January 30th, 1891 — The Great Hall, Hogwarts

Now that she was there she was starting to think judging the potions competition had been a mistake and a poor use of her time. Sadly it was too late. Perhaps she'd be surprised and one of the children would have an amusing mishap. If not perhaps she'd make it so.

Looking around at the youngsters she realized she'd not been assigned Sage's group which was a great pity as there might be some entertainment to be had there. Oh well. This lot would have to do. Maybe she'd see Sage later.

"I am Mrs. Macnair and as you may have guessed I shall be overseeing your little competition today. Please keep chatter to a minimum and raise your hand once you are finished. Follow the rules or face the consequences, etcetera." Her impatience was starting to shine through in her words and she was well aware of it. "Your first potion is a Calming Draught and you have until the timer runs out. If you wish to treat it as a race you may do so at your own peril, you will not be the first to die in a potion mishap and you shall certainly not be the last." Mariana smiled warmly at them as if she hadn't just brought up the subject of imminent accidental death. "You may begin!"

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You have 72 hours to post!
@"Emma Binns" | Madeleine Backus
Sebastian Urquart | Hermia Bonaccord
Cassia Fawley
Elon Wildsmith

  

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Elon always participated in competitions. He was addicted to the rush of adrenaline associated with them. He didn't play so much to win, as to experience the excitement of competing.

He was in the same group as Elijah's cousin, Sebastian. Surprisingly, Miss Dawson wasn't competing at all. He scanned the audience for her. There was an urge inside of him to do well, if he would be watching...

The calming draught wasn't the sort of potion Elon held in high regard. He enjoyed the more flamboyant ones.

He finished first, but his station was also among one of the messiest. He had never been especially good at organisation, as his thoughts reced too quickly to catch everything up.

He raised his hand and waited for inspection.

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Competitions were always great fun! Like tests but without all the awful threats of being kicked out of school if you failed. Not that Emma failed tests. Mrs. Macnair seemed nice, and it was nice to see a lady doing things like this - a lady that wasn't a teacher. She skipped to her place by the window, she removed her little good luck charm of a dragon from her pinafore pocket and set it on the desk in front of her.

She set to work on the potion Mrs Macnair assigned. Her housemate, Elon, who if she had to guess would probably be prefect next year, was the first to finish. But shortly thereafter Emma completed her work and her hand went into the air indicating her potion was ready for marking.

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MJ Did Beautiful things!

Potions was one of the subjects where Bastian felt most comfortable. This was all about practice, precision, and a dash of personality. This was his thing.

Eyebrows climbing near his coily hairline, Sebastian took a quick look at his competitors as Mrs. Macnair finished. Anyone else think she could use a calming draught?

Sebastian was determined to impress, but he wasn’t planning on proving the disturbing judge correct. Slow and steady was how to win this. Besides, crocodile hearts were pretty cool to handle. Why rush?

Finishing with time remaining and a work station that didn’t look like the site of an explosion, Bash raised his hand.

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Look what Bee did!

To Mariana's great dismay the girls let her down. Miss Fawley failed to even finish and then Miss Binns' potion seemed anything but calm as it bubbled more than it was supposed to. Meanwhile both boys had brewed rather commendable calming draughts.

"Mr. Wildsmith, Mr. Urquart, congratulations you will be moving on in the competition. Better luck next time, ladies." Mariana cleaned everything up with a few waves of her wand. "You'll be brewing a shrinking solution next, everything you need is in front of you. You may begin."

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Scores:
@"Emma Binns" 4.5 | Sebastian Urquart 7.5 | Elon Wildsmith 8 | Cassia Fawley N/A |

You have 72 hours to post!
Madeleine Backus
Hermia Bonaccord

  

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Was there a chance that Miss Dawson had seen him? He glanced at the audience but he soon had to return his attention back to brewing. It was only him against Elijah's cousin now. Elon gave him a courteous nod and then started brewing.

He was lucky that Mrs. Macnair had cleaned everything up because he'd left a mess during the previous potion and would have been damned if he could find the new ingredients.

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Sebastian was well-mannered enough not to gloat, but he was proud of clearing the first round. He wondered how his cousin fared. Sebastian wanted to win, obviously, but as long as he left Elijah in the dust, he would consider it a victory.

With a nod to Wildsmith, Sebastian gathered his ingredients and set to brewing. Too bad all his subjects weren't this entertaining.

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Look what Bee did!

It took Mariana a few minutes of close scrutiny to decide upon the superior brew. Both were near flawless. Finally she concluded that the hue of Mr. Wildsmith's potion was marginally better than that of Mr. Urquart. "The winner is Mr. Wildsmith! Congratulations, ten points to Ravenclaw."

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Scores:
Sebastian Urquart 7.5 | Elon Wildsmith 8 |

  

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