She had spent a good majority of her day pumping herself up for the Charms challenge. What could she say? Kye was in love with wand work and she really loved spellcasting. What was the point of magic if you didn’t have the knowledge to use it? Like… really. She had spent a lot of time in the library studying, and at The Black Lake… There were a random assortment of books and textbooks in one of the trees there, and yes some were old books but the spells were the same. Well, hopefully. Arriving on the third floor, Kye took a deep breath to calm the nerves she felt creeping up on her.

Not now, Nerves! Not the time.

As she approached the practice room, her nerves were a bit rattled when she heard a scream. Uh, what? Were the screams that were coming from inside caused by students before her, failing miserably at the challenge…? Her heart sank. Soon she was in sight of the door, trying to keep a clear head. Ignoring the screaming for a moment, she noticed parchment on the door with instructions. She was quite relieved after reading it to be honest, it was just part of the challenge! She did a small nod of the head in understanding and let out a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
She read over the instructions once more, trying to pick out some spells that may be useful. Don’t rush yourself… You’ll have 30 minutes. This seemed like quite a long time to Kye, but hey, maybe she’d be eating her words soon. Wait. Did her time start now or when she opened the door?? She doubted there would be a timer so she decided to bite the bullet and act as though everyone were already watching. Kye straightened up and pointed her wand at the door before her with the snakelike motion needed.

“Alohomora!” Good, it opened. Now let’s see the damage…
The room Kye entered was definitely on fire. The screaming filled her ears and she looked around the room, trying to find any tools that may help.
Hmm… apparently not.

There was another scream and Kye’s eye twitched. That Barbie wasn’t making Kye want to save her any more with that squealing. Looking at the fire ablaze all around the room, Kye tried to decide between the only two water spells she knew. Which was better suited? Which would actually help put the fire out? Well, she had to start somewhere.
“Aqua Eructo!!” she bellowed, trying to give the force necessary to make the spell worth her while. It seemed to be exactly what she wanted… but she didn’t have the physical strength to keep hold of it. The force of water knocked Kye off balance and she fell to the floor, quite embarrassed… Just get up, just get up! Rather it be too strong for her than not work at all right?! Yes, definitely. Why was she still on the floor? The force of the spell had apparently knocked the wind right out of her. At least it seemed she had thought of the correct spell, she just didn’t have enough control or stamina to attempt it again right now.

The screaming continued and Kye really wanted to storm up to the stupid dolls and slap them in their terrified little faces, or at least cast Petrificus Totalus or something on them... It took a little effort, but Kye was finally able to get back up. Okay, so it looked like that spell was a bit too much to start off with. Mustering up her strength, she stood tall again. Bad posture, bad outcome.

“Aguamenti!!” she yelled out, her wand drawing a diagonal ‘S’ at the base of the flames. The stream of water that jetted out from her wand was much less powerful than the other spell, but a lot more manageable. Staying steady she directed the water to the flames and after a little while, the flames finally seemed to start cooperating. Every few minutes, Kye had to recast the spell, but it was better than just having water trickle from her wand pathetically. The process seemed to take forever with the flames fighting back, but finally it was done! The flames were extinguished, and Kye smiled. She had completed the hardest part. The only thing flooding her mind now was not knowing how much time had passed. Well she needed to finish strong. She needed to give them something to overlook her terrible first attempt, and she stood for a moment remembering the spell that she had learned from one of the Lake books.
“Carpe retractum!” she took a step towards the dolls, flicking her wand like a whip, and something flew from the end. A rope had wrapped itself around the two dolls, pulled them towards her, and they finally stopped screaming when they reached her hand. It wasn’t until this instant that Kye finally felt the sweat that was dripping down her face. Gross. She looked around for the brooms and stuck Ken on one and Barbie on the other. Kye officially hated these dolls, by the way. One last look around the burnt room, and Kye laughed to herself… She didn’t know what made her think she should, but she aimed her wand to where the dolls had been, made an ‘S’ motion, and muttered, “Scourgify.” The room seemed to polish itself up a little bit, which satisfied Kye. Did it help her in the eyes of the judges though? Time would tell. She left the room, closed the door, made the ‘P’ like movement, and muttered once more.

“Colloportus.”

Click.

Azura took a deep breath as she towards the door of the Ever Changing Practice room, she was slightly nervous, but she was more excited for her challenge than anything else. The time she had spent studying and preparing helped her focus and to take her mind off of her mother.

