Team W.T.F (Where's the Finish?) Errand PV

𝒜thleticism was something that Amadea didn't necessarily have. While it was true that she often took walks around the Grounds and participated in dueling activities, pure athleticism wasn't something she often practiced, unlike her constant studying for school and practicing magic. Maybe that was why her strength suffered, but she was too afraid of flying to join the Quidditch team, which was the main athletic activity she could think of around Hogwarts. This fact never bothered her in the past, but as she stared out at the relay racecourse in front of her, she began wondering if this was really the best idea.

She teamed up with Cecily and Adam yet again; from the iconic 'Team Who Must Not Be Named' to 'Team A-maze-ing', the group somehow always ended up paired together for these challenges. This time, they were Team WTF - Where's the Finish. In Amadea's completely unbiased opinion, she thought they should win simply based on the cleverness of their team name. Unfortunately, this relay race was not judging their creativity. As she looked out onto the course, she studied the hurdles, monkey bars, and rope net, trying to figure out which one that she could succeed at. The rules stated they weren't allowed to use their wands to help them, though Amadea wasn't sure how they would. At least this was somewhat in her territory; while all the Purebloods might have never attended a Muggle playground before, Amadea spent quite a lot of her childhood swinging around and playing.

She watched as Adam went through some warm-up stretches, so she followed suit, bending down to stretch out her legs. As she stretched, she felt the adrenaline starting to kick in. She wanted to impress her friends and she wanted to impress the professors who were running the relay race. She did not know Professor Jensen or Professor Kibitzer very well, and she hoped that she could leave them with a good first impression today by performing well in the relay race. Thinking about this almost made her laugh out loud. It was hard for her to fathom the fact that even just a year ago, she probably wouldn't have been here participating in this, goofing off and having fun with her friends. She was glad that she had met so many crazy people at Hogwarts that pushed her out of her shell and convinced her to do these crazy events with them.

Amadea turned back to her friends, sizing them up. Any qualms she previously had about underperforming were far from her mind now; she focused on winning. They had to show up all of the other teams. She grinned as Adam attempted to give them a pep talk, nodding along as he spoke. He was right; they didn't need any magic to win this. As long as they worked as a team, they would be fine.

"We should probably choose an order or something," Amadea said, glancing out at the obstacles again. "What do you think you guys would be best at? Personally, I think I could do the hurdles the best." She might not be the strongest person in the world, but she was fairly coordinated and felt confident in her ability to jump over the obstacles. That left Adam and Cecily to choose between the ropes course and the monkey bars. She hoped they would be okay with this, as Amadea was fairly certain she would fail at either if they assigned her to one of them.

"We got this guys!" she said confidently. "Let's show everyone who Team W.T.F. is!" She let out a whoop and shook out her muscles, bouncing up and down, ready to start the race.

WC: 616/1000

Late, late, late. Cecily was, for the millionth time in her Hogwarts career, significantly not on time. Was anything else new?

Well, yes, actually. Cecily was used to making her way to the Quidditch training pitch and being greeted by an open, grassy field. Today, though, the space had been transformed into an obstacle course at the hands of two of Hogwarts' finest professors-- Head of Slytherin House, Professor Jensen, and Professor of Divination, Professor Kibitzer. The students needed to Arranged all around the pitch stood three obstacles-- a rope climb, hurdles, and monkey bars-- not to mention several other groups of students ready to run the gauntlet. Everyone looked like they were having a good time, which was promising. Hey, Hogwarts could be fun sometimes. You know, when no one was dying or being burnt alive. Supposedly, there would be no fire at today's event, which was comforting to Cecily.

