As she was about to take her first steps up the wall, Esme heard what seemed to be a little commotion. Looking around the room, her eyes landed on Azura, Jace, and Rachel.

Seemed as if the younger girl had taken a tumble and she felt a little bad because she had been distracted while it happened. Bad friend. Bad!

Concerned, she made her way over to the little group. Azura said she was okay, but still... "Are you sure you don't need any help?" She had managed to get her box, but there was a whole other room afterwards. Maybe they could assist her with it. Esme still needed to get her box, but that shouldn't take long.

Heights were no problem. Birds on the other hand...

Please, Merlin. Don't let there be any birds.

Ollie pointed his wand at the silver box and quietly said, "Alohamora." Except nothing happened that time? In his experience, how he said the incantation didn't matter too much...but maybe the rules had changed this time?

Okay, one more try. He pointed the wand at the box again, straight at the middle of it, and spoke much louder. "Alohamora."

This time, Ollie heard the box unlock and he smiled to himself. Done and done. He picked up the box again and opened it, taking out the letters that would allow him into the next room for the lesson.

SPOILER!!: Ariadne

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anna Banana

Ava liked her spirit? That was awesome, but where was that spirit right now? Ariadne just wanted to jump down, but that was impossible to do without probably getting hurt. She wished she had a broom, because she was confident that she could mount it and just fly right back down. No such luck. "Okay," she mumbled to Ava. She squirmed a little as she tried to work the box into her pocket. She almost dropped it one time, but she managed to scoop it back up and push it into her pocket all in one go. "I got it! I'm coming down!" she called to Ava.

What would be way easier if it Ariadne could SEE where she was going. She was just going to step down with no clue about what she was stepping on--thin air? The wall? The floor? She sighed to herself then began moving. It was a slow process. She wasn't in a hurry at all. She started to step down again and was surprised when she felt the floor beneath her feet. "Thank Merlin!" she exclaimed.

She pulled the box out her pocket. "I guess all we have left to do is open it now," she told Ava. How many more rooms were there? And where was the professor?!

Ava watched the Slytherin girl climbed back down. Ooooh, Merlin. She'd better come back down safely and didn't break any bones. Well, she knew that Professor Primeaux had charmed anything--the wall, floor, etc. to be safe and in case if a student fell down, they wouldn't be injured that badly. But still, the young lioness was quiet nervous to see her climbed down. Nervously she watched Ariadne until she went down safely. Oooh, thank Merlin!

"Oh yes, I think now we just need to unlock the box." Ava said to her while she's taking off her sticky gloves. Well, they wouldn't need it anymore right? She took off the shoes too and putting back her converse on. Good, now time to reveal what's inside the box. Taking her box from her pocket, Ava cast the unlocking charm. "Alohomora."

Since Olly couldn't remember the instructions, and he did not know exactly how to grab a box, he hoped that his classmates were better at listening and remembering than he was. He paused and glanced around, trying to see how others were accomplishing this task. He saw one boy whistle, and the box came right to him. Olly shrugged and did the same. He fixed his eyes on one box in particular and whistled. Okay, that one did not come toward him. But the box that was closest to him floated even closer, and allowed Olly to grab it out of the air.

The only thing left to do was climb down and open the box. Olly did remember the part of the instructions that said they would not be hurt if they fell. Magic and whatnot, probably the same spell that protected the area around the treehouse. Olly grinned as an idea formed in his head. He let out an excited yell and flung himself away from the wall. Both his feet and both his hands came unstuck, and he fell toward the ground. He kept a firm grip on the box as he fell, and eventually landed on the ground. It felt like landing on a mattress. It knocked the air out of him, but there was no pain. It was fun.

"Alohomora," he said when he had gotten back to his feet. It unlocked the box, giving him what he needed to move to the next (and hopefully final) room.

Haddie didn't go straight for the boxes. This was too much fun not to savor. She took her time with it, practically dancing up the wall.

"Spider-me, spider-me, does whatever, um... a spider-me does?" Okay, so the theme song needed work.

Haddie made her way, crawling across the wall to one of the corners. There, she leaped from one wall to the other. The sticky gloves and shoes had more than enough stick to hold the preteen's weight, even while leaping about. She leaped back to the first wall. It was too much fun not to do again.

And that's how she made her way up the wall, leaping across one of the corners, back and forth, inching her way up.

Ariadne nodded. "Awesome! I've got the hang of that charm now!" she replied, excited that the next step seemed pretty low key and she didn't have to do anything to throw herself into immediate danger. Unlocking a box shouldn't be THAT hard, right? Ariadne sat down on the floor and took off her gloves and shoes. She then put her own shoes back on. "I guess we just leave these here?" she asked aloud, looking at the gloves and shoes they'd had to wear for the climb.

