Let's get creative, Fifteens. on Quidditch Pitch

Gamemaker Pye

December 16, 2015 2:17 AM

This is SPARTA! (Challenge 1) by Gamemaker Pye

For some odd reason or another, instead of acting like a recluse and trying to separate himself out from the rest of the staff and the student body, Alfie had decided it was a good idea to continue to get more involved. And so, in addition to dealing with first year orientation he had also volunteered to help out with the team challenges which had been suggested as a way for the school to come back together after the Satori incident of the previous year. Alfie was still slightly kicking himself for not having caught it earlier but had been reassured by a drunk ex-colleague over the summer that there was really no reason for him to suspect that a Satori had infiltrated the school system. It had been a tough break, but the department didn’t hold it against him and did wish he could come back though they’d heard that the extent of his injuries really wouldn’t allow that.

The comment, from the ever glib, perpetually jealous Jeremiah Williams sent Alfie, in a glowering mood, over to Cecily’s where he had been giving a firm slap on the head and a cold glass of water because apparently he reeked of bourbon. Which, Alfie thought, was not necessarily a bad thing. It was summer time and he didn’t really have any obligations so he figured he was allowed to reek of alcohol all he wanted—no young minds to corrupt and all that. Cecily had not been pleased with him the next day and she’d told him in no uncertain terms that if he wanted to work together to figure out the bigger issue at hand then he really couldn’t be getting piss drunk over anything Jeremiah Williams said.

Now, though, Alfie was paying for not having caught the Satori before it spread the multitudes of vicious rumors and secrets around the school which he had spun—to any concerned student who had thought to ask the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher about the Dark powers of a Satori, as mainly rumors and lies. It wasn’t that he particularly cared about the feelings of his students, but he had found that on edge students tended to produce less than satisfactory results and if a small white lie every now and then (like assuring them that in addition to truths Satoris also liked to spread rumors and blatant lies in order to stir up feelings of resentment) meant that his students were more at ease in his classroom and performing to the best of their ability then he was all for it.

As he walked up to the Quidditch Pitch, he sighed. He wasn’t a fan of the challenges and had always enjoyed watching the Quidditch games even though the outcomes were rather predictable—that Clark Dill really was an absurdly talented young man, so he was kind of disappointed with the change of events. Nevertheless, he had a challenge to lead and so he put on his best friendly face, nodding welcomingly to the students as they past him—he was in no hurry to get there, the Pitch had already been set up, all he needed to do was announce and explain the first challenge and then sit back and watch it unfold. He hadn’t even needed to gather the students there that day--signs had been posted around the school and in all of the common rooms telling the students to meet on the Pitch at a designated time and to bring along their wands (why they wouldn’t have them, he didn’t know) and other useful “problem solving sundries.” He supposed he might be required to announce the point record, but it was also a Saturday and so that meant there would be live music at the Quill and Whale which had become his new favourite place to have a drink and wind down. Something about the odd decorations soothed and pleased him in an aesthetic manner he never would have thought possible for himself.

“At least it’s good weather,” Alfie remarked quietly to Tallec as he stood and walked forward to explain the first challenge. He raised his wand and cast a Sonorus charm on his voice so that it amplified over the length of the Pitch and a little beyond so that any student who was lagging behind or who thought it prudent to whisper while he talked would be able to hear everything he said. “By now I’m sure all of you have met or at least know who is on your teams. The theme of this challenge is water. With the holidays coming up, I think the staff thought it would be fun to put a little festive twist on things, and so…”

He waved his wand again and a disillusionment charm lifted to show the layout of the Pitch. There were fifteen sleighs filled with colorfully wrapped boxes with bows and ribbons on them. A fairly large river ran through the length of it, separating the sleighs with their glistening gifts on one side of the bank from the students who were on the other near the teachers and the podium. “The point of this challenge is to bring the gifts over from that side of the river to this side of the river. The gifts must never touch the ground or the water and must arrive on this side in it’s original condition. Sound easy?” He grinned. Making things challenging was his favourite part of the job. He liked to push his students to be creative, he wanted them to work hard so that when they graduated their everyday use of magic was superb.

“Additionally, every member of your team must cast at least one spell that significantly aids in the process of the gift movement.” It was this point that Alfie stressed heavily as he explained the challenge to the students. Every member had to participate, even the youngest ones who’d by now not even had a full semester of learning under their belt. The challenges were all about team building and school unity—though why the others thought splitting the school up into fifteen different factions was a sure fire way of bringing them all together, Alfie didn’t know. He supposed there was inter-house mingling now but it still promoted competition. “You will be scored on timeliness, creativity, and resourcefulness.” He smiled, personally believing that the last was the most important aspect before continuing. “And then, there’s just one more catch,” and Alfie waved his wand again and ice began to form, holding the sleighs steady in place and beginning to creep up the side, small pieces covering the gifts. “For bonus points you must also bring the sleigh over—separately from the gifts. You may begin!”

OOC: So, a quick recap in case you missed something in my mess of words:

-Signs telling students when to come to the pitch were placed around the school including the common rooms. These signs asked students to bring their wands and other "useful problem solving sundries."

-The challenge is Christmas themed--sleighs full of presents on opposite side of the river, students must collaborate to bring them over in their original condition. Each student must cast at least one spell.

-Teams are scored on timliness, creativity, and resourcefulness.

As usual, please write minimum of 200 word posts, be creative and realistic! Additionally, since some of you might not have had a multiple person thread, the usual "courtesy" is that we take turns in the order of posting. However the challenges are posted in Quidditch game style. Basically you reply whenever you can so that your team can have the most posts and therefore points. Have fun, good luck, and happy posting!

Subthreads:

Challenge one, post one, team one! by Kyte Collindale with Ava Fletcher, Nevaeh Reed, Serena Brockert

Team 6! by Liliana Bannister with Ingrid Wolseithcrafte, Leonidas Bennett, Fabian Brockert

Calling Team 10. by Leo Princeton & John Spencer with Laila Kennedy, Oliver Ferguson II

Team Twelve, I have an idea! by Clark Dill with Isaac Douglas, Makenzie Newell, Tasha DuBois

Let us go forth and conquer, Team Three. by John Umland with Jamie Park, Emery Kijewski-Jareau

Figuring it out for Team 14 by Theodore Wolseithcrafte with Chaslyn Brockert, Theresa Whittaker, Aiden O'Neil

Let's just do this now. (Team 13) by Chloe Jareau with Jemima Wolseithcrafte, Owen Brockert

Team five,look alive! by Scarlett Brockert with Gia Donovan, Barnaby Pye, Ji-Eun Park

Let's get creative, Fifteens. by Joe Umland with Araceli Arbon, Duncan Brockert, Brandon Carey

Team Four, through the door by Ben Pierce with Portia Dobson

Elevensies! by Ginger Pierce with Jake Manger, Diana Carey, Angelique Brockert

Team eight, we're great! by Emrys Lucan with Lionel Layne, Kelsey Atwater

Team Two, assemble! by Arnold Manger with Jax Donovan, Raine Collindale, Andrew Carey, Savannah Brockert

Lucky number seven! by Sammy Meeks with Tristan Spaulding

This is Team Nine by Kira Spaulding with Caelia Lucan

10 Gamemaker Pye This is SPARTA! (Challenge 1) 0 Gamemaker Pye 1 5

Kyte Collindale

December 16, 2015 10:47 AM

Challenge one, post one, team one! by Kyte Collindale

Kyte was mostly excited for the challenges. A few weeks in the same place had already bored him nearly to tears, even though there was still a lot of adjusting to the rules and the routine that he hadn’t managed yet - that stuff though, was just learning to adhere more and more strictly to what everyone else wanted. It wasn’t exactly exciting. If anything, it felt like somehow losing who he really was - becoming just another mindless little drone that smiled and said ‘yes teacher’ and did all the pointless homeworks about things they’d never use in the real world. And then, as if writing out long and boring assignments wasn’t bad enough, they were making him do it all over again in academic support. Did it matter if he spelt it right, so long as he got how it worked? Did it even matter if he got how it worked so long as it did work? He’d never thought so before, nor been brought up to believe so, and so the more he came around to following the rules and everyone else’s way of thinking, the worse he felt. He’d spent a lot of time exploring the gardens but they were starting to lose their appeal. The same-ness of it drove him up the wall. He wasn’t used to being in the same place for so long. And, whilst they didn’t get him out of here, the challenges at least, offered something new to do. His team was a bunch of people he didn’t know in the slightest. All he knew was that they weren’t Raine (which really sucked) or Ben (which also sucked) or Cameron (which was probably a good thing). Raine had helped out his team-mate, Neveah, in flying lessons, and seemed to really like her. Raine liked almost everyone that wasn’t a total psychopath or bully though, so whilst it was a positive endorsement, it still left quite a broad range of options open as to what Neveah was actually like.

On the appointed day, he showed up on the pitch, wand in hand, and penknife and string in pocket. He wasn’t sure whether that was what the staff had had in mind when they’d mentioned useful problem solving stuff, but they were what he took almost everywhere, and had served him well. He was dressed in very patched up jeans and a rainbow knitted sweater that hung almost to his knees. Although Sonora weather was generally temperate, it had been getting colder the closer they got to the holidays. He was very glad of the cosy layer as he got to the pitch and found it had been transformed into some kind of snow scene. He brushed his long fringe out of his eyes to get a good look. He wanted more than anything to run off and play but they were here for some kind of…. organised game?

He frowned as he listened to the puzzle. Kyte was more a do-er than a thinker. He wanted races and excitement - he wanted obstacles that you had to run and jump and fly your way through, not think around. There was an obvious way or two to get all the presents over the river, but the staff had made up a bunch of rules to stop them doing that. It seemed silly to come up with a puzzle where you had to put extra guidelines in place to avoid people solving it easily. He knew it was meant to make it seem like a game or something but it just irritated him that they were giving him yet more rules without reasons. To him, the most logical way of transporting anything to him was by broom. He’d helped his family pack up their life into a few canvas bags and tote it from state to state more often than he could count. However, he wasn’t sure using a broom would count as performing magic (although he was pretty sure that they wouldn’t fly for Muggles, so technically it had to be), besides which he didn’t have one to hand. The nearest available ones were in the broomshed. Which, he realised, as he glanced over it was usually locked. For the first time in his life, a locked door in his way was actually a good thing.

“I have an idea!” he beamed, as he realised how he could definitely, undeniable qualify as using magic and get his hands on his first choice method of getting over the river. Running as fast as he could to the shed, he touched his wand to the lock.

“Alohomora!” he cast. The door sprung open. He grabbed a broom for himself and a couple of spares for team-mates. It seemed silly for them not to all just take this practical option (though maybe Neveah wouldn’t like it even after her lessons) but it might be helpful for some people to do their spells from the other side of the river. He flew back to his team-mates, dropping the spare brooms down by them. He hovered above them, the presents tantalisingly calling him. He could get this done so easily… But there was that whole everyone-doing-a-thing thing that had to be thought out.

“So…. What’s the plan? Take people to the stuff, or bring some stuff to the people? I could probably manage some of the bigger or heavier things - been carting stuff around on brooms since I stopped being luggage myself.” Just because the older students would know more advanced magic didn’t mean they would be able to apply it to really big objects, so it made sense for him to help out with those, as he had an easy way across.

13 Kyte Collindale Challenge one, post one, team one! 335 Kyte Collindale 0 5

Liliana Bannister

December 16, 2015 1:47 PM

Team 6! by Liliana Bannister

Considering her recent surge in Potions and Transfiguration (partner transfiguration aside), Liliana was looking forward to the challenges. She was still pretty upset that Quidditch had to be canceled for the student body to fully commit to the tournament, but she was still pretty excited for it anyway because she loved a good competition and this time around she did not have that show-boating Jamie Park on her team. It was going to be nice not having said liability though Jamie’s trouble making friend was on her team. However, unlike Jamie, Uzume Shinohara did not have that same show-boating attitude that Liliana so disliked and she didn’t mind the odd prank now and then, figuring someone who had that sort of time on their hands was both creative and smart—two things that were really good to have in a competition.

She was pretty pleased with the rest of her team too—Leonidas Bennett was the Aladren captain but other than leading the enemy in her biggest past time she had no quarrel with him. One of the more quiet students, Wu Peizhi was on their team and Liliana hoped that the team environment might help the young Teppenpaw to step out of her shell a little. There was also Fabian Brockert, one of Duncan’s many relatives and therefore someone of Importance and besides that since he was related to Duncan he had to be alright even if she had limited interactions with the young Pecari. Lastly was Theodore’s younger sister, Ingrid. Liliana liked her for her enthusiasm on the Pitch and was excited to be working with the younger witch in a different sort of environment. She was excited to see what the tournament and the coming year would bring.

As she walked over to the Pitch, side-by-side with Atlas (because even though they were on opposing teams she did like to be around him when she could even though part of her instincts urged her to hide from him at all possible moments lest he find out that she liked him, to bury herself into whatever happened to be close by, be that homework or Qudditch or even prefect rounds in some dark, secluded corner where Liliana had learned to let out her pent up frustration in discretion) she felt an excited buzz in the air like how when she was younger and they were meant to look for the afikoman on the night of Seder. However, when Professor Pye unveiled the challenge, she felt her heart drop into her stomach. Over the years Liliana had come to understand that the dominant culture in the Western world was that Christmas was a “holly, jolly” time of year and that no one really cared if she was Jewish or not, she would have to celebrate the holiday in it’s most basic, consumerist glory.

As she gathered her team members around her, she kept a forced smile on her face—another thing she had learned over the years was that people didn’t like it when you complained about having Christmas shoved down your throat and that if it was mentioned then they would say something along the lines of “well you get eight nights of presents.” Which was totally not comparable at all considering Hanukkah was not even their most important holiday and it involved not being able to eat certain foods. Additionally, since it ran on the lunar calendar it didn’t always line up with Christmas and so she would have to spend the eight nights alone at school, eating the cardboard-in-texture matzah the elves tried to in lieu of the delicious fluffy breads that her classmates got to eat.

“Alright,” she said once they were all together and at their designated spot. “What kinds of things are you guys thinking? Leonidas and I could freeze our part of the stream and the younger years could run across? But then that’s not enough spell work even if it is fast, is it? What do you think?” She wanted to know her team’s input—part of success, she thought, was teamwork and the best way to do that would be to collaborate. Out of the corner of her eye she saw one of the other teams’ first years running to get brooms. That wouldn’t work either unless they all cast some sort of speed charm on the broom since flying a broom didn’t really count as magic. “What can everybody do spell wise, maybe we start there?”

Leading a challenge team was different than leading a Quidditch team. There was spellwork involved here whereas in Quidditch everyone knew how to play their position quite well and she was just there to run drills and encourage. It was different, still, from being a prefect which entailed other sorts of duties. She felt kind of out of place running the team and hoped that it didn’t show too much. On top of that, the whole Christmas-y theme was bringing down her mood. She looked to Leonidas, wondering if her fellow sixth year had any input.

OOC: Mentions of Atlas okayed by his author.

10 Liliana Bannister Team 6! 274 Liliana Bannister 0 5

Leo Princeton & John Spencer

December 16, 2015 6:37 PM

Calling Team 10. by Leo Princeton & John Spencer

Leo had initially been very surprised upon seeing his name at the top of the list in Cascade. He wasn't exactly a team player or a strong leader like his brothers, something he was certain the professors already knew. However, it didn't look like he could quietly resign so Leo gathered his team for one brief meeting before the challenges took place.

The last time there were challenges like these at Sonora, Leo had hardly played a part in it. Acting like he was an incompetent wizard allowed him to skip out on some work whilst the older wizards took care of it for him. In this case, Leo couldn't let the fifth years or first years make him look bad like that. It was one thing for older wizards to take responsibility, but not younger wizards and witches. These challenges were ridiculous; inter-house unity was already a large part of the culture at Sonora. Not all of the students were incredibly competitive, at least from what he could see, which was, he supposed, part of the fun. Leo just didn't understand why students needed to be forced into these things. He would have much preferred going to a normal magical school, one where magical creatures didn't post strange sayings and professors didn't create new ways to force their students to get on. No one really got on with Leo Princeton any way.

On the pitch, Leo saw his cousin, a wizard he'd hardly spoken to in previous years. Jack was a third year now and slightly more high-strung in comparison to Leo. Jack tilted his head towards him in greeting.

"How be, mate?" he said. "You're late."

"Only by a couple of minutes," replied Leo as he turned to see if his other team-mates had arrived.

Once Professor Pye had explained their ridiculous quest to transfer gifts across the river, Leo turned to his team-mates. "So what sorts of spells can you all do?" he asked, feeling rather competent in this crowd. "Any ideas that might help?"

Jack raised his hand. "Why don't we create a line and pass the gifts along by levitating them? Do we all have to perform a different spell at once? The last person in the line can levitate it safely to the other side."

Leo didn't know his cousin very well, but he had to admit he had brains. "Well? What does everyone think? Any better ideas?"

0 Leo Princeton & John Spencer Calling Team 10. 0 Leo Princeton & John Spencer 0 5

Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

December 17, 2015 7:19 AM

Team six, full of tricks by Ingrid Wolseithcrafte

Ingrid felt duty bound to approach anything that involved the cancellation of a Quidditch with a bit of skepticism and dislike. However, once these token moanings and groanings for the loss of her favourite sport were over, she was actually rather intrigued by the challenges. She remembered Francesca talking about them in her first year, and it had been on the list of reasons she was excited to go to Sonora. She’d been very disappointed to learn they had been a one off thing, and she had no guarantee of similar fun. But now, someone had decided to give them another go! Even better, her team captain was Liliana, who was her total idol. She was also already an experienced leader from being assistant captain at Quidditch (which she did an awesome job with) as well as just being really cool. Ingrid had been sure to tell her how glad she was to be on her team, and that she was sure they would smush all the competition (but especially Theodore) into the ground. Theodore thought he was so smart but he was such a grump when it came to other people, and this whole thing was all about team-work. Ingrid was determined for a team she was on to come out on top against her brother. Beating him in Quidditch would have to wait for next year but this would do very nicely for now. Plus, there was an established history of the youngest Wolseithcrafte in the school being on the winning team, so Ingrid felt that luck, as well as the relative skill of the captains, was on their side.

She was hyped about the first challenge being on the Quidditch Pitch, and had focussed more on that aspect than the advice to bring wands and problem solving equipment. She had followed the direction to do so, but hadn’t really connected the dots that that might mean they weren’t doing an obstacle course of some kind. They were on the pitch. The pitch meant flying. Her jaw dropped when Pye revealed a load of presents and sleighs, and began a long list of painful sounding rules to make them work as hard as possible to get them over.

She tried to hide her disappoint as Liliana rallied them but it was hard to feel like she could be at all useful - let alone anywhere close to as useful as she would have been on a broom. The most recent thing she’d learnt was how to give one of her team-mates a snotty nose, which she really didn’t think would help the general effort. Had it been anyone else, she might have resorted to sullen or sarcastic remarks of this kind, but she was not going to give attitude to Liliana. Instead, she tried to think hard about what she actually could do. Her mother always said that thoughtful application was nine-tenths of good magic. Ingrid had always been of the opinion that that saying was a cauldron of rubbish, but she tried to take it to heart now. It didn’t help as she watched one of the first years jailbreak the shed, and get what she wanted. If only she’d thought of that first…. Although, getting the broom and flying it didn’t have to be achieved by the same person. This was all about being a team after all.

“Well…. I can’t summon, but I’m guessing some of you older ones can. That could get us a broom now someone’s been kind enough to open the door, and then I’d be more than happy to fly it. I can shrink things. So I could make something pocket sized to help me bring it over.” Honestly, she thought she could handle balancing most boxes on her broom, at least for a distance this short. “It’d probably have to be something pretty big though, to count as me actually doing useful magic rather than just a spell for the sake of it. Or I can enlarge things, but I don’t see how that helps. Unless someone brought something that it’d be useful to have bigger?”

13 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte Team six, full of tricks 322 Ingrid Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Clark Dill

December 17, 2015 9:02 PM

Team Twelve, I have an idea! by Clark Dill

When he'd first seen the announcement about the challenges, Clark had experienced a number of concurrent and somewhat contradictory emotions. The most prevalent of them was excitement for something new to interest him and further distract the rest of the school from any otherworldly Satori messages that may or may not have been observed before Clark destroyed it with extreme prejudice. The second was a confusing mix of relief and disappointment that Quidditch matches were cancelled for the year. Relief because not needing to defend his title meant one less thing to worry about during his CATS year. Disappointment, obviously, because it was his first year as the Assistant Captain and he did enjoy the games.

As for the specific members of his challenge team, he was both relieved Oliver was not among them and disappointed that John was assigned elsewhere. He felt likewise regarding the Westleys - mildly glad Olivier was absent but sad Lena was as well. Even Theodore or Leonidas would have been welcome companions but they, too, were on different teams. So, overall, with no close connections to any of the names grouped with his own, Clark mostly felt indifferent to his team assignment. Though, as he had no quarrel with any of them and he was generally a sociable person, he was hopeful they'd come together as the year and the challenges progressed.

Isaac had been listed first and was the team's only Advanced student, so Clark tried not to get over excited and accidentally steal the leadership role from the Crotalus boy - which hadn't been too hard up until Professor Pye started explaining the first challenge, but as the DADA teacher wrapped up, Clark was barely restraining himself from bouncing on his heels and he had to bite his lower lip to keep from blurting out his ideas.

