"Yes, it is. An unusual name for an unusual creature.'' Adi meant 'unusual' in a good way. "He's a cool squid, you know. He has these nice underwater stories to tell. You should try meeting him sometime.''

Adi forced back a snort. Nats was awfully full of herself sometimes, wasn't she? "What makes you think I'll listen to you? I don't make it a habit to take 'orders' or 'commands'.'' Hehe. Anyway, he DID say he would find an adjective for his new friend. "How about 'Incredible'?''

By hand? "You're on, Nats! You know I would beat you for sure with magic, huh?" Gosh! Adi only met the girl days ago and already he was teasing her as though she were an old friend.You didn't mind that right, Nat?

HAHAHAHAHA! Adi laughed heartily at that. "I'm a big boy. Like THAT will ever happen,'' he said, walking backwards now because he had turned to face Natalia. "I've got Gryffindor in me. In case you did not know, I am an Honourary lion so I don't think I would need your protection.'' Or maybe he did.

Maybe if he had eyes at the back of his head, Adi would have noticed the dead end wall of corn stalks that he was about to back into but he didn't until it was too late. His back hit the stalks an before he could register what was happening...

"WOOOOAH!"

There was a loud rustle and through the corm plants the Hufflepuff went tumbling, falling on his back.

Nice underground stories to tell? What, like he could...speak?! "He can TAALK?" Natalia couldn't exactly tell if Adi was simply joking or not. Unfortunately, Natalia's knowledge of giant squids was quite limited, but she had never heard of a talking giant squid before. "Whether he talks or not, I'd sure like to meet him!" Yes, who wouldn't want to meet Hogwart's iconic giant squid?

Orders? Commands? Natalia raised an eyebrow. "I didn't order you to do anything, silly." A soft chuckle emerged from her throat. "Who do you think I am? A queen? I wouldn't mind that though." Ooh ooh! Natalia the QUEEN. It was a little bit too exaggerated, wasn't it? Being a queen wouldn't be fun anyway; Natalia didn't want the heavy responsibility of overseeing a whole country. "Incredible! Like The Incredible Natalia!" A reference to The Incredible Hulk, a muggle movie that she had seen when she was little. Hmm...it was about a angry green monster, wasn't it? YES. INCREDIBLE NAT.

"No, I didn't choose no magic because I knew you'd win." Natalia justified her decision. "I chose no magic because EITHER WAY I WILL WIN." Yeah. Leave it all to the Incredible Nat.

"I'm sure you do." Natalia nodded approvingly. "I actually wouldn't mind you in Gryffindor, but you're a lot better as a Hufflepuff!" So far, Natalia had only encountered Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs. The vibes that these to houses give off are completely different: the Hufflepuffs are the most gregarious lot Nat had ever met, while the Gryffindors are just...Gryffindor-like. o.O

"So do you-WATCH OUT." Whoops, too late. Adi had already fallen back into the stalks of corn behind him.

Natalia quickly ran over and gave Adi a hand to pull him on his feet again.

"THIS IS WHY YOU SHOULDN'T WALK BACKWARDS." Natalia then remembered Adi stating that he didn't need her protection. Oh, was that so? *SMIRK* Natalia quickly let go of Adi's hand while his back was still bent trying to stand up. "Don't want my help? NO PROBLEM." HURHUR.

.

.

Since Zeke was joining him, Gabe thought it only appropriate to share his pumpkin snacks...which felt very different for the Ravenclaw. He typically hoarded his 'pumpkin' treats...as it was his favorite. And it was hard to share one's favorite thing. Unless you were a Hufflepuff.

Gabriel Banner certainly wasn't one.

"Would you believe that....I'm just anti-social and need a break from the noise?" Partially true. The other reasons were a bit harder to explain...and might've gone over the younger boy's head.

In fact, they were kinda over Gabe's head....and if he hadn't been personally involved....Yea. Just...yes. Mass confusion would've struck in abundance.

Awwww.

