Sasha had already spent far too many cold mornings in the forest.  He could only hope this one would be the last.  Despite the cold, he was ... he was alright when he stepped out of the forest and rejoined Figaro, their wayward team member.  During the course of the night, he had managed to find two rocks similar enough in shape to the original egg to be transfigured into passable and more resilient replicas of their fragile charge.  He held two of the rocks under his arms.  A stoppered flask of healing potion was carefully stashed in his pocket.  Without a word, he handed the flask to Figaro and waiting for Tawse to relinquish the original egg. 

They'd never actually stopped to make camp.  By making their way, quietly, through the darkness by only the light of the near-full moon, they'd managed to remain a moving target and stealthily bypass the other teams' camps.  They'd stopped only once, once they'd found the necessary ingredients for the potion.  Rather than build a large fire that would signal their location to anyone passing by, Sasha had drawn off his experiences backpacking at home and recommended the use rocks to build a small, campstove-like chimney fire.  Just big enough to boil water.  He'd extinguished it and continued on with potion, egg and decoy eggs in hand. 

He was a little tired, though he was already accustomed to losing sleep and pushing forward with the myriad of sleep replacement charms Mr. Morgan had taught him.  But he was also...again, he was also alright.  Despite initially dreading the assignment and spending another jumpy night in those woods, Sasha had been surprised and a little relieved that he'd managed.  Once he'd been there and once he'd made a plan, he'd actually reminded himself he'd survived much worse, including the first tournament task.  In the end, he'd been far more confident trudging through the dark fores than he'd expected. 

"He has the real one," Sasha explained as he pointed towards Tawse.  "It's...they aren't actually...is there someone in them?"  In many ways, the image in his head of near-to-hatching creatures perishing in shattered eggs all over the forest had been Sasha's biggest motivator to protecting the egg. 

Gigi was going out first, keeping an eye out for the others. Someone had to. Hadn't been the most miserable night ever, and she'd gotten in a little fun. But beds. And pillows. Her neck had missed both of those.

And she was still a little irked at one of her potential targets from the other night getting chased off by a leopard. Leopard, of all things? But leopard tangling wasn't in the class description. Or at least nowhere that she remembered. Hadn't read it that close.

But they'd got the stuff for their potion, and she was just about unscathed. There had been the one unfortunate collision with a tree branch...hadn't left a mark, not anymore.

She just strolled in towards Storm, bit of a smirk on her face and her wand dangling from her hand. Hadn't been his sharpest lesson, but she wasn't keen to replay the drowning incident neither.

Sellaphix arrived by himself. Either he'd lost his team or left them trailing behind, the Professor wasn't sure on sight. He looked grubby, and cold.

"Excellent news." The Professor replied with equal sarcasm to Figaro's liking for camping. His eyes finished at the boy's feet and raised an eyebrow at his lack of shoe.

Schlagenweit appeared next to join his teammate, and handed over what looked to be the team's potion. Good, he was glad they had managed that.

Faced with two students, and Georgiana trudging towards them as Sasha asked his question, the Professor had come to a halt, wand in hand, silently restoring the ground from the scorch marks of the campfire, pale eyes staring at the ground where the charm was doing its work.

"Someone in them?" He asked, drawing his wand back to his body and giving the Ravenclaw a very odd look. "No, you could have cooked and eaten them." He shook his head, "they are your invalid." He glanced towards Georgiana.

"No more than enlarged chicken eggs." Ah the disappointment.

Soon enough the rest of the students arrived into the clearing, though there were some missing, he did not wish to wait as 10 o'clock drew.

"Bring forward your eggs." He requested them, gesturing to the ground in the centre of the clearing. After inspecting each and casting a few charms over them to confirm they were the originals,  he withdrew a parchment and noted down the groups.

The potions were labelled and put into a large bag for testing. If he was lucky, Lucrezia would have that done very easily.

"My congratulations to those teams who kept their eggs. Your potions will be scrutinized for their validity and quality to find a victorious team who have created something worthy. I will announce the victors at our next lesson. If any of you meet Professor Di Luca's scrutiny," there was a groan from the students, "lunch at the Three Broomsticks and drinks for the winning team."

He pulled the string tight on the bag of potions and surveyed the scene, prepared to lead them back.

"A foot-long factual account of the exercise to the next lesson." Hungry, dirty students groaned again and protested.

"Kinsey's in the hospital hut. Nasty mess that, but nothing that can't be fixed. Madam Nagde is expecting a few visits from you all. But all in all, well done." He let that sink in a moment - praise was rare!

"We'll proceed back to the castle. Find yourselves to the kitchens before noon, the elves have prepared a brunch for you all. Look sharp, let's go!"

With that, he set off with the surprisingly sprightly step of a man who had stayed out all night supervising students trying to sabotage each other to win a prize.



Will leave this open a little while for anyone who would like to post again, but otherwise will close this up in the next week or so and calculate a bundle of points for you all!

Xavier left the line of trees just a few steps behind Sasha. He never thought he'd have been so grateful to have spent the night with Schlagonwagon. They had kept on the move throughout the night only stopping to build a small fire for their portion. Xavier had closed his eyes only for a moment but it was long enough for the nightmares to come. In a breif moment of fear and weakness he allowed Sasha and Belle to comfort him, though quickly made them promise not to mention it to anyone. What happened in the Forbidden Forest stayed in the Forbidden Forest.

With the real egg tucked under his arm he took a look around the clearing, spotting their wayward team mate, "Bloody 'ell Fig!" He clapped his friend on the shoulder, "ere we were thinkin' ye be dead." He offered a weary smile, "Good ta see ye mate. "

Xavier made a face when Storm announced that their potions would be scrutinized by their infamous Potions Mistress. He hoped Sasha knew what he had been doing when he brewed it. Xavier was a decent potioneer himself but he didn't come close to the Ravenclaw's abilities.