The lessons in the past couple of weeks had been in preparation for this unusual weekend challenge. It was a bit of fun, one night out of the dormitories, something different, and there was a buzz about the group as Storm led them through the circular boundary in the February Saturday afternoon air.

As the last student passed through, an incantation uttered beneath the Professor's breath renewed the charms and made the boundary glow white a moment, stretching over plants and trees into the distance. The area within a couple of square miles or so in size - not enormous, but enough. The plan was for the groups to fall over each other.

Before trooping into the forest the group had been searched by staff who had helped him put together the challenge - removing any attempts at cheating. They were down to warm clothes and their wands. It was muddy, chilly and would get dark in the next hour and a half.

Professor Storm beat a track to the centre of the area and then gathered them round, ushering them with gloved hand from beneath his cloak. Beside a fire which burst into life at the point of his wand were pale eggs the size of babies a few months old, each with numbers on.

He pulled a small bag from beneath it and began to pull names from it on slips of paper, assigning the assembled older students to groups quite randomly of about four or so in size.

To each of the groups he then provided a list of ingredients they would need to create a healing potion, and dittany for treatment.

"Each group takes care of an egg. They are resistant to charms and protection spells, and fragile. Consider them an invalid in each group, so they must be protected at all times. Teams with an egg still intact at 10 o'clock Sunday morning will be the only ones considered for winnings, and it doesn't have to be the same egg you are given. Poaching, destroying other eggs are fair game."

He smirked, hoping that the more devious of the group would find some strategy to eliminate other eggs.

"You have been assigned a team at random from the draw, and must not only retain an egg, but also build shelter, feed yourselves from the forest and collect all the ingredients on that list to create a healing potion. The potion must be delivered with your egg here at 10 o'clock tomorrow with all your team."

He looked from one face to the next to see this was understood.

"We're not here to kill each other tonight. Demonstrate your skill in other means than lethal force. Finally, the boundary is charmed. If anyone tries to cross, the whole forest will know, and nothing can cross inwards either. Human or animal."

That had been particularly tricky, but turned out Minerva was a dab hand at boundary spells down to the war. Animals straying near to the boundary would be spooked away before they met it, so only blundering witches, wizards in their various forms would be running into it to set off the wailing.

"Good luck, and may the most devious of you win. I suggest you scoop up your eggs carefully and run like hell," he consulted his pocketwatch, "about thirty seconds before the package I placed in that fire explodes…"

There was a scurry as the eggs assigned to each team made their ways into arms and yelps as each of the groups decided on a direction. The Professor continued to glance at his watch until ten seconds to go and then strode away, drawing his hood up as behind him the fire rose into the air and emitted a hefty bang which rang out across the landscape and sent birds into the air… only to fly down again, suddenly confused at why they'd gone up in the first place.

For a random draw, Raine supposed she was rather lucky.

Between Alex, Gracie, Gigi[1] and herself... well it was difficult to distinguish an ounce of maternalism. They were at least female and therefore competent- not to mention one badger away from total house representation. So all wasn't lost. The Gryffindor gravitated to her teammates gradually as their professor discussed the boundary and other precautions.

"We've regressed to bird behaviour," she eyed the eggs with a wry expression. "I wonder if they'll hatch."

A question for Professor Locksley's students to answer some day. Would they have time to ask about what was inside the eggs? Or perhaps to discuss their strategi-- "About thirty seconds before the package I placed in that fire explodes…"

That was a big no, then.

"Cover!" Raine was already sprinting for the collection of eggs, swift as her jogger's legs could take her. The exclamation was a team warning to protect, lest one of the other groups manned a preemptive omelette strike. She kneeled down and quickly - but gently - cradled an egg numbered 1 in both hands before turning around to rejoin the other girls.

1.	Already discussed with Sly, Hazel and Socks.

"Not eggs..." Figaro saw them and groaned.

