SDA Y43 S1: Maze Challenge

[Indira Khatri]

Indi thought running the SDA by herself would be a breeze. That was until she got her head girl badge and her already packed schedule got even tighter. But at least waiting till later in the semester worked in her favor. It gave a chance for some of the younger students to learn some actually useful spells. She had told everyone to meet in the dueling chamber and she wrung her hands nervously as she waited for them to arrive. "Welcome everyone!" she said in as commanding of a voice as she could. "Please take a seat and I will explain what I have planned for us today." Once it seemed like every one was settled climbed up to one end of the dueling platform which looked rather different than it usually did. Instead of a wide open space there were now many thin walls in place that created a small but intricate maze. A maze full of practice dummies ready to cast a variety of spells. She had wanted to include some traps but she feared that might get her in trouble if too many people ended up in the hospital wing on her watch. "Today we will be getting to test our skills and practice our spells. It's still quite a while be for the dueling tournament and I don't want anyone getting rusty." she began. "I have set up a maze that is full of practice dummies enchanted to use offensive spells that are equivalent to your year level. And don't think you'll get an advantage by watching others go first. The walls reset after each person." Indi explained. She thought it was all easy enough but she figured she should also put her money where her mouth was. "And just so there is no confusion. I will go first to demonstrate." she said confidently and pulled out her wand.

She took one step than another through the entrance of the maze. It was a straight shot for a while until Indi reached a dead end that branched off in both directions. She hovered before making the turn knowing that a dummie was probably waiting for her but she wasn't sure from which side. Finally she stepped forward and turned to the right first and thankfully that had been the right way to look and before she knew it a fireball was headed her way but she was able to cast a shield charm in time. But now her heart was racing. She continued through the maze and ran into a few more dummies and had a few close calls. She even had to double back once or twice when she realized she had turned the wrong way. Finally after one last dodge of a stinging hex she made it to the other side. It had only been a few minutes but she was nearly out of breath. "So, who would like to go next?" she asked with a grin.

(Thank you Kris for the idea.)

 

[Dorian Fitzwilliam]

Dorian admittedly hadn't gotten the most out of his time at the SDA last year. He'd wanted to join the club for the challenge and advanced spells, but ultimately having to be in a room with so many strangers had been too daunting. This year, he was determined to stick it out, even if it meant attending all the meetings with a permanent scowl on his face and crossed arms.

Today, the expression was softened with a certain amount of curiosity, taking in the set up on the duelling platform as Indira explained what was expected. It sounded like an interesting application of reflexes and magic and Dorian was curious how some of the magic worked. It was a little hard to see the leader's demonstration, but he was quick to step up when she asked who was going next while his nerve still lasted. At the very least, if he did poorly, everyone would hopefully forget by the time everyone had had a go.

Taking his time, Dorian entered the maze, resting his left hand against the wall and using it to guide him through the maze. It would take longer, but he ran no risk of getting turned around this way. It did however mean that when he rounded the corner on the first dummy he was immediately caught of guard, throwing himself to the ground when he was too slow to pull a shield charm to dodge the stunning spell that shot over his head, scrambling to his feet, Dorian darted into the next passage way, catching his breath and peaking around the next corner to check it was clear before continuing. He was more ready for the next dummy, managing to stun it from his vantage point to give him enough time to pass. He'd nearly cleared the maze when a dummy he hadn't spotted shot a final spell at him and Dorian had to turn fast, pulling up a shield charm just in time to block what looked like a nasty knee-reversal spell, stumbling out of the exit looking disheveled and sweaty but ultimately unharmed.

 

[June Davenport]

June hoped that The SDA meeting would be better than the Heta Omega had been, but she figured there was no way they could go camping with this. And this club was actually something she was looking forward to, but she figured she couldn't duel yet as an first year and had to learn when she could. So she made her way to the duelling chamber which was not far away from the common room. She watched around to the students who were part of the club, especially wanting to see which classmates of her were joining. And as she did she put her attention to the club leader. and headgirl. In front of them was something which seemed interesting. June only was irritated that she didn't knew so many spells yet. She figured she could do other spells as well, if Misha would teach her. But for now she had to do with what she knew and had learned in class. The theory was there, but she still needed to learn the practical stuff more. It sounded fun, and June was confident but she figured she liked watching others as well. Perhaps some would fail too and that would be fun to watch as well.