She smoothed back her black hair which was pulled back in a ponytail for this challenge and fidgeted with her robes as she neared the door and she heard screaming! Her purple eyes went wide as she put a hand on the door knob and tried to turn it, but she quickly realized that it was locked. She quickly whipped out her willow wand and made the backwards S motion that was needed for the Unlocking spell and clearly said..

"Alohomora!"

The doorknob clicked and Azura grabbed it and pulled it open to be faced with.. Fire!! And there.. in the middle of the flames were a most likely enchanted pair of dolls that were screaming for help!

The screams for a moment made Azura shake a little as she swallowed hard, was that how her mom had sounded like..

NO NOO! She pushed away her awful thoughts that threatened to overwhelm her and concentrated on the task at hand. Getting to those dolls and putting the fire out! She bit her lip as she pushed back the awful thoughts she was having and moved closer to the wall of flames, her wand out as she made the sideways S motion and called out..

"Aguamenti!" Water shot out of her wand and she moved her her wand back and forth over the flames, slowly moving closer in order to not get burned. The screaming was starting to annoy her, but what could she do? "Fwoopers!I'm trying!" She said softly as she pointed her wand down to get some more water flowing, she had half of the flames put out by now.. and was slowly moving across the room, from one wall to the other, concentrating on putting the flames out.

Once they were out, Azura took a deep breath, and realized she was ankle deep in water! Meh.. She should have expected that, there WAS a whole lot of fire she had to put out! She wiped a hand across her forehead as she trudged through the tiny flood she had made, uncaring that her shoes were totally soaked and squished now with every movement she made.

Despite the incessant screaming, she didn't hurry her pace. The last thing she wanted to do was trip and end up all bloody with a broken nose in here! So she took her time, carefully squishing and sloshing across the room towards the dolls..

MEEKKKKK!! The hems of her robes were a bit wet as well and were trying to wrap around her ankles in an attempt to trip her! Oh no you don't robes! You aren't going to trip me up today! I'm not going to fall!! She stopped and carefully untangled herself before moving forward and grabbing the dolls.

Once they were in her hands, they stopped screaming and for a moment, the silence was louder than their previous wails had been! As she listened to the quiet echo in her ears she took a breath as she looked over to see two little brooms!

Slosh, Slosh, Squish Squish.

Azura made her was slowly over to the brooms after having to stop and untangled herself again, finally she just picked up her robes with one hand and then held the dolls with another!

Pant, Pant, Pant, Pant..

Azura was out of breath and her legs felt like lead as she finally stuck the two dolls on their broom.. Ken on his.. and Barbie on hers.. "There you go, next time.. don't get stuck in the middle of a fire Mmmkay?" She said to them as she patted their little heads before turning to the door and slowly sloshing towards it!!

She opened it, and had some water rushing out, before she hurried out of the room and closed the door, turned around and aimed her wand at the door, before making the odd squished P shaped motion and saying

"Collorportus."

Click

The locked clicked and Azura slid to the floor, she had done it! Could she nap now?

Her very first Great Charm Challenge and Bec was READY!

With her wand at the ready, she marched over to the Ever Changing Practise Room that needed a name change by the way with focused determination. She had been practising her spells after she had found out her wand wasn’t exactly listening to her commands and had read more chapters in the Charms text book than what was necessary for a first year. Not that she had remembered it all but it would do.

The moment she reached the door, she could hear someone screaming for help. She looked around but saw no one. When the screaming didn’t stop she pressed her ear at the door and listened. It came from inside the room. It was then that she noticed the note and she began to read the directions.

…Couldn’t…couldn’t she take the note with her? What if she panicked and did something wrong?! ‘the Professor would be there to help, you know that’ her voice told her. Alright. She nodded her head and turned the doorknob to enter. Only, the door was locked. And the screaming went on. What was the unlocking spell again? She thought for a couple of seconds before she knew it. Pointing her wand at the keyhole, the Gryffindor said; “Alohomora!” and checked it.

It didn’t open and she pouted. Why wasn’t it opening up dramatically like how it played out inside her head?! Cause in her head the door had SWUNG open as if she had kicked it in but noooo. Reality was sadly less cool. She tried again, focusing on the spell and at the second try she heard a faint ‘click’ Grinning to herself , she pushed open the door and entered.

She had known about the fire, it had obviously been written on the note but it was still a sight to see. The orange flames surrounded her the moment she entered the room and blocked her entrance. And although it was warmer inside the room than normal, the flames did not hurt nor , she noticed, was there any smoke. “Stay where you are , I’m coming to you!” she shouted and immediately felt stupid. “They’re dolls, Bec…DOLLS” Shaking her head, the first year Gryffindor ran through the flames towards the middle of the room.

