Teresa picked the volunteer number: number one. She headed in her direction. The girl appeared to have a nose as large as the rest of her head. It seemed to her that the girl in question had probably been in contact with a Swelling Solution and it got to her nose. The easiest solution for this was to use a Deflating Draught, though if her deduction was incorrect and the enlargement was not caused by it, this potion wouldn't be of help after all.

She was thoughtful for a moment. Using the wrong potion would not only cost her time, but also points on the task and so she had to be sure of the potion before acting. Using a different potion might have been her best bet, but no potion came to mind immediately so she decided to get work on the second symptom.

Luckily, Terry wasn't very expressive. The Hogwarts champion did her best to keep her face blank because all of that hair growing on the girl's feet was genuinely disgusting. The strands were long enough to be braided! Terry took a deep breath and kept her calm. She could do this! She only needed to look into her brain to find the answer.

Ingredients started popping into her mind one by one, and soon they gave her the answer to what potion she should brew.

“The Unwanted Thing Potion! Of course, it will remove the hair... let's see if they have the ingredients here.” Teresa went to the table and picked her ingredients: black cohosh, octopus powder, dried nettle, lizard's leg and - hopefully - unicorn hair.

“Oh yes! I'm in luck.” She then turned to the girl and gave her a false smile. “I need something from you, do you mind?” Without even letting the volunteer say a word, she pulled on the unwanted hair hard and took a few strands. “This will do.”

The pleased looked on Terry's face was undeniable. Potions was one of her strengths and there was no way she could fail this task or look bad in front of everyone. Hogwarts was counting on her and she was going to do her very best 'til the end. “You can do this.”

Stepping in front of the golden cauldron she began to recite the instructions in a very low voice. “Pick the dried nettle and crush it into the mortar until it's fine like powder. Yes, this will get rid of the hair: it will dry it until it falls out! Next, add two measures of the powder to the cauldron. In the mortar, grind three leaves of black cohosh until it forms a gooey paste. With this, any hormone disorders can be fixed since surely that is the cause of the hairy thing, ugh! Now, add that paste to the mix and stir gently one time clockwise.” Terry did as she recited and with a pleased smile continued her task. “Now cut the foot from the lizard's leg and add it to the cauldron. Heat for one minute on high and then lower the heat to low. The foot will indicate from where the hair should be removed."

As the champion waited for the minute to pass, she added both the strands of foot hair and the unicorn hair to the mortar and ground until the hair taken from the girl had turned silver in color. “This unicorn hair bound to the human hair will go straight to the problem – the hair.” She nods contently. “One minute has passed.” Terry turned the heat to low and added the silver hair to the cauldron. “Stir five times counter-clockwise and let it brew for two more minutes or until the color changes to purple.”

There was one last ingredient to add to the potion and once the color changed she added it, thinking 'Add one measure of octopus powder to increase the strength of the potion; now I'm sure it will get rid of that unwanted hair.' She waved her wand once and let the potion simmer for five minutes.

Once again Terry went through the potion steps in her head and nodded. She was sure it was perfect, so she put it aside and turned back to her next problem: that gigantic nose. “I'd better do something about that nose before you leave us without oxygen to breathe!”

Looking for a cure for the nose, the champion decided to ask the volunteer a question. “Excuse me, do you feel any other reaction besides the obvious big nose? Like dizziness, or fatigue?”

Volunteer number one shook her head as she responded. “No, only the big nose and a heavy head, surely because of the extra weight..”

“Definitively a lot of extra weight - it's like you have two heads!” She suddenly realized that was unnecessary and just continued. “I will go with the Dimini-Elixir then, that potion will return to normal any body part enlarged in size by any means. Alright, I'll be back soon with your remedy.”

“Thank you.” With hope in her voice the girl replied.

Immediately Terry went to the ingredients table. Seeing that one of her ingredients was unavailable, she decided to summon it from her personal belongings. It had been a gift from a friend back at Hogwarts, but she was sure he would understand why she had to use it now. “Accio Occamy feather!” She smiled the instant it arrived. “Such a pretty thing, too bad you'll be gone soon.” She had already gathered the rest of the materials. These included flobberworm mucus to help thicken the potion, the anti-inflammatory Boswellia Serrata, cinnamon (to give a hint of flavor whilst also getting rid of bacteria and reducing inflammation) and lastly, rat spleen which will induce the reduction in nose-size.

