The Scavenger Hunt

THE SCAVENGER HUNT IS OVER!

Aly Salinger, the judge, took a long time wandering throughout the snowpeople and making notes with a small scrap of parchment. It appeared, to the outside onlooker, that she was checking boxes at each frozen creation - some more than others, but all at least four times. As she did so, she murmured to herself, "Wow, they got so many right!" and gave a thumbs-up to the contestants as a whole to congratulate them on a job well done. She hadn't written these riddles to be easy, but it seemed that the Hogwarts student body was quite talented at problem-solving!

In the end, though, there could only be one winner - or could there? After hemming and hawing about her decision, Aly actually pulled four paper-wrapped packages out of seemingly nowhere (aka her Undetectable Extension Charm-ed bag). "All right, everyone, gather round," she called out. "I have the winners!"

"First of all..." The Ravenclaw strode purposefully over to a blonde friend of hers, one short-haired fellow soon-to-be sixth-year, and handed them the first package. "It is my absolute pleasure to congratulate Dorion Anderson!" As she turned to walk to the second winner, she couldn't help but throw Dori an excited grin and an under-the-breath whisper: "Really well done, Dori!"

The second winner wasn't known to her, but had long white hair and a snowman that seemed to be making a perpetually surprised face. Aly handed the second package to EmmaLee LeDames, giving her an equally bright smile. "Here we have our second winner! Great use of the buttons, and I love that he's a little shorter than normal - so cute!"

Next, Aly strode to the third person, their only international student who had garnered a prize; handing off one of her two remaining packages to Zophyr Qethnis (with her equally white hair), Aly giggled slightly at her snowman. "A cyclops-man - what a creative idea! I definitely think you are deserving of one of these, too, so congratulations!"

And finally, the fourth winner and the youngest of all: a dark-haired youth who had taken the longest to build his snowman, but eked out a creation just before Aly's time had run out. Not only that, he had also cast the Snowflake-Making Spell over his artwork, making lovely white flakes rain down upon the scene! With a flourish, Aly presented Pyxis Hellebore with the last package, offering him a proud grin. "And last of all, our youngest winner with his creativity and charmwork! That's everyone, but even if you didn't win, I still want to say congratulations - everyone did such a wonderful job, so give yourselves all a round of applause, and have a great rest of your day!"

(When the winners opened their packages, they'd find a brand-new pair of dragon-hide gloves within - partially to keep their hands warm, and partially to help out in their Herbology classes in the future!)

For any questions, please owl Aly Salinger.

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PARTICIPATING!

@Tristan Theramin, @Cass Ito, @Colby Vidler, @Rose Wemberly, @Sere Nade, @Mylo Atkins, @Kim Sato (iNPC), @Dorion Anderson, @Oonagh Brown, @Minnie Duke (iNPC), @Septimus Merrill, @Koko Riddle (iNPC), @EmmaLee LeDames, @Pyxis Hellebore, @Mahlioz Evethisawe (iNPC), @Ayumi Faeri, @Giselle Lam, @Alliasta Holista, @Rachel Greenford, @Della Barfield, @Evelynn Decipio, @Emily Shephard, @AngelFyre McCubbin (iNPC), @Eugenia Karageorgiadi, @Shubhangi Kanjilal, @Charisse Woods, @Elena Dough