Which had been a mistake because the dolls continued to scream for help. “Shut it, rescue is here now let me think!” she’d make an awful rescuer to be honest. Now let’s think, what did the note say again? Uuuugh she should have ripped it off of the door and taken it with her when she still had the chance! Next to her, the dolls screamed for help some more and the Gryffindor was -THIS- close to performing the tongue tying curse . But she didn’t, instead she focused on her memory and what she had read on the note.

And then it hit her. She clapped her hands once and pointed her wand a the fire around her. “Aguamenti!” she shouted after drawing her wand in an S and bubbles flew out of her wand. “No! I said Aguamenti!” more bubbles like in Herbology class. “Aguamenti!” “Aguamenti!” “Aguamenti—WOAH!” A powerful jet of water escaped her phoenix wand and she had difficulty controlling the power. “Stop stop stop! Oh right! Finite!” the flow stopped immediately. She looked around, half the room was fire free. Wet, but fire free. And was it just her or were the dolls screaming less now?

Pointing her wand at the other side, Bec repeated the spell and sooner than she thought the room was without flames. She let out a deep breath and picked up the dolls one by one and walked over to the brooms near the door. The Gryffindor placed the girl doll on a broom first and then walked back to grab the guy doll and placed him on the other broom. She looked around the room but didn’t feel as if she had forgotten something. She walked out of the room and turned around to lock the door behind her with a "Collorportus!"

Ehm...best do a double check. She tucked on the door but it didn't open up. With a satisfied smile, she walked away to get something to eat.

Hadley had this. Yep. Nothing was gonna prevent her from winning this. Wand in hand the teen approached the door. It was going to be locked right? That had to be the first part of this. A locked, door.

Slipping quietly up to the door, Hads checked it and Yep. It was locked. "Alohomora!" The tell-tale click followed it. Confident, Hadley opened the door and stepped in. Yeah, she had thisoooOOOOH, MERLIN IN MUSTARD!

FIRE!!!!!

THEY SET THE BLOODY ROOM ON FIRE!

And people were trapped in the fire screaming for help. She couldn't see who, though. Hadley was too busy covering her face and mouth from the smoke that...wait. Where was the smoke? Hads stood up straight and looked around curiously. Only one half of the room was on fire. And there were dolls screaming in the middle and...nothing made sense.

There was a note on the door. She should probably read that. Hadley opened the door again and peeked around to the front so she could read the note. She didn't dare actually step outside in case that was grounds for disqualification. Instead she just opened it enough to read the note and...OH!

Well that makes sense.

Extinguish the fire. Save the dolls. Lock the door. Got it.

She actually did have this. There were some spells that Hadley struggled to perform a strong version of. And then there were spells that Hadley had trouble not performing a strong version of. Aguamenti was one of the latter. Which usually resulted in the water ricocheting out of the vessel she was trying to fill with water and drenching her. Sadly, Aqua Erecto was the former. It would have been a bit more useful in this. No worries. "AGUAMENTI!" The force of the jet of water that burst out of her wand nearly ripped Kira, her wand, out of her hand and Hadley had to use both hands to keep a grip on it.

Even then, with that strong of a jet, it still took about 10 minutes to extinguish the fire completely. And Hadley was feeling drained. "Finite!" The powerful jet of water ceased. Water dripped casually from the ceiling and puddles pooled on the floor. But no fire. Success right?

Okay the dolls screams were getting a bit irritating. The fire was out, what were they screaming about. Hadley marched over the dolls and grabbed them by their heads to muffle the screaming. Not that she needed to. The second they were in her hand, the muffled screams stopped. She didn't care and continued to hold them by their head. It was cathartic.

Now for the last bit. Hadley marched over to the door, slipped in a puddle, got up, unceremoniously dumped the dolls on their brooms and exited. "Colloportus!" She checked the door to make sure it locked. It did. And it shouldn't unlock either. At least she hoped. Hadley had spent most of last term practicing her various counter charms. It took practice to get new ones to stick, but she had gotten the old ones, like Alohomora/Colloportus down. So it should stay locked...

Hadley checked it again just to be sure. It was still locked.

She was done. And a bit tired. And a bit hungry.

Cornelius confidently made his way to the Ever Changing Practice Room. His hair was a curly, handsome mess; his shirt a little ruffled and tie a bit loose. He was digging this bad boy look he had picked up from his housemates. It was also very comfortable so he didn't understand why his mum was keen on him being all tidy and proper.