It seemed as the girl was an seventh year she got more difficult spells and June smiled as she noticed the girl was out. Now it was everyone elses turn. An Ravenclaw boy was next and June watched him, he didn't seemed that old yet too. He had some more trouble than the headgirl it seemed but he came out of the maze too unharmed. June figured she wanted to show everyone she was not afraid. And quickly put out her wand and got ready to go inside. She had been seeing two examples now and she figured she could do it well.

As she stood in front of the entrance she put an confident smile on and hold her wand ready. Not waiting too long to go inside. And as she did she moved on taking some steps inside and noticed she had to choose left or right. June didn't waited to long and choose the right turn. And as she did she got ready, having an feeling she was gonna be attacked soon and as she moved on she was sharp and observed well. She had an feeling which spells there were gonna be, since there were not so much that she learned yet. And as she took an left turn this time she noticed an stunning spell coming right at her. And was quick enough to put up her shield, with the shielding charm. Quickly moving on she wondered how much further the exit was. She heardd her heart racing, but didn't felt scared she was focused and wanted to do well. But the sudden dummy's who could be everywhere made things excited. She dodged one spell as she was too late to cast an shielding charm and June walked an bit slower now as she had to choose her way. Seeing something which seemed like an exit she moved faster as an dummy at her left appeared she was quicker to cast an stunning spell at it and runned towards the exit. Catching her breath for an moment before showing her face with an confident smile. And stood back with the group as she had fixed her hair. Now she wanted to see how the rest would do. But she had done fantastic obviously.​

 

[Ngawaiata Martin]

The duelling tournament was Ngawaiata's favourite part of the Hogwarts calendar, and she was still kicking herself for not signing up last year. She wasn't going to make the same mistake this year, and the SDA meeting to prepare for the duels was a welcome chance to practice. She watched the first few people run the gauntlet, paying particular attention to Indira's technique. Who better to learn from than the leader of the club after all? After a couple of younger students went Ngawaiata took her turn, taking a breath to steady her nerves before entering the maze. Her alert was high immediately, and she caught the first spell aimed at her with a quick shielding spell, ducking under the next one coming from another direction. She couldn't help thinking it would be good to make a good time as well as getting through successfully, so she moved quickly, dodging more spells than she blocked. It wasn't her usual duelling technique but it worked well in this setting, a few close calls aside. By the time she reached the end of the maze Ngawaiata had a graze on her knee from taking a dive to avoid a stunning spell, and a few of her hairs had been singed shorter, but her heart was racing and she was pleased with her performance, feeling more confident to try new techniques in the next tournament.

 

[Genevieve Fuentes]

Evie was looking forward to the club meeting, wondering what the president had in store for them. She entered the dueling chamber, staring at the platform that had many thin walls on it as she took a seat with everyone else. The Head Girl began explaining their task, and Evie's eyes widened at the idea of having to make her way through a maze while casting spells on dummies. It seemed quite difficult, but the Gryffindor was ready for the challenge. She watched as the Head Girl went into the maze first, coming out the end unscathed, and then she was followed by some younger students, who also made it through unharmed except for one who had a graze on their knee. Now it was Evie's turn, and she was thrilled.

When given the all clear, Evie approached the entrance to the maze with her wand held tightly in her hand. She was on guard as soon as she entered, looking around for the first distraction. Out of nowhere, a spell began flying her way, and she quickly ducked, before using protego to block the next one. She came across a dead end and panicked before turning back and taking another turn, only to be faced with a dummy appearing to want nothing more than vengeance. They sent a bat-bogey hex her way, but she was quick to block it before sending a stinging hex back towards them. They dodged it and sent diffindo her way, and she squealed, ducking from the spell just in time before running in the opposite direction. She sent the knee-reversal hex behind her as they chased after her, but it kept missing until it eventually hit the dummy, making the dummy fall onto the ground, helpless. The teen stopped in her tracks, taking a few deep breaths before continuing on her journey with her heart racing and her wand still out in front of her. As she saw the light at the end of the maze, she sped her pace up a little, before a trip jinx made her fall flat on her face, and she instantly felt her right cheek throb. When she looked up she saw another dummy heading towards her, but she was quick to get back up and send stupefy their way before heading out of the maze holding the right side of her face, but happy to have survived.

