As he had half expected, the spell did nothing. That was fine, it was, but it meant that now Kyle needed to mess with with the dials. The oven looked broken, too old to work, but the riddle made it sound like it was still plenty dangerous to be fiddling around with. But that was what he needed to do.

Switching positions so that he was kneeling in front of the oven instead of squatting there, Kyle took hold of the shiny oven dial and, after giving it an experimental tug, he twisted it carefully into the on position.

The tug has no real effect on the knob since not enough force has been put behind it, but that does not matter as the process of turning it counter-clockwise has a greater effect.

While it does not come off the stove, it starts to become wiggly and jiggly and smoke starts to come out of the oven. Looks like you are doing something correctly and you are almost at your goal. Not too much longer now.

Sure enough, Kyle wasn't too bothered by the smoke that started coming from the oven, other than the fact that it played havoc with his eyes, making them sting and stream. His lungs, however, were protected by the magical bubble still in effect around his mouth and nose. When the dial started to come loose, Kyle used that as a sign to keep going, turning the dial some more and giving it a firm tug as he did so.

As for the smoky kitchen, he would deal with that once he had the item. There were plenty of spells for clearing the environment, but his main priority was getting to the final item in his search.

The thought did occur to him, however, that they really had tried to be funny with this final clue. Warmer, getting warmer... boiling hot.

"Ha. Ha. Ha."

Perhaps a genuine smile would come when he finally had his hands on a Gordian Knot, or whatever the heck this thing was, though if it was small enough to be hidden perhaps behind this dial, Kyle wasn't sure what else the item was likely to be.

Indeed things are getting boiling hot.

The temperature hasn't gotten hotter, no; instead the knob has been released from the stove due to all of the tugging and turning. But IS it a knob? Looks more like a brooch than anything else.

When the dial finally came free in Kyle's hand, he moved from his kneeling position - because his legs were aching something fierce - and sat cross-legged again, right there on the filthy kitchen floor. And what a sight he must have looked too; dirty, bloodied up, bubble on his face, and dust pretty much all over him, staring at an oven dial he held in his hand.

Only... no, it wasn't an oven dial, was it?

It was...

"Gotcha."

The brooch. The Ilvermorny brooch. This had to be it. Kyle closed his fist around it and held it tight. Gotcha.

Almost immediately after grabbing hold of the brooch something weird happens. You feel a jolt and there is bright light surrounding you from all sides. Suddenly you are not in the Shrieking Shack anymore. There is nothing to fear, however, as you are in safe hands.

The entire challenge was a magically modified daydream.

You find yourself lying in bed in a white room, a Ministry employee walking over to greet you. He asks you if you need any medical attention and tells you that your scores will be up soon. You are free to head off to the stands to watch the rest of the competitors finish the challenge.

OOC: You are now free to view the stands as well as any of the other competitor threads.

What the--

If ever there was an appropriate time to use the term 'awoke with a start' it was now, right? Whether he had even been asleep or just in a daze was entirely irrelevant, because...

Kyle awoke with a start, brought... apparently back into full consciousness. The bright light around him felt almost oppressive, piercing and invasive and utterly inescapable. As he 'woke up', he jolted upright and gasped for air, staring around in total disorientation. For a moment he thought he might have simply been dreaming; it was within the realm of possibility, as during the nights leading up to the challenge, he had dreamt that he had completed, failed, or missed the task completely, only to wake up and find it was still yet to pass. This time, though... this time, he didn't recognise his surroundings, nor did he recognise the adult who approached him.

Medical attention? Kyle reached up to touch his nose, and found it perfectly straight, and not a drop of blood anywhere... and of course he would, as none of it... none of it had been real.

The disorientation was not about to go away in a hurry, even when Kyle understood what had happened, he remained in a state of total confusion. Without saying a word to the Ministry official - and not giving a hoot about if he might be considered rude for it - Kyle checked that he still had his wand on him before pushing himself off the bed and heading for the exit. He was a little unsteady on his feet - a side effect of just 'waking up', perhaps? or maybe something to do with feeling so energised in his... fake challenge... only to lose it all again here - but had no problems in taking his very abrupt leave.