Smiling, Lux returned the hug. Echo was so adorable and she was also her cousin(?) now. Honestly she wasn't sure what the real name for it would be, so yeah. They could be 'cousin's. Did that mean that Emmy was her 'cousin' too? Ehh, best not to dwell on it when there were more important matters at hand like getting out of a corn maze.

"I'm pretty sure that I know where we are, and I don't think they would let us get lost." Maybe she wasn't POSITIVE about the last part, but surely the school wouldn't want to lose more students. Gregoire HAD died last term after all. Her and Echo weren't in any danger.

Biting her lip, Lux made her way further into the maze. "Maybe we can try the Point Me spell." That was one of the ones she had practiced for OWLs last term so she felt confident in her ability to use it.

Benzi rolled his eyes. "Sure you don't, you numbskull," he huffed, but added nothing else. He didn't particularly care what Noel thought as long as he was jogging. He'd never keep up in shows if he wasn't fit. Performing was HARD. Ask him, he was the drummer.

"Already?! Shush and focus on breathing. We've only just started you whiny Puffer," he said, and turned his face away from Noel so that he wouldn't be able to see his smirk when they reached a dead end. DYING to laugh, Benz slowed to a stop and schooled his features into an apologetic look.

"Sorry mate, took a wrong turn. Back we go," aaaaaaaaaaand, back he was behind Noel, just in case his friend decided that it was time to quite or something stupid like that.

"okay as long as one of us knows where we are.. and i hope not" she was starting to lighten up because it was always to be lost with someone you knew right?

"point me spell?? i dont know what that is.. can you teach me?" always good to learn new spells when not in the classroom right.

she wondered what other things that Lux knew that she could help her with, not to bad to always have a study buddy.

"Yep, he can! Last term was the first time I actually got to talk to him even though I had noticed him tanning himself and swimming about.'' Did the Squid really need the tanning though? Hehe. "You can always go to the lake and call for him. If he's close by, come out of the water. That's what he did when I called, anyway.''

"For some reason I keep think of you as this person who passes around orders,'' Adi stated honestly. Maybe it had been her attitude the first time he had met her. "Nats would make a mean queen.'' Hehe. Teasing! He was teasing! "The Awesome and Incredible Nats.'' YEAH! That sounded great! "Nats smash!'' Ya know... like 'Hulk smash!'? Though he wasn't sure if she got the reference he was trying to make. "The only way you'll win is if you smash me flat.'' Competitive Badger here, peoples!

"Don't you say the nicest things? As much as I like Gryffindors, Hufflepuffs RULE!'' This Puffer and Nats the Lion could discuss this alllll day and he'd stick to Hufflepuff being the best. Mhmm.
......................

Of course Nats's warning came a little too late. Adi blinked up at the sky. Gosh! He really out to pay attention to what he was doing. Oh! There was a hand offering to help him up. Adi grabbed it and was about to haul himself up. "You sound like my mother.'' Haha. Mother hen Natalia.

So that was how she was going to do it, huh? She would leaving him sitting there with bits of corn stalks sticking out of his hair and clothes. "Some friend you are. I didn't say I didn't need your help now.'' The Puffer climbed to his feet. "Oh wait! I actually didn't need your help.'' LOL.

It was nice to see that Echo was starting to lighten up a little bit, because it was never nice to be frightened and they would make it back to Hogwarts in one piece. Smiling, she nodded at what the little Snake said.

Oh of course; not everyone knew about this spell. Taking out her wand, Lux placed it in the palm of her hand. "Well, it makes your wand into a compass." After a moment, she said, "Point Me!" And watched as the wand moved to indicate where North was.

"See, it's really simple." Maybe Echo would like to practice it because the spell could come dead useful at times like these. She was happy to teach it!

The more Adi talked about the Giant Squid, the more skeptical Natalia became. "Tanning?!" Nope, not once had Natalia heard of Giant Squids tanning. She never even considered the possibility of a Giant Squid knowing how to tan. Besides, what did a Giant Squid need to tan for? To look more attractive on a date? "A talking Giant Squid who likes to tan." Natalia summarized in a sing-song voice, a tinge of suspicion flaring in her eyes. Adi that LIAR. GIANT SQUIDS DON'T TALK ARE YOU KIDDING ME. *EYES*

WHOA. WHOA. WHOA. A MEAN QUEEN?

