If they had to take care of another faux baby again, he was going to drop out of the challenge. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. No offense, Primeaux, but this Gryffindor was just not cut out for parenting, real or fake.

Luckily, he wouldn't have to drop out of the Great Charms Challenge today. The first thing Frankie had noticed was the note on the door telling him exactly what was in store behind the door: a maze. An eyebrow rose after reading the first sentence. Really? A maze? Did the professor think that they were seven or something? The prefect didn't linger on that thought for long, remembering that there was a time limit to all of this. He continued reading the instructions: pick the entrance that takes you east, summon the objects and put them in a basket, clean up the ectoplasm (that sounded pleasant...), get the parchment and read it, all done within forty-five minutes. Easier than taking a chocolate frog from a baby, he thought.

After unlocking the door and it closing loudly behind him, the blond was officially in the maze. Glancing around, he saw the different entrances that would lead him into the heart of the maze ... and he was instantly stuck. Which way did he need to go again? He took a moment to recall the instructions, which had been drastically shortened in his mind: east, summon, basket, ectoplasm, and read.

But, uhh, which way was east?

Frankie blinked as he faced each of the entrances. He had no sense of direction, and there were no signs of which one he should take. No sun, no Big Dipper, there was absolutely nothing for him to use as a starting point. All he knew was that the door was behind him, which really was of no help to him at the moment. He sighed, knowing that he was wasting precious time trying to figure out where he was to go.

"Stupid maze," he muttered under his breath, kicking the ground angrily. "Just point me in the right direction."

It then hit him as if he were just struck by the Knight Bus or had been pushed right in front of it by some redhead. Point me ... point me ... the Four-Point Spell! Merlin's beard, Paton. Why didn't you think of that sooner, you idiot? He quickly pulled his wand out of his pocket and held it flat in his hand. "Point Me," he stated boldly, watching as the wand began to move like a compass. Once it stopped moving, revealing which way was north, the prefect headed straight down the appropriate entrance that took him eastward.

Right now, at this point in the challenge, the boy was running up and down to maze to make up time that had been wasted. He guessed, glancing down at his watch, that a little more than ten minutes had gone by already. After going left, right, right, and left, he found himself unable to go any further. There in front of him, blocking his path, was a heaping pile of random junk. Frankie eyed it, determining that there was no way he was going to be able to climb over it without sinking into it like quicksand. He stared at it for a moment, recalling the five words he needed to keep at the forefront of his mind. East, summon, basket...

Where was that basket? The blond looked around the area for one with haste. It wasn't anywhere out in the open, so he cleared his mind and made a swishy wand movement. "Accio Basket!" There was a low rumble, which caused him to look back at the pile blocking his way. Near the top of it, a medium-sized basket shot out and landed next to his feet.

Immediately afterward, he casted an Undetectable Extension Charm. There was no way all of that stuff was going to fit in that basket without it. He stuck his hand in the basket once the spell was done, just to make sure he did it right. His entire arm fit, and there seemed to be plenty of wiggle room left. Satisfied, he began summoning all of the items into the basket from where he stood. Merlin, this was both tedious and time consuming.

The pile, slowly but surely, did decrease as it was moved from the pathway to the basket. Blankets, robes, various toys, many large black bags filled with who knows what, a Quaffle, a few chess sets, empty boxes of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, all of it had been moved. The very last thing that was summoned into the basket was a pair of Omnioculars. With nothing blocking his way any longer, the Gryffindor booked it down the path and turned the corner.

"YUCK!"

Ectoplasm was everywhere. It was a miracle that he hadn't run into the sticky green substance. The boy couldn't help but wonder just how many ghosts had been here. He didn't linger on that for very long however; precious time was ticking away. Remembering the spell that he learned in his second year, he shouted "Skurge!" and made a Mickey Mouse-like movement with his wand, which produced a green light that started to clear the ectoplasm away. He repeated the spell over and over again, briskly walking along the trail as it cleared.

The pathway then took him around the bend, which seemed to last forever. Frankie quickened his pace, nearly missing the door as he ran by. Déjà vu then overcame him. Was that the door he started at? Was he going in circles? Slightly annoyed, the prefect backtracked. Lo and behold, it was indeed the same door. He walked over to try the doorknob. Locked.

