Her first test was Professor Flitwick, who thanked her for agreeing to make the trials public. It would do well to show everyone how these worked, and she smiled at the man who was fast becoming her favorite professor in the school. He twittered at her smile, but got down to brass tacks a moment later, having her pull out her wand, and then using his own to summon up a bit of the castle from the floor, creating a small square pillar in front of him.
He takes a few moments to cast what felt like half a dozen spells, making her hair stand on end as he went through each in turn, laying them onto the pillar, and then tapping his want to finish them, the surface of it shimmering for a moment. After that, he looked over his work, before nodding to her, and then turning so everyone outside the field could see and hear him as he explained the contest.
This first was going to be simple, since Charms, while a unique and powerful set of spells, were as much about subtlety as strength. As such, he had inscribed half a dozen spells onto the pillar, and then hidden them using magic. Hermione would be required to use a revealing charm on them, an admittedly early year two spell. She would not have to cast those spells, at least not now, but she would need to identify them and their uses.
With that out of the way, the half-goblin bowed and presented her her test. And she struck at it easily. She'd already learned a dozen revealing charms in her absorption of Hogwarts books, and while she knew he likely wanted her to use one of the simpler ones, she set to work on one that worked in a way like her reading spell, allowing her to sense and feel the information, rather than revealing it for everyone in the room.
Professor Flitwick actually went boggle eyed for a moment, this time resisting the urge to swear, as the pillar's shine faded, the things he'd hidden on it draining into Hermione, who turned to him, and with a few words described each of the spells in detail to the man, even offering to demonstrate, but he advised her to save her strength, as this was not likely to be her hardest test.
He announced, with a boom to his voice that had just a bit of an excited squeak to it, that Hermione had passed with flying colors, even whispering to her that he had expected her to use a different revealing charm on each spell as each was hidden in a sequence with different wards. To see her bypass them completely…she had a future with the Bank of Gringotts if she wanted, as they always had need of someone of her skill. All she had to do was ask him.
He thanked her again as he finally finished shaking her hand, and excitedly exited the field, with one of the odd shapes outside moving forward to replace him, Professor Sinistra coming behind and quickly using her wand to cause the view on the ceiling overhead to spin around, the bright sunny day revolving into a clear starry night, as she came to sit down in front of Hermione, and present her with a scroll.
She quickly laid out the test, to identify six mistakes on the scroll before her in terms of star placement, color, and vibrancy. She need not know where they should go, or their color or luminosity herself, that was actually NEWT work to know such without extensive use of star maps, but she was expected to glance to the heavens and know something was off when she stared into their glittering diamonds, so she could identify when something was wrong.
Hermione proceeded to find eighteen errors on the scroll, as Professor Sinistra commented that she'd made far more than needed, all with varying levels of complexity. Mind, she'd only purposefully made sixteen of them, to find that Hermione was able to discover even more? The woman actually hugged the girl, telling her far too many of her pupils absorbed little from her class. She congratulated her, and whispered a warning that Snape would be next.
As promised, the man came forward out of the blur, sweeping his robe about in a way that was almost theatrical as he used his wand to banish the pillar that Flitwick had raised. Another word and two creatures appeared, House Elves she knew now, like the one that she had seen in the infirmary during her first attempt at using her reading spell. She idly wondered if anyone else in the crowd knew who they were and what they used to do to wizards, but said nothing as the pair carried a large cauldron between them, and set it up.
Snape nodded at the two, and then motioned them off, still more of an acknowledgement than some would have given them honestly. The moment they were away and outside the field that kept her from seeing the crowd around, Snape began to test the cauldron, tapping it with his wand one, twice, thrice, while his finger was held on the lip, obviously feeling how it vibrated at the touch.
A few muttered words after, and logs seemed to grow from the ground, along with a pair of poles that then grew a third between them. Snape, with magic, levitated the pot, and soon it was above the logs, which burst into flames at the man's word. He took just a moment or two to inspect the entire setup, before finding his handiwork satisfactory and turning on his heels to face her.
A sweeping of his hands caused a table to appear between the two of them, one loaded with a dozen and more ingredients, all fresh and unprepared for the cauldron. He then laid out that she was to make him a draft of sorts, one of the most advanced potions of the second year, which he admitted. However, he had chosen it specifically due to its similarities to the potion she had so mastered in his class two months and more ago, a smile on his face as he explained his reasoning, like he had argued that point more than once with the Headmaster, and had finally won the man over.