His first thought, of course, was to just get everyone to help bring over the sleigh - ideally flying it behind eight tiny reindeer - but that idea went right out the window when the magic words 'bonus points' came up in regards to bringing over the sleigh separate from the gifts. Maybe it was an Aladren thing, or perhaps just a Dill thing, but Clark simply could not, in good conscience, ignore the opportunity for extra credit.

Eh, they could still use the reindeer to get the sleigh across even if it was empty.

He took out his notebook and pencil - they'd been told to bring problem solving items, and Clark liked to solve problems with math so the paper and writing utensil had been packed up for the day's challenge even before his wand had been. Aware of time ticking down and timeliness being one of the factors they were graded on, he wrote out everybody's name on the first blank sheet.

Across from the names he began writing some obvious spells they would probably need to complete the challenge. With a little luck, there would be enough that even the little first years knew how to do at least one of them.

Freezing charm - create bridge to other side
Warming charm - melt ice holding sleigh
Accio - summon over the gifts
Wingardium leviosa - lift gifts out of sleigh so summoners can see them

The writing had helped organize his thoughts and had distracted him from overrunning any opening remarks Isaac might have wanted to make to his team. "I've got a plan," he said, hoping he hadn't interrupted their fearless leader, but time was of the essence here.

"First we pair of our beginners with two intermediates who know how to cast the summoning charm." He waited to see if there were volunteers with that skill. "Then we get the beginners over to the other side, probably by freezing an ice bridge. Me or Isaac or both of us could do that," he suggested with a glance to Isaac to see if he wanted that job. "The beginners use wingarium leviosa to lift up the presents so their partner can see what they need to summon back to this side. Meanwhile, someone else can be working on freeing the sleigh from the ice. Then, once the gifts are all back, we load up everyone who crossed the river into the sleigh and ..." he pause dramatically and grinned in pride at his crowning glory to the plan, "me and Isaac transfigure eight reindeer to fly us back across!"

As he was still only an intermediate -albeit one in his fifth year and a talented Aladren to boot - his inanimate to animate transfigurations were not quite up to flying reindeer standards, but he was sure he could handle a normal deer with a flying charm on it, and that should be close enough.

Quite pleased with himself, he tapped his pencil against his notebook and asked cheerfully, "Okay, who can do what and does anybody have any other ideas or suggestions?"

1 Clark Dill Team Twelve, I have an idea! 277 Clark Dill 0 5

John Umland

December 18, 2015 1:58 PM

Let us go forth and conquer, Team Three. by John Umland

Problem solving sundries was a broad statement, and John had seen fit to give it a broad response. Thinking practically, or at least in terms of the outdoorsy youth organization he had belonged to before school, he had brought his wand, enough paper and pens for everyone, enough oatmeal-and-fruit bars for everyone to have two (he had no idea how long they would be here or what they would be asked to do, and taking a break for a snack and some tea was often a good way to actually speed up the problem-solving process even under ideal conditions), and, lacking access to the real things, a long walking stick and a length of rope which had only begun the rope-and-walking-stick-resembling chapters of their lives in his room about an hour before he had to report for the first challenge. Thinking just to make a point, he had also brought along a few small mirrors, his magnifying glass, several potion vials and other jars, small portions of the most common things in his Potions kit, his Latin desk dictionary, a book to read if he got bored, and all the old newspapers he could get his hands on for use either as base materials for Transfiguration or as reading material for his associates if they got bored.

These things were, except for the long stick, packed into two bags, one over each shoulder. It felt all wrong to go to the Pitch without his bat, but other than that, he thought he was as prepared as he could reasonably be under the circumstances and could therefore approach the unknown with some confidence, even though the circumstances weren’t ideal.

When he had seen the names surrounding his on the Cascade Hall list, John’s first response, after careful consideration, had been to swear under his breath. Emery and Lauren he was largely neutral toward, his only objection to them was that they weren’t among the people he was already comfortable working closely with, but Park was someone he neither knew nor wanted to know, Leithan was Joe’s roommate, and then there was her - Emilia-Louise Scott. Oh, how he had not wanted to see her name on his list. She was going to drive him mad, he knew it. Maybe he deserved it after the way he’d treated her last year, but that didn’t make the prospect any more appealing. From everything his sister Julian had ever told him about Teppenpaw, he thought he might be less worried about the possibility of offending or antagonizing Arthur than he was of trying to carry on coherent conversations with Emmy-Lou again. Teppenpaws were a serene, unflappable, fair-minded lot, not the sorts to hold a man's older brother against him too much. Emmy-Lou was harder to deal with to than – than John thought he was!

With three people he was wary of and two he’d just rather were other people (he was suddenly very aware of the extent to which the Quidditch team was his social life and felt so cut off and adrift from his comfort zone that he would have almost welcomed Scarlett Brockert, who he at least knew he could have fun arguing with, to the team), he knew being prepared was more important than his old scoutmasters could have ever guessed. They had been primarily concerned with his ability to survive in the wilderness and act as a good citizen of Canada when he was in contact with civilization. Now, mostly because of Park and Scott, his pride was on the line.

He perked up a bit when Pye said the theme of the challenge was water (some of the first magic John could remember performing had involved water – he had, in a moment of stress, frozen the contents of a kettle as they came to a boil – and one of the first things he’d taught himself to do at school was heat up water for tea, so water was good), but his momentary smile faded into puzzlement at the idea of putting a ‘festive’ twist on it (what, icicles, big snowflakes? Did they really need six people to make icicles? Were they going to get to use magic to create steam-powered train sets?) and then faded into irritation as the task itself was finally disclosed, albeit irritation laced with interest in all the magic which had gone into the task. It was impressive enough, the display, but the task itself had nothing to do with water. It had to do with one of Father Christmas’ reindeer flying the coop inconveniently close to water.

He put his bags down, not concerned about theft – he had figured out how to make his closable possessions repel others who attempted to open them with mild jinxes last year during the Satori thing, though the squeak he thought he’d heard last week in a pair of shoes he’d charmed so they made no sound while trying to figure out what skills the spy must have had reminded him that he might need to boost everything a bit – and eyed the sleigh dubiously.

“I can make a bridge,” he offered. “That isn’t ice on top, that is. That way, if we do drop something, technically it doesn’t touch water in any of its forms, except, you know, humidity in the air.” Exact words were important when dealing with authority figures. He’d use ice as a base, then cover it, like putting a carpet over a floor – he could transfigure the improvised staff or some of the newspaper for that. Then they could also just slide the sleigh over something similar to linoleum if his first idea, Transfiguring it into something smaller and carrying it across, didn’t work. He knew he’d never turned something that large into…anything, actually, much less something small like a pebble, and doubted from Julian’s experiences if the Advanced class did it often, so there was a good chance that playing lawyer might be the best solution. He wanted to at least try the Transfiguration just to see if he could (Emery would probably have to do the untransfiguration if it worked), but he definitely saw ‘transfigure the sleigh’ as a plan in need of a back-up plan. “Ah – Arthur and Emmy-Lou could work on the ice, or covering - " he thought, on second thought, that would be the simpler task - "depending on what you're comfortable with, and then go carry some presents while the rest of us Summon more?” Having a non-slippery way for the youngest ones to run across and carry presents back over manually would definitely decrease the amount of time involved in moving the presents over since it would be dicey to Summon multiple presents at once without dropping some and possibly damaging them, so John was prepared to argue that their contribution would be essential enough to meet the participation parameters. “Then we – “ this with a gesture which included Emery and, reluctantly, Jamie Park; Quidditch rivalries aside, the older boy’s conduct on the Pitch had given John a decidedly low opinion of him – “tackle the sleigh.” A thought occurred to him. "Unless someone else has a better idea," he added.

16 John Umland Let us go forth and conquer, Team Three. 285 John Umland 0 5

Isaac Douglas

December 18, 2015 3:21 PM

I have a healthy amount of paranoia... by Isaac Douglas

As he reviewed his troops before the first challenge, Isaac couldn’t help but feel something, a sensation so alien that it took him a moment to correctly identify it as real pride. He, Isaac, had been chosen to lead a team, and not just by default. Well, sort of, anyway – there weren’t enough seventh years for everyone to have one, but not all sixth years had their own teams. They could have made him number two to someone else, but they hadn’t. They’d chosen him to be the boss.

They hadn’t even given him too bad of a team, either. Okay, so two first years was rotten luck, but to balance them out, he’d gotten Clark Dill. In the outside world, of course, Dill was nobody, but the rules were different at Sonora, and here, Dill’s skills and the colors on his House badge meant he received more respect than his name warranted. Isaac had been surprised to get him, enough that he'd initially tried thinking his way through the convoluted mess of relationships Aladren Quidditch had inflicted on society over the years to see if there was a reason for it before he dismissed the idea of it meaning anything significant. Most likely the staff had felt a bit bad about giving him two first years and had so given him a good fifth year to make up for it.

However it had happened, he was glad it had. Right up, that was, until the moment that Dill, who he’d assumed the Careys and Francesca Wolseithcrafte and Leonidas Bennett had taught his place in the world, interrupted his opening remarks ("All right, everyone. If you could each - one at a time, please - tell me a spell you know that you think could help") and seized control of everything right out from under him.

He had known, of course, that this might happen. His older sister Alicia had written home about how she and her gang had turned on their sixth and seventh year masters within an hour of the team notices being posted the last time the school had been forced into this ridiculous exercise. Aladrens were like that, after all – a greedy batch of second sons, brainy girls, and nobodies who wanted to rise above their stations, a vulgar, grasping lot with no loyalty to anyone or anything but themselves. Dill, though, had always looked so harmless – he had no money, no friends of note, wasn’t a pretty girl – he had no chance of ever achieving anything. So why….

He bit his tongue to keep from actually asking if someone had put Dill up to this or if it was his own idea. Bennett could have put him up to it, hoping to discredit the easiest sixth year leader to discredit since Bennett hadn’t gotten a team of his own, but Dill could also have just done it because he wanted to. Isaac had gathered that they treated him with kid gloves in Aladren because they didn’t have anyone else to play Seeker for their precious team, so it was possible he had missed the memo about his social standing. It didn’t really matter now, anyway. The important thing now was figuring out how to respond.

“For the most part that’s not bad - ah - Clark,” he said when the fifth year graciously opened the floor to comment. He could not actually say it was a bad plan without it being obvious he was squabbling over status with a fifth year half-blood, because it wasn’t. It neatly incorporated everyone and got the thing done quickly. “I don’t know about the last step, though. I admire your ambition, I do, but we don’t get any points if the sleigh crashes halfway over. Do you really think you’re up to that level of Transfiguration?”

16 Isaac Douglas I have a healthy amount of paranoia... 273 Isaac Douglas 0 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte

December 20, 2015 1:30 AM

Figuring it out for Team 14 by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Theodore had never aspired to be much of a leader. Whilst his parents loved the power of politics, and his two older siblings were going to be taking the stand as lawyers, he had always pictured himself tucked away in a library somewhere, making his point with his quill, rather than his voice, and probably in such an obscure branch of theoretical magic that he was unlikely to have a wide audience. Those who did read him would be looking for pure logic, not persuasive argument or - Merlin save him from any branch of academia that sold itself on the trait - personality. His life’s goal was to prove facts, not to win supporters. Francesca had recognised this in passing him over for assistant Quidditch captain - for which he was eternally grateful - and although the staff had chosen to award him prefect, he felt that was more a reflection of his steady and reliable characteristics (something his stomach twisted with guilt to think about when he thought of the uses he’d put some of his patrolling time with Liliana to) rather than his ability to be a warm and approachable figure for the younger years.

In spite of not ever having set out to be a leader, he wanted his team to do well. He thought his ability to think logically would be a good quality, and for all it wasn’t something he strove for, people like him were the leaders in this world, and he was bound to have more natural skill at it than people who had come from the serving classes. He didn’t think he cared much about the overall winning of the thing, so long as he bested Liliana. She was somewhat capable of leadership, in that she was friendly and outgoing, people warmed to her easily and she seemed to enjoy their attention. But she was slapdash at best, and only proved herself intelligent on sporadic occasions. He wanted the challenges to prove that thorough and methodical thinking would always win out against just being pleased with the sound of one’s own voice. That, and he didn’t want her to have something to rub in his face when this was all over.

The first challenge pleased him. He could have done without all the silly dressing it up as festive cheer, but it was at heart a solid spellwork contest with more than a pinch of logic and problem solving brought in. Alongside his wand, he’d brought a backpack containing quill and paper to make notes, and various objects that he used to practise Transfigurations on, such as coat hangers and old chipped crockery. The first problem, before they moved any of the parcels, was having somewhere to put them down again. As a sixth year, he was only just starting to work on conjuring, and wasn’t confident he could make something that big that was guaranteed to last until they were done. Instead, he emptied out the contents of his bag, laying it on the ground. He was about to cast an ‘engorgio’ on it, when he remembered that they were all supposed to help, and that was one of the easier spells.

“One of you should make that bigger using ‘engorgio,’” he instructed the beginners, “As that’s one of the more basic spells we’ll be using today. Then we can put the presents in it once we get them across.” He thought it was perfectly clear why that was necessary, as Professor Pye had stated in the rules that the presents were not allowed to touch the ground. In fact, pointing out what the bag was for was an over-explanation as far as he was concerned, but you had to make concessions for the little ones. He returned his attention to the rest of the puzzle. Reaching out and asking for others’ opinions was not something Theodore was naturally good at. He had just about got the hang of pair work in classes but that followed a fairly rigid script most of the time. Collaborative problem solving was totally alien to him. When he had a problem, be it academic or personal, he preferred to sit quietly and think it through, in order to be quite certain of his own answer to it before venturing into a conversation with someone else - otherwise one got turned around, having to rearrange their ideas as they went. One could end up contradicting oneself, which was embarrassing, and it made the whole interaction much longer than it needed to be. It was much better if both parties went in with a firm idea of what they felt and how to articulate it. A trusted person such as Francesca might be used as a sounding board if he was truly stuck but generally solving a problem was something he felt was best done in the privacy of one’s own head. Having been appointed leader of a group, he felt safe to do that now. The responsibility, it seemed to him, was to work out the answer and then delegate. The majority of his team were from respectable families, and he would give due attention to anything they had to say - especially the older students. But reaching out and making it a discussion weren’t his primary ways of dealing with any situation.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte Figuring it out for Team 14 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Chloe Jareau

December 22, 2015 8:02 PM

Let's just do this now. (Team 13) by Chloe Jareau

After going home for the funeral of her biological mother, Chloe wasn’t really in the mood to lead a team of misfits into winning challenges against her classmates. After spending close to a week at home dealing with the funeral and trying to understand the emotions she had been tormented with, Chloe really didn’t want to deal with much of anything. She had met the Pembrokes for the first time at the funeral. She had hoped that they would be vile humans who felt themselves above everyone the way that Chloe was accustomed to thinking of her biological family, but they weren’t. They were ordinary people who were grieving for their daughter. Chloe found out she had an uncle. He was only a few years older than her, unmarried, etc. He hadn’t cared much to get to know her, but things must have been equally as strange for him as it was for her.

When the funeral had ended, Chloe had spent the afternoon with all of them and with her father. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it felt necessary. During their time together, Chloe admitted to the possibility of siblings. The news surprised everyone, but the Pembrokes seemed determined to find out if it was true or not. It was sad that they had to go through all of this. Chloe felt disconnected from it despite being the center of it. She was numb and alone. She didn’t have Emery to help her and Ayita was working. Her parents tried, but it was too hard to face them sometimes. Travis had football keeping him busy. That had left Ben, her ex-boyfriend. He came to see her while she was home. He held her hand, hugged her, let her cry on his shoulder. His warmth and kindness was all she needed, but she had wanted more.

It was like a craving.

He had been her first. It had not been what she was expecting it to be, but Ben had been gentle and sweet. She had loved being with someone, someone wanting to be with her, instead of just being looked over for someone else. Afterward, Chloe had cried in her bed, alone. There was no going back.

Returning to school had been a nightmare and it was probably her fault, but she didn’t have the strength to really deal with it anymore.

But that was then and this was now. Standing in the Quidditch Pitch, Chloe tried to get excited for the first challenge. Her first year here, Chloe had talked at great length about the challenges to Malcolm, he had done them in his first year. She was so jealous about it. When her mother had talked about the school getting together to do it, Chloe had wanted all that team comradery too. Now she had it and she just didn’t care.

“Okay.” Chloe started, facing her team. “Let’s do a rundown of what spells we will probably need and see what you are all comfortable with actually performing.” She was with a group of young Intermediates and Beginners, their magic was going to be limited and that would lead to complications if the challenges ended up being more difficult. “We’ll need the obvious ones like the enlarging and shrinking charms, the freezing and heating charms, and the summoning charm.” Chloe listed as she thought about each step of the challenge. “Can anyone think of anything else or have ideas on how to get the sleigh and presents across?” Even though she was the oldest and probably deemed the ‘Leader’, she had no issue with working more as a team with their input than as a dictator.

6 Chloe Jareau Let's just do this now. (Team 13) 267 Chloe Jareau 0 5

Chaslyn Brockert

December 23, 2015 6:03 PM

How can I help? by Chaslyn Brockert

Chaslyn felt absolutely anxious about the Challenges. Amity had done them when she'd been in school, and her team hadn't placed very well so Mother had been not very happy with her. Not that she ever was but this was another thing that had been deemed a failure by Amity in Mother's eyes. Despite her sister blaming some of her teammates as being incompetent and useless and Mother agreeing based on the girls' backgrounds, Mother had still not accepted it as an excuse, saying that only should have made Amity work harder to compensate for how worthless they were.

She knew what that meant for herself, that meant if her teammates were deficient in some way, she had to pick up the slack. There was no way Chaslyn could lose this competition. She'd lost so many before in her life and she knew what happened. Being berated in some way.Especially with Amity not around to get most of the fury directed towards her. Chaslyn felt guilty over it, but the Mother had been angerier at her sister had always meant she didn't get yelled at as much which was a little bit of relief even though she didn't like the tension at all, as it had always given her stomach aches because it meant Mother wasn't mad at her . However since Amity had ran away to live with Uncle Robert and Aunt Alice and then grown up and got married, Chaslyn had been her mother's sole focus. It was her job to meet Mother's standards and she always always managed to fall short.

So her team had to win. It would be all her fault if they didn't. And she was already so tired and stressed out with just regular schoolwork and keeping up with her activities both in and out of school and studying for CATS. Chaslyn had taken sure to prepare Endurance Potion and take a dose this morning. She didn't want to cheat, she just wanted to have the stamina to get through the day. The Crotalus had been up quite late studying last night. If her CATS weren't perfect, she'd be in for it.

Chaslyn had also made sure to take the Draught of Peace to help calm her quaking stomach. It was the only way she could prevent herself from comitting the very disgusting and unladylike act of throwing up. She'd done her best to eat a good breakfast this morning, but it wasn't easy. She was hungry a lot and it was hard not to devour everything in sight but that was just slightly more ladylike than throwing up would be. It was hard to get much to eat when you had to be proper and had so much to do and do well. Same with sleep. There often seemed to be no time for it. Endurance Potion wasn't about having an unfair advantage to her, it was about survival .

She watched and listened patiently as Theodore Wolseithcrafte empty his bag and ask one of the younger students to enlarge it. He did not, however, give Chaslyn or Aiden any instructions. "Is there anything in particular you would like me to do?" Chaslyn asked. She knew she should have taken a more leading role, but Theodore was from a good family and she didn't want to offend him by overstepping her bounds when he was clearly the oldest and meant to be a leader and was seemingly perfectly intelligent and competent. Besides, while Brockerts-and probably all purebloods from their social class-were good at delegating and ordering others around-all that practice with house-elves-Chaslyn was generally better at following orders. She'd been doing it all her life.

11 Chaslyn Brockert How can I help? 281 Chaslyn Brockert 0 5

Scarlett Brockert

December 26, 2015 12:59 PM

Team five,look alive! by Scarlett Brockert

Scarlett was excited about the challenges. Like many Pecaris she was always up for new things and this sounded like a lot of fun! She knew it was something her older cousins had done way back and Ryan and Arabella at least seemed to have had a good time. Amity hadn't but she didn't like to do anything more than necessary and Scarlett didn't know or care about Carrie's opinion-other than she knew that her older cousin had had to go through the mud-which presumably Carrie did not enjoy and Arabella had very much enjoyed Carrie not enjoying.

She was with a bunch of people that she didn't really know either, but she was okay with that, Scarlett liked meeting people. She'd been in classes with Gia Donovan and Barnaby Pye though the latter didn't seem the most pleasant and was related to her arch-enemy Professor Pye. Related to didn't meant the same, but the Pecari didn't see Barnaby as being any closer to being a sweet yummy treat than his relative was. The elder Pye-loathe as she was to admit it to herself-was at least pleasing to look at. Gia, on the other hand, seemed to be a perfectly all right person from Scarlett's limited impressions of her. Of course, she could be wrong about both of them. She was sure she was going to know by the end of the year.

Same with the rest of them whom thus far seemed all right.Fabian thought Louis Valois was stuffy, but he didn't like Aladrens other than his dad, Aunt Jana and Amity anyway. Basically because he had the impression of most of them as stuffy aside from those three. Scarlett didn't necessarily feel the way about the whole house that her younger cousin did. Clark Dill, for example, seemed like a perfectly nice person. She'd never really talked to him but Savannah had worked with him and she thought he was and of course, her twin's judgement was good enough for Scarlett.