Back to her cauldron Terry went, and in she placed the ingredients in order of use. First the gum resin of the Boswellia Serrata would be used. “Add three measurements of boswellia and let it cook on a low heat for three minutes until it melts and turns to liquid, then stir five times in any direction.” As usual Terry said the instructions to herself as it was the way she always made potions. Plus, there was no way she could do it in absolute silence. Once the first step was done, step two was announced. “Add a pinch of cinnamon and stir once counter-clockwise. Let it brew for 30 seconds and then add two measurements of flobberworm mucus.” Terry wiped her head with a napkin. She was sweating with the heat of the cauldron beneath her, not only because it was very hot but also because the potion was producing light fumes. Once the fumes were gone she continued. “Stir the mixture twice counter-clockwise and add the rat spleen. Flick your wand once. Turn the heat to medium for 45 seconds exactly and then turn it off. Add one Occamy feather and stir once clockwise. Flick your wand three times.”

Soon the seconds had passed and she had the elixir ready and in a bottle with a dropper.

The time for the task was close to an end. Teresa Evans was proud of her work. The potion had the green color it should have had and was just the right thickness. She approached the girl waiting for a cure. “Alright Miss, you have to let the elixir rest under your tongue for twenty seconds before you swallow. In fact, it's hard to drink otherwise since it's a bit sticky! Once it's been in your mouth for the right amount of time it will be fine. Now open your mouth: it's two full droppers required for it to work best.”

“Does it taste bad?” The girl shyly asked.

“You'll find out soon, but don't spit it out or your nose will be big forever.” Terry smirked and it looked like the girl pulled a terrified look, but she couldn't exactly tell because of the size of the nose. The volunteer then nodded in agreement. The thick liquid went in and Terry placed her hand on top of the volunteer's mouth so that she couldn't spit it out. The thing tasted horrible and the texture was quite repugnant. After twenty seconds, she instructed the girl to swallow.

The volunteer touched her nose since it was still big and started to cry thinking that it might never change.

“Just be patient, it will work in a moment.” A minute after, the nose started shrinking little by little until it had reduced to its original size. “There you go, now you have a pretty face again.”

“THANK YOU! My nose is back to normal!” The volunteer was so excited that she hugged the champion tight, but Terry shoved her off. Hugging made her feel uncomfortable.

“Alright, alright! Now you still have to take the other potion, so drink this next and the unwanted hair will be gone in just a few moments.” She handed over the bottle filled with the purple liquid and the volunteer looked at it with a hint of disgust.

“Will this taste as bad as the other?” She seemed to be apprehensive, especially after the taste of the first potion.

“It's that or the hair; you choose,” Terry said honestly to the sad girl.

“I'll take it.” In one short go the volunteer drank the entire potion, though the look on her face proved how bad it tasted. “EWW! It was disgusting!”

“Surely no more disgusting than those hairy feet,” Terry said coldly and the poor girl blushed. “Now watch the hair dry and fall off.” Magically, the hair turned to ashes leaving her feet perfectly beautiful. “Now look at that, you actually have toes!” She chuckled and patted the girl's shoulders. “You are cured.”

“Thanks again for this, it felt and looked terrible! Now you are my favorite champion, best of luck!” Another hug was given to the Hogwarts student who accepted it this time.

“Thank you.” Terry blushed after her declaration which caused her to smile. She then turned to the judges. “I'm done, the girl is healed of both symptoms.”

She needed to calm herself and focus. They were about to assign the volunteer numbers. She thought of her guardian, Gabriel, who was so thoroughly supportive of her that could practically hear his words of encouragement. “You’ll be wonderful sweetie,” he would say, “You’ve got this.” Then he would give her a hug. She smiled imagining Gabriel pacing up and down his cabin and waiting for her to get far enough away after the challenge to get a decent cellular signal so she could fill him in on the task and he’d know she was safe. Thoughts of her boyfriend, Merlin Pendragon from Hogwarts, entered her mind. River’s smile deepened. She thought of the bright smile and positive attitude he had. He was so confident in her. She scanned for his long white hair in the crowd, which was by far the quickest way to identify him. When she spotted him she gave a small wave. His smile and wave made her much calmer. She could do this.