Well ... now what?

East, summon, basket, ectoplasm, read... Read. What the bloody hell am I supposed to be reading?

He then kicked the ground out of frustration, only whatever his foot made contact with budged not an inch. The boy bit his tongue to prevent himself from cursing as a sharp pain surged through his foot before looking down at the ground to see a paperweight with a piece of parchment beneath it. A bit too excited to see the parchment, it didn't instantly register in his mind that the thing he kicked was the paperweight that was way too heavy for a thing its size. The connection was made when he tried grabbing the paperweight with, surprisingly, no success.

Of course just picking it up would be too simple, he thought as he pointed his wand at the paperweight and waved it around quite eloquently as he stated the incantation, "Levioso!" With a flash of white light, the heavy paperweight hovered in mid-air, which gave Frankie enough time to snatch the parchment before it dropped to the ground with a loud thud.

Following the thud, a loud groan escaped his lips. The parchment was blank, and the boy had a feeling in his gut that he did not have time for this nonsense. All he wanted was to get out of the maze for all it was doing was making him angry and tired. If the parchment didn't have a hidden message to be revealed, he was going to blow up the door so he could leave and comfort himself with food.

He tapped the parchment and made a squiggly motion with his wand. "Aparecium!"

Letter by letter, to the sixth year's relief, a message revealed itself. Quietly to himself, he read it out loud as each word became known, "You ... have ... now ... completed ..." Frankie didn't even bother finishing the message when the word 'completed' appeared. He quickly looked down at his watch, seeing that he had only two minutes to spare. Once he heard the door click, a definite sign that he was free of this maze, his hand latched onto the knob and pulled the door open.

Paton out!

Echo went up to the Charms classroom for it was ready for her next challenge. Somewhat confidant from her scores from the last test she made her way to the door. Grabbing the piece of paper that was there she read her instructions. "all of this doesn’t seem too hard" she actually didn’t mind this task, better than cleaning up a baby that’s for sure. Echo actually had nightmares about that one. Shivering the thought away she put the instructions back on the table. Making sure she had her wand in her robe and double tied her string around her neck she wanted to make sure that it didn’t fly away on her.

Yeah she was going into a maze but who knew how the weather was going to be, leave it to the Professors here at Hogwarts to always throw them curve balls. Looking down at her watch she waited for the go ahead and she entered. "only 45 minutes… better get a move on" Wand in hand she stepped through the door as saw the maze, it was just like their class they had recently. But she didn’t have a partner this time.

The wand she needed to figure out which way was east…… and the only spell that she could think of was the four point spell, it would tell her which way was north… but from there she would be able to figure out which way was east. There were a few entrances so hopefully there wasn’t more than one eastern entrance.

Laying her wand flat on her hand she said "Point Me" and her wand started to twirl. It stopped suddenly and it was pointed directly at her. Turning with her wand in her hand she was now facing backwards and the door she had just come in was gone. "great…" okay so now that she was north she knew which way was east…. To her right. Keeping her wand out in case she needed it quickly again she made her way into the maze, while glancing at her watch.. 5 minutes down 40 more to go.

Echo was making sure while she was walking that she was going in the right direction, but she had to stop. There was a basket that was in the corner… and items laying around "remember there are items that I need to put in that basket" she thought while thinking about her instructions, Luckily for her the basket was open so she didn't have to deal with that.

There was a candle, a candle holder and a book. "those are some odd things to have in a basket but who am I to judge" wait… Echo stopped going for her wand… portkeys…. She really hoped that once she had these in her hand that they werent a portkey. It was the worst way for her to travel, it messed with her hair so much that she would rather get dirt all over her from the floo network.

Might as well get this over, time was moving along and she needed to finish this. "Accio candle" she said while watching it zoom over to her, she scooped it up with her free hand and closed her eyes at the same time… peeking one open she was still there… phew… not a portkey. "Accio candle holder" she did the same thing…. It zoomed she closed her eyes, but she was still safely there.

