Chapter 5
The Trials
The weeks past and October approached with full force. The nights became long and dark, and everyone's minds began to think about Quidditch. The new season was beginning and from what Joseph heard this years Ravenclaw was going to be in compition with the Gryffindor's team, which hasn't happened for over 14 years. So there was reason to be excited, but Joseph had hardly any reason to stop working. "Between Muggle studies work and Defense against the Dark Arts I am going to be up all night." Said Joseph as he, BJ, and Louis worked at a small table in the corner of the common room. Snape and Carroll had both piled on the work. BJ who hated going and seeing Professor Carroll every week, wanted to know why they had to take muggle studies. "Aren't we sapposta take it as an elective in the third year." He would pip in after every Muggle studies class. Louis, who had more knowledge about the Wizard World then ether of them, explained. "There has always been a feeling in the wizard world that we are better then them, and especially after Voldimort was killed again, Wizards have been treating Muggles like children. Trying to help them out with their daily life using magic. But what wizards who haven't ever been or known a muggle is that they are smarter then they think." Smiling at BJ as he said this. "That's why they make use take four years of it in schooling." Louis finished up. "I still think that is a stupid reason." BJ commented. While BJ and Louis argued, Joseph looked out the window into the mystical night. The moon was as round as a cookie. Its light was beaming onto the lake. Joseph still hadn't seen that mysterious figure he saw a few weeks ago. Though he did go down to the cabin that the figure went into once. But when he knocked on the door nobody was there, so he decided to leave it alone. The trees rustled outside, Joseph became hypnotized in the lakes reflection. "Joseph!!!" Boomed BJ "Wha.?" Joseph woke up from his stuper. "We have been calling for the last minute or so." "Oh I am sorry, I was just looking outside." Joseph turned around and faced BJ and Louis. "What were you staring at?" asked Louis "Oh nothing I was just thinking about stuff." Joseph started to become embarrassed. "Lets get back to work," BJ said sensing Joseph's embarrassment. That night Joseph could sleep he laid in bed and thought.
"There holding Quidditch tryouts for first years this week," BJ told Joseph during lunch that Friday. "I might go out and try for the team." "Would you be able to play if you made it?" Joseph asked while picking up some food. "Nah the captain of the team said that the first years can only go on a waiting list if they make it." "Waiting list?" Joseph sat down. "What's that?" BJ sat down across of him. "That's like second string, if I made it then I would be second string on some other player incase he got hurt, I would take his place." "Sounds cool." Joseph who had shoved two rolls in his mouth looked like a walrus. "And there is also going to be a meeting for something called the trials, what ever those are." BJ took a sip of his pumpkin juice. "What are the trials?" Joseph asked. "I donno to bad Louis isn't here he could probably explain." Louis had gotten into trouble with Professor Carroll, he had made pig sounds as she passed by and was caught. "I reckon we should go to that to see what it is." BJ finished up his food and got up. The school ground was peaceful during lunch, the sun shone on the school grounds with what seemed like extra power. The lake rippled as a cool breeze blew against it. BJ and Joseph were taking a walk around the lake. They were walking by Hagrids cabin. Its dull exterior leads the imagination to wonder what was in there. Joseph looked ahead and saw the cabin that the silvery thing went in. The window faced them and Joseph could see inside of it. To Joseph surprise, he saw a silvery aura like the one from the night before. He started to run towards the cabin. "Where ya going Joseph?" BJ yelled behind him, but he was already across the lawn. Joseph ducked under the window when he got to the cabin. He slowly crept up the side of the window ledge and peered through the window. There it was a silvery being, it seemed to have hair like a women; it was definitely skinny. It looked like it hadn't eaten in a good while. Its ghostly body drifted across the cabin and to the window. Joseph let out a load gasp and fell back. BJ came running up next to him, "Joseph what the heck, are you doing?" Joseph just sat there staring up at BJ pointing his finger upwards. BJ looked up into the window, he squinted and then looked back down at Joseph. "What am I looking at?" "Look in the window." Joseph whispered. BJ again looked into the window concentrating hard. "What am I looking?" BJ asked again. "The ghost thing it's right there." Joseph was getting angry with BJ. "Can't you see it?" Joseph asked in a hush. "There is no ghost Joseph, just and old women in a chair." "What!" Joseph blurted out. "Yup she is right there." BJ pointed at the window. Joseph stood up and looked. To Joseph disbelief, there sitting in a chair in the middle of the cabin, was a wrinkled, ravished, small old lady. "But she wasn't there before" Joseph exclaimed. "It's ok Joseph she wasn't there before." BJ said unbelievingly "Will go to class now and tomorrow we will find the ghost." "Don't patronize me BJ I know what I saw it wasn't an old lady!" Joseph yelled. "What are you two doing?" Joseph and BJ turned to see the old lady who was in the cabin, standing in front of them (if you count having a walker as standing). "Don't you two have a class to get to?" the old lady asked. "Yes, we do." BJ said polity. "What were you two doing out here?" The old lady inquired. "Oh we must get to class now." BJ said hurray. He grabbed a speechless Joseph. Joseph's mouth hung open as he and BJ headed to potions. "She wasn't there I swear." Joseph kept repeating to be BJ in Potions class. "I believe you Joseph I really do." BJ would repeat like a robot. Joseph sat through Snape's lesson thinking hard about That Ghost thing. "Did I really see it?" He thought to himself. "It could have been nothing." Joseph shakes his head "I didn't imagine it, I wouldn't have been able to see it twice. Would I?" Joseph was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of telling Josh to shut up for the third time today; the rest of the class past slowly and uneventful.