"Ahem!" Natalia's eyes glared with lethal dangerous intentions. Nats SMASH, was it now? ALL RIGHT. The Lioness threw a punch in Adi's direction, but intentionally missed his nose just by a hair. "Oh, look at that. The Incredible Nats is nice so she chooses NOT TO BE MEAN." She didn't punch him, and that was generosity! "Puny Huffie Prefect..." The fourth year muttered under her breath, a trace of amusement was visible in her eyes.

Hufflepuffs rule? Natalia didn't have time for that kind of pointless argument *COUGH* "Puny Huffie Prefect..."

When Adi was finally up and standing on his feet, Natalia let out an air of relief. "Well look, you didn't die, so that's good!" The Lioness decided to ignore everything else that Adi had said about her being a 'good friend'. What was he complaining at? It wasn't as if he was going in some sort of real danger. "Alright seriously. Be careful next time, because I don't want to save you." Beaming, the devilish uncanny Lioness skipped gleefully in front of Adi. It was her turn to lead the expedition!

MAZE TIME! YEAH! Norah beamed at Hayden as she pointed out the entrance to the maze, bouncing from foot to foot as she inspected it. You had to inspect stuff before you went inside, it was a rule. A detective rule, obviously. "This is gonna be CRAZY cool," she said, putting her bag on the ground and squatting next to it to make sure everything was in there. Wand? Check. Suncream? Check, but only 'cause if her mum somehow found out she got burnt she'd be in BIIIG trouble. Detective hat? CHECK. She jammed it on top of her auburn curls before continuing. Magnifying glass? Check. Chocolate frogs? Check, check, check AND check. The fourth year straightened up and hugged the bag to her chest. "I'm ready! I was BORN ready." Except that she wasn't really born ready, because it'd be hard to go through an entire maze crawling. Oh no, this was real live teenager stuff.

Here goes nothing'. She grinned at Hayden again before putting one purple trainer complete with sparkly shoelaces into the maize maze. Heheheh maize maze.

Kace decided to take a trip down to the maize. Kace really wanted to try it out since he didn't get to it much last year. As he reached it, he realized how big it was. Man he was going to get lost in this no doubt about that. He looked around for a map and didn't see anything. Duuhhh Lecium they want you to use your wands. You are not in the muggle world. He gulped and he hoped he would have someone to help him maneuver through this. He was looking around and hoped someone would help him.

Okay, so maaaaybe Adi was exaggerating with the whole tanning thing for the Squid but he was definitely NOT doing so for the speaking ability. The eyeing did not go unnoticed, Nats! Adi eyed her right back. "Don't believe me? Go to the Lake someday and shout for him. Unless you're scared...'' He threw her a smirk.

Woah, woah, WOAH!

The Puffer had not been prepared for Nats throwing a punch at him (honestly, who ever was?) but he reflexively snapped back his head. Oi! She could have broken his glasses! Oh, yeah? She intentionally missed, huh? "Riiiight! Someone is just bad with their aim so she had to cover it up.'' Haha. "What's that you're mumbling?'' Adi asked. He heard her saying something twice under her breath.

Adi shook his head to get corn related stuff out of his head. "I didn't know you cared.'' He plucked a dead piece of corn stalk out of the side of his shirt and threw it at Nat just for fun. "I don't need your saving, anyway.'' Annnnd she was taking off without him. "Hey! Wait up!'' With corn debris stills implanted in his hair, Adi jogged after Natalia. "There's a troll waiting to eat you around the corner!'' LOL!

Scared, scared? Scared wasn't a term in the Gryffindor dictionary. SO, naturally, she had never even heard of the word. Natalia pretended to not hear his comments and threw a returning smirk at the Hufflepuff Prefect boy.

