baggy trousers. With renewed confidence, she announced, "Ready? I was BORN ready," before turning on her heel and marching forwards. "Hup two three four, dress it up two thr--" Her toe had caught on an uneven bit of ground and she stumbled forwards, steadying herself before she fell all the way to the floor and turning around to give her groupmates a sheepish grin. "...four." So maybe she wasn't ready for the in-charge bit just yet. She squinted as she walked and tried to make out the shapes in front of her, but the darkness really wasn't helping much. At least it was less hot this way. Ish.

Her eyes had already started to adjust to the dark by the time the fourth year began to wonder why no animal had jumped out at them yet. Was it over already? Believe it or not, Norah had started to KIND OF enjoy this whole deal, or at least she wasn't quite ready for it to come to an end. What fun was an adventure if it was short? She narrowed her eyes as they reached a bridge. This could be something, yeah? She stretched out one foot to give the wood a poke with the toe of her purple trainers. It wasn't STABLE but it wasn't like they were gonna tap dance on it or anything. Standing on her tippy toes, the fourteen year old leaned all the way forward to inspect the bridge further. Aha! It was missing stuff. Iiiiiiinteresting. "I guess we can fix it if there isn't another way around..." she began, screwing her face up in concentration 'cause she'd LEAD them here. That was a big deal. It was her turn to know stuff. "...but we need more wood." Huh. They were in a FOREST and all that, but you needed the right kind of wood to make a bridge. Not that she was an expert or anything, but it made sense if you thought about it. That counted as being an expert. Kind of. She could pretend it did.

But what better type of wood was there for a bridge than the kind already used on a bridge? Norah aimed her wand at the rickety plank and cast, "Gemino! Gemino!" She grinned at her handiwork and turned back to Puck and Kace. "I found the wood bit! But how do we attach it?" Wanting to hold on to her half-victory for as long as possible, she cast "Gemino" again aaaaaand once more, "gemino!" until there was a nice pile of wood there. Ta da! They probably wouldn't need thaaaat much wood but who cared, really?

Spider secured? YUP!

Annnnd off they went again, this time with Henric leading. "Reckon we have a long more way to go?'' Adi asked the group in general as he glanced back at the giant form of the spider. Even though he knew they all had done a good job at securing the thing, he preferred not to snucked up upon, thank you very much. CONSTANT VIGILANCE! Hehe.

Anyway, the spider seemed to be frozen still. At least there was no movement from what he could see. Adi turned back to pay attention to what was before him. On and on they went until... oh looky! A CLIFF!

AWESOMMME!

Or not.

How were they supposed to get to the other side? That was the million galleon question. "Is that Professor Bellaire over there?'' Adi asked suddenly and pointing in the direction. Was she with a HOUSE ELF? Was it Tippin? Toddles? He wanted to go see the elf! "Any bright ideas?'' he asked the other three as he absently kicked at a small rock towards Benny.

Puck was about to lift the water up again and take another sip when Kace stole the cup. “Hey,” Puck sighed and rolled her eyes at him. “fiiine borrow it, steal it, what does it matter…its kind of a slimy toad cup” she smirked and rolled her eyes at him. Friends were weird.

Oh look, Norah and Kace were already duplicating the wooden boards for the bridge. This was going to be easy with the two of them duplicating the boards. “Okay, I am going to stick some of the boards in place,” she grinned as she lifted her wand and with a swish and flick she cast. “Wingardium Leviosa” floating the board into place she couldn’t help but grin as she lifted one board into place.

“Okay, it’s in place,” Puck grinned and took a deep breath. “Incarcerous,” she cast pointing her wand at the board and sticking it into place. “Locomotor Board” she cast this time trying for something different as she lifted the board into the air and moved it along with her wand. Setting it down on the ropes before pointing her wand at the wood again, “”incarcerous” she cast and stuck the pieces together.

“okay so we’ll get this.” Puck grinned a she noticed there were only a few more missing boards. “Gemino” she cast and watched as the board jiggled, shook, and split into two like mitosis. This was going to be awesome.

Henric asked what they should do with the giant spiders. But Benny had an idea and asked if it was cheating before starting to bind their arachnid assaulters, to which Ilia replied. "All is fair in love and war." Adi chimed in agreeably as well. It seemed like the smartest option so Ilia assisted. "Incarcerous!" The spiders probably were not going anywhere for quite awhile because they were all tied up with something.......get it? Oh, that was bad. Moving on......