He heard the screams before he noticed the directions on the door, and it was as if a switch had been turned on inside his head. Suddenly he was aware and wide awake. His sense spiked up and his wand was in his hand faster than you could say Quaffle. It was a miracle he did not drop it.

Heart pounding hard in his chest, the start of adrenaline rushing through him, Cornelius' green eyes finally settled on the instructions on the door.

IT WASN'T REAL????

THANKS FOR THAT ALMOST PREMATURE HEART ATTACK. JEEZ MARIE.

Blood still pumping, Cornelius read the directions carefully. And again. It didn't change anything that this wasn't real. It was for a score which meant more for the boy. HE was being scored. That mattered lots.

Brows creasing in concentration as he pointed his wand at the door knob, Cornelius cast while tracing a backwards S at the door with his wand, "Alohomora!" There was a CLICK. The boy then kicked the door open. If this had been a real fire situation then it would have been stupid of him to touch the doorknob.

Flames danced on one side of the room. Okay. He needed to check if it was safe. "Aparencium!" he cast, tracing the intricate wand movement he ALMOST forgot. Almost. But his mumma told him he needed to check his surroundings first during training this past summer. Being Cornelius he would never forget anything his mother ever told him.

First thing first after that: put the fire out. The Slytherin boy smoothly tucked and rolled into the room, his years of Quidditch paying off. He landed crouched, ready to spring if he had to, while facing the flames. Kicking quick into gear, Cornelius pointed his wand at the flames. "Aqua Eructo!"

He directed his jet of water from one end of the room, inching it bit by bit to the other side as it extinguished the fire. This is why he didn't cast Aguamenti. Aqua Eructo was stronger and granted him better to control.

Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he pushed the jet of water to the other end of the room, his curls sticking to his skin. Well. This was uncomfortable. Maybe he would take up his dad's offer and cut his hair.

.............

NAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. Stick it to the man and let it GROW.

Right. Back to saving doll's lives. Which was stupid and if his cousins were here they'd be making fun of him. His cousins were also stupid so it didn't matter. The one cousin he was channeling was Kennedy, though. And his mumma. Both Aurors, they must have done this at some point in their career. Now here HE was. Cornelius. Orion. Baltazar. Fulfilling his duty as HERO.

Fire completely out, Cornelius wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm. "Woah," he mumbled as the shrieks coming from the dolls finally settled in his ears. "You two are worse than Peyton, and that's saying something. She's worse than banshees," he said as he turned towards them and picked them up and cradled them in his arm. That's what fire fighters did, no? They took care of their charges? Well, that's what Cornelius was doing.

Eyeing the room carefully, he took cautious steps towards the brooms and set each doll on their own broom. Cornelius couldn't wait to tell Kennedy that he rescued Ken with a fancy zebra-patterned shirt. LOL. Kenn...Ken. HAHAHA.

Standing once more, keeping his senses peeled, he exited the room and shut the door. He let out a breath. "Colloportus." He traced the wand movement which almost resembled a captain's hook. Another CLICK.

He smiled to himself, feeling ease wash through him. Okay. He was never going to be an Auror. That was too much responsibility and anyone who knew him would know he preferred taking his sister's baby pig a bath rather than dedicate himself to responsibility.

His work was done here. He was out, yo.


STATUS: HERO.

Well... it was his turn. Jaemin stepped up to the door, immediately frowning at the screaming that was audible even from the other side. It was off-putting, and distracting, and because of it he had to re-read the directions at least three times to make sure he'd gotten all the important information. What was a Ken and Barbie doll? Were they special or something? Why did they have to be screaming?! It made it so hard to focus...

First things first. He had to open the door... that was simple enough. He knew that spell. Jaemin dug around in his robes for his wand and brandished it at the door, trying to block out the sound from the other side. A quick reverse-S motion, and a quiet mutter of "Alohomora", and the lock sprung loose easily.

It said one side of the room was on fire, but... it did not say which side. Which meant that the fire might be just inside the door... Jaemin reached hesitantly for the door handle and gave it a very quick touch, to make sure it wasn't hot. If there was fire right inside, it would be, and he didn't want to deal with getting all overheated or burning his hand on a doorknob. It was, however, merely slightly warm, so the small Slytherin gripped it tightly, turned it, and pushed the door open.

They really weren't kidding about this fire business. The whole far side of the room was on fire, and there were two small, plastic-y looking figures screaming their small, plastic-y looking heads off right smack in the middle of it. Jaemin resisted the urge to cover his ears, because why were they so shrill, and stepped into the room, fingers tightening around his wand. He had to just... put the fire out. Right?