Joseph was waiting in the common room for BJ to come back from the Quidditch meeting. Louis was next to him; he was trying to do a math equation that Professor Carroll assigned to them to do. BJ and Joseph finished it up in no time, but Louis never went to Muggle School for even one year so he was lost. "Read me the problem Louis, maybe I can help. Joseph said. "Ok it's 12 then there is a funny looking symbol." Joseph bent over and looked, "That's a minus Louis." "Oh sorry" Louis sounded confused. "Ok the problem is 12 mi-n-us 3." "You don't know how to minus Louis?" Joseph looked at him with one eyebrow higher then the other. "Oh I am sorry I never went to you fancy mi-n-us school." Louis said bitterly. "The answer is 9." Joseph said quickly "Oh I guess that make sense." Louis wrote down the answer. "Hi guys." Joseph turned around to see BJ coming up behind them. "Oh hi BJ." Louis and Joseph said in unison. "How was the Quidditch meeting?" Joseph asked BJ as he sat down. "It was cool." Joseph knew by now that BJs suppressed his emotions and that cool meant he had a blast. "They showed us all kinds of pictures, that moved." "Of course they move what do you want them to do." Louis blurted out. "Any way," BJ continued, "they taught us how to play, and then showed us all the positions we could play." BJ took a second to breath then continued. "Then they asked us to decide what potion we would like to play incase we ever got to, you see if the person playing the position we want gets hurt or something, they randomly draw a name of a person who signed up for that position." "What position did you sign up?" Joseph asked inquisitively. "I signed up for beater, and I was the only one." BJ smiled a repressed grin. "Why were you the only one to sign up?" Asked Louis. "I don't know but the most I can figure is that most of the people wanted to be a seeker, more glory I think." "Well I hope you get to play." Joseph added with a smile. "Well I do have to show up at the practices so I'll at least get some experience." BJ checked his watch. "Hey Joseph we got to go soon." "Where do you guys have to go?" asked a confused Louis. "We are going to the Ravenclaw wizard trial meeting." Joseph answered. "What id the wizard trial?" Louis asked, "Don't know but we are going to check it out. See ya Louis." BJ and Joseph walked way from Louis and out into the hallway. "So you see any ghost lately?" BJ said jokingly. "Very funny." Joseph said emotionless. The halls at nighttime were different from the halls in the day. Joseph didn't have any way of explaining it but it was some how different. The paintings sometimes sleep at night and the halls fire lights lit up the hallway. Joseph and BJ made their way down to a huge room with a stage in the middle and seats all around it. There was hardly anybody in the room, only first years and Professor Filtwick who was sitting in the back smiling quite happily. "Hello boys." He said to BJ and Joseph as they pasted. "Hello Professor." The instinctually said back. BJ and Joseph sat down in the back row near. The wall in back of them was covered in dust, so Joseph figured that they didn't use this room very often. Joseph looked up on the stage to see a large red curtain. It stretched from one side of the stage to the other, Joseph wondered what it covered, but before he could question BJ about it the curtain opened. Six people were behind it, all of them were wearing some sort of uniform, and it had a large raven on one side and a Hogwarts on the other side. The whole uniform was blue from head to toe (matching shoes). "Welcome all," said the tallest, blue-eyed boy. "This is a meeting for the Wizard Trials team, now some of you might be wondering what is the wizard trials team is." Joseph was. "3 years ago Professor Filtwick and Professor Sprout got together and came up with a new type of challenge for the wizards of this school." "Ya and probably because both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw suck at Quidditch." BJ whispered Joseph suppressed his laugh, "Now this new challenge they came up with tested a wizards mind and wits when he is in different situations. This became known as the Wizard Trials, and the concept is simple. 