A/N: A quick reminder as always for those playing along, clues and solutions are marked for your convenience. I admit to being slightly disappointed in the amount of votes cast to determine who would make it to this chapter, but I am grateful that someone did actually take the time to cast their ballot, and I thank them for doing so. As always, the Potterverse is JK's creation, I'm just doing my part to expand upon it further.
As Severus Snape observed the remaining teams busily working on their potions, he noted that his Slytherins were very well represented in the room. Indeed, of the first eight pairs through his door, only two claimed no affiliation with his house: the all-Gryffindor pairs of Potter and Brown and Granger and Weasley. Miss Parkinson and the Gryffindor Patil had arrived just in front of her Ravenclaw sister and Miss Perks, and there remained only one other Slytherin pairing unaccounted for, as he had seen his godson's spectacular flameout a few tasks earlier before departing the Great Hall to prepare his portion of the Hunt.
He heard footfalls in the distance, more than two sets if his hearing was still as good as he believed it to be. As Misses Bones and Jones entered the Potions classroom and began settling in, Snape continued to focus on the door, waiting to see just whom the other set of fast-approaching footfalls might belong to.
Having never been spectacular in Potions, Neville Longbottom found himself rather glad that he had been paired with a Slytherin for this task. Though Vincent Crabbe was by no means a spectacular brewer himself, he was also not the completely thick idiot that many outside of his House assumed him to be. Thus, when he saw that they were to complete the Wolfsbane Potion to receive their next clue, he took charge of the situation. "This potion is very easy to screw up, and I doubt that needing to brew it multiple times is something we can afford if we want to win this thing, Nev. So, to make sure the least amount possible can go wrong, I want you to read each instruction out loud, and watch me complete them. If you see something that looks wrong, say something before we put the ingredients into the cauldron. Agreed?" Neville nodded, and watched Crabbe begin brewing.
He had already saved the potion once when the arrival of Susan and Megan caused just enough of a distraction that Crabbe almost added an extra measure of the namesake ingredient far earlier than it needed to be. He got a grateful nod from his partner, and another from a passing Professor Snape, who knew exactly the result of that particular error, having done so on his own a few years prior, and still had the burn marks on his chest to prove it. Neville noticed that the Professor was watching the door, and the faint footsteps growing louder outside drew his attention as well.
The arrival of Terry Boot and Su Li drew the attention of everyone else in the room. More accurately, closing the door behind themselves as they arrived drew attention, as it signaled no one would be following them in. As the eleventh team took their seats at a cauldron, the first and second place teams entered the final stages of their brewing. Carefully bottling their samples, Lavender and Mandy each held up a vial for Professor's Snape's inspection. He noted the color, made sure that both cauldrons gave off the correct amount of smoke, and pronounced both samples "acceptable." He corked the vials and placed them on his desk, returning with parchment envelopes that he presented to each pair.
Clue #7: From the deepest dungeon, you now seek the highest heights Hogwarts has. Though some houses believe themselves to be at the top, there is a class above.
A questioning glance from Mandy was met with a nod by Blaise; he already had a very good idea of where their next clue was located. Since Professor Snape's instructions included a note that any acceptable concoctions would be saved for further use, Blaise simply cleaned the few spots of their table that had been dirtied during potion making and began leading Mandy on a winding path through the castle.
Once Blaise was quite sure that Potter and Brown weren't following them (an unlikely circumstance regardless, but taking no chances was the modus operandi of the Zabini family), he took a more direct path towards the only one of Hogwarts' towers that satisfied the clue. Bypassing the House towers of Ravenclaw and Gryffindor, as well as the landing that led into the Divination classroom (higher in the castle than most other class areas, but not the highest, and not confined to its own tower), eventually the pair arrived first to see a splendid view of the sun beginning to set behind the Forbidden Forest. Blaise allowed himself and Mandy a moment to appreciate the natural beauty, before striding across to where Professor Sinistra sat.
"Welcome," she said, "to the Astronomy Tower."