He knew of two spells for water-making. He'd only practiced one of them in depth the year before; the other, he'd just read about this summer, and hadn't had a chance to get around to, you know, actually working really hard on just yet. It was another spell that was above the level he was expected to be at, and so he wasn't really sure if it would work right... but it couldn't hurt to try, right? It was supposed to be better for putting out fires, after all. And if it didn't work, he'd just go back to the one he did know.

Right. He was wasting time thinking about it, when clearly they weren't supposed to be thinking. That was the point of a time limit, right? To make them just... dive into things without considering them? That didn't seem like a good plan of action to the small Slytherin, but... well, what did he know. He wasn't an adult. He tightened his grip on his wand and, without waiting another moment, aimed it in the direction of the fire.

"Aqua Eructo."

The one good thing about the summer was that it had given him time to work on wand movements and pronunciation. The bad thing about summer was that it gave him no chance to see how the spell actually worked when it came out, so he was not quite prepared for the forceful gush of water. Jaemin let out a quiet squeak and immediately his left hand snapped up to latch onto the wand as well as the pressure actually made his feet slide back a foot or two along the floor; this was the problem with using spells he hadn't had much practice with yet!

Boooooooo.

It took him precious minutes to get the water under control enough to sweep back and forth; there had been nothing in the rules about not drenching the room, or the dolls, and so he wasn't particularly worried about the way the water was pooling all over the place and in the corners. He didn't have to clean it up or anything, so it was all good. Jaemin let the spell spread water all over the place before jerking his wand down to break it off; a few tiny flame spurts on the wall had somehow managed to survive the deluge, but they would be easy enough to pick off.

"Aguamenti," he mumbled, flicking his wand at the few spots still ablaze. The stream of water wasn't nearly as strong as the other spell had been, but it easily put out what had remained. Now all that he had to do was... deal with the screaming. The loud, awful, stupid screaming. The boy stood there for a moment, trying to remember exactly what he was supposed to do... pick up the dolls, put them on brooms or something, and then it was done, right?

FOR THE LOVE OF MERLIN, STOP SCREAMING ALREADY.

Jaemin let out a rather disgusted sigh at their loudness and approached the two dolls, squinting at them in the puddle his spell had left behind. Why was that one... oh. Oh dear. He snatched them up, blinking, and while one of the shrill, obnoxious voices stopped immediately... the other did not.

Because she was totally missing her head.

"What the crap?!" he looked around hurriedly, kicking at the puddled water as he searched for the head. How on earth?! He had soaked them down with his spell, yeah, but had it really hit them hard enough that one of the stupid dolls had lost its stupid head?! Chewing on his bottom lip, the boy swept the area with his eyes hurriedly, and finally spotted the little blonde-haired plastic head bobbling in one of the corners with slightly more water in it.

As soon as he snatched it up, it too stopped screaming, and Jaemin practically ran through the water to the door. The headless doll went on one broom, the complete doll went on the other, and the head went into the arms of the headless doll because he was so totally done with this mess. Done.

Cheeks pink, the diminutive boy pulled the door back open, ducked out of it, and cast a quick "Colloportus" at it, not even waiting for the squelchy sound before slinking off. He was soooo not going down for breaking Primeaux's toys.

Vivian was bored and what was a better way to get involved with stuff and have fun here at Hogwarts? Yeah, she totally signed herself up for that Great Charms Challenge thingy that Professor Primeaux had in mind. She'd owled her mum about it, and apparently Vanya Fairfield found it interesting. A fun idea and strategy of teaching for her eleven year old daughter to learn stuff. It was funny, having a Ravenclaw for a mum.

When it was finally her turn, Vivi listened to the directions and instructions. Wait... whaaat? THIRTY minutes only? To solve everything? But... what? That was possible? Vivi's mouth dropped for a moment, but then she closed it immediately. MEH. She was not a quitter and there was no room for quitting! Vivi's fingers gripped around her wand and then... came face to face with a door.

Right, she was supposed to open it. That was one of the directions. Well, it was a good thing she knew this. A wide grin actually grew across her face. Getting into challenges AND knowing what to do? Such a great combination. The blonde raised her wand and pointed it towards the door. "Alohomora!" she said, with the reserve S hand movement. With that, there was a click and Vivi smiled. Yep! She had opened it. Vivi skipped towards the door and turned the knob open.