She jogged across the pitch to where she spotted her teammates stretching in the grass. She, Adam, and Amadea were reprising their Great Maze group, 'The Team Who Must Not Be Named', but this time, with a name even better than their previous masterpieces. Cecily couldn't quite remember who was to be credited for the iconic name that the trio was debuting on this fine, sunny day-- it was likely the brain child of the chaos the three of them together always managed to cause-- but Team WTF-- standing for 'Where's the Finish?', of course, a delightful nod to the fact that they didn't really know what they were doing-- was ready to kick ass and take names. Hopefully moreso than they had done in their original Great Maze team, 'Team A-maze-ing'. Okay, so the mazes didn't go so well-- either year that they participated-- but that didn't mean that the team itself was a bust! Maybe they just weren't good at mazes!

She bent down to stretch out her legs and swung her arms around, trying to release the tension. The adrenaline was coursing through her, and she jumped up and down in place a few times to calm herself and focus her energy. As she stared down the obstacles, she realised that what she was feeling was not unlike how she felt before a Quidditch game. Pressure, yes, and nerves, but excitement as well. She was one thousand percent ready to run all three of these events if she had to, even though she knew that her two teammates would be able to handle themselves. Adam and Cecily were both somewhat athletic-- Cecily currently being the senior Chaser and Adam being an ex-Beater-- so even if Amadea, who was not particularly the most athletic type, didn't do the best in her section, the two Ravenclaws still had a chance to pull a win out of the bag. Not that she hadn't become accustomed to losing after two egregious defeats in the winding hedgerows. Who even thought it was a good idea to send a bunch of first years into a dark and twisting maze to find a goat? Cecily still didn't know if anyone had ever won that, or even whose idea it was. Regardless, she was hyped to kick it up a notch and land a podium spot in today's competition.

As Adam gave a convincing pep talk, to which Cecily applauded, she surveyed the options, her analytical brain dissecting who would be best at what. Amadea wasn't very strong, so she would likely be best at the hurdles. The redhead seemed to echo her opinion as she claimed her event. She and Adam were pretty well matched, but it seemed that he would be stronger due to his stint as Beater. So he would climb the net. That left Cecily with...

"I'll take the monkey bars, if that's alright with you, Adam," Cecily volunteered once he and Amadea finished psyching the team up. Cecily cheered, ready to kick this thing's butt.

WC: 657
@Adam Harringtom @Amadea Campbell

── ❋ ──

𝓐madea gave a warm smile to Cecily as she finally appeared, joining the team in their stretching. As she surveyed the field in front of her, Amadea realized that maybe they should have talked a little more about their strategy before just diving right into this. It certainly wouldn't leave a good impression if they headed out onto the course and failed in the middle of it. Though, of course, if they were to fail it would probably be in the beginning, considering Amadea was the one starting them out with hurdles.

Cecily had claimed the monkey bars, so that left Adam to climb the net. She was confident in both of her friend's abilities. Cecily was quite nimble and Amadea had no doubt she could easily conquer the monkey bars and Adam was pretty strong from being a Beater for a little while. The only questionable part was her. Amadea was fairly certain she could get over the hurdles. They didn't look that intimidating. Sure, she was short, but she also had fairly strong legs. Her daily walks on the grounds definitely helped her running abilities. Plus, even though she hadn't been in the water in quite a while, Amadea used to be a swimmer before she came to Hogwarts, gaining a lot of leg muscle from that.

"Alright, we all better go to our part of the course," Amadea said. "Good luck guys!" While the team didn't always have the best of luck in these competitions, Amadea was optimistic that they could pull it off today. She stretched a few more times before sizing up the hurdles in front of her. Amadea glanced at her teammates and flashed them a quick thumbs up before it was time to begin the relay race.

She took a deep breath, trying to calm her beating heart. It was only a few hurdles. She could do this. Amadea had never participated in track back when she was living in the Muggle world, but she had seen enough of it to know what to do. She dropped down, pressing her fingers against the dirt of the Training Pitch and putting her back foot up, ready to push off to start running. As she exploded from her start, Amadea used the momentum to carry her toward the first hurdle. She didn't really know the proper form for jumping hurdles, so she decided she would just wing it and try jumping. She approached the first one, gathering her speed to propel her over the bar. As she jumped, she held her breath, waiting for herself to either hit to hurdle or hit the ground. Her feet landed solidly on the other side and she mentally cheered for herself. One hurdle down, the rest of the course to go. She ran toward the second one, feeling more confident now that she had successfully cleared the first. She jumped over it. As she ran the course, Amadea's mind drifted. Hurdling was quite fun, and she wondered why she had never done more of it before.

