The First Task [IC thread] [Champions only]

[Deleted]

@annelise , @emile
<3

Elias had stopped trying to scream. He couldn't talk, he couldn't make any noise. It wasn't worth it, and his throat was beginning to hurt. The silence was killing him only being able to hear his own breathing and not being able to speak. This dark place was not something he remembered, it wasn't anything he had even remembered going into or being taken to. He just continued on, trying to calm down his breathing, his wand squeezed in his right hand. Elias turned, right to be exact, and his eyes moved erratically. What was he supposed to do? There was no one here to help hi-

Oh no. No no no. Elias almost dropped his wand. He had feared this would happen. That his father would some day come back for him. Standing only a few feet away, was Fenrir Greyback. He knew he'd be killed by him eventually. Tears welled up in Elias' eyes as he stared at the long haired, crazy looking man that was in front of him. Fenrir just stared, slowly walking towards him, a smirk appearing on his face, and his teeth snarling. Elias, while sad and hurt, snarled back at the man he was supposed to call his father.

Elias backed up to the wall of the maze as Fenrir got closer to him. He held up his wand, but Fenrir didn't react. He just continued walking, that same stupid look on his face. Elias tried to speak again, trying to speak any spell, but nothing came out. Fenrir spoke, "I got you now, my boy." Elias shut his eyes, preparing for the worst. He had an idea, and did a silent spell, confringo. However, when Elias opened his eyes, the spell just went right through Fenrir's body and down the maze. His eyes widened, and he finally realized what this was. A boggart.

Elias stood up taller, no longer shrugging, and he silently did another spell. Riddikulus. He watched, as Fenrir's clothing changed; he was put into a suit, with his hair up into a ponytail, and makeup dabbed all over his face. Taking a deep breath, Elias laughed at the image, and he was suddenly gone. The smile was now gone, and Elias fell to the floor, staring at the space where his father just was.

[Deleted]