O_____________O

Well, that wasn't what she had expected. Vivi's eye twitched and then squinted towards the source of all the yelling and commotion. And... she actually LOLed at the screaming Barbie and Ken at the middle. She used to have a pair of those two! But now, she didn't know where they went. She probably had broken her dolls before and, now, they were nowhere to be found. Not even in this family's attic. Eh, maybe now wasn't the right time to laugh at such two cute dolls, shouting their lungs out. But... let's not deny it, the sight WAS FUNNY. LOL LOLOL. Good one, Professor Primeaux.

Ahem, anyway... back to business.

But first... she actually... hoped those two would shut up. All the screaming was driving her insane. And she couldn't really concentrate well with two bloody loud dolls over there. "Uhhh, can you two keep your mouths zipped up for a moment? I... I'm trying to figure something out here." Vivi kinda wished she could flick her pack of marshmallows right now towards those two, to be honest. She would've shoved some up the dolls' mouths. Too bloody noisy. Gah.

Or you know... maybe she could roast some marshmallows here. She needed at least one to keep her mind working. She knew she had to distinguish the fire before anything else so... yeah, she needed to take this moment. Vivi took one marshmallow out of her pocket (she never leaves the dorm without her stash of marshies) and sort of made the fire heat it up a bit. Considering the clock was ticking, Vivi just left the marshmallow near the fire for like five seconds and then nommed it. She had more roasting opportunities later. "Aguamenti!" the Slytherin said and drew a squiggly line/sideway/lying down S. A jet of water came out of her wand and she let it eat the flames. Though she wished she knew a better and more powerful water-conjuring spell. This one sufficed for now. After all, this was all a learning experience.

Once the fire was down, Vivi skipped towards the dolls. And finally... FINALLY, both of them had shut up. "You know, I was thiiiiiiiis close to putting you both on a Silencing Charm. Just saying." All about the Vivian trivia! Also, so that it didn't seem all that work work work and just to add a little fun, because it was easier to do stuff when she was enjoying. But anyway, she didn't have all the time in the world at the moment so Vivi went towards the door, where the two brooms were.

Meh... wet clothes. Her shoes were starting to get soaky. Vivi splashed her way towards the door. Mental note: change clothes right after. Especially shoes. They needed dry cleaning. Ooooohhh Mummy Fairfield was going to be so mad when she finds out that her ickle eleven year old ruined her shoes again. "Next time, maybe I won't be the one saving you so... stay away from fire if all you're gonna do is scream, okay?" Vivi said and winked at the dolls. "Also, I'm very sorry. I don't have extra marshmallows." LOL. She was lying. She wasn't going to feed marshies to two inanimate dolls with no appetites or stomachs anyway.

So... time to go now? Uh... yeah. She wasn't going to stay here for too long. "Peace out!" Vivi opened the door once again and then went out. But... errr... right. She still had to lock it. Ehe, the firstie was too excited to leave apparently. Looking back towards the door, she raised her wand one last time for this challenge. With a sort of P-shaped hand movement - wand to the right, then down a little bit, then back to the left, then down again - Vivi said, "Colloportus!" And with one more click, the door locked itself up.

Oh yeah, Vivian Iona Fairfield totally just survived her first ever great Charms challenge. You know what that means? A reward. Yep, she was going to reward herself with more marshmallows. The Slytherin then skipped her way back to her dormitory.

#VivianIonaFairfieldOut

Carl had been practicing for the Great Charms Challenge as much as he could. He had fun learning new spells and revising ones he already knew, but could not get rid of the growing anxiety as he arrived at the door to the Ever Changing Practice Room. What if he panicked? What if he forgot the appropriate charms to use? He shook his head in determination. No, he needed to be confident.

That was when he heard screams coming from inside the room. Somebody was in there and they needed his help. The Hufflepuff took a deep breath and pulled on the doorknob, braced for whatever was behind the door. It was locked. Raising his wand, he read the directions on the door.

... Ken and Barbie? The Great Charms Challenge was to save dolls?

Alright. Carl looked around and gave a thumbs up, knowing the judges and observers were watching him. He mentally went through the instructions again. Unlock the door, enter the room, put out the fire, save Ken and Barbie, place them on their brooms (thank goodness riding a broom was not one of the tasks) and lock the door, in 30 minutes. He could do this.

The Second Year pointed his wand at the doorknob and said clearly, "Alohomora." He did the wand movement, a backwards S. There was a click and he pulled the doorknob again, this time managing to open the door. He immediately felt intense heat, the walls were on fire! The dolls were there, in the middle of the room.

