Impatiently, the Beauxbatons team entered the maze after the other three schools, having seen the directions the other three teams picked, they were more than ready to go.

The towering hedges seemed to be so close together it was impossible not to rush down the passageways without branches clawing at faces, shoulders and tugging at hair. They were so thick and enchanted that the sound of the crowd in the stands was swallowed, and was replaced by a suffocating silence apart from the sound of the teams and their own feet.

---

As there's only one Beauxbatons character being written, you can choose to pick the Beauxbatons squares alone, or elect a friend who isn't writing in the tournament to help pick. You can also control the other 4 NPC Beauxbatons characters, and the AO account will help as far as possible too.

Each round Beauxbatons needs to pick a square from the maze grid (anywhere on the grid which hasn't been picked before) and once a square has been selected, what the group has encountered will be revealed by the AO account. When the Tetra cup square is picked, the team will encounter and seize the cup for victory!

The Beauxbatons team were determined, even if their points left them trailing behind the Americans. They made bold choices about which way to go, their wits about them, expecting at any moment that there might be a foe round a corner, or leaping out of the hedge towards them.

Together they tramped and rounded a bend, stopping dead as they saw a solitary figure up ahead. The figure was unmistakably female in appearance, with the narrow shoulders and hips, and pretty tall, tall as any of them, if not a smidgen taller. She had her back to the champions, as far as the group could tell, as she had not turned her head or moved at their presence, though they were being very quiet.

One long, spindly arm came up and reached to her head, combing the fingers through some very long hair that came almost down to her feet. Her hands and fingers were thin as rakes, practically skeletal in appearance even at the distance they observed her from. If this was a witch or a human, they were either very old or starved.

A stifled sneeze from one of the Beauxbatons champions caused the smallest of noises that stirred the figure, and she began to turn, hair like a curtain down her back, revealing in the light a face that was like a skull with sunken eyes - not a hag, not an old woman, but something far more deadly, if it were to open its mouth...

His Beauxbatons classmates seemed to be deferring to Corey to take the lead in the challenge. That did seem like sound logic, right? Afterall, he had been in two others before, what was one more? But Corey also thought that his classmates had the mindset that they were behind by such a large margin that there was no use in trying so hard. Taking risks.

But Corey believed that was precisely the reason to put everything on the line. They had nothing to lose, really. And even in losing, there was still praise, favor or notoriety to be had. Isn't that what is school craved? So it was ironic to him that of all the people who could embody his school's greatness, it might be him -- a poor orphan, who was less-than-pure and less-than-refined. The one who began this whole tournament with a devil may care attitude. But now he was the one who believed or wanted this the most.

With a determined expression towards his peers, he shouted, "Allez!" His wand at the ready, Corey led the charge into the maze, his whole body on fire with anticipation for what they would encounter next.

They came to a halt with a figure up ahead. Sheer curiosity spurned the group forward, but as they did so and it still did not occur to any of them who or what the person was until it turned to face them. Corey heard the audible gasps from the four others behind him and he even saw a few immediately raise their hands to cover their ears in preparation for the inevitable.

But Corey clearly heard one of his classmates frantically ask what they should do. Another was mumbling various possible spells to use against the banshee before it inflicted its' horrible screech on them.

The list of spells were making it hard to think and Corey hissed for the other student to stop.

"What if we pause it?" came one frantic inquiry in his ear. "Or silence it?"

Corey nodded and the student pointed her wand towards the shadowy creature and stammered out the spell. It seemed flimsy at best and Corey looked from her to some of the others in question about whether it worked.

"Peut-être....we need to do something else....."

"Oui...oui." Corey's affirmation was a little breathless and he hastily reached out to pulled one of the girl's pretty blue ribbons from her hair. She was too scared to utter a protest and Corey lightly tossed the silk fabric in front of him before quickly pointing his wand and commanding, "Obvolvo"

Then he directed the ribbon towards the banshee and he and the others watched as it reached the destination and just as the mouth was about to open, the ribbon began to wrap tightly around its lips and jaw area.