One more to go. "Accio Book" she didn’t want to ruin her method now as she fully opened her eyes she was glad that they werent portkeys. Sighing a big breath of relief, she put the items on the ground, now all three of these items needed to be in the basket. She swished and flicked her wand and said "wingardium leviosa" three different times and floated the items into the basket. She was happy that this task was done now

20 more minutes to go… where was time going… she really needed to get moving now, Jogging she kept making sure she was headed in the correct direction. Twigs were snagging at her wild hair and robes, but she didn’t care she still needed to do a few more things in her short amount of time.

She was running so fast that she slipped…. Slipped on something on the ground, that she couldn’t see… right… this was the party that she was supposed to be cleaning up… all this plasm thing that she cleaned to clean… Now this was a spell that she knew, Echo hated the dirt and always cleaned everything. "Scourgify" pointing to the mess on the ground. She actually had to do it a few times to make sure everything was gone, Running now she was almost done…. "Your welcome" she yelled out… she didn’t see any ghosts but they better be grateful that she had cleaned up their mess, where was a house elf when you needed one.

15 more minutes to go, thankfully that last part didn’t last too long. Running faster now she found herself back at the beginning…. Or was she… wait… her instructions told her of this.. Putting her bag down she ran around to look for this parchment searching the ground… "there it is" she yelled as she ran over to it to pick it up. It was blank…. Ughhh she forgot that she needed to reveal the words… Sitting down because she was out of breath she had 10 more minutes to go…

TICK…….TOCK…..TICK….TOCK

Why couldn’t she think of the spell….. Crossing her legs she let her mind relax for she was freaking out, there was a time crunch and she needed to finish. Her hands in her hair, her eyes closed she tried to think about her classes…. When did they learn that….. "ughhhhh" she said out loud as she was still trying to think of it.

TICK……TOCK…..TICK…..TOCK"

She could hear her watch…. The ticks were starting to drive her crazy….. Now she only have 5 more minutes… "whats the charmmmm" and two minutes to spare it popped up in her head. "Aparecium" she said quickly… she hoped that there wasn’t any more tasks to do because she only had one more minute left… looking down at the paper it said that she was finished. She cried, she actually cried. She almost thought that she wasn’t going to finish this task, she thought she would have to quit… but she didn’t. Getting up off the ground she wiped her tears away, blinking.. She was in the charms classroom again and she was free to leave..

Her head down she grabbed her bag and made her way to her common room, her hair hiding her face. Echo didn’t want anyone to see her like this..

After the last challenge, Brooklyn headed over to the practice room prepared for just about anything. As far as she was concerned, as long as spiders weren’t involved, she’d managed to take care of a baby so she could handle anything. Besides, there wasn’t much that she couldn’t find by looking through the books in the library and some borrowed notes. She’d likely have to give those back eventually, but she’d known better than to take them from anyone who wouldn’t be able to ask her for them if they really wanted them. Either way, she’d had her wand ready nearly before she’d reached the door. Locked. Of course. They couldn’t have made it easy for them. She took a moment to read the notice posted on the locked door, very possibly sneakily lifting her wand and casting a duplication charm under her breath to copy the directions. “Geminio.” The copy was then stowed way in her pocket for the time being. She wasn’t about to get inside and realize she’d forgotten what she was supposed to do. Having a backup plan was always the better idea.

After that, she turned her wand to the door. “Alohomora,” she stated, making a reverse S curve with her wand toward the lock, and withdrawing her wand when she heard the click indicating the door was unlocked. Time to face the maze. Thankfully, it wasn’t like it was the first maze she had ever had to deal with. This time she was much more prepared. Checking the first entrance she found, she stopped in the entryway and laid her wand on her hand. “Point me,” she said clearly, wtching as her wand started to spin. As it stopped, she reminded herself that it was pointing north, so she looked right. Looked to be a dead end, so she stepped back and went to another entrance. Repeating the Four-Point Spell, she set off to the right of the direction her wand had pointed. Now all she had to do was deal with the rest of the instructions, as well as the time limit. She didn’t think it had taken her too long to get where she was, so she wasn’t going to rush.