A nother right. At this point, Émile had convinced himself that it was either one way or the other. There was never going to be more than two choices, so he was resigned to the fact that either going right or left was inevitable. So far he had managed to not get turned around in this mess of a maze, but up ahead he could tell someone else might have. Getting closer, he could tell that it was the Hogwarts champion. What was her name again? No matter. She was walking with her hand up against the maze wall, slowly too. Émile stopped and stared at her for a few seconds, wondering why she hadn’t noticed him yet. Walking a little in front of her, he continued to observe, realizing that there was a reason she wasn’t saying anything. It looked like she had no idea where she was going. Stifling back a laugh by putting his hand up to his mouth, Émile did somewhat of a happy dance and continued on his way, not saying anything to her. She seemed like she was having a bad enough day as it was, there was no reason for him to add anymore salt to that wound. Unless she miraculously recovered her sight or managed to stumble to victory, she wasn’t even a contender at this point. He thought about sending sparks up for her, but decided against it. She wasn’t his responsibility, and if she had wanted to call it quits, she would have done so herself. Rather admirable to keep moving forward blindly like that. Stupid, but admirable. Leaving the Hogwarts champion to her own choices, Émile kept on his path and took another turn, this time left. His hand was starting to feel a lot better now, feeling almost completely returned to it, and the freezing, aching pain that had been throbbing through it for the last few turns had virtually subsided at this point. That was good. He had no idea when he might need the use of both hands again, especially if he had to climb another tree. Flexing his hand a few more times as he walked down the path, he came to a stop, looking up to see the most disagreeable looking creature he had ever laid eyes on. It was pretty obvious what it was, even from a distance. The human-like head, body of a lion, and the segmented and extremely pointy tail of a scorpion: it was a manticore. Émile felt shivers take over his entire body, each and every one of his hairs standing on end. Finally there was something worthy to take on in this maze. While the tree had been an interesting obstacle, the manticore was life or death if he didn’t turn back or it let him pass for some reason. Sliding his wand out of his pocket once again, Émile stared at the ugly beast before him. He only planned on going forward from this point on. Unfortunately the poor manticore was in his way. Recalling a lesson on the creatures from one of his classes, he knew that charms wouldn’t work too well on the creature. That meant only spells and curses would work. Émile wouldn’t have it any other way. As he started walking in the direction of the monster, he remembered one other small detail: the scorpion tail would kill him instantly if it hit him. Of course, there were rather pointy teeth and four claws to watch out for as well. Those could be easily taken care of though. Formulating a plan that he knew wouldn’t fail him, Émile picked up his pace. The manticore seemingly understood what was happening. They were apparently intelligent enough creatures that they could talk, but there wasn’t time for that. It was placed in the maze to prevent him and the other two champions from progressing. Émile was there to take down anything and everything in his path. Approaching each other, he started picking up signs that this wasn’t any ordinary manticore. It had seen wizards before. Scars from former battles covered every inch of its body. He wouldn’t doubt if it had taken a few down along the way. Too bad this was the last battle it would ever have. The manticore was only a couple dozen meters in front of him now, looking like it was ready to pounce. Without hesitation, Émile acted first, raising his wand and pointing it straight at the creature’s face. “Conjunctivitis!” He remembered reading about the last tournament held at Hogwarts. Viktor Krum had used this same spell on one of the dragons. If it had worked on something of that magnitude, there was no way it wouldn’t slow down this thing. The human-like eyes on the manticore immediately closed up as the spell hit it square in the face. Émile wasn’t going to wait and see if it actually worked though, diving out of the way as the beast leapt through the air. It was smart, that was for sure. It wasn’t like the boggart he had just encountered. It knew how to fight him. The manticore turned around immediately, its senses apparently good enough still to know that Émile was close to it. The scorpion tail shot down to where he was, barely missing his hand by a small distance. Rolling out of the way to avoid the creature’s next pounce, he hopped back to his feet once again, the tail aiming in his direction. Aiming his wand at the segments in the scorpion tail, he let loose another spell, hoping it would work the way he had anticipated. “Incarcerous!” Thick, wiry ropes appeared from nothingness and tangled themselves around the tail, pulling it backwards and causing it to stop going in his direction. He had forced the manticore to fight him head on now, but didn’t wait long enough for it to come to that conclusion. He shot the same spell again, this time aiming it at one of the front legs. It was still struggling to free its tail, not paying attention to the second wave of ropes now ensnaring it for a second time. Gaining a little distance from the manticore, Émile slowly backed away as he watched it slash away the ropes around the leg. The ones on the tail seemed to not be a priority for it. They both knew that claws and teeth were enough to rip a human to shreds. The conjunctivitis seemed to have worn off at this point too. As long as the tail was constricted, he was positive that he could defeat the thing. The manticore let out a loud lion-like roar as it charged him once again. Starting to laugh, Émile stayed in his spot, planting his feet, wand pointed straight at the beast once again. “Flipendo!” That was meant to send it flying backwards. It didn’t work. It was even closer now. “Confringo!” Flames shot out of his wand, the heat searing the air all around him and the manticore. Despite being singed, it continued its dash in his direction, harmed, but not willing to back down. “Expulso!” Émile knew that was the last one he could get out before it was on top of him. The spell hit the manticore directly in the face, the explosion mixing with the flames he had just created. The force from it propelled his body backwards, the manticore’s doing the same thing. That was a little more favorable than getting mauled to death by a rabid creature. Looking up slowly, he could see the manticore’s body a few meters away. He couldn’t tell if it was knocked out or dead from here, and wasn’t really willing to get any closer to find out. Turning his head around, he noticed that behind him was the direction he had been heading earlier. Now was the best chance he had to get away, especially if it was still alive. There was only so long before a knocked out creature of that size would wake up again and start its pursuit. Brushing off a few ashes from his clothes, he sent a few more rope spells at the creature to tie its legs up again, just in case. It would buy him a little time, at most, a few seconds. The tail was still wrapped up too, so he didn’t have to worry about that either. Taking one last look at the manticore and the results of the explosion around them, Émile turned his back to the creature and continued to the end of the path, looking back one last time at the unmoving creature before choosing his next path to take. (TLDR; Walked past the Hogwarts Champ, whatever her name was, and internally laughed at her being blind. He then turned the corner, fought a manticore, and won lol ) 1,447 @annelise & @jill6

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Deleted]

Anna was annoyed. Well, that was an understatement, but she was trying to focus on what she was doing now, since there wasn't anything else to be done. The problem was, it was hard to focus when you couldn't see anything. She had no idea what dangers were in the path in front of her, no clue even where the turns on the path were located. Her left hand was touching the wall to her left and her fingers trailed against it as she moved forward, as quickly as she dared. 