The last hurdle was approaching quickly and because of her daydreaming, Amadea hadn't noticed. She ended up jumping too close to the hurdle and knocked it with her back foot. She tumbled to the ground with a grunt. She stayed still for a split second, making sure nothing had broken. Once she was sure she was okay, Amadea hopped up and yelled to Cecily. "Go Cecily, we got this!" Amadea crossed her fingesr for her friend, hoping that her fall at the end of the hurdles wouldn't cost them too much.

WC: 603 + 616 = 1219
@Cecily Quinn @Adam Harringtom

── ❋ ──

Cecily couldn't help but loudly and aggressively cheer Amadea on. "GO, AMADEA!" the Ravenclaw shouted with a massive grin in an uncharacteristically attention-grabbing way. Cecily had no way of knowing if her cheers were helping or even registering with her Hufflepuff friend, but she continued to whoop nonetheless as Amadea awkwardly leapt over the hurdles. Really everything Amadea did was at least a little awkward, but this in particular was not making her look in the least bit graceful. She had no idea what she was doing-- not that Cecily did either-- and all of her jumps made her hang in the air for a wasted fraction of a second before she came crashing back down to earth to race on to the next one. But hey, at least she was clearing all of th--

Cecily winced as Amadea's final jump didn't quite gain enough clearance, and the redhead went crashing to the ground for the last time. And this time, not on her feet. It looked painful, and Cecily was prepared to rush over and help her friend. She had never tripped over a hurdle before, and she imagined that it Amadea, though, jumped immediately back to her feet before shouting at Cecily to get moving.

Nerves rushing back all at once, Cecily sprinted towards the start of the monkey bars, heart pounding and blood rushing. It had been ages since she had done these-- at least five years-- and even then, it had only been wither her father holding her up, because she was eight and her small arms could barely span the space between the bars. Now, though, she had no one helping her across, and her team was counting on her to not screw this up. To say she was doubtful was an understatement, but nevertheless, she approached her opponent head-on, eyes narrowed. Focused.

She had come up with a rudimentary course of action while Amadea ran her event, one that would hopefully get her across the bars in, well, not the shortest amount of time, but certainly not the longest. She reached the start of the structure and, standing directly below the bar, jumped straight up with her arms outstretched. Her fingers wrapped around the cool metal, holding tight. Once her grip was solid, she swung her legs forward, then back to gain momentum. There was surely an easier and faster way to do this, but she couldn't think of how. And besides, she was already invested in this way. So, when her body swung forward, she released her grip with one hand and stretched it ahead of her, latching onto the next bar. Her arm just barely reached. She swung forward again and again, eyes aimed only on the bar right in front of her. Although every time she let go with one hand, she felt as though she was going to plummet to the ground, it was sort of soothing, really, to get into a rhythm: release, swing, grab. release, swing, grab. With every success, her confidence grew, until, with one last swing, it was over. She had completed her portion of the race, and she didn't screw it up!

Cecily dropped to the ground, a smile splitting her face as her feet landed firmly in the soft grass of the pitch. She nearly took a moment to celebrate before remembering that she couldn't afford to waste a single other second. Her poor technique had already doubtlessly cost them more time than they could spare. They would be lucky if they came in third, now. But hey, that was still better than the trio had done in anything else! Cecily would consider it a win.

Pausing only to take a breath, the young girl raised her voice, turning to Adam. "You're up, Adam! Go, go, go!" She desperately hoped that the boy's height and strength would give him an advantage in the rope climb, and help him make up some of the time that she had so skillfully lost. With one last cheer, she stood back to watch him go.