An egg had become a symbol for horrible group projects and Figaro was not happy to see them no matter how exciting this overnight escapade had been drummed up to be.  But the true nature of the game was revealed and it reeked of Professor Storm's favorite brand of sadism. 

"...About thirty seconds before the package I placed in that fire explodes..."  There was a breath of a pause before about half the students bolted into action.  Figaro, much heralded as a boy who acted before thinking, shouted loudly as he ran forward and snatched an egg (#3).  He just kept running straight into the woods beyond the fire. 

He hoped his group would catch up to him. [1]

1.	Need a couple of group members!

Chloe had her arms crossed when they all tramped out to the woods. She held her wand tightly in her gloved hand. This was Storm. You had to expect the unexpected. For as much as she knew, he could engage them all into a duel at this exact moment. He was the only teacher she was really afraid of, and for good reason. She would have not taken the class, but the fact was, he was one of the best teachers she had had. Sure she was frightened of doing anything wrong in front of him, but he held them to standards that Chloe could work for. Typically, she flew by others in classes. But DADA was an actual challenge. And it was refreshing.

She had gotten her group assignment, and smiled. Katherine, Phillip and Theo. Katherine would clearly be awesome, partly because she was Katherine, and she was Chloe. Phillip was a bit of a wildcard, but he was better than no one. He'd at least be there to provide comedy relief. And maybe he wouldn't be completely useless. Theo though. He was the one she was worried about. She honestly couldn't stand him, and his fake little attitude. Growing up in Oulton Broad bred her to be able to sniff out those who were too good to be true, and he was one of them. Sure, he seemed charming, and sweet and kind. But she just felt that there was something deeper. He couldn't actually be perfect like that. No one was. Though she had never had an actual clash with Theo, she just wasn't fond of him. That was understandable. But, the groups were picked randomly. She would just have to work around him, and play nice.

Chloe was already forming a plan, somewhat electing herself as head of the group. She was a Quidditch captain for God's sake. She was a leader. She'd lead this group to victory. There was no other option. They'd make the right decision, and deliver that egg the next morning, whether she had to do it by herself or not. Chloe didn't take losing well. And missing the chance for bonus points? That didn't fly well with her. She didn't know what had gotten into her. She was feeling competitive tonight, but more than usual. There had to be something in the air or something. She wouldn't let that bother her. She had an egg to protect.

When Storm had announced that the pit would explode in mere seconds, all the students charged. Chloe threw a hand up as she started to sprint. "Got it!" She shouted over Fig's yelling- God, that boy was something else. Chloe ran by, not even bothering to stop, snatching up egg number two, and quickly righting it in her arms. It wasn't heavier than a Quaffle, and she had done this running exercise with the red balls before. She wouldn't drop it, as she darted off into the woods, cradling the egg in one arm, and her wand in the other. This game got serious.

She ran for about a minute, and heard the explosion. The game had begun. Chloe leaned against a tree, catching her breath, the egg still cradled in her arm. It was then that she smiled. She could do this. She could actually do this. She was just waiting for her group to show up.

This was going to be a tricky night. As the class marched out to the forbidden forest, Katherine's confidence dropped lower. And lower. And even lower. She folded her arms in front of her chest as they walked into the forest, feeling snuggly and warm inside her jacket, but feeling downright terrified in this dark, oh-so-very-freaking-dark, forest. Ever since she'd been little, her priorities had always been the same in the dark. Get to light. Don't freak out. Stay calm. Cool. Collected.

But with Storm's lessons and the wildcard group she'd been assigned to, she wondered if staying as cool as a cucumber was possible. She wandered towards her group, calculating their chances of keeping the egg intact. Or if they would have the ability to destroy another group's egg, or snatch one. All while building a shelter, finding food, and creating a healing potion. If her heart wasn't pounding so wildly from her fear, it would be pounding from anxiety. She could conceal anxiety and fear to a point, but it didn't mean she wouldn't still just flip out on the inside.