 

[Louis Alcott]

Louis honestly sometimes forgot he was part of the SDA, technically. He had joined for the tournaments, but those hadn’t really panned out the way he had hoped. Still, he attended the meeting because he might as well. He took a seat as the president told them to, leaning back as he waited for her to explain the weird-looking maze. Louis listened as she explained what they were going to do today, wondering if had been worth going. It sounded sort of fun, but he also worried about looking silly. He watched as Indira herself went through the maze. She made it look rather easy. After a few younger students went, Louis felt like he couldn’t just keep sitting there. He got up to go next, hoping the maze would take it easy on him. Even some of the second years seemed to have struggled.

Louis headed into the maze, intending to move quickly. He ran, secretly hoping he’d find his way out without having to encounter a single dummy if he was fast enough to avoid them. But he nearly ran straight into one. Louis only barely rolled out of the way of a stunning spell, getting to his feet with a grunt. He moved on, holding his wand tightly as he looked around. The next dummy seemed to come out of nowhere, casting a obscuro Louis only barely managed to block. Going through the rest of the maze blind would be terrible. He wondered what would happen if they were knocked out by one of the dummies. Would Indira have to open up the maze to get you out? Embarrassing. Louis sped up, failing to dodge a stinging jinx that made him cry out in pain. Frustrated, he kept on going. When he saw the end of the maze, he started running forward. He was almost there when he was hit from behind by a dummy he hadn’t seen. Louis was unfamiliar with the spell, but whatever it was cause him to hang up in the air as if dangling by his ankle, inches from the end of the maze. Louis tried to move forward so he could get all the way out, but he was stuck. He was glad the the blood rushing to his head covered his blush. “That counted, right?” He asked as he waved at Indira and the rest of the students. “I pretty much made it.” He paused, wiggling around a bit where he hung upside down. “Can someone take me down?” He asked after a beat.

Once he was down, he sat to the side and tried to casually joke about his attempt, brushing it off like he didn’t care. Luckily, he was a good liar.

 

[Celia Vuong]

Celia had been unsure about attending today's SDA meeting. She'd spent the past week completely numb, gravity pulling at her limbs, and trying to duel while in her current state seemed like a bad idea. At the same time, she couldn't bring herself to care about the possible risks. It was hard to care about anything these days. So Celia made her way to the Duelling Chamber and listened impassively as Indi explained the activity. She supposed the maze was more interesting than a Q&A with a professor, but just barely. The maze could only hold one person at a time, which meant she would be doing a whole lot of nothing for the next hour. If Indi really wanted to make things exciting, she could have turned the maze into a battle royale-style fight.

A couple younger students went first, and Celia stared listlessly at the maze exit. Things didn't get interesting until @Louis Alcott appeared, an invisible force dangling him upside-down. For the first time in days, Celia smiled — well, smirked. "You're still technically in the maze," she pointed out, quite enjoying the sight of Louis flailing around in such an undignified manner. Eventually, Celia decided to take pity on him and cast a quiet "Liberacorpus," feeling a small spark of satisfaction at making such a difficult spell work.

Feeling a little better, Celia decided to enter the maze next. She had barely taken three steps when a Severing Charm went whistling towards her, forcing her to duck. Celia retaliated with one of her own, cutting the dummy's wand arm clean off. She turned the corner and was immediately confronted with another dummy, which cast a Bat-Bogey Hex. Grimacing, Celia blocked the curse and set the dummy on fire for trying to hit her with such a disgusting spell.

Another turn, another dummy. This one sent forth an Incarcerous Spell, which Celia cut down with a Severing Charm. The attack gave her an idea, and she stunned the dummy before hitting it with her own Incarcerous Spell, wrapping it in a thick coil of rope. Working quickly, she started to unravel the rope. She was almost done when she was hit from behind with a Stinging Hex. Celia cried out and whirled around to set fire to the dummy that had attacked her. Satisfied that her attacker had been incapacitated, Celia finished unwrapping the first dummy and tied one end of the rope around its leg. Now she had a very crude version of Ariadne's thread.

Clutching the other end of the rope, Celia took her time going through the maze, blasting away and setting fire to any dummies that dared cross her. All week, she'd had trouble focusing, but now she found it surprisingly easy to concentrate. Celia was so intent on demolishing dummies that it took her a while to notice that something was amiss. Frowning, she gave the rope a tug, and the other end snaked into view. It had been cut. "Oh, for f*ck's sake." The maze was clearly smarter than it appeared. Celia pointed her wand directly at the wall in front of her. "Confringo!" The blast hurtled her back, and Celia shrieked as she hit the floor. But once the dust settled, she could see a hole in the wall and the exit just beyond. She hurried out before glancing behind her. Already, the maze walls were resetting themselves. Celia knew she'd likely taken longer than the others, but she didn't care. All the (temporary) destruction she'd caused had left her feeling — for a few moments at least — a little less numb.