WC: 678 + 657 = 1335 | Errand Complete!
@Adam Harringtom @Amadea Campbell

@Cecily Quinn | @Amadea Campbell

Adam was a-okay with the roles that his team members had taken, since he didn't know his abilities nearly as well as they seemed to. Cecily would be a good choice for the monkey bars; he nodded in confirmation when she asked about them, throwing a smile in the mix for good measure. "Go for it!" As a Chaser, she was used to holding on tight to her broom, and this was practically the same thing. Just....upside-down, and with a lot more swinging involved. Still, Adam had the fullest confidence that Cecily could get their team across the monkey bars with no trouble at all.

With their plan fully formulated and their pep talks enthusiastically delivered, Adam gave a cheer and jogged over to the end of the course, where the rope net was waiting for him. It was much taller than it had looked from a distance, and he felt nervousness start to overtake him. The blond boy was decently strong, and he had the height advantage to give him a head start. He'd never done anything like this, though, and there was a lot of pressure on him to get his team across the finish line. He didn't want to let either of his friends down at the last second. He wouldn't be able to get over that until at least next year, if he was lucky.

Adam finally reached the base of the net and turned around just in time to see Amadea crash to the ground, her foot caught on the last hurdle. She must have started while he was still heading to the net; that was smart, it would give them less time to overthink their obstacles. She must have been doing well in order to make it all the way to the end of the hurdles by this time, but the last one had been her downfall. He winced and took a few steps forward, about to run back and check on her -- but the Hufflepuff girl picked herself up and waved them on, shouting at Cecily to take on the next obstacle. Adam smiled in relief and gave Amadea a thumbs-up, reminding himself to ask her about any potential injury when they were done. It probably wasn't anything that the hospital wing couldn't fix, but he bet that it still hurt in the meantime.

One obstacle (and one teammate) down. Adam turned his attention to Cecily, watching her jump up to the start of the monkey bars and pump her legs back and forth, building some momentum. When she had enough strength behind her, the Ravenclaw girl swung forward and grabbed the next bar with one hand, and then repeated the action, moving hand-over-hand to get across the expanse. Adam cheered her on as loud as he could while not being a distraction. "Good strategy, good strategy! You've got this, Cecily! Wooo! You can do it!"

She dropped to the ground triumphantly in no time at all, and Adam applauded again. "Nice job! Perfect!" They could totally win this thing. Not everything had gone flawlessly, but he doubted that any of the teams had run this course without a hitch. Team W.T.F. was still going strong. And speaking of going...

Adam started as Cecily cheered him on, reminded suddenly of the obstacle that still awaited him. This was it, the final task guarding the prize. He took a second and a deep breath before jumping straight up, reaching his arms up as high as he could to grab at the net. His fingers curled around two pieces of heavy rope, leaving the third-year dangling awkwardly in the air. He kicked out with his feet and struggled to find a foothold, finally putting them securely in place. He was far from a professional, but Adam was on the net now -- all he had left to do was get over it. Narrowing his eyes, the boy reached up and grabbed at a higher section of the rope, feeling the coarse material bite into his palm. He untangled his corresponding foot and found another foothold higher up on the net, making a few inches' progress. It took a few seconds to get used to the way that the rope trembled and swung underneath him, but eventually, Adam had worked out a comfortable pace. He reached the top of the net and pulled himself over the edge, rolling onto his back on the wooden platform that the net was anchored to. He'd done it.

Actually, not quite. Adam swore and pushed himself back onto his feet, sliding back to the solid ground of the training pitch and locking the finish line in his sights. His legs ached a little bit from climbing, but he pushed himself into a sprint and broke through the line as fast as he could, turning back to cheer. "Finished! We did it!" Finally, their team had found victory. And, you know, actually finished an event. With an excited grin plastered to his face, Adam jogged back over to the girls and offered them both high-fives, waiting for a professor to come and congratulate them or at least acknowledge their completion of the course. He was thrilled; what a rush! He'd never done something like that before, but it had been wonderful.