The girl who's ribbon he had taken whispered an astonished, "Wow", clearly surprised that it appeared to have worked. Then she asked, "What do we do now?"

"We still need to get by it."

The group started to move, but the banshee moved towards them as well. Even without her deadly screams, she could still pose and obstacle.

One of the quieter students in the group stepped forward and pointed his wand at the banshee and cast a spell of his own. "Immobulus!"

The banshee stopped moving as they continued forward. Corey shrugged and said rather optimistically, "Well, that works."

The Beauxbatons group still cautiously moved around the now immobile figure and to the next bend in the maze, wondering what else would be in their path.

The quick thinking Beauxbatons team had dispensed of the banshee in an elegant way with ribbons and spells. Whereas some might have blasted her off her feet - or even to pieces - or cursed away her mouth, these champions had shown some mercy, and grace in their tactics, which was a stark contrast to the curses thrown by Durmstrang at the trolls and the armour at the other side of the maze.

On they pressed, with optimism - despite their standing, they were still very much in the race, and their speed and style of dispensing of their foes without too much pomp would hopefully speed their journey to the cup!

Seeing the path ahead was very much open and empty, with no strange beings or obstacles in their path, they picked up their pace, but four or five strides down the narrow path, there were exclamations from the champions as all of a sudden the maze plunged into darkness, and they were spun on their feet like a rug beneath their feet had spun.

Catching their balance, and somewhat disorientated, they steadied themselves, and on consultation and also a handy lumos from one, they realised that it was not that the maze had plunged into darkness, but that each of them had temporarily (well, one hoped) lost their sight. Some curse or spell must have been laid amongst the ground quite invisibly - these things were meant to test them after all. But which way was forward, and how long would this last? And was anything lurking ahead where they were no longer able to see?

Corey was feeling optimistic about their chances, though they were surely still at a disadvantage since they were the last to enter the maze. And though he was pleased they had dispatched the banshee with relative ease, he could not quell the thought that perhaps it had been too easy and that there was something far more challenging ahead. He just hoped his classmates were up to the task and weren’t going to rest on their laurels.
 
They advanced forward, roughly in a 2-1-2 formation due to the narrow maze path. Corey and another stronger Beauxbatons champion brought up the rear and nothing seemed out of the ordinary, except maybe a bit of a breeze that seemed to move with them through the maze. But in a matter of seconds, they mysteriously were plunged into darkness and lifted off of their feet before being deposited elsewhere.

Their resulting impairment of their ability to see immediately caused confusion and panic among the Beauxbatons champions as they contemplated – nearly all at once – what caused it as well as the dangers that might ensue.

What they could not see, and what tournament spectators had a prime view of, was that the perpetrator of their condition was relatively harmless. Or, at least compared to some of the obstacles encountered by the other schools. Most of the champions were expecting their challenges to come from a place ahead of them in the maze. But this was something that threatened from above and by going through.

Giant Wild Hogweed, also called Hogsbane,[1] had been “woven” into the maze hedges. Their large, flowery stalks loomed like large patio umbrellas from above. Its noxious spores were the culprits of the temporary blindless from which the young wizards suffered. By virtue of their close contact with the shrubbery and the covert nature of its “attack”, it was easy to score such a victory. Disorienting the students was further aided by the plant’s large blooms which were capable of spinning with such force (to better distribute its troublesome spores to the masses) and thus causing them to feel like they had been picked up and dropped elsewhere.

Back in the darkness of their lost sight and following the failed effort of one Beauxbatons student to illuminate their path once again, it was clear that none of them yet knew what caused their affliction. It was no secret that Beauxbatons emphasized the more refined courses as opposed to those that threatened to get one’s hands dirty, like potions or herbology.

Even an individual like Corey Gaubert, who was one of the school’s most proficient learners in these areas, was initially stumped by what caused their impairment. He, like the others, thought that it must be a spell or curse of some kind that had plunged them into darkness. Likewise, a spell would need to be used to undo its effects.
 
