Oooh, this sounded like so much fun. The only concern was that she had absolutely no idea how to play chess.

Minor detail.

She considered her options. If she worked alone, her best bet was to simply guess when she gets to the chessboard. If she worked with a partner…

She was about to ask the tall boy next to her if he wanted to work together, but Aurora beat her to it. Hmm. Instead, Cat turned to Marina. She didn’t know if her friend could play chess, but figured that her chances were probably pretty good.

She stood, shouldering her bag. “Want to team up?” She asked Marina, her tone bright. “I don’t know how to play chess.” Full disclosure.

Diallo could barely fathom the thought of using the Elixir of Life. He was only twelve, and although he felt "grown" enough, knew there was plenty more experiences to come, but perhaps, maybe not everyone felt that way and when you're even older... he shook his head. Maybe it was from his dad always saying to make the most of what you got going on otherwise your life's a waste. Elixir would be like cheating in a way. But before he could come up with a conclusive thought, they were moving on. Oh, they were going to experience a special room.

Diallo got up and followed the others. He wondered which room he'll get. Either room will give his brain a workout. So with that, he braced himself, and stepped through the door.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Narrator

As soon as you cross the threshold, the door closes and disappears.

You now find yourself in a cavernous stone room, the ceiling rising high above. The room is well-lit by torches hanging all around the walls. And in the center sits a large chess board, each piece almost life-size. The pieces have already been moved into various places, as if a game was in the process of being played and was abruptly interrupted. On the other side of the room, past the chess board, there is another door, currently blocked by a black pawn.

In front of the chess board, there is a sign that reads:

Find the best move for white to checkmate the black king.
If you find yourself stuck and in need of a hint, tap this sign with your wand.

Hearing the door shut, Harvey looked over his shoulder. There was now nothing there as it had disappeared. Shrugging, he turned to take in his new surroundings, which turned out to be quite an impressive room. Despite its vastness, the well lit environment ensured that he see all that was important - namely the ginormous chess set.

“Wow!” Harv breathed, even more impressed when he realised that the pieces were even taller than him. He took his time gazing around at them, but it wasn’t long before he understood that a game had already started. Even without the sign, it was quite obvious that he would have to play. The first year wasn’t quite ready to have one of the pieces attack him, like one had Ron Weasley so he opted to just direct them.

“Queen to E6.”

The door continues to admit each student into one of the obstacle rooms, and the queue continues to shorten.

But there is still plenty of time yet. Whenever you are ready, young students.

As soon as you cross the threshold, the door closes and disappears.

You find yourself in a room a fraction smaller than the size of the classroom. The torches hanging on the stone walls light up the room completely. On the other side of the room, a door appears at the same time as a blaze of black flame rises from the floor. It blocks the door entirely, but it does not spread further or give off any heat.

In the center of the room stands a table with seven potions set in a neat row. Each vial is a different shape and size, and they each contain a different color of liquid: black, green, white, red, blue, purple, and yellow, ordered from left to right.

To the left of the black potion, there lays a roll of paper, where a riddle is written in neat handwriting:

A challenge lies before you, and defeat lies behind.
One of us is the one you seek, the only one of its kind,
The chosen one you need if you wish to move ahead,
The other six bring neither harm nor help, ‘tis a setback instead.
Seven potions stand here from which you must choose,
Decipher and deduce your selection from these three clues:
First, two of the tastes to avoid, the bitter and the sour,
They never feel an empty space, neither do they tower.
Second, the sweet might be a taste you desire,
But they stand afar and they stand higher.
Third, tasteless and tall it is, thin it is not,
The one you need you’ll know, in heart and thought.

The white queen moves to E6, facing off right next to the black king. "Check," a voice, sounding quite similar to Professor Amstern, rings out.

The black queen smashes into the white queen from the diagonal square of D5.

Then the board magically resets to its original setup, the white queen perfectly reformed as if it had never been smashed into pieces.

"Close," the voice says.

Perhaps another try?

He startled a bit when Aurora appeared at his side, her presence happening faster than his brain was entirely prepared for, and blinked down at her with a small smile curving his lips. "Oh―yeah, yes, I mean, yes. Sure." Could his words tumble out any more into a clumsy stack, or was it actually possible for him to reach new levels of embarrassment? "I'd really like that."

Now he just had to hope that he could pull his weight with the tasks ahead.

As the line inched forwards, he shifted a little closer to her and his hand hovered, fingers flexed, near her hand. And for half a heartbeat...he nearly took it. He didn't, because of course he didn't, and let his hand fall back to his side as heat creeped up his ears. When it was their turn, the fifth year drew a slow breath and squared his shoulders. "Well," he said, a wry note slipping into his voice as he tilted his head toward her, "here we go."

And then he stepped forward, crossing the threshold with her into whatever waited on the other side.

Oops.

Aurora hadn’t meant to startle Nyle. She felt a little sheepish for it, but he did seem to be happy to work with her. But then he always was. He probably just had been lost in thought. Maybe about the potions part. But she knew that they’d be okay; he was bright, and she was more than capable herself. They’d definitely manage. They worked well together.

Seeing his ears redden, she again wondered if he was okay. Maybe he was just nervous because of the activity???? He did get nervous and awkward a lot, which she found endearing, though she’d not tell him that because she knew that it would mortify him to know. Instead she just smiled.

Aurora felt the desire to grab his hand and lead him into the room. Because of excitement for the activity. Definitely. But she didn’t. Instead she nodded and stepped through with him. ”We got this.” She looked around to see which challenge they would face first.

As soon as you both cross the threshold, the door closes and disappears.