Standing near Chloe, Katherine figured the girl already had a plan. The way she was looking at them, it was like she was judging abilities and talents and what they were capable of. It was obvious the redhead though herself a leader, figured that she should be in charge.

For all her great qualities, sometimes (all the time) Chloe could be a little full of herself.

She didn't even flinch when Chloe volunteered herself to grab the egg. Katherine just wrapped her hand around the handle of her wand, and took off running with the group. Chloe ran ahead of them like it was some kind of race, and they found her just standing around waiting for them. Fabulous.

"So, I suppose you have a plan then," Katherine said, drawing to a stop as she broke out of the haphazard sort-of-sprint she'd adopted in order to keep up with Chloe. She looked at Theo and Phillip, even with the odd assortment of this team, they could probably work it out. She heard something rustle above them, and almost jumped out of her skin before realizing it was just the wind. She showed no more of a reaction that tilting her head towards the top of the trees before looking back down at her group.

Katherine Beckett had a serious fear of the dark. And she was in a forest. A dark forest. It was going to be a real good time...

As the Ravenclaw sprinted behind his Hufflepuff teammate, he found himself entirely unsure whether he was dreading or intrigued by this rather Lord of the Flies-esque assignment they'd been given.  On one hand, he did rather like camping and it was a wonderful opportunity to use all of his classes in practical, hands on applications.  On the other hand, they were going to be sitting in the dark.  In the Forbidden Forest.  Waiting for people to sneak up on them. 

And, Sellaphix was on his team.  Was he really ready for this?  Did he trust himself? 

Sellaphix' impulsiveness did give him a bit of a head start but Sasha's long stride helped him catch up quickly.  He glanced over his shoulder to check on the progress of his other teammates. 

"We should find someplace-"  Sasha called up towards Figaro.  "To hunker down and strategize.  Assess.  Plan."  Decide if there was someone slightly less accident prone to carry the egg.  Somewhere behind them there was a loud explosion. 

He continued to run quietly behind the others until they were out of earshot of competitors before calling again.  "Maybe we should climb.  Or find a cave.  Something defendable." 

This was going to be a long horrible night.

Xavier was more than apprehensive as Storm explained what they were going to be doing. His cool grey blue eyes had drifted up to the already setting sun, it wouldn't be long before full dark was upon them and that was not something the Slytherin was looking forward to. He had his arms wrapped around his chest and his toe was tapping the ground. What looked like boredom on the outside was a mess of nerves and anxiety on the inside. Xavier hadn't been dealing well with going into the forest during classes but he was able to get through them with more and more confidence knowing that the longest he'd ever have to be there was a few hours. This though, an entire night trapped in the woods where his safety depended on his own wits and what ever idiots he had been grouped up with, was not good.

With the thirty second warning the whole class sprang into action like an ant hill that had just been poked with a stick. Xavier sprinted past the collection of eggs and found his group mates just inside the forest. He tried to keep his face neutral, to not let the others know just how hard this challenge was going to be on him. He hadn't been in a forest at night since the werewolf attack.

He looked between Figaro and Sasha and decided he could have done a lot worse. Fig was an old friend and while he wasn't entirely a fan of Schlagonwagon, the boy was well adept at magic and strategy and if the rumors were true he had survived much worse than a night in the Forbidden Forest.

"Oi Fig, ye thin' mebbe summun else shoul be holdin' tha?"

Jordyn was not the biggest fan of Defense Against the Dark Arts.  She took it because it seemed instrumental in any future career she wished to pursue, but it didn’t mean she had to be absolutely in love with it like some students were.  The fact that they were outside was enough to let her know that she wasn’t really loving what was going on. 

Professor Storm seemed absolutely pleased with himself, giving them eggs and random teams: that last bit could have been utterly devastating, but thankfully, for the first time in recent history, Jordyn was blessed with at least a substantially good group.  Aliya, Bran, and Nicholas¹ – well, at least Aliya and Bran would be useful.  She wasn’t particularly sure about the Gryffindor, but she hoped their reputation as fool-hardy and ready to risk everything to win.