But soon, another clue began to surface about their seemingly imaginary foe. The Hogsbane spores were not its only weapon. In brushing up against the plant as they had moved through the hedges, toxic sap had been deposited on their clothes and on any exposed skin. Some of the students had rubbed their faces and eyes in an effort to try and clear their vision. And now those areas were beginning to burn, and in the case of the most severe exposure, blister.

Corey could sense that the classmate nearest to him was beginning to scratch at his skin. “Don’t,” he quietly commanded, blindly reaching out to lightly grasp the person’s arm. He also shushed the others from talking over each other in their efforts to decide what had happened. With quiet enveloping them, no sound came that suggested there was an immediate danger headed their way from another source. No footsteps. No eerie sounds of foreboding. Or just sounds of strange creatures or foes.

Corey returned his attention to figuring out what was causing the blindness and the blisters. The limits to his sight would not allow him to determine the exact cause, but he did deduce that it was contact with a toxic plant. Without being able to see, though, it was hard to truly figure out how to properly combat it. “Peut-être….maybe we can flush the toxins out with water.”

He could sense his classmate was skeptical. Why should they douse each other in water spells if they didn’t have to? Who knew what they would encounter next and who wanted to be soaked from head to toe?

Corey rolled his blind eyes, still seeing nothing but darkness. Then he suggested that he be the test and urged his classmate to aim a stream of water from his wand in Corey’s direction. Corey leaned his face in as though he were planning to take a cold drink of water from a gardening hose and he splashed the water upwards towards his eyes. Several times he repeated this and then brushed the water away, hoping it would take the annoying debilitation with it. The cool water felt soothing to his eyes and skin and after several more times, when he finally wiped the water away and attempted to open his eyes, it was as though he was surfacing from a swimming pool. His sight was still foggy but clearly returning.

“C'est ça!” he exclaimed and in his excitement, he raised his battered wand and aimed it at the others, “Aguamenti!” It wasn’t just a stream of water that burst forth but a rather large wave that did more than just douse everyone in its path. The water crashed against them and for a brief moment, the others were spitting out mouthfuls of water and practically wading knee deep in a residual stream of it as they moved unsteadily towards Corey, still disoriented by their lack of clear sight. To Corey, they looked like a bunch of drenched water zombies.

Once their sight was restored, disappointment clearly shone in their eyes at now being wet from head to toe. The fabric of their uniforms and their robes now felt like weight on their shoulders – more so than the pressure to not end the tournament in last place – and though Corey understood their grumblings, he could do nothing more than shrug. “Use a drying spell.” But even as he said it, a wry grin spread across his lips. “Or…just…remove the wet clothes.”

Personally, Corey thought the latter idea would save time. As he turned and started to continue their march through the maze, he threw off his Beauxbatons robe and slowly began to peel off his layers of sopping attire, only stopping when he was left in his shorts.[2]

1.	Using a bit of creativity and taking some liberties, I imagine it's a lot like the "real" thing - http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/science-updates/avoid-giant-hogweed-noxious-plant-can-cause-blindness
2.	If this scenario sounds familiar, yes, it is meant to be. I thought it would be rather interesting to have Corey end up shirtless in the last task but sans the body paint from the first task.

In various states of undress, the Beauxbatons team could once again see clearly which was a relief considering the weird and wonderful - and quite frankly dangerous things this maze contained today. Getting their bearings back, the five champions decided on their route ahead at the next junction, and followed the path as it took a bend, wands in hand. Who knew when the hedge might lurch out at them, or even if they might be ambushed by another team waiting for them in the shadows? It wasn't the dangers placed by the officials that could get them, but the other teams too.

Selecting their direction again at the next junction, the Beauxbatons team ventured round and within a few seconds discovered that their path ahead was a dead end. There had been quite a few short dead ends, but this happened to be one of the longer ones that teasingly suggested it did indeed go in the correct direction, but was apparently fruitless.

