Teddy stood at the entrance, her hand tightly gripped around her wand. There she was, alone and on the verge of puking with this menacing forest staring back at her. Fear isn't what she was feeling, it was just pure panic that she was going to let down everybody and everyone.

She took a moment to regulate her breathing and walked in. A shiver ran down her spine as the cold got more intense. That always meant a bad thing. Like dementors...

The cold was getting to you? Wait until you step deeper into the Forest. Not even the thickest clump of trees will be able to protect from it. On contrary, it will only serve to make you get creeped out, if you aren’t already. The many shadows and and the fog will play tricks on your eyes.

Be careful as you proceed.

“AAAAAAGGGHHH!’’

What was that? Where did it come from?

It was the chilling scream of someone in trouble! Were they being tortured?

Quickly! Maybe you can locate this someone and lend them a hand.

No, she wasn't letting the cold get to her. Yes, she was usually adjusted to high temperatures and the Scotland weather is already like winter to her, but she felt the cold was an indicator to something. What the was, she absolutely didn't know, but hopefully it wouldn't kill her?????

The scream sent more goosebumps down her skin than the cold did. She had to bite her tongue to keep from screaming herself. That could've exposed her to whatever was out here. Whoever was out here? Human...??

Her eyes searched the darkness and her ears searched for sound. Nothing was coming back, but maybe a spell could find the source of the scream. Teddy waved her hand over the darkness in front of her, "Homenum Revelio."

The terrifying scream was not to be heard again but it does leave a haunting tenseness in the air. You could feel that tenseness. Whatever the case was, the spell cast was quite useful.

What was that up ahead and at a short distance from where you stood?

The spell revealed the outline of someone who seemed to be clutching at her chest. Was she clutching her heart? Perhaps the thing that made her scream had scared her so much that her heart was palpitating.

The source of her terror is soon discovered. There was something gliding towards her. The mystery of the immense cold and fog had been discovered as well. The girl's mouth was opened as though she was about to scream though no sound came out.

Surely you recognise that creature?

Teddy wasn't sure whether the confirmation that a human was here had calmed her nerves or just magnified them more. Regardless, they looked in peril. Knight in Shining Armor wasn't in the brochure for this competition, she thought, but she had to do it. She just had to be careful doing it.

She took feather-light steps to avoid attracting attention to herself as she approached where the human had been. Her surroundings were now covered in icy crystals. Bad sign. Very bad sign.

There it was. Damn the Man! Her feared worst case scenario was true. She wanted to take off running or just curse the heavens for making this the first task, but her instincts knew better. Teddy immediately leveled out her emotions, careful to not emit too much of something. It could work in not being detected just yet by the dementor.

She knew the go-to spell for this, obviously. The problem was that her patronus charm was pretty mediocre the last time she practiced it. She was charting a 50/50 chance of it working, even with a wand.

Okay, hurry it up, Teddy. That poor girl was being drained with every second she was planning this out. She couldn't remember if the dementors were generally afraid of light or not, but the brightness of a lightning bolt could distract it enough and save her enough time to conjure a proper patronus.

Enough Scully, time to Mulder.

The fifteen year-old stood from her hiding spot, pointing her wand towards the monster's face. "BAUBILLIOUS!"

Her left arm went up to shield her eyes from the blinding light. No turning back now.

The thing was closing in on the woman just as the white light soared towards it. It shrunk back which luckily for the woman, brought her a few precious seconds. Or so she thought as she tried to stagger away.

Alas… the creature glided towards her again. The rattling grew louder as it sucked in air.

“Help...me…’’ The feeble whisper came from the woman. You watch as the dementor lower its hood.

Do you have the guts to save the woman? If you do, you need to act quickly!

Unless you too began to feel the horrible effects it can have on you… that despair.

The spell worked like she was hoping too, but the poor girl was running out of time. Her hands were shaking by now, not from the cold. The beast was just about to perform The Kiss and the girl was begging for her help. Her fist gripped tight around her wand as the adrenaline worked double-time running through her body. "I'm-I'm coming!" She shot the spell at the soul-sucker again, channeling more strength to it for a more brighter stun.

Just as the blinding light shot of her wand, Teddy dove in to grab the girl by the wrist and pulled her into the forest, using the same force to propel herself in front of the dementor before it tried to go back after the girl.

She fell on a knee, immediately feeling the devastation of being so close to this horrid creature. Her mind desperately grasped for the memory of her family and Corbin cheering her on from the stands like fish out of water. It took so much of her energy just to raise her wand at the ominous beast in front of her. Don't fail me now. "Expecto Patronum!"

