Maybe we'll do better here? on Quidditch Pitch

Chrissy

November 18, 2007 6:39 PM

Maybe we'll do better here? by Chrissy

It was like the instant Zack went into the gardens, an alarm had sounded. Chrissy had immediately went to protect her ears from the sounds, but all it did was muffle it. She silently cursed herself for being there. She knew by the end of the day she'd have a headache. Just what she needed. She sighed when the elves released the spell that set the alarm off and then tapped her foot impatiently while they berated them for not reading the sign properly.

"Yeah, let's go." Chrissy stated, already her bad mood setting in. She should have just ignored the clues altogether and not gotten herself into this whole thing. She wasn't a people person, she wasn't Sherlock Homes, and she always let herself get annoyed by the little things. She needed to take a couple of breaths to calm herself. She couldn't take out her frustrations on these three since it wasn't their fault.

She walked quickly through the winter snow and didn't stop until she reached the pitch. She could see the ice covering the ground but didn't venture onto it. "Okay, so I wonder if it's hiding in plain sight. Do any of you see a note?" Chrissy asked, looking around. She knew the first couple of notes were there for all to find, but if this was the last note, surely it would be far more difficult to find than any of the others. "Man, I hope we don't have to go out on the ice." Chrissy mumbled, more to herself than to the others.

0 Chrissy Maybe we'll do better here? 0 Chrissy 1 5

The Christmas Prairie Elves...

November 19, 2007 12:41 AM

OOC by The Christmas Prairie Elves...

Just a quick tip to those looking for the next clue - read Scurry's post ;) There's a clue about what you do to find it.

39 The Christmas Prairie Elves... OOC 0 The Christmas Prairie Elves... 0 5

Elly Eriksson

November 19, 2007 3:43 AM

Out in the cold by Elly Eriksson

Elly went with Mia back to the Pecari commons so they could collect warmer clothes for their outdoor searching. However, Elly still had the issue that, seeing as she had been expecting to return home for midterm, she had very little with her in the way of winter clothes. All the other girls in her dormitory had gone away for the holidays, so Elly couldn’t borrow anything from them, either. Instead she hurriedly pulled on another pair of socks, and two more jumpers. Instead of a coat she zipped her largest hooded tracksuit jacket over the top, the red fabric clashing horribly with her ginger curls. In place of woolen gloves, Elly grabbed her Seeker’s gloves to try and keep her hands warm.

Minutes later, Elly rejoined Mia and they headed out to the gardens. As had been expected, the gardens were closed, and gates at every entrance prevented them from continuing further. Even Zack’s efforts were in vain as hoards of prairie elves forcibly removed him from the paths, and the group were forced to reconsider their plans. Back to the Quidditch pitch it was.

Although Elly was freezing by the time they reached the pitch, her feet absolutely sodden, as the snow had soaked through her trainers, she was still having a good time. She’d taken out the candy cane to munch on while they searched for the next clue.

“Do any of you see a note?” Chrissy asked.

“Not yet,” Elly replied, but there’s time. She trekked towards the rink and paused at its edge. “It could be anywhere,” she said aloud, “in the stands on anything. This could take ages!”

0 Elly Eriksson Out in the cold 92 Elly Eriksson 0 5

Zack Dill

November 19, 2007 9:35 AM

We'll all need Hot Chocolate later (wotw) by Zack Dill

Zack had yelped and protested as the Prairie Elves had bodily replaced him on the other side of the security fence and then, in their grammatically incorrect English, accused Zack of being unable to read. He was still spluttering in offended shock (Mia's comment did not help) when Chrissy led the way over to the Pitch instead. Zack trailed behind, too distracted by the embarrassment of having been reprimanded by Prairie Elves to even notice the cold. His cheeks, mostly hidden behind his scarf, were red as much from his chagrin as from the elements.

When they reached the Pitch, transformed now into an ice rink, Zack initially felt the same sense of impossibility that Elly expressed with her "This could take ages!" Still, he wasn't going to let that deter him now.