On turning to go back to the junction and try another direction, even if it meant doubling back on themselves (hopefully not as far as being blind) they discovered that where the junction had been, there was now hedge, as if the junction had never been there at all. Seemingly they had somehow wandered into a section of the maze that was a dead end in both directions with no apparent way out.

Checking again with a direction spell, the Beauxbatons students correctly identified that indeed the hedge had closed behind them preventing them going backwards, which suggested there was something more to be found ahead. Returning again to what appeared to be a dead end, this time they found a strange looking cabinet with a door that by the hinges seemed to open outwards. It was big enough to fit one of them - certainly tall enough to vanish within, and on tentative inspection, it appeared empty, apart from a footprint on the dusty floor inside.

It was a little cool being sans most of one’s clothing, but Corey Gaubert had not gotten to where he was in life without needing to tough out misfortune. He was nearly the definition of such resilience. He knew some of his classmates were probably not as comfortable with such a mentality, so he tried to be encouraging no matter how they wanted to proceed. He just knew that their team needed to press on. Surely the Beauxbatons students were at a disadvantage, but they could still win this thing, right?

Rounding a bend in the maze, Corey and the others were forced to come to an abrupt stop with the dead end clearly in their way. They turned and started to make their way back to the junction but their search was fruitless. Looking in both directions, there appeared to be no way out.

“Quoi?” came the dumbfounded yet very simply posed inquiry of the youngest and most green student in the bunch. He looked to Corey with hopeless now-what-do-we-do look. Clearly he was of the mind that the group was stuck.

A few of the others began to investigate more closely the hedge that had closed behind them, attempting to see if any spells would be helpful in carving a new path. But neither that nor the information culled from the direction spell proved helpful so they joined the rest of the group in heading back towards the apparent dead end.

On the approach, they discovered something there that had not been there before. The five students circled around the cabinet, each making their own observations and trying to decide what it meant. Corey dragged the fingers of his free hand through his hair and paused at the base of his neck, giving it a pensive scratch. This clearly was not going to be where he led the way. But who else would know best how to deal with this type of challenge?

His eyes settled on the most shy and petite female in the bunch, a person others often overlooked but who Corey knew was a keen observer of all things. Her name was Cloé and now she was scrutinizing the cabinet with interest.

“What is it?” Corey asked as he moved to stand closer to her as she peered intently at the structure.

She reached out and ran the tips of her fingers over one of the doors and murmured, “Ma famille….we have this. Or…a set really.” She eagerly reached for the knob to open one of the doors and together they looked inside.

Corey wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but an empty cabinet was rather anticlimactic and caused him to resume his head scratching. But Cloé proceeded to explain to him that what they were looking at was a vanishing cabinet and that somewhere in the maze, there was likely to be another one. And if they were to step inside and close the door, it could potentially serve as a short cut to get closer to the cup.

“Superbe!” Corey exclaimed, already prepared to step inside. The others were excited about following suit.

But Cloé grabbed his arm. “Arrêt!” When Corey gave her a questioning look, she explained further. “It could be a trap. If it is broken, you could get stuck in the middle of nowhere. Or worse yet, splinched.” She scrunched up her nose and her forehead creased with worry as she continued to contemplate the cabinet whilst telling them about several examples of the worst case scenario.

Impatiently, Corey cut her off. “But there’s a footprint in there already. Doesn’t that mean it works?”

“It might. But maybe not. Maybe that’s what they want us to believe. It can’t be so easy.”

“So should we test it? Fix it?”

“Reparo!”

One of the other students took the initiative and tried the obvious. Then he looked sheepish when Cloé sent him a chastising glare.

She then moved closer still and crouched down beside it as she proceeded to test the cabinet’s connection* to its counterpart with a series of spells that were based in ancient runes and arithmancy, two subjects Corey was absolute rubbish with. If Cécile were here, he imagined she would be a whiz at this like Cloé was.