"Uhh...WHAT?!" Uhh...no! Natalia was a perfect puncher, especially at faces. But because this was school and she needed to preserve her etiquette and decorum, she had purposely chosen not to harm a soul. HOWEVER, everyone has limits, and Natalia's was among one of the those with the smallest limits. So. "You should run before I HULK!SMASH your nose for real." The Lioness threw him a compelling look and remained silent after that. If he was smart enough, he would understand to not cross her anymore. HMMPH!

"By the way..." A smirk returned to her face. "...I said You'reaPunyHuffliePrefectbutstillcoolbecauseyou're Adi." He understood that, right? If not, still great.

Without glancing back, the Lioness continued to skip ahead of Adi, humming a cheerful song to accompany their journey. "Nope, I don't care, actually." Natalia exclaimed as the wind brushed against her face. "I don't care at all which is why I'm leaving you now!" Bye bye, Puny Hufflepuff Prefect! Of course, Natalia did not really want to leave Adi behind; she just wanted to fool him a little bit, for the mere fun of it.

Humming just slightly louder, the fourth year leaped and hopped until she was at least ten feet away from Adi.

Agatha liked to spend times in the outdoors but she had never been to one particular part of it. That... sweet corn area. She didn't quite understand the point of having a maize maze - pffft, even the name was silly - at Hogwarts since surely the elves could get the food from elsewhere.

But that didn't matter, the thing was still there, so why not go take a look? The Slytherin flipped her hair every once in a while as she walked towards it and saw an older guy just standing there looking rather silly. "Lost, are you?" She supressed a smirk because honestly, he couldn't possibly be lost already. She did narrow her eyes slightly as she studied him. Definitely not a Ravenclaw, which was always a good sign.

As Kace began to look around, he noticed a girl commented to him. He smirked and asked, "It's that obvious huh?" I mean he was standing there like a chicken with his head cut off. "I mean I was trying to see if anyone would accompany me on this journey through the maze.." He was hoping she could be the one. "Would you care to accompany me?" he asked. If she said no I mean he would go on his own. His ego would be hurt but he would muddle through. "It seems we need to go through a few obstacles first.." he said gesturing towards the inside of the maze.

Adi and running away? LOL! Right! Natalia had obviously never met a Hufflepuff like him before. Or even maybe NO ONE quite like him. Not even that look she was giving him would make him run. Hehe. "I don't run away from stuff. You want to smash? Put 'em up, Hulk!'' Like a boxer, Ad raised his fists. Now Natalia must REALLY think he was cray- cray.

The Puffer leaned closer, a small frown on his face as he tried to focus on what Nat was sing- songing about. A second later, that frown was being turned upside down. "You'll never meet anyone cooler than I am, Nats.''

"You don't care if the troll gets you? Should I get extra salt for him then?" Still jogging after Nats. Adi was still jogging after her. "Alrightey! I don't care either.'' Haha. Just watch him, Nats. Adi stopped right he was, watching her go on ahead without him. If she kept on going, he would just catchup with her. Only because he wanted to reach to the other side of the maze, though.

Oh? It seemed as if the Hufflepuff Prefect was specifically asking for Hulk!Smash. Natalia would definitely give him one if she wasn't so far in front of him. When he catches up to her, the fourth year would certainly give him a satisfying Hulk!Smash! But, catching up was the primary question at the moment.

Beaming as she skipped faster than ever, Natalia paid no any attention to Adi behind her, thus not realized that he had ceased walking. "Come on! Are you going to catch up or not-Oh." The 'Oh' came when she noticed a gigantic wall of corn stalks blocking their path... no, it was ENDING their path. The stalks were too close and tight to skid across, even for the smallest first-year student. It was a dead end.

"Alright, TURN AROUND then." When Natalia spun around, she just became aware of the HUUGE distance between Adi and her. The puny Hufflepuff Prefect was about the size of her thumb. Hurhur.

"Do you remember which way we came?" The Lioness shouted as she jogged toward where Adi was standing. Hopefully, one of them would remember the paths that they took to reach this place, so that they could trace the routes and find their way to the other side of the maze. If that didn't work, they could trace their way back to the beginning instead of finishing the labyrinth. But for either options, they would need to recall which courses they took in order to calculator their current position.

