The first day of the Challenges this was exciting. Julien unlocked the Charm Practice room and look at his schedule. Flicking his wand he made the room ready for the first group and then turned and unlocked another door. This door lead into the viewing area. Making sure everything was set up and the viewing class was clear for the judges as well as the students.


Checking his time he realized that students would be coming. So taking the clip boards and quills out he sat them in the judges seat. This would be how they scored the students.


Even if Julien Primeaux wasn't one for smiling and playing games he was delighted that everything seemed to be going smoothly and he was about to have the first ever Charms Challenge. Finding his seat he sat and got ready for the other judges to show up.

Art had a slight spring to his old ankles as he walked up from the dungeons to the third floor charms class. He was slightly out of breath as he reached the top of the stairs, but kept on walking until he was at the viewing area. There was Professor Primeaux, ready to go.

"Hello there Julien," Art greeted the man who had brought this challenge about. He took a seat and looked down at the clipboard and quills. "Ready to-to see everything in action?" Art sure was!

Naturally Leo supported all types of challenges that combined both fun and spell practice for the students. When Professor Primeaux had brought up his competition idea at one of their staff meetings Leo had volunteered to judge. When the day came he reluctantly left the library to go down a floor to the charms classroom.

After the second restricted section incident since the start of the year Leo had become even more cautious and on alert and had put up even more security measures. So he was pretty apprehensive when he left the library to be unattended for a few hours. Hopefully nothing would happen.

Coming into the viewing area for the charms competition some minutes later he spotted Art and Julien already seated in two of the judge seats. Going over to his colleagues he greeted them both with small smiles. "Hello Julien and Art! It'll be exciting to see how the students tackle the different challenges." That was how Leo felt even if he was semi-distracted.

If Kay were a student, she would have definitely taken part in this exciting activity Julien had come up with. Alas she wasn't but at least she was still contributing to it as a judge. Hoping she wasn't late, she sidled into the Viewing Area. She was pleased to see some of her fellow judges already there.

"Hello, Julien, Art and Leo!'' No Ansley as yet? Perhaps he was occupied with something else for now. The Muggle Studies woman looked towards the area where the students were to be doing their challenges. "This will be definitely exciting to see,'' she told Leo, having caught that bit when she came in.

Just as he set the last of the clipboards down he heard the door open. Turning he smiled at his coworkers and co-judges coming in. "Good Morning" His voice full of excitement. This was going to be fun to see the students trying out their skills and challenging themselves to new levels.

"Yes I think we are Art, I have put the schedule for today on each clipboard." There were so many that signed up they were going to be breaking it in a few days, but he was fully pride at the amount of students that wanted to challenge themselves. This was very exciting and he couldn't be prouder of Hogwart students.

Looking to Leo he gave another nod, "Yes, challenging ones self is the best way to prefect and to learn. These students have really stepped up and proved they want to excel just by wanting to try this challenge."

Taking his seat it looked as if the first student was ready to go. "The first and second years will probably be the best example of challenging to new levels, but I do hope that the sevenths years enjoy my task I've given them." He chuckled to himself at the lessons they could learn today.

Turning his head as another judge came in he was thrilled to see the new staff wanting to be involved, "Morning Kaysha, thank you so much for joining us."

Ansley slipped into the room just before the first student was about to get started. He had been running a little late, but he was glad to see that he hadn't yet missed anything. He didn't want to fail already at his first task of being a judge.

"Hello, hello," he greeted his colleagues as he took the seat next to Kay. He leaned forward, looking into the two-way mirror to peer into the room. "Ah, this looks like it will be rather interesting." He was really looking forward to see how each student would get through the challenges of the room. "We about ready to get started?" He glanced back at his fellow members of staff, his eyes settling on Julien who would be the one to get them started.

"It's my pleasure, Julien. I should be thanking you for allowing me to judge,'' Kay said, now fully noticing she was the only female judge to make up this panel. It didn't bother her though. She was quite comfortable with these fellows right here. "How are you, Art?'' Kay asked as she slipped into the seat beside him. She had developed a soft spot for him. "Left Madam Curie behind?''

Just as she picked up a quill and reached for a slip of parchment for note taking, Ansley joined them, taking the seat on her other side. "Hi, Ansley. It sure will be.'' Her eyes were now fixed on the two way mirror. She was ready to see some creativity and out of the box thinking.

Leo glanced up as Kay entered the viewing area and took the empty judges seat next to him. Nodding he agreed."Hello Kayasha, or did you prefer to be called Kay in less formal situations? It will definitely be fun to see the students in action and how good they are with charms and thinking on their feet."

Taking his clipboard from the pile Leo produced a quill from one of his many robe pockets to be all set when things got underway. Glancing over at Julien he asked for confirmation. "You've set different tasks for all years right?" Otherwise it'd be easy to fall into the trap of comparing a first year's skill with a second year which would be unfair.

As another judge walked in Leo looked up and beamed "Good morning Ansley! When was the last time Hogwarts had a similar charms challenge? Was it during the last triwizard tournament?"

Ansley nodded to Kay, his attention primarily focused on the room on the other side of the mirror. The first of the students were starting to arrive and he needed to keep his attention on making sure they were doing a good job so he could assess their performances. Not much time for small talk, but he thought he could probably multitask a bit.

The first and second years were doing quite well at their challenge. Even more so than he had expected, and he was quite impressed with the youngest ones. Ansley did have to chuckle at a couple of their reactions though and he made some notes on his scoresheet.

And then the room changed for the third and fourth years, and Ansley waited for the first of those students to arrive. He turned to Leo, to answer his question. Well, sort of. He really didn't know the answer. "That would probably be as good a guess as any," he nodded. Before last year, he hadn't been at Hogwarts in quite a few years, and he didn't really keep up on the happenings so much during that time. Other than the really bad things that the press liked to cover, of course.

Once the first of the intermediate students arrived, Ansley again let out a chuckle at the reaction to the state of the room, and he watched as Oliver got to work. Not bad, and he made a few notes. Having been seated for quite some time, Ansley stretched a bit, then straightened as Rooney was the next student to arrive. Was the child singing? Interesting... he made a few notes, continuing to watch. Merlin, he was taking a long time. He nodded to Julien as he got up to let the boy know his time was up. Good thinking, otherwise they'd probably be there all day with all the students they had to observe.

But he did not expect quite that reaction from the fourth year and he raised an eyebrow as the child turned over a bunch of things in the room and stormed out, next turning his eyes to Julien.

Drama... He hated drama and it rarely came from the boys. So when the fourth year claw had done drama he just let it happen and moved on. The prefect had a great performance up until the time ran out if only he wouldn't have been so dramatic at the end. As he came back into the room with the professors he just shook his head a bit. "Can't please them all." Which was true for even adults, but this was an interesting turn. He sat back down and looked at his chart.

"I think the Triwizard was the last charms challenge they've had." It was a question that was asked before he left, but he could answer it now. Unless someone else in the room answered and he missed it. In that case, whoops.

Looking at the schedule his smile grew, "We should be seeing a handful of fifth through seventh years coming up next. This could get fun." Was his grinning a bit much for his own usual self? If it was they would realize soon why it was there. The sight of fifth through seventh years dealing with a screaming baby doll made him chuckle even just thinking about it.