The fourth year rushed to the pitch in order to make it on time. She'd gotten up a little later than planned this morning but still had managed to take a quick shower and eat a good breakfast. It's just that her omelet had tasted so good that she'd wanted to savor it so that had taken Scarlett a little longer too. And she'd decided she wanted another one too. Which unfortunately she'd had less time to savor, but still managed to eat like a lady and not a pig. Those two reasons however were why she'd had little time to do much other than grab her wand and grab some random stuff off her dresser and pick a few items up that had fallen near by it. Scarlett had never been the neatest person in the world-who learned to get down and clean when you had house elves and could some day use magic to clean if you didn't- and didn't even know what she'd managed to grab, but whatever it was, it could all surely be charmed and transfigured.

Fortunately she arrived a few minutes before Professor Pye began to speak. Scarlett had to admit that he was really really hot, a thought that rather confused her. It had nothing to with his lack of appropriateness-inappropriate because of his age and status as her teacher, not in the sense of not being from a good family-but because she'd always really disliked him for his harsh in-class demeanor and giving daily quizzes.

Then again, the quizzes were basically always the same and he didn't give homework and other lessons she disliked could be dismissed as being part of the general coursework of the class rather than the person teaching it.

And he was an utterly gorgeous specimen of man. A sweet yummy treat for the eyes.

Scarlett shook off her thoughts and turned to her teammates. "So how do we do this? I got all sorts of things that can be charmed and transfigured to help?" She dug her hands into her pockets. "Hm, let's see....a ribbon, a barrette...here's a sock. I suppose we could enlarge that and use it as a bag? Okay, a necklace, something that came off one of my earrings....the rest of the earring..." She continued to dig. "Unic-well, I guess it's a horse statue now.Oh and it's horn. And a bit of lint."

11 Scarlett Brockert Team five,look alive! 293 Scarlett Brockert 0 5

Jemima Wolseithcrafte

December 27, 2015 12:43 AM

That would seem the right time to do it by Jemima Wolseithcrafte

Jemima wasn’t sure what to make of the challenges. Working as a team sounded nice, especially as she got to be with Owen, but she wasn’t a naturally competitive person. Ingrid and Theodore were though, and she knew that for the coming months she’d have to put up with them getting at each other - whoever was in the lead lording it over the other, and whoever wasn’t being snippy and grumpy. And, in Ingrid’s case, pushing Jemima to take her side. It was all the Quidditch issues, just repackaged in a different format. She was glad that most of her friends weren’t silly enough to let this sort of thing come between, although as Ginger played Quidditch she did worry whether it might become a bone of contention. She’d been sure to wish both her room-mates and Andrew very best of luck when she’d seen them that morning to try to make it clear where she stood on the matter.

She arrived promptly to the pitch, wondering whether there was a flying task in store for them. She was very relieved when a fun and festive challenge was revealed instead. Although as their team captain spoke she began to get a little bit nervous. Being a third year was a rather awkward position in this challenge… She knew a bit about some of the spells Chloe was talking about, they’d done freezing and summoning as intermediates. But, as the bottom of that age bracket, she wasn’t really confident on doing them for big things, or over long distances. However, the spells she felt better about she clearly had to leave for the first years.

“We did gripping charms when we studied the freezing charm,” she added, when Chloe asked for ideas. “I’m… um… not sure I could freeze something as big as this, but maybe you could, and then I - or we -” she added, gesturing to include Owen, “Could use gripping Charms to help people get across. Then we could have a look at the presents, and pick out ones that were the right size for different people to work with, or get the beginner students to resize them. And that would help because I don’t think I could just pick the top one off from here because I might hit one that’s lower down and knock things over, or it might be too big and heavy and I’d drop it but if, for example, Owen was standing an arm’s length from the sleigh, with a small present, I could summon that.”

Jemima felt pretty pleased on the whole with her plan. Some other teams had two advanced students in, and she had started out worrying over how they were going to match up to what the other teams could do. Even though there was a lot they couldn’t do still, she felt she’d found a good way that they could use the skills they did have - and this challenge seemed to be about creative thinking rather than just brute magical force - so things were seeming considerably better in her eyes. She smiled at Chloe, hoping she’d be pleased with what they could offer.

13 Jemima Wolseithcrafte That would seem the right time to do it 304 Jemima Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Joe Umland

December 27, 2015 1:31 PM

Let's get creative, Fifteens. by Joe Umland

At breakfast, Joe had stopped beside the Aladren table for a moment on the way over to his own. “My team’s going to wipe the floor with yours,” he’d informed his older brother.

John had looked up, blinked a few times as he returned from wherever his mind had been and whatever he’d been doodling with one finger in the ring of condensation left behind by a glass of orange juice, and then smiled at him. “Optimistic, but incorrect,” said John. “I’m going to wipe the floor with your team single-handedly before you can even get started.” John stabbed the yolk of an egg with his fork, illustrating his point about as effectively as Joe thought could be easily done with the dull, healthy contents of his plate. To be the second-most (after Joe, of course) adventurous person in the family about food in general, he had extremely boring taste in breakfasts.

“Dream on, brother,” said Joe cheerily.

Translation: ”Good luck!” “Eh – yeah, thanks – you too, Joe.”

He’d wished the other first year Teppenpaws good luck, too, though in a more traditional form than he had used with his brother, and grinned at his teammates as they gathered on the Pitch for the first challenge. He wasn’t really comfortable with them, but John had said the best way to handle them was to act confident, so he was going to go with that. Taking social advice from John felt extremely weird, but it made sense and seemed to have actually had results for John in his House and Joe didn’t have any better ideas, so enthusiastic confidence it was.

Joe stared a little, impressed, when Professor Pye raised the spells concealing what the Quidditch Pitch had become, but quickly started thinking instead, biting his lower lip as he did so. Quick, creative, and resourceful, that was the key. He guessed the key to the…lock between his team and the key (because a key couldn’t have a key, that was just silly) was ‘what are our resources’ and ‘what kind of creativity does Professor Pye like?’

Joe had only brought his wand, assuming the ‘problem solving sundries’ part of the announcement was a trap which would just be used to make the task more difficult - he’d imagined being told they had to use everything they brought or something like that and had winced when he saw his brother carrying what looked like enough supplies for a weekend camp-out. He assumed at least some of the others lacked nasty, suspicious little minds like his, but magic, water, dirt, grass, the clothes they could remove without being indecent, and their own bodies were the resources they could be sure of, and Joe was sure something could be strung together from all that if it turned out the whole team really had thought along the same lines Joe had. Pye’s preferences were a little harder to guess - the professors were distant figures, which made it hard to get a good read on them and know exactly what each of them wanted to see - but considering their lessons, the hooks in this challenge, and his status as the team dad of a group John liked belonging to, Joe felt safe guessing Pye would be comfortable with ‘bold’ creative rather than ‘pretty’ creative….

“Ooh,” he said. “May I - say something?” Joe was used to framing things he wanted to say for the benefit of people who thought he was too young to talk to like an actual person; kind of annoying, but fighting for a little respect didn’t seem to work often, so he was going to do something that usually had better results. “I was just thinking that everyone’s going to do ice bridges, so do we think we can do something else to get across? I think that might get us a lot of creativity points.”

16 Joe Umland Let's get creative, Fifteens. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Owen Brockert

December 27, 2015 7:17 PM

Indeed by Owen Brockert

Although Owen was absolutely ecstatic about being on the same team as Jemima, he wasn't too sure about the challenges generally speaking. First of all, he had no idea what exactly they were going to do and he was worried that he'd be asked to do something that he couldn't do, especially anything too physically taxing. At least he was with Jemima though, who understood and whom he was certain would stick by him no matter what. If there was one thing above all else that Owen was sure of it was their friendship.

He was not as sure about the rest of his teammates, he didn't know them as well, though he wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt as usual. It was just that Owen didn't want to hold them back in any way. He wasn't an especially competitive person himself-and he knew Jemima wasn't either- but he didn't want to let anyone down. Didn't want to be the reason they were upset. Owen was just going to try to the best he could, though.

Ultimately however, winning was not that important and it was just a game. He'd never really understood the need people had to be better than others. Maybe because he didn't have anyone he could consider a rival,which Owen was very happy about, based on the fact that he really didn't want that. The Teppenpaw just wanted everyone to get along and so the last thing he wanted was to be constantly at odds with someone else. Rivalry was a concept he didn't quite even get beyond that. Hopefully, nobody else on his team was particularly out to beat anyone on another either.

Or maybe it was because Owen's main talent in life, what he wanted to spend the rest of his life doing, was writing. While he would love to be successful at it, it was because he wanted to share his gifts with people for their own enjoyment. It was something he loved that he could do and make people happy. The third year didn't plan to write anything sad or controversial. Still, it wasn't something that others couldn't do too. Owen didn't need to be better than anyone, because everyone had different opinions on their favorite writers.

He listened to Professor Pye give instructions and then faced his teammates. "That's a really good idea." Owen replied to Jemima's suggestion,giving her an encouraging smile. He really loved the idea of working closely with her whether it was in these challenges or in class or as a writing and illustrating team. "We also need something to put the gifts in since they aren't supposed to touch the ground. We could transfigure and enlarge something. If nobody brought anything maybe something could be fashioned out of snow and turned into a container?" He suggested, not really thinking his idea was nearly as clever as Jemima's. Owen was better at writing and fantastical solutions to fictional problems than problem solving things in real life. Fantasy just allowed for so much more leeway. When you wrote something, you got to set what worked and what didn't and that wasn't the case in real life.

11 Owen Brockert Indeed 300 Owen Brockert 0 5

Ava Fletcher

December 27, 2015 7:27 PM

One, one, one...let's play for fun! by Ava Fletcher

Challenges? When Ava first heard the idea she adverse to the situation. There would soon be even more division than there already was in that fragile group that had once been so tightly knit back when the only troubles plaguing them were outside forces of evil none of them could control. Granted, she thought the dispute over the head boy badge was a little ridiculous and completely out of their control, but she understood both sides of the debate to a certain extent. Certainly Arnold hadn’t gotten the badge to spite Emery nor had it been his fault, but Emery had needed it for his own personal reasons.

Besides, though she reserved a very special place in her heart for her green eyed friend, she did think that perhaps some of his behavior following the Opening Feast was slightly childish and not becoming at all for a leader. Had the faculty foreseen this type of behavior in him? Or had it simply been pureblood prejudice as Emery said it was. It wasn’t really for Ava to decide, but she kind of hoped it had been simply a twist of fate and that everyone had voted honestly and they simply saw some sort of leadership quality in Arnold for having started up his own club.

Nevertheless, she begrudgingly with a smile appeared for the first challenge, wearing jeans and a sweater neither of which had very deep pockets or had pockets at all, but carrying a colorful purse which she had filled with odds and ends—broken paintbrushes, empty paint tubes, old pieces of parchment, and empty charcoal boxes being among the items though since it was only the end of the first semester she hadn’t quite accumulated as many things as she would have liked.

In addition to the leftover bits of her art supply, she had decided that a pocket sized A to Z manual of useful spells would be nice and had also thought to bring along some blank parchment paper and self-inking quills in case there was some sort of riddle or other challenge that required them to eliminate possibilities. In the end, it was simply a task in which they had to move gifts from one side of a river to the other, something that Ava was certain wouldn’t take too long once they got started—and then one of the first years raced off and got started on unlocking the broom cupboard, bringing back with him several brooms.

“Wow, okay,” she said, pleased with the quick thinking of the younger year. “That certainly works.” Ava herself wasn’t a fan of heights and didn’t particularly want to fly over but if that’s what the rest of the group wanted to do, she didn’t really have a problem with it. She could simply stay on that side of the river and come up with some sort of long distance spell to cast or perhaps…she thought carefully.

Ava didn’t really care about winning per se—though the idea of it did sound nice she didn’t think she would mind if they weren’t the number one team but rather thought having fun and working together was the best way to do it. There was this fable, anyway, that her grandfather had always loved to tell her when she was growing up: “slow and steady wins the race,” she quipped quietly to herself as she thought over their options. As the eldest and the leader of the group she was bound to a certain amount of authority, but she had never felt comfortable being in a leadership role, likely due to spending most of her time with adults when she was a child, preferring to be the youngest member there amongst that intellectual community than going to the park with the children from elementary school who liked to taunt her for driving her mom away.

“Everyone does have to cast a spell though,” she said, raising her eyes to look at the pile of gifts on the other side and then back to look at Kyte, who was hovering above them in mid air. “Do you know the reducto spell?” she asked the eager first year, unsure if he had learned that yet, having learned that spell so long ago herself she felt as though she’d always known it even though she had grown up raised as a muggle despite being halfblood.

“Or rather,” she added thinking again of a spell that the younger years might know. “Since you’ve already cast alohomora, which of the rest of you know that one?” She supposed the very younger years could take the brooms over and use reducto to bring items back while the older years cast from their side of the river, complicating the challenge for them like how they were required to do in class. Or better yet… “Perhaps the younger years can take care of the presents and the older years can work with the sleigh? But then…” she trailed off again, remembering that Neveah couldn’t see making flying a broom not an option for her.

“How well can you transfigure, Neveah?” she asked the blind girl, hoping that with some encouragement she might be able to attempt changing one of the items in Ava’s purse into some sort of base for the presents to be dropped onto so they didn’t touch the ground as had been part of Professor Pye’s instructions.

10 Ava Fletcher One, one, one...let's play for fun! 258 Ava Fletcher 0 5

Gia Donovan

December 27, 2015 8:30 PM

Yes, let's not look dead. by Gia Donovan

Intermediate classes were a little more difficult than she had originally believed that it was going to be. She still enjoyed the classes and the challenges that they brought to her every day. It was just taking her a bit longer to process than it had before. Even with all the reading ahead she was doing, the actually spells and practicals were new for her and she struggled on a couple of them.

On top of that, they had these challenges. Gia wasn’t with any of her friends or with her brother. She didn’t like it at all because she was stuck with Barnaby. Why him of all people? Jax hadn’t been too happy about the team list either. He didn’t want Gia alone with his roommate because he didn’t trust him and Gia was tempted to believe him. She was usually quite friendly with people, but after Barnaby kept calling her names last year, she wasn’t a big fan of his. She would rather have Sammy with her or Laila or anyone else rather than the Aladren third year.

The good thing about her team, however, was that the Head Girl was on it. Gia wasn’t sure if Ji-Eun was their ‘leader’ since they had very little information to go on or if everyone was equal and she just happened to be the oldest one, but Gia liked having her on the team because she was supposed to be smart and respectable. She didn’t really know anyone else, but did recognize Louis and Scarlett from classes. She didn’t hear anything bad about them, so she was going to look at having them on her team in a positive light. Jax kept telling her that she needed to be more suspicious of people, but Gia didn’t see the point of that.

She made her way to the pitch with the rest of the school. Gia was nervous. She had no idea what the challenges were about and being only a third year worried her. What if she wasn’t able to assist in the challenges? She knew the spells but she wasn’t very quick on her feet just yet. And Gia wasn’t at all athletic. She had a small build, but that was about all she had. Jax was the athlete of the two of them. Gia really hoped she could be helpful.

This first challenge was provided by Professor Pye. Professor Pye was always nice. Sure his lessons and exams were strict, but since Gia did all her readings, she never really felt upset about the work. She wished the younger Pye was more like the older Pye. It would make being on his team a lot easier. The challenge in itself seemed doable, Gia just had to make sure she had the confidence to pull off whatever spell that she was given. She looked to the older students for guidance, but it was Scarlett who started talking.

She watched in awe as the older girl began to pull things from her pocket. Were girls supposed to be having items like those in their pockets? The burette, Gia could understand, she had tons of those to help hold her long black hair back, but a sock? Trying not to show her confusion over the items in Scarlett’s pocket. “Should we figure out a strategy before trying anything?” Gia asked. “What we should do and which spell each person will do, etcetera?”

6 Gia Donovan Yes, let's not look dead. 308 Gia Donovan 0 5

Ben Pierce

December 29, 2015 9:12 AM

Team Four, through the door by Ben Pierce

Ben was excited about the challenges - he was a competitive sort of person and enjoyed pretty much anything with the word 'challenge' associated with it- well, unless the word 'spelling' went along with it, too. He was pretty disappointed about the Quidditch season being cancelled though. He was able to look on the bright side of that, though; it meant he'd have a year's worth of training under his belt before he had to play in front of spectators, and should therefore avoid looking like a total beginner in front of the school since Quidditch was one of the few sports he didn't play at home.

His team looked pretty good, too, from what he knew of it. Joella and Atlas were both on the Pecari team with him so he knew them from practices, and Micah and Arne were both in his beginner classes, though he was pretty sure they were both second years. Ben himself was the only first year, he was pretty sure, which was a little intimidating, but also encouraging for the team's overall chances. If Ben was the weakest member of the team, they were in pretty good shape if he did say so himself.

He'd brought his wand along with him, as instructed, and for the problem solving equipment, he'd brought - well, okay, he'd brought sporting equipment more than problem solving equipment, but he was good with sports so that had to help, right? Anyway, he had a baseball bat, a pair of skis, a tennis racket, an seven pound bowling ball with a picture of Mickey Mouse carved into it (don't judge, he'd had it since he was six), and a pair of roller blades. He figured that ought to cover most problems they might run into.

As Professor Pye lifted the veil and revealed the nature of the first challenge, Ben felt a little mad at himself that he'd only brought one tennis racket (which could be used as snow shoes if you had a pair of them) and in-line skates instead of ice skates. At least the skis were the right season, but not terribly helpful without a mountain to go down.

Once the professor was done talking, Ben dumped out his sports bag, littering the ground around him with the things he'd brought, and lifted out the skates - the item he figured was closest to useful in this situation - and held them up for the rest of his group to see, "I think ice skates are close enough to roller blades that I could do that transfiguration," he suggested, "Would that be helpful at all?"

1 Ben Pierce Team Four, through the door 339 Ben Pierce 0 5

Laila Kennedy

December 29, 2015 5:24 PM

Answering the call to arms. by Laila Kennedy

Laila Kennedy had not been to church in weeks. Laila Kennedy had not been to church in five weeks, and she had not yet been smote by the wrath of God. At first she’d just had a head cold and hadn’t felt well enough to go down to the church and so had begged off from Professor Tallec. Of course, her mother had understood but recommended that she say the rosary five times anyway. Which, in her sick-addled mind she had forgotten to do. Then, the next week, she had overslept and then lied(!) to her mother saying that of course she had gone and that the homily was quite lovely but since she was still getting over her cold she couldn’t quite remember it other than having enjoyed it. The little white lies from the previous year and from over the summer had built her up for this and Leonora Kennedy had believed her usually truthful daughter.

It wasn’t out of intention that Laila had decided to start testing God, but it seemed sort of like a game to her. How long could she go without going to church, without praying before something bad happened to her? Could she get away with small fibs every now and then or nicking rolls from dinner for later to eat in bed? Mother had always told her eating in bed was a sin. And the longer it went on, the more daring she got. It was fun for her to see how far she could get away with things. She let her imagination wander and day dreamed in class about riding on the back of Conner Mill’s illicit motorbike, she wondered what it would be like to let Harvey touch her chest. Thinking those sorts of impure thoughts sent shivers down her back when nothing happened that remotely suggested she was being punished, after all when she was younger she had been made to go to confession even when she thought a bad thing even if the priest always told her that her actions were what really needed to be confessed.

She never told Arne, of course, since she knew he’d never let her hear the end of it if he found out she had been skipping her churchly duties as of late, but in avoiding him on Sunday mornings and telling him lies about having been to church and what the day’s homily had been one filled Laila with this strange sense of joy that she’d never had before. She was finding, rather quickly, that since she had such a young, innocent face with an equally innocent background, it was easy to lie. Especially to the Reinhardts who had known her as a good girl for most of her life. And on top of that, disobeying her mother, the church, and God was becoming quite addicting!

As she made her way from the Crotalus dorms to the Quiddich Pitch, she thought of the upcoming Christmas break and the things she thought she might like to try and do. There wasn’t a whole lot that one could get up to in Turner’s Point, it was a rather small and sleepy town, but she had heard of things that some of the older teenagers got up to in their spare time. And, while Laila didn’t think she was quite ready for any of that, she was curious about it and thought she might like to tag along with Harvey the next time he and his friends (even if they included Arne) went out. Or, perhaps, she’d see if Katy Lomer wanted to go do something fun. Yes, that sounded like a better idea—some of Harvey’s friends were downright strange…

With all of this thought going on in her head, Laila had kind of zoned out during Professor Pye’s talk so when her team captain, Leo Princeton asked them what they thought, she was kind of at a loss. Thankfully one of the other students had been apparently paying attention and so she was able to get a gist of what was going on by listening to his response. It wasn’t a bad idea but…something about it didn’t quite make sense to the muggleborn. And so when the captain asked what they thought in a way that suggested he didn’t think the rest of them could come up with anything better, she decided to play it off cool, smiling in greeting to Dustin who had been the first person at Sonora she had talked to and therefore held a special place in her regard.

She shrugged, indicating that she thought it was a fine idea. However, she did think that the placement of the line was a little off. “The gifts are on the other side of the river,” she said carefully. “It would make more sense to have a horizontal line going across our side and everyone trying to bring them over at once than to make a vertical line here. But maybe someone could transfigure something to put the gifts into once we get them over here? Just in case there are more boxes than we can hold at once.” She wasn’t sure, but from this distance she couldn’t tell how many gifts were in the sleigh and the sleigh did look rather big.

