This was it. Task two. And it looked like it was a maze. A dark maze.

She pulled her jacket tighter around her. Then she held her wand out in front of her. "Lumos." she whispered. Led by the light of her wand, Monique headed down the path.

After a few cautious steps you can see a pale light up ahead. In your current state of mind, you might imagine all kinds of strange creatures waiting for you, but the four-legged thing in the middle of a small, overgrown clearing of sorts is comfortingly mundane and ordinary: a sturdy wooden table. The clearing itself doesn't appear to have another exit. That's odd, but something to worry about later.

On the table, in a row neat as you please, stand five potions. They each emit a faint glow, bathing the clearing in multi-coloured light. In front of them, there is a small piece of parchment. Directly past the table; a tiny door.

Monique continued down the path. She made out a four-legged thing in the distance. She cautiously approached. She had no idea what was in store. It could be anything.

...

Or it could just be a table.

A table lined with potions. Interesting.

There were two matching potions, a small potion, a wide potion, and a circular potion.

There was a piece of parchment on the table. She picked it up and read it. Logic puzzle. Fun.

Alright... she needed to end up small.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

Trust you not the phials' size.
The one that shrinks is in disguise.

That meant the shrink potion wasn't the blue one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

It can be found there intermixed,
Euphoria and pain betwixt.

That meant that it was either the purple, the green, or the blue one. But the blue one was already ruled out. So it was either the green one of the purple one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Parchment

If suff'ring is your dream to call,
The drink is deep, the phial tall.

Alright, so the death poisons were both tall and deep. That would describe the purple ones. The orange one was deep, but not really tall.

So, the shrink potion had to be the green one! The order was death potion, growth potion, death potion, shrinking potion, and euphoric potion.

Monique grabbed the green phial and took a sip.

You must be tiny for this trip... It's a Shrinking Potion! And a strong one, too. You become smaller and smaller until the phial itself is taller than you are and the table looms over you like a mountain. Now the overgrown grass has replaced the hedges as an obstacle to struggle through.

But what trip? Which direction? There was no obvious way to the clearing earlier...


To move onward through the maze, answer the following riddle:

I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and head, but I'm not alive. It is your strength which determines how far I go. You can hold me in your hand, but I'm never thrown. What am I?

All of a sudden Monique began to shrink. And she began to shrink rapidly! Soon enough the table began to loom over her!

Now... which way to go...?

She looked right and left. Nothing.

Quote:

I have many feathers to help me fly. I have a body and head, but I'm not alive. It is your strength which determines how far I go. You can hold me in your hand, but I'm never thrown. What am I?

Nothing but another riddle.

Monique tapped her head thoughtfully. So it was an object that 'flew'. And it had feathers. What things had feathers and flew...? A snitch? No, that only had two feathers, not many feathers. And a snitch didn't have a 'head' and a 'body.'

Hmm... her mind continued to wander thinking about everything that could soar. Every guess in her head seemed like a bigger shot in the dark.

Shot in the dark! That was it!!

"You are an arrow."

The grass is difficult to get through, It's highlands grass, very tough and entangled all over. The hedges high above you are silent now as you creep onwards, but that's no great consolation. Sure, a Blast-Ended Skrewt might not be able to find you, but what if there's an ant colony somewhere behind the next patch of grass?

Somewhere off to your right side, something titters. Oh, that little chuckle is worse than clicking mandibles. It implies intelligence. You whirl around, wand out, just as you hear the unmistakable sound of little footsteps, but there are just more blades of grass in front of you. You begin struggling forward blindly, trying to get to the end of the clearing.

Monique started walking in the forward direction. That was as good a direction as any, right?

Wow... was grass always like this? Tall and mangled? Monique felt like she was in a jungle pushing blades aside and ducking under others.

She strained her ears trying to hear anything. Monique thought about how she would be reassured if she heard the tiniest thing... or even ran into a bug. Yes, she'd take a confrontation with a bug over the quiet.

Then she heard something...

Was that a laugh?

She whipped around with her wand out. Nothing was behind her. But she did hear footsteps retreating. Great. Something in the grass was laughing and running.

She took it back, she didn't want to run into anything. After the footsteps were long gone she turned around and continued onward.