"Logically, it's unlikely to be on the ice," he reasoned aloud. "There's nowhere to hide anything out there, and people would have stumbled on it by now if it was just sitting on the ice. So it's probably over there, where you can pick up skates, or in the stands. Since the skate supply area is much smaller and easier to look around, that's probably a good place to start."

He started walking that way without waiting for the others to agree that he was, once again, a genius. Is you not reading indeed. Hrrmph.\r\n\r\n

1 Zack Dill We'll all need Hot Chocolate later (wotw) 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Mia Kerova

November 19, 2007 4:35 PM

That's sounding heavenly about now. by Mia Kerova

When they reached the Quidditch Pitch, Mia saw what Chrissy had been talking about. They really did turn it into a gigantic ice skating rink. Despite looking like fun, it didn’t help their search much. Chrissy and Elly seemed a bit put out by the daunting task of searching the Pitch. In its defense, it would be much easier than searching the Labyrinth Gardens. Zack, thinking logically as what seemed to be a talent of his, suggested it wouldn’t be out on the ice. Mia wasn’t so sure. The ice-covered Pitch didn’t give much certainty that the note wouldn’t be out there. The elves had gotten the note inside of a crystal ball. What was stopping them from hiding it under the ice?

It had to be taken in pieces though. Something about a journey of a thousand miles or whatever. Mia nodded in agreement with Zack’s idea of where to start and followed him to the entrance where skates were left out on hooks. She took a general scope of the area first and then started searching in a direction that wasn’t being checked yet. After a short while of searching she was coming up with nothing. No holly borders yet.

Mia looked out at the stands and the ice while running her gloved hand along the wall nonchalantly. Her mind wandered to where the note might be out there, and a little on how nice the ice looked. There was something about how it glittered that caught her eye. But keeping to business, there were a significant number of benches to check around. Could it even be in the broom shed? She laughed quietly to herself. Something told her Coach Fox would be even less keen on the students going through her things than Wolfe would be about students entering the Hospital Wing. Actually, it was hard to tell.

Mia felt her finger dip slightly along the wall and then her glove snagged on something unbalancing her for a moment. She used the wall to catch herself and instinctively tried to tug her glove back. She stopped when she looked down at her hand. A frayed bit of her glove was pulled out much more obviously than before. She supposed it was about time for a new pair of gloves. She muttered in annoyance, pulling out her wand to fix it as she felt a draft reach her already jittery fingers. But what did her glove snag on? She saw a small hole in the otherwise solid wall and cocked her head to the side. She kneeled down beside it to see better, immediately regretting doing so when her knees felt a sudden cold surge.

“Would a rolled up note fit in there?” Mia asked herself. She was reluctant to pull off her glove and expose her entire hand to the frigid air, but did so anyway in order to search the hole that caught her glove. She wouldn’t drag the others over yet in case it was nothing but a crack, but she had a quelled sense of pride because if the clue was in there, she had found it.

0 Mia Kerova That's sounding heavenly about now. 0 Mia Kerova 0 5

Guenther Heindrich

November 21, 2007 10:28 PM

Have I truly found him at last? by Guenther Heindrich

(ooc: this is following my post above this thread....in case your wondering what he was thinking about earlier...not sure if this is a legal post but i crave some human interaction here.)

Guenther slid and slipped on the ice on the way out. Maybe it was how deep in thought he had been on the way in, but he had not noticed that the Quidditch pitch had been turned into a gigantic ice rink. He really needed to start focusing on details.

As he left the rink, he noticed some people near the skates. He wondered what they were doing. He thought about walking past them without drawing attention to himself, but then he saw Zack.

"Hey Zack!" he yelled excited. He started to run.

This became a huge mistake. He slid and tripped over himself, sliding several yards in the direction of Zack and the others standing near the skates. "AHHHHHH!!!"
he yelled in warning.