She needed little else, and as he stepped aside, she quickly tapped her wand on the side of the cauldron, summoning just enough water to fill the base a little. Then, after looking inside and seeing how it hissed at the edges, she thought better of it and added just a little more, and then finally a bit more, anticipating some boiling off even as she made ready the ingredients to go into the mixture.
With that done, she walked up to the table and was actually impressed with the spread. Knives and tools of every make and description were set alongside the ingredients. Many, many of them were useless to the task, something she knew Snape had done on purpose. Where the others wanted her to succeed, he was trying to push her, either to make her better, or to see her fail. She was almost certain it was the latter, as she pulled one of the plates that was useless and would have corrupted any ingredient placed on it, before she piled on the tools she had no need of, floating it to the edge of the field to keep them out of her way.
Hermione saw him smirk on the old git's face when she began to space out her tools, like she had made a mistake, but she ignored it as she began to speak. This was the first time she'd given a presentation to the school like this, and in this case in a subject where she could easily explain herself, deserved no less. She started by holding up the ingredients before her, naming them each and then placing them gently onto the remaining plates.
When she was done, she flippantly 'banished' the things she had no use for, even listing off how each in turn would have sabotaged the draft she was making, a healing poultice. Mind, she advised that Madam Pomfrey would not keep this in stock, as this particular mixture, when applied to open wounds, sealed them by 'aging' the offending puncture, like a bandaid, which she would have no need for in her infirmary.
Once she had that done, she prepared the ingredients, listing off how they helped the mixture along, and dumping them in as she finished chopping, stripping, or whatever was required, adding water when appropriate, and even stirring the pot a few times. She even corrected the book that Second Years would be learning this particular draft from in a few months, pointing out that it advised two too many clockwise stirs, and a heat for the boil that was several degrees too low.
Even Snape seemed impressed, and some noise from beyond the barrier, rendered naught but whispers, said voices were raised at her for her audacity to correct their learning materials. Still, as she made the draft, the stuff turning sticky and viscous far quicker than it should have, she noted that the book likely did these things because it was technically easier in a cauldron from fifty years ago, and no one had bothered updating the mixture for more modern tools.
When she was done, having used twenty-three ingredients and four of the utensils in the form of three knives and a fork that would seemingly have been of no use in this mixture, she stepped back, and allowed Snape to inspect. He did so with a flourish again, sweeping his cape like robe to banish the table and then coming up to the cauldron. Looking into it, he commented on the color and smell, advising her that it was not regulation in either category.
She insisted, of course, that such regulations were for those who didn't understand the art of potion crafting, a jab at Snape's own skill with his profession few would miss. The man himself though? He barely seemed to hear her, as he set the tip of his wand into the mixture, and with a word, caused a bit of it to rise from the rest, pulled and pushed on by invisible hands, testing it.
Then he stabbed himself. Not deeply, and in a place on the back of his hand that would in no way impact his work, but still, the suddenness of the action, as she hadn't seen him even draw the shimmering silver knife he used to do the deed, caught her off guard. He, with his wand, moved the glob he had taken from her cauldron onto the wound, his face subtly tightening as he obviously expected a stinging sensation like alcohol on a cut a moment later.
Instead, he let out a small gasp, as the stuff felt cool, not hot, and the sting never came. In its place, a soothing wave moved through his hand, and flexed it several times, looking at it as the glob melted into his skin, leaving a small scar, but no other visible signs. She nodded at her work, quickly going back into her explaining mode.
Turning to her audience, which she couldn't actually see the details of, she pointed out the additions she'd made to the mixture had rendered it almost four times as potent as usual, though acknowledging that its shelf life was barely half of what it should have been. It was a trade off of potency to sustainability, but the results for a quick batch like this spoke for themselves, she thought.
Snape, without a word, waved his wand at the cauldron and table, causing them to vanish. Not banishing them, as she didn't feel the slight drag of air moving into the now empty spaces, but instead a whoosh as it traded places with air somewhere else in the castle. So he did at least appreciate her efforts, even if he didn't tell her so as he stalked off, getting to the edge of the field and then exiting it, leaving Hermione waiting for her next test eagerly, as she still had things to prove.