A door appears! This is a second clearing, with mercifully trimmed grass. It's lit well, too – there's a fire ahead. Standing on top of it is a large soot-stained cauldron. Next to it stands a small table. Both are regular sized, but someone has considerately placed a small ladder next to the table that you can climb to get on top of it.

On the table are a number of phials and boxes - Peppermint, Moonstone, Fluxweed, Pomegranate, Doxy Eggs, Frozen Chizpurfles, Hellebore, Ginger Roots, Spine of a Lionfish, Lacewing Flies, Puffer-Fish Eyes - all carefully labeled. Potion ingredients. The one closest to the ladder has a second piece of parchment attached to it.

It's another riddle. Even if you can solve it, though, how will the ingredients get into the cauldron? The ladder seems to be just a little bit too short. Levitating something into it could work – if nothing gets spilled – but what if the potion needs stirring?

Moniuque continued onward through the tough grass. Then she came across a clearing. A clearing with trimmed grass!! And this clearing was well lit. No need for her wandlight. "Nox."

Ahead of her was a table and a cauldron. The table had a ladder. Eep. Monique wasn't afraid of heights, but a normal-sized table and a mini-Monique didn't sound like too much fun. She headed to the ladder and started the long climb up.

After what felt like ages she finally reached the top. She looked around. There was another parchment, no doubt with another riddle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riddle

When they are caught,
they are thrown away.
When they escape,
you itch all day.

Hmm... that had to refer to a bug or some type. She walked down the table toward the potion ingredients. There they were. Frozen chizpurfles! That had to be her clue. Now, how was she going to get these into the cauldron?

Oh, maybe she could shrink the cauldron down to her size!

She aimed her wand at the cauldron. "Reducio!"

Your well-aimed spell produces no change whatsoever. It seems the cauldron and it's contents are protected by powerful magic.

Hmm... nothing? Oh well, Monique would just have to levitate the ingredients in.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" she said aiming her wand inside the box of frozen chizpurfles. She would just have to keep it hovering long enough to drop it in to the cauldron.

That shouldn't be too hard, right?

Even someone not afraid of bugs might not like the look of the Chizpurfles much. They're not alive, of course, tumbled on top of each other in a tightly corked phial.

But they're also much larger than usual in comparison, and there's something in that glassy, dead stare of theirs that just, well, creeps you out. And now that you're this small, you can study their bodies much more closely. They certainly look fearsome, and one can only imagine how much worse it would be if they suddenly sprang to life again, all scurrying legs and clicking chitin and... Shudder.

After successfully levitating the chizpurfles into the cauldron, a small scrap of parchment, almost hidden completely underneath the phial, catches your eye. Glad for the distraction, you retrieve it.

Ewwwwwww!!!!!!!!!

Those bugs were GROSS! It didn't help that she was so small. She could actually see the details in the bug.

EWWWWW!!!

At least she didn't have to touch it.

As she finished putting those in, she noticed another parchment. That meant another riddle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Riddle

What creature can you make if you take,
the head of a Dragon,
the middle of a Troll,
the hind of a Fox,
and the tail of a Plimpy?

Hmm...

Did a plimpy even have a tail?

No... it must mean something else. There was no way this could be literal.

Head of a dragon, middle of a troll, hind of a fox, and tail of a plimpy.

D-O-X-Y.

Doxy. Doxy eggs must be the next ingredient! She turned toward the box labeled doxy eggs and aimed her wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" Monique said.

Like the creature that lays them, the Doxy eggs aren't really bad as such, just... Well. If the grown Doxy is a pest, then its egg is pestilential. In its smell. It would make a compost heap pinch its nose shut. A troll's eyes would water.

Funny how these things don't get noticed until one is the size of a normal-sized goblet. Gives you a new perspective on everything. Perhaps the smell is some sort of defence mechanism or something?

In any case, just as before, there is another hint hidden underneath the box of eggs. Here's what it says:

Gross. Everything was 10 times worse smaller. Monique didn't even know until now that doxy eggs smelled.

Sick.

But soon she was done with that torment and retrieved the next clue.

Quote:

Originally Posted by riddle

Out of the ground,
I grow round and upright,
Sometimes picked,
By the full moon's light.

Alright, that was obviously about a plant. The full-moon part gave it away. The next ingredient was fluxweed. And with that Monique walked over to the fluxweed and cast Wingardium Leviosa again.