A few moments later, she noticed a shoe lying to the side of the path. It had to be one of the objects mentioned, so she pointed her wand at it. “Locomotor shoe,” she cast, raising her wand and watching the shoe rise to follow it. Now she just had to find the basket, which was irritatingly no anywhere to be found. However, she did find a small bonsai tree and a Quaffle while she kept walking, the shoe trailing along behind her in the air. She let the charm drop on the shoe when she came across the other items, figuring finding the basket was more important. If anything, she could let the basket follow her once that was found. “Accio basket,” she finally cast, a bit of exasperation in her voice. Half of her felt that it wouldn’t be that easy.

It wasn’t, either. The basket flew over one of the walls, only to collide with the opposite wall and crash to the floor. Luckily, it remained intact and also hadn’t collided with her head. Even so, she wasn’t about to try summoning it again. Instead, she applied her attention to the other objects. Summoning wasn’t going to work. She didn’t want them coming to her, and moving them was going to be tedious. Instead, she swept her wand toward the shoe, tree and Quaffle. “Depulso,” she cast, watching the three objects fly off toward the basket, the shoe and Quaffle landing inside easily. The tree wasn’t quite so lucky, having landed a few feet away. However, that would be easier to move than all three would have been. “Locomotor bonsai.” Raising her wand again, she floated it toward the basket and softly placed it inside.

That being done, she checked her copied directions, and then kept walking… Ew. Reading about ectoplasm was definitely nicer than actually seeing it. “Skurge,” she cast nearly without thinking, having stopped walking just clear of the goo and moving her wand in the familiar three leaf clover shape. She watched the green light stream from her wand, slowly cleaning away the ectoplasm and allowing her to move forward again. At least that spell hadn’t been taught too long ago. It made things easier. She’d just had to recast it a few times before all the ectoplasm was gone and she could safely turn the next corner.

Only to frown as she clearly recognized the entrance she’d come through. She knew she hadn’t gone in a circle, but then she also didn’t remember the heavy paperweight pinning down a sheet of parchment before. Maybe it wasn’t the same entrance, or maybe it was. She’d nearly given up, but she applied her attention to the trapped parchment instead. With a swish and flick of her wand, she focused on the paperweight. “Wingardium Leviosa.” As the paperweight rose, she darted forward to grab the parchment with her free hand, dropping the Hover Charm once she was clear again. Except the parchment was blank, annoyingly enough. She lifted it up to the light for a moment, not seeing any faint lettering, then laid it down and tapped it three times with her wand. “Aparecium.” As the words slowly appeared, she sighed. Challenge complete. At that, she took the copied directions out of her pocket and laid them on the ground with the other parchment, not needing either anymore as she headed back out of the maze and away from the annoyances.

It was time for the second Charms Challenge. Hady's confidence was back and better then ever. After seeing her score for the previous challenge and then going home for break and spending the entire time home with her new siblings she was ready for anything. Anything but spiders that is. Just don't go having a room full of spiders and she would rock this.

Wand already in her grasp the Slytherin made her way to the door stopping before it her eyes falling upon the note that was on it. Okay, so not so much a note but more of a list of directions. Reading over it once, twice and then a third time she was sure to make an easy mental note of the steps she had to complete. First she had to go East. Then she had to acquire the basket and move all the items in her way into the basket. Next she would come across some ectoplasm which she would have to clean up. After that there would be a parchment under some type of paperweight that she needed to get her hands onto. Lastly all she had to do to finish was read the parchment or whatever. Fairly simple honestly. Or so it seemed. Maybe the tricky part was that it had to be completed in a matter of forty five minutes?

East. Basket and items. Ectoplasm. Paperweight. Parchment.

The very first thing she would have to do is go east. Well after she opened the door and stepped inside that is. Reaching out her hand she tried to open it. Locked. Seriously?! Really she should've expected that. Taking a step back and pointing her wand at the lock on the door she recited clearly, "Alohomora" while moving her wand in somewhat of a backward 'S' shape. Hearing the soft click that meant it had unlocked Hady reached out and this time managed to pull the door open. With the door banging shut loudly behind her to signal the start of the challenge Hady went over the steps once again as she was instantly confronted with several different entrances. Only one would take her to where she needed to go.

East.

Step one was to go east.