0 Guenther Heindrich Have I truly found him at last? 0 Guenther Heindrich 0 5

Zack Dill

November 21, 2007 11:27 PM

Looks like by Zack Dill

OOC: Sure, no problem. I was going to catch up with you in the library once this thread resolves, but you're conveniently joining in just as we're hoping to reach the final prize. BIC:

Zack was looking behind a pair of very large skates (ones that would probably easily fit Guenther) when he heard a male voice call his name and turned in time to see the very person he'd just been thinking about fall and slide toward him. He jumped back, but Guenther came to a stop just short of where Zack had been.

Squatting down beside the much taller boy, Zack tried to help him up. "Are you all right?" He bit back a comment about caution and ice being slippery because Guenther was an Alderaanian and surely knew that already. Then Zack realized that this was Guenther, who had been conspicuously absent all of last term. "Good to see you, though, I was starting to think you'd changed schools without telling me."

He waved toward the others, Chrissy and Mia and Elly, "We're on a treasure hunt. Want to join up? I'm feeling outnumbered by girls, and Elly's feeling outnumbered by sixth years. We're looking for the next clue, which should be a note like this big," he demonstrated the size using his thumbs and forefingers, "and with a holly leaf border. We're pretty sure it's somewhere in the Pitch. You haven't seen it, have you?" Guenther had, after all, just been somewhere deeper within the Quidditch Pitch than any of the five of the searchers had been yet.

1 Zack Dill Looks like 40 Zack Dill 0 5

Elly

November 22, 2007 12:35 PM

Another scavenger? by Elly

Zack had a plan of action for searching, and Elly, not inclined to argue, started looking around in the stands for any hint of a clue. It was difficult, though – the stands were dirty and frost covered, and went on for what looked like eternity. Elly began jogging up and down between the seats to keep warm, trying to keep an eye out for the thus far elusive next clue. She agreed with Zack that the clue wouldn’t be hidden out on the ice – Elly had already skated on the rink that holiday, and hadn’t seen any holly-boarded notes. Then again, she hadn’t skated over the entire expanse of the rink, so there was a minute possibility that it had escaped her notice.

A piece of paper caught under one of the seats drew Elly’s attention, and she slipped a little on an icy patch as she hurried over to investigate further. It turned out to be a scrap of chocolate frog wrapper, and a severe disappointment. Sighing, Elly roamed her eyes over the stands yet again, feeling as if their quest might have come to a halt with the inaccessibility of the (possibly) last clue.

A shout from the rink caught Elly’s attention, and she looked up in time to see a large figure crash onto the ice. A moment later she had identified the tangled mass of limbs as Guenther, a boy in the year above whom Elly liked because he’d always been taller than her. In her first two years, Elly found very few people around her own age who were taller than she was. Her growing rate seemed to have slowed somewhat though, so now some of the boys were starting to catch up with her; Saul was even taller than she was now.

Elly ran back down the stands to go and help the fourth year up, and to say hi, because she hadn’t seen him around all year until now. She passed Mia, who had crouched down in the snow, and then stopped, backtracked, and came to a pause by the other Pecari. Mia was kneeling in the snow and examining a strange slot in the side of the rink. Excitement rose again in the pit of Elly’s stomach at the possibility that they could progress with their treasure hunt. “Have you found something?” Elly asked Mia.

0 Elly Another scavenger? 0 Elly 0 5

Geoffrey and Stephen

November 24, 2007 10:56 AM

Plus a couple more... (wotw) by Geoffrey and Stephen

They made it as far as the steps outside before the very real importance of how cold it was outside reasserted itself. A quick conversation decided that they'd split up to go get something more suited to the outside on and meet back at the door and Geoffrey sprinted off towards the nearest staircase. Stephen, thankful that the closure of the Labyrinth Gardens meant that Pecari students were once again using Professor Connell's office as a route into their commons went settled for a jog and wished he'd remembered warm clothes before he'd taken his damp self outside.

About ten minutes later, both more suitably dressed, the cousins met up again and headed for the pitch.