The moved along and 'day' with its burdensome heat broke again. The last leg of the adventure and they came to a cliff. Henric asked about crossing, Adi asked for bright ideas, so Ilia starting surveying the surroundings. The wheels in her head started to whirl as she began hunting the area. She had brought George (her pet rock) with her, and began to toy with him in her fingers like a worry stone and...........Bingo was his name-o. She saw some scattered boulders and remembered a spell she had read about not so long ago.

"I don't know how bright it is, but I've got an idea." She placed George back in her pocket and "Wingardium Leviosa" levitated the four largest rocks in front of the boys. She sized up the smallest of the four for herself and aimed her wand at it, concentrating. "Draconifor!" It slowly began to shift and transmogrify, trading its rough hewn outside for a more scaly texture. Its clay brown hue shifted to a more golden shade and its semi roundness acquired limbs and wings, eventually producing a lovely creature shaped head. Ta da da da! There was a little dragonette , just big enough for her to ride, standing before her. She grinned at Henric, knowing his love for dragons. "I think this might work." She said and scratched the little golem's neck.

Walking and drinking from his piranha goblet, Cutty made use of the trimming charm and karate chopped with his wand to make it through some of the thicker, over-grown brush. "Flipnsnipwitit." Karate!chop. "Flipnsnipwitit." Karate!chop again. Greeting him on the other side of the dark brush was a rickety old bridge.

Cutty refilled his goblet, drank down 3/4ths of it and splashed the rest on his face. It stung in parts where the bugs had bit him. He looked out on the bridge for a long while before picking up a rock and skipping it across the suspension structure. It did not snap so easily as he thought it might, but he'd be reinforcing it along the way. Cutty took the first step onto the bridge.

"Revelio.", he said testing the bridge for traps. Was it not meant to snap at a certain point? Could you step into something invisible and get stuck or fall? Would one of the steps be only an illusion? It wasn't that he didn't trust that bridge so much as he trusted his teacher to do her job well. "Reparo." He aimed for the railing ropes that helped suspend the bridge every meter or so. "Reparo." He made sure they were tightly wound and the fibers re-inforced.

He continued in this manner until getting to a missing plank. He stepped over it. A method that worked...at first, until he saw a stunning gap between himself and the rest of the bridge. What was he meant to do? The planks weren't broken, but totally not even there so reparo wasn't feasible, not without exhaustive measures to repair the entirety of the bridge and with the sun setting Cutty Mordaunt had no time for that. He could've engorgio'd himself so that it was only a skip, but calculate that carefully. If your growth was such that your weight had caused you to fell the bridge before you were tall enough to cross the gap it wouldn't be at all a practical solution. Nar. Something else...

"Geminio." Cutty aimed his wand at the last plank present. It shook violently as if being boiled before replicating itself along the bridge and forming another step. The snake took an affirmative step onto the new plank and repeated his action. "Geminio.", he said as he realized there were quite a few to make. He knew how to flip this spell into it's evil twin and turn it to it's ad nauseam curse counterpart. So he did and remained on the step before the last as each plank shook and replicated itself. He took that moment to refill his water and take another drink. When the curse had run it's course he crossed over to terra firma and undid it. Let whomever should come next do their own work.

How long had that bridge been? Cutty found himself in fast approaching total darkness. Time to find a shelter. Nearly everything in the jungle that could kill you was arboreal to some extent. Alas, Cutty did not know this as he spotted a liana vine hanging from a cypress. "Vinea Funiculus." He pointed his wand at it and let the magic do it's thing by changing it from tender live material into coarse rope.

He fastened one end of the rope to the tip of his wand and aimed at the area above a thick and high bough. "Inflecto Telum." He watched as an arrow snagged one end of the rope, slinging it over the bough. On one end of the rope he tied a broken branch and with the other end he tied a series of knots. Cutty stuck his foot into the second knot and coiled with his legs around the rest of the rope. His wand in hand he took aim at the branch he spoke the incantation to make it larger. "Engorgio..." The rope straightened and grew more taught. "Engorgio." His body clung tighter to the rope as he rose further and further upwards quite quickly. "Engorgio." He was hoisted once more closer to the bough. Cutty used the rest of the knots to ascend the little way more to the bough, which he climbed onto and had a seat. He severed the rope with a, "Diffindo." so that he would not need to pull the now log-sized branch up with the rest of the rope. Once he had it gathered, he tied one end to the bough on which he planned to take a break.