“The vanishing magic or the sequence of spells that move an object from this cabinet to the other is broken or worn,” she plainly explained. “This is not an easy fix.”

She needed no prodding to begin her best attempt at fixing it with even more ancient runes and arithmancy knowledge. It was clear that Cloé was a cursebreaker or spell creationist in the making and her peers tried their best to stay out of her way and curb their impatience. After what felt like an eternity (and surely a length of time that might suggest the other schools had ample enough time to find the cup ten times over), she finally looked back at them with a hopeful expression on her angelic face. “Does someone want to test it? If it works, the rest of us can follow....”

Corey immediately stepped forward rolling his shoulders back and trying not to think about all that could go wrong if she had not been successful. If that was the case, and he did get splinched, the tournament organizers could just put him back together again, right?

One would hope.

The cabinet wasn’t the roomiest so Corey’s lanky frame quite literally needed to be stuffed into it. Under his breath he murmured a rhetorical, “Bonne chance, oui?” Then he closed his eyes just as the door was closed, hoping for the best but somehow expecting the opposite.

While his teammates waited anxiously on the outside of the cabinet, the half-clothed Gaubert found himself again in a dark cabinet. Only when he felt around the door was on the other side of him to where it started, and when he pushed it open his team mates were not there, but there was a new pathway up ahead! Their repair work had worked, what luck!

So one by one the Beauxbatons Champions stepped in one cabinet and out of the other to progress from one side of the obstacles to the other, unaware of the fates they had skipped over in chancing upon what had at first appeared to be a dead end in all directions. The cabinet, although unremarkable in appearance, had required some remarkable skills with charms and intellect.

Onwards pressed the five - anxious to make up time, they picked up the pace.

The light in the maze seemed to be failing, and it was getting darker and darker as if the skies were about to open and drench them in rain. The hedges stretching above their heads seemed to curl over and block out the sky, giving a less than settling feeling.

Had the Beauxbatons team seen the mountain of furniture that the Salem team had met with Peeves, they might have wondered if they had come across the same thing at first, or if they had chanced upon a whole corridor of vanishing cabinets instead. The hedges were replaced all of a sudden with tall wardrobes set into either side of the path in the hedge - five of them, staggered, starting on the left, with the branches snug round their bodies.

As they came to pause and examine the first from a safe distance, one might think that given a good sprint they could be clear of them all and ignore them, for the path stretched straight ahead, but this was the final task of a Tetrawizard Tournament, so of course these were no ordinary wardrobes. The fourth one in the line rattled at the door handles.

One of the team tentatively conjured a rock and bounced it down the pathway ahead of them to see if anything became of it, and the first wardrobe on the left fell open and at first it appeared to be nothing until it began to take the form of something the nearest champion would least want to meet in a Tetrawizard maze...

OOC: By arrangement with Erika, Corey's going to post regarding both of these challenges in one go.

Laughter spurred the group onwards as the final boggart was banished back into the wardrobe and the Beauxbatons Champions could pass. Despite their weary limbs from what seemed like several miles covered, having a laugh about the ridiculous things they'd turned their boggarts into felt a lot better. But beneath the chuckles the drive still remained to find the blasted cup.

So when a patch of sand blocked their way, it almost seemed inconsequential, perhaps even a hint of sunny climes and home.  One brave, perhaps reckless team member ventured a few paces in discovered that it was no ordinary sand as he began to sink up to his knees at an alarming pace. With luck he was hauled out by his teammates as he hadn't got too far in, and they were still on the grass path. As he dusted himself down and thanked them for their quick reaction, the other champions contemplated quickly how to get over fifteen or so feet of quicksand to reach the path ahead, where, was it them or was there a blue glow...?

Corey had been relieved that the vanishing cabinet had not made him vanish in the middle of nowhere. When Cloe eventually stepped out to join him, he fondly embraced her, fully appreciating her talents and what they added the current Beauxbatons contingent. For all the emphasis on individual glory here at the tournament, he often felt more reward and relief when he could work as part of a team effort. Even a team made of a school that he felt extreme alienation from at times. But any team was better than no team, right?
 