So about that box... Ariadne retrieved her wand and aimed it toward the box. "ALOHOMORA!" she exclaimed, whipping her wand around. With an all-too-familiar clicking sound, the box unlocked, and Ariadne was free from this room and all the scary climbing that came with it! So where was that third room, hmm?

Ariadne glanced around the room for any sort of hint about where she'd head to next. That was when her eyes caught sight of a boy she hadn't seen since Diagon Alley. It was her fountain friend! The one with the lemonade! She'd been looking forward to hanging out with him again, and look! Here he was! "Davie?" ... "DAVIE, HIII!" It was him! So they hadn't ended up in the same house like she'd hoped, but that really didn't matter. It wasn't like she had some sort of prejudice against any of the other houses.

Echo finally got into the second room. "what in Merlins-- " why was everything so small and it was a bit dusty. ughh she was not planning on getting dirty. Pouting look on her face she looked around. Some students were stuck where she was but all she really wanted is for her to get out of there.

"hello" it was a bit dark so she couldn't really see anyone fully. She did see that some of the students were looking up?? why where they looking up. Moving around she shuffled in the dirt which she hated, did she mention that she hated getting dirty. in her movements she looked up and saw that there were doors. "wait?" she was supposed to open this door too right, ughh she couldn't remember what they had to exactly do.

By the time Haddie reached the boxes, she was winded, her mouth was dry and her arms and legs ached terribly. But it was worth it. So worth it.

She pursed her lips and whistled. Or tried too. Her mouth was too dry and only the sound of blowing could be heard.

...

Nope, still worth it.

Haddie pursed her lips and tried again. Still nothing. She couldn't do anything about her straining, aching arms and legs, but the rest could be fixed by taking a short rest. Ignoring her limbs, she took a very long moment to enjoy the sensation of being a spider on the wall, and let her breath return and her mouth to moisten. Then she whistled. It was small, and pitiful, but it was a whistle. A box came zooming toward her. She fumbled the catch.

And fumbled it a second time. The third time she managed to pin it, with one arm against her side. "Gotcha!" Now to get down. The board said she couldn't fall to her death or get injured, right?

It also said to go down carefully... Yeah, right.

Grinning, Haddie sprang from the wall and plunged to the floor. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

The semi-glare he got back would have made him laugh... but he knew now was not the time to do that, and so he remained silent the rest of the way down.

After summoning his own shoes and slipping them back on, Zeke turned his attention to his second box. Great. Fun. Joy. "Alohamora!" he cast on it, hearing the soft tell-tale click of success. He just wanted to get his letters and get in the classroom. Have it over and done with. It didn't surprise him either that Maggie shared that sentiment, only....

....

Some time, was something he could definitely live with. And her fingers on his arms. Yes. Just yes. In fact, they needed more time. "Mmmmmhhhmmmmmmm," he murmured in agreement, grinning now. He ran a finger over his hand, but then something clicked, and it wasn't his box - that was already done. They should go and then get out of here. "Let's see what the classroom looks like then," he mused lifting the lid off his box.

"I'm glad you're feeling better." Austin finished putting on his gloves and shoes, he looked up at the ceiling. Boxes were flying about, and a few students had actually got theirs. So maybe this wasn't as impossible as he originally thought. Turning back to Kaylee he said, "Well then this should be easy."

As he began climbing he walls, he realized he spoke too soon. The gloves were really sticky, and it was hard to lift his hand up to move it. Although it means that he won't fall off the ceiling. Speaking of falling, when Austin was about halfway up the wall, he heard a long scream. Looking down, he saw Azura lying on her back. "At least you got the box!" He called down after her.

When he was hanging on the ceiling by his feet and hands, he turned his head to see Kaylee. "So how do you suggest doing this?"

Hadley Denaker hit the floor, spun into a roll and slid to a stop face up. She laid motionless, her blonde hair matting against her face from sweat. It might have looked like she was injured, knocked out or worse, if not for the grin of joy stretched across her face.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" She threw her arms in the air and did a celebratory little kick, and then returned to just laying on the ground, waiting for her breath to return, or for her limbs to stop aching so much.

After a few minutes, she sat up stretched, that grin still etched in her face, and started to take off the gloves. Then the shoes. She stood up, made her way to her own shoes and slipped them back on.

Now for the box. She retrieved it from where it had rolled out of her hand, pulled out her wand and aimed. "Alohomora!" She was good at this spell. The box clicked, now open.

Jace looked from Rachel’s hand, to Azura’s box...and confirmed that he needed to retrieve one as well. The Ravenclaw looked over his shoulder, and saw a couple of students scaling it...and retrieved smaller objects floating above them. “I...see.” he said to the group, as he formed a plan inside his head on how he’d retrieve his own box.

