Team Overview
Team 1
►Carstairs, Alexandra
►Dimbleby, Jordyn
►Kinsey, Phillip
►Whitman, Theo ✫

Team 2
►Piselli, Zia
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Team 3
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Team 4
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NPC Team
►Student 1
►Student 2
►Student 3
►Student 4

(Ø): eliminated; +/-: points; ☓: injured ✫: leader

In the middle of a clearing, right at the entrance of the Forbidden Forest, stood tall a tent which sheltered a couple of round tables from the cold rain outside. Each table was adorned with a complete brewing kit: cauldrons, phials, scales, protective gear and other necessary utensils. In the middle of the table set-up, one fairly displeased Potions Mistress was currently scowling at the few students that were quickly approaching her location. Goodness, the weather was atrocious.

"One o'clock sharp. I suppose that's all of you" she finally said, stopping in the middle of the tables to eye the NEWT class disdainfully. "Welcome to your midterm examination. Yes, it is your last day of class before the holiday. No, it is not fair. Life isn't fair" she muttered clenching her fingers over her arm. "Yes, it is April first. No, this is not an All Fools' Day joke. I don't joke" she added more seriously, waiting for a moment for that to sink in.

"Following your absolutely horrifying results in Professor Storm's little adventure into the forest in February, I decided it was time to see whether or not you had learned anything from that particular experience" the Potions Professor said with a rather unpleasant smile. "Scattered around the forest are various ingredients which can be used to brew one of four potions we have studied so far, namely: Blood-Replenishing Potion, Elixir to Induce Euphoria, Hiccoughing Solution and Amortentia" Ezia explained, one finger pointing towards the path that opened to the forest on her right. "Some of the ingredients have been artificially introduced in the environment, while others are native to the environment. That means they actually grow in the forest" she scowled, pursing her lips.

"You'll be teaming up in groups of four, by whatever criteria you deem important" she waved her hand absently. She knew they'd choose their teammates based on social relationships rather than actual skills. Teenagers. "You will use whatever means at your disposal and whatever knowledge, regardless the area of study, in order to discover, acquire and safely return the ingredients back in the brewing area. That would be here, in case any of you missed the cauldrons and brewing tools" Ezia said flatly. You could never be too sure with this lot...

"From the moment you enter the forest, you will have one hour to find your ingredients and another hour to brew your elected potion. There's only one rule in place: attacks with intent to injure, maim, or kill another student will not only mean immediate elimination from the exam and failing Potions altogether, but it could also mean expulsion and a lengthy stay in Azkaban" she mused with a little hum. "If you believe you are dying or you see someone else on the brink of death, please use your wand to shoot red sparks to the sky" she added in an irritated sort of tone, obviously accentuating how grave the situation must be to resort to such a means. "Injuring yourself is another matter altogether. Stupidity will be punished accordingly" the professor added with a stony expression, watching Kinsey dead in the eye. Circe, that boy...

"Otherwise, everything is fair game. So, once you do find your ingredients, you'd better make sure they actually stay with you" she said with a quirked eyebrow and a hint of a smile. "This brewing station is at the far West edge of the two kilometer radius circle in which the ingredients have been scattered. There are boundary spells in place to let you know when you've hit the edge. Getting lost on your way back is on you" Lucrezia added with huff.

"You have 10 minutes to decide your teams, elect a representative and send them to me to fill in your names on this parchment." With a flick of her wand a parchment rolled itself out in front of her, a quill lazily floating next to it. "You will be graded on individual performance, as well as team effort. You will need to score a passing grade on both ends in order to be able to sit on your final exam.

The first team to finish a viable potion, will have a two point advantage on their team evaluation. Providing their strategy, as well as team coordination has been just as good, as well as their individual performance, their all around grade will be an O, plus house points for their merit" Lucrezia eyed them intently for a second, waiting for a reaction. "They will also be excused of their holiday assignments. And the one individual that proves him or herself the most competent today, regardless of their team's performance, will be given a potion of their choice, within reasonable limits."

"Representatives to me, if you'd please. The rest of you, good luck, don't catch a cold and see you back here in an hour. All of you, in full team formation. Failure to do so will mean elimination and failure" she smiled sweetly and waved at them.

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* Please specify what team your character is part of in each post you make. (start your post writing the team in italics, a smaller size font or another color; end your post with a horizontal rule, and write the team under it etc.)
* Assume your character is on time and present. If the character was late, they will no longer be allowed to take the exam.
* If you are a new student or if your character is not on the roster, please go ahead with posting and notify me via PM to modify the roster.