10 Laila Kennedy Answering the call to arms. 318 Laila Kennedy 0 5

Barnaby Pye

December 29, 2015 6:16 PM

Why does everyone vilify death so? It’s a natural part of li by Barnaby Pye

Gia Donovan. There was something curious about the sister of his roommate that set Barnaby on edge. He didn’t know whether to be happy or to be frustrated that she would be on his team. There was just a sort of aura about her that forced Barnaby to abandon a portion of his logical thought. It was the exact opposite with her brother—Jax caused Barnaby to be hyper-aware of everything. Every move he made, the slightest gesture, everything. It was a different sort of tension that he felt with each sibling and he both liked and disliked each sort. In both cases he felt a pull away from everything he and Tarquin had strived so hard to accomplish, those outer walls they had painstakingly built together to keep from every getting hurt again. He could almost hear Tarquin’s voice in his head now as he watched the back of Gia Donovan’s head while his older brother made the speech on the set of challenges.

“You’re weak,” he was saying. “You were never this weak. Can’t you feel the exhaustion trying to consume you? You can’t give in, you don’t know what that would do to you, what that would do to us. Everything we’ve wanted, gone in an instant because of one stupid, little emotion. You can’t let emotion control you like that, you can’t be weak like our mothers, you can’t be weak like her. Weakness only kills, Barnaby.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting Tarquin’s voice steep into him. He breathed out slowly, letting his emotions slowly seep out of him, like a tea bag draining. He felt at peace as he settled into his new mind frame. Everything that had been so cloudy only moments before became clear, it was like putting on his glasses for the first time. Before he’d gotten the owlish spectacles he had been a quite half-blind kid who didn’t know down from up but once he’d put on the miraculous item he could see even the details in the leaves across the way. It had been an experience that rivaled none.

Feeling strangely serene, Barnaby allowed a calm smile to settle in on his face, taking care not to let any worries or sarcastic attitude touch it. Their group leader was the head girl, to cause trouble for her would be to cause trouble for himself and he didn’t want to have to explain the situation to Tarquin who likely would not find such a situation very amusing. “Gia makes a good point,” he said, expression unchanging as he agreed with his roommate’s sister. “Quickness is not the only thing we are to be graded on and while Al-Professor Pye makes his own rather stupid, rather rash decisions…I know he values thoroughness.”

As much as it pained Barnaby to admit this, his older brother (when on the job) was a great wizard. He made some complicated life choices that made Barnaby despise him and think very lowly of him but as far as magical accomplishments went he could not fault his half-brother in the same way he could fault many other adults he had met over the years. Even Tarquin who disliked Alfie so had nothing bad to say about his magical abilities. “And he did say resourcefulness…”

Barnaby allowed himself a look around the pitch to see what the other students were doing. He had been taught from a young age that his peers were a valuable resource—even if he didn’t agree with them or find them to be of any intellectual value extra bodies were always nice to have when trying to get things done. Extra bodies that could think for themselves, on the other hand, that was a different story. Since each group was still in the early stages of bringing the gifts over he wasn’t sure what he could gain from observation just yet other than what spells would most likely be used.

“Broomsticks, accio, and wingardium leviosa are likely to be the most used spells though they may be fastest,” he thought aloud. “What spells do we know that produce similar results but can gain us points in the creativity section? Tarquin and I—” but no, even if it was for the sake of the group could Barnaby really divulge that portion of the research Tarquin and he had done over the summer when snooping through their fathers’ things? Neither had been able to perform the spell on their own, but there were older students there with more training. If Barnaby wrote the spell down perhaps they might be able to try it…but no, he couldn’t give that up just yet and so, instead, he said (quite stupidly because Gia was listening and she had that sort of effect on him)

“Would anyone happen to be able to transfigure then enchant a carpet, for example? Or know how we might all work together to do something like that?”

10 Barnaby Pye Why does everyone vilify death so? It’s a natural part of li 298 Barnaby Pye 0 5

Ginger Pierce

December 29, 2015 10:39 PM

Elevensies! by Ginger Pierce

Ginger was delighted by the Headmaster's announcement regarding the year's challenges. Firstly, because she liked working as part of a team and while Quidditch had improved since her first devastating match, the school just took it so seriously that she was honestly kind of glad for a break that didn't leave her Housemates feeling like she'd abandoned them just as it seemed possible they might be able to pull off a full team on their own. Secondly, because Jake was on her team and she'd actually get to work with him far more than they ever had as Keeper and Reserve Seeker.

Really, the only way it could have been better was having Jemima or Lauren on her team, too (probably Lauren; Jemima was understandably happy being on Owen's team), but while she did not really know any of the other people on her team besides Jake very well (or at all in some cases), she was sure they were all perfectly fine people and was looking forward to this opportunity to get to know them better. Eleanor was a seventh year prefect, Diana Carey and Darrien White seemed decent enough from what she'd seen of them in their shared classes as they were respectively one year older and one year younger than her. Angelique she didn't know at all, but Owen was a fantastic person so surely his first year relative must be, too. (She'd have to remember to ask him how they were related sometime, but for now she was assuming the generic version of 'cousin' that she used to describe her own relation to any other non-adult in the California Pierce branch.)

Now that it was the day the Challenges were officially to begin, Ginger began her day like she would on a Quidditch match day - a good solid sleep the night before and a healthy breakfast in the morning. She returned Jemima's wish of good luck back to her roommates warmly, pleased that so far the people closest to her at least were not acting overly competitive. She enjoyed a competition in good fun, but she never understand getting into it so much that feelings were trampled. Enjoying a good challenge and being nice and wishing others well were not mutually exclusive pursuits, after all. Winning was nice and all, but she'd be just as happy for her roommates if their teams were the ones that came out on top. As a Teppenpaw Quidditch player, she was fairly well versed in losing now, so she felt pretty sure she meant it when she thought losing wasn't so bad so long as your opponents didn't cruelly crush you into the mud and then kick you while you were down.

She didn't think any of that would happen today though, so she was cheerfully optimistic that her team would survive without being muddied or kicked, and maybe even do well. She assumed most teams were chosen to be on fairly even footing, so there was no reason to think her team was any less likely to win than anyone else was.

"So," she said when Professor Pye finished explaining what was expected of them. As a third year, she was only in her first few months on being an Intermediate. "I'm pretty good at charms, but I'm not really sure how -" she stopped and looked at the yellow mitten on her hand that she had been gesturing with, "Oh, I could make my mitten big enough to put the presents on over on this side, and make it pretty and festive!"

1 Ginger Pierce Elevensies! 302 Ginger Pierce 0 5

Theresa Whittaker

December 30, 2015 10:04 AM

I'll help too! by Theresa Whittaker

Tess had been very excited to see the signs go up around the school. As requested, she’d brought her wand, but wasn't quite sure what problem-solving equipment would be needed. In the end, she’d settled with some paper and a pen (Tess hadn't yet got into writing with quills unless told to – biros were so much easier! Plus there was less of a danger of ink leaking all over your bag).

She didn't know much about her teammates. She was fairly sure she’d seen Wren and Cassie in classes, but hadn't had the opportunity to talk to them, and she didn't recognise any of the older students’ names. Despite her mother being a muggleborn witch, Tess had been primarily brought up in the muggle world, so was unaware of the big wizarding names – especially the American ones. However, she was looking forward to the opportunity to meet some new people, and to hopefully make some more friends at Sonora.

She listened carefully as Professor Pye explained the task. It seemed quite hard, especially when looked at from a wizard point of view. Her knowledge of spells was quite limited (she was only a first year, and it wasn't like she could be bothered to do lots of extra reading!), so Tess was quite relieved when Theodore suggested using engorgio. The spell didn't sound too complex, and she was more than happy to help out in any way she could.

“I’ll have a go at it,” she offered, taking out her wand. “What’s the wand movement like?”

Theodore definitely seemed to be a good person to have on her team. Tess was quite a competitive person and, being aware that she was probably one of the weaker members of the team, was glad that one of the older students had some ideas of what to do. After all, they couldn't let the other teams beat them!

9 Theresa Whittaker I'll help too! 338 Theresa Whittaker 0 5

Emrys Lucan

December 30, 2015 3:01 PM

Team eight, we're great! by Emrys Lucan

Emrys liked to win. He did not, however, like to win at the expense of his friends, and having already seen what the Head Boy situation had done to their friend group not to mention whatever had been going on between Chloe and Ji-Eun, he had started to withdraw himself from the drama. He just didn’t do big fusses, it wasn’t his thing. He had likely inherited this particular attribute from his father who sat idly by whenever his headstrong mother and grandfather had gotten into it. He still liked his friends, he just didn’t enjoy the tension that he was living in and so had started to spend more time than usual with his little sister, helping her with her homework and preparing her for the next semester. Though she had assured him that she was already getting help from a classmate in her year so that when he was gone the next year he wouldn’t have to worry about her, she had also told him she was glad for his company since it was their last year together.

Even now, Emrys felt a little pang of sadness that Caelia was not in his challenge group. The Lucan siblings had never been competitive with one another—their father was just so serenely happy with most things they had never really grown up in a household where competition was a necessity (other than the unspoken competition between himself and Wesley, but that was another, bigger, more complicated story for another day) and that morning at breakfast and lightly teased the other about losing and what that would mean, what little things the loser would have to do for the winner. But it was all said in jest, none of it was meant, and Emrys knew that whoever’s team came out on top of the other would likely spend some time trying to cheer the other up from the mild disappointment they felt.

At least Caelia is with Charlotte, Emrys thought to himself as his sister went off to his girlfriend and briefly wondered if the classmate Caelia had asked for help from was Charlotte’s younger brother since Jack was an Aladren like himself. The parallel between the two situations amused Emrys since both Charlotte and Caelia were Crotali, but he hadn’t ever remembered their younger siblings ever interacting in a familiar manner that would suggest Caelia would be comfortable asking for such an arrangement and so Emrys was sure she had asked a different classmate, perhaps her roommate or the Quidditch guy who she seemed to be so fond of.

“Alright, team,” he said once the students had sorted themselves out in their respective groups. He had both Caelia’s potential tutors in his challenge group and he planned to watch them carefully to make sure they were good enough to be teaching his baby sister who could, at times, be a little too pliant to others’ points of view. The last time he had let someone else teach his sister still haunted him whenever he saw he delicate mannerisms or the way in which she sometimes gave an ever so slight, scornful toss of her curls in a certain students’ directions, something she hadn’t had in her before he left for school. Other than Kelsey and Alistair there was also Joey Thompson and Natalie Varth, both of whom he knew next to nothing about other than that the second year had played for the Pecari Quidditch team the previous year. Lastly was Lionel Layne, also a Pecari and two years his junior so they had only been in class together for one year when Emrys himself had been a fifth year and Lionel a third year.

With such a young batch, Emrys wasn’t really sure what sorts of spells they could pull off. He himself was the only Advanced student, which meant there was no one to lean on if he, in an out of character haste that only really affected him around Charlotte, acted rashly and messed up and important spell. “Perhaps we ought to start with the youngest student going first?” he suggested. “That way as the challenge goes on we can be sure everyone is able to perform a spell.” He didn’t want to start out the other way since leaving the one with less than a semester of learning under her belt to go last would severely limit the poor first years’ range of abilities if not render her unable to participate in the challenge—something Emrys did not want to do even if it wasn’t one of the rules that each member had to perform a spell.

“Since I’ve had the longest time to learn spells I’ll go last since that means I should be able to come up with some spell that hasn’t been used yet, does that sound like a good idea to you guys?” he asked. “How should we start this?” Emrys wasn’t really a strategist, it was why he had never tried out for the Quidditch team though he enjoyed watching the odd, well-played match. He was more of a book learned, preferring to spend his days looking over dusty old parchments and contemplating old theories instead of coming up with new theories to test.

10 Emrys Lucan Team eight, we're great! 260 Emrys Lucan 0 5

Ji-Eun Park

January 01, 2016 2:07 AM

Cut off in your prime there... by Ji-Eun Park

The challenges were really the last thing Ji-Eun needed. This year she had enough on her plate with being Head Girl and her exams, not to mention trying to navigate the impossible task of pleasing all of the people, all of the time. Balancing her mother and Arnold had always been a tricky enough task, but now things weren’t right with Chloe either. Her friend had so much going on and it was so hard to know how to help. Not to mention the fact that her mother would be disappointed if she didn’t place well in the challenges but she had no real desire to make things awkward between her and her friends. She knew Emery was still upset with Arnold over the badges. What if this became another reason for everyone to fall out with each other?

Wearily, she made her way to the pitch, her satchel over her shoulder, fixing a bright smile on her face. The description of what they had to bring had been so vague, and she’d spent a long time vacillating between fretting over what to bring and angrily abandoning the problem, fed up with the vague instructions and the amount of her time and energy was going into something she didn’t even care about. In the end, she’d bought some bits and bobs for transfiguring or charming, along with generally useful things like string.

The first challenge seemed straightforward on the surface of it, although she was sure they’d start hitting snags once they started. The staff weren’t stupid after all, and the whole point of this was not to make it easy for them. Her team seemed enthusiastic, and she listened as they began to venture their contributions. One girl seemed to have put no more thought into it than what was naturally in her pockets, as the items seemed to come as something of a surprise to her. But Scarlett wasn’t head girl or a team leader, and would probably do well enough in life however little organisation or effort she put into it. Gia’s plan was… to come up with a plan, and Barnaby wanted them all to be as creative as possible rather than just get it over and done with, though at least he had an idea to go with this request.

“Coming up with a plan first definitely seems like a good idea,” she smiled at Gia, “I brought the things I usually practise Transfiguration and Charms on,” she added, opening up her bag and indicating that they could rummage. She supposed the collection was no less random that Scarlett’s. It was just that she knew how much effort and frustration had gone into choosing them. “A flying carpet is definitely very creative. I’m not sure I’ve got anything big enough to work with but we could shape it out of snow, or make a small one - I have parchment. We don’t necessarily have to travel on it ourselves, and loading it up from here will give us a chance to use some more spells.

“Enlarging the sock is also a good plan. Who’d like to do that?” she asked, looking a little more to the beginners even though she’d addressed the whole group.

OOC - knowledge of Emery/Arnold's fallout approved by Arnold's author.

13 Ji-Eun Park Cut off in your prime there... 268 Ji-Eun Park 0 5

Jamie Park

January 01, 2016 2:26 AM

And then help little old ladies cross the road. NERD. by Jamie Park

School unity. School spirit. Teamwork. Blah blah blah. All of it was a load of crap, AND it meant that Quidditch had been cancelled. The Pecari Quidditch team could be a bit uptight sometimes but at least they were broadly cool, unlike the bunch of nerds he’d been put with for this. John Umland was the worst prospect. Jamie had seen him in class, hunched over his little notebook and had overheard him rambling about bird types on more than one occasion. Aladren was the most whacked out house on the planet. Only somewhere like that could grade A losers like John and Clark play the coolest spots on a Quidditch team. Besides John, he didn’t really know the rest, though it was a seriously Aladren heavy squad, and he planned on watching his back against them. His other problem was Lauren Song. His mother had pointed her out more than once when looking at his and Ji-Eun’s yearbooks, and now with this much enforced social contact, she’d probably see that as grounds for them getting married.

John lived up to expectations by showing up looking like he was going camping for a week. As they were set to being Santa’s little helpers, he crossed his arms over his chest with a scowl. This was totally lame. But of course, Captain Nerdface was seriousl getting into it. Jamie rolled his eyes as John began to talk.

“Yeah, I’m sure water in the air’s going to be a massive problem. What do you think they’re sitting in now, doofus?” he scoffed. As John continued to ramble, his attention turned to the bags at the boy’s feet. Seriously…. What was with that kid? Wondering what was in them, he picked one up, hand tugging at the fastening. He dropped it sharply as the bag gave him a sharp, tingling sensation in his fingers.

“What the hell man?” he snapped at John. “What kind of person sets their bags to shock their team-mates?”

13 Jamie Park And then help little old ladies cross the road. NERD. 284 Jamie Park 0 5

Arnold Manger

January 01, 2016 2:34 AM

Team Two, assemble! by Arnold Manger

Going into these challenges, Arnold had a bit of a secret: he didn’t really care to win. With everything else going on in his life, all the chaos and drama, he didn’t have the emotional range to feel any sort of competitiveness. Naturally he was not an incredibly competitive person to begin with, but he might have otherwise at least been excited by the idea of team challenges. Instead, hearing about them made him just feel… tired.

Doing his best to mask his sluggishness, he headed down to the Pitch with surprisingly little in the way of both supplies and concerns. He felt a bit disjointed from his teammates, since he knew none of them very well. Savannah Brockert was a first cousin of his brother Ryan, which gave them at least a familiarity that otherwise might not have occurred given the age difference between them. But the fourth year was the next oldest beneath him, which made her the unofficial second-in-command to his equally unofficial first-in-command.

The rest of their teammates were essentially mysteries to him. One was named Carey, so that attested to his background some. He did notice that a lot of them were sets of siblings, some even twins, in the school, but that realization served no practical purpose, instead just making him wish he were with Jake. Their older siblings had somehow managed to end up on a team together, and it made him a touch jealous that Sally and Ryan had lucked out while he and Jake had not.

He might have also liked to be among friends, although it seemed harder and harder lately to know who those even were. He tried to tell himself that his relationships with everyone barring Emery were unaffected, but he couldn’t imagine that was possible. He felt fairly even with Ava and obviously Ji-Eun, but Emrys and Chloe were clearly and directly in the middle, and in his mind, there was no objectivity possible here for them.

Arnold did his best to shove all that nonsense from his mind and focus on Professor Pye’s instructions as best he could, soaking in most of his words. When it was time to get to work, he turned to his teammates and asked, “So does anybody have any ideas right out of the gate? How do we want to set about this?” He meant his inquiry genuinely, too, having nothing immediately rush to mind. He wanted to sit and think about it a bit, but he also had no intention of commanding this team like he had somehow earned authority over it. Honestly, he was getting pretty tired of being authority, and he knew in this case it was only age that made him their senior, so their insights were equally valuable to him as his own.

12 Arnold Manger Team Two, assemble! 261 Arnold Manger 0 5

Jake Manger

January 01, 2016 3:07 AM

Falling in. by Jake Manger

Team eleven was… interesting. For one thing, Jake had ended up with one of the seventh years he knew the least, Miss Eleanor Vandenburg. Not that he knew any of them well except his brother and maybe Ji-Eun (by report, he knew her thoroughly), but Eleanor was one of those he knew least. Arnold had a good many friends among his yearmates, what with his housemates, Chloe Jareau, Portia Dobson, and of course Ji-Eun. Aside from knowing that she was a pureblood, he had little to go on with Eleanor, although he generally thought the best of people from the start.

He’d been struggling with that perception when it had been shattered for him over the summer, when reality had finally caught up with him. And maybe it was time. Maybe it was good for him. After all, he was fifteen years old and barely a step above believing in Santa Claus. Maybe it was time to grow up.

The notion made him sad, though, because Jake enjoyed his happy innocence. He wanted it back, wanted to cling to it forever. It couldn’t be impossible; Aunt Lilac had done a good job with it, and so had Marcus, although both now seemed somewhat different. Kind, but informed. Adult. It was confusing.

Had he not felt so shattered, he might have had more reaction to his teammates. After all, he had gotten both Ginger and Diana, arguably his two best girls in the school. The latter of whom he had been on friendly terms with since he asked her to the dance his second and her first year, and the former of whom was…. special to him. That “special” feeling had taken a bit of a back burner to his slightly lingering self-pity and contemplation.

Jake didn’t bring a lot with him down to the Pitch, mostly just his wand and a forced smile. He listened with decent attention to Professor Pye’s instructions but found himself a bit more attentive when he was done and Ginger was the one talking. “Oh, that’s definitively a creative solution,” Jake commented with sincerity. “Maybe somebody else could make the presents smaller, too, just to be completely sure everything fits in the mitten? And then other people can float them over?” He would have offered to do parts of it himself, but as the second oldest on the team, he figured he ought to wait to count his part for whatever would be harder. “Unless anybody else has any other ideas?” he added, leaving the conversation open.

12 Jake Manger Falling in. 280 Jake Manger 0 5

Makenzie Newell

January 01, 2016 3:30 AM

And I have the Christmas-y spirit, it seems. by Makenzie Newell

Makenzie was going into the challenges feeling pretty confident. The leadership of her team--or at least it was implied that they were leaders, based on their seniority--were Isaac Douglas, a Crotalus, and Clark Dill, an Aladren. While admittedly perhaps biased by her and Dustin’s placements, she felt that those two Houses were probably the best suited to the challenges, although a Pecari and a Teppenpaw were also definitely welcome additions. There was also Natasha Dubois, another Aladren but a first year, who was sure to be invaluable. Yes, she felt her team was nicely balanced and had decent potential.

Of course, she was not a particularly competitive person, and for the sake of her sanity, she somewhat hoped Dustin’s team would win. He would be more tolerable that way, she thought; Dustin was decent when he won, but Makenzie didn’t picture him as the best loser. He wasn’t one to whine, but he was a fairly grumpy little thing, and she honestly didn’t want to deal with any more of his grumpiness than was already necessary in her day-to-day life.

