Blues and grays mixed in the sky like they came right out of Constable's painting. Windy outside was visible through Hogwarts windows and through the little crack in the glass a breeze was coming – you could've totally smell snow.
And the morning was cold – even more cold due to my awful anxiety – while I was mentally preparing myself in the Moaning Myrtle's bathroom. You can do it Isa. I believe in you.
I washed my shaky hands in the sink and got out of the bathroom, already dressed up like all the competitors – in the special uniform.
A huge line in front of the Great Hall made me even more nervous. We were all waiting for our turn to compete. Little number on my back – 5 – was the number of my turn which meant I had a bit of time to mentally prepare myself.
As they told us our competition consists of three tasks – we have to perform some complicated spells, we have to make a complicated potion and we have to fly in some complicated maneuver. Long story short: everything is complicated. We have to perform tasks in that way and they will measure or time, the less time you take for tasks the better.
As I realized we had about an hour more or less to do our tasks and that made me even more nervous than I was. After some breath exercises and trying to meditate gazillion times it was finally my turn.
When I walked inside the Great Hall it looked nothing like it. They used Extention charm which made the Great Hall huge and totally different then it was. There was a long desk far away where proffesors or well judges were sitting and there was a huge pitch that weirdly reminded of Quidditch pitch just without the seats but with more hoops. And as they said the task was simple: surf on the broom while performing a charm that, if I do it correctly, will lead me to a place where I can make a potion. If I do everything in time I'll pass.
I believed in myself that I'll pass, but the only problem was that I had an obstacle that I had to win with the spells, if I do that everything will be perfect.
"Whenever you're ready Miss Greengrass." McGonagal told me and I calmed a bit due to her familiar comforting voice.
I stood on the platform and mounted my broom. The air in my hair made me feel safe so I took a deep breath and started surfing with my broom. At the beginning it looked easy, too easy. But just as I thought that was it the obstacles started coming. On my left there was a bludger-like ball flying my way, I could've totally fly past her but I had to use spells so a quick Bombarda sent the ball flying away in pieces.
The next thing was a waterfall in front of me and it was that hard that if I would just fly underneath it it would make me crush. I conjured an umbrella out of my wand and prayed for the best. The water pressure made me shake a little and my leg slipped off of my broomstick, but thankfully I balanced it out and flew away from the waterfall.
My legs were already hurting from all the surfing, I never surfed on a broom for this long. In Quidditch I would surf only for a couple of minutes or just for enough time to throw a Quaffle through the hoop.
A couple of hoops where in front of me. Some where on fire and some where not which made me feel like I'm performing in circus and an elephant was about to make a sound. But I wasn't in circus and there were no elephants, only teachers who were watching my every move and measuring my time. A shiver runned through my body and I shaked it off by flying through the hoops while conjuring a simple Aguamenti charm to turn of the fire around the hoops.
A brief moment passed after I turned off the last hoop and a cauldron conjured itself in front of me, together with all items that I needed. I was making a Draught of Living Dead.
It was a complicated potion there was no doubt in that, but what made it more difficult was the fact that you had to open your mind, think outside the box while making the potion, and not always follow the recipe. Not everyone knew that.
Thanks to Severus he made sure to teach me really young when to follow the recipe and when not to. For example sometimes when a recipe would tell you to cut the berries you would crush them because then the juices from the berries would make you potion better. Now was the time to not follow the recipe exactly. I looked at the clock and it turned out that I had at least around 40 minutes left, so I took a deep breath and was ready to brew.
The recipe said to cut the Sopophorous bean, but I knew better. I crushed it with a dagger and proceed to follow the instructions. In the cauldron I added water and salt and I let it brew for a couple of minutes. What I really hated about this recipe was the fact that you had to switch between your left and right hand all the time. For example I now had to hold cauldron with my left hand but under a certain angle while I add ten drops of wormwood essence. It was stupid.
I followed the instructions for the rest but I added only a clockwise stir after every seventh counterclockwise which was again idea by Severus, thank Merlin he taught me that.
After some time brewing, the only thing I had to add was Valerian root but the bastard was nowhere to be found so I had to literally crawl in front of everyone to find the little shit. Few minutes later I found the bloody root underneath the table next to some weird looking plants who were Merlin knows what doing there and I putted it inside my cauldron.
My potion turned beautiful pale pink color and it was finally done. When I looked at the clock it took me only fifty three minutes to do all tasks and I felt pretty proud of myself.
I looked at Snape who nodded his head in approval which made me feel happy about my potion and I, joyful and really proud, left the Great Hall with my head high.
⚜
Few days later on the big board next to the Transfiguration classroom was a list of all students aka competitors who passed the tasks. I was pretty nervous for myself so I barely looked at the paper but when I realized what the paper said I fully opened my eyes.
Competitors who passed to the second round:
1. Harry Potter
2. Hermione Granger
3. Isabella Greengrass
4. Theodore Nott
5. Draco Malfoy
6. Sally Smith
7. Oliver Rivers
8. Lisa Turpin
9. Mati Patel
10. Sue Li
I looked at Draco next to me wide eyed and jumped to hug him. We did it. We passed the first bloody task. Even though it wasn't anything that hard and difficult it made me so proud of myself, and I knew dad would also be very proud.