Team 1

"I don't joke." Phillip snorted loudly, but choked trying to keep his stupid gob shut as The Dibble, by which he meant Di Loco (the bloke that came out with that was pure mint!), threw him a mingin'  look. Sweet baby Jesus, that woman could probably make a grown man strain the onions in fear. But when the nutter went on with the talking Phillip's kipper suddenly fell at hearing about the... incident.

His knees went bobbins at the thought. No. Narr, man. Not again. This time, surely he was going to bite the big one! Be fender meat! Take a dirt nap! Bite the dust! Kick the bucket! Screw the pooch! Snuff it! If last time was anything to go by... At least Storm wouldn't have let him actually die in his own pool of blood. He wasn't quite sound with Di Luca.

He was just glad that dodgie, Sellaphix, wasn't taking Potions. He was wrong, so wrong. When the professor explained the one rule, Phillip actually whimpered. The bloke next to him gave him a sken-eyed look and took a step away. The  knob.  It was going to be 'anging. As if it wasn't enough, Di Luca then went on to remind everybody of the incident and Phillip merely stood there, mouth open, skenning at her like she'd just grown a heart or something. Evil, pure evil. That lass was Satan herself. Brill tho, utterly brill.

When the harpy was finished, Phillip gave the tent a cursory look and figured he'd best go with someone that was actually capable. And by capable he meant by Di Luca's standards, not all fir coat 'n no knickers. "Dimbleby! Are you 'aving it?" He asked, with a cabbaged look on his kipper. Nervous did not begin to cover what Phillip was like right now.   At least Dimbleby was not prone to hexing her legs split and she was an efficient brewer. It also helped that she actually knew her drill around other subjects and... life in general. Phillip couldn't tell his left from his right, and couldn't find his own arse if it wasn't attached to him.

Team 1

Standing on the edge of the forest, Jordyn had a bad feeling.  She was not one for the outdoors, and knowing that it was a midterm examination… She’d studied until she couldn’t see straight, but somehow it didn’t seem to prepare her for what they were going to be getting into – and she didn’t even know what it was yet!  Reaching up, she tugged on her dangling, skull earring, something to fidget with while she listened to the professor. 

Despite the date, Jordyn would never have assumed anything the woman said was a joke and she had to look around as she suggested it was a team exercise.  That’d been… interesting last time.  Clearly, the professor knew that, as she mentioned it – more than once. 

She wanted to do well.  Sitting for the final exam would be key to continuing for the final year up until their actual NEWT exam, and Jordyn needed this NEWT for her career.  It wasn’t even just a possibility at this point: it was what she wanted.  To hell with anyone who stood in the way of Jordyn getting what she wanted.  She let out a deep breath and scoured the crowd for a capable team.  She wanted to be with people who would excel, it did not matter if she liked them or not – it was a moot point when grades were involved. 

They had ten minutes to select the best team they could… and the first person to approach her was Kinsey.  Despite his personality, she knew he was extremely capable – and practically got taken on as the pet project of the professor.  That couldn’t hurt.  Advantages in any way were going to help and Jordyn would be stupid to turn it down. 

Putting aside all personal biases, Jordyn approached and nodded.  “We still need two more members,” she informed him.  “Whitman?” she questioned, strategizing quietly toward him, “Perhaps Slant… any of your classmates?” she raised her eyebrows at him.  If they were going to be a team, they needed to be smart about who else they picked – and they had to do it quickly. 

---

1.   Phillip Kinsey
2.   Jordyn Dimbley 
3. _
4. _

Team 1

As Alex listened to their instructions, she began to relax. The task was not so far off what she’d expected, although she had thought they would be selecting ingredients from unlabelled bottles rather than locating them in the wild. And no matter how accident prone Phillip was, there was no need for those looks. Phillip had lost his leg, even if Di Luca couldn’t find it within the rock which she used for a heart to be sympathetic, she should have the decency not imply that it was his incompetency which had caused it.

Hogwarts had always had a laissez faire attitude towards the safety of students, but insisting on a similar task to the one which had such disastrous results was even worse than their norm, even given the additional rules.

At Di Luca’s signal, the previously silent group (well trained by their professor) immediately began to talk, Alex rising to her tiptoes to search for desirable team members. Which, to her, was a criteria of two, then whoever else was convenient. Phillip was already talking to Dimbleby, and while Alex was irritated that he hadn’t asked her first she could see the wisdom of the decision and immediately made her way over, pushing past a small group that was arguing over who had to leave their number to greet the two of them.