The night sky fell over the obstacle course and through the thinnest crack in canopy Cutty could see the myriad of stars shining overhead. He sat up alert when he felt something touch his trouser pocket. His hand immediately went to it. He held and poked it through the material to see if it would move or bite and when it did nothing he reached in and removed the hard little object to reveal and small phial of essence of murtlap. He uncorked the bottle and began dabbing the essence on his face and the backs of his hands where the insects had bit him.

Something startled Zhenya awake. She hadn't realised she had been sleeping. It couldn't have been too long, though, because she didn't feel stiff and sore. She'd rested her head back to have a break and had accidentally closed her eyes. Silly. She put the piranha goblet down next to her, pointed her wand and said "Aguamenti," and filled it up with water. She drank it all, then put it back into her robes and got up. Why had she woken up? The answer was obvious when she stood up and looked down.

A snake.

Zhenya gulped. What on EARTH? But it obviously wasn't too hard to understand. There had been a giant spider, a broken bridge, and piranhas. Surely a snake wouldn't be any more of an issue?! The snake was in an odd contortion. Zhenya realised that it had rested along her head, so the snake's body had curved around her head and shoulders. The thought gave her goosebumps and a cold bead of sweat ran down her back. She walked backwards very softly. She wasn't scared of snakes, exactly, but she wasn't particularly fond of them either. She didn't know much about different breeds of snakes, so what if this one was dangerous? The spider could have eaten her, similar to the piranhas, she could have fallen off the cliff had she not realised the bridge was broken, so she wasn't going to put anything past this jungle. Her wand still in her hand, she seventeen year old raised her hand, pointed her wand at the snake, "Vipera Evanesca," she said, quietly but confidently, and waved her wand. *POOF*, in a cloud of black smoke, the snake had disappeared. She exhaled with relief.

And on she went...

Though she did notice that some of the trees and bushes were getting closely packed and hard to navigate. A few branches felt like they were slapping her in the face, and it wasn't until she was poked in the eye by a particularly small twig that she decided she HAD to do something. "Mobiliarbus," she said to some of the shrubs which had been tripping her up, and they lifted off the ground, moved backwards and plonked back down. "Mobiliarbus," she said, pointing her wand at the bigger trees. They wouldn't move though. Maybe their roots were too stubborn. What else could she do? She gave up and walked on a few more metres but stopped again. Her hair was a twiggy mess, she had some small scratches on her face, and her eye was still watering. How could she use transfiguration here? "Avifors," she said, pointing her wand and doing the wand motion to a smaller tree right in front of her, with a particularly long twiggy bit. The tree disappeared, and a raven replaced it. It was odd looking though, it was all furry looking, and... were its wings made of leaves? Zhenya shrugged and moved on, the bird following her along. Surely it would give up soon? "Avifors," she said, pointing her wand at a shrub she was about to trip up. It, too, transformed into a bird and followed her with the other one.

And it was all going really well... until she almost died again.

"WOW!" she got out, moving her body weight backwards, which toppled her down onto her backside. It was... well it was a cliff. Right there. She almost fell into it. She looked up to see how far it was between them and saw... Professor Bellaire? Zhenya waved, feeling a bit ridiculous. Actually, what she wanted to do was bugger off back the other way, brush her hair, wash her face, wash and iron her uniform and polish her shoes before Professor Bellaire really got a good look at her. She didn't have a mirror but she had a good imagination as to what she looked like.

They had moved onto the next phase but the obstacle in their way clearly was head-scratching. This time there was a cliff but no sight of any bridge, old and rickety, or otherwise. Benny looked in the direction Adi was point and alas it certainly looked like Bellaire there being assisted by a house-elf. "Yep," he said with a sigh as he tried to think of ideas on how they were going to go across themselves.

He felt the soft pressure of something hitting his ankle. The sixth year boy looking down to see what it was, only to notice a small rock that had bounced off of it, apparently kicked up by the Huffepuff's actions in his own musing. Rock...fly... The lightbulb went off in his head and he smiled.

That spell!

However Ilia seemed to figure it out as well, depositing four rocks at their feet for them to work with. "I think its a great idea!" he admitted, glancing over at Adi and his connection with the dragon transfiguring spell. A few moments later, Benny was focusing back on the previous joint lesson where they had learned the spell in question, ready to cast. "Draconifor!" His rock slowly responded, gradually turning into one of his favorite creatures and something that should be able to easily bring them over to where they needed to go.

