Léa walked to the arena quietly. She didn't even notice if Sébastien walked with her or not - and she would certainly remain thoughtful and silent if he asked her something. She wanted to think and remember calming methods. She had only her wand with her and Sébastien. She hoped he was ready for this. When she was only a few metres away from the designated arena, she closed her eyes and took deep breaths. It wasn't a question of ability for her, it was more of speed as she was sure speed would be a deciding factor. After a few seconds, she opened her eyes and walked inside a... cave. She took a few steps inside the cave and spent a minute examining everything. When the odd sound became horrible and unbearable, she decided to check it out... only, it came to her.

Only her surprise kept her from shrieking.

Hands flying quickly to cover half of her face so that only her eyes and forehead were revealed, she looked at it with horrorful eyes. She followed every movement carefully and noticed the cauldron as her shock started to dwindle too. Cauldron, herbology, a needy but ill elf.

"We should cure the swelling with a potion." Her eyes were still on the elf but she obviously addressed Sébastien. Her hands were folded around her belly now and she was busy pitying the poor creature.

He was relaxed and pumped up. In other words ready. The French, fifteen year old followed his friend to their task. He shot a look back one last time at the stands before turning his full attention ahead forgetting all about what was outside and focusing only on what was ahead of them. He picked up his pace and walked besides Léa who was too mesmerized to probably notice him but he sure was here right next to her.

As they entered the cave, he stood hands at his sides and let his eyes wander around taking the surroundings and absorbing what he saw. His eyes glanced up noting the ceiling up then darted to the ground and located plants. He took a couple of steps toward them to examine them but a sound caught his attention and made him pause from examining the plants.

Seemingly, Léa had heard the sound too. Sébastien walked over to the older girl and followed her gaze then frowned at what he saw. The poor house elf looked like in lots of pain.

His eyes were locked on the house elf but then turned to Lea as she spoke. Cure the swelling, yes, of course. He nodded his head but remembered that she probably couldn't see as she was still looking at the elf. "Oui," he answered her and walked closer to the elf and the plant he was behind.
He crouched and got a closer look on both the elf and the plant. "We can use the deflating draught," Sébastien said looking over his shoulder at Léa. "I see we 'ave most of ze ingredients," he added motioning his hand at the plants he had located so far.

Still crouched, he started reaching for the aloe plants, "we 'ave aloe and wood surrel 'ere," he murmured looking around him recalling the rest of the ingredients that were needed for the potion..

Only when Sébastien said the name of the potion did she look away from the poor, poor elf and onto the ingredients at hand. She took a moment or two with examining them from afar - she wasn't going near it before she made 100000% sure it was harmless - and nodded at last.

"Yes, we should brew deflating draft." It was a draft, no? Could the jury hear their discussion here? "We have snargaluff and galangal as well." It they certainly should brew that draft. She eyed the rest of the ingredients. "I'm pretty sure we only need those." So what were those doing there?

She looked back at the elf. Was it safe to approach it, or did Sébastien mind adding water to the cauldron?

His eyes were glued on the plants, his ears still ringing from the sound the poor elf was making. He wasn't heartless, Sébastien wasn't. But he figured that they both needed to work fast and figure out what to do in order to help the swollen elf faster. No use of them sitting and patting the house elf. His mind was registering the plants he laid eyes on when Lea corrected him, "Oui.... yes," He agreed with her catching his own mistake.

Following her line of sight, he spotted the plants she mentioned and nodded seeing that they had most of what was needed. Everything even. Pulling out his wand he walked over to the cauldron and pointed his want at it then murmuring, "Aguamenti," Waving his wand drawing a horizontal 'S'.

Before turning back to the plants he eyed the cauldron for a bit then pointed his wand at it again glancing at Léa, "we 'ave to let it boil," He said to the older girl before speaking up the incantation. "Chaudensis," He regarded the cauldron one last time before turning around and stepped closer to the plants. He glanced at the older girl wondering if she was going to stay standing there near the elf all the time. He'd definitely need help brewing this potion.

For now they needed to wait for the water to boil, then add the forst ingrdient. If his memory served him well it was the wood sorrel.

Léa was eyeing the elf more than her friend. She figured this was more of a teamwork than success though, hence two people here, but... okay... she took a deep breath, and approached him cautiously. If only the elf moved from there... she tore her eyes difficultly from it and regarded her friend with slight panic.

"We weel add wood sorrel wizzout stirring and boil for ten minutes." She wasn't teaching him, no. She was just trying to control her panic.

Waiting for the water to boil, Sébastien sat cross-legged near the cauldron and waited. They had the ingredients within reach so they had to wait on the water now. He figured sitting down wouldn't hurt. Who knew what they had to do afterward. There was no point in tiring themselves out already. Leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees, he turned to look at both the elf and Lea. Who finally was able to tear her gaze away from the poor swollen-faced elf. He didn't blame her. It wasn't a pleasant sight and his eyebrows furrowed more every time he took a look at the swollen face. But they were brewing a potion to help so that made him a feel better.

He nodded at the sixth-year's words that confirmed his thoughts. While waiting for the water to boil, he let himself look around and taking in the detail of the place that was so much like a cave. He had gotten a general look at it once they got in but he didn't get to inspect much as the elf caught their attention immediately.

Not letting himself get distracted by the area, he got up on his feet and peered down at the cauldron noting the bubbles that started to form. One step down, he thought. Walking over to the nearest wood sorrel plant and got a handful then slowly added it to the water. He glanced at his watch since they had to wait for ten minutes. He looked around recalling what needed to be done next.

