[Charms] Team 1, Stage 2!

[Ellie Rook]

So in Ellie's mind the color matching was out. I just wasn't possible, but the doors still needed to be opened. The key sat heavily in her pocket. The more she thought about it the more she couldn't get the key out of her mind. As Heidi came over to join them Ellie went to stand near her fellow Hufflepuff. She was right, to a point, Ellie would admit that.

"Well, I'm not going to go off using the key with an argument like Hubbles isn't the brightest crayon in the box." Ellie responded to her, still cautious about using the key. Hubbles might not be a genius, but Ellie didn't doubt that he was a heck of a lot smarter than she was.

She looked at the hour glasses, Bray and Fay [ It Rhymes! ] was right, again. They weren't counting our house points, it was something else. Ellie looked around, It was just two Ravenclaws and two Hufflepuffs. "We don't even have a person from each house here yet." Ellie said, her hand making way to her pocket again. Her teammates were talking, but she just had one thought. Would it really hurt to go and try the key, maybe they could get another hint.

Ellie heard Bray ask their opinions. "Well, I'm confused." She said, her hand reaching into her pocket and retrieving the key, she had to at least try it. "I'll go and try the key on the doors. Even inf the point is to have one from each house, we couldn't do it now." Ellie sighed and walked toward the closest door. Coming close to the purple door, the key was wet with sweat from her hands, she placed the key in the locked and tried to turn it....

[Professor Daniel Hubbles]

The key is placed in the lock and slowly turned it, you can feel the friction and it seems to be getting there slowly…but after half way an almighty crash sounds out echoing around the room. They key starts to become extremely hot, so hot it starts to glow red before it is spat out across the room, skidding across the ground, just staying on the edge of the pit full of nettles.

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie turned the key very slowly, just waiting for the floor underneath her to drop or something. As she reached about halfway, Ellie began to breathe normally again and a glimmer of hope grow within her. However, everything came crashing down as the key grew hot in Ellie's hand and Ellie instantly let go with a little yelp, a red mark in the shape of a key forming on her palm. Eying the key, now red hot, Ellie took a step back, looking at her teammates. Ellie looked back at the key at the moment it shot out from the door. Ellie ducked as the key sailed over her head and slide across the floor. Ellie thought it was going to go right into the nettles and that would be that, however the key stopped just before the pit, and Ellie breathed a sigh of relief.

Looking at her hand she pointed her wand at the burning key shape. She didn't know how to heal it, but did the next best thing and whispered "Aguamenti". Water shot out of the tip of her wand cooling the burn immediatly. She walked over to the key, still red hot. She did the same, cooling the key off with the water. Steam rose into the air, and the water feel into the nettles pit. When she was sure it was cool, she picked up the wet key and walked back to the group. "Well, I guess it wasn't that easy." she said, holding the key out in front of her with her burnt hand.

[Bradyn Reed]

Bradyn sighed. Though he didn't believe in the key working, he guessed that they would not know until someone actually tried. His logic may make sense to him, but hufflepuffs were usually the See to believe type, and he was unsurprised when El needed to test this for himself. Walking over to the door, he stood beside her and watched her turn. She needed someone with a fast reaction for their wands in case it did open but something they didn't expect was behind it.

Staring at it, he thought it might actually open until he saw the key turn a reddish shade. "How peculiar.." He said, then realized what had happened when El nearly swore and released the key like lightning. Then he blinked when the key shot across as if it didn't like being in the keyhole. "Get it!" Bray shouted instinctively when it neared a pit, luckily that was unnessisary.

Sighing in relief, he went to the key and expected to meet the rest of the team around it. "Well, obviously, it doesn't fit that door. And I doubt it fits any of them. And I don't think they'll all make the key burn, either. If we're going to try this, maybe we should switch off. So everyone has the same dangerous situations, and not just poor El getting beat on all the time."

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie was glad that Bradyn had come over to give her some sort of support. It had been scary walking over all by herself. But she was happy that she didn't have to walk back alone.

She placed the key in Bradyn's hand saying, "You can have it." She placed her burnt hand in her pocket, she didn't like to look at it. She smiled at her teammates. She didn't want to be the baby Hufflepuff getting hurt. She wasn't like that. She didn't mind pain, but it was memories that plagued her. She didn't like the memory of getting burnt.