The volunteers took their places and then one by one the champions drew their numbers from the bag. When it was her turn, she placed her hand in the bag and pulled out the parchment which was blank save for a neatly written number two. Magically, River’s name appeared above her volunteer. Once everyone had their numbers, and they were told the task officially had started, the she went up to inspect her volunteer. The first thing she noticed about the boy was he had orange ooze coming from his nose. He started trying to speak but it was complete gibberish. River took a moment to think of what could be plaguing the boy.

There were two cauldrons at her table one for each potion. To keep track of which potion was which, she waved her wand over the first cauldron, which now had lettering on it saying “ooze.” Then she waved her hand at the other cauldron and it now had lettering saying “gibberish.” Now, she wasn’t sure exactly what was causing the gibberish, but she was pretty sure she knew what was causing the orange ooze. She had a friend who was allergic to pineapple. The poor guy had a recent scare with that. Of course this wasn’t a normal allergy, it was an allergic reaction to dirigible plums. Not only was the ooze the exact colour of the fruit but little flecks of the ooze was starting to float. River picked up a shrivelfig and began finely chopping it up. The shrivelfig was a very useful ingredient in many potions as the plant had magical properties. Then she took a bezoar and put it in her mortar and began crushing it with her pestle. Bezoars cured almost every kind of poison and an allergic reaction was essentially just that—poison. She picked up some standard ingredient, two fire seeds, graphorn horn, billywig stings, chizpurfle carapaces and stewed mandrake from the ingredient table. Now she was ready to begin making the potion. Time management was important so she would get the potion started and then work on breaking down the other pieces whilst her potions were brewing.

First she added four measures of the crushed bezoar into her potion, along with two measures of standard ingredient—the same as an antidote. Now she now added the finely chopped shrivelfig to the potion and stirred it counter-clockwise for three turns. Then she waved her wand to increase the heat. Counting out ten seconds, she returned it to the lower temperature and put a magical alarm on her cauldron so it could brew for thirty minutes.

Whilst her first potion was brewing, she turned her attention to the second potion. Before curing him, she had to think about what was wrong. What could be causing the speaking gibberish problem? Then she almost face palmed herself. Of course! If a wizard was in a depression and he used too much magic, it was possible to give himself a magical concussion. That would explain the speaking gibberish. Nodding to herself, she hurried over to the ingredients and grabbed St. John’s Wort, mandrake roots, moonstone, hellebore, and unicorn horn.

She carefully sliced a ½ measure of St. John’s Wort. St. John’s Wort has been used with muggles for simply ages to help battle depression. Of course, Muggles didn’t know how to tapper some of the effects it had on their other medicines, but in a potion it would go a long way to helping the magical concussion. She added the St. John’s Wort to her cauldron along with 5 measures of standard ingredient. Then she carefully shaved a small amount off the unicorn horn and added it to her potion. Unicorns were so magical that only a pinch was needed. She stirred the concoction two turns to the left and three turns to the right before waving her wand to increase the heat. After five seconds she waved her wand again and counted an additional ten seconds at this even higher temperature before she returned it to the lower heat. She added a magical timer to this potion for forty minutes. She wiped some sweat from her face. It was warm near the cauldrons, plus she was nervous about the time. It was a good thing she didn’t have a watch or she might be checking it every few moments, which would hinder her progress for sure.

Returning to the first potion, River began to prepare the ingredients for the next step. She put the graphorn horn into her mortar and began to crush it into a powder. This was one of those expensive ingredients they mentioned. After obtaining two measures of it and adding that to her potion, she put the rest of the horn back with the rest of the supplies. She added her two fire seeds to the potion and then waved her wand and counted out 13 seconds. Stirring the potion clockwise twice, she then lowered the heat and reset her alarm for thirty more minutes.

Working on the second potion ingredients she chopped up the mandrake roots. Mandrake roots were so versatile. Then she crushed the moonstone into powder. The hellebore had to be finely chopped. Hellebore, along with the moonstone, were components of the draught of peace and excellent candidates to help in relieving the magical concussion.

When the timer was up for her second potion, she added the hellebore and increased the heat to her cauldron for 6 seconds. Afterwards she lowered her flames and added the mandrake roots. Stirring clockwise for two minutes and counter clockwise for two turns, she set her alarm again and went to check on the first potion.

It was now time to add the billywig stings, chizpurfle carapaces to her potion. Both, along with the graphorn horn and fire seeds, were used in the uncommon poison antidote potion. Once she put in the measure of stings and the ¼ measure of carapaces into her potion it turned gross snot green, meaning it was nearing completion. The only thing remaining it need was the stewed mandrakes. But first it had to simmer.

