Hermione, much to the confused looks of some of her classmates, had decided to issue her Challenge on the evening of a Friday. That meant that she didn't gain any days off for herself, which they didn't understand in the slightest, as her free days were going to be spent preparing. Some, however, were quite thrilled with the concept of no classes on Monday, as the Teachers would all have to be present for her Challenges, as she had taken them all.
Interestingly, most of those who had taken them the year before and succeeded approached her, even the ones now in the upper years, to ask her about how it felt. They, as noted by almost all of them, would not feel safe taking a challenge like this again so soon. Even one of the Hufflepuffs who only took Herbology did not feel confident enough after a single week to take such a trial on.
She thanked them for their concerns and well wishes, which seemed to come in equal measure from them, and assured one and all that she HAD thought through her choices, and had little to fear from the Challenges she knew would be placed before her. They still offered her what kindness and aid they could, including one of the Ravenclaws suggesting she take a Pepper-Up Potion, just to ensure she had enough in her tank to take on such a task.
Hermione was actually shocked to find she was grateful for the attention from them. These were not people looking to have her do their homework, she couldn't have for anyone past Fifth-Year anyway, but instead those who had been where she stood, if not quite so high, and wanted to see her succeed. Some of that was for themselves, to be fair, to show it COULD be done, but some of it was admiration for what she had achieved.
It was true that some of the school looked up to her as an example of how to do this particular Rite, she was shocked to discover. They believed in her ability, and in her. It was gratifying to see. The fact that someone, if not her own age, as the youngest was a Fourth-Year, then at least some amongst the students saw her that way, well she wouldn't say her heart fluttered, but she was beginning to see why some sports fanatics got a high from the cheers of the crowd.
To make sure she was as prepared as possible, she spent the weekend amidst the books in the library, taking in what she could specifically, and reading others the old fashioned way. Each bit of knowledge was stored within her mind, and when the morning of Monday came, she was filled to bursting with spells, formulae, and hundreds of historical facts that a third year student might be expected to know.
Entering the Great Hall, the tables pushed into the sides of the room, she nodded as she took her place, and this time, no privacy screen was given to her. Today, she would have to know that the eyes of the students were on her, which made her just a bit nervous, but she stuffed that feeling deep down into her mind, as Professor Binns took the first slot, and floated down to her, his robes fluttering as he passed through the table.
Shockingly, given his had been the longest challenge before, he asked her only three questions. They were merely on the founding of the Ministry for Magic, and its first Minister. Those were easy enough to answer, as the ministry was formed in the early 1700s, to replace the Wizard Council that had come before it. Raising the 'One-Hundred Families' to seats that would be inherited by the heads of each family.
The first Minister, Gamp, had in fact also held the title of Chief Warlock in the Council before international treaties forced the Magicals of the Isles to conform with a more 'structured' government. The Minister was elected by the Seats, and thus was their leader, but, shockingly, the title of Chief Warlock was ALSO retained, the one going to the 'Strongest Wizard in all of the Kingdom' as it had been known.
How that worked was a bit of a black box, but the Wizengamot still met in the Council's old chambers, and apparently the spells that had been cast into those stones had proven impossible to remove, so the Chief Warlock was simply required. It was still a powerful position, as being the Strongest by virtue of holding it implied, though it was technically not an official position within the government itself, its powers nebulous and undefined, with no modern holder really pushing for change enough to require setting what it entailed.
He smiled at her as she rattled off all that, and then, with a nod towards the table, floated back to it, and took his seat once more beside the rest, as Professor Sinistra rose, and then walked down. She clapped her hands, casting the room into darkness for a moment, before the ceiling changed into a night sky, one that was soon also lined as any chart of the heavens would be, depicting the various celestial houses.
Her challenge was the simplest, as the Professor merely required that she identify which spells amongst three choices would be the strongest with this particular configuration, as she laid them out before her. Hermione, wanting to show off, began to point out the ways in which this alignment affected all three spells, even noting that if she waited even one more week, by the stars' positions, it would change the answer.
The astronomy teacher seemed most pleased with her response, and another clap saw the ceiling return to normal, and the windows to open, as she walked back towards the head table, as Snape stood up sharply, and then descended slowly, looking down at her, as if measuring her with each step he took. When he stood before her, a single flick of his wand brought a cauldron, already bubbling, up from the floor between them.
Her task, he explained, was to fix this particular brew, which had been done just wrong enough that it could be brought back from the brink of ruin. He identified it for her, a teeth cleaning solution, and then brought up a table filled with various tools, ingredients, and other such things, before standing back, with a smug smirk on his face, obviously expecting her to struggle through his test, as the brew was itself only barely within the second year's curriculum, let alone fixing a potion done wrong.
She was up to his challenge. She wasn't about to tell him that was because of her parents being non-magical doctors whose focus was on such things, and thus had looked into something that not only made your teeth white enough to ping, but also repaired them at the same time of cavities and other such things. She hadn't studied it as extensively as other healing potions, of course, but it had been one of those she spent a day or two on.
As such, the only thing she needed was time, as she tapped the edges of the cauldron with her wand, getting a sense for the bubbling concoctions within. It was at too low a temperature at the moment, for one thing. That was only making the problem worse, so with a flip, twist, and a quick word, she increased the heat of the flames, even using a simple charm to force the heat up along the sides of it evenly to help stabilize the brew.