Jordyn knew, at least for her, she wasn’t very keen on the survival aspects of this project.  They had to be outside, overnight, in the freezing cold, all kinds of terrible.  She could, at the very least, help with the school-related bits.   

She knew she wasn’t going to volunteer to get it, but she could volunteer to be devious.  She and Bran were certainly going to excel in that area – she wondered about Aliya, and hoped that she would be a true asset to the group.  She had volunteered to hold onto their list of ingredients and looked over it with a careful eye.  She sincerely hoped someone took herbology…

When it was finally announced that they were to go, Jordyn looked at her group and took a deep breath, “Someone grab it!” she ordered before taking off, not one for the idea of grabbing things –but also didn’t really know where to go.  She wasn’t adept at this outdoors nonsense, she didn’t have the first clue of where one might find shelter or the things they needed. 

“Where do we go?” she looked at the rest of the group, quickly backing away – knowing, at the very least, they did not want to be near an explosion, particularly with a very fragile egg in hand. 

---

¹ Already cleared with Amara, Cody, and Erika

"I'm not sitting on it." Gigi would rate her maternal instincts as above those of her mother, which mean approximately nothing. At least her team didn't ooze incompetence, and Raine was already on point.

This was one of the few classes that Gigi would publicly admit to wanting to do good at. That was the point of her lessons with Storm, right? Nothing questionable going on there.

She could handle cover. "Vapos Nebulae!" A cloud of dark smoke, faintly tinged purple, spread out from her wand as she swept it across, to help shield Raine from the other groups. Then she started to run, trusting the rest of the group to follow.

An explosion would hurt the egg as much as anything else.

It was certainly one of the more interesting tasks that they’d been assigned in class. While not exactly thrilled by the prospect of gathering ingredients late at night in the forest, Alex’s visits there with the Nightshades at least meant that she would have something of an advantage over the others – or most of them. But the class being set against each other, although she wouldn’t rule out the possibility of allying herself with another group, would be sure to make the night much more interesting. And challenging, but so long as there wasn’t another dragon made of junk hiding out there somewhere, she didn’t care.

“Don’t kill Phillip,” Alex said to Theo by way of a farewell, “I’ll know it was you.” It wasn’t exactly an instruction to keep the Gryffindor safe, because Alex doubted anything could carry Phillip through this unscathed, least of all someone who would be far happier to throw him into the line of fire,  but it was a request that Theo at least didn’t actively try to hurt him. With that, she began to make her way towards her team mates, sauntering through the students at a deliberately slow pace until Raine began to run.

Much more sensible, she thought, her wand already in hand, but there was no need – apparently, Gigi had been thinking along the same lines as her, and had been quicker on the draw to boot. A little embarrassing, to be sure, but there were other things to do, like casting a few curses into the smoke behind them in the hope of getting someone out of the way early. The smoke meant that their position wouldn't be readily apparent, and most people would be more concerned with vacating the area as quickly as possible. Smirking a little, Alex waited until the Gryffindor was almost level with them before wrapping slim fingers around Gracie’s wrist and gesturing into the forest, moving quickly to try and catch up with the fourth team member, who had already sped off.

Eventually, they slowed, Alex leaning over to catch her breath and breathing heavily a few times before straightening, smiling at her team mates – or most of them, at any rate. “Do we try to make the potion and then steal other people’s eggs, or the other way round?” It went without saying that just trying to survive the night was not an acceptable course of action, sleep and food weren’t essential over such a brief period and in any case, they were more than competent enough to be able to do more than just that.

---

OOC: Due to the nature of the thread, I am trusting Sly to make any decisions regarding Alex's behaviour in my absence.