"It's pretty big," Geoffrey noted as they got closer. "This could take a really long time. If it's here."

"Nah," Stephen said. "They want the clue to be found, yeah? I mean, they're not going to make it completely impossible. It'll probably be taped to the goals or something. I should have grabbed Fido. We'd have had the clue and been off in no time." He fumbled another chocolate coin open with his gloved hand, threw it up into the air and caught it in his open mouth.

"Or - nice catch - it might-" He spotted the group of people ahead of them. "You think they're looking too?"

"Maybe," Stephen said, grinning. "Hey guys," he called out to the group. Chrissy was there, and little Zack was helping not-at-all-little Guenther to his feet. And Elly - her bright hair making her easy to notice - was over beside Mia. "Are you looking for the clue too?"

Geoffrey sure hoped that they were. That would mean they weren't entirely off with guessing it had to be here.

Stephen wandered over to where Mia and Elly were, as it appeared that at the very least they'd found something, the way they were looking at the wall. He crouched down to have a look himself.

"You know what that looks like?" he said to the girls. "It looks like..." he reached into his pocket and pulled out his bag of chocolate coins. It was suspiciously light. Too suspiciously light. It was empty. "Hey Geoff!" he called over his shoulder. "Chuck us a chocolate." He glanced at the slot again. "A knut."

"You've finished yours already?" Geoffrey asked as he approached the spot. He looked at Stephen with an expression of disbelief even as he pulled out a chocolate knut as requested and handed it over.

"They were good," Stephen said with a shrug and not a hint of chagrin. He held the coin up to the slot - it was just the right size, he noted feeling somewhat smug - and then pushed it in.\r\n\r\n

39 Geoffrey and Stephen Plus a couple more... (wotw) 0 Geoffrey and Stephen 0 5

Clue the last ;)

November 24, 2007 11:12 AM

It wasn't that hard, surely? by Clue the last ;)

It was frosty, icy and cold at the Quidditch pitch. A great deal of this could be attributed to it having been transformed into a gigantic ice-skating rink. The fact that it was cold and there was a lot of snow around might also have had something to do with it. But that was beside the point, as right at that very moment the important events were happening just off the ice, near where the ice skates were stored for the moment.

There was a dull sort of clink as the chocolate knut slipped easily through the slit in the wall, followed by a quietish rolling noise. It went on for a little while, interspersed with further clinks as the coin went further and further down into the wall. Then, abruptly, it stopped. There was a snuffling sound and then a noise that sounded rather like the foil covering was being taken off.

The unmistakable sound of a chocoholic blissfully finding chocolate came next.

There was a whirring noise and a little hatch opened before suddenly closing again. There was a scratching sound and then the whirr again, followed (oddly enough) by the hatch opening once more. This time it stayed open long enough for the clue to be read a couple of times before closing firmly again.

Leaf and stone
Branch and pond
Once the gates be gone
Paths and clues
Hints to take
Christmas day at noon.

Keep on moving, don't be late
Or you'll cry and curse your fate
For although Saint Nick has been
There's still things that must be seen

Underneath the clue and the directions there was a third part, this in a much different hand. It simply read:

more? \r\n\r\n

OOC: Christmas post will be up soon!\r\n\r\n

39 Clue the last ;) It wasn't that hard, surely? 0 Clue the last ;) 0 5

Mia

November 24, 2007 4:39 PM

Of course not. We were just adding to the drama. by Mia

Mia quickly discovered there was nothing in the slit, but it didn’t stop her from trying to get her pinky in as far as she could just in case. She decided soon after that the futile task would only lead to a frostbitten hand so she pulled her glove back on. She was sure this slit had something to do with the next clue. Of course, this certainty was fueled by stubbornness and pride. It seemed that as she stared at the spot with a small frown, their group had gotten larger. She thought she heard someone yelling from the ice, but only glanced upward uselessly. From her crouched position she couldn’t see much else apart from the wall, but she did see one of the younger students join Zack a short time later. Elly soon joined her asking if she found something.