Cloe offered him a shy smile, clearly not comfortable with the acknowledgement of her contribution’s awesomeness.
 
With the maze getting darker, a few of the students invoked “Lumos” so that they could see ahead of them and not be surprised by an incoming threat. But it became clear that more furniture was in their future. Corey’s heart sank as he wondered if this would be an entire army of vanishing cabinets. Would he have to endure “tests” of their of functionality and wonder if he would end up being stuck in limbo? He hoped not.

But as the one fell open and slowly began to morphed into something. Were those snakes?

Cloe confirmed by whispering of their teammate, “She’s afraid of snakes!”

The faces of the other Beauxbatons students began to pale as they came to the realization of what the wardrobes must contain. Each of them would have to face their worst fears in turn in seemed. A feeling of dread slowly began to wash over Corey because he knew that this might be his weakness. If you looked at him, he was the physically strong, athletic one. The one who liked to get his hands dirty. Or the one who was capable of keeping everything together under pressure, mainly because he made it seem like there was no pressure (which, when you were Beauxbatons and in last place, was very true).

But Corey did[/b] have his weaknesses. Because of his past, and due to his limited deep connections with his fellow classmates, he did not often (or at all) open up about them. And that was quite telling to what he feared most. Though he tried so hard to keep his distance from everyone in his life, a very lonely existence, he truly never wanted to be alone.

It was quite clear that if he and his classmates wanted to move beyond these Boggarts – and fairness would suggest that each of them would have to conquer their fears in order to advance – then Corey was going to need to be vulnerable. He could feel his body tighten with apprehension because though he had an idea of what his might represent, he had absolutely no clue as to what shape it might take. When he was younger, he feared death more than anything else and so once, he had the image of a grim reaper pointing at him. As his greatest fear evolved – eventually into the idea that his dead family members might return but not know him or love him or even be who he remembered – they had all appeared as inferi. And the last time he had encountered a boggart it was his own self as an inferi that had taken shape.

So he knew that he had no idea what to expect. Or how jolting it would be.

So as the others dealt with theirs, Corey inched forward and nudged the corner of the cabinet with his foot. Creaking open the contents slowly began to morph into something else.

At first, Corey thought there had been a mistake – a boggart malfunction – because he didn’t see anything that made any kind of sense to him. There was a cage and towards the back of it, there was a hunched over figure. First glance made it appear to be a creature of some sort, which could make sense given his love of magical creatures and a desire to not see them suffer needlessly or treated cruelly. It reminded him of when he was younger and attended a circus, only to see all the attractions, mostly animals in cages and at the behest of ringmasters or tamers.

But what was this animal? Corey squinted as it started to stand and turn toward him. His eyes went wide as he realized that he was looking at himself. Haggered and bearded. Limping and weary. Fearful and alone.

It was quite jarring and Corey stared for a long moment before the shouts of his Beauxbatons classmates pulled him out of the reverie.

“Oui.” He breathed as he held up his wand, a little unsteady at first, and then directed the appropriate spell to it.[1]

The boggart transformed into another circus oddity – a clown. The most outrageous one imaginable that caused all the Beauxbatons students to roar with laughter as they headed off down the next maze path.

Cloe voiced the one thing they had all been thinking: “No one has found it yet. There’s still a chance for us.”

Could it be? The most unlikely of the schools to have a shot at the end was still in the running? Absurd! But what if….what a comeback if they could just manage…

1.	Riddikulus

They were all so enthusiastic to press on, encouraged by the chance that the ultimate prize was within their reach, that it didn’t occur to them that the sand could possibly be harmless. That is, until one of them actually stepped over it and sank. Corey grasped the student’s arm and tried to haul him out, but even as immortal as he was starting to think he had become, his strength was limited.

The other students rushed over to grab hold of Corey in the best way they could given his half naked state. Eventually they all collapsed on the grass just inches from the swallowing sand and immediately they began to contemplate how to best navigate their newfound trouble.