Teddy shut her eyes, afraid to watch her soul leave her body if she had failed. Please don't fail me now.

Diving to save the victim? The Dementor did not appreciate this though it was thinking that it would have two souls instead of one today. It turned its attention to you instead, its breath rattling as it drew closer to you.

Suddenly it glided away. The Patronus Charm was the most dreaded and feared.

The Patronus drove the dementor away and all intentions of having two souls were now the least of its concerns.

In the meanwhile, the victim murmured inaudibly. You should do something to help her. Make her feel better if you can.

She opened an eye to peek at what was happening. Her Bengal Tiger patronus wasn't fully formed, but it was just recognizable enough. The dementor was being chased away and so she felt safe enough to get back up. It took a couple tries to stand back up from being so close to the dementor, but eventually Teddy was able to stumble over to the girl.

Okay, she was feeling woozy, but also really filled with adrenaline because HOLY SCULLY she just beat a dementor. Okay, focus, Teddy, focus. Shoot, shoot, shoot. Water? Food. She swallowed, her throat was very dry and all she wanted at the moment was a chocolate bar with almonds.

...CHOCOLATE!!!!

Chocolate was the go-to remedy for lack of souls! She checked her pockets in case, by some miracle, there just happened to be some chocolate. Obviously, there wasn't. "Okay, hold on. I'll get you something in a minute." Hopefully. It looked like she was going to have transfigure something into chocolate. Again, very mediocre with her transfiguration, but there was no time for practice.

Ted found some flat rocks nearby. "Sorry, if it tastes super bad." She placed a rock between her palms, opting out of using her wand in this case.

She examined the chocolate in her hand. It looked like chocolate, smelled like chocolate..."Let me just test it really quick." Teddy took a bite...and grimaced. "It's a little...grainy...but it'll have to do."

Kneeling beside her, she draped her robe around the girl and carefully fed the rock-chocolate to the her, then ate a piece herself. "You look pretty worn out, so it looks like I'll have levitate you out of here." She back up, picking up her wand. "But, don't worry, I'm getting you out."

Her hands extended over the girl, "Mobilicorpus!" She couldn't wait to get out of here.

The woman felt terrible. She had never undergone such an ordeal. The younger girl attempting to comfort her provided some form of distraction and so she watched. “How in the world did you do that? How did you get rid of that thing? How did you change rocks into something else? What is that stick thing?’’ She looked from the wand to the ‘chocolate’ being handed to her then cautiously nibbled at it. “Eck! What is this? It’s more like plastic!’’

The hard plastic was toss on the ground. Remember Gamp’s Law of Elemental Transfiguration.

"WHAT? LEVITATE ME?’’ Before she knew what was happening, she was lifted into the air. “PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT, FREAK! PUT ME DOWN!!!!’’ She began thrashing around. Hands and legs flailed about. The robe… it fell off her.

What do you do?

Oh, shoot. She was right, it was plastic. Grainy plastic. Teddy was trying not to panic, but the girl's irksome questioning was making it hard to think. Among all that, Teddy wasn't registering the type of the questions the girl was asking. So, it wasn't until she winced at the word "FREAK" that she realized she was dealing with a Muggle.

As if this wasn't stressful enough.

She watched the girl flailing in panic, setting her down. TEDDY THINK, THINK. WHAT WOULD M.I.A DO!??

In a blink of an eye, Teddy sent a stunning spell at the girl to knock her unconscious. Well, M.I.A would probably do that.

A quick 10 seconds of frustrated crying and then she was back to planning out her next move.

Okay, what she'll do is levitate her out of here and then erase the Muggle's memory once they were out. Good plan? Average plan, it'll have to do. Once again, she casted Mobiliocorpus on the stunned Muggle. "Sorry, about that." Teddy picked up her robe, shaking it to dust it off. "But, it's not nice to call me a freak after saving your soul."

Your attempt at casting the Stunning Spell at the girl goes in vain as she dodges. What you did succeed in doing is levitating her again. This in turn caused her to shriek louder than ever.

“PUT ME DOWN!!!!”

Too bad. You have a feisty one on your hands.

Better think quickly of a new plan.

SIGH.


She took another 10 seconds to cry out of frustration again because this lady was just not cooperating. You know, by allowing herself to be stunned. "Cooperating." Teddy tried tuning out the shrieking woman while she thought over her entire life choices.

There was one more spell she could think of that may keep this Muggle from stressing her out even more.

Teddy set the woman back down once more and waited for the perfect shot.

Steady....steady...

"Petrificus Totalus!"

Oh, please, by Scully, work...