OOFH.

Landing on the grass wasn't too bad. Zhenya scrambled to her feet, dusting off and looking around. She looked a little closer and saw Professor Bellaire sipping something? And being fanned off by a house elf? Just looking at it made her thirsty and hot. She kept her robes and cardigan on, though, because carrying them around were highly annoying. Besides, she had to figure out how to get over the cliff. There certainly weren't any broken bridges hanging around. That was a shame, because she now knew how to fix bridges. She knew of one instance where a bridge had been conjured, but Zhenya wasn't sure of that spell. So, obviously she couldn't cast it. She didn't want to conjure rope and secure it at her end, because how was she going to secure it at the other end? If she asked Professor Bellaire to help grab the other end and tie it to a tree, she was fairly certain the answer would be NO. Zhenya scratched her head. What to do? She could fly, of course, but she didn't have a broomstick. She could summon one... but she didn't own a broomstick to summon. And she was confused, she was inside a classroom with a cliff? How was a broomstick supposed to fight its way from the broom shed, into the castle, up to the transfiguration class, through the door, and into the jungle obstacle? No, Zhenya realised it just wouldn't happen. She turned around and went to sit on a large rock. It was about the height of her hips. She pulled her knees up and rested her head down on them, trying to think.

WHAT CAN I DO!???

While still seated on the soil, Natalia gave a little judging look at both of her team members. They were not serious right? At least Amanda was trying to propose a plausible solution; the idea of diverting the piranha's attention to a non-human source was... good-ish. But CHOCOLATE FROGS?! Really Zander.

"Well, um... okay..." Fine, but it must be up to Natalia to come up with something more useful. "We know that those piranhas definitely have no interest chocolate frogs..." The fourth year Lioness eyed the Gryffindor prefect a little more. Just a little. "...aaaand where are we going to find... meat?" Natalia thought it was magically ILLEGAL or even IMPOSSIBLE to conjure food out of nowhere. Perhaps they could try transfiguring one of the bushes into a deer or some sort, but how soon would it be until the piranhas realize they've been deceived?

Couldn't they think of anything else? They've got a Ravenclaw and Gryffindor prefect, and none of them could come up with a solution?

Natalia pondered furiously, anxious that the break would be over and the piranhas would start attacking again. Everything has a weakness, everything. If they could just pin-point the piranhas' vulnerability, then...

"Okay, how about this," A sudden idea emerged from within Natalia's gear-turning brain. "you guys are going to have to work with me with this, okay?" She came up with a plan, and they others would have to follow it and complete the holes. "Piranhas are fish, right?" Giving her two team members a suggestive raise of the eyebrow, Natalia hoped that they understood where she was getting at. "Fish need water to survive, right?" Come on, folks, WORK THEE BRAIN HERE. "All we need to do is drain the water, quick." There, she explained it clear as day, now SOMEONE must know a charm or spell to accomplish that right?

Henric leant back on one of the trees, they were all stuck apparently. Professor Bellaire was up there alright...probably watching over the students with a nice ice-cold drink in hand. Urghh...the heat wasn't helping either with their situation. His group was almost there, they just needed to find a way to get across and onto that cliff.

He glanced over towards the group and noticed llia has brought her pet rock with her. Henric thought maybe she was getting overly attached to that rock, he wanted to say something about it but he felt its best to just let it go. Mother once told him...never to question a girl's mind unless you asked for trouble. Nope...not going to go there. Fortunately, his rain of thoughts was soon discarded when llia once again had a brilliant idea.

"Nice, finally we're getting somewhere!"he grinned and walked towards her. He watched her put four rocks in front of them, she was not going to give them each a pet rock right?!

Then llia cast a spell at the smallest of the rocks and turned it into a DRAGON!!OH WHAAA~ His eyes widened at the sight of it.How did she had known this transfiguration spell? And why hadn't he learnt it before?! He could have make ten of these wonderful transformation and he would make them his pet rock dragons!

"Blimey! llia! Show me how you do that again!"Henric called from below. She was riding the back of the stone dragon like a boss. Then Benny started to turn the rock into a dragon as well! What?! Was he the only one who did not know about this? He must had missed this lesson in transfiguration class. Deng it! He must concentrate, he pointed to the rock and cast "Dragonifor!" ...Nothing...Again!