Egg #3 - Figaro, Sasha, Xavier

Out of breath from running, Figaro held the egg under his arm like a rugby ball.  The explosion had sounded off just seconds ago and around them in the woods he could hear the frantic rustling of people tramping around trying to find a safe space to get organized. 

Xav and Sasha were close their with them, both of them already with suggestions.  Xav wanted to hold the egg, and Sasha wanted to climb a tree.  Now that their egg was safe, Figaro couldn't forget what Professor Storm had said was allowed - they could go after other eggs.

"Sure, whatevs," he handed off Egg #3 to Xavier without hesitation.  He'd had quiet enough of egg-sitting last year, thank you very much.

He looked all around them in the woods and then crouched down.  "Everyone's going to be doing that - sitting still finding somewhere to hide out the night.  I need to go egg smashing now," he whispered.  "If we wait, it'll be harder."

Fig looked from Sasha to Xavier.  Just a nod would do. 

She knew something was up when a boundary charm flashed to life after the last student was safely inside, dull green eyes focusing on their professor and searching for an explanation. Instead, he pulled out a bag and began pairing everyone up in groups; instead of listening for the names of her own group members, which she'd quickly regret, her eyes were scanning their surroundings, her mind whirring with the possibilities of the assignment. So when Professor Storm announced the survival challenge, the Ravenclaw wasn't surprised; in fact, the girl had a rather devious grin on her lips. Oh, yes, she was going to be more than adept at this challenge. While she wasn't particularly familiar with the native fauna and animals in this area, she knew how to survive in the wild if necessary.

Protecting an egg, though? That would be hard, especially if other teams were planning on wiping out competition. Admittedly, Mai would be one of those trying to eliminate other group's eggs so maybe once she got into the role it would dissuade other groups from their egg. She was about to ask Storm what their winnings would be but quickly realized questions weren't going to happen. "...about thirty seconds before the package I placed in that fire explodes..."

"Shit," was the quiet hiss from the Ravenclaw as she burst forward, shoving any unfortunate soul trying to also get their egg away, and carefully snatched up a pale blue egg with a thick number five printed on it before dashing into the cover of dense trees, hoping her teammates[1] weren't completely dense and had enough good sense to follow after her quickly; the beginning point was an opportune place to start poaching eggs and she certainly didn't want theirs to be the one to get smashed in the confusion. In fact, if Mai hadn't been the one to collect their egg, she'd likely have rose to the chance herself and stomped on a few eggs before their teams could get them. She wished she had now that she had the moment to think about it.

"We need to find a place to hide it," Mai spoke aloud, halfway talking out loud to herself and halfway informing her teammates. "If we get caught carrying it around, it'll undoubtedly get damaged. Storm said it was resistant to charms and protection spells, so using magic to conceal it is out. We need a plan and fast before someone else decides to take advantage of everyone's confusion."

1.	Need teammates; anyone interested?

A Hufflepuff, a Ravenclaw, a Slytherin and an egg walk into a forest...

It was the start to a potentially extremely bad joke and Sasha was confident he didn't want to know the punchline.  He looked visibly relieve when Figaro relinquished the egg to Xavier but the relief was short lived.  With a declaration of all out war, Figaro's impulsiveness rose it's impatient head, again. 

"Our first priority is to get the egg through the night.  Even if we break everyone else's egg, they can still come after ours.  Once it's dark - we need to find a spot where a blazing fire for the potions won't scream 'come get us, we're over here!' in the dark." 

There had to be a reason animals fought so viciously over turf on all those nature documentaries. 

"Let's at least find a suitable spot and magically ward it, then we can go on the hunt." They could formally set up camp later but Sasha suspected if they waited until after dark to find a spot, they'd regret it.  "Maybe find someway to better protect our egg.  Transfigure decoys so we all have one.  Something like that." 

The air was awash with spells, and Ignan slunk away to watch before using a levitation spell to raise himself up off the ground to enough height to reach a branch which he hauled himself up onto to watch the scene unfold. Handily, he could work out where the eggs were roughly, as he had charmed each of them, but they were moving at such a pace the general direction of them was already erratic.