Your spell worked. She was out cold but her face reflected an utterly terrified expression. She is scared of what you will do to her. Her eyes, reflecting the terror, followed you. The girl was able to see everything that you're doing.

She yearned to say ‘Don’t hurt me!’ but her jaws were jammed shut.

What is your plan?

Teddy had never felt this stressed in her life. She was going to devour millions of chocolate frogs in distress when she got out of here.

The body bind curse had worked, but now the woman was staring at her like she was You-Know-Who himself. To think she thought the dementor was going to be the hardest part.

She looked around awkwardly, looking anywhere, but the woman's eyes. "Oh...don't look at me like that!" Teddy slid on her dirt-covered robe. "I'm not trying to hurt you! I'm trying to help you! The thing is, you're flailing around and hurting my feelings and so I gotta put these binds on you. And if you take off, you could expose my people and therefore, eradicate us all." She paced left to right. "I don't know if you've noticed, but humans don't deal with different really well. Whether it'd be me or you." The teenage girl paused, taking out her wand again. "Now, I'll add a cheering charm for your comfort because I don't have any calming draught on me. Then, we're gonna try this levitating thing again."

She once again pointed her wand and casted the spell.

The girl seemed to muster her best glare and gave that to you. She wanted you to shut up. She wanted you to release her from the ridiculous piece of witchcraft you put on her.

Most of all, she wanted to forget this horrible experience.

Her eyes grew terrified again as you raise your wand. Then all of the sudden the expression was gone. She felt… happy.

Well, at least the guilt was less there.

Now, there was the levitating thing again. Teddy conjured up some rope just in case the plan failed again and she'd have to carry out the muggle on her back.

She just wanted to this to be ovvvveeerrrr. It's no doubt that she's probably lost by now because she's made a layer of spell cake on this muggle trying just to get out of here. Oblivating could've been easier, true, but there was always the chance something else would've traumatized them both on the way back. So, she was sticking to the plan. Oblivate only after they got out of the forest. Too much oblivating could resort in trouble and she didn't want that on the girl, even if she did call Teddy a freak. That will forever hurt.

Tejashree casted the levitating spell once again, after praying for luck, and started to look for her way back. Maybe shreds of her robe could be found on branches to lead her back.

Really, it would simply be easier to carry out your plans in the Forest.

Who can tell what would happen? Like the Full Body Bind curse coming undone. Slowly, the happy girl realized she was regaining movement. Her thrashing started again.

“WHAT PART OF PUT ME DOWN DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND, GIRL??!!!?’’

You’d better double think your plans. She was shrieking at the top of her lungs and it seems that she would not allow you to even make it out of the Forest.

OKAY. FINE. YOU WIN, UNIVERSE. WE'LL DO IT YOUR WAY.

Teddy set her down again, preparing herself to do her last resort. "It was nice meeting you. Obliviate!" If this didn't work, she'd perform it on herself and get lost.

She put on a concerned face and knelt next to the girl. "Hey...are you okay? Are you lost?" Teddy's probably the one who is lost....lost the competition.

She grimaced when she was set down but she continued to glare at you. A hint of fear again crossed her face when you raised your wand and said the incantation. A moment later, that was replaced by an unfocused look.

You wait for her to regain focus. The girl looks at you with in bewilderment. “I think so.’’ She looked around at the Forest. “I believe I am.’’ She frowned. “How did I get here?’’

Will you answer her questions?

Just as importantly, are you going to leave the Forest lest another creature attacks?

Teddy tried to hide her relief, keeping up the act for the girl. "I found you here, miss." She offered help to stand her up. "You must've fallen and given yourself a nasty bump on the head if you can't remember." She looked around, "We should get you out of here, miss. There's dangerous animals that come out around this time." She gestured with her arm to where she assumed the entrance was. Please, please, please. Teddy just wanted to go home and sleep.

The girl felt her head. There was no pain or a bump but she nodded. "Yes, I want to get out of here, please.''

The entrance is just slightly to the left of where you pointed.

Is that the rustle of a cloak dragging on the ground you hear from further in the clearing?

Are you going to exit quickly?

Suddenly there was movement beside you. When you look around, you’ll see a tall, thin man coming towards you. “Time’s up. I’m sorry you were not able to finish the task on time.’’ He was a Ministry official and had been Disillusioned the entire time, tracking your progress throughout the challenge. He waved his wand at the girl. As you watched, you were surprised to see her turn into a dummy.

“Take this chess piece. It will take you back to the Stands.’’

When you take it, it whooshes you away.

OOC: You are now free to read the Viewing Area and the other competitors’ threads.