If only every Hogwarts class was like this!

WC: 537 + 887 = 1424 words
Errand complete!

── ❋ ──

𝓐madea held her breath as she watched Cecily swing through the monkey bars. She tried not to dwell too much on her own mistakes; her fall at the end of the hurdles was still fresh in her mind as she watched her friend maneuver through the obstacle. She hoped that her fall wouldn't cost them a win. From what she could tell, Cecily was doing quite well as she used her momentum to move herself through the monkey bars. Amadea wasn't sure if she should cheer or keep silent; she didn't want to break Cecily's concentration but she also didn't want Cecily to lose any motivation. She heard Adam cheering for her from the start of the rope net so she decided to let out her own cheer. "Go Cecily!" Amadea cheered. "You're doing great!" Amadea watched as Cecily dropped to the ground from the last monkey bar, urging on Adam to finish off strong for them.

"GO ADAM!" Amadea yelled, jumping up and down as the adrenaline coursed through her body. She watched as he attacked the rope net with ferocity; she could tell that he was putting his all into it. Amadea was glad that they had sectioned off the obstacles in the way that they did. She knew that she would not be able to climb over the rope net as nimbly as Adam. He reached the top and Amadea cheered again. "You're almost there!" He pushed himself, sprinting until he broke through the finish line and Amadea let out another loud cheer. She didn't care if it was obnoxious, she was so proud of them for finishing. She high-fived Adam and held up her other hand for Cecily and then jumped up and down, unable to contain her excitement. This was awesome. She glanced over at the professors who were moderating the event, wondering if they had noticed how well the trio had done on the course. She didn't need their praise, but it was always nice to be acknowledged for your accomplishments.

"I think this calls for some celebratory butterbeers!" Amadea said to her team. "What do you say?" She was still running on an adrenaline high, unable to stop smiling. They had done it, and she couldn't be more proud.

── ❋ ──

@Cecily Quinn and @Amadea Campbell

Amadea was right — they had to celebrate the accomplishment somehow! Adam was glad that the Hufflepuff girl was around because he totally would've forgotten about that part. Though his arms were still a little sore, he laughed when Amadea returned his high-five and matched her grin. Her enthusiasm was contagious. Adam didn't know if he was happier about completing the obstacle course or just reuniting with his friends for the task.

It really had been a while since he'd hung out with Amadea. The boy still considered her one of his best friends, but being in different houses meant that they didn't spend a lot of time together. Adam saw Cecily every day in lessons, at their table in the Great Hall, or in the common room. It felt like he only got to see Amadea at schoolwide events and activities like this one. Honestly, he'd forgotten how much fun she was to be around. Adam made a mental note to himself to reach out to the redheaded girl and line up their schedules. Whether it was a Saturday in Hogsmeade or just a free period between classes, he and Amadea could surely come up with some way to pass the time. Hey, if worse came to worst, they could just strike up a conversation about having separated parents. That would be a real blast.

"Absolutely!" Adam exclaimed. Though butterbeers were really best in the winter, he was sure they'd still taste great, especially if they were having them together. "I think we deserve it. We could take this thing to the professional level." He laughed and gestured to the obstacle course, obviously joking. Adam knew he was no athlete. "Or just quit while we're ahead. That sounds just as good."

Right now, what they really needed was some way to cool off. Adam didn't know about the girls, but he was sweating from the power-duo of physical strain and the early-summer sun. He glanced towards the entrance of the training pitch, knowing that the Great Lake was somewhere beyond the towering castle. Technically, it was against the rules to go swimming, but Adam didn't have to get soaked. He would be fine with just dipping his feet in the shallows.

"Anyone want to come to the lake with me? It's a great day for it," Adam remarked, looking between Amadea and Cecily. He'd probably still go even if he was alone, but like all things, it would be better with friends. "Come on! I'll race you!" He took off at a jog towards the pitch entrance, listening for the sounds of footsteps behind him. What a way to start the summer!

[THREAD LEFT]