Time was moving so fast, which made the teen fret a little as she checked on her second potion, the one for the concussion. She added the 2 measures of powered moonstone and with a satisfying pop from the potion as it turned a pretty shade of lilac, River knew her concussion potion was ready, save for the quick wave of her wand to finish it, before she removed the heat. She transferred it to a flask. Carefully she took her potion to her volunteer and saw that it was ingested. There was no real smell from this potion so she had no idea how it would taste; however, when the boy wrinkled his nose it was apparent the potion didn’t taste too good. Still within moments he glowed yellow for a brief moment and smiled. With a “Thank you,” from him she knew the cure worked.

Now she went back to check on the dirigible plum allergy potion. Finally it was time to add in the stewed mandrakes. She raised the heat for three seconds and watched it change colour to yellow. Then it changed to purple when she stirred it counter clockwise for 5 turns. The pretty pink colour was obtained after lowering the heat for three second and turning the potion twice clockwise. The last stage was another simmer then the final colour change of light blue. Finally she waved her wand saying “sana” and paused before ending the potion with “Finite.” Sana was Latin for heal or healthy and the words added to the magic of the potion. To River it smelt musty and the texture looked like curdled milk.

She took the potion over to the boy and was so pleased to see him drink. He made a horrible expression of disgust drinking it. “Sorry,” she said, “but most potions aren’t very tasty.” Tasty or not, the ooze suddenly stopped and shrivelled up into a nasty large orange bugger. The boy removed it with his handkerchief just as time was called. The task was over. River was very relieved as she could still feel her heart pounding. Only knowing the scores would help with the remaining jitters though.

She nervously stood with the other champions shyly waving to the Alexandrian classmates dotted around the room. Every now and then she nodded as the first task was explained. At first she frowned but soon she smiled inwardly. Somehow the first task had to be just up her alley and no matter what she’d have to be successful here. What a joke she’d be if the medical wing volunteer with a specialist herbology and potions background couldn’t solve this puzzle. Zala would have to prove she had the required knowledge and skills. Right then the volunteers were called forward. Grimacing at the various distressing ailments she gulped. Apparently they only had two hours. Two hours to figure it all out without outside help, brew the potions and cure their patient. She could do this she told herself. As long as she had everyone to support her she wasn’t going to let them down.

Zala’s turn to randomly choose her victim came. She wiped her sweaty palms on her dress and quickly headed for the velvet bag in professor Fontaine’s hands. She rummaged inside and pulled out a small slip of folded parchment. When she opened it she saw the large number 3 written on the piece and returned it to the professor. “That is volunteer three for Zala!”, professor Fontaine announced as Zala turned to her volunteer and stepped behind him. The boy was in a poor condition. His face and neck were covered in blue green scales. That alone wouldn’t be so bad, but the kid couldn’t stop bleating. ‘What sort of cruelty was that, making a kid bleat constantly in front of so many people. That has to be incredibly embarrassing.’, Zala thought shaking her head.

And then they were off! Or at least the clock had began counting. Zala patted the boy on his shoulder to reassure him and moved in front. She faced him looking very focussed, her eyes narrowing as she began checking a mental list. “Ok. Let’s figure this out quickly and get rid of the bleating first. At the very least I want to be able to talk properly...”, Zala muttered whilst prodding the bleating boy in various places. She tilted his head and looked closer at the scales. Touching them she noted their smooth texture. They were soft and pliable, moving and stretching as the skin underneath did. The scales were mostly green in colour though when they caught the light they hinted more towards a blue. The skin and scales were dry and the edges didn’t look flakey. “Can you shake or nod your head in answer to my questions?”, she inquired. The boy quickly nodded his head and looked expectantly straight at her face. “Good...”, Zala said and took a deep breath. “Do you feel an itch here or here?” she asked and touched behind his left ear and above his right eyebrow. The boy shook his head and Zala pointed at another scaly spot on his chin. The boy shook his head again and bleated loudly. “Then the skin condition isn’t urgent. Open your mouth.”, she nodded to herself. The boy probably had been given a Serpentine Salve of some sort. Those usually had a protective nature and were difficult to remove. She would have to practically burn the scales off and use a healing salve to prevent the skin from growing any new scales.