She then pulled out a small ladle full of the solution, placing it into a vial and then observing it for a moment, watching it swirl as this bit of it cooled, telling her what specifically had been added, and in what order. Finally, she got to work, using her wand to move the ingredients around, placing a small tray before her, and then putting a few small piles onto it, each one at a different angle.
The next few minutes saw her working, this time in silence, as she needed to focus. With the silver knife she striped some bark, with a hammer she smashed some seeds into paste, and finally with bit of magic she mixed several things together at once, creating a congealed mass that laid like a lump on the tray, which she then picked up and walked over to the now properly heated cauldron.
Seemingly without care, she dumped the contents of the tray into the brew, and Snape, looking like he wanted to leap up at her for so casually tossing away good supplies, was held back only by force of will, as he ground his teeth, and watched. She quickly readjusted the flames a bit, even applying some frost to the lip of the cauldron, before using the hammer that she'd crushed the seed with to stir the concoction.
Finally, she began to explain. The brew being used was quite temperamental. Not dangerous, fortunately, not like other, far more complex mixtures, but it required very specific ingredients, temperatures, and stirring to get it perfectly done. A few minutes later, the bubbling cauldron was calmed with a simple application of a cooling charm, and she stood back, allowing Snape to approach.
She had expected him, given the previous year's test had him test her results on himself, to do the same here. She wondered what it said about the man that he was willing to stab himself to test a healing draft, but simply dipped his wand into the teeth cleaning one, before pulling back like it was about to leap up and bite him. Regardless, he called it acceptable, sending the cauldron elsewhere, likely to his own office, and then returned to the head table.
Next came Professor Flitwick, and he merely asked her to demonstrate a high complexity charm, but nothing beyond a third year's education. It was a simple one that, like Wingardium Leviosa, could be used to move objects about oneself. This one, however, was applied to the object and 'tied off', causing its effect to linger until the spell ran out, or until the caster or someone else dismissed it.
It was actually that last part, rather than the charm itself, which was the trick, as she quickly set about applying it to a few small stone blocks, giving each one a different weight, and then tossing them into the air with a small application of force, seemingly juggling things many times her own weight, before the man twittered excitedly, and confirmed he had seen enough, returning to the table, and allowing her Head of House to approach her.
Professor McGonagall seemed to take her measure with her eyes as she got nearer, and then, with a flick of her wand, commanded the castle. Where Snape had pulled something large to him, Professor McGonagall instead brought a much smaller thing to her. A candelabra, with five unlit candles sitting in its ornately carved form. She inspected it for a moment, before stepping back, and giving her task.
It was simple, but devious, and honestly, something only barely in third year material. Hermione was to use her magic to transfigure the candles into lit states. That, in and of itself, was actually a simple enough trick, one any second year should know. But that was with a candle in your hand, not five individual ones, sitting away from you. Worse, she wanted her to only light the four on the arms, and avoid lighting the central candle, which is what made the task more something for a fourth year.
Hermione, still confident, if a bit less so than she would have liked, looked at the thing before her, studying it closely, gauging her range, the materials she was working with, and even glancing to see where the sun was, so she didn't overestimate the power required. When she was ready, she took a deep breath, and then slowly raised her wand, focusing her willpower into the thing, feeling the dragon heartstring inside practically hum in her hands.
She released the built up magical energy with a flourish of her wand, and with an almost melodic rhythm, the four candles on the arms lit, one after the other. There was one tense moment, just before she let the breath she had been holding out, where the middle candle smolder, a small plume of smoke rising from it, but it never quite lit, and as she sighed in relief, Professor McGonagall looked over her work, before humming, and then walking back to the head table without a word to her.
As she took her seat, Professor Sprout rose up, and came down, her final test for the day, and it wasn't even the afternoon yet. Like Snape, the Head of Hufflepuff House had a challenge for her befitting a third year. In this case, she summoned a pot, filled with soil, which glittered slightly, but not brightly, and then brought forth several tools, mixtures, and finally a plant that Hermione recognized only vaguely, as belonging to the same class as the flower she'd repotted for her first test all those months ago.
Her task, Professor Sprout revealed, was to make the soil perfect for this flower. Nothing complex, really, as the soil was already partially prepared as a base, but this time, she would receive no 'help' in the form of multiple solutions. No, this time she was set with only a single path, and so she got to work, using several spells to investigate the contents of the pot, having to go farther and farther into her mind to pull out the knowledge.
For just an instant, she was worried. For all that she had taken into herself, Herbology was not her best subject, and it had seemed like a lesser challenge, but this was, if anything, far harder than Snape's, given her lack of familiarity with the substances before her. She didn't stop, however, and with a grunt, she physically pushed the pot into a sunbeam, remembering something from a fourth year text book to look for.
With that done, she nodded, and quickly got to work, her confidence returning as she poured specific potions, and kneaded the soil with her hands, feeling the soft earth between her fingers, before finally using her magic to once again thread the roots of the sunflower into the pot, perfectly positioning each, and leaving her almost completely drained as she turned back to find Professor Sprout smiling at her, telling her she had done a fantastic job, before returning to the Head Table, where her judgement awaited.