"Thanks." Ellie said sarcastically. "You guys are the ones that left it up to the Hufflepuff." she said with a laugh. "But I don't get it at all. I wish there was another clue." Ellie figured there probably was another clue that she just didn't see. Apparently no one could see it. She just starred into the pit of custard. She wanted to jump and drown in it.

[Felicity Locke]

Felicity's eyes widened as she noticed Ellie cry out in pain. She watched as the key shot out from the door and skidded across the floor. Ellie at least saved it from falling into the pit. Fay walked back over to the group, her lips pursed.

"How about we break off into partners? So, two people go to a door at once. In case the person with the key can't get to their wand fast enough or something like that. It's safer that way."

Fay glanced around at all the doors again, her lips set at a slight frown. There had to be another clue or something to help direct them to the right door so not all of their members were injured. But, she couldn't seem to think of a clue yet. Her gaze turned slowly back to the hourglasses, and her eyebrow furrowed slightly.

"Hey guys, I just noticed something. There are four hourglasses right? For each of the houses. But, we don't have any Slytherins on our team (Technically we do have Gryffindors, they just don't post at all << ). Do you think maybe that's a clue? Like, maybe we should try the green door then." Felicity shrugged lightly.

[Bradyn Reed]

Bradyn took the key and slipped it into his pocket, nodding a little at El. "I'm sorry, I really didn't think that would happen." He muttered to her, knowing full well it wasn't his fault at all. When Fay joined then by the side of the pit he sighed. This lesson was quite troublesome.

"As much as I like that idea, and think she should break off into Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw to keep the talent even, there's one small problem with that plan. There's only one key." He reached up and rubbed his temples slightly, thinking deeply.

"That.. makes sense, I'd think. But maybe it's just pre-set like that. You know, not to be, for lack of a better word, racist towards the Slytherins?" He looked over the edge into the pit of nettles. If the pits really did represent the houses, then it would make sense that there would be an hourglass to match each. But in this case, he'd probably humor her; only this time, he would not be as careless as he'd been with El.

[Ellie Rook]

"It wasn't your fault." Ellie said to Bray. "I was just getting ahead of myself, I didn't think." She smiled as he slipped the key into his own pocket.

"I mean Hubbles doesn't exactly love Slytherin, but do you think he would really preset it to green like that." Ellie doubted it. She wasn't fond of Slytherin, but she wasn't totally biased against them.

"But It does tell us one thing," Ellie added, "It doesn't matter about all the houses. He didn't give representatives from all the houses. He did leave out Slytherin. He wouldn't give us an impossible task." Ellie wasn't sure she worded what she meant right. She meant that they didn't need to represent there own houses for the key to work, because what about Slytherin.

"Ugh." Ellie said. "I don't get it." She figured that they would all be stuck in the room forever. The usually optimistic girl was losing her hope.

[Bradyn Reed]

[-wrote like an amazing, beefy post
and I just finished it, about to enter it
but then I looked up a word in the dictionary
came back and it was GONE -sob-
i tried to recreate it but it's not as good... -sigh- I was so proud, too.]

Bradyn frowned and shook his head a little at El. "We're a team, it effects us all. We should have been more careful." He muttered quietly.

"I don't know why you seem to find this connection so important. The door isn't even the Slytherin shade of green, it's much lighter. But we do know that the house colors are in two places in this room. The pits, which look to be a dangerous obstacles, and the hourglasses, which seem to just count our points. With that in mind, do you still think we should continue to persue this idea, and waste time prattling on about irrelevant things?"

His hand came up to pinch the bridge of his nose and his eyes closed momentarily, a sign that he was thinking his hardest. The room didn't really make sense to him, but the idea that this key was going to be used again seemed to be tempting. But also the danger to the team was also a good reason not to attempt it. Opening his eyes again, his hand reached back into his pocket to retrieve his wand and it brushed against the key.

Bradyn turned away from the team, facing the purple door again and he eyed it warily. "One down, four more to go." He muttered with a sharp sense of finality. Pointing his wand at the wall by the door, he frowned. "Flagrate" And soon a large check mark was carved into the wall, with a faint fiery glow. "We'll do this as a team. Two people will turn the key, and the other two will be backup support for the ones turning it. At each door we'll switch positions, unless reasons prohibit this." Turning back to face his team, he grimaced a bit.