“Dimbleby, Kinsey,” although both names were said perfectly cordially, the smile at Phillip’s name was warm, rather than the formality it had been for Dimbleby’s. “Would you object to my presence in your team?” Alex would be interested to see if Dimbleby would prize her grade over manners, but since she was perfectly proficient ­ not as good as the others, but her grades were nothing to sneer at, and given that Di Luca was not a harsh grader so much as one who resented giving marks, difficult to achieve ­ there was no reason for her to face such a dilemma.

Alex thought she would, but if Theo was the fourth member of their team, she was confident the other three could carry the dead weight. It was strange not to view that as a certainty, but Theo was... attached to the Hufflepuff. Fortunately for their team, however, not too attached, since he was making his way over to them.

Turning back to the team, Alex smiled confidently, “Assuming Whitman is a fourth member, there’s no point delaying. Which potion should we brew?” Alex had no particular preference, having worked hard to prepare for the midterm, and their team was skilled enough to be able to brew any of them.

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• Jordyn Dimbleby
• Phillip Kinsey
• Alex Carstairs
• Theo Whitman
  

Team 2
Potions class was taking place outside today. Thankfully, it was warm out, and Zia had worn a cardigan - though she wished that she had remembered to wear more practical shoes. Oh well! The Professor was mad that they were late... and this was this an exam?! Zia began to sweat. She was more of a crammer, that is to say she put pressure on herself to study non-stop right before an exam. Pop quizzes weren't her favorite. Pop exams... she didn't even know that was a thing! Any hope that the professor was playing a joke on them was crushed in her next sentence.

She didn't take Defense Against the Dark Arts anymore, which was great because she didn't have to squirm under Professor Storm's intimidating glare anymore. (Zia had always liked to believe that Professor Storm secretly had a special place in his heart for her, but also had to remember that not everyone was so charmed by her adorableness.) She didn't know what happened during the exam in February, but the exam that the Professor was describing actually sounded pretty cool.

Growing up in a gigantic house filled with (at least) thirteen people at any given time had given Zia a lot of experience in trying to find things. She was so good at it that she might as well have been a Hufflepuff (a lot of people mistook her for one, anyway). She'd also been on many camping trips and hikes with her brothers. They had taunted her into doing it, really - these weren't really activities that Zia would have done of her own volition. They'd claimed she couldn't keep up with them and she took the challenge, proving them very much wrong.

The time limit was a bit worrisome -- an hour wasn't much time at all, was it? And the professor made the task seem a bit dangerous. Zia hoped that none of her classmates would try to hurt her! If they did it, though, she would certainly have to beat them at the challenge. Zia peeked at the edge of the forest, wondering if she could see any of the ingredients for the potions the professor had mentioned from this distance.

Team 1


Allowing himself a brief moment of regret for that single but critical difference in rules, Theo cast his gaze downward in assent—understanding, and acceptance, of her word as law. However, in the face of that oh-so-subtle reminder... His lips quirked up into a peaceful little smile.

And if he took pleasure in the dismay of his closest friend’s... thing, well. The Gryffindor had always been amusing, to some degree. His newfound importance to the Slytherin was, at this point, entirely coincidental.

And irrelevant for all that he had been sought out first. Theo relaxed, though, when both classmates were addressed, rather than one of them, and that calculated gaze landed on him next, easing into a look of confidence and satisfaction even as it turned away. As always, the complete lack of surprise did not grate, but lend a sense of security, not unlike a properly moored ship.

(There was another, larger pang of regret at the thought of entrusting Ji-Hyun to hands less capable than his own, but—he could count on Slant, at least, for all that she had huffed at him and glared.)

“Blood-Replenishing, perhaps?” he suggested as he passed them by, to show them that yes, they were his team now—but it was clearly an idle suggestion, particularly because it would be more efficient to see what ingredients they would come across, first. Kinsey – whose face had twisted into its usual look of suspicious dislike – appeared to agree, or at least share the same opinion, if its sudden, dubious cast was anything to go by.

Theo left him to it.

Reaching the floating quill and parchment, Theo briskly jotted down their names in smooth, looping cursive and turned away. He offered Ezia a polite, innocuous smile as he went past—and then they were off, disappearing into the forest with him at the helm.