The slight worry (over Dustin, not her team) was, however, completely forgotten when she arrived on the Quidditch Pitch. Makenzie was, as it was most easily put, a Christmas Person; she loved everything about the holiday season. The good will, the pretty decorations, and of course, the flowing presents. She was a tad spoiled in that department, being an only child of wealthy parents, but she did try to spread the cheer, always giving nice presents to her friends. Plus, she was fourteen now, which was probably old enough to volunteer someplace without needing her parents there watching over her.

As to the challenge itself, Makenzie had nothing. It was festive and lovely, certainly, but nothing Professor Pye said instilled any sort of immediate plan of action within her. The same could not be said, evidently, for Clark Dill, who she quickly noticed scribbling notes. When he shared his plan with the rest of the team, Makenzie couldn’t help but think it ambitious, albeit the reindeer part was sure to win them points. But Isaac’s qualms were also fair; what if they couldn’t get the reindeer down?

“Maybe we forego the reindeer and just put a flying charm on the sleigh?” she interjected tentatively. “Or at least go with less than eight? I know that’s the classic story, but it might be a bit much, and we only have so much time. But, uh, I can probably do a flying charm, or else help with the ice bridge?” Makenzie was clearly not among the leaders of the team, but she was the next oldest beneath them and felt that she ought to try to volunteer for whichever would be more challenging. It was only fair.

12 Makenzie Newell And I have the Christmas-y spirit, it seems. 291 Makenzie Newell 0 5

Sammy Meeks

January 01, 2016 3:47 AM

Lucky number seven! by Sammy Meeks

Admittedly, Sammy was pretty freaking psyched about these challenge thingies. It would’ve been cooler, of course, if some of her friends had been on her team, but she figured everything would be alright no matter who she got. A lot of them were purebloods, which, she had heard, didn’t always bode well for a Muggleborn like herself, but thus far, nobody had ever said or done anything malicious or seemingly prejudice-filled, at least not that she had seen, so she figured it would be okay. She didn’t know a ton about Tristan Spaulding, their apparent leader, either, although there was a Kira Spaulding in the year below who seemed generally alright. Kira was roommates with Laila Kennedy, who was also a Muggleborn, so if things were okay there, she didn’t expect trouble from Tristan. Mean streaks probably ran in families.

As competition-oriented as she could be, Sammy was still certain to wish Gia good luck and ask her to spread the sentiment to Jax, as well as shooting looks of good will to Laila and Wu. Somehow, these were the people who had become her peer group, and she was pretty happy with it. Jax and Wu were both on the quiet side, with Gia and Sammy way chattier, and Laila sort of in the middle. Laila was probably the one she had spoken to the least, but she had definitive plans to change that. Maybe she’d see about getting lunch with her after today’s competition.

The brunette broke herself away from such thoughts, though, because it was time to get ready. Professor Pye was presently providing prudent particulars (say that five times fast!) about the event, so she needed to pay attention. It was always a struggle for her to stay attentive, mostly because her mind raced so fast sometimes, bouncing back and forth from all the things she was excited about doing that were way more interesting than what was at hand. Still, she did her best, and when he was done, Sammy felt like she gotten at least eighty percent of what he said. That was pretty good for her.

“Cool, so, anybody have a plan?” she asked, turning to her teammates with an eager earnestness. “Because I sure as heck don’t.”

12 Sammy Meeks Lucky number seven! 310 Sammy Meeks 0 5

John Umland

January 02, 2016 5:46 PM

I suppose I can make time for that, too. by John Umland

”What do you think they’re sitting in now, doofus?” asked Jamie Park, displaying the extraordinary subtlety and careful application of a deep knowledge of strategy in approaching what he thought was a problem that he was absolutely not noted for displaying on the Pitch. Chess and Go were the standard games people analyzed to figure out how their opponents thought (chess was a large part of why John had always considered his sister smarter than most people gave her credit for, though her ability with cards didn't hurt, either), but John thought Quidditch had its merits, too. How else could he have so quickly learned that Jamie Park was one of the best things one could hope to see on an opponent’s team and one of the worst things to see on one’s own?

Maybe that was why Jamie’s insult him left him curiously unmoved. Or maybe it was just that as a goad, doofus just…lacked something. Sociology wasn’t his thing and he had only a vague idea of what a ‘normal’ teenager was supposed to be like (books indicated the beasts were shallow, petty, wildly emotional, and had no interests outside of gossip and committing every sexual sin in the book, but surely that was at least a bit of an exaggeration – if it wasn’t, how could even a marginally sentient being stand to live that way for a single week? It sounded so boring, almost as boring as the books he’d tried to read about the behaviors of such creatures), but he’d thought people gave that one up in about grade three. He blinked twice, then continued as though he hadn’t heard anything.

Park got more of a reaction when he went for one of John’s bags and then just as quickly dropped it. John snatched it up himself, patting it to check for damage, but the lack of jangling noises made him think nothing was broken. Once this hasty inspection was done, he glared at the older boy.

“I have no idea,” he said coldly, adding ‘asks loaded questions’ to his list of complaints against Park. “I’m the kind of person who doesn’t want people on the other teams to steal my things once we get busy and use my things to help their teams beat mine.” He struggled to think of the best response, annoyance and pride (so that spell had worked; since he had not exactly been able to test something written specifically not to react to him, he had only had his confidence in his abilities to go on before, and while that had grown steadily last year, nothing was like hard proof) clouding his thinking. “I assumed my teammates would ask what I brought instead of just grabbing things. Thank you for correcting my assumption.” He felt his eyes trying to drift toward Emery and refused to let them. If Park thought John was going to appeal to authority for protection, he’d never shut up. Even goading Jamie into attacking him would be a better outcome than that. “The things I brought that I think will be most useful here are newspapers for Transfiguration. They’re perfect for making something those of us who cross the river won’t slip on, so if you’re done acting like an eight-year-old, we can get to work.”

16 John Umland I suppose I can make time for that, too. 285 John Umland 0 5

Emery Kijewski-Jareau

January 02, 2016 6:22 PM

Great team work, guys... by Emery Kijewski-Jareau

His final year at Sonora was definitely not going the way he had hoped it would have gone. He was no longer upset over the fact that he did not receive the head badge, but the lack of true understanding from his friends had caused a rift between him and them. Sometimes it still irritated him how little they tried, which didn’t help the situation. Chloe had already told him that she wasn’t going to get involved with any of it. She supported him by voting for him, it didn’t work out for him, but she wasn’t going to blame Arnold for that. Emery, in all reality, did not blame Arnold for it either. He blamed the school. But Arnold carried the badge, so whenever Emery saw him, he was reminded of his own failure and the school’s favoritism to Purebloods.

When Chloe had left to deal with the death of her biological mother, Emery’s anger had shifted to concern. Chloe had gone off the deep end during the summer when she had been dealing with her mother’s crazy antics, Emery was worried about how she would handle the funeral and meeting her other family. He wasn’t there to keep an eye on her and to look out for her, so he had no idea if she was going to fall back into her old pattern of partying or something worse. She came back though and reassured him that she hadn’t slipped back into that life. She had spent most of her time with their friends, Travis and Ben.

The shift in emotion had triggered his acceptance of things, but too much time had passed and after the conversation between himself and Arnold in their dorm room had happened. Emery didn’t think there was any way of moving on from it. So, he kept to the schedule that he had already been doing, which was mainly studying and reviewing colleges and filling out applications. The only other thing on his mind had been the challenges. His mother had talked about these back when she had been the Headmistress. Back then, Emery had been so excited about coming to Sonora and doing similar things, but now it didn’t seem all that much fun. He already had too much on his plate to bother with things like this.

It also didn’t help that he didn’t really know anyone on his team. He knew Park to be Ji-Eun’s brother and John as on the Aladren Quidditch team and presumably related to Julian. That was the extent of his knowledge of the people. He had no idea of their magical capabilities, so that could become an issue if the challenges were difficult. However, since the first challenge was to be on the pitch, it might be more of a physical challenge. Emery had started working out with his sister the year prior, so he was no longer a weak, lanky kid and with Jamie and John on Quidditch teams, they might also be physically able. Emery wasn’t quite sure on the rest of them though.
Professor Pye began to speak and as it turned out, the challenge had to do with a Christmas theme. Presents and a sleigh. Getting over the water would easy enough for the gifts so long as they found a way to get to the other side. One of the teams was using a broom, which wasn’t a terrible idea, but Emery didn’t want to look as though he were copying. He turned his attention to John as the kid began to give out ideas. The poor kid didn’t get out his ideas without Park feeling the need to put him down for it. The corners of Emery’s mouth turned down. John retaliated in kind, which somewhat amused Emery simply because he wasn’t wrong with what he said.
“Okay, can we just focus on the task now?” Emery stated, stepping in to stop the war from continuing on. “Newspaper was a good idea.” Emery said. “Have you ever transfigured something so large, John? Anyone have any other ideas that might help get the presents or sleigh across the water?” Emery asked the team. “I think our best option for the sleigh is to shrink it so that someone can just carry it or I can charm it to fly, if we’re going to be in the spirit of it.”

6 Emery Kijewski-Jareau Great team work, guys... 259 Emery Kijewski-Jareau 0 5

Jax Donovan

January 02, 2016 7:25 PM

Are we the Avengers now? by Jax Donovan

Jax was not at all excited about the challenges. He didn’t like the fact that his sister was on the same team as Barnaby Pye. Of all people, it had to be him. He was the last person in the world, aside from the person who cursed him, that Jax trusted. It was already Hell being roommates with him, knowing that he held Jax’s secret over his head for his own sick purposes (Jax was sure of this even if Barnaby made no indication of using the secret against him). Jax didn’t want his sister exposed to him.

On top of that worry, there was no one on the team with whom Jax knew. Andrew was in his year and seemed alright (Jax believed that was just the norm for any Teppenpaw), but Jax didn’t know him personally to say whether or not that was accurate. The Advance student happened to be the Head Boy and an Aladren, which worked in his favor, but again, a stranger to Jax. It would have been nice to have someone he knew on the same team as him. Sammy and Laila would have been friendly chatty people, but even Peizhi would have been a nice face to see. She was so quiet, he hoped she wouldn’t be too overwhelmed by all of this and that someone on her team would keep an eye out for her.

The only item that Jax brought with him was his wand. He had no idea what the Staff expecting from them with only a vague note but since they were a magical school, they were mostly likely able to simply conjure or transfigure whatever they needed so he didn’t really see the point of bringing anything else.

Jax stood near his team as he listened to Professor Pye give the instructions for the first challenge. It wasn’t a difficult task or even that hard of a puzzle. There was water, ice, presents, and a sleigh. It was simple enough, unless he was missing some vital information. The only thing that might have been a little tricky was the spells that they used. Jax was only a third year, so his actual abilities were limited. The first years were at the worst stage currently. Their magical abilities might be strong, but their knowledge and practical work were hardly in existence.

Jax wasn’t sure if he was going to actually say anything for the challenges. He would participate because he had to and he didn’t want to upset anyone else by hurting the chances of winning for his teammates (Jax was not competitive, but he knew some people could be). However, as the Head Boy didn’t seem to want to provide ideas, which was either that he didn’t have any or wanted this as a definite team building thing.

“Couldn’t we just freeze the water and create something to slide across it to get us from here to the gifts and back again?” Jax asked and then shrugging. It wasn’t much of an idea, but he was certain that it was doable. Once they got to the gifts, everyone could do a spell on them to complete that part of the challenge before bringing them over. The sleigh would be a little more difficult, but still manageable, especially if one of the older students shrunk it or made it lighter or something.

6 Jax Donovan Are we the Avengers now? 296 Jax Donovan 0 5

Lionel Layne

January 02, 2016 11:48 PM

And have parcels to exfiltrate. by Lionel Layne

Lionel was not (to the perpetual disappointment of his family, as it also meant he was unlikely to grow up into something like a lawyer or a great magician or even a proper heir to his uncle’s potions business) nearly pedantic enough to be in Aladren, but he had enough tendencies in that direction that he still felt a flutter of panic when he saw the instruction to bring problem-solving sundries to the Pitch along with their wands and persons for the first team challenge. After all, that could mean nearly anything. What was useful for problem-solving and what was completely useless or even a hindrance depended totally on context and they didn’t have any. He could bring enough stuff that he broke his back just carrying it all and find that none of it was of any use at all on the big day.

He had been worried enough to write home about the challenges, but Uncle Geoff had had no helpful advice since he and Lionel’s aunts had never been put through anything like this and Kate’s response had been little better. Someone had even convinced Alicia, who had really gotten into the challenges back in her day, to write to him, but her letter had been the most useless of all. All she had talked about were the effects the teams could have on school politics and how to use all the fault lines created by the separation of friends into competing teams to his advantage, and even with the prefect’s badge on his robes, Lionel didn’t think that was something that was really going to affect him. He wasn’t a member of any faction and didn’t want to be. He would have to take sides if the prefects ever started splitting along blood lines or something like that, but short of that, he intended to stay as far out of prefect politics as humanly possible while still performing his duties. All he’d gotten out of that letter was a glimpse into his cousin’s head, which wasn’t a place he’d ever wanted to spend much time and which had done a lot less to make him feel better than everyone else’s advice-free well-wishes had.

Aunt Anne had given him the best advice, which was to practice charms basics – making things move (automatically or by adding wings), making things stay still, making liquids turn to solids and solids to liquids – and basic defenses. Her idea of problem-solving sundries had been ‘books and lots of posterboards,’ which he hadn’t thought was very helpful, but at least she had given him something. He had practiced the basics she recommended during most of his free time for the last days before the contest and went out feeling as ready, even though he only had himself and his wand, as he thought he could be for whatever Professor Pye had to throw at him and his new friends.

Well…hopefully friends, anyway. Or at least friendly enough people to work with a lot for the rest of the year. Not-enemies, anyway.

Emrys was the seventh year Aladren prefect and clear leader, so Lionel listened politely as he spoke even though he wasn’t sure he completely agreed with his plan. Yes, they needed to make sure the younger ones had something to do, but he thought they might have a better chance of getting something done if the older ones did some leg work. Professor Pye had just said that everyone had to cast at least one spell that significantly helped, not that everyone could only cast one spell that significantly helped. As long as the first years helped, they were all right. They didn’t have to all contribute equally to satisfy the condition.

“I don’t know what the best way to start is, but I can Summon some,” he volunteered. “Probably only one at a time, though. We don’t have to get them all over the same way, though, so I don’t know if…everything has to fit together, you know? If we can each just figure out something we can do.” Elegant, coordinated plans weren't his forte. Took too much time, time they needed if they were going to finish in a respectable place. Lionel might not have been as competition-mad as some he knew, but he didn't really like the thought of coming in dead last, either.

16 Lionel Layne And have parcels to exfiltrate. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Raine Collindale

January 03, 2016 12:42 AM

I'm not really the avenging type by Raine Collindale

Raine was anxious about the challenges. At home, she viewed herself as quite a capable person - she could cook, she could make simple ointments, and she had her part to play when they struck camp and moved on - but she’d felt like a fish out of water since arriving at Sonora, and was strongly feeling that anything she knew or felt was important wasn’t valued by the rest of society. She was always receiving big red Xs on her schoolwork, especially next to things her family had taught her. It felt like all the teachers believed that what it said in their books was the only possible way of doing things. She was sure the challenges would be the same. There was bound to be one and just one way of doing it right, and anyone who thought for themselves would lose points.

She had naturally gravitated towards Jax Donovan as the team assembled. She couldn’t really say that she knew him but she knew who he was because he had to take Professor Skies special English class too. Raine hated those hours spent with the Deputy Head. The week already contained enough writing to make her hand cramp without the added extra, and it marked her out in yet another way as different. She didn’t even really see the point, only that apparently knowing the right information wasn’t enough in this world, you also had to be able to say it all fancy and pretty like. She would rather have been on a team with Gia, whom she somewhat idolised - Gia was in Skies’ special class, she had a twin, she didn’t look the same as everyone else, but she had friends. So many friends. She was like a successful, confident version of Raine, and Raine wished she could be in Gia’s inner circle. But she wasn’t sure how she could put any of her thoughts into words without sounding strange - being twins and needing help in English made them similar, but it wasn’t the same as having something in common, and was weird grounds for starting a conversation. Besides which, the year between them and the number of friends Gia already had seemed like insurmountable obstacles. But maybe, maybe if they’d been on a challenge team together, they could have become friends. Though more than likely, Raine was just going to embarrass herself, so maybe it was a good thing they weren’t.

She tried not to fidget as Arnold addressed them but his presence made her uncomfortable. Not only was he so much older than her but he was Head Boy. She wasn’t quite sure what that was all about but she knew that it made him somewhere above the rest of them, closer to the teachers. It probably meant he liked rules a lot. Although, now she got closer, she thought he had kind eyes. She didn’t look whilst he was talking, keeping her eyes firmly on his chest, so that she was paying him her attention but not making uncomfortably intense eye contact. But when Jax started talking, she ventured a glance.

She nodded quietly along to what Jax said, wanting to show her support for him, her eyes wandering briefly as she saw her brother running off, hoping that he wouldn’t be in trouble for vandalising school property or something. She didn’t really regard Arnold’s question as having been addressed to her. Her weeks at this school so far had already shown her that she just didn’t think the same way as people here, so she was only bound to lose them marks if she offered ideas. Jax hadn’t mentioned what spells they would do beyond the freezing and she was sure Professor Pye had said they all had to do something… But maybe she’d misunderstood. Or maybe Jax meant they’d all help with the freezing. Had Professor Pye said their spells had to be different? Teachers were always doing this - not quite saying what they really meant, and then tripping you up when you fell for it. Maybe Jax wanted them all to freeze the lake together, or some people freeze it and some do the making a slidy thing, as those were all he’d mentioned. Which was a great idea, with just one little problem… She waited for Arnold’s attention to be on someone else before anxiously tugging Jax’s sleeve.

“I can’t help with your plan,” she whispered, worry clearly written all over her face. “I didn’t learn about freezing yet. And I can’t make anything big enough for us to slide on it.”

13 Raine Collindale I'm not really the avenging type 327 Raine Collindale 0 5

Aiden O'Neil

January 03, 2016 4:35 PM

Here for support. by Aiden O'Neil

Aiden was really excited for the challenges. He didn’t know what they were about, but he thought that they would have to be fun. His mother said they hadn’t done anything like that when she had been a student, but that it would be a great opportunity for him to meet others in his school that he might not normally have a chance to meet. His mother wasn’t kidding with that either. Aiden really didn’t know any of them. Chaslyn was in his classes and she seemed nice (although way more involved in things than he has ever been) and he remembered Theodore being in his classes last year when he was a third year and Theodore was in his fifth year, but he didn’t know any of the others. None of them were even in the same house as him. Of course, now that he was thinking about it, he was fairly certain that the people he felt closest too were all Teppenpaw. He should really try to get to know some more people, but each time he tried, they didn’t seem all that interested. He hoped that his team all got along though. He thought there would be nothing worse than having to spend the entire year with a group of people who didn’t get along.

He wasn’t really sure what sort of supplies he should be bringing, so he ended up bringing his backpack (charmed to feel lighter than the amount of things in it would otherwise have it be) with all of his book of notes for each class. Aiden wasn’t really that great at spell casting when it came to new spells (he did eventually get them down and had them down pretty well), but his note taking had gotten much better over the years and there might have been a spell among them that they hadn’t thought of.

It seemed as though Theodore had also brought some things too, but instead of working out the logistics of the challenge and the best use of each person, Theodore seemed to be working it through silently and barking out orders as he went. This was not what Aiden was expecting for the challenge. Weren’t they supposed to be for bonding purposes? Chaslyn didn’t seem all that worried about it though because she simply asked if there was anything she could do to help. Maybe this was what was expected of them after all.

“What’s the wand movement like?”

Aiden turned to the first year and gave her a polite smile. “I can show you.” The fourth year volunteered. The enlargement charm and the shrinking charm were one of the first spells he was taught at the school, after things like the light charm and the levitating charm, of course. “The incantation is engorgio. When you say the incantation, move your wand in a circular motion, just a small one, around the object. You know you have done it currently, because the wand will have a blue light at the end of it and like a light circle around the object.” Aiden explained. “You just want to make sure you have an idea firmly in place about how big you want the bag, otherwise, it’ll just keep growing until you use the reverse spell on it.” He hoped that was a decent explanation to the spell. “Why don’t you practice on that rock first just to be sure?”

6 Aiden O'Neil Here for support. 287 Aiden O'Neil 0 5

Jax Donovan

January 03, 2016 7:32 PM

I could be, depending on the situation by Jax Donovan

He hadn’t really thought that his suggestion would go very far since it was rather vague and didn’t offer much else, but he thought that it was at least a start for them to do something. Arnold didn’t seem in any hurry to get things done, which was just fine with Jax, and anyone else was more than capable of offering up even more suggestions for the challenge. Still, if their only objective for the first part of the challenge was to get the gifts to the other side, it would be easy enough as long as they didn’t over think things.

Jax was briefly startled when he felt someone tugging on his clothes. He was surprised to find Raine, one of the new people who had joined him in the comprehension and composition class that he took with the Deputy Headmistress. He didn’t really talk to her, she was like Wu in the fact that she seem rather quiet. They were also on different levels of learning, so what he was doing was more of a challenge than what she was learning. Because of that, he didn’t really have a reason to interact with her as he might of otherwise.