After what seemed like ages, the wall disappeared. All right, that had to mean there was a turn there. Anna turned, using both her hands to make sure she was facing the right direction after taking the turn. She took five steps down the path and then decided she wanted to move to the right side of this trail so she could take a right turn next. If she just kept taking left turns, she'd go in a circle, right? So she took a deep breath, focusing on what she could hear and feel. As she crossed to the other side of the path, she kicked her feet out in front of her to make sure she wasn't about to run into something. Amazingly, she was on the other side before she knew it! Granted, this was still probably very slow going, compared to the other two champions. She started trailing her right hand across the right wall of the path, moving at a more steady pace now.

Then she heard something. Or, she thought she did. She paused for a moment and tilted her head to the side, listening carefully. It sounded like ... feet moving? Or jumping? She tensed, lifting her wand just in case something was about to attack her, but the footsteps didn't come nearer to her ... they went farther away. Once she couldn't hear the footsteps anymore, Anna started moving again, quicker now. She was trying to make up for lost time. Her main consolation was the fact that she hadn't run into anything dangerous. At least, not dangerous enough that it attacked her. 

It didn't take long for Anna to come to another turn. This time the process was faster. She made the turn and kept her right hand on the wall for a few steps until deciding she should move to the left edge of the path so her left hand was trailing across the wall once more. She might as well keep alternating directions. It seemed to be working so far, at least. Now Anna was feeling more confident with her movements. The only problem with that was that it gave her more time to think, which she didn't want to do but she couldn't seem to help at the same time. 

It felt like she'd been blind for an eternity and she really had no way of measuring how long it actually was. Anna was starting to wonder if she'd ever get her sight back when the unwanted thoughts started floating through her mind. Thoughts of never being able to see her family and friends again. And Oscar. Her heart plummeted at the thought of never seeing him again, though she was sure he would still do things with her, even if she stayed blind. 

When Anna came to another turn, she pulled her mind from her dark thoughts. She really needed to focus. Now wasn't the time for a pity party. She'd been lucky at the last two turns. It seemed like she was just asking for another big challenge, so she needed to be ready. 

The second she turned onto this new path, a shiver ran up her spine. She turned her head, a reflex reaction which she realized was stupid. She couldn't see anything. So Anna froze and focused on listening to the sounds around her. There was nothing. Taking a deep breath, she started to move forward once more. As she took a step she felt something snap against her calf and she froze again, wondering what she could have done. That was when she heard the almost indiscernible hissing sounds. She couldn't tell where exactly they were coming from, but it was up ahead and Anna went into full protection mode. 

Obviously she couldn't see what was happening so she started with basic protection spells. Not knowing if this was something like the mist that made her blind, but assuming it was something airborne, Anna started with the Bubble-Head charm, muttering it under her breath even though she knew no one could hear her. Well, she might as well continue along the same line, right? A moment later, Anna muttered, "Ebublio," causing her entire body to be surrounded by a bubble that could not be popped by physical force. Hopefully whatever this challenge was wouldn't be able to penetrate it. But maybe it would ... so Anna tried to think of more spells to use. "Protego," she pointed her wand at the bubble that should be around her. Good. She should now be protected from any sort of spell ... but what if there was a creature?

Anna listened carefully and didn't hear anything but the hissing. Still, that didn't mean anything. There could be something sleeping or waiting to pounce. So she decided to take it one step further. Anna chuckled to herself, despite her situation. What she wouldn't give to see the spectators react when she suddenly disappeared from view entirely. "Protego Maxima." She didn't feel any differently, but if the spell did what it should, no one outside of her personal bubble would be able to see or hear her, including magical creatures. 

Feeling like she was finally protected against whatever made that faint hissing noise, Anna began moving forward, still trailing her hand against the wall. After walking for an immeasurable amount of time, the hissing sound faded and Anna started to feel like she made it through that challenge without something happening to her. Still, she didn't remove the protecting bubble. She couldn't see; why should she remove her protection as long as it was working for her?