He knew a spell that would work well for this task. He happened to have sprayed the whole class with a jet of water in a Potions class last term. "Aguamenti!" He said loudly, flicking his wand in a sideways s. Nothing happened. He had difficulty concentrating because of all the screaming. "Aguamenti!" He repeated in a shout, drowning out the noise. A jet of water shot out from the tip of his wand and put out some of the flames. After about five minutes which felt like an eternity to the sweaty boy, the fire was completely extinguished. He smiled - Ken and Barbie had stopped screaming.

Carl's socks and shoes were wet, so he waddled over to the dolls in an awkward manner. He picked them up carefully and headed back to the door, where he found the brooms. Placing them on their respective brooms, he patted them on their heads. After a glance at the room, he walked out.

The last task was to lock the door. He drew a rectangle with his wand, then on the last side went down instead of up. "Colloportus." The lock clicked and he finally grinned. He was done!

Fiyero fidgeted a bit as he waited for his turn in the ever-changing prcatice room. He'd been practicing for months, and hewas so ready for this. Bring it on, Charms Challenge! And to think he'd been so worried about being bad at chsrms at the start of the term that he'd almost not signed up...

As he approached the door, he immediately heard screaming coming from the other side. Uh oh... it sounded like someone was in trouble! He jiggled the doorknob, only to find that it didn't budge. Oh, right... he had to unlock it with a spell (duh!) Hedrew his wand, pointing it at the doorknob. "Alohomora!" he cried, making a backward S shape with his wand. He tried the door again... still locked. He didn't understand. Why didn't it work? He'd done that spell a hundred times before! He decided it was jusr nerves throwing him off (or at least he hoped that was all it was)and tried agsin. "Alohomora!" This time he heard a faint click.

Fiyero opened the door and peered inside, his eyes darting from the fire engulfing the room to the dolls screaming. He did a double take. Was he seeing what he thought he was seeing? Fire, dolls coming to life... what was this, Toy Story? It was a good thing Ariel wasnt here or she would've been freaking out over the dolls about to be burned. He shook his head. He could be weirded out by all this later; right now he had a job to do!

"Hold on, guys! I'll have you out in a minute," Fiyero assured the dolls. He had no idea why... they probably couldn't even hear him over their screams. He knew exactly what spell to use to put out the fire. "Aguamenti," he said confidently, drawing a sideways S with his wand. Maybe setting his cauldron on fire in potions class hadn't been such a bad thing after all. At least it had given him some practice with this spell. Still, he wondered why the wand movement for a water spell looked so much like a crawling worm...

water shot out of the end of his wand and doused about a third of the flames. Hed have to thank Professor Myers for teaching him that spell later. If he won, he might even vite him to the party. "Aguamenti," he said again. "Aguamenti!" The last spell rebounded off one of the walls, showering him in a jet of water. Ugh, he groaned, wringing out his robes. Well, that was one way to put out the fire.

With the fire extinguished and the dolls effectively silenced, Fiyero wondered what he was supposed to do next. Was he allowed to go pick the dolls up now or should he use a Summoning Charm? This was the Charms Challenge,after all, so he decided on the latter. He pointed his wand at the dolls. "Accio dolls," he said, tracing a sort of horseshoe shape.He Really hoped that worked! He'd done that spell a few times in astronomy but otherwise hadn't had much practice with it.

To his relief, the two dolls came flying across the room. He caught them both in his free hand and gently placed them on their little brooms. After taking one last look around the room, just in case there was something he missed, he closed the door behind him. Now all he had to do was lock the door, and then he was done. But what was that spell? WHAT WAS THAT SPELL??? He was starting to panic. Oh yeah, now he remembered! "Colloportus," he said, pointing his wand and drawing an openended P shape. Another click told him the door was locked, but he was going to test it just in case. He jiggled the doorknob... yep, locked.

Fiyero turned to the people in the viewing area, flashing a triumphant smile. He twirled his wand like a baton before putting it back in its holster. "Thank you for your kind attention," he said with a dramatic bow before exiting. Hey, maybe they would give him some extra points for showmanship.

The Great Charms Challenge? Well challenge Tenacius-ly accepted!

The leonine lad just stepped closer to the door to read the instructions when-- wait is that screaming?? He was taken aback momentarily, alarm evident on his face. What is happening in there??

His Gryffindor nature compelled him to immediately open the door. And that’s when he rammed his entire arm against it. Ow.

Ok clearly the door was locked. Uhm uhm what now??? Maybe he should read the instructions right? Right.