Moving on to diagnosing the second and far more embarrassing condition the boy had been given Zala peered inside the boy’s throat. His tonsils looked normal and she promptly closed his mouth. His eyes were normal too. Goats had strange pupils and that would have been a tell-tale sign he had been given Billy Brew. “Do you feel like eating grasses? Or fruits and veg?”, she continued examining him pushing on his sternum with the palm of her hand. She felt along his hairline here she didn’t find any horns or protrusions. The boy initially shook his head but then nodded slowly at her questions and hung his head in shame. Ten minutes had passed and Zala was ready to get going. The Billy Brew had been very diluted leaving the boy only with the bleating and slight changes in dietary wishes. Its effects were now similar to the Volubilis Potion, a potion Zala was familiar with. Thankfully both conditions seemed to be easily fixable, however the time limit could still be quite the challenge for her.

“It’s ok. I’ll fix you right up!”, Zala cheered and smiled at the kid. She moved to the ingredients table and rummaged around picking herbs left and right. The honeywater and syrup of hellebore she selected were both needed for the Volubilis Potion and she thought they could work as a base for her cure. The honeywater would be soothing to the throat and a drop of the syrup should help treat the involuntary bleating aspect of the condition. Just the 2 wouldn’t be enough however. Soon enough she spotted some agrimony. That was a herb often used in the Alexandrian Infirmary, generally for clearing the throat. She picked a few measurements and glanced at the table again. Among the dried herbs were some mushrooms Zala identified as cordyceps. Those worked especially well on coughs and made breathing much easier. Near the mushrooms Zala saw a few pieces of bark. She picked one up and looked at the pattern and colour. It looked a lot like black cherry bark and Zala hoped she was correct. If so then these 5 ingredients should be enough to brew a gargle solution to counteract the effects of the Billy Brew.

Zala moved to her cauldron and laid down the gathered ingredients. This first potion she was going to create required her to be very concentrated. The timing would be crucial to its success. She poured a large amount of honeywater into the cauldron and slowly heated it. In a mortar she crushed the cherry bark into a powder and measured half a teaspoon. She set the powder aside and cleaned her mortar. On a chopping board she thinly sliced the agrimony and cordyceps. Once the first bubbles appeared in the honeywater she turned the heat under the cauldron down to the lowest it could go. The mixture could not come to the boil. First Zala added the teaspoon of bark powder to the cauldron and stirred 3 times counterclockwise. The pale golden liquid in the cauldron lost some of its colour and became more translucent as the powder dissolved. The almost clear warm liquid then had the finely chopped mushroom added to it. Zala added 2 measurements and watched as a yellow colour appeared from the bits as they absorbed the liquid. She stirred clockwise once and waited for 10 seconds before stirring the pot once more. Then she added 4 measurements of agrimony waiting for the herbs to steep. The colour of the liquid increased in intensity and took on a more red hue. Almost as if it was a normal tea. The concoction was transferred through a sieve into a cold cauldron. Zala fished the swollen mushroom pieces out of the residue and mashed them quickly in the mortar. Adding 1 measurement to the tea the colour changed from a dark orange into an intense deep red. Satisfied with the deep red colour Zala added one drop of the Hellebore Syrup and her potion began giving off a pale blue smoke. She waved her wand over the potion and muttered softly. “Anapneo.”, she spoke softly willing the breathing spell to finish her work. “Fingers crossed.”, she sighed and poured the drink into a tall glass. Its temperature had cooled down to a pleasant warmth and she handed the glass to her volunteer along with a bucket. “You must gargle 3 times for 10 seconds each with this drink.”, Zala instructed the boy and turned back to her cauldron to clean the table.

The kid took a big mouthful and tried his best to gargle. His eyes watered at the strong sweet smell coming from the drink. After the first time he tried to say thank you but a weak bleat left his mouth. Another gargle later and the kid sat coughing for a full minute. Some of the drink had gone down. “Carefully now!”, Zala scolded him. The third gargle proofed successful and finally the boy stopped bleating. “Thank you!!”, the boy grinned. “That was really awful... If I had known I’d be turned into a half-goat I wouldn’t have signed up for this! Like I knew I’d get something weird, but this is just too weird. I’m Steve by the way! You’re from 4A right? I wish I’d gone to a school in Egypt. You’ve got to have mummies everywhere and like the best weather all the time!”, Steve chattered on and on. Zala began to regret having cured him of his bleating. That would have been a better alternative to this continuous babbling. “If you’re not going to stop soon I’m going to silence you myself, kid.”, Zala threatened pointing her wand at Steve instead of the now cleaned cauldron. Steve nodded his head and chose to close his mouth. He mimed zipping it and locking it with a key. After confirming the kid would be silent for a few minutes she turned back to her table and quickly wiped it with a cloth. “So... Steve. Please do cooperate. I only have a little over an hour left and you’re still covered in scales.”, Zala told him. Thankfully the boy nodded and remained seated on his stool as he followed Zala with his eyes.

