Aurora blinked a few times and stood on her tip toes in order to see the tree a bit clearer as her light lit up the area. Oh look, there WAS snow on the ground. Good thing she'd chosen boots. Still, that was all a distraction - she had to get a better look at this tree. Something was just not right about those icicles. She got as close as she dared, noting that the branches were starting to twitch ominously, and was able to get a good look at a nearby branch. Was that...a potion vial?? Multiple potion vials! That was why the icicle looked so weird. A few seconds after she noticed the vials, her eyes locked on the potion brewing station nearby. Puzzle pieces were starting to click in to place.

She hurried towards the station, grinning as she approached it. Potions was one of her BEST subjects after defense, and as soon as she made note of caterpillars, daisies and wormwood, she knew what she was meant to do. It was obviously the set up for a Shrinking Solution. While she wished it would do what it literally said - make her small, like in that No-Maj story, Alice in Wonderland - she knew it would instead change her into a younger version of herself. Who, by default, was smaller, and able to dodge flying tree branches to get in to the tree!

Aurora glanced down and grabbed the note out of the cauldron and tossed it aside. Even though she was sure the cauldron was probably clean already, she still pointed her wand at it and silently performed the Scourgify charm to give it another cleaning. Couldn't be too careful here, especially when a scholarship was on the line. She then took the daisy roots and began to finely chop them with the knife provided, making sure her cuts were even as she did so. There was an old fashioned scale on the station as well, so once she had the root all chopped, she measured out 8 grams worth of it before placing that off to the side. Ginger roots also needed to be chopping, so once she cleared away her finished daisy roots, she got to work chopping the ginger. She only need 4 grams of that one, so she took her evenly chopping ginger and measured that out with the scale as well before putting it with her finished daisy root.

Aurora was REALLY starting to get cold after that, so she stopped her preparation and instead focused on her cauldron. She waved her wand and silently cast Aguamenti over it, filling up the cauldron. It was kind of hard to see in the dim light of her wand, but she was able to successfully measure out 500 milliliters of it. She pointed her wand at the base of the cauldron and silently cast Incendio. She smiled at the extra light - and warmth - and returned to her prep work while the water began to boil.

She took the knife and skinned the shrivelfig, using the light from the fire to make sure she had cleanly removed all of the skin before moving on. She took one of the caterpillars provided in a bowl and began to chop. This was her LEAST favorite part of making this potion. Caterpillars were cute and fuzzy and adorable! She chopped as fast as she could while still making it nice and even before pushing it away with the rest of her finished ingredients so she didn't have to think about it anymore.

Finally, the dried nettles. She took the mortar and pestle and added the nettles before starting to crush it. Practicing beater with Chad all those summers had helped her get some good upper arm strength - so she had a nice, crushed powder of nettles in no time. She weighed out 8 grams of it on the scale -which was a lot harder to do with powder than chopped roots - but once she had the right amount, she picked it up and checked to see if the potion was ready. Aurora looked over at her cauldron and was pleasantly surprised to see that it had begun to boil already. She quickly took her nettles, caterpillar, daisy roots and shrivelfig and dropped it in. There was no clock that she could see, and she hadn't thought to wear her adorable black watch today to go with her outfit. Great. Looks like manual counting it was...

"One Mississippi..." she started mumble under her breath as she began to stir. This was probably the WORST part of the challenge so far. ABSOLUTELY THE WORST. Why had she not worn a watch?! WHY?! There was no clock provided for her either on her little work station. Maybe this was the whole challenge. Could you successfully brew a challenge without a clock and proper lighting? In the snow?

One could hope...

Two minutes was thankfully NOT hard to count to, and once she was done, she took the leech juice and added just the tiniest little dash of it to her cauldron. Now the hard part - letting this thing stew. Without a clock. For half an hour.

Grabbing a stick on the ground nearby, she began to count out loud again - it helped her keep track of how many "Mississippi's" she'd done. Once she reached sixty, she took the knife from the potions table and made a mark on her stick. Alright, one minute had passed. Then another...then another. She used the flames from her cauldron to warm her hands occasionally as she did so, focusing entirely on her counting.

Aurora couldn't help but feel embarrassed. Two WHOLE schools were watching her make notches in to a stick, counting aloud to herself, in the snow in front of the Whomping Willow. It was hardly a very humbling experience. She tried not to think about that, though. Scholarships were more important than social status...right?

Right. And she looked amazing right now, with her hair and nails and makeup still completely perfect, despite her predicament.

It felt like the longest half hour of her LIFE, but she did eventually finish counting her marks, and she grabbed her ginger roots and added them to the potion. She began to stir again, resuming her counting and thankful that at least the hard part of this potion was over. Two minutes went by a lot faster than the half hour. She took the cauldron off the fire and did a quick Finite to stop the flames, although that hurt her heart slightly to see the fire go away. It had been so nice and warm...

The potion cooled quickly, because it was FREEZING of course, so she had to move fast. She turned and pointed her wand at the tree. "Accio Vial!" she exclaimed, causing one of the vials to ZOOM right in to her outstretched hands. She grinned to herself and scooped up a ladle full of potion and poured it in.

She didn't need this to work for very long - half an hour tops, she hoped. One ladle full should do the trick, if it was brewed right. She was pretty confident in her potion brewing skills so...

"Bottoms up," she muttered before taking the potion and taking a big long gulp.