"I don't want to do this, but we don't have another option." This would have to be process of elimination. Bray saw it as ruling out the other ideas to make room for more. 'If the purple door is burning hot, what do the others hide?'

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie getting frustrated. But she listened to Bradyn. He seemed to make sense. They were discussing things that obviously didn't matter. They should move on.

Working as a team was never hard for the Hufflepuff, but she guessed it might be for the Ravenclaws. However, she knew that it was the only way they would get ahead. She was about to suggest it When Bray did before her. She smiled at him. She didn't really think that teamwork would come out of a Ravenclaw's mouth. They always seemed so, 'I can do it, I'm smart, I'll figure it out.'

Ellie sighed. It was the only way they would find out if the key worked. Teamwork seemed like the key. But was it really in the palm of their hands?

"I'll turn the key first." Ellie said, stepping up to join Bradyn, placing her hand on his arm in reassurance. Ellie could see that he was worried. "C'mon." She said with a smile to everyone. "Hubbles wouldn't kill us." She looked back at Bradyn, waiting for him to smile with her. Being all emotional about it wasn't going to get them any closer to the next door. Ellie knew they had to be strong.

[Felicity Locke]

Felicity listened to the two converse, and her brow furrowed in concentration. "Fine, fine. I give in about the door." She looked over to the other doors and gave a sigh. Hopefully this wouldn't take too long, or be too dangerous.

"That sounds good." She took her wand out from behind her ear and twiddled it between her fingers. "You sure Ellie? Your hand still doesn't hurt a lot does it?" Fay glanced worriedly to the Puff's hand that had been burned by the erratic door.

"If you're both up to it, then pick a door. We'll be behind you if anything happens."

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie didn't want to get Fay mad. Luckily she didn't seem to annoyed with the fact that she was giving up. Ellie looked at her and smiled.

"I'm sure." Ellie said. "It's fine, really." Ellie turned her palm inward so no one could see the burn. It still stung, but she wasn't going to let a little thing like that hold her back. She was much stronger than that.

"Pick a color, any color." She said to Bray with a smile. She was nervous and she held onto her wand for dear life. The fifth year knew that clinging to her wand wasn't going to make her magic any stronger, but she was so nervous that she was sure she could blast these doors to pieces. She doubted that they would actually splinter, but if worse comes to worse, it would hurt to try.

[Bradyn Reed]

Bradyn frowned at Fay. Seems like she didn't really want to give up on the pointless theory about Slytherins being the key. He shook his head a little and rolled his eyes. "Of course you give up, it wasn't optional."

Then he looked back to El with concerned eyes. "El, you've already done a door and got burned pretty badly. I think you should stay back, for the first one at least." He shrugged a bit, not really liking to have to tell her no. Bray thought it would be implied that he'd go first.

"I know that Hubbles wouldn't do any thing that could seriously injure people, he's not that dumb, but.. minor injuries are something he'd do. You already have one, and you only have two hands. I don't want both your hands crippled so you can't hold a wand." Bray glanced back to Felicity for support.

"I think I'll turn the key with Fay, you guys will be backup... unless there's any objections, of course." He smiled rather sadly at El, not liking how serious she seemed to be about attempting the key again.

[Felicity Locke]

Felicity wrapped her arm around Ellie's shoulder. "Sorry Ellie, we can't have you getting hurt left and right. How would we ever keep the team together then?" She grinned at the Puff. "Bray and I would probably eat each other's heads."

She released her grip and Ellie and skipped to Bray's side. "Ready when you are chief. Pick the color." Fay waved her arm out in front of her and placed a hand on her hip.

"If we all do seperate doors, there's less of a chance of someone getting too badly hurt that they couldn't handle the rest of the 'lesson'."

[Ellie Rook]

Ellie made a face. "Are you serious?" She said. "I'm fine!" She wasn't happy that they wouldn't let her go for it. "I'm ready for anything. Now that I know something will most likely happen." Ellie knew that no matter how much she argued she wasn't going to get her way. They were switching off anyway. She would get her chance. Anyway, she knew that Bradyn was just trying to protect her.

Fay seemed to think the same way. Ellie felt a hand on her shoulder. She smiled. "I guess we can have you two dinning on one another." She sighed. "Your right. I know. I'll be here right behind you guys." She said, ready to get the party started.