"DRAGONIFOR!!!"he shouted eagerly and the rock began to slowly moved. Holy Beeswax! It moved!..but he hardly do anything... Henric watched as the size of the rock got bigger and bigger until it turned into a dragon!

"COOL!!" Henric couldn't help gawking at his creation.

Adi asked for bright ideas and Ilia had delivered! It was better than a bright idea. Actually, it was BRILLIANT! "Awesome idea, Ilia!'' he complimented her, LOVING the idea. Four creatures fans crossing the cliff using DRAGONS! He knew Benny and Henric especially would love this.

The jigglypuff Hufflepuff threw his best friend a smirk and raised his wand to point it in his direction. "You'll make a nice Dragon, Benny. We all know that.'' Hehe. Cue the random waving of the wand! Nah, he was kidding. He wasn't going to turn Benny into a dragon NOW. Certainly not when Bellaire had warned him against it the previous school term and she was right over the other side of the cliff presently and certainly not when he needed to improve his transfiguration skills, something which he was working on.

"Joking!'' Adi said to his bestie, in case the boy was having a mini heart attack about it. "I still need to practice more.'' But he turned his attention to to the large rock Ilia had levitated to him after commenting what cool Dragons the others had transfigured from their own rocks. "Henny, the spell is DraConifors. With a C.'' Hehe.

The sixth year raised his wand. "Draconifors!'' He slashed his wand at the rock then stood back to watch in awe as it began to transform into a dragon. It was BEAUTIFUL, yo! The process AND the creation afterward which happened to be a Chinese Fireball also called the LionDragon. For you, bestie.

Adi wasted no time in climbing aboard the dragon which was roughly the same size as the one they had created for that joint Charms and Transfiguration lesson after the Engorgio charm had been cast on it. "What are you guys waiting for?'' he called to the others then addressing his dragon. "Er... to Professor Bellaire? To the House elf over there?'' How did he get this thing moving? Ummmmm... "OVER THE CLIFF TO THE OTHER SIDE!'' Adi ended up yelling giddily on happiness and excitement as he patted the dragon on its neck.

The Dragon definitely understood for it beat its great wings and rose up in the air. WOOT!

The first reason why Maggie noticed that the ten minutes were over was the noise. That incessant noise of bugs. They were apparently EVERYWHERE. The second reason was the heat had returned. And with it the humidity. She quickly filled her cup again and drank some more water. And there was the third reason. The cup. It was...well, a little scaly.

"EW!" She threw it away from her (luckily Zeke wasn't anywhere close or else it would have probably been directed at him) and shuddered slightly. It seemed like she hadn't previously seen her only half-successful attempt at transfiguring the piranha. Ugh.

But anyway....moving on.

Briefly glancing around and giving Brooklyn a look that meant that she better follow her, Maggie took a few steps in the direction both Zeke and Hady (of course) had disappeared off to. The latter she ran into first. "We need to keep going!" CHOP CHOP! Without checking to see if the other girl was following her order advice, Maggie kept walking until she...saw a bridge. And Zeke.

"It's a bridge." And Zeke.

Ilia smiled sheepishly and blushed a little at the reactions she got from the boys. Brilliant, awesome.... It made her feel pretty good about herself right now, she wasn't going to lie. She watched as Benny was the first to craft his golem dragonette. What a cutie it was too! Slightly larger than her mini Norwegian Ridgeback. She had not attempted to have an exact species, but considering her familial history it was not surprising that is what had developed. Ridgebacks were, after all, what she had seen the most of.

Henric was next, to make his. When he asked her to show him how she did it again, she flourished her wand in the motion again. "And say draconifors."She blushed at him just lightly, wait....why was her face warm?

It took him a few attempts to get his rock going. If he didn't get the hang of it, she would cast for him so that they could cross. She wanted him to be able to do it for himself, knowing how proud he would be and how much he loved the scaly creatures. She smiled happily at him as she watched his rock transform. His dragon was also larger than hers and he stood in awe of it.

Wait was Adi going to use Benny!? She was pretty sure it didn't work like that......Ok, he was only joking. She should have known. Though Adi was the last to transfigure his dragon, she was a beauty! A little Chinese Fireball. "Adi, shes gorgeous!" Once they were all set, she mounted her little Ridgeback and grinned. "Professor here we come!" She called out as she set her dragon into motion. Off she went, open air never felt so lovely!