Read read read read read....ok so apparently the whole screaming thing is part of the set up. But now he knows theres gonna be fire involved. Tenacius gulps in momentary hesitation. Now fireworks and bonfires were things that brought him IMMENSE joy, but reading about a room on fire with screams punctuating the air will get any sane person to pause for a moment. He goes and reads the instructions again. Ok apparently it wont be like a real fire but it will at the very least look like fire. That’s a bit of reassurance right? Maybe. His brain is going Spiderman vs Green Goblin fire sequence as of the moment. Watching that movie he didn’t feel any flames either but that sure didn’t make the scene any less panic-inducing innit?

But right, he has to make like a fireman right now. He squared his shoulders and took out his wand, giving the Alder wood a reverse S-flick as he uttered "Alohamora."

...The door unlocks and opens a sliver of the way. He backtracks a few steps juuuust in case the flames suddenly lashes out and takes his brows off. No? Good. And look he can see the bright orangey-red just waiting for him.

Tenacius pushes the door open and yup... its like the Spidey sequence come to life in all its fiery glory. "' Its burning its burning...'"the Gryffindor began to murmur a tune under his breath as he tried to adjust his vision to get used to the incredible brightness."' Tossin and turnin... This house is on fire... House is on fire...''" Where ARE those dolls?

Finally he as able to zero in on the vague shadows amidst the flames. And yes the screaming was full blast mmhm. Ok so now he had to extinguish the flames just so that he can rescue Ma Babs and Pa Ken! Yeah that’s what he's calling them.

GryffinClaw brain whizzing about what his options are. His first instinct was to use water-- but how many times has he watched the Muggle box where these pair of crazy Mythbusters doused water on a raging inferno and the flames got even BIGGER? Something about oxygen feeding into it. That doesn’t happen all the time though-- but should he risk it?

He was starting to think that Muggles were onto something with them fire extinguisher things. Those didn’t have water, but some kind of foam. Foam designed to snuff out the flames by not introducing oxygen to the variable. So is there a spell he knows off that can sorta do the same thing?

Unfortunately he wasn’t old enough to learn of any fire extinguisher spell, although he has heard his mom say something that is used with dragons....

-- SCREAMING!!! Right back to the task at hand "Just wait Ma Babs, Pa Ken! I'll get you out! Just don’t wanna turn y'all into barbecue by making things worse."

Barbecue.... now theres an idea. Something his dad always does when they do cook outs. 'I do love a cold one' he would say and would promptly chill a can cold.

Aha!

Now theres something he could try that would certainly take the heat down a notch or twenty. He squared his stance and aimed his wand somewhere off to the side to test this out "Glacius..." he uttered with the corresponding wand stroke. A burst of cold air emitted from the end of his Alder wood, so cold that the air around it started to mist up. The flames backed off somewhat.

Hobbling Hinkypunks it works!

"Glacius!" he uttered again, this time with more fervor. A stronger gust of coldness emitted from his wand, enough so much so that where flames once stood, now there were traces of droplets and bits of frost. "Glacius!" he uttered again, this time trying to make a path towards the trapped dolls, and extinguishing the flames to the left and to the right of him.

It wasn’t long before the raging inferno had all but disappeared, to be replaced by seemingly charred remains glistening in bits of frost and moisture. Kinda like what things would look like if the Human Torch and Elsa did the redecorating.

But yes Tenacius Salander to the rescuuuuuuue! "Ma Babs Pa Ken I'm heeeereeee!" the Gryffindor charged up at the dolls, then picked them up like kittens stuck on a tree. He turned around waltzed out that door--

-- oh wait. What are those tiny brooms for? Was he supposed to get those too?

One more time he checked the instructions. "Ohhhhh... You got your own ride eh? Broombulance? Yeah I guess that makes sense." he deposited the little dolls then started to make his way to close the door. Oh and he was supposed to lock it. Right.

....Wait... why? Hows the Broombulance supposed to get out? Uhm uhm... Lookin around for the Prof... Should he not do this because logic?

Blue green eyes kept shifting between the instructions and the door that held the broombulance and the dolls. Should he? Shouldn’t he? Should he shouldn’t he should he....

Eh. He's following the instructions. Once again he held his wand aloft and made bolt-like wand stroke while uttering "Colloportus." And there it was the door swung shut with a resounding I-am-LOCKED.

Then he left a note on the instructions sheet:

Quote:

Dear Prof,

I locked the door just as you instructed. But now the broombulance wont have a way to get out and bring the smoke-inhalation victims to St Mungos. I hope you are aware of this and that if Ms Barbie and Mr Ken decides to sue, I cant be held accountable. Just thought you'd like to know. Also dad would be angry if I get involved in any legal disputes.

Have a nice day!

~ Tenacius Salander