Having grown up and lived the majority of his life in Montreal, Kyle was used to cold winters, and though that didn't necessarily mean he was immune to the cold, he at least knew that it wasn't likely to make him completely lose his senses. It crossed his mind to use a warming charm on himself, but Kyle immediately vetoed the idea. The cold was bracing, refreshing, and it kept him on his toes. Perhaps if his fingers started to turn blue, he might reconsider it.

Because he was keenly aware of the fact that he was still taking part in a dangerous competition, Kyle had his wand already drawn for the walk down the path, and though he had only been at the castle for a few months, he thought he might know roughly where he was headed. The Hogwarts competitors certainly had the advantage in that respect, but Kyle didn't truly believe that knowing the destination a few seconds before everyone else was really all that much of an advantage.

And then... there it was, that magnificent, violent, beast of a tree, the one Kyle had only ever seen from a distance. He had, of course, spared a few moments here and there to watch it with great interest, particularly when some of the more idiotic daring Hogwarts students played games that involved dodging its branches and touching its trunk.

For a while he simply stood and watched the tree, considering it carefully, and making note of how long those branches looked. He half expected it to spring into action at any moment, but it didn't move at all. Obviously, he was supposed to get closer. They were unlikely to put him on a path leading to the Whomping Willow if he was meant to stay away from it.

Kyle had to wonder how the tree had managed to form icicles, given how much it moved even when students weren't intentionally provoking it. They looked strange from here... or did they? A trick of the light, or deliberate? Were they fake, perhaps? Was he maybe supposed to collect them, or was there something else, completely unrelated to icicles, that he needed to do? And, whatever that something was, was he supposed to immobilise the tree, or withstand it?

This time, he thought that maybe the Hogwarts competitors really did have an advantage. Kyle knew of Whomping Willows, but only from what he had read. He was naturally proficient in the subject of Potions, and a side effect of that happened to be a tendency to understand plants and their properties (for brewing and the like). In that sense, theoretically, he felt confident. But he had never seen a Whomping Willow before arriving at Hogwarts, seeing as they were only known to be endemic to certain places within the UK. While he knew there was usually a sensitive patch somewhere on their bark that would immobilise the trees when touched, he had no way of knowing where exactly that might be on this particular tree. Tricky.

But then again, weren't all these challenges supposed to be difficult? Likelihood was, he was meant to use magic and Herbology know-how to deal with the tree, and it wasn't supposed to be easy.

Standing around was going to get nothing done, obviously, but Kyle wasn't going to proceed until he had at least a little more information. Squatting down on the ground, he braved the snow on his bare hands and began clumping handfuls of it together, making as many snowballs as he could while his hands got redder and redder with the cold. Before his fingers could go numb, Kyle pointed his wand at his pile of snowballs and cast the Snowball Bewitching Charm, staying focused on the intent of harassing the tree, but not deliberately pelting it just yet.

The snowballs zoomed into the air and flew with purpose towards the Whomping Willow. Kyle straightened, watched, kept his wand trained on the snowballs as he stayed focused on his spell... and maybe took half a step back, just in case.