4 teams from each of the different houses compete in 3 different events; each event is worth 150 points. The winner of the Wizard trials cup is the team that has the most points at the end of the third event wins. Now each team is made up of seven people, one from each year, that's what we need you first years for. You see the legacy of the Wizard trials lies on your shoulders. Now to join the team you need to fill out this form." The boy held up a piece of paper. "The form includes a few questions on it to test your knowledge. I know that you all are new here and might not know the answers to any of the questions but all we want you to do is try your best." Joseph was still baffled by all of what he heard. "Any questions?" Joseph quickly rose up his hand "Yes you?" The boy pointed to Joseph. "What do you mean?" Joseph's asked. The boy started rubbing his head, "Well I give an example. Let's say that we are in a trial, and the course is around the school. So we would start out with a clue, and is says something like, 2-5 may answer this question and the question would be, how many toads are there is toad stew? Then the second years and fifth years on the team would try to come up with the answer, and if they get it right the team moves on. If they get the question wrong then we have to answer another question until the team gets it right. And to win the most amounts of points you have to answer all your questions right and make it to the finish line first. Do you understand now?" Joseph nodded his head but on the inside he didn't under stand. "I'd have to see it being played to understand." He told BJ later that evening in the Ravenclaw common room. "I think it would probably boring but I'll still fill out the form, it might be fun after all." BJ said in an exasperated tone. Joseph knew he would probably make the team because there were only 3 people who picked up forms to join it. So BJ and him had a one in three chance to get on the team. When they told Louis about the meeting it opened up a story about how wizards in Japan have a form of the trials but instead of questions there is intense physical pain.
Over the next week Joseph made frequent trips to the library, trying to find answer the questions on the form, which were at least third years questions. BJ and Joseph both agreed that they wouldn't share answers with each other, though Joseph thought he was getting the raw end of the deal because BJ was way smarter then Joseph, and probably could get the answers to the questions without any help. "Let's see number four a wizards best friend is?" Joseph was talking to himself on the way to the library. Joseph was looking down at his paper as he walked not paying attention where he was going. BAM! "Oh sorry." Joseph said as he bumped into some one. Joseph looked up and saw the familiar face of Josh. "Oh hi Joseph.' Josh said while he picked up some of his stuff. Joseph hadn't spoken to Josh out of class for over two weeks, so he was glad to see him. "Hi Josh, how is going?" "It's going good, how 'bout you?" "Oh they're going ok, I just have to look you some info at the library." Joseph knew that Josh thought that all libraries should be burned down. "Oh, that's cool." Joshes attention drifted towards a girl that walked in. "So what are you doing." Joseph said in an attempt to get Josh to focus back in on him. "Oh, ya I forgot to tell you," Joseph knew that `I forgot to tell you` meant that Josh never was going to tell you the story but scene you are here right now talking to him, he might as well try to get some attention. "In professor Carroll's class I was giving answers to some of my friends and she caught me. But that fat idiot only found one paper and she gave me detention." Josh shone a huge smile on his face as if it was like, a badge of courage to intentionally break the rules. Joseph didn't smile, he knew encouraging Josh was as bad as committing the crime. "When did you let your friends copy your papers?" Joseph asked not because he wanted to find out but to offer peace to Josh for not smiling. "During class." Josh let lose another smile. Joseph was stunned by his ignorance. "So what grade are you getting in Carroll's class?" Joseph continued his attempt to bring Josh up, in his minds eye. "Oh I don't know how they mark the grades but I think I am getting a good mark." Joshes eyes trailed of from Joseph to a girl passing by. "I got to go Joseph but I'll see ya around." Josh zoomed away before Joseph could even say goodbye. Joseph walked into the library trying to concentrate. He kept thinking about Joshes new persona, it was like the old Josh disappeared into a puff of ignorance, and was replaced by an abomination of a person. Finally after some coming down Joseph was able to start concentrating on the question paper. "No, this isn't the book." Joseph said to himself, as he looked through different books. As he made his way through the books, he spotted some rather interesting books. How to get rid of Hippy's. By Victor Von Backstreet. The White