 

[Tempest Vero]

Tempest was pretty excited to be attending an event with SDA rather than the other clubs. Heta Omega just seemed too vanilla for her, and she wanted something that took guts, as her papa would have said. The Slytherin listened intensely as Indira spoke, watching the head girl go through the maze, seeminly unfazed. Tempest watched as an older student went through next and then June. Part of her wanted June to succeed so that people knew she was friends with someone decent, but the other part of her wanted June to fail so Tempest could come out on top after her own turn. As June made it through without missing a limb or having blood spew from somewhere, Tempest gave her a little clap before leaning against the wall, watching some of the other students. For some reason, the younger ones weren't going, and Tempest took the opportunity to go right after Celia. "My turn," she said snippily before turning into the maze. At first, it was self explanatory, but then there was a fork in the road, and Tempest decided to go right, wand at the ready. She barely cleared the corner when a light came towards her. It was almost involuntary that her hand rose as she called out the shield charm, and Tempest felt a very enjoyable rush of adrenaline. "Expelliarmus!" she sent back, watching the dummy stop moving. Tempest knew Stupefy was probably more effective, but she enjoyed the way it rolled off the tongue. And the power she felt knocking someone's wand out of their hand was too good to pass up. The first year, ran into a few more dummies, narrowly missing the last two due to sheer cockiness. As the light came back through the side of the maze, Tempest kicked the last dummy out of the way before finding herself at the end, looking smug.

 

[Elara Chatelain]

Elara was hoping to make a few memories during her last year, and one of them included winning the dueling tournament again. She had done it a few times before, and it was possible to do again with a lot of hardwork. Thankfully, Indira had set up the perfect way to practice, and Elara watched as a few students went through, trying to see if she noticed any discernable patterns or spells that would be helpful other than the usual shield spell. After a rather tenacious first year, the Gryffindor offered herself up, pushing her braids out of the way before entering into the maze, wand out.

There were definitely pros to being athletic when it came to dueling, and Elara was ready to duck or run if needed. But hopefully, her magic would serve well enough to not have that happen. As a dummy sent fire towards her, Elara blocked it, sending back the confringo spell as she watched the dummy splinter, forgetting she was in a maze as it threw her back before she sent up a weak shield charm that at least protected her from some of the other remnants sent flying towards her. Shaking it off, she stepped over the larger pieces and went around the corner, wiping what she thought was sweat from her face but realized quickly was blood from a small cut on her cheek. Elara kept going, blocking the next dummy's spell before sending a stunning spell towards it, sending it flying backwards. She kept up the charade until she made it through the made without any more injuries and realized she had a small piece of dummy stuck in her arm. Pulling it out, she gave everyone and encouraging smile before stepping to the side to make sure she wasn't bleeding anywhere else.

 

[Leah Thorne]

Leah couldn't wait to see what they would be doing for the SDA meeting. She felt like she had learned a lot when Professor Abberline had come to talk to them last year but when she walked into the dueling chamber she realized they were not about to have another chat with a professor. She had been in the chamber before of course to see the tournament last year even though she hadn't been able to participate. But this year that would be different. As Anisha's sister explained what they'd be doing she could hardly sit still. A maze! Full of practice dummies! It sounded like the best way to actually practice using her spells offensively for once. Which would come in handy for the tournament. Unfortunately she wasn't the only one who seemed excited about the prospect and she had to wait quite a while before it was finally her turn.

She gripped her wand tight as she stepped up to the platform herself and entered the maze. At first Leah didn't see any kind of dummies and cautiously crept forward until she had to make her first turn. Without any hesitation she turned right and cast a disarming spell only to realized there was nothing there. Thankfully she realized her mistake in time and dropped to the ground, the stunning spell that had been coming right for her had missed by a hair. She stunned the dummy for good measure before moving on and tried to be more cautious as she went. She managed to block the next few dummies and made it through the maze pretty well without having to back track much. Finally she turned the last corner and saw a dummy standing between her and the exit. She was ready now and disarmed it with ease and she felt her shoulders sag with relief as she walked out, sweaty but in once piece.