(OOC: The footsteps were Emile and the challenge was poison gas, which she successfully avoided!)

[Deleted]

@annelise , @emile
<3

Elias felt like he hadn't been trying to get through this maze as fast as he could, which probably wasn't the best decision on his part and he began to worry about where the other two competitors were and if they were quite further than him, and if he'd been stuck with meeting all of the terrible things. However, as soon as he opened his eyes, he sighed loudly at the sight of the maze. Maze? Oh! His memory was back. And he could finally speak again. That was like a big weight off his shoulders, and now he just needed to make it out of there.

Elias stood up and began walking before taking a sharp right turn. Thankfully he didn't see anything up ahead so he continued to walk further. He was almost to the next fork in the road when he suddenly stopped and felt very weird. It was like his stomach was being pulled away from him, and he felt very nauseous. All Elias had to compare it to was like apparating, but the maze all looked the same. Whether or not he had been moved he did not know, but it worried him all the same.

[Deleted]

@annelise , @emile
<3

After the small feeling of nausea subsided, Elias shook his head. He wished he could tell how far he was from the end of the maze, or if the school could even announce anything for the champions to hear. Elias wasn't even sure if the students and faculty could see them; the Headmaster of Hogwarts hadn't mentioned anything about that, but Elias hoped they couldn't. Yes, it may be boring up there if they couldn't, but here he was trying to climb up a mountain, being eaten and being scared to timbuktu because of a boggart of his father.

Moving from that unusual spot and looking back behind him for a moment, he lowered his eyes and kept his wand tight in his hand, ready for whatever else may come. He trudged up another hill, his ankle now just completely numb. While he couldn't feel it, the pain still lingered. It was shooting up his leg now, and Elias had a feeling it would become infected. Another fork in the road, and he took another left, walking many steps and realizing nothing was on this turn. Goodness, that was exactly what he needed. Just nothing, a calm relaxing walk. Now just to hope the rest of the maze was this way.

[Deleted]

A right, which led nowhere but to another set of split paths. Nothing new there. He took the left this time, hoping that there would be at least something interesting. He had already recovered from his battle against the manticore, the only damage having been done was a bruise or two from diving out of the way and a few singed hairs on his head from the explosion he caused. It also hadn’t chased after him, so that meant it was either set to stay in that path alone, was knocked out cold still, or dead; he hoped it was one of the latter two. That would totally boost his overly inflated ego even more. Surviving a manticore was one thing, defeating one in battle was an even more amazing feat. He wondered if there was some kind of award given to those that managed to get away alive. Contemplating how awesome it would be given something like that, Émile didn’t notice the enormous amount of small insect-like creatures that were starting to swarm around him. A few feet of crunching them into tiny dust particles finally pulled him out of his fantasy as he stared down at his feet, watching the little things climbing all over his body and heading towards his wand. Disgusted by them, he yanked his wand out of his pocket and held it far above his head. There were a few ways to deal with insects, one being fire. He was tired of lighting things ablaze though, the last fight he had was overkill to a degree, and there were so many ways fire-spells could go wrong. For all he knew, these things could be highly combustible. Instead, he opted for what seemed to be a more “humane” way to kill them. “Immobulus.” The creatures froze where they were. He quickly started brushing everything he could find on him off, before moving a little ahead of the hoard he had walked into. “Avis.” A flock of summoned birds popped out from his wand. Natural selection was one way to take the bugs out. “Oppungo.” The birds attacked the swarm, and Émile left them to be as he continued down the path. Trees, manticores, and bugs. It was a strange maze. At least he wasn’t blind like Red had been a few turns back. He couldn’t help but pity her as he took another turn. (TLDR; Attacked by a horde of Chizpurfles. Birds are a good way to get rid of them.) 399 @annelise & @jill6

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Deleted]

Anna's right hand was trailing against the wall. She felt good. She was proud of herself for making it through ... whatever it was she just went through, but at the same time she was starting to feel anxious. How long was it going to take for her to get her sight back? Really, it would be wrong for them to take it away permanently because she just happened to take that path. When the path ended again, Anna turned and started going down the new trail. At least she was getting good at moving without her sight, though she felt like she couldn't defend herself. Granted, she still had that bubble around herself to protect her from whatever she might run into so defense shouldn't be too big of a problem.