Benny saw the smirk sent his way, raising an eyebrow as a wand followed along through with it. Adi wouldn't follow through with his idea NOW...right? But with the random movement he was using, plus no actual incantation spoken at the moment, that his best friend was kidding him...for now. "Very funny..." he remarked with a shake of his head. Now was not the time to test the limits, especially with Bellaire around. Not to mention he still wasn't entirely sure about it.

Apparently Henric wasn't familair with the spell they were using and Benny was about to help teach him when the fourth year jumped right in, mimicing him and Ilia and trying to get it from there. It took a few shots but the younger Hufflepuff finally got it. "Good job!" the Gryffindor sported the boy and fellow dragon lover. His own rock dragon was nudging him, seemingly complete in its transformation. It was a replica of his earlier dragon as it was his favorite and the one that came to mind the easiest.

"I get the message," he told the creature rhetorically as he moved to climb on the dragon. Adi took the lead and directed his transfigured dragon off the cliff and Benny thought back to what they had done before. "Alright...we're off," he directed, nudging his dragon with his legs like they had done and like one did to get a hippogriff and flying horse started. The creature got a running start and was off, swooping down a bit before leveling off.

"Woohooo."

Lux was definitely on to something there. Those were not nice pet eyes. No. They were hungry eyes and the spider obviously meant business because it was not backing down. It made AJ think that maybe this was the kind of spider she needed on her unicorn capturing adventure. Of course she would have to be able to figure out how exactly to ride it without losing a limb. Why did life have to be so hard?

Even though AJ's arrows had missed the spider was starting to slow down because Lux came through and she actually hit the target. "Nice shot." It didn't look like the spider was actually down for the count yet. This one had spunk and AJ admired the spider for it even if he just tried to make a feast out of the both of them.

"Inflecto Telum!" she shouted, and watched as this time the arrows made a direct hit. That was better. It was always a good feeling to get the spell work done correctly. "You know maybe we should be extra careful with this one." Did AJ just actually suggest that they be careful? Was the heat getting to her brain? Maybe. More likely she just wanted to make sure that they didn't ALMOST finish and then the spider come back and end it all for them. That would be unforgivable. "Incarcerous." There. "Just in case." They had to be getting close to the end of this thing by now.

Thinking he had taken a break long enough now and he had studied the instructions , Yoongi thought it was time to continue his solo path. As he stood up and placed the paper back in his pocket and raised his wand, the Gryffindor looked around him at the trees , chose a path and started walking.

After a while of walking with a lit wand light, he stumbled across a pond. Remembering that it was the right way and the humidity was too much, Yoongi decided to go through the pond instead of walking around it. What harm could be in a pond? Fish? LOOOL

Priding himself in that he knew the drying spell to use on his clothes later on, he took a step in to the water. And another , and another, until the water level was at chest height and that’s when he felt it. A sharp pain attacked both his legs and the Gryffindor yelped in pain. SOMETHING was attacking him!

In blind panic, Yoongi turned around and in doing so he moved his arms in the water and spazzed his way to the shore. More and more bites or cuts whatever was happening attacked his body. HIS PRECIOUS BODY! With much struggling he finally managed to get himself on land at the place he had started.

……..now what?

….and what was that sound around him?

Between the both of them this spider was going to be history in no time. Despite herself, Lux had to admire the fact that it didn't back down easily. It was just THAT determined to eat them.

Shooting more arrows at the gross creature, she was pleasantly surprised when AJ had the good sense to bind it. "Great thinking!" Now there was no way they could be followed and attacked from behind. Lux didn't really want to finish this obstacle course while looking over her shoulder. And just for good measure, she shot another arrow at it. "Inflecto Telum." That was payback for trying to eat them. Sending the spider a glare, she put her hands on her hips. "I hope this will teach you a good lesson. It's not nice to try and eat people."

That dealt with, they were ready to move on. They had to be almost done the course by now. "Hopefully there are no more spiders or evil creatures around!" Smiling, she continued on the path while knowing that AJ was walking right by her side. They really made an awesome team and she was so proud of how well they were doing using only Transfiguration spells. Lux felt like she was getting much better at the subject with all the practice she had done in preparation for OWLs. AJ had those to look forward to next term, and she herself had NEWTs. Ugh.

Eventually the ground stopped, and she was confused for a second before realizing that they were standing by a cliff...with Bellaire probably waiting on the other side. Yep. Squinting, Lux was pretty sure that she could see her on the other side sitting under the shade.

"...I can't do this."