Wizard Put Me Down. By Antwon X. Many of the books he saw enticed him to come and read, but none more then the book; Merlin The Wizard Who Started It All. By Dodger Rempelson. Joseph was starting to get to the time when Merlin came about, in History of Magic. He found history fascinating, but it lacked a certain something. It needed to have videos in it that would make it better. Joseph decided to pass up the book; he didn't need anything else to preoccupy him from schoolwork. He scanned the book self with all of his might but could not find a book for a wizard's best friend. Joseph decided to turn in and go to bed it was already getting late. When he got to the common room, he could hear Louis and some other students speaking Spanish. "Goodnight Louis." Joseph said as he went by Louis. Louis looked at Joseph and smiled, "¿Por qué eres feo?" All the kids around Louis laughed and pointed a Joseph. Joseph was starting to get use to the fact that Louis could taught him in Spanish and there was nothing Joseph could do about it but walk away. Joseph walked up the stairs; the moon shone through the window onto the brick steps. The lake looked perfect on a night like this. Joseph stopped and looked out at the nighttime landscape. The moonlight was even shining on the lake. Joseph looked hard at the lake, something wasn't right about this scene. "Is the moon light moving." Joseph thought as he looked down on the lake. It seemed like something was glowing in the lake. The more Joseph stared at lake the more he realized what it was he was seeing. "Louis, BJ come here!" Joseph screamed at the top of his lungs. He stared out the window at the ghostly creature. Its body glared in the lake, it started moving forward deeper into the lake. "LOUIS, BJ COME HERE." The ghostly apparition was disappearing into the lake so fast that Joseph could barly see it now. "NO!" Joseph screamed and pounded his hand on the window. Louis came running up the stirs. BJ was coming down the stairs on the opposite side. "What is it Joseph?" BJ asked alarmed. "I saw it again, I saw the ghost." Louis looked at Joseph, with a puzzled look on his face. "It's ok Joseph." BJ said still looking alarmed. "Come on Louis lets take him to the hospital."
Next, Chapter 6: The Celebration
The Trials
The weeks past and October approached with full force. The nights became long and dark, and everyone's minds began to think about Quidditch. The new season was beginning and from what Joseph heard this years Ravenclaw was going to be in compition with the Gryffindor's team, which hasn't happened for over 14 years. So there was reason to be excited, but Joseph had hardly any reason to stop working. "Between Muggle studies work and Defense against the Dark Arts I am going to be up all night." Said Joseph as he, BJ, and Louis worked at a small table in the corner of the common room. Snape and Carroll had both piled on the work. BJ who hated going and seeing Professor Carroll every week, wanted to know why they had to take muggle studies. "Aren't we sapposta take it as an elective in the third year." He would pip in after every Muggle studies class. Louis, who had more knowledge about the Wizard World then ether of them, explained. "There has always been a feeling in the wizard world that we are better then them, and especially after Voldimort was killed again, Wizards have been treating Muggles like children. Trying to help them out with their daily life using magic. But what wizards who haven't ever been or known a muggle is that they are smarter then they think." Smiling at BJ as he said this. "That's why they make use take four years of it in schooling." Louis finished up. "I still think that is a stupid reason." BJ commented. While BJ and Louis argued, Joseph looked out the window into the mystical night. The moon was as round as a cookie. Its light was beaming onto the lake. Joseph still hadn't seen that mysterious figure he saw a few weeks ago. Though he did go down to the cabin that the figure went into once. But when he knocked on the door nobody was there, so he decided to leave it alone. The trees rustled outside, Joseph became hypnotized in the lakes reflection. "Joseph!!!" Boomed BJ "Wha.?" Joseph woke up from his stuper. "We have been calling for the last minute or so." "Oh I am sorry, I was just looking outside." Joseph turned around and faced BJ and Louis. "What were you staring at?" asked Louis "Oh nothing I was just thinking about stuff." Joseph started to become embarrassed. "Lets get back to work," BJ said sensing Joseph's embarrassment. That night Joseph could sleep he laid in bed and thought.