Jace got distracted when an older student approached them. Oh it was Esme! He didn’t know she was sorted into Hufflepuff! Well, he would’ve known if the food fight didn’t break out that night. The eleven year old grinned at her, and gave her a bow in greeting.

He would love to stay and hang around, but he’s got a task to accomplish. Waving his hands to get the group’s attention, “I should go and retrieve my own box. I’ll be back!” Jace grabbed his sticky shoes and gloves, and dashed towards the wall.

As he donned his special shoes and gloves, Jace looked up to see a bit of commotion going on. Wait is that Torrance? And why was he wearing a pair of shoes for girls? Jace had his hands stuck on the wall for a moment, until he realized that his Gryffindor friend had put on the wrong pair of shoes, because there was now a Ravenclaw girl claiming it. It was a funny thing to see, really. She could thank Torrance later, because look at her go! She’ll be on top of the wall in no time!

Grinning to himself, Jace started to mind his own business, and started off by lifting himself up with his right arm, and pushed himself off the ground with his left foot, now stuck on the wall.

Surprisingly, the climbing part was easy. He was more than physically fit to accomplish this task, thanks to his Kendo training. Silently, he continued to scale the wall like a ninja, and would stop once in a while to check on his progress.

Ailsa stepped into the second room, chuckling slightly at the taller students who had to duck down. Occasionally there were benefits to being travel sized.

OK, trap door, climbing gear, climb wall, get box, come down, open box, next room, not too bad...

Well, no time like the present. This time she sought a level of concentration somewhere along the middle path between insufficient and excessive - she didn't want a repeat of the incident with the box in the previous room. "aLOhoMORa!"

The door above her clicked softly. She opened it and cautiously poked her head through...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Callie

Grinning, Haddie sprang from the wall and plunged to the floor. "Wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

...and quickly jumped back as her cousin came crashing, harmlessly as the board at the front of the room promised, inches from the door Ailsa had just opened then quickly retreated from.

Now for the climbing.

Stretching and getting her two sticky gloves securely attached to the wall, Olivia moved to place her one foot so it attached itself a couple of feet off the floor of the room. She then put her weight on that foot and with a bounce, the Ravenclaw got her other foot up off the ground and onto the wall as well. Alright so she was up. That was good. Reaching up again, her body straightened up with the raising of each of her hands before she repeated the move with her legs and moved herself up. Before long she was easily climbing up the wall without much thought.

A look around and Olivia spotted the box she needed. Or the group of boxes she could choose from. What had that board said…they wouldn’t come when you called? "Hmm what did work?….oh…whistling!" The first year put her lips together to do just that but all she got was blown air. Ugg her lips were too dry up and in here.

Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, C, E, A, P. Say these and head to the next room.




Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, D, L, P, M. Say these and head to the next room.



Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, Q, W, E, C. Say these and head to the next room.



Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, L, O, V, E. Say these and head to the next room.



Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, A, B, E, D. Say these and head to the next room.




Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, A, S, D,C. Say these and head to the next room.



Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, D, O, G, G. Say these and head to the next room.



Now that the box was open a group of letters glowed, W, I, P, N. Say these and head to the next room.

Opening the box, Haddie caught a fluff of red out of the corner of her eye and glanced over. "AILSA!" Her cousin was peeking cautiously through one of the trap doors. Always so timid.

"Come on, get up here!" Forgetting about the box at the moment, Haddie reached down and grabbed her cousin's arm, trying to pull her up. "Oof, you're heavy. Get up here, it is SO MUCH FUN!"

Janelle watched all of the boxes flying in the air. It was almost hypnotizing to see them going around and around. Snapping out of it, Janelle whistled and waited to see if one of the boxes would come to her. When nothing happened, she gave her best hailing a New York City taxi whistle and waited hopefully. Just when she was about to fire off yet another whistle, one of the boxes came toward her. With her sticky gloves still on, Janelle reached out to grab the box. After an unsuccessful swipe at the box, she finally grabbed it.

Now the question was, how was she going to hold the box and crawl back down the wall. Okay, she really needed to think this one through first. Clearly it was possible because many of her classmates had already accomplished the feat. This was do-able and she was Spidergirl........no problem. Finally Janelle had a plan and as much as she liked hanging out on the wall, it was time to go down. Now.

Before Ailsa had a full grasp of what had happened, she was already being dragged back through the door by an excited Haddie.

She looked at her cousin for a moment, briefly wondering if the sticky boots and gloves had failed before chastising herself. "You jumped, didn't you." A statement, not a question. I suppose that's one way to test the floor's enchantment, she thought. "And I'm not heavy. You're just worn out from climbing." the ginger girl added as she slipped on the special climbing gear.

Starting up the wall, Ailsa began humming the spider-man theme...

