 SUMMER FOREVER
Etta twisted it clockwise first before twisting it counter-clockwise as well.. which turned the flames on but that was it. It yielded nothing. The knob seemed normal enough. She sighed and reached for the next one, self-doubts still running through her mind. She had managed the challenge quite well until.. the riddle happened, of course. The whomping willow, brewing the potion, getting hit by the Willow, finding the hole that led to this shack.. she had done all of it but the riddle managed to completely put her off. It was so embarrassing, really. If only she had figured out the sorting hat part of the riddle a lot sooner.. but she mentally tried to shake away those thoughts once again. There was no point in wishing what could have been but instead, she tried to focus on the present as much as possible. The girl twisted the second knob slowly.. and felt it wiggle. Uh, that was surprising. How interesting. Also, didn't it look very different as compared to the other knobs? It didn't look as old.. in fact, she felt that it had been attached very recently. It looked too shiny and new. All the more interesting.. hm. She pulled her hand away and stared at it for a moment before setting her wand down on the stove so that the light was shining on the knobs. She still held the sorting hat in her other hand for dear life. Etta just couldn't risk leaving it anywhere, not even for a second, when she was so close to finishing the task. Just, nope.
But, just to make sure, Etta diverted her attention to the other knobs. She twisted each of them but they seemed normal enough.. just like the first one. So, her gaze turned towards the second knob, narrowing her eyes slightly. This was it. She did wonder if this was the last part of the challenge.. since time was running short, anyway. Must be, yeah? Etta was just glad that she was done with the physical challenges because she would hardly have been up for it. She still felt the pain occasionally.. but trying to ignore it as much as possible.. at least, until she visited the healer. Etta just hoped it wasn't anything serious. She had her OWLs approaching as well and just couldn't risk losing hours of study because of a broken bone.. or whatever the injury was. The fact that she had managed so far without facing too much discomfort was an achievement in itself.. thanks to episkey.
Anyway, back to the current situation in hand, she twisted the second knob and gave it a firm twist but.. it wasn't loose enough to come off. So, she decided to give it another try. Etta twisted the knob once again, giving more force this time.. and she was successful as the knob came off and was resting comfortably in the palm of her hand. Wow. She placed it on the counter, next to the stove, before bending down to stare into the gap behind where the knob had been attached.. and sure enough, she'd been right.. yeah? Luckily, the brooch wasn't stuck too far inside so she slowly and very carefully reached for it with her fingers.
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