Still not moving. Yup. Adi still remained standing where he was, watching Nats do that skip of hers. She was so child- like and free spirited, wasn't she? Annnnd she came to a halt suddenly, in the middle of her skipping and chattering? ''What?'' Adi called out to her. "Troll got your tongue?" Hehe. Turn around? That could only mean one thing... there was another dead end. Ugh!

"No fair, Maze! You can't have BOTH sides blocked off.'' As if the maze would care what he thinks. It was probably having its own version of fun because the sixth year did know that it changed constantly and what not. "Reckon it would do any good to blast some of the maize out of the way?" It was a rhetorical question. The Groundskeeper would definitely not appreciate that.

"I think we came that way,'' he informed Natalia and pointed. "If we go through here, we could easily find our way out again.'' But that would mean not finishing the quest today. Hmph. Oh, well. There was always tomorrow!

"Catch me if you can, Nats!'' And with that, Adi took off down the path the duo had come.

What was it with Adi and trolls? He seemed to mention them a lot as if they were his best friends or something. Before Giant Squid and now trolls. Still, Natalia was not going to respond to something as silly as that. BLEH. Glaring at the Hufflepuff prefect with a mixture of irritation and amusement, Natalia would very much like to send a troll at him if she could.

Yeah, seriously. No fair, maze! Natalia did not like how this journey turned out: not very fruitful in corn and dead ends everywhere. "Let's just hope we won't get lost in here..." Hopefully. Natalia was feeling colder and colder in this labyrinth by the second. How could such a simple corn maze be hard to solve?

Blast some of it out of the way? "Yeah! Actually I'd like to prefer that- HEY!" Just as Natalia prepared to enter some exciting phase of corn wall-blasting, the Puny Hufflepuff prefect just sprinted away from her as if she was some scary troll. Well, what an insolent little... puny prefect! UGH.

Natalia really didn't have the energy to sprint after Adi, but what choice did she have? If she didn't want to end up alone in the never-ending maze, she better catch up with her not-so-helpful company. "I'll deal with you soon..." The Lioness muttered under her breath as she jogged up to Adi. That lil... PUNY prefect.

"Now what?" The fourth year glanced around the unfamiliar surrounding. She couldn't tell if they have been through this route before; they either haven't, or they have but Natalia just couldn't remember. Now that the sky was growing darker by the minute, she just wanted to find an exit. Soon.

"Pfft, yeah." The look on his face was priceless. Though that smirk made Agatha almost side-eye him because she suddenly got suspicious. People who smirked usually were up to something, or were planning to at leastr try to do something or something.

Anyway. She knew better.

See, he was now inviting her to go into the maze with him. Suspicious, very suspicious. ".....Fine, but you go first." She said, gesturing towards the 'entrance'. The boy then mentioned obstacles, making Agatha look towards the path they were about to take. She raised an eyebrow. "You mean the sweet corn?" The Slytherin gave him an unimpressed look. Really? Really? Did he think corn was an obstacle?

...Was that a joke?

Adi sent Nats a cheerful and innocent smile in return for that weird look she sent him. It didn't seem as though a troll or even a corn boogeyman was after her. He had to admit, the thought of taking on one of those was pretty awesome. Hehe. Also, he could show Nats that he was NOT puny when he took it out.

The Puffer snorted. "How can you get lost when you're with me? I am the Master of Directions!'' LOL! In his dreams! But seriously... "Kidding but we won't get lost,'' he added confidently. Besides, they were a witch and a wizard, they could survive in here, yo! All they needed was to find corn (if they could) and cook the delicious thing. But this was not the time to be thinking of food!

He hadn't heard Nats's agreement of blasting aside corn stalks because he was too busy getting away from her. Not that he wanted to; Adi was just giving her a taste of her own medicine. So he did allow her to catch up as he surveyed the directions they could take. "Come on! This waaaaay!'' To the right, to the right side! Wheee!