Haddie rolled her eyes. "Of course I jumped. And it was awesome! And you so totally are heavy." She grinned and looked down at her open box. "Awww, my box loves me!" Haddie showed Ailsa the letters in her box. L,O,V,E.

As Haddie grabbed her messenger bag from the wall, which had her book and quill and ink in it, Ailsa started to hum the Spider-man theme. "Too late, little cuz. Did that already." She stuck out her tongue and made her way to the next door. "El, Oh, Vee, Ee. Love."

What new fun activity awaited Haddie in the next room. She opened the door and stepped through...

Janelle decided that putting the box in her pocket was her best bet. She safely tucked her package away and began her descent. Reversing what she had done before, Janelle began to slowly move down the wall. Foot, hand, foot, hand. Down she went, one "step" at a time. Going down seemed a little harder than going up. Maybe this was because Janelle was super anxious to get her feet back on solid ground and open her box.

After what seemed like an eternity, Janelle finally made it to the bottom of the wall. Prying herself off the wall, she stood upright on the ground. Her first order of business was to take of her sticky shoes. Following that, Janelle took of her sticky gloves. She wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with them so she just stuck them together.......for now. Finding an empty spot, the Ravenclaw sat down and removed the precious box from her pocket. She turned it around in her hand for a moment. The time had come to cast the final spell. She had been on a roll and hopefully Janelle would get the box open with no problem.

In spite of the unflattering gloves and shoes, it was sort of cool to climb the wall like a spider. No, not a spider. Dot had no interest in being a spider. Like... a... monkey. An adorable, clever, and limber monkey. She took a few tentative steps up the wall, testing the stickiness and hold of the shoes before she climbed high enough that a fall would hurt.

It seemed... safe enough? Dot reached higher, climbing the wall like there was a ladder holding her weight. Lucky she'd thought to wear shorts under her uniform skirt and robes today, hmm? At about half way up the wall, Dot started watching for those wild flying boxes. Any of them close enough to grab now?

She flattened her palms to stick to the wall and leaned back to look for a box. And... nothing in sight.

Oliver opened up the paper and read the leads out loud. "C-E-A-P??? What in the world is a ceap???" The word looked like cheap but missing the h....was the professor trying to tell Ollie that he was cheap? So what if the didn't wanna pay first years to do things for him. He felt as though they should do it for him without the money. Was the so wrong???

Sighing, Oliver stuff the box into his bag with the other one, grabbed his things, and headed off to the next room. "This is the longest lesson ever."

Ailsa didn't even bother to feign surprise. Of course Haddie had done something similar. When you were climbing a wall, you sang or hummed the spider-man theme. It was just what one did.

The climb wasn't too bad, actually. She may have been skinny, but her upbringing had been on a working farm and this meant there was reasonable strength in her wiry frame. The climb may not have been as exuberant as her cousin's had been (and the going down certainly would not be), but it was efficiently done and the deep breath she took at the top was in satisfaction, not exhaustion.

She simply hung there for a few moments, looking down at Haddie as she excitedly stepped through the door below into the next room. It was nice being up high like this. Reminded her of the time she'd been to Yesnaby and sat on the cliff edge. She'd dug up a little primrose and sneaked it home where it still lived happily in a little pot.

Snapping out of her memories, Ailsa whistled.

Worried for his girlfriend who was literally stuck to him like glue. Not that he minded of course. Ehem. "llia, are you alright?" he asked as he glanced back at her. He had never seen her so pale. He wondered why. For now, he made sure to keep himself close to her. "We're just going to follow the others, alright..."he reassured her.

Then, another little girl suddenly bumped into. Her look was even more paler than his girlfriend. Oh dear... and it seemed llia knew her too! Bella, was her name? "Hey there, its going to be okay...Professor Primeaux is just testing us...nothing is going to harm you, we have to keep on moving,"his positivity beaming, hoping it gave them a little courage. Henric got up onto all fours and crawled ahead.He noticed several doors above their heads. Henric reached for the knobs but it didn't budge. He knew it. "We need to unlock these doors first, ALOHOMORA!"

It was so nice that there were so many caring persons in this class, was it not? Rachel heard Hady's voice and saw Jace and Esme joining her and Azura. Thank goodness her Ravenclaw friend was okay though! "I'm glad you are, Azura. Well done on getting your box.'' She smiled at her then at Esme. "Thanks, Esme. I think she's alright.'' She then turned to Jace. "Yes, this is the second box we are supposed to get.''

Which reminded her that she needed to open that. Rachel got her wand out once more. "Alohomora,'' she said in a firm and commanding voice. At once there was a click and the box opened. She stared at it, stunned for she hadn't expected it to open on the very first try. But she had done it! She reasoned it was all the practice she had been doing earlier.

Now she just needed to get those letters.