"There holding Quidditch tryouts for first years this week," BJ told Joseph during lunch that Friday. "I might go out and try for the team." "Would you be able to play if you made it?" Joseph asked while picking up some food. "Nah the captain of the team said that the first years can only go on a waiting list if they make it." "Waiting list?" Joseph sat down. "What's that?" BJ sat down across of him. "That's like second string, if I made it then I would be second string on some other player incase he got hurt, I would take his place." "Sounds cool." Joseph who had shoved two rolls in his mouth looked like a walrus. "And there is also going to be a meeting for something called the trials, what ever those are." BJ took a sip of his pumpkin juice. "What are the trials?" Joseph asked. "I donno to bad Louis isn't here he could probably explain." Louis had gotten into trouble with Professor Carroll, he had made pig sounds as she passed by and was caught. "I reckon we should go to that to see what it is." BJ finished up his food and got up. The school ground was peaceful during lunch, the sun shone on the school grounds with what seemed like extra power. The lake rippled as a cool breeze blew against it. BJ and Joseph were taking a walk around the lake. They were walking by Hagrids cabin. Its dull exterior leads the imagination to wonder what was in there. Joseph looked ahead and saw the cabin that the silvery thing went in. The window faced them and Joseph could see inside of it. To Joseph surprise, he saw a silvery aura like the one from the night before. He started to run towards the cabin. "Where ya going Joseph?" BJ yelled behind him, but he was already across the lawn. Joseph ducked under the window when he got to the cabin. He slowly crept up the side of the window ledge and peered through the window. There it was a silvery being, it seemed to have hair like a women; it was definitely skinny. It looked like it hadn't eaten in a good while. Its ghostly body drifted across the cabin and to the window. Joseph let out a load gasp and fell back. BJ came running up next to him, "Joseph what the heck, are you doing?" Joseph just sat there staring up at BJ pointing his finger upwards. BJ looked up into the window, he squinted and then looked back down at Joseph. "What am I looking at?" "Look in the window." Joseph whispered. BJ again looked into the window concentrating hard. "What am I looking?" BJ asked again. "The ghost thing it's right there." Joseph was getting angry with BJ. "Can't you see it?" Joseph asked in a hush. "There is no ghost Joseph, just and old women in a chair." "What!" Joseph blurted out. "Yup she is right there." BJ pointed at the window. Joseph stood up and looked. To Joseph disbelief, there sitting in a chair in the middle of the cabin, was a wrinkled, ravished, small old lady. "But she wasn't there before" Joseph exclaimed. "It's ok Joseph she wasn't there before." BJ said unbelievingly "Will go to class now and tomorrow we will find the ghost." "Don't patronize me BJ I know what I saw it wasn't an old lady!" Joseph yelled. "What are you two doing?" Joseph and BJ turned to see the old lady who was in the cabin, standing in front of them (if you count having a walker as standing). "Don't you two have a class to get to?" the old lady asked. "Yes, we do." BJ said polity. "What were you two doing out here?" The old lady inquired. "Oh we must get to class now." BJ said hurray. He grabbed a speechless Joseph. Joseph's mouth hung open as he and BJ headed to potions. "She wasn't there I swear." Joseph kept repeating to be BJ in Potions class. "I believe you Joseph I really do." BJ would repeat like a robot. Joseph sat through Snape's lesson thinking hard about That Ghost thing. "Did I really see it?" He thought to himself. "It could have been nothing." Joseph shakes his head "I didn't imagine it, I wouldn't have been able to see it twice. Would I?" Joseph was broken out of his thoughts by the sound of telling Josh to shut up for the third time today; the rest of the class past slowly and uneventful.