He bent lower to hear her better as she started to whisper to him. Her worries were not unfounded. He could understand where she was coming from and perhaps if he had explained his idea for the presents, she wouldn’t feel as though she was unable to contribute to his suggested plan.

Jax offered her a half smile, a gesture that very few ever got to see, but less of a gesture than he would have done to someone like Laila or Sammy (they would have received full smiles), “That’s alright.” Jax replied quietly back to her. “This is just to get to where the gifts are. You can use spells on those when we get there.” He hoped that was enough to encourage to think positively about this challenge. He wasn’t very good at pep talks (he’s never really had to do a pep talk, if he was honest about it) but he didn’t want Raine to become upset about this because then he’d really be at a loss on how to help her. Jax was not too good with dealing with emotions, not from himself, and not from anyone else. If she did have a meltdown, he might have to involve the Head Boy and pass her off to him to calm down. For now though, he hoped she would find relief in knowing there were still other things to be done that she could assist with.

6 Jax Donovan I could be, depending on the situation 296 Jax Donovan 0 5

Araceli Arbon

January 03, 2016 9:05 PM

Creative, I can manage by Araceli Arbon

OOC - am assuming that the challenge happens before the dorm post both because it was posted first and also because it’s going to be far too complicated to process how Delphine feels about that until the thread progresses.

IC
In terms of teams, Delphine was pretty pleased with hers. One couldn’t be around the right sort one hundred percent of the time in this environment but there were a number of respectable people on her team - including Duncan, which gave her yet more chances to strengthen the relationship between him and Araceli. Those who weren’t her class were so much younger than her that a little distance in her manner was more than acceptable, and so she thought it might be possible to navigate the social side of this whole thing unscathed. The remainder of the challenges was going to be more… well, challenging. As a rule, Delphine did not like surprises. The role of Araceli got easier the longer she did it - both because parts of it became habit but also because the proportion of her version of the truth that people had been exposed to was so much greater than the real thing - however, it still took preparation. New tasks were something she approached with caution, consciously working out what her sister’s response would most likely be. The challenges were all about quick thinking and facing the unknown. She was most afraid that they would be put in some sort of rapid fire situation, where her ability to control her magic, or to not jump to a more advanced spell would let her down. She just about coped in Defence class, where she knew what script she was meant to be following for the day, and that was still hard when her natural instincts were to throw down full force on her opponent.

As Professor Pye lifted the enchantment, however, she was relieved to find the very unthreatening spectacle of several sleighs full of presents. It seemed also that the aim was to think calmly and logically through the problem - although time was a factor, it wasn’t the only grading point. This she could cope with.

Surprisingly, it was the small, common boy who spoke up first, although he did prefix his words with a polite request to make them. Delphine gave him a slight smile, glad that if she did have to work with such people, at least she’d got the type that knew their place.

“That’s a very good point,” she said, in what she believed to be a sweet and positive tone, but which in reality came across as more condescending, more suited as it would have been to someone about half Joe’s age. “I’m sure Duncan, Mr. Carey and I can think of something,” she added, feeling that the primary responsibility lay on them as both the eldest members and the ones who, by virtue of their backgrounds, were bound to be more skilled. Of course, they had to find token jobs for the little ones, but bridging the gap was bound to be the hardest part.

“Professor Pye also mentioned making use of resources. The main one we have is snow. Perhaps we could shape it, and then Transfigure it? Have you learnt the Chess spells yet?” she asked, of Duncan and Brandon, “Perhaps we could have animate ourselves a little snowman helper?” Unless anyone brought other materials.”

13 Araceli Arbon Creative, I can manage 290 Araceli Arbon 0 5

Leonidas Bennett

January 03, 2016 10:43 PM

Hopefully a few good ones by Leonidas Bennett

The first thoughts Leonidas had had about the team lists had been ones of disappointment – the staff was forcing everyone in the school who he trusted to be competent to help people who weren’t him. The second thought had been that the staff needed to check its substance intake if it really thought that mixing people up was the way to deal with any lingering issues from last year. The third had been that he was not sure if this was a political blessing or curse for him in his circumstances – on one hand, it meant that Clark couldn’t win a game to prove himself as Assistant Captain and that he and John had plenty of chances to reflect poorly on Leo as they interacted with the wider school, but on the other, it meant Clark also didn’t have a chance to lose a game just when Leo really needed him to win and that Leo didn’t have to associate with Clark or John as much or as publicly as he sometimes did. He had thought about that one a lot, never convincing himself if the tournament was advantageous for him in that way or not.

It was only later that he had noticed that his own team was kind of interesting. Two Quidditch captains, a Wolseithcrafte, and one of the headmaster’s relatives, who by chance also happened to be the brother of Leonidas’s brother’s fiancée. If it was by chance; he guessed Fabian could have been placed there solely to see how Arabella’s future family acted when it wasn’t in society, but Leo had decided not to think too much about that because that could lead to paranoid insanity and resentful declarations about not bowing too low for any kid that much younger than him, no matter who that kid’s sister was or what his last name happened to be. Neither of those things would be good to do.

He tapped his toes impatiently as Pye talked, but did make note of the activity as something he could adapt and force his inevitable legion of nieces and nephews to do someday to get them out from under the rest of the family’s feet. Holidays in his family would most likely never again rival the thing two years ago when Paul had nearly ended up dueling their brother-in-law, but nor were they usually very enjoyable affairs now that he was too old to get really excited about the presents and he couldn’t see how anything would be improved by adding a tribe of screaming brats to the mix of his mentally handicapped Uncle Vic, obviously tense grandparents, sarcastic older siblings, irritated parents, and poor Bill standing around awkwardly because he was completely aware that he was in a room full of people who knew his marriage to Eliza was a complete sham of pure convenience.

It was better when it was just his family at home on Christmas Eve, enough so that those evenings had instilled some love for the trappings of Christmas in him: crackling fires, the whole family around them with cups of cocoa, a tall tree glowing in the half-light. All this was gaudier than that, but they had even taken a few sleigh rides when he was very young, before Uncle Vic went to Italy and his parents really drifted apart. Leo decided to seal away his sentimentality since ‘festive’ implied ‘garishness’ more than ‘coziness’ and sentimentality wasn’t any good for getting things done anyway.

He shook his head in response when Liliana Bannister noticed that her plan didn’t have enough spellwork in it. “As quick as it would be for us to just do it, no,” he said. He wasn’t sure it would be that quick, either – ice was usually slippery, and falling flat on his face was not a good way to either get the presents across the river or maintain any dignity – but he left that part out in the interests of maintaining team unity and not bickering amongst themselves. As much as he would prefer to be in charge, the person in charge of a team that lost because it fell into impossible bickering was not someone he wanted to be at all. Second place in the first-place team would be a lot better.

He listened to Theodore’s sister, liking the way Ingrid thought. It wasn’t surprising that she’d be smart, even with her unfortunate House placement, but he was happy to see it as long as she wasn’t applying that intelligence to improving the Pecari Quidditch team. “I don’t, but I might know how you can make shrinking a – “ he tried to remember Pye’s exact phrase – “significant aid to gift movement. Shrink more than one and put several in your pockets, or carry them back if you can fly without holding your broom. Or keep your balance running across ice without your hands,” he added for Liliana’s benefit, and since they did still have to find some way to include Fabian and the other two girls. He looked toward the broom shed, wishing he had the kid who had thought to exploit such an unthematic resource on his team. “Just as long as you have several at once and you did magic that lets you carry more,” he added. “Can everyone either shrink or summon, however we get across the water?”

0 Leonidas Bennett Hopefully a few good ones 269 Leonidas Bennett 0 5

Duncan Brockert

January 04, 2016 1:39 AM

Excellent by Duncan Brockert

Being that he'd taken charge of the concert group last year, Duncan wasn't entirely new to the concept of being a leader. However, he recognized that the Challenges was a different sort of thing than the Concert had been. That had been putting together a show, today, he had no idea what was going to be thrown at them.

However, he had faith in their team. They seemed like a great group of people-especially Araceli of course. Duncan could not be happier to have her with him. Of course, it also kind of made the sixth year want to do even better as he wanted to impress her. Not that he was going to go crazy and want to win at all costs, because that sort of behavior was something that he personally found off-putting. Duncan didn't know if Araceli did, but it just wasn't who he was and wasn't someone he could be.

Still, he wanted to impress her with his own individual best, including his leadership skills. That went beyond Araceli though, Duncan had been given the prefect badge last year and he kept wanting to prove he deserved it, to himself as much as anyone. Possibly more. The staff had seen something in him, and he had to believe that what it was. His good qualities, not Serena having bad ones that he really didn't see.

Anyway, he'd wished her, Liliana, Atlas, Jake and Tasha good luck this morning, as well as responding to Owen's wishes of the same, than proceeded to eat breakfast with Araceli. This had very little to do with team solidarity and everything to do with Duncan enjoying her company. After that they went down to the pitch to meet the rest of their team for the first challenge.

His attention turned to Professor Pye as the Defense teacher began to speak and once the professor was done, Duncan glanced at the river and then back at the team. Before he could say anything though, Joe spoke up, followed by Araceli.

The sixth year listened and replied. "That sounds like an excellent idea. I mean, he did mention creativity, so if we're doing something totally different that should get us more points." Duncan gave Araceli a warm smile. "Yes, we've learned that. I mean, I know how to do that one so if we did the snowman, I could do that. So how can we get him across though without the ice bridge?"

OOC-Permission given by Araceli's author to say they ate breakfast and came to the challenge together.

11 Duncan Brockert Excellent 271 Duncan Brockert 0 5

Brandon Carey

January 04, 2016 8:18 AM

The more creative the better by Brandon Carey

Brandon and Diana had breakfasted together the morning the notice about teams had gone up and had exchanged looks of horrified sympathy when they saw the names on their lists. They were not as close as they had been when they had been the youngest ones in the house and Diana had been his reader and partner in crime, but sometimes they could still almost read each other’s minds with one look and in that moment, Brandon knew they had had the same thought: how could they put us with these snore-fests?

There really wasn’t anything else to call his team, anyway. Diana liked Jake Manger – in a friendly way only, she was always quick to add, even though he had taken her to a ball a few years ago – and Ginger Pierce was okay, but Brandon’s team had no chance of retaining his attention for more than ten seconds in a row unless they assigned someone to poke him with a stick every nine. There were enough Teppenpaws to host a panel on being polite, and while he would have rather not worked with any Crotalus at all, the school had just had to give him the worst one it possibly could. He barely knew Araceli Arbon, but he knew her last name because at home people never shut up about it. Her sister was his cousin Anthony’s girl and therefore even more interesting to a lot of people than his cousin Arnold’s wife’s waistline or whether or not his brother Jay was going to suddenly take an interest in politics because of his romantic lead. Having Araceli around when he was more interested in winning than in being polite was about as bad as it got.

On the bright side, at least Anthony following in the grand new South Carolina Carey tradition of picking up little blonde things at school – Effie and Fae looked enough alike that it was kind of weird when Brandon thought about it and about how Arnold and Anthony were brothers, and Francesca was a blonde too – meant that Araceli most likely wasn’t going to want Brandon to marry her. He thought that was the bright side, anyway. She was pretty, too, but – well, he didn’t want to get married at all, never mind to a Crotalus. They were usually boring in school and some of them went crazy later, and then there was his brother Henry, who had been boring and become a little crazy before he started school.

Professor Pye might have been an Aladren, who could be just about as bad as Crotali, but he was not boring. He proved that very well with the challenge. All the colorful packages and new formations on the familiar territory that was the Pitch and everything pulled his attention in every direction, but he heard their first year speak up and...say words. Brandon debated with himself about whether or not saying they shouldn’t do something was really proposing an idea or not for a few seconds, then decided the question was too boring to continue with.

He decided that just in time to hear Araceli throw him under the bus to shut Umland up. He smiled, hoping he looked like someone who deserved the title Mr. Carey. It was just pureblood manners between people who didn’t know each other well, it didn’t mean anything, but Brandon was the third son of a second son and used to thinking that he was going to grow up to be just like his father, someone who even the lower-class people his father worked with usually just called ‘Donnie’ because Dad was like that and they were all smugglers anyway. Jay and Arthur and even Henry, in the right mood, could be Mr. Careys. Brandon…it just felt wrong, at least at school and in mixed company. Muggleborns and half-bloods were usually a lot less formal.

“Um, right,” he said as he smiled. “We will.” A gentleman didn’t contradict a lady, even if he didn’t know what else to do. What was he supposed to do, conjure up a full-sized bridge from thin air like the Three Brothers and cheat Death at the high point? If he very specifically asked for all the presents to appear on the other side of the river, he might prevent Death from using the presents to crush him so Death could claim him right then and there, but Death could always make sure they were arranged in just such a way on the other side that he tripped over one and broke his neck on a tiny stone as soon as his team returned to celebrate its sudden victory…..

He glanced at Tobias Reinhardt, thinking he was in the same year as Araceli and wondering why she hadn’t included him in her list if Brandon wasn’t wrong about their ages. Maybe she just thought she was a lot smarter than him. Brandon didn’t think he’d worked with either of them in class much before, so all he could say for sure was that he knew he, personally, was not an academic mastermind.

Duncan Brockert was more confident, or at least more interested in impressing the pretty girl. Brandon put his hands in his pockets – it was a little cold out – and tried to make a contribution a little better than just backing Araceli up in front of the first year. “If he’s solid enough to animate, one of us could probably make it fly over there,” he offered. “But the arms’ll need to be really long to make sure the presents don’t get damp, won’t they?” Brandon didn’t know much about snow, but had seen it and played in it a few times while visiting his mother’s relatives up north before and was pretty sure it got everything it touched wet. Duncan probably knew a lot more about snow than Brandon did, but he had to say something important and that was as good as anything else.

0 Brandon Carey The more creative the better 275 Brandon Carey 0 5

Tasha DuBois

January 04, 2016 6:55 PM

Just looking forward to Christmas dinner by Tasha DuBois

Tasha was craving Mexican food and had been quite a bit lately. For some reason, even though Sonora had it's fair share of foreign foods, pork stomach quesadillas did not seem to be on the menu...ever. It had been so long since she'd eaten the innards of any animal or any animal that was at all out of the ordinary. And she missed it. Why Sonora didn't even serve menudo!

Unfortunately, Mexico was not on her parents' itinerary for the holidays, they were going to Cambodia. A place with it's own fair share of unique and interesting dishes. Like balut, a fertilized duck egg or snake on a stick. Tasha absolutely was not going to be eating any spiders though. She hated spiders whether they were dead or alive, big or small, and the thought of those hairy little legs going down her throat made her want to wretch.

So last night she'd settled for some jambalaya with duck confit, adouille sausage and shrimp. She really did love duck confit. Why she'd once had the most fantastic duck tortillas. Ducks were just...delicious animals. Even as fetuses.

Right now, Tasha would have to put thoughts of duck and all it's yummy goodness aside and concentrate on the Challenges. Her teammates were not people that she knew well, Gabe Valienti was in her classes and Clark Dill was someone she'd seen around, but she hadn't really spent much time with either. Though, Tasha supposed, she was going to get to now. Anyway, the challenges seemed rather fun and she was excited for them.

So after a breakfast of quiche lorraine, Tasha joined her teammates on the Pitch and listened as Professor Pye gave his instructions. After that, Clark spoke up right away with a plan. She was slightly surprised that he could come up with something so fast when she was still taking things in a bit. She glanced at Isaac, whom was someone Duncan didn't seem to trust much, but so far seemed all right to her. Tasha hoped that he wasn't going to upset with Clark for taking the lead though, since he was obviously seemed to be the one who was supposed to be in said position. Fortunately, Isaac said it was a good plan and just brought up a valid point about the level of Transfiguration their team was capable of. After all, animating objects to take orders-as was used in chess-was a RATS level spell, and only Isaac had taken them so far. Tasha didn't even know if he was taking Advanced Transfig or if he was good at it. That he asked specifically about whether or not Clark was capable suggested that he probably didn't want to.

"That might be an easier way to go about it." The first year said, agreeing with Makenzie's idea, which sounded like an excellent compromise.

11 Tasha DuBois Just looking forward to Christmas dinner 323 Tasha DuBois 0 5

Diana Carey

January 04, 2016 9:16 PM

I'm right behind you by Diana Carey

She had admitted to Jemima last year that she didn’t think her forgery skills were really impressive enough to pull off any major feats, but when Diana had seen the team lists, she had almost wanted to give it a try. There was nothing wrong with her team, far from it, at least compared to some of the options, she had even been happy to see Jake’s name on the list, but it would have been even better if she could have substituted Jemima for one of the young students, Bran for Eleanor Vandenburg, and maybe found a place for Araceli Arbon somewhere just so she could pump the Crotalus girl for information….

Unfortunately, though, the list had been very publicly displayed and the staff had to know what they had written on it anyway, so Diana had to play the hand she had been dealt. Even if it was on the Quidditch Pitch. She deliberately wore a dress she didn’t like much on the morning of the first challenge and hoped she wasn’t going to revert too close to her childhood tomboyishness for the good of her reputation before this was all over.

She smiled, charmed, when Ginger Pierce – not a real Pierce, of course, just one of the illegitimate offshoots the Careys couldn’t believe they allowed to walk around using the same surname, but Jemima and Andrew and Jake all seemed to like the girl and so Diana would be polite and maybe, if she didn't think it would hurt her position too much, even get to know her a little – suggested making her mitten into a giant toy bag. That was cute, though the poor thing would get her hands all cold – Diana would have to really get into the competitive spirit to give up her gloves. Sometimes the artificial weather here was far too Irish to ever win many points with Diana. She had spent all her life before school in a subtropical climate and while she hated all parts of the long, hot, extremely humid summers that she didn’t spend swimming and the more or less regular violent storms, she had never reached the point where she preferred the rest of the world’s kind of cold.

Ginger’s hands weren’t the only problem with the plan, though. Everyone had to cast a spell. Before Diana could point this out, though, Jake came up with ideas.

“That sounds like enough work for everyone to have some,” she said. “Another thing someone can do is lighten up the bag before we levitate it – I think I can do that.” Another issue occurred to her. “Though I’m not sure any of us can levitate the rest of us over,” she said, smiling to hopefully take any sting out of those words. It occurred to her that Jake or Eleanor might think they could do that, after all, and Diana didn’t want to offend them or let them try with her as the guinea pig. “Does anyone have any ideas about how to get to the presents?”

0 Diana Carey I'm right behind you 294 Diana Carey 0 5

Nevaeh Reed

January 05, 2016 6:32 AM

Hey, I like fun! by Nevaeh Reed

Nevaeh had never felt her blindness to be too huge an issue. With her service dog Scout and other adaptations, she managed just fine. She was not one to feel sorry for herself based on a circumstance she could not control, and she would not apologize for her differently-abled requirements. She’d spend all of her eleven years like this, so really, it was nothing she could not handle; it wasn’t a bad thing to her anymore, it was just her life.

All that said, Nevaeh was fairly nervous for these challenges. She generally had no problem admitting to herself when she couldn’t do something, but she hated to possibly be a hinderance to her teammates. Not everyone, she expected, would be as patient and understanding. Some people probably really wanted to win, and that competitiveness and drive was perfectly fine, but Nevaeh didn’t want those things to turn to anger or frustration with her.

The good news was, she had a really good feeling about Kyte Collindale. His sister Raine was such a sweetheart that she could only imagine good things from him too. She wished Raine was on their team too, or that she could have been with her friend Barnaby, who had been so nice to her at the Opening Feast, but at least she did have Kyte.

The Aladren listened closely to Professor Pye’s instructions, careful to pick up every detail to fill in the blanks she was surely the only person experiencing. As he concluded, she found herself growing increasingly nervous, her hand tightening around the handle of Scout’s harness.

Quickly, things started happening. It seemed that Kyte, energized by his own idea, unlocked something, which was a bit confusing for a moment since Professor Pye hadn’t mentioned any locks, but she realized in a moment that it had to have been the broomshed. Ava Fletcher, their seventh year team member, seemed fairly impressed by his quick thinking, noting it mildly before continuing to form a plan.

Nevaeh snapped to attention when a question was directed specifically her way. “Oh, uh, about as well as you’d expect, I guess,” she answered hesitantly. “I’m pretty good with non-animate stuff, although it’ll be harder if you want something big. I think I can do reducio, though, if we decide we need that.” She paused briefly, working up her courage. “But, uh, I’d definitely rather keep my feet on the ground, if that’s okay. Anything other than flying, I’m ready to try.”

12 Nevaeh Reed Hey, I like fun! 325 Nevaeh Reed 0 5

Andrew Carey

January 05, 2016 8:07 AM

I don't think it's a good idea by Andrew Carey

As everyone divided into their new teams, Andrew tried not to feel too jealous of Owen and Jemima. Meeting new people was a good thing to do, of course, but he liked to do it a little more casually than a competition allowed. Meeting new people and jumping straight into something challenging with them was bound to end in a few short tempers and bungled spells.

Still, his team wasn’t too bad. He didn’t know anyone that well, but was at least with a couple of other Teppenpaws and the Head Boy, who he didn’t think had a reputation as the really intense kind of Aladren. Whether or not that was a completely good thing was up for debate – people like that could be good at getting things done, but Andrew didn’t get the impression they were as good at promoting school unity; from what his brother had told him about the last time the school had done this, Andrew thought groups with them should probably just throw the ‘sixth and seventh years lead’ idea out and have a dueling tournament to establish precedence up front so they didn’t slow themselves down in power struggles – but Andrew was counting it as more good than bad, especially after Mr. Manger proved he wasn’t too proud to ask for help deciding what the best way to complete the task was.