Zala returned to the ingredients table. She already had a few in mind for her Cleansing Cream. All the ingredients involved could clear the skin of impurities or promoted the growth of new cells underneath or worked in a soothing manner. As a base she chose a yellowish white beeswax. Removing the scales from the skin would require something strong. She figured a hint of salamander blood, some crushed snake fangs and a measurement of mashed burdock would do the trick. As far as soothing and healing went she chose some dittany, aloe, lemongrass and calendula. So long as she could balance these ingredients well she should have a pretty good Cleansing Cream. Zala returned to her table and sat down. How many measurements of each should she use? Should she extract the effective substances from the plants or directly blend them into the salve? She grabbed her quill and wrote down a few combinations. With 50 minutes left on the clock she figured she had the balance right. It wouldn’t be perfect but it’d do the job. That would have to do. The medical team here at Ilvermorny would still have to keep an eye on him.

With a basic recipe written down Zala quickly got to work. She spared a moment to look at the other champions. Most seemed to be working on something and some started curing their volunteers. Taking note of the overall progress Zala quickened her own. First she crushed a pair of snake fangs into a coarse powder and set it aside. Then she measured out 1 inch of burdock root and a handful of seeds and mashed them in her mortar. She added three drops of salamander blood to the burdock mixture and continued grinding it into a dark brown paste. In her cauldron she softened 5 measurements of the creamy beeswax and added 2 scoops of the burdock and blood paste as well as ⅔ of the fang powder. This she mixed in well into the beeswax and then she waved her wand once over her cauldron. Zala quickly cleaned her mortar and pestle and picked 10 calendula flowers. Adding those to her mortar she glanced at her recipe. ‘Yeah… One measurement of lemongrass should be enough…’, she thought and chopped it into smaller pieces and added them to the flowers. With a bit of strength she managed to ground the two herbs into a pulp and used a spoon to add it to the cauldron. A quick stir later saw them mixed throughout the now spotted beeswax. She increased the heat under the cauldron to completely melt the beeswax and the ingredients slowly melted along. The concoction smelled somewhat earthy and metallic and looked quite unappealing. The cream currently had a light brown colour with green specks and streaks throughout. Once the mixture resembled a liquid like baby poo colour and consistency Zala turned the heat off. She carefully opened 2 aloe leaves and squeezed the gel out into the pot. The gel landed with a ‘plop plop’ sound and dissolved quickly forming a clear slightly green layer on top. She finely sliced a bunch of dittany leaves and added them last. Zala sniffed the pot and whilst the clear and sweet aloe fragrance was definitely there it was difficult to notice under the much stronger pungent smell of the blood. She ran to the ingredients table and looked through a number of small bottles. Zala jumped in relief as she found the peppermint oil and took it to her cauldron. The oil had a soothing effect on the skin as well and it would help massively with the smell. She opened the bottle and added multiple drops until the smell from the pot stopped being offensive to her. She stirred 4 times clockwise and watched the layers come together into a light green cream with dark green speckles. The cream smelt refreshing due to the added oil at the end. To finish the salve she tapped the cauldron twice and muttered an incantation. “Afairosana.”, Zala said decisively combining the words for removal and healing into one. She closed her eyes for a moment. Turning to the big clock she saw there was little more than 10 minutes left.

“This has to work...”, she grumbled and scraped all the ointment out of her cauldron and into a small jar. She walked to her volunteer and glared straight into his eyes. You better not talk and sit still they seemed to communicate. The boy gulped and nodded his head. Zala approached him and quickly dabbed some cream onto his scale-covered skin. Even before she finished rubbing the oily substance on every spot it began to work. The cream seemed to burn right through the scales and steam rose from his skin. Yet whilst this looked very painful it wasn’t so at all. The abundant aloe and peppermint cooled the skin down and the dittany quickly covered it in brand new skin. As the cream had been charmed to only remove the unnatural it stopped burning once the scales were gone. Zala let the Cleansing Cream do its job and she walked to her table to grab a clean cloth and wet it with cold water. With a few minutes left on the clock she handed the cloth to Steve and turned to the professors. “I finished curing my volunteer.”, she announced loudly to the student body who cheered and clapped enthusiastically. Steve cleaned his skin with the wet cloth whilst Zala bowed to the students and turned to her messy table. “Scourgify.”, she said and waved her wand at the table and equipment. Zala grinned to herself proud with what she had accomplished.