You now find yourself in a cavernous stone room, the ceiling rising high above. The room is well-lit by torches hanging all around the walls. And in the center sits a large chess board, each piece almost life-size. The pieces have already been moved into various places, as if a game was in the process of being played and was abruptly interrupted. On the other side of the room, past the chess board, there is another door, currently blocked by a white pawn.

In front of the chess board, there is a sign that reads:

Find the best move for black to checkmate the white king.
If you find yourself stuck and in need of a hint, tap this sign with your wand.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Narrator

The white queen moves to E6, facing off right next to the black king. "Check," a voice, sounding quite similar to Professor Amstern, rings out.

The black queen smashes into the white queen from the diagonal square of D5.

Then the board magically resets to its original setup, the white queen perfectly reformed as if it had never been smashed into pieces.

"Close," the voice says.

Perhaps another try?

Okay, that was a terrible move.

Harvey had only played a few games of chess and he had always been bad at it. But rather than try to improve his game, he had gone the opposite direction by focusing on Gobstones. And Quidditch. Well, since he hadn’t mind the game for this activity, he was going to royally bumble his way through it. With the board back in its original setting, he studied the set up once more, trying - but not exactly busting his brain - to recall the little he knew about chess.

The Ravenclaw knew what the goal of chess was - to trap the opponent’s King. But what were the moves of the other pieces? He knew some only moved in certain directions. “Um. C2 to C4?” That particular pawn had not yet moved which meant that it could move forward two paces now. If Harv remembered correctly.

The white pawn moves forward, steady and determined, and halts in C4. Then, the black queen takes its turn, shattering that very pawn into pieces.

And then the board resets again, all pieces once more restored back into their original setup.

"Remember," the voice encourages, "you can checkmate the king in a single move."

Another chance lies before you, dear student.

It was a delight to observe each student working at the tasks they were given (because of course Vashti had her ways of monitoring each situation): Mr. Forsfelle's determined attempts at defeat the king, the pairing of Mr. Harden and Ms. Bay working together, Ms. Webb choosing to partner with Ms. García Massey, and Mr. Dreamer in a one of the potion riddle rooms.

Unfortunately, the time allotted for the lesson was rapidly coming to an end. Once that arrived, all of the obstacles blocking the exits - the black flames and the pawns - vanished, and the doors opened, leading back into the classroom.

"I'm very proud of all your efforts," Vashti said with a smile once the students returned. "And I hope you enjoyed the challenges and learning more about Nicolas Flamel and the Philosopher's Stone. That's all we have time for today, so please gather your things and head on to your next lesson. Homework will be posted on the noticeboard later this afternoon.

"I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day!"

---

OOC: The lesson is wrapping up, but there's still time to participate in the main activity if you want to! The thread will be locked around 24 hours from this post, but The Narrator will still be popping up for anyone who wants to attempt/continue/wrap-up the activity until then

And thank you so much to all of you for attending this lesson

When Diallo stepped into the room, he wasn't sure what to expect. Giant chess pieces? He figured some wizard's chess wouldn't be so bad. What he first noticed was the size of the room, it was smaller, so that crossed Chess out of his thoughts. The torches lit up the entire room where he could see a blaze of black flames over a door. That has to be the exit.

Diallo's eyes then focused in the center where the vial of potions rested on a table. He picked up the vials just to test the weight since they were all so different. He wondered, if he picked the wrong potion, what would happen? Would he die of embarassment? No way, the Professor would never kill them... would they? His eyes shifted. Well, his father would hear about it either way.

Next to the black vial, he picked up the roll of paper to read. The other six bring neither harm nor help, ‘tis a setback instead. Okay, so that reassured him. Diallo thought, well, maybe he should just drink them all until the right one works? But that would take the fun out of the challenge and he'd prob lose points. So, he continued reading... he blinked alot of times.

This is hard!! Diallo eyes looked back and forth. So, vials that are bitter and sour are a no go. They're also the shortest vials, which places blue, purple, green, and white vials. The sweet vials are far apart and tower... so that's black and yellow vials.

Diallo was at the last line reading. The one you need you’ll know, in heart and thought..... heart... Oh! Red looks like a heart. Picking up the red vial, it was certainly wasn't the tallest or thinniest and the shape. He had to be right! He pulled the cork and gave an imaginary toast, "Bottoms up." Taking a swig, he will surely know how wrong he was or not.

Checkmate the King in a single move?

Harvey frowned deep in thought, after watching his second attempt fail. He squinted at the King in question, then at the pieces around it {after the board had reset, obviously} but could not see it. Good golly, was he that rusty? Never mind, nobody answer that!

He was about to give a third instruction when Amstern’s voice rang out. Oh! Time was up already? What a relief! Harvey disliked that he had failed, and was glad no one was around to see this. Aw, heck! What could one more move hurt? It wasn’t going to work, anyway.

“G5 to F6,” he called out quickly.

Sometime after, the entire surrounding vanished and he had headed back to the classroom. “See you, professor!” Harv called after grabbing his belongings. He waved as he exited.

If not for the liquid state of the potion, it might feel as if you hadn't taken anything. There is no hint of bitterness, sourness, or sweetness; it has no taste at all.

Passing through the black fire would be the true test of the potion, but with the fire removed and the door open, a voice similar to Professor Amstern's speaks up, "Correct."

The black pawn on G5 moves just a fraction then hesitates, stops...and remains in place, perhaps realizing it should not obey the commands of someone in charge of the opposing side.

With the time limit run out, the black pawn blocking the door vanishes, and the door opens. And now a piece on the chess board moves on its own: the white queen moves a single space, to E7. The king has nowhere to run and no one to rescue him. Checkmate.