Jax Donovan’s idea seemed sensible, as long as they could keep their balance. He wasn’t sure what the Aladren meant by ‘something to slide over’ on, but since everyone had to do something, that wasn’t really a problem. Someone else could do that and Andrew could…do something else.

“We can divide the presents up when we get to the other side and enchant them,” he said. “Like – shrinking, or making them light, or Transfiguring them into little rocks if anyone knows how….” He shrugged, grimacing apologetically and biting his tongue to keep himself from really apologizing. He really wasn’t used to deliberately picking the most complicated way to do something, though he was really glad now about the apparent lack of really assertive people on the team. People like them could at least work together instead of getting as impatient as they wanted to about how unintuitive the task required them to be.

He looked away from Arnold and wondered what Jax and the new girl – he thought this was Raine Collindale and that he’d seen her in Teppenpaw – were whispering about. He felt bad for her because he thought these events were going to be the worst for the first years. Most things were, sometimes even when they didn’t have to do things with the older students who already had a lot of experience at everything the first years were trying to do. Learning just to focus enough to control your powers was hard, too, in the beginner classes, and then there were all the laws of magic and things that would blow up if combined in Potions and so on. Being a first year was just not the best game, but they all had to play it for a while.

0 Andrew Carey I don't think it's a good idea 0 Andrew Carey 0 5

Kira Spaulding

January 05, 2016 3:45 PM

This is Team Nine by Kira Spaulding

Kira had never really considered herself that competitive. After all, why bother when she knew that she could never stand a chance in most areas? She was going to always be considered inferior to Kelsey in everything but magical ability.

At the same time, it was exactly this that made her want to specifically beat her cousin's team. The rest of the teams didn't matter to her, she just wanted to be better than Kelsey for once. Her cousin got to come out on top all the time. Kira never did. She felt like her cousin had so much and she had so little. If there was ever a time when magical ability was all that was going to matter, maybe, but the world didn't work that way. It never would. It was all about social skills and fitting a perfect little mold and she'd always come up short.

Hopefully, the challenges would be different. They couldn't very well make them about proper manners and acting like a perfect little pureblood lady (or gentleman) when a good part of the school wasn't part of society. They could, however, make them about magic. And she hoped they at least partially did. Kira so badly wanted to get the approval of others and feel good about herself. This was the one way she could truly contribute, since she wasn't all that good at anything else. In fact, she was terrified that she'd only make things worse if things were based on any other skill. Merlin help her if it was based on dancing or anything athletic. She'd embarrass herself terribly.

And Kira wasn't quite off the hook in terms of having to act proper and worry about her every move being scrutinized. Her team was all purebloods which was difficult, even if one of them was Caelia. Her friend wasn't quite as bad as Kelsey and the younger Crotalus did like her, but she seemed much more sure of herself socially than the second year was. Not that that took much. Most people were. Kira also wasn't too sure about Chuck Fintoc being someone she had to worry about, as his step-sister wasn't even a pureblood but the rest-except maybe Lena- were ideal young ladies. Examples to be held up to and therefore intimidating.

It shouldn't be that way, she knew. Being an ideal litle lady like her cousin should come as easy to her as magic did. The way it did for Kelsey, but it just didn't. She was painfully aware of her inadequacies and it made her worry that her teammates might care about such things more than they did about winning. And if the challenges weren't based on magic, the second year wouldn't be much help with that either.

Still, it could be worse. Kira actually sort of felt bad for her roommate. Laila was on a team led by Leo Princeton, whom was Tristan's roommate that he didn't like. And Fabian didn't like Aladrens period which was pretty much the rest of that team, which meant Kira had heard nothing positive about the lot. Of course, this was their opinion which didn't mean it was true but still wouldn't make her any less nervous around them if it was her. Besides, her overall impression of Dustin Newell at least was that he seemed like a male version of Kelsey. As it was, they were a bunch of pureblood males who were probably not going to listen to or respect a second year Muggleborn girl. She knew that was how they'd been taught to act, that was proper, but she still felt it was an unenviable position to be in. If there was something Kira understood and could sympathize with it was being ignored.

All Kira had brought for this challenge was her wand and a book of spells. She'd already been studying early intermediate spells and mastered a few of the easiest ones. Not having a very active social life, Kira spent a lot of time practicing magic. When she did, she forgot about everything else for a bit and felt good about herself for awhile.

She hadn't brought anything else, she didn't know what else to bring and magic was the only way she was able to solve problems. Generally speaking, if the Crotalus couldn't use magic to fix something the problem would remain. It would have to be up to others if that was the case.

The second year joined her team and stood next to Caelia, greeting her.As Kira listened to Professor Pye give the instructions, she breathed a small sigh of relief. She didn't necessarily know how to solve the problem, and any idea she'd come up with was going to be a bad one, she was sure but so long as someone else came up with a strategy, she was pretty sure she could contribute with spell work. Though that left Kira with another issue, did she volunteer for new and above grade level spells she'd learned if necessary-spells Caelia and Chuck could most likely do-and show how much she could contribute to this challenge or would they resent her for it and think she was showing off?

11 Kira Spaulding This is Team Nine 320 Kira Spaulding 0 5

Savannah Brockert

January 06, 2016 4:56 PM

And unnecessary at this point. by Savannah Brockert

As far as Savannah was concerned there was a bit of a hole in the directions for this challenge. They'd been asked to bring problem solving sundries. It sounded good in theory, but the thing was, how could one know what they needed to solve a problem when they didn't know what the problem was? Different problems required different solutions and different implements in order to carry out said solutions.

So after watching her sister scarf down an omelet and wishing good luck to what felt like half the school, Savannah walked down to the pitch with her wand, a book of spells that she'd shrunken to fit in her pocket and some crafting items, as that was what was available to her, and joined her teammates on the pitch. She was rather pleased with the lot, as while it would have been fun to be with Scarlett-she and her twin were different but in ways that complimented each other very well-or Aiden, she couldn't complain about the teammates she had either. Savannah had no idea how good they'd be at anything-not because she thought they were especially lacking but because she couldn't know how well someone, herself included, would do at something when she didn't know what the something was-but because she felt like they'd be a group that wasn't too hard to work with.

Finally, Professor Pye introduced the challenge and Savannah briefly considered what problem solving sundries would have been helpful. Maybe a bag to put the presents in so they didn't have to touch the ground but the rest seemed to be all stuff that could be done with magic. Yup, a wand was definitely the best tool.

Arnold asked for ideas and Jax spoke up. It didn't sound like a bad start, though there needed to be more details. Savannah couldn't help but think this was something that had a really complex solution but as a Professor Pye had asked for creativity, there had to be more than one. Or it could be something with a really simple solution that he wanted to make them think was complex to trick them.

Andrew added in his own suggestion which also sounded like a good one. "Both of those sound like reasonable ideas." Savannah replied. "After all, he never said we all had to do different spells. Just that we all had to do a spell. So the younger students could all do easier ones, I mean, I assume you've all learned shrinking by now. However, someone also has to melt the ice on the sleigh and I think using the gripping charm on the ice is also a good idea so we don't fall. It's not like we all only have to do one spell either if more are needed either. We just all have to do at least one."

11 Savannah Brockert And unnecessary at this point. 286 Savannah Brockert 0 5

Fabian Brockert

January 06, 2016 5:47 PM

How about this one? by Fabian Brockert

Fabian had mixed feelings about the challenges. On the one hand, they seemed like a lot of fun and a way of breaking up the monotony of school. Something that injected a little excitement into their everyday lives that didn't involve rumors being spread. He was just glad there was nothing about him that the Satori could have picked up on last year.

On the other hand, competition brought out the worst in people. People took it way too seriously and got worked up about trivial matters that got way too intense and stopped being fun at all. Fabian much preferred having a good time to proving himself superior to others. He'd never felt it all that necessary, possibly because he'd been raised in one of the most prominent pureblood families out there and there was no need to compete when you were already on top, which was his basic theory as to why he didn't have many competitive relatives either. Even Chaslyn wasn't really so much competitive as she was wanting to desperately achieve the hopeless goal of pleasing her mother.

Nor was he plagued with personal feelings of inadequacy that filled him with a need to prove himself to anyone. Fabian simply wanted to relax and enjoy himself as much as he could before having to face the dreariness of adulthood.

At least though, the teams were mixed and not based on house. Certain houses seemed to think they were better than others and house based competitions only sought to prove that certain types of people were superior. Of course, Fabian-whose team was like half Pecari anyway-still had an Aladren on his team and it happened to be Arabella's future brother-in-law. A fact that didn't make him quite as wary as the fact that Leonidas Bennett was an Aladren, but at least it wasn't someone who the second year already usually wanted to give a good hexing to like the ones around his own age. He'd be polite to Leonidas both for the sake of team spirit and unity and because of Arabella, who was an amazing big sister and would want her siblings to get along with Paul's.

At least he could contribute to the vague concept of problem solving sundries. Fabian loved camping and survival stuff and,in addition to his wand, had brought gear with him that might help one survive in the wild, including a rope. And spellotape, which was incredibly useful. After listening to the directions as well as the ideas of some of his teammates, he spoke up. "I can definitely shrink and enlarge. I also have a rope that maybe we could grab onto to help us across ice if someone froze the lake. Like for balance."

11 Fabian Brockert How about this one? 321 Fabian Brockert 0 5

Angelique Brockert

January 06, 2016 11:38 PM

Me too by Angelique Brockert

Angelique had dressed as practically as she could for whatever a challenge on the pitch could possibly be. She feared that this might end up being something that involved flying or worse. She was not the rough and tumble, sporty type at all and did not enjoy those sorts of activities one little bit. What if they had to play some dreadful game involving brooms? Maybe not Quidditch as none of the teams were large enough but something else that they made up for this purpose. Ugh.

Of course, that wouldn't be fair to people like Owen who wouldn't be able to breathe or the blind girl in her class. Angelique didn't know about Nevaeh's parents at all and how they'd react, but if Uncle Mortimer allowed something that forced Owen into having an asthma attack, he'd never ever ever hear the end of it from Aunt Annabeth which was almost certainly something he wouldn't want to deal with. And the fact that they were supposed to bring "problem solving sundries" was a comforting thought, because even though Angelique wasn't big on academics and other intellectual pursuits, at least they didn't mess up her hair and clothing and make her smelly.

The biggest problem she felt to solve though was what to wear-and that had been quite a challenge. Angelique didn't dress in "practical" clothing. She liked pretty things, so that was she mostly had and those were not conducive to anything that the challenges would throw at them. She'd ended up just wearing something that was a bit simpler. After all, the Crotalus would hate for one of her nicer fancier outfits to get ruined.

She joined her team on the pitch. Overall, she had to say that she wasn't too bothered by them. In fact, the best thing about these Challenges was that she was being given the opportunity to meet some of the right people that she wouldn't have gotten to otherwise. The first year class was a bit disappointing in that respect. Not that she was ever rude to anyone, but now she got to socialize with some respectable members of society and that had been what the first year had always wanted.

Angelique breathed a sigh of relief when Professor Pye gave his instructions. Solving problems with logic wasn't one of her strengths but she could certainly manage to do any spell she'd learned thus far, especially in Transfiguration if someone else came up with a plan. Anyway, she was just glad it wasn't sports!

Ginger Pierce-whom Angelique knew was not one of the New Hampshire Pierces, but whom Owen spoke highly of anyway being that her cousin was an exceedingly nice person and Ginger was best friends with his ~~girl~~friend- suggested enlarging her mitten as an item to put gifts in. So that must have been what was meant by problem solving sundries. It was certainly going to get them resourcefulness points. Angelique had to feel bad though that Ginger was going to be without a glove though. She was going to be freezing.

After Jake and Diana spoke, with the latter questioning the ability of them to be levitated, Angelique piped up. "Maybe a bridge of some kind is necessary? Or a snow boat? Like we could shape a boat out of snow, put spells on it to make it able to hold us and then sail over in it. Then we could shrink the presents-and sleigh-put them in the boat, sail back over and put them in Ginger's mitten? Or does anyone know how to conjure things so Ginger doesn't have to give her mitten up and have her hand be cold?" She hoped her idea was decent, she wanted these people thinking well of her.

11 Angelique Brockert Me too 332 Angelique Brockert 0 5

Oliver Ferguson II

January 07, 2016 2:01 AM

Reluctantly joining you all. by Oliver Ferguson II

Oliver wanted nothing to do with these Challenges. As far as he was concerned he had much better things to do with his time than play some trivial little game. He had a mission in life, a goal, something much more important to strive for than some stupid competition. Even though it would be immensely satisfying to triumph over Portia and Clark-whom he still couldn't believe had gotten prefect over him- and show everyone that he was far superior,fixing his father's perversions was much more important and between that, CATS and his normal classes, this whole thing was something he did not need to waste his precious time on.

Unfortunately though, Oliver was being forced to participate rather he liked it or not-and his facial expression made it quite clear that he did not for he wore a scowl that would make the Headmaster proud.

Most of the team was, he had to admit, grudgingly acceptable. The two younger boys were Aladrens from good families. Their team "leader, Leo Princeton also was from such a family, though he was a Crotalus. At least that was better than a Pecari or a Teppenpaw though. Oliver shuddered to think of what would happen if his team was left in those less capable hands. Teppenpaws were too soft and wimpy to lead and Pecaris were too reckless, lacking in any sort of substance or class. Mostly they just liked to hear themselves talk even if it meant they were saying something totally stupid. Which they usually were.

Then there were the two little girls. He'd never ever heard the names Laila Kennedy and Vendela Montiel before-or that of their families. That meant they were nobody of importance and were likely to be completely useless given their age, gender and backgrounds. Professor Pye's instructions said everyone had to do a spell so Oliver supposed they could just do whatever little token jobs the rest of the team could come up with.

After one of the two, Laila he thought as he couldn't bother to remember which of them was which, spoke, Oliver responded in the sort of tone he'd use on his four year old cousin Bridget. Or on her father."I assume what Mr. Spencer meant was that we'd form a line across the water-which by the way would require somebody to freeze the water first so we'd have a place to stand."

11 Oliver Ferguson II Reluctantly joining you all. 278 Oliver Ferguson II 0 5

Serena Brockert

January 07, 2016 6:51 PM

Me too by Serena Brockert

This past summer had even topped the previous one for Serena. Last summer, she'd met Oscar. Now she was betrothed to him and it had been announced at the Livilian royal ball. The Teppenpaw felt like all her dreams were coming true, like she was living in her own bonafide fairy tale, even though the closest thing she'd ever had to an antagonist had been out of her life before meeting her Prince Charming. Everything having to do with Oscar was magnificent.

Her only antagonist now was her own comparatively inferior abilities in Transfiguration. Serena hadn't wanted to take the class anymore but she still was due to not getting up the courage to tell her parents the truth. Even if she'd been able to tell them or her sister, she still wouldn't want the rest of the family to know. It was practically a given that Brockerts were going to take the class and she was certain that even Uncle Clifford was aware of all their class schedules and grades and CATS and RATS scores. Especially with the Headmaster being a Brockert too. The last thing that Serena wanted was for the man who held so much power over them all to see her flaws. Even if she was to be a Livilian princess and he'd had to bow to her with everyone else when it had been announced.

Still, she did manage an E in Transfiguration on her CATS, based on the fact that she tended to do quite well on theory. Even if everyone did think it was the opposite probably. She'd ended up with an O in Potions though.

However, even more so than last year, things weren't getting to her quite as much. Serena could not be happier despite Transfiguration. She was betrothed to a man she loved and whom loved her back. So nothing else could truly get her down. Especially since she was getting to go back to Livilia after the holidays with her own family.

That was true of the Challenges too. Not that that meant Serena wasn't a little bit unsure of them or really most new situations. She was a bit terrified of what she would be asked to do as she'd never been the bravest of people and still wasn't. What if whatever they had to face involved something scary. She knew that when her sister and cousins did this,they'd had to face their boggarts and though she'd beaten one before, hers was kind of embarrassing. Plus there were all sorts of awful creatures out there as well. Which she supposed was one benefit of taking Transfiguration over COMC.

At least though, Serena was on a team with nobody that she had a real issue with which had been Amity's biggest problem last time. Not that the sixth year had any outright enemies but there definitely some students she found less than kind as well as Liliana, whom though not an awful person, made her feel inadequate and a tad bit jealous. True, she was the only society person on her team, but as long as people weren't mean to her, she could handle that. Besides, one was Liac Reinhardt, and he was so good to Chaslyn.

Kyte -one didn't forget a name like Kyte even if one was inclined to forget names in general, which she wasn't-went straight to the solution of flying and opened up the broom shed. Serena was less than keen on this idea. Not so much opening the broom shed which was most likely not what Professor Pye meant for them to do, but the actual flying which was not something she really enjoyed at all. For one thing, if she went too fast, she tended to feel a little queasy and furthermore, the idea of only a small piece of wood under her when she was up in the air made her nervous. Ava seemingly was okay with it though and asked Nevaeh how she was at Transfiguration. After the first year girl admitted she'd rather not fly, Serena spoke up. "I'd really rather not fly either."

11 Serena Brockert Me too 272 Serena Brockert 0 5

Kelsey Atwater

January 07, 2016 7:50 PM

Nice rhyme. by Kelsey Atwater

Kelsey wasn't all that enthused about the Challenges. She tried to generally avoid being around those who were of inferior blood and now she was being forced. Some of her team was acceptable.She was with Alistair, which made her quite happy, as he was a fine pureblood gentleman though she had no idea why he was so into Scarlett's roommate who was hardly ladylike, even if she was from the right kind of family. It was so disappointing.

Then the team was lead by Caelia's brother Emrys, whose judgement Kelsey felt could be a bit questionable at times. Other than Charlotte Spencer and Arnold Manger, he'd made some pretty poor choices in friends. This gave her slight doubts at his ability to be a leader as leaders were supposed to make good decisions. On the other hand, he was a proper pureblood, which made her more okay with taking orders from him-Kelsey could handle getting instructions from teachers who were not of good backgrounds because they were adults who'd trained specifically in whatever subject they were teaching, but students were quite another matter-and he was an Aladren which had to mean he was at least intellectually gifted. Especially given he helped Caelia with her schoolwork.

Lionel Layne was okay, she guessed. The Laynes were an old pureblood family, but they weren't...a society family. That, she supposed, could have been worse.

However, then there were the two younger students, Joey Thompson and Natalie Varth. Nobodies. People Kelsey wanted absolutely nothing to do with. People she'd try her best to not speak to directly unless she absolutely had to.

Emrys seemed to want to have the youngest students go first, which Kelsey felt was a downright bad idea for more reasons than just their age and background. After Lionel, who didn't seem all that enthused with that idea either, volunteered to do some summoning, Kelsey spoke up. "Having us go in order of age wouldn't work because things need to be done in a certain order. The groundwork of getting over the river has to come first before we can reach the presents and have the younger students shrink them down. I can Summon too,but Lionel is correct that it would be a bit on the slow side as we can all only do one at a time."

11 Kelsey Atwater Nice rhyme. 305 Kelsey Atwater 0 5

Tristan Spaulding

January 07, 2016 11:46 PM

I hope so. by Tristan Spaulding

Tristan was pumped for these Challenges. He enjoyed a good competition now and then and a bit of excitement. While he'd never act out in an immature fashion if his team lost, as it was beneath him to do so given that it reflected poorly on a person as well as their family and did not befit his status as the Spaulding heir, it felt incredibly good to win. Not that it was acceptable behavior to gloat loudly either but that didn't stop him from feeling satisfied if he did better than others. It just reinforced his beliefs that he'd be an amazing heir. Especially if he led a team to victory.

Plus, it might impress Nellie. Tristan really wanted to go to the next level with her and see if a betrothal could be arranged between the two of them.

So he eagerly made his way to the pitch the morning of the first Challenge and found himself there before any of his teammates. As he waited, the seventh year couldn't help but gaze wistfully around the pitch a little. It had been sort of a blow to him to find out he lacked talent in Quidditch and while Tristan tried to think about it as little as possible given he preferred to think about the things he was gifted in, those feelings of disappointment got triggered some by being on the pitch-and disappointment was not something he was used to feeling. That in turn made him angry as while the only time Tristan had not remained composed in front of others was that time he'd punched his cousin, he didn't quite know how to deal with such emotions.

There was no time to dwell on it though right now. The rest of the team was arriving and obviously he would never want them-or anyone else-to see him as anything other than a shining example of pureblood manhood. That meant strength and not silly emotions. Especially if he was going to be their leader.

Tristan took in Professor Pye's instructions. He had a lot of respect for the man as the professor had once been an Auror just like the Crotalus wanted to be, so Tristan felt he was a good person to learn from.

Then he turned to the rest of his team. Apparently, Sammy did not have a plan, but that was all right, given that Tristan hadn't necessarily expected her to given that he didn't associate Pecaris with planning. Not because they were stupid but because of them basically having a tendency towards impulsive natures. Planning was a Crotalus thing.

Besides, she couldn't have planned ahead for this particular challenge based on them not knowing precisely what it was going to be prior to this moment.