Joseph was waiting in the common room for BJ to come back from the Quidditch meeting. Louis was next to him; he was trying to do a math equation that Professor Carroll assigned to them to do. BJ and Joseph finished it up in no time, but Louis never went to Muggle School for even one year so he was lost. "Read me the problem Louis, maybe I can help. Joseph said. "Ok it's 12 then there is a funny looking symbol." Joseph bent over and looked, "That's a minus Louis." "Oh sorry" Louis sounded confused. "Ok the problem is 12 mi-n-us 3." "You don't know how to minus Louis?" Joseph looked at him with one eyebrow higher then the other. "Oh I am sorry I never went to you fancy mi-n-us school." Louis said bitterly. "The answer is 9." Joseph said quickly "Oh I guess that make sense." Louis wrote down the answer. "Hi guys." Joseph turned around to see BJ coming up behind them. "Oh hi BJ." Louis and Joseph said in unison. "How was the Quidditch meeting?" Joseph asked BJ as he sat down. "It was cool." Joseph knew by now that BJs suppressed his emotions and that cool meant he had a blast. "They showed us all kinds of pictures, that moved." "Of course they move what do you want them to do." Louis blurted out. "Any way," BJ continued, "they taught us how to play, and then showed us all the positions we could play." BJ took a second to breath then continued. "Then they asked us to decide what potion we would like to play incase we ever got to, you see if the person playing the position we want gets hurt or something, they randomly draw a name of a person who signed up for that position." "What position did you sign up?" Joseph asked inquisitively. "I signed up for beater, and I was the only one." BJ smiled a repressed grin. "Why were you the only one to sign up?" Asked Louis. "I don't know but the most I can figure is that most of the people wanted to be a seeker, more glory I think." "Well I hope you get to play." Joseph added with a smile. "Well I do have to show up at the practices so I'll at least get some experience." BJ checked his watch. "Hey Joseph we got to go soon." "Where do you guys have to go?" asked a confused Louis. "We are going to the Ravenclaw wizard trial meeting." Joseph answered. "What id the wizard trial?" Louis asked, "Don't know but we are going to check it out. See ya Louis." BJ and Joseph walked way from Louis and out into the hallway. "So you see any ghost lately?" BJ said jokingly. "Very funny." Joseph said emotionless. The halls at nighttime were different from the halls in the day. Joseph didn't have any way of explaining it but it was some how different. The paintings sometimes sleep at night and the halls fire lights lit up the hallway. Joseph and BJ made their way down to a huge room with a stage in the middle and seats all around it. There was hardly anybody in the room, only first years and Professor Filtwick who was sitting in the back smiling quite happily. "Hello boys." He said to BJ and Joseph as they pasted. "Hello Professor." The instinctually said back. BJ and Joseph sat down in the back row near. The wall in back of them was covered in dust, so Joseph figured that they didn't use this room very often. Joseph looked up on the stage to see a large red curtain. It stretched from one side of the stage to the other, Joseph wondered what it covered, but before he could question BJ about it the curtain opened. Six people were behind it, all of them were wearing some sort of uniform, and it had a large raven on one side and a Hogwarts on the other side. The whole uniform was blue from head to toe (matching shoes). "Welcome all," said the tallest, blue-eyed boy. "This is a meeting for the Wizard Trials team, now some of you might be wondering what is the wizard trials team is." Joseph was. "3 years ago Professor Filtwick and Professor Sprout got together and came up with a new type of challenge for the wizards of this school." "Ya and probably because both Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw suck at Quidditch." BJ whispered Joseph suppressed his laugh, "Now this new challenge they came up with tested a wizards mind and wits when he is in different situations. This became known as the Wizard Trials, and the concept is simple. 4 teams from each of the different houses compete in 3 different events; each event is worth 150 points. The winner of the Wizard trials cup is the team that has the most points at the end of the third event wins. Now each team is made up of seven people, one from each year, that's what we need you first years for. You see the legacy of the Wizard trials lies on your shoulders. Now to join the team you need to fill out this form." The boy held up a piece of paper. "The form includes a few questions on it to test your knowledge. I know that you all are new here and might not know the answers to any of the questions but all we want you to do is try your best." Joseph was still baffled by all of what he heard. "Any questions?" Joseph quickly rose up his hand "Yes you?" The boy pointed to Joseph. "What do you mean?" Joseph's asked. The boy started rubbing his head, "Well I give an example. Let's say that we are in a trial, and the course is around the school. So we would start out with a clue, and is says something like, 2-5 may answer this question and the question would be, how many toads are there is toad stew? Then the second years and fifth years on the team would try to come up with the answer, and if they get it right the team moves on. If they get the question wrong then we have to answer another question until the team gets it right. And to win the most amounts of points you have to answer all your questions right and make it to the finish line first. Do you understand now?" Joseph nodded his head but on the inside he didn't under stand. "I'd have to see it being played to understand." He told BJ later that evening in the Ravenclaw common room. "I think it would probably boring but I'll still fill out the form, it might be fun after all." BJ said in an exasperated tone. Joseph knew he would probably make the team because there were only 3 people who picked up forms to join it. So BJ and him had a one in three chance to get on the team. When they told Louis about the meeting it opened up a story about how wizards in Japan have a form of the trials but instead of questions there is intense physical pain.
