The knob was proving to be as difficult as a certain friend of his that thrived off of being difficult for the sake of irking every single nerve in his body. A dramatic comparison, but Jesús felt justified in comparing the somewhat unyielding knob to Valerie. After tugging repeatedly, the knob finally came off. Feeling victorious, he looked at the space where the knob once was and then looked at his hand. Surprised, because Jesús swore the object in his hand was in fact one very stubborn stove knob, he held the item up to get a better look at it.
"Hey," he nudged the hat with his free hand, "are you going to reveal what happens next, or you just going to sit there and keep quiet?" He kept his eyes trained on the brooch, looking at it from all angles. The Gordian Knot certainly felt easier to obtain than the Sorting Hat-thing, but Jesús still felt underwhelmed by it. He glanced around the kitchen again, before resorting to reviewing the riddle for a final time. He'd found the hat and he'd found the Gordian Knot. So, what next? Jesús nudged the hat again, briefly considered that maybe the hat actually couldn't feel him touch it, and then spun the small brooch in his hand.
He supposed he could backtrack, try to go back through the door and out where he came from. Thoughts of the raging, childish Whomping Willow prevented him from moving, however. Would the tree still be immobilized? Or would he have to risk his life, again, to complete the challenge? What did the Silent Sorting Thing and the Gordian Knot have to do with the potion he drank and the melodramatic battle with the tree? He was starting to think that the competition was one big joke (a very, very unfunny one, at that.) His only consolation was that Valerie was suffering too. Which, he supposed, wasn't a very good thing, but if she was having as much trouble with the challenge as he was, then he didn't feel so bad about the whole ordeal.
Again, he addressed the hat on top of his head. "Is there a way to get out of here that doesn't involve dealing with the Whomping Willow again?" The probability that the hat would respond was pretty low, but Jesús wasn't going to stop trying. He considered kicking the stove to see if it revealed anything else, but didn't want to accidentally incur the wrath of any other sentient thing in the house.
__________________
Coming soon. |