However, he had an idea. "We could fly across." Tristan suggested. He'd brought his broom and given there were no proper pureblood ladies among them and that it was a Pecari heavy team-Pecari also being the house he most associated with being physically active-he felt this was a reasonable idea. "And I could conjure bags for us all to carry. When we get over there, you younger ones could all shrink presents and put them inside. If not everyone has a broom.."Tristan looked over the shed where the school ones were kept. "Someone has kindly unlocked the shed and someone could Summon them over."

11 Tristan Spaulding I hope so. 264 Tristan Spaulding 0 5

Portia Dobson

January 08, 2016 12:55 AM

With blood and gore? by Portia Dobson

Portia had rather mixed feelings about her teammates. Once again she was the odd one out, just like in her own class and there was little hope of making a new friend. On the other hand, the team was heavy on Quidditch players who'd surely be willing to do all the more athletic components of a challenge if it came to that which she really had no interest in doing. She enjoyed dancing but that was it when it came to things that were physically demanding.

She arrived at the pitch that morning with just her wand based on the fact that she had zero idea what problem solving sundries meant. Portia hadn't even bothered to ask Nora because Nora would have just told her that it depended on what the problem itself was. Instead the Teppenpaw just brought her wand as magic was something she was much more useful in than things using her brain or body. She was going to have to survive on magic and teamwork. Besides, the latter was the point of this whole thing.

Professor Pye gave the instructions and Portia mulled them over. She felt she could do any of the more advanced spells that were needed, especially in Transfiguration as she was pretty decent at the practical parts of both that and Charms. Having only kept the two classes along with not having an especially active social life here at school gave her plenty of time to do well on her spellwork and she probably studied a bit more than she was truly interested in doing and theory bored her to tears. However, right now they needed a plan as to how to go about this.

Fortunately, Ben seemed to have one. She watched dumbfounded as the first year unloaded an odd assortment of items including what looked to be some sort of inactivated bludger with a mouse carved on to it and a blunt wooden object that Portia assumed was some kind of weapon. Was that what that all was? Weapons? And the shoes with wheels attached were some sort of get away device? The Teppenpaw hadn't taken Ben for a sociopath, was he planning to use these implements to eliminate the other teams by taking them out in a violent manner?

She opened her mouth to speak and tell the young Pecari that violence was not the answer and that they needed to win by their skills and not by harming their competitors, when he mentioned transfiguring the wheeled shoes which he'd called roller blades into ice skates. "Oh yes, that seems like a good start. We need to turn the water into ice first as well as a way to get the rest of us across too. Maybe make all our shoes into ice skates?" Portia suggested, hoping to Merlin that that was what Ben was getting at and not, say, using ice skates in a way that took the word cutthroat literally.

11 Portia Dobson With blood and gore? 262 Portia Dobson 0 5

Clark Dill

January 08, 2016 10:26 AM

Now I'm hungry by Clark Dill

While, overall, his plan seemed to be meeting with general agreement, he was a bit disappointed that everyone thought the eight reindeer carrying the sleigh was overreaching. Yes, okay, they may have a point seeing as the transfiguration he'd suggested was a bit beyond his ability but that was no reason to compromise the idea entirely . . .

In fact, as Mackenzie and Tasha chimed in with support for using a a flying charm instead, a better idea came to him. "Maybe not," he admitted to Isaac regarding his transfiguration skill, "but what if we use the flying charm like Makenzie suggested and make an illusion of eight reindeer pulling it instead? They won't tip the sleigh and should be easier than making real flying reindeer."

He was sure that managing a life like illusion that appeared solid and convincing, especially if he had to make eight of them, was well outside his skill range, but the reindeer were just window dressing at this point, so it was the creativity that mattered more so than the practical substance of them. If they looked a bit translucent and cartoon-y it wouldn't be the end of the world. And he'd help with something substantial prior to that point so he'd get his spell credit in with the ice bridge or the summoning charms.

And oh! "How about me and Sutton stay over here and make a Christmas tree and tree skirt to put the presents under and on over here, while the rest of you make and cross the ice bridge. Then the beginners can levitate the presents up for us to summon while the two of you," he nodded at Isaac and Makenzie, "get the sleigh free from the ice. Then you can fly it back over once it's empty and I'll do the illusion. Does that work?"

1 Clark Dill Now I'm hungry 277 Clark Dill 0 5

Caelia Lucan

January 08, 2016 1:56 PM

♡ by Caelia Lucan

She was thirteen years old and old enough to have her own personal correspondence. Or, at least, she felt like she was. However, Emrys seemed to be suspicious of the idea of her having personal correspondence with a wizard and so like a good younger sister she hadn’t broached the subject with anyone though there had been a couple classmates that she had thought she might like to write to over the winter break as she’d enjoyed their company. Kira and Kelsey she would continue to write to, of course, Emrys had no problem with that even if Kelsey wasn’t his favorite person, but she knew he liked her friends to the extent that they treated her well and she was happy with them.

To be perfectly honest, the hovering way in which Emrys was behaving irritated her, but Caelia was too polite-mannered of a witch to actually tell him that. Besides, she really did enjoy the amount of time he was spending with her. It was nice to be spending his last year with him, she thought. By the end of the year he would be off on his own, with his first real job. She knew their parents had offered for him to live at home for a while until he had a secure enough job to find a place of his own, but she also knew that her ever independent and money conscious older brother would never take them up on that offer so it really was their last year to spend time together.

Caelia had met Emrys in front of Cascade Hall as they met each other near every day when they took their afternoon walks through the Labyrinth Gardens or the previous year when they had met up to watch the Quidditch games together. Seeing her older brother always served to put a smile on her face and Caelia happily walked over to the Pitch with him, it having been her idea to do so just the two of them. She waved goodbye to him as she went to find her friends and happily greeted Kira with a large smile. “Excited for this?” she asked, her eyes sparkling. She didn’t know how she felt yet about the challenges—even though Caelia had issues with a lot of the different aspects of her schoolwork, she was not deficient in her magical ability which meant she was stuck in the awkward position of needing help (which Alistair had so kindly agreed to do for her) but also not needing help—however there was a feeling of excitement in the air which provided contagious for the excitable girl.

However, despite being a third year and therefore the exact middle age of the group (since Chuck was a third year like herself), Caelia didn’t really feel like she was allowed to talk first and so instead she looked to one of the older students to bring about the first idea, either her brother’s girlfriend or the quiet Aladren fifth year who had never really made much of an impression on the young Crotalus. She didn’t want to speak out of turn and so looked around and when she thought it didn't seem like anyone wanted to start the conversation, she glanced over to the oldest member of their group for guidance. “Where do you think we should start, Charlotte?” she asked the older girl, expectantly.

10 Caelia Lucan ♡ 307 Caelia Lucan 0 5

Isaac Douglas

January 08, 2016 9:23 PM

No time for snacks, I'm afraid. by Isaac Douglas

Privately, in his head, Isaac had to admit that he was surprised by the response his objection got. Miss Newell and Miss DuBois agreed with him about Clark’s ambition being excessive. Dill was a fifth year Aladren, but they had more faith in Isaac’s judgment than in his – maybe. At the very least, they didn’t have as much confidence in Dill as Dill did in himself, or at least didn’t want to support the view of itself that Aladren as a House either had or was at least perceived as having….

Academically, he knew what he needed to do: make a strong, definitive move to seize control back. Unfortunately, the only really strong move he could think of, now that it was too late to talk his way back out, was volunteering to try to create a lot of reindeer himself, and there were two problems with that: one, he had just said it was a bad idea, so that looked inconsistent, and two, he didn’t actually know that he could do that Transfiguration with the supplies they had and very little knowledge of reindeer beyond ‘big brown vertebrates with horns and fairly complex brains’….

He felt his teeth grind together and made his jaw relax. Isaac studied hard these days, but in terms of sheer magical power, inborn ability to impose his own will on the world, he knew he was distinctly…mediocre. That didn’t really matter, of course – he had been born in a position where the magic he did in life would be everyday and where his math skills would usually be more important than his ability to conjure creatures larger than he was out of thin air – but since his half-sisters were not quite so mediocre and they all knew it, his perfectly respectable skill set could sometimes grate on his nerves. It was doing so right now, and the person provoking that feeling not being related to him at all seemed to be making it worse.

”Maybe not, but – “ and so Clark bounced back, and suddenly, Isaac was reminded of one of his sisters. Clark Dill looked a lot more like Isaac than he did like Alicia, but the combination of unseemly ambition and flashy magic, or at least desire to perform some, put Isaac in mind of her, made him want to match it just to make her smile the way she did when she was really furious and unable to do anything about it even as he sneered at the very idea of being like her to her face. This time, though, Clark just kept talking without asking for further input, making it difficult to do anything to him without stooping to shouting over him. It briefly occurred to Isaac that dignity might well be overrated, especially once he realized Clark’s revenge for Isaac’s attempt to undercut him was going to involve standing around playing with tree skirts, foisting the real work onto Isaac and then probably the blame for a late finish time so he could take control unopposed next time.

Clever, he had to admit. Evil, but clever. He had to give credit where credit was due. He just had to try to think of something do to in return at the same time.

“Certainly,” he said, arranging his face into a pleasant expression. “You two – “ this to Sutton and Clark – “have fun with your...project.” He decided, regretfully, to omit the word ‘little’ from that sentence. Dignity wasn’t yet that overrated. He looked at Makenzie and the first years and smiled, hoping he could make allies of them. At least Clark didn’t seem to realize that isolating himself wasn’t a good idea.

Freezing a path across the water wouldn’t be too difficult. He wondered if he could make it look more dramatic than it really was to impress the others with him. Makenzie would know better, though, so he thought it might be better not to risk it when he thought he might want her on his side the most of his group. Simplicity, contrasting Clark’s approach, might serve him better.

“What do you think, Miss Newell?” he asked Mackenzie. “Adjacent ice paths? If we both concentrate on depth over breadth - to a point, of course - the results should be safer for us and our friends.” He gestured toward Natasha and Gabriel.

16 Isaac Douglas No time for snacks, I'm afraid. 273 Isaac Douglas 0 5

Joe Umland

January 08, 2016 11:14 PM

As long as we don't miss the forest for the trees. by Joe Umland

Araceli’s words were fine, but her tone made Joe blink, wondering what he had done wrong. The ‘ooh’ might have been a little excessive, sure, but even if that was the case, he didn’t think he’d laid it on that thick. She sounded like he had just made the brilliant observation but Mommy, if we step out right here, we’ll get our shoes wet in that puddle!

Brandon Carey, at least, didn’t seem quite as sure. Joe smiled back when the older boy smiled, thinking that was the one good thing about being the youngest: he might have to go the long way around suggesting anything, but at least if he didn’t have anything to suggest, it probably wouldn’t be held against him as much as it would one of the people Araceli had decided were the leaders.

He assumed she had named those people leaders because their names had come first on the list in the Hall, but knew that if there was anything else to it, he’d never know it. These were not people Joe knew much about. After less than four months here, his best source of information about people outside the Beginner classes was still his brother, who he had started to think didn’t get out of Aladren much. Tobias Reinhardt John knew (John actually seemed to like Joe’s fellow Teppenpaw, though John being John, it was entirely possible Tobias didn’t know that) but Duncan he did not, all John had been able to tell him about Araceli was that she was a fourth year Crotalus, and he had described Brandon with the hardly more helpful ”pretty sure he’s related to my Careys, but he’s in Pecari. He doesn’t play Quidditch for them, though, so I guess he’s got some sense.”

Something about the way he’d said that last part had bothered Joe, somehow - it sounded slightly familiar, like it was close to something he’d heard someone who wasn’t John say before, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. For some reason, the memory of the mild disturbance came back to him as he considered how Duncan had been ‘Duncan’ while Brandon was ‘Mr. Carey’ and wondered what that meant about how the leaders got along and whether or not he should just cut his losses now and suppress the little voice in his head which insisted he wasn’t really pulling his weight (or at least would not be able to argue as thoroughly as possible that he had done so to an adult if there were peer reviews later) if he just stood there until he received orders from someone else. He stopped thinking about team dynamics, though, when the others started talking about snowmen.

“That sounds like a good idea,” he said when Brandon helpfully pointed out that snow made things that came into contact with it damp. “We’ll have to make the arms thicker, too, if they’re longer,” he added, but then stopped and didn’t add anything about making the snowman bigger to accommodate the longer and heavier arms as he remembered: oh, right, magic. They didn’t have to think about the laws of physics too much to get the job done, and it kind of sounded like the lead-in to a bad joke to do so at all when they were talking about the dimensions of a flying snowman. Never mind the semi-sentient part. The flying snowman part was enough to render most of the everyday laws of physics null and void. He was surprised to feel a flicker of disappointment. Joe had liked challenges like this back home, figuring out how to do things manually and with limited resources. They were like puzzles. He missed his laws of physics.

“It’ll - um, it sounds like something that would help the snowman balance the presents and not drop them in the water,” he added. He tried to think how they could all get spells into this. Duncan could animate it, someone could fly it, maybe the rest of them could…levitate the gifts onto the snowman’s arms? That sounded like a task that was going to require a lot of precise aiming. Maybe the semi-sentiment part would allow them to just levitate gifts out for the snowman to pick up because...because it would have no feet and sticks for arms and therefore couldn't do all the climbing and joint work that someone would need to do to retrieve them? He had a sudden very bad feeling that his senior overlords had not thought the participation requirement all the way through. “If it’s going to carry some and get flown back,” he continued. “Does anyone think sticking charms would be a good idea, too, if that’s the plan?”

16 Joe Umland As long as we don't miss the forest for the trees. 329 Joe Umland 0 5

Theodore Wolseithcrafte

January 08, 2016 11:19 PM

Good, cos I'm just here to lead by Theodore Wolseithcrafte

Theodore was a bit put off by the fact that the first year didn’t seem familiar with the engorgio Charm. He knew she was new, but she had to have learnt something already, surely? He wracked his brains trying to think whether that had been learnt in the second half of the year, but all he could think of was that it was very basic and he’d known it for what felt like forever. Thankfully, Mr. O’Neil stepped in. Being a Teppenpaw, he was good at all that reaching out and being warm sort of thing, and he patiently offered to teach the girl on the spot.

“Thank you,” Theodore nodded to him, “And if Ms. Whittaker can’t quite manage it, perhaps you can give her a helping hand.” Hopefully the girl would do it, otherwise they’d have to find something even simpler for her to do, and it was challenging to think down to that level.

He had been considering having Chaslyn freeze a path, with Aiden to supply some extra grip, but the other boy might now be preoccupied with managing the first year.

“I think we should get the other first years across the lake to act as scouts and assess the presents. Any that are extremely heavy or an awkward size, you can make lighter or shrink - assuming you know those spells?” he queried, not meaning to sound irritated or superior but managing it quite naturally anyway. “Besides, anything that involves manipulating the presents from here carries a high risk of dropping them.”

But how to get them across? He could always work with Chaslyn, or she herself could add the gripping charms… But ice was the obvious solution anyway. Whilst he would never have put himself down as ‘creative’ in this case it meant ‘able to think laterally’ and that was something he prided himself on. He thought over Professor Pye’s words. Had he said the presents had to reach this side ‘in their original condition’ they would have had more options… They could have charmed the parcels to swim across and then dried them out. But he had forbade them from touching the ground or the water. His mind whipped through the ways people swam… There was the Bubblehead Charm. They could put the presents on their heads and then cast it. But the water was bound to be freezing, besides which they’d also look ridiculous…

“An ice bridge seems a bit obvious but it’s the only way across without getting wet or benefiting from what one of the other teams did already,” he decided, referring to the possibility of summoning brooms from the now open shed, “Plus time is also a factor, and anything else will be very long-winded. Chaslyn and I can work on that, and then perhaps we can win back some points in the lateral thinking with how we get the sleigh over.” The sleigh wasn’t forbidden from touching the water or the ground, obviously in the latter case, given that it was currently sitting on it. “Perhaps if we combined our strength on an animation charm we could make it gallop or swim over - we’d also need to reinforce our bridge if it was going to gallop across it, which would add another spell to what we’ve used.”

OOC - whilst the Chess charm is viewed as Transfiguring, students are also tested in Charms on whether they can make a pineapple tap dance, so I figure that emulating simple human movements without much sentience is considered to be a Charm.

13 Theodore Wolseithcrafte Good, cos I'm just here to lead 270 Theodore Wolseithcrafte 0 5

Lionel Layne

January 08, 2016 11:43 PM

Thank you. by Lionel Layne

Lionel had been thinking something similar, but he still winced when Kelsey Atwater bluntly spoke her mind about each of them doing spells in a certain order. Especially when she dragged his name into it. Hearing that he was correct about something was pleasantly novel, but since he was kind of the unofficial number two of the group by decree of the list, he really didn’t want anything to make Emrys think he was trying to follow…actually, any of his least favorite cousin’s advice, but especially the part concerning times when and ways in which it might be advantageous to incite chaos in his own team.

“We do need to make sure everyone is included in our plans, though,” he said quickly, hoping to bash out some kind of extremely quick compromise. He didn’t think his chances were all that good, at least if Emrys had the Aladren haughtiness thing going on. The stuff Lionel had seen about him on library sign-up sheets over the years made Lionel think he might not be too bad about that, but better safe than sorry…except that he was talking, when the safe thing would have been to let them fight it out. “So maybe you guys – “ he smiled at the youngest students – “could think of spells you’re comfortable with while we figure out how to cross the river.” A thought occurred to him. “Unless you have ideas about that,” he added quickly, not wanting to condescend to them too much – it might inspire one to push him into the river or something – or to miss a good idea just because of its source.

He should, he decided, have kept his mouth shut. Saying something to the kids made it sound like he thought he was in charge. The problem was that he could see other people moving around on other teams and that was fanning some tiny hidden spark of competitiveness in him into a tiny, tiny flame, making it seem that they did not have enough time for this. They needed to do something, quick, and he thought Kelsey was right, and he’d already been talking, so one thing had just sort of led to another. Here was really hoping that Emrys was not the type who got touchy about his ideas being right and his authority being acknowledged and all that. If he was, the activity meant to bring them all together as a school might start getting awfully unpleasant, and Lionel really did not want that to happen.

16 Lionel Layne Thank you. 283 Lionel Layne 0 5

Emrys Lucan

January 09, 2016 4:54 AM

Squeezing it in at the last minute. by Emrys Lucan

Kelsey Atwater had always been Emrys’ least favorite of his sister’s friends. He got the mild impression that the younger witch disapproved of him as well which was an idea he found to be slightly amusing since he was both older and a prefect which meant there was really nothing she could do to him in the way of authority. But she and Lionel had made a solid point that the order of how things done had to be taken into account too. Emrys smiled in the humble way he never would have picked up from his grandparents and acknowledged their point, which in reality, had been his poorly explained point all along since by “go” he had really meant “share your idea since we’re still in the planning stages.” Again, another reason why Emrys didn’t particularly feel comfortable in a leadership position—his words got jumbled up and he occasionally had issues expressing himself.

“Well of course,” he replied, addressing the whole group and doing his best not to sound too frustrated. He supposed he hadn’t spoken too clearly at first and was glad for the seeming compromise that Lionel had suggested but was really the original Emrys himself had tried to convey albeit rather poorly. “I was merely suggesting that those who knew the least amount of spells share what they could do at the beginning in case we wanted to go the route of creativity and not be overlapping all our spells. Otherwise if older students, capable of more spells simply because of age and length of study take up the easier, beginner spells, well then we’d have a bit of a problem when we needed the younger years to go, right? Even if we get it done quickly and get points in the category there is still ‘creativity’ and ‘resourcefulness’.”

Emrys was a big believer that racing wasn’t everything and that it was better to have a good, thorough job done than a quick, reckless one which was why he supposed he usually came out on top when it came to spellwork between him and Wesley who, though brilliant, kind of had some shoddy craftsmanship in the way of his finished product in class. Nevermind if he could actually do the spell properly—if he worked hard enough at it, Emrys knew his cousin could do all the spells. But Wesley was perfectly content to leave his classwork at simply ‘good enough’ which was something Emrys could never understand.

“I think that’s a great idea, Lionel,” he continued, agreeing that while the older students worked at the beginning part the younger students could think about what they could do. “I have a feeling quite a few people might try to freeze over the river. Is there a way we could get around that? Perhaps,” and now he looked to the two very youngest members of their group, wanting to make sure that they were comfortable with the idea. “While we can’t levitate an actual human being, we can work to levitate the clothes that Joey and Natalie are wearing to get them to the other side of the river at which point, if you know the shrinking charm well enough you can shrink the presents done to put into a bag that someone over here can transfigure and then levitate?”

He tilted his head slightly to get a better view on the river and decide if he had explained well enough. “So Kelsey, if you wanted to transfigure perhaps my glove into a bag and then if Joey and Natalie hold onto that bag whilst Kelsey levitates it and Lionel and I levitate your clothes, Joey and Natalie…”—he rather thought that holding ones concentration on levitating two human beings took up a considerable amount of concentration and he didn’t want to loose any of that to accidentally drop his youngest charges into what was likely a freezing cold river, taking the day’s temperatures into account, even if it was only there and created by magic. “How does that sound? It will be hard but if you’re up for it I can’t see anyone else trying to levitate two members so we can definitely get creativity points.”

“I know this contradicts my earlier statement of not wanting to use the same spell over and over but surely our method would outweigh our spell work, at that point.”

10 Emrys Lucan Squeezing it in at the last minute. 260 Emrys Lucan 0 5