The Forbidden Forest--Only the Strongest Survive
by Cynthia Stout

After months of planning, the Special Projects Division of the Gryffindor Prefects presented a worthy challenge for January. Headed by our own Professor Hatshepsut Nahyan; Survivor: Forbidden Forest debuted the first week of January--as soon as she returned from her winter vacation in Majorca, where she enjoyed the tantalizing company of an unnamed wizard.

The contest started out innocently enough. Each den was supposed to find certain items around the Common Room. The items included a broom, a cookie, a lion, and many others. After Lowe won immunity for completing this challenge first, all of the dens voted--resulting in the voting out of Insama Den. Unfortunately for them, that was the end of Insama's stay in the Forbidden Forest. The poor souls had to head back to the castle where they couldn't participate... and it was heated... and they got real food... ok, so we don't pity them at all.

After all of that running around, sleuthing out the hidden objects, the dens had a bit of a change of pace. This time, the task was one which required intellectual power. No simple person could do this. It took absolute genius to complete. Students were lost along the way--some were admitted to the Hufflepuff Asylum before long. The task was, in fact, a word search. The HOL Gryffindor class of '11 has proven themselves to be quite the intellectual group. Thus, the Kitten Den won immunity for the second week's challenge.

The voting off of dens was quite an affair this time around. The tally was very close up until the very end. In fact, it ended in a tie which only the SPD could break. It came down to Laion versus Lowe. The Gryffindor SPD spoke, saying that Laion could stay in the challenge and poor Lowe den would sadly part ways with the Forbidden Forest.

The following week, a tedious task was introduced. Our own Professor Nahyan presented the dens with a memory game. Their task was to figure out which pieces matched each other. The catch was that there was no way to know which pieces were which without e-mailing the Professor with guesses. Laion Den decided to display their wit with an undisclosed strategy. However, when investigating methods of competition involved in this challenge, this reporter caught sight of a seven page document. When asked as to its identity, Fern S. Davant replied, "It's nothing! Just work for the challenge!" With that, the Laion Den won the third week challenge, leaving the Kitten Den in the dust.

For the final task, the dens had to vote which den should win the opportunity to compete for glory. For the second time in this challenge, the vote came down to a tie. SPD stepped in and broke the tie between the Insama and Kitten dens. They declared that the Insama Den would compete.

After spending over two weeks in the shelter of the castle, they deserved a second chance. As the deciding task was unveiled, all of the students involved gathered their supplies. When the task turned out to be a logic puzzle, there was a resounding groan amongst the students--except for a small group of crazed Laion Den members. For them, this was a party. They got out their pencils and logic grids and worked diligently until the task was complete. They turned in their solution quickly and thus won this edition of Survivor: Forbidden Forest.