Corey grimaced as he looked at each of his teammates in turn. "Any bright ideas?" he asked.

A couple of less promising thoughts were thrown out and even tested, but it wasn't until Cloe suggested that they attempt to use mobilicorpus to transport each other over the expanse of sand in their path. But the challenge came in being able to sustain the spell for a length of time where those being moved would not end up dropped into the sand and sinking anyway with no means of pulling them out this time. Cloe worriedly asked how confident they each were in performing such a feat. She thought she could do it for one or two, but not all of them.

The three other students were wary and so when she turned to Corey, he shrugged his shoulders. "You do two, and then I'll get you across," he assured her. When she questioned how they would get him over, he waved her off. "We'll figure that out when we get to it."

And indeed, it was a tedious task for both he and Cloe to use the spell for their purposes. The conscious, often flailing bodies of worried classmates were not the easiest to navigate. Cloe did a far better job than he did in making the flight smooth for her two carries. But Corey was certain that his first subject -- the heaviest student besides himself -- experienced some turbulence. Corey was sweating profusely from the concentration as he never claimed spellworks was his strong suit. But he believed in Cloe's idea and though it might seem like he was his school's leader, she was clearly the brains behind this operation now.

Luckily, he managed to get Cloe over the sand path far easier and once she was settled on the other grassy bank, he wiped at his brow. Surely she was too far away to see his questioning look of what to do next. But as if she read his mind, she shouted back across the space that she had an idea. So he waited patiently. There was really nothing else he could do.

He could tell, even from the distance, that she was working something out, much like the vanishing cabinet obstacle. If he gave her time, she would come through. The question was, how much time was going to keep them from their destination?
Then, her solution came. Quite surprising to him as he watched her kneel down and touch her wand to the sand. At first glance, the sand looked to rippled like water. But when he reached out to touch the sand in front of him, it was no longer sand. It was hard and smooth like....

"Verre," he whispered incredulously. His eyes flew to Cloe as if to ask if the glass was strong enough for him to walk across. She simply nodded.

Corey needed no further prodding or assurances even if he had no idea how she had managed it. He started to bound across the glass surface to join his teammates.

Not knowing if what she had done was permanent, Corey hurled himself over the last bit and practically tackled the others when he landed. He promptly burst out laughing and only paused to ask Cloe how she had managed to solve the sand trap. As they helped each other up once more to continue on their way, she explained that because glass is made from sand to begin with, she just had to figure out how to put the pieces back together again.

"Like Humpty Dumpty?"

"Non, Corey. Not quite."

By now the fatigue was beginning to set in despite their youth, skill and vigour. The Beauxbatons students had shown intelligence and creativity at every turn of the fourth task, from how they easily dispensed of the banshee, to losing sight, and bravely fixing and traversing the vanishing cabinet in the dead end. The quicksand had not felled them and all five were still making their journey through the never-ending hedges.

Up ahead there was a glow much like the goblet of fire and this sight and the distant sound of other feet pounding the earth through the undergrowth either side of them spurred them on, with the possibility that the end was in sight, and that they might be on the right path. The cup would soon be theirs!

But the sound of feet and the distant voices of their fellow competitors were replaced by the sound of rushing water. It was as if they were heading towards the coast, and the weather was choppy, and certainly a rush of air was coming at them from their heels. Glancing back the Beauxbatons team saw in their alarm, that they were being hotly pursued by a wave of water almost as tall as the hedges themselves. But at least it would be sweeping them onwards if it caught up with them! But would it sweep them left to the cup or straight on and away from it? Either way, there would only be seconds in it.

By the time the Beauxbatons team reached the clearing where the cup had been, the fireworks were already in the air and the cup was gone. Instead, they found a smaller cup with ribbons of Beauxbatons tied round it, propped on the lower step, which when seized by all five hands would portkey them to the stands.

B1, Beauxbatons did not pick the cup square