Still, that was half of the fun, tracking each group down himself, later... in the dark.

The smoke was still billowing up from the fire, though it was thinning out as the February sunlight began to rapidly diminish. Below in the forest it was dark in the shadows, and light would begin to give them away if they didn't manage to cast the relevant spells. Having an egg to look after was tricky, but if one camped down it would be easier. However, collecting the potions supplies would mean venturing out, they weren't grouped in one area at all - each group had a different healing potion of similar difficulty to produce.[1]

He was pleased at the way the groups had turned out, there were strengths and there were what the students perceived weaknesses, but one night could change a lot. Those close friends could be at each other's throats by morning (delightful, he looked forward to it) and those enemies could have cast aside their worries about each other and gone all out.

As the sun dipped below the tree line some forty minutes later, Ignan decided it had been long enough to leave the students to their own devices, and set off. With any luck they'd have found somewhere to stop and marked out their territories.

It took a little while to chance upon some students, but not so long to reach out a hex in an attempt to send them both onto their backsides.

1.	Thanks to Sly for the heads up that I hadn't specified, for flexibility, make up your own potion for the group - burn salves, blood loss potions, etc etc you're far more creative than me!

Bran was not happy. Leaving aside the fact that this entire thing was very much ado about nothing, and Defense was not exactly his favorite subject, they had to spend the night outside?! In the cold, damp, dark and generally atrocious forest? Ugh, no! This was completely unnecessary... and ridiculous to say the least. The only solace in this entire farce was the fact that he couldn't complain about his team. Jordyn was lovely, Aliya was positively adorable and Bevans would at least be a sight for sore eyes. He didn't care much about their competency, since Storm had given them the go for deviousness and sabotaging other teams... well, Bran knew exactly how they were going to go about this.

“Someone grab it!” With that, Bran was woken out of his reverie and quickly schooled his expression of complete displeasure into a rather fierce one. "Bevans, be a darling, and put that physique to good use" he quipped seriously and threw him a radiant smile. "We're heading East to find safe ground. Use a Four-Point" he yelled, as he caught up to Jordyn and Aliya. But just as he was about to leave Nicholas to the fates with their egg, he turned quickly and cast a Disillusionment Charm on the boy. He didn't know what the Gryffindor was capable of and he'd rather not have him lose their egg to some other team just yet.

They didn't stop running until they entered a denser part of the forest, however, just when he thought it was safe to stop, he noticed out of the corner of his eye, some lost sheep[1] running alongside them. He couldn't for the love of all remember the girl's name, but they couldn't very well have someone going for the same spot, could they? With complete disabling in mind, Bran stopped enough to point his wand at the poor thing and clearly enunciated "Petrificus Totalus." He watched as the girl was frozen mid-run and fell heavily to the ground and smiled sweetly to himself. Then, to make sure her teammates wouldn't release her very fast, he blasted a branch from the tree above her and levitated it as to completely hide her body. He blew a kiss to the unfortunate soul and resumed running.

Reaching a very dense thicket, Bran thought the location was safe enough to stop and discuss some sort of strategy. He made quick work of a Muffliato and mild Protego derivation around them, then turned to the girls with a rather obvious scowl on his face. "Well, that was positively smashing" he said dripping with sarcasm. "I don't know the first thing about camping and procuring food in the wild and my knowledge of Potions and Herbology is at a fourth year standing. On this end, we might have a bit of a problem" he explained, rubbing his temples with his thumb and index. "I suggest we make due with the potion somehow, then make our way around stealthily for food that's already been taken care of and wait until someone will kindly erect a campsite for us" he smiled slyly. "Well, not exactly kindly" he said, raising his eyebrows slowly. "I think hiding the egg while we're on the hunt, or leaving someone to nest might be our best bet." He couldn't help that joke, he just couldn't.

1.	NPC from Egg 6 team.