That was all she needed to focus on now. East. Had to go east. Now which way was east? Staring out at each entrance to the maze wasn't doing her any good. That's what she had a wand for. A wand that could tell her the way! Yes Hady Yes!

Laying her wand flat on the palm of her hand she spoke clearly, "Point me!" The wand spun around and around before coming to a stop pointing to which entrance she wanted to take. The Four-Point Spell was indeed a handy one. Closing her fingers around her wand once more she headed down the correct path. The only sound coming from the soles of her shoes padding along the floor to accompany her. This was very different then caring for a baby doll. Following a bend in the path she continued onward taking the next turn as well...not that she had much choice. There was only one way to go right now.

East. Basket and items.

Right in front of her were the items alright. Smack dab in the middle of her path. No sign of a basket to put it all into though. "Accio basket!" she commanded making an arch with her wand. Expecting to see the basket float at her from somewhere in the pile of items on the floor Hady was caught off-guard when it came soaring quickly around the corner up ahead straight at her. "Whoa!" Just in time she grabbed it out of the area setting it down at her feet. Now to move the items into the basket. Quickly. So Wingardium Leviosa wouldn't do it. It would take to long. A grin spread across the girls face as she pointed her wand at a bottle of ink, lets see if this worked.

"Depulso!" she swept her wand in the direction of the ink bottle towards the basket. Please work. PLEASE WORK! The rainbow colored ink bottle flew upwards into the air and shot to the left a few feet landing in the basket at her feet. Score! Nice work Lynch! With a satisfied smirk now resting on her lips she went ahead to cast the banishing charm several more times. A book, fork, an empty box of Valentine's Day candy, one sun and planet sock (did Airey know about this?), a stuffed cat and lastly a pillow all went into the basket. An odd choice of items but who was she to really care. Now if only muggle basketball back in elementary school had been this easy she would've really gotten somewhere!

Using her foot she lightly pushed the now filled basket off to the side of the path and went on her way. Another turn into an empty path. Then another turn an-

Oh my gosh!

Ewwww!

GROSS!

There was goo on her shoe! GOO!

Slime. Gunk. Ick. Ectoplasm.

Whatever you wanted to call it. It was on her shoe. She had stepped in it. Hady let out a very audible groan and lifted her foot up off the ground. This very clearly had to be step three. Wrinkling her nose in clear displeasure she aimed her wand at her own right shoe. A three leaf clover shape was made while she gave the incantation, "Skurge!" It only took a moment and her shoe was clean once more but before putting it back down Hady turned her wand onto the ectoplasm that was right there in her footpath. "Skurge!" The three leaf clover movement of her wand was made. This was preformed several more times while walking the entire length of the the path. That had been disgusting but at least she knew how to get rid of it all.

Letting out a breath she went around another turn only to be back where she started? HUH?!

Hadleigh turned in a small circle her eyes trained on the before her when she came to a stop. No, she hadn't come full circle for if she had there would be many more entrances to the maze. So this had to be the way out. Was she finished already?

Chewing her lip she went over the directions in her head...again.

East. Basket and items. Ectoplasm. Paperweight!

Now where was the paperweight. Hady spun in a circle once more this time more slowly her hazel eyes looking more towards the ground. Just off to her left was some type of dragon statue paperweight. That had to be it! The small edges of a sheet of parchment poking out from under was all the conformation she needed on that. Kneeling down she went ahead and tried to lift it up only she wasn't able to. Sighing she shook her head. That's right it's supposed to be heavy. Still sitting on her knees she pointed her wand at the really cool paperweight casting the 'Feather-light charm' on it. Now it would be light enough to move. Pushing the paperweight off of the parchment the teen picked up the last part to the task.

It was blank. Turning it over in her hand only to see that the other side was blank too she frowned at it. Fine. Okay note time to make words appear. Tapping her wand lightly on the center of the parchment and doing some squiggly wiggly type movement with the wand she stated simply, "Aparecium." This was going to work, yes?

Slowly letters began to form shaping themselves into words. 'You have no completed you challenge'. YES! It was time to get out of there and probably not with much time to spare either. Dropping the parchment onto the floor for the next person she got back up onto her feet, turned around and pulled the door open. She was done. Gone.