---

1. Phillip Kinsey
2. Jordyn Dimbleby
3. Alexandra Carstairs
4. Theo Whitman

Godmodding with Amara's permission! :>

As her star-student approached, unsurprisingly a leader of his team, Lucrezia inclined her head both approvingly and acknowledging. As soon as Theo's hand was off the quill, the parchment rolled itself up, trembling something menacing in the air, before it suddenly stopped and unrolled again. On the desk behind her, a rolled out parchment showing a detailed map of the exam area and the position of the ingredients placed beforehand, now showed four small dots advancing in line into the circled area. As soon Whitman stepped through the open path, the charmed barrier shimmered white and the lot of them disappeared into the heavy foliage.

The dirt path would lead straight for a few minutes, but then split into two ways. One was a dark, forest corridor, the road paved here and other with old, time-eaten rock and trees forming a heavy and ominous arch above. The other, a sunny, grass cushioned path, with small wild flowers peppering the way and tall fragrant rose bushes forming its walls. Strangely enough, the rain and gloomy weather that they'd left behind the barrier was nowhere to be seen. Wouldn't Lucrezia give just about anything to be there and not in the tent right now. Six inches deep in mud... she looked positively medieval. She cast another cleaning, drying and warming charm upon herself as the next team finished with their names and followed in.

On the sunny path, after just a few moments of walking, if they were to look careful, past the roses and a a few steps off path, they'd find a patch of bright purple lucerne, known for its coagulation properties and a pale green bush of wormwood. But if one was to reach down and simply grab them, they would also notice a nest, long gray feathers scattered about, with a single, fragile egg[1] the size of a baby's head. And where there were eggs... Opposite the lucerne, a few steps ahead, the fresh, clean smell of peppermint, greeted whomever passed. A few sprigs of it hanged in a bowl from the branch of a flowered tree. Beneath it, a healthy, abundant bush of boom berries, fruits with great restorative properties, hid green poisonous spiky vines[2]. And upon closer look, one might even notice teeth.

On the other path, after a few minutes of fumbling in the dark, a sudden coldness would befall on the students. And if one were to be particularly sensitive to the cold, they might notice it emanated from the dark, hollow of a tree, its rim frosty and covered in ice. Around the tree, like deadly choking hands, spiraled a thorny vine of roses, of a particularly dark red, popular for their use in love potions. In the pitch-black of the hollow, if only one dared to look, laid a handful of frozen ashwinder eggs, also known to ensnare one into an unwilling love. There was, however, the issue of fluttering and flitting blue shapes[3], barely noticeable in the darkness of the  cavity. A few ways off that spot, one would eventually come to stand in front of an Alihotsy, its leaves known for producing hysterical laughter to the point of losing one's breath. At the base of its roots, two porcupines rested cuddling together. But just on the other side, a mound of earth was heaped over a hole in the ground[4] - perhaps a burrow - angry mumbling coming from inside it.

The paths then got lost in the foliage of the forest, dour Scotland weather returning in full blast, while an opening eventually peaked in the middle. There, whomever had followed different paths would come to meet in front of eight identical pedestals, upon which sat eight identical pots, all with a covered lid. The only way to discover their contents was to open them - and, as implied by the inscription on each pedestal, opening the wrong one would be highly inadvisable. How unfortunate that in order to gather all the ingredients they would have to solve the riddle and follow the clues to one of four pots containing the remaining ingredients for their potion of choice. Not to mention that they'd be in the open with any of the other teams...

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* A NPC team has been introduced to aid with your writing experience. These students can be injured, stolen from, prevented to reach their goals, or otherwise help with your character's, as well as their team's, strategies.
* For three of the potions there are no existing recipes and neither are there any indications toward what their ingredients could be, so I improvised. Follow the olive drab clues in order to tell which ingredients would go to either of the three recipes. The rest of the ingredients you can make up or be vague about.
* Go wild on the riddles and clues, and use your imagination to think of whatever terrible, terrible things Ezia might have in store for them upon opening the wrong pot.

1.	Hippogriff.
2.	Venomous Tentacula
3.	Pixies.
4.	Gnomes.

"Blood-replenishing it is"he said dead serious at noticing how the road was splitting. And then it only took a fraction of a second to make his decision of grabbing Alex's hand and taking the darker path at the split in roads. With a wiggle of his fingers, he skriked a good riddance after Whitman and Jordyn and entered the dark passageway, tucking Alex behind him. Creepy he could deal with, but the sudden cold, not so much. He turned to Alex and let out a harsh breath, condensation forming a puff around his mouth and frowned. Mighty bobbins this was.