As the task was explained, Bran nodded to himself. He had to do well in this task. He just had to. As his turn to go forward came, the youth stepped up and reached into Professor Fontaine's bag to choose his number. As he took out the paper, he saw the number 5 on it and heard Professor Fontaine announce it as though those watching couldn’t do a process of elimination based on the numbers already taken by the other champions.

Bran made his way over to the stool with his volunteer seated on it and bit his lip slightly. He had watched this particular girl as she had entered and seen the fact that her hair was growing with each step. In fact it had grown six inches in the short distance she’d walked to get to her seat. Bran was well used to girls and hair issues having a sister who loved changing the color of hers, but Lynnie used simple charms and this was a matter for potions, not spells to solve. As the girl took her seat and looked a bit helplessly at him, her hair fell over part of her face like a curtain over a window. It was then that Bran, who had moved closer, noticed the second challenge he had to deal with…his volunteer’s front teeth had enlarged to the point that they were protruding from her mouth. Bran sincerely hoped that they weren’t painful. He gave her a slight smile and said, “I’m going to do my best to counteract the potions you already have taken. Thanks for volunteering.” The girl gave a nod, as she couldn’t talk well with her teeth in their present condition. She brushed back her hair from her face, a remedy that lasted a minute at most. With a sigh, she gave up and sat there with the hair growing longer and longer.

What to do, what to do? Bran mused. A spell would be so simple to correct both things. That’s the point, Calder, he chided himself. This isn’t supposed to be simple. Now get your butt over to the table and turn your mind on. The clock’s ticking! Some of the other champions had already preformed their evaluations of their volunteers and were beginning on their counter-potions. As the son of a potioneer, he couldn’t fail in this task or his dad would disown him! Well, not really, he amended, but he’d never hear the end of it. The blue eyes surveyed the ingredients as his brain began to focus on possible solutions. Then as so often happened when he started working with potions, things began to fall into place and Bran was lost in his own word of brewing and creating just the right potion.

Deciding to tackle the hair issue first by creating a hair growth inhibiting potion, Bran gathered an assortment of largely well-known plants. Just as some of the first students at Ilvermorny who had been Native American used the natural herbs and plants they were used to, Bran used not only what he’d been taught in class but also the knowledge he’d learned from his explorations in order to concoct his potion. Raw papaya was the first and main ingredient. He mashed it until a pulp formed. Depositing the pulp in a cauldron, Bran cleaned his mortar and pestle and then crushed spearmint leaves to a fine, fragrant powder. After adding the spearmint to the papaya, the boy dropped fifteen drops of fireweed juice in, stirred the mixture six times clockwise and set it to warm with a quick flick of his wand. As the potion warmed, he cleaned the mortar and pestle again and readied bayberry leaves. When the potion was beginning to steam ever so slightly, Bran removed it from the heat, added the bayberry leaves, stirred three times counter-clockwise and then tossed in a handful of white willow bark. There was a slight popping sound and he smiled to himself. It was just what he’d wanted to hear at this stage in the process. Now to allow it to heat until it turned clear. Bran kept a close eye on the potion as it wouldn’t do to get the heat too hot and make the potion cloudy and have to start over. When it looked like water, the boy waved his wand over the cauldron, added a dash of chickpea flour, and stirred vigorously counter-clockwise for thirteen strokes. At the last stroke, he hastily took out the spoon, picked up his wand, flicked it, and a short spurt of white flame zapped the cauldron. The potion turned pale green and gave off a pleasant aroma. Smiling, Bran set it aside to cool for two minutes before pouring it into a bottle and taking it over to his volunteer.

“Here’s the first part,” he said quietly, showing the bottle of what appeared to be cream rinse for hair. The girl moved the curtain of hair aside and gave Bran a nod. She noted that he’d brought over a towel as well which he proceeded to tuck around her shoulders, under the waterfall of hair.