Over the next week Joseph made frequent trips to the library, trying to find answer the questions on the form, which were at least third years questions. BJ and Joseph both agreed that they wouldn't share answers with each other, though Joseph thought he was getting the raw end of the deal because BJ was way smarter then Joseph, and probably could get the answers to the questions without any help. "Let's see number four a wizards best friend is?" Joseph was talking to himself on the way to the library. Joseph was looking down at his paper as he walked not paying attention where he was going. BAM! "Oh sorry." Joseph said as he bumped into some one. Joseph looked up and saw the familiar face of Josh. "Oh hi Joseph.' Josh said while he picked up some of his stuff. Joseph hadn't spoken to Josh out of class for over two weeks, so he was glad to see him. "Hi Josh, how is going?" "It's going good, how 'bout you?" "Oh they're going ok, I just have to look you some info at the library." Joseph knew that Josh thought that all libraries should be burned down. "Oh, that's cool." Joshes attention drifted towards a girl that walked in. "So what are you doing." Joseph said in an attempt to get Josh to focus back in on him. "Oh, ya I forgot to tell you," Joseph knew that `I forgot to tell you` meant that Josh never was going to tell you the story but scene you are here right now talking to him, he might as well try to get some attention. "In professor Carroll's class I was giving answers to some of my friends and she caught me. But that fat idiot only found one paper and she gave me detention." Josh shone a huge smile on his face as if it was like, a badge of courage to intentionally break the rules. Joseph didn't smile, he knew encouraging Josh was as bad as committing the crime. "When did you let your friends copy your papers?" Joseph asked not because he wanted to find out but to offer peace to Josh for not smiling. "During class." Josh let lose another smile. Joseph was stunned by his ignorance. "So what grade are you getting in Carroll's class?" Joseph continued his attempt to bring Josh up, in his minds eye. "Oh I don't know how they mark the grades but I think I am getting a good mark." Joshes eyes trailed of from Joseph to a girl passing by. "I got to go Joseph but I'll see ya around." Josh zoomed away before Joseph could even say goodbye. Joseph walked into the library trying to concentrate. He kept thinking about Joshes new persona, it was like the old Josh disappeared into a puff of ignorance, and was replaced by an abomination of a person. Finally after some coming down Joseph was able to start concentrating on the question paper. "No, this isn't the book." Joseph said to himself, as he looked through different books. As he made his way through the books, he spotted some rather interesting books. How to get rid of Hippy's. By Victor Von Backstreet. The White Wizard Put Me Down. By Antwon X. Many of the books he saw enticed him to come and read, but none more then the book; Merlin The Wizard Who Started It All. By Dodger Rempelson. Joseph was starting to get to the time when Merlin came about, in History of Magic. He found history fascinating, but it lacked a certain something. It needed to have videos in it that would make it better. Joseph decided to pass up the book; he didn't need anything else to preoccupy him from schoolwork. He scanned the book self with all of his might but could not find a book for a wizard's best friend. Joseph decided to turn in and go to bed it was already getting late. When he got to the common room, he could hear Louis and some other students speaking Spanish. "Goodnight Louis." Joseph said as he went by Louis. Louis looked at Joseph and smiled, "¿Por qué eres feo?" All the kids around Louis laughed and pointed a Joseph. Joseph was starting to get use to the fact that Louis could taught him in Spanish and there was nothing Joseph could do about it but walk away. Joseph walked up the stairs; the moon shone through the window onto the brick steps. The lake looked perfect on a night like this. Joseph stopped and looked out at the nighttime landscape. The moonlight was even shining on the lake. Joseph looked hard at the lake, something wasn't right about this scene. "Is the moon light moving." Joseph thought as he looked down on the lake. It seemed like something was glowing in the lake. The more Joseph stared at lake the more he realized what it was he was seeing. "Louis, BJ come here!" Joseph screamed at the top of his lungs. He stared out the window at the ghostly creature. Its body glared in the lake, it started moving forward deeper into the lake. "LOUIS, BJ COME HERE." The ghostly apparition was disappearing into the lake so fast that Joseph could barly see it now. "NO!" Joseph screamed and pounded his hand on the window. Louis came running up the stirs. BJ was coming down the stairs on the opposite side. "What is it Joseph?" BJ asked alarmed. "I saw it again, I saw the ghost." Louis looked at Joseph, with a puzzled look on his face. "It's ok Joseph." BJ said still looking alarmed. "Come on Louis lets take him to the hospital."
Next, Chapter 6: The Celebration