“I thought I did, but there’s nothing in there.” She waved a newly gloved finger at the hole. Feeling the draft again, she was reminded that she hadn’t fixed the hole in her glove. A quick muttered incantation remedied that.

And then more people came. Mia’s stomach gave a small uncomfortable twist at Stephen’s voice that she still couldn’t shake and mentally reprimanded herself for, but otherwise she just looked up with a grin and a wave to him and Geoffrey and then looked back at the hole as if just staring hard enough might change something. It didn’t of course, but Stephen and his chocolates from the Hospital Wing did.

“What are you—?” She started to ask when he pushed the chocolate knut through the hole, but was soon quieted as she heard the sounds of the coin rolling like someone dropped it into a longer than normal shoot of a gumball machine. “No way.” She mumbled to herself at all the strange noises, one of which Mia could have sworn was the sound of someone finding that chocolate coin. Inside the wall? She reminded herself of the crystal ball and found it much easier to believe. And then a hatch popped open. “No way.” She repeated, more through amusement than disbelief.

Mia read the note that was now visible to the ones at the wall. She read it twice, but only needed to read it once to know where they were going next. The hatch closed a short while afterwards. Mia picked herself up and brushed off her coat and knees before turning to Elly.

“I guess it’s back to the Labyrinth Gardens. I wonder if Zack will even want to go in.” She laughed as she recalled what happened. She could guess Zack had found it much less amusing, but Mia would get a kick out of that for a while.

0 Mia Of course not. We were just adding to the drama. 0 Mia 0 5

Guenther Heindrich

November 24, 2007 6:08 PM

wotw by Guenther Heindrich

Guenther stood up carefully, his red face clearly showing his chagrin. He grinned, trying to shake it off. He smiled forcefully at Zack's remark, trying to the reason for his absence from his mind. "I'm fine." he answered still smiling.

When Zack asked him about the note, he told him, "No, I didn't see one. That's a large slab of ice though. It could be anywhere out there."

He looked at the other searchers. He thought that he knew Elly, but he had never really talked to her. He knew none of any of the others even by sight, except for Zack of course.

He was starting to get chilly. His light jacket wasn't meant for this long of a time in the cold. Luckily, before he had even started looking, he heard a girl say "No way!".

He wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but they had found the clue and for some reason, they were headed to the Labyrinth Garden. Studying didn't help him a lot anyway if he was stressed about it.

0 Guenther Heindrich wotw 0 Guenther Heindrich 0 5

Chrissy

November 25, 2007 6:17 PM

Okay, anyway... by Chrissy

Chrissy had stood around when everyone had begun their searching. She hadn't wanted to get down on her hands and knees and look around for the last clue the way the others seemed inclined to do. Looking around in the school had been one thing, but Chriss wasn't about to get her clothes dirty and crawl around out on the pitch no matter how delicious the reward may be.

She heard a shout and turned to watch a large kid fumble on the ice and then fall. She would have laughed (and loudly) if Chrissy felt inclined to give the kid any notice at all, but she didn't. Instead, Chrissy returned to looking over the skating area see if she could see anything at face value. It didn't take long for her concentration to be shattered once more by even more people joining them. Looking around she spotted Geoff from the Quidditch team (still a sore subject for her, but she was glad that Jennifer was understanding and that they were able to find a replacement), and Stephen.

She gave them just as much of her attention as she had the tall kid, but when they went off to help Mia and Mia had so generously exclaimed her delight in something the boys had done. Walking over, she came in time to hear the last of the clicks and the sudden appearance of the clue.

Almost immediately a frown formed on her lips. Mia's interpretation of the note only deepened her frown. After all this hunting, this was their reward? "You've got to be kidding." Chrissy stated flatly, speaking for the first time since they arrived on the pitch. "All that just to be told to meet in the Labyrinth on Christmas Day?" Chrissy looked around at them before shaking her head. "Lame."

0 Chrissy Okay, anyway... 0 Chrissy 0 5