Master of Directions? Was there even such thing? Giving the Hufflepuff prefect a doubtful but curious look, Natalia hoped that he was the Master of Directions, actually; she didn't want to end up lost in this maze with no where to go. She hated to admit it; perhaps it was a good idea to have come in here with Adi, because Nat had NO sense of direction whatsoever. And if she was counting on Adi to get them out of the labyrinth, she should probably start being nicer to him...

"Okay, Master of Directions..." Natalia flashed him a genuine grin, which he better take and appreciate because it's Natalia that we're talking about here. "...lead us out of this evil maze!" *SUPERHERO POSE*

Wait, Adi was just kidding about being the Master of Directions? Okay, maybe he didn't have to be the master, but he better at least be... an apprentice of a master. "You better know the way out." Natalia sent him a cautious glare. He knew what would happen if one kept the Hulk in a pressurized area for too long, didn't he? She was Hulk!Nats.

Slightly panting from the jogging, Natalia was thankful Adi slowed down a bit, allowing her to catch up. Shooting a small smile of 'thanks', the Lioness followed the Badger to the right route. "Question," Nat blurted out at a sudden thought. "are there any... umm... creatures in here?" Creatures, as in, the ones that were capable of eating human toes.

Kace sighed in defeat and this girl caught him. "Well that is just great, well then I am glad I ran into you because possibly you can help me get through this maze. Hopefully you know what you are doing better than I am.." he only hoped. Oh so he was going first? He gulped and lead the way. Usually it was ladies first in certain situations but in this one the brave man usually protected the lady.

Anyways he detected some attitude and he rolled his eyes. "No not the corn. I meant the pathways. The groundskeeper changes them and makes it different each time. So they way we knew once could have changed.." he said walking straight and made a right and walked into a dead end. See what he means? He motioned towards the dead end and had to walk back. "I am Kace by the way.." he said mentioning his name.

Hey! Something about that grin Nat was giving him was different from the rest but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Ah, well. A grin was a grin, was it not? And he had another nickname! Gosh, the list was getting longer the more he hung out with Nats. Then there was that pose! "Wait for me! I need to get in on that too!'' The Hufflepuff sprung closer to the Gryffindor and did the manliest, coolest looking Superhero pose he couerld must while making the sign of the Horns with his left hand. Quick! Where was the paparazzi when you needed them? Hehe. Posing done? "Let's go, Hulk! I don't want you to suddenly turn green on me.''

Hmmmm. It would seem that Nats was being a whole lot nicer to him. She had even stopped referring to him as puny. He was still trying to figure out what was so different about the smiles and grins buuuut he was having no luck. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was a Hufflepuff and was generally trusting towards others.

Creatures? Cue the BIIIIG smirk. "What? Don't tell me the Awesome Gryffindor She Hulk is afraid of creatures?'' LOL. "It's a good thing you have this Puffer here then.'' With a grin now in place, Ady motioned for Nats to follow him. "If we meet one, we'll just befriend them. I'm good with creatures.'' Didn't she know that creatures were just the best?

"I think we're almost out of here now.'' Adi frowned slightly as he took another right. He was trying to remember of this was the way out. Yes, it was. You two were almost to the entrance!

Pffft, the look on his face. Didn't he have any confidence at all?? Agatha raised an eyebrow. "Of course I can get through this. If you want to follow me, then whatever." She flipped her hair with pride, because she was awesome like that and was more than willing to be the leader. "But you are going in first." The ballerina wasn't stupid. She gestured to the entrance of the maze and sent a serious look his way. She meant it. He had better go in first.

Right, so he didn't mean the actuall corn. Good for him. Agatha looked back at the maze. "It probably doesn't change while we're in there. The groundskeeper is not even around." She added after she took a look at their surrounding. Nobody there except them, it seemed. Then Kace introduced himself. "You go first, Kace." The Slytherin gestured to the entrance once again before giving him a push towards it, not bothering to introduce herself. Go, Kace. GO. They had no time to lose. Not that they had any business in there, but still.