She gasped when her eyes started tingling. Without even thinking about what she was doing, she let the bubble charms break (the protection spells along with them) and stuck her wand back into the holster as she reached up to touch her eyes gently. What was happening to them now? She rubbed them and opened them, grinning when there was more than black in front of her. Not much more. She couldn't even distinguish shapes. She reached up and started rubbing her eyes more vigorously and when she pulled them away she could see faint shapes. She tried to look at the path in front of her and didn't see anything, so she started walking as she continued to rub her eyes. 

It was a slow process. Anna rubbed and looked, each time seeing slightly more than before. It was agonizing having her sight so close and so far at the same time. Then she had an idea. She pulled out her wand and muttered, "Aguamenti," directing the stream of water so it hit her eyes gently. Maybe she could wash out whatever it was that made her blind, since it was now obvious that she was going to get her sight back. She gently rubbed her left eye, and opened it again, laughing when she realized she could see, though things were still a little blurry. She rubbed her other eye, delighted when it worked there as well. Anna kept on streaming the water into her eyes, then gently rubbing them. Only a few minutes later, Anna was looking up at the sky, grinning at it. Why not? She'd wondered if she'd ever see that blue again, so she had to enjoy it while she could. 

She took a few steps forward, gasping when she tripped over something. Instantly, she felt something start to creep around her arms and legs and she twisted herself out, getting away before it could fully ensnare her. She rolled away on her back, moving to her knees when she was far enough away that she didn't think it would get her. It was a good thing she had her sight back or she would have no idea what she was up against. Granted, Devil's Snare wasn't too difficult. All she needed was some fire and she would be able to move past it without a problem. 

Anna moved to grab her wand, but it wasn't there. She turned her attention to the plant, scanning it closely. There was the wand. But how was she supposed to get it? The wand looked like it was just barely out of her reach, so she would have to come up with another plan. But what? She needed her wand for almost any plan to work. Then Anna remembered the potion. Hoping she wasn't making a mistake by choosing to use it now, Anna pulled her wit-sharpening potion out and drank it quickly.

Her mind seemed to clear and forget about all the distractions, focusing instead on the problem in front of her. Her wand. Well, she wouldn't be able to get it away by trying to fight it out. As she watched the Devil's Snare, it's grip on her wand seemed to loosen. Well that made sense. It tightened around things that fought against it. The answer suddenly came to her. She needed to wait for the tendrils to be so loose that the plant wouldn't noticed if she slipped something else in while taking the wand out. 

She looked around and went to the hedge, breaking off a few branches and moving back to the edge of the Devil's Snare, two branches in her hand. She tossed one onto the Devil's Snare, hopefully distracting it from her wand, which she snagged with the other stick and pulled closer to her. Her plan seemed to be working, so she hurried and grabbed a few more sticks from the hedge, tossing them onto random spots before trying to use the other branch to bring her wand closer. After a few minutes, her wand was finally close enough that Anna could reach it. She grabbed a handful of sticks and threw all of them at the same time while she reached to get her wand. 

A smile covered her face when she felt the familiar warmth that came with holding her wand. By this time, Anna was tired of jumping through all these hoops. She was ready to be done with this maze. So, wand in hand, she muttered, "Incendio," smiling as the fire burst from the end of her wand. The Devil's Snare cringed away from the fire and Anna moved to a side of the path, nodding when the plant continued to shrink away from her flame. She edged past it and then ended the charm, ready to move on. Now that she had her sight back, she felt much more confident in what was going on.