The potion tastes terrible. Did you mix it wrong? But even as you fret, you start to grow again. Careful not to bump your head on the table.

As you regain your regular height, the hedges in front of you change as well, pushing themselves apart to reveal a narrow opening. Which way will you go?

To move forward along the path, answer the following riddle:

All about the house, with his lady he dances. Yet he always works, and never romances. What is he?

Eek. This potion was horrible. But Monique didn't doubt it. It was made with icky bugs and putrid doxy eggs.

But, it did work, so that was worth it. Soon Monique found herself normal sized. Thank goodness! She was beginning to worry that she'd stay small forever.

Now, to start forward down the new path.

A broom

Left, right, left again... The maze seems to stretch out forever. The rustling hedges are with you once more, closing in on all sides. Suddenly you see another flickering light source up ahead. Another potion to brew, perhaps?

No. The next clearing (there are numerous paths leading to it, so any initial spark of pride of having reached this part of the maze before anyone else is quickly extinguished) houses several burning torches, two doors, and, in front of them, a Sphinx. A living Sphinx. Very large, too.

Quick, what did you learn about them in Care of Magical Creatures... Are they aggressive? Are they even carnivorous? The Sphinx is sitting there utterly impassive, watching you calmly. She seems to know exactly what you're thinking – the intelligence in her eyes is almost unsettling – but she remains silent. Waiting.

Monique continued onward. She turned corners and continued down the maze. Then she spotted another light ahead. That ways the way to go. She headed toward it.

She came into a clearing with two doors. And a Sphinx! A real live sphinx! How exotic!

Monique remembered that sphinxes were aggressive if you answered a riddle wrong, but she didn't recall anything about how to approach them. So she cautiously headed toward the sphinx and awaited her riddle.

The Sphinx continues to simply regard the young woman. Even though, she practically radiates calmness, the way her eyes are always fixated on the Champion makes it quite obvious that she is ready to defend whatever she is protecting. Ready to attack. Ready to kill, should there be the need to.

After another moment of complete silence has passed, the creature finally shows some kind of reaction to the woman approaching her. Her human lips slowly curl into a small smirk, her dark eyes still locked on the girl. "You may pass." And then with a rather intimidating raise of her eyebrows she added, "Or you may not. It all depends on you." A small pause ensued during which she regarded the girl once again, as if figuring out whether she was worth it.

In the end it seems she has proven herself worthy, as the Sphinx raises her head briefly and finally addresses the champion again,

"Deep in the wood in an orchard of old,
An apple tree grows, a sight to behold.
The branches are full and the limbs hand down.
It must be magic, there's none on the ground.

From the twisted old trunk, four branches sprout.
And from each long branch, fifteen twigs stick out.
From each of these, three ripe fruit dangle free.
Tell me the number of pears in the tree."

Monique nodded slowly at the Sphinx. She either got the riddle right or she'd run for her life. So no pressure, right?

She listened carefully to the riddle.

Quote:

Originally Posted by The Sphinx

"Deep in the wood in an orchard of old,
An apple tree grows, a sight to behold.
The branches are full and the limbs hand down.
It must be magic, there's none on the ground.

From the twisted old trunk, four branches sprout.
And from each long branch, fifteen twigs stick out.
From each of these, three ripe fruit dangle free.
Tell me the number of pears in the tree."

She thought for a moment. Then she cleared her throat. "No pears." she said a little hoarsely while eying the Sphinx's claws. "It is an apple tree." She then clutched her wand tighter in her hand... in case she needed to use it.

Now to see what the sphinx had to say about her answer.

For a few minutes there is no visible reaction from the Sphinx as the champion finally attempts to answer the riddle. No reaction. Neither positive, nor negative. She is just regarding her with unreadable dark eyes, her head slightly cocked to one side, considering her answer.

Then, all of a sudden, the Sphinx bows her head gracefully before taking a step back. However not to get ready to attack but rather to move out of the way, allowing the champion to pass.

Monique waited tensely until the sphinx suddenly moved. Monique automatically held her wand tighter. Then the sphinx bowed and moved out of the way. Monique let out a relieved sigh. She returned the bow and then continued toward the two doors.

The Sphinx was watching the Champion's tentative steps towards the two doors impassively. However, after a few moments of indecision on your part, she inclines her head ever so slightly towards the door on the right.