But it only took him a few moments to identify the tree that seemed to be at fault. With wand in hand he cast Lumos and pulled back immediately because nuh-uh, bloody pixies. And they didn't need either the eggs or the  thorns. Walking forward  he noticed and some porcupines and decidedly ignored them, as well as the tree they were getting friendly under. Before he knew it they were both back in the rain and his hair was now plastered to his forehead and he turned to give Alex a why me look. Meeting back with both Whitman and Dimbleby, he realized they'd been luckier with their ingredients and he grinned brightly.

But after just a few moments of walking they were face with ominous looking jars and he gulped. "Ye three are the smart ones, riddle me those" he said pointing at the jars and took a few steps back for good measure. He played tick tack toe by himself while they dealt with the jars and after what felt like an eternity they all had their ingredients, and as far as he could tell they were the first team to manage it as well. The road continued up ahead, but looking behind to where the strange paths should've been one was met only with dense foliage. "Err, forward march?" he offered unhelpfully.

With a last glance given Alex’s way, Theo took the cheerier-looking path, Jordyn beside him. He wasn’t particularly worried for his friend– of their peers, she was the one of the most capable people he knew –but as Kinsey had proven before, keeping him from injury had been an exercise in futility.

However, she did care. It was not unlikely that she might experience more success, and it wasn’t so surprising when she did. Reconvened at the clearing with the jars, Theo allowed a miniscule of surprise at the Gryffindor’s uninjured appearance and subsequently granted it the acknowledgment it deserved… to Alex, of course. He was further pleased to see that they appeared to enjoy a similar measure of success in their acquisitions as well. If their experience had been anything like his and Jordyn’s at all, then they must have encountered difficulties as well. Theo himself nearly suffered a mauling at the claws of a hippogriff (for which he had duly returned the sentiment by a neat incision and a brief drain of blood) and the spiky vine of a Tentacula (for which he had duly returned the sentiment by an unapologetic plucking of leaves, and a similarly unapologetic drain of its sap).

Their riddle solved, the remaining ingredients for their potion were drawn from their jar, carried to the brewing station and, eventually, added to the mix. The students waited until their concoction was ready, at which point a scoop was measured and poured into a vial. The result was, unsurprisingly, of remarkable quality.


As one, Team 1 returned to the Potions Mistress and presented their vial.

---

1. Phillip Kinsey
2. Jordyn Dimbleby
3. Alexandra Carstairs
4. Theo Whitman

The Potions Mistress had refused to actually follow into the maze given the atrocious weather conditions, so she remained inside the tent, eyes lazily following her enchanted map which showed the location, state of health and progress of their assignment. It was a profitable affair for everybody involved as ruining any pair of shoes did not a happy Potions Mistress make.

Unsurprisingly, Whitman's team seemed to be advancing with flying colors and at quite a remarkable speed. Truthfully, Ezia was just the tiniest bit disappointed. It wasn't that she was lacking excitement in her life at Hogwarts, no, that she certainly did not, but it wouldn't hurt either Whitman or Kinsey to be reminded that they were still at her mercy regardless of their talent. She supposed there was still time for that at the end of the year.

As they entered the brewing area, the professor raised her eyes from her journals with a bored expression, taking a moment to see if the team formation was complete and then raising her wrist closer to her face to check the time. Once again, she wasn't the least bit surprised that they still had a good twenty minutes left out of the one hour limit for the ingredient hunting part. She scowled minutely and cast her gaze down, checking on the map before going back to her journal.

Not long after, the four presented themselves in front of her, and with a long, bothered sigh she raised on her feet and circled around the desk. After analyzing the contents of the vial to find the result almost perfect for brewers of their age and experience, she went over their progress again, scribbled on random bits of paper around the desk and calculated their all around time. Letting out a little hmm, she turned back to them and crossed her arms over her chest eyeing them quietly for a moment with an unreadable expression.

"As you can see, you are the first team to finish--congratulations, brava, etcetera" she said in an airy voice, boredom obvious in her tone as she checked her nails absently. Then she raised her eyes to her assistant and raised one eyebrow, blinking slowly. "Whitman, seeing as you have the best individual performance today... I'm sure you can brew your own potion" she dead-panned and blinked again, eyebrow climbing to join her other, as if daring him to protest in any form. "You'll have full access to my personal stores, if it helps" she added, waving one hand and walking back to her seat.

Realizing they were still there, she raised her head from her journal and pursed her lips. "What are you waiting for?" she asked head pulling back and then raising both hands to shoo them off. "Away. Grades after the holidays."

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This class is now officially over! Thank you all for participating in it and making it so fun! House points will be posted soon, stand by.