[Deleted]

É mile took a left at the newest crossroads. It wasn’t like he was expecting anything different from what he had already encountered, but it would have been rather nice. Ahead was a wall of fire, swirling across the entire path. Stopping almost immediately as he rounded the bend, he stared at it for a few seconds. The freeze path had gotten the better of him because he thought he could tough it through without any problems. Luckily nothing had chased after him right away, so that his hand had regained mobility in time to fight the manticore. A wall of fire was a different story though. There didn’t seem to be any easy way to get around or through it without causing serious damage to himself. The explosion he caused earlier was enough fire for him today. Of course…there was always a different choice he had to tackle the obstacle. Against Annabeth’s wise words to use a defensive potion, or at least something to give him an edge should he lose energy during the task, Émile had instead opted to bring a potion of fire-protection. He hadn’t actually thought it would be used in this situation though. The idea had been so that he could drink it and battle a creature with as much fire as he wanted to. So far that hadn’t happened, and since he was at a loss for how to get through the fire, the only choice was to take the potion. Walking towards the wall, the air became thicker, the blaze of heat emitting from it starting to sear his skin as he got closer. Popping the stopper off of the potion’s vial, he slammed it back as fast as possible. He had tested a sip of it before the task to make sure it was working properly, in which he decided it was best to stick his hand into a fireplace. No harm had been done though, and that was only from a tiny drink. This was the entire flask, hopefully more than enough to walk through a wall of fire. Taking a deep breath as he waited a few seconds to let the potion kick in, Émile stepped forward into the fire. To say it was one of the most terrifyingly beautiful things he had ever witnessed would be an understatement. The only way to equate anything to it would be if someone used a charm to breath underwater. It was a completely different look on fire that he had never experienced before. Lost in wonder, it took a few seconds for him to realize that he had walked all the way through the fire and the flames. Just as he had seen in his test-run of the potion, his body was untouched by the fire. Smirking at his luck, he continued to the end of the path, ready to take on what came next. (TLDR; Took a potion of fire-protection and walked through a wall of fire. He's pretty hot right now ) 482 @annelise & @jill6

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Deleted]

@annelise , @emile
<3

Left was the choice. Elias walked slowly, a bit nervous about this turn. Now seeing what he had faced in this task so far, he really couldn't tell if he was preparing himself for the worst, or just trying to figure out what could be happening next. He was becoming exhausted, and he knew that he had to do something to wake himself up. Anything. But it seemed like the only thing that would even potentially be able to do that was adrenaline. And adrenaline is exactly what Elias got.

He turned the corner and immediately saw something he didn't. Acromantulas. Elias gasped, and turned back, trying to calm his breath. His eyes were wide open, and he suddenly felt very awake. As he looked down at himself, he realized that he wouldn't be able to deal with these large spiders. He was too damaged, too hurt. He needed to do something. Elias took a deep breath, and grabbed the potion out of his back pocket. His invisibility potion. Popping it open, Elias swallowed it, and then put the empty bottle back into his pocket. Grasping his wand, he turned the corner again and quietly began walking against the edge of the maze.

Holding up his wand, he began silently casting spells. "Confringo. Expulso. Immobolus." Some set on fire, some exploded, and some stopped moving. Elias felt like he couldn't breathe. Finally, after walking past the last spider, he jogged away, as far as he could, before he stopped and began taking deep breaths, calming himself down.

[Deleted]

B ut the only thing after the next right turn was a wide open shot to some kind of open area at the end of it. He hadn’t come across anything like that yet, so assumed it was a field of sorts in the middle of the maze. That had to mean it was some large creature or task that required an amount of thinking. Luckily he was able bodied enough that something of that sort wouldn’t slow him down too much. The other two, who knew. The girl was blind the last time he saw her, and wild man had disappeared early on. Those were good signs already. Continuing his jog down the path though, something started to feel off to Émile. This opening, it wasn’t like the sense that the other traps and obstacles had given him. It was more…free, if that made sense. As he neared it and more of what the opening was came into view, he traded his wand for a growing smile. This wasn’t a field or arena in the middle of the maze. It was the end. The finish line. There was one issue Émile had with that though. He had no idea where the other two champions were. Obviously he passed by the red-headed one a short while back, but unless she stumbled onto this path from where she was headed earlier, there should have been no reason for her to get ahead of him. Still, it slightly bugged him that he was basically in the clear without a sign of the other two. Breaking his jog into a run, then into a full on sprint with the remainder of his energy, Émile covered the last hundred or so meters, hoping that the other two weren’t fast enough to suddenly appear and get past him. Émile crossed the threshold of the maze and stopped, looking around at the stands and crowd in front of him. A moment of panic hit him, immediately thinking he had gotten turned around and ended going back out the way he had come in. Looking around, he noticed that there was another path to the side. This one was different. Stepping forward a few more feet he looked around, waiting for some sign of victory. He didn’t see the other two, so that had to mean he was first right? Raising both hands in the air, he turned back to see who would be the second one out of the maze: Little Red Riding Hood, or the Big Bad Wolf? Not that it mattered, since he won. ((TLDR: Here's My Inspiration)) 420 @annelise & @jill6

credit to nat of adoxography.