“Obviously you had a growth potion, so this is a growth inhibitor potion, specifically designed for hair. Papaya helps break down hair follicles and slows hair re-growth rate, actually killing hair cells before they can reproduce. Spearmint also slows hair growth by decreasing levels of androgens. Fireweed lessens hair re-growth by interfering with a body’s production of testosterone. White willow bark and bayberry leaves act as an astringent so that once the hair growth is slowed, the follicles will contract. The chickpea flour helps to thicken the potion so that it can be used as a rinse of sorts for the hair, while also helping to prevent re-growth.” As he explained, Bran was pouring a good dollop of the potion onto the girl’s head and massaging it into the scalp. He made sure to rub in the opposite direction from the way the hair grew.

“Smellths good,” the girl offered.

Bran smiled. “Yeah, potions don’t have to be foul smelling to work. We need to leave it in for fifteen minutes, then I’ll wipe it off with a fresh towel, and the problem should be gone.” He took a deep breath and said, “Now for those teeth.”

Returning to the table, Bran hastily got started on the next potion. Time was running out. He was glad that he’d used the two minutes wait time to clean up from the first potion and thus was ready to jump right in on the second. “I’m guessing an engorgement potion or another form of growth potion caused those teeth,” he mused to himself. “Now, how to best counter that?” Anti-engorgement potions…shrinking potions…restoration potions…all of these ideas flitted through his head until he decided on a reversal potion. Into a silver cauldron Bran poured two ounces of fresh lemon juice. After grinding four fairy wings, he added it to the cauldron and stirred slowly counter-clockwise while heating the mixture. It turned pale orange and when yellow steam began to rise, the young man added seven drops of coconut milk along with Flobberworm mucus to thicken it slightly. Leaving the concoction to simmer, Bran extracted the juice from three shrivelfigs. When the potion turned green, he added the juice and smiled as it almost instantly changed to pink. Removing the heat, he dropped a single uncrushed and unblemished rose petal into the cauldron. Immediately a lovely vanilla-like smell wafted up from the pink liquid. Bran chose a spoon made from cedar as any other type of wood would react badly and spoil the potion. He stirred, slowly and carefully, ten times clockwise. Removing the spoon, he set the potion to warm as he chopped a chorus fruit, a type of deep purple pear, into fine bits. Adding a handful of these, he increased the heat until the potion was boiling. The rich purple faded to light lavender and Bran nodded, gave a wave of his wand, and the potion was done. He blew out a breath and cleaned his area and equipment as the mixture cooled. When it was ready, he poured a bit of it into a round container, picked up a cotton swab-type instrument, and went over to present the finished produce to his volunteer.

“This potion is special not because of the individual ingredients, but because of the way in which they are added so that they intermingle with each other to form a thick liquid which can be smeared on your teeth. Some of the ingredients such as lemon juice, coconut milk and a rose petal also help mask the less pleasant smelling and tasting ingredients like Flobberworm mucus. All of the elements working together should reverse the previous potion and cause your teeth to shrink and be restored to their proper size.”

At the mention of Flobberworm mucus the girl shook her head and attempted to lisp out, “I thinth I vell justh stayth thisth way!”

“Come on, it’s not that bad, I promise,” Bran said. “And it’ll be a lot better to be back to normal, right?”

“Easthy for you to sayth!” the girl scowled, but she reluctantly allowed Bran to take a little swab and smear the mixture on her teeth. Crossing her eyes, she attempted to see if she could tell anything and then it became rather obvious that it had worked. “Hey!” she exclaimed. “They’re normal again!”She worked her mouth and smacked her lips slightly.

Bran handed her a handkerchief and said, “Wipe off the excess; don’t swallow it.”

The girl followed Bran’s directions and then gave him a smile…with pretty, normal sized teeth. “You were right; it wasn’t as horrible as it sounded. Thanks!”

“And now…” Bran took the fresh towel off his shoulder and wiped the pale green potion from her hair. Strands of hair came away with it and the girl gave a shriek.

“What did you do?! I’m going to be bald!”

“No, no…it’s alright,” Bran tried to reassure her. “Feel your head.”

Clapping her hands to her damp head, the girl frowned. Everything seemed to be alright. She tossed her hair back and immediately realization dawned on her. “Hey! It…it stopped growing!”

Bran smiled. “Yes, it did,” he assured her.

“Oh thank you!” she smiled.

“You’re welcome,” Bran smiled back. “And thanks again for being my volunteer.”

He stepped back and looked over at the other champions and gave them a smile. He’d made it through the first task!