[Deleted]

When Anna came to another turn in the road, she decided to go left. It was so nice being able to see again! She never thought that she took her sight for granted, but after her experience in the maze she was sure that she did. The path in front of her was open and clear and Anna smiled, glad that she got a short break from whatever the maze still had in store for her. She followed the path and then groaned when she saw the dead end in front of her. Of course, another dead end.

She turned around and headed back the way she'd come. As she was approaching the spot where she'd turned onto this path, she saw a figure. Emile. He was grinning and rushing forward and Anna felt her heart sink. There was probably only one reason why he'd be grinning. She hurried, turning where she saw him turn and found herself in an open area. Emile was running- toward the finish line, no doubt- and Anna decided to follow at a quick jog.

Well, this meant she was either second or last and she really hoped she was in second. That wouldn't be too bad, especially since Emile only beat her by about half a minute. She left the maze just in time to see Emile turn to face her, raising both of his hands in the air in triumph. Anna looked around and found herself smiling widely. She was second. Not as good as first, but Emile didn't beat her by a wide margin and she did her best, so she felt good about it. She turned around so she would be able to see when Elias left the maze to join them. 

[Deleted]

@annelise , @emile
<3

As soon as Elias was calmed down he continued walking as fast as he could. If he had to deal with another thing like that he wasn't sure he'd be able to do it. Not only for the fact of how much pain he was in, but also because he used his potion. The one potion that had been able to help him, he had drank and now he was no longer invisible. Elias took another deep breath and began walking forward, his narrowed to see through the darkness.

He suddenly heard cheering. That gave him a rush of excitement and a rush of nervousness. That cheering had to of meant someone was already out of the maze. Meaning Elias was not in first place. Of course he wasn't, not after all this. Not after being eaten and attacked, that must've taken about fifteen minutes off of his time for the maze. Elias took a sharp right and finally saw some light up ahead. He could not run, so he kind of hobbled the way to the exit as fast as he could. As soon as Elias exited, and he glanced around with a smile on his face, he saw Emile and Anna. The smile slowly disappeared. He was in third. As he looked down at himself and at the two of them, he could see why. Neither of them looked like they had gone through anything too rough. Elias' eyes set on Maria in the crowds, and he was taken to sit down by the Head Nurse of Hogwarts, disappointment running through his entire body.

[Deleted]

As the final Champion emerged from the maze and the cheering from the Durmstrangs exploded, Neville nodded to the judges and stood up, pressing his wand to his throat. He was glad to have gotten to stay throughout the task. Parvati was judging because she could take over his role if an emergency happened that he needed to deal with, and judging the tournament was as much a contract as participation, but it still looked better to people outside the school that he never had to leave the task.

His voice boomed over the general din of the crowd. “And now, the results. First place, with the fastest time through the maze, is the Beauxbatons Champion, Emile Chevalier!” Cheers exploded, mostly from the Beauxbatons seats, and he could see quite a few Slytherins and Gryffindors alike shooting the boy dark or calculating looks. Oh dear. When those two houses worked together…well.

“Arriving second, right on the heels of first, is the Gryffindor Champion, Annelise Weasley!” This time, the cheering was deafening. Hogwarts had the home field advantage—a good 80% of the spectators were on Anna’s side here, not to mention the Weasleys themselves were quite popular owing to their loyalty to Harry.

“Third out of the maze is the Durmstrang Champion, Elias Greyback!”

He let the third round of cheering subside before speaking again. “Now the judges will deliberate on the points to give to the champions. Remember, this is only the first task of the tournament. There are still two more to go, and it’s still anyone’s prize to take home! The next task will be held in February, and there is the Yule Ball coming up on Christmas night, so make sure to get your signed permission slips to your Heads of House for those who intend to stay.”

[END THREAD]