"we weell have to work togezer on ze snargaluff," He told her eyeing the wood- like plant thinking that he can yank the pod out if Léa holds the vines as much as possible.

Léa didn't sit down at first. Instead, she stubbornly looked around for somewhere suitable to sit, but there was none. Rude of the professors. Or was it another test? She couldn't help but be suspicious of EVERYTHING. She looked at Sébastien on the ground and almost sat down, but no. She still didn't trust the elf and she didn't want to be the same height with it. She studied the water in the cauldron to keep herself busy. Before she could warn him, Sébastien was checking it too. She let him add the wood sorrel, then checked her elegant, Chanel watch.

"Oui," she agreed to working together absent-mindedly as she moved to get the snargaluff. She halted midway, checked her watch--ten minutes were up. She eyed the cauldron too to make sure the wood sorrel was submerged thoroughly. It looked so to her. "Let's start," she said and took a deep breath. She reached forward, held it with one hand at arm-length and hoped he would act quickly to grab its every attacking part before she was attacked horribly.

While waiting for the ten minutes to pass he sat down again and waited checking his watch regularly at first but then leaving it to Léa who was still standing. He wondered why she did not sit down even away from the elf and the cauldron. Whatever made her comfortable, he thought. Silently, he sat waiting for the ten minutes to pass while the wood sorrel boiled in the water.

After ten minutes, he thought to peer at the cauldron to check but she had gone to do so, so he remained on the ground waiting for her to say if the time was enough. And seeing that she had approached the snargaluff , he got up quickly and jogged towards her as she held one of the vines. He braced himself and grabbed another one just as a third stuck out in the air and whipped around. Luckily, he had seen it coming or at least expected it so Sébastien ducked his head and tried to avoid it as possible while his other arm dived into a small hole that tightened around his forearm as he twisted his arm and flexed his fingers underground trying to get hold of the pod.

With his eyes squinted and teeth gritted for a little period of time and with the help of Léa he managed to pull out his arm clutching in his palm the pod. He quickly tossed it into the cauldron before yanking at another's plants' vines trying to hold down as many as he could leaving the next pod for Léa to retrieve hoping she could get her arm down and out the hole as he wrestled the crazy vines.

Sébastien was agile enough and saved her, but the snargaluff was strong too. It was awfully hard to hold it with her weak and muscleless arms, but she managed somehow and reached for that third vibe with her free hand to save him. Adrenaline had kicked in and made her much stronger as well a bit frantic. She transferred the vine in her left hand to her right, which tried to hold TWO vines now, and with her left hand opened the hole that had closed around his arm just enough for him to take his arm out. She was glad to see him get one pod out. It was her turn. She muttered encouragement to herself in French and freed her left hand from the other hole. She was nearly exhausted, but with the last bits of adrenaline, her right arm still held onto those two vines. Leaning her full body weight on them, feet stubbornly holding onto the ground, it took her a second to spot another opening and she dived into that with her free hand. It closed around her arm. It took her two seconds to find and hold another pod, and hopefully with his help, she drew her arm free and tossed the stupid pulsating pod into the cauldron. She quickly let go of the vines and retreated as fast as she could, hoping Sébastien would do so too so that the snargaluff would stop trying to kill them.

Wrestling to wrestle the angry vines and trying to hold them down, he felt his arms sore and cramped a no longer capable of keeping them away or down. So he plucked his wand out of his pocket, aimed it at the vines and said, "Stupefy!" jabbing his wand at it. He inhaled noisily as Lea managed to dig up the pod and stepped back from the plant. He then followed suit, though slowly as he managed to stun it.

With both pods added to the cauldron. He allowed himself to pause and regain his breath while his eyes were focused on the cauldron.

Though, there wasn't lots of time to waste. The faster the finished brewing the potion the better. The poor elf would probably appreciate that.

He glanced at his friend who must look tired by the intense encounter they just had with the vicious plant. They had to leave the pods to boil with the water, so he he stood arms folded across his chest and letting his eyes wander to the plants. "We need to squeeze the aloe," He said thinking out loud. They probably had to do it manually since they had no equipment within reach. Unless they could make something? Did they have what was needed? He kept looking around searching for anything usable, like rocks or fallen twigs.

As soon as she retreated--though she had to admit, stunning it was also a brilliant idea--Léa checked her watch. It was supposed to boil for FIVE minutes, and she was exact in such details. She sat down on the floor without any reservations this time - funny what people would do when in need, nodded at her friend, and scanned the arena with her eyes too for something of use. There was nothing to be useful for squeezing. She was assigned Ravenclaw for a reason, though. She wasn't discouraged by this detail at all, and simply removed her training shoes. She had her socks to protect her feet getting cut, though she honestly doubted there was something to cut her feet. She walked to the aloe without speaking - he had eyes as well as a brain, and obviously she was going to squish aloe between her shoes - and grabbed the aloe. She walked back to the cauldron, eyes on the watch.

"One of uz should hold ze aloe while ze ozzer presses ze shoes," she explained. If he chose to press the shoes, they were still where she had been sitting. "We need ten drops." Just to make sure he remembered it correctly too.

He tried to take note of every single object his eyes spotted and thought of what could that object be used for if needed. It wasn't easy, since he never had to brew a potion in a cave before, But it was challenging and that sort of motivated him. His eyes darted to the boiling water and he remembered that they had to lower the temperature. He paused trying to think of a way to reverse the warming up spell, or one that worked the other way around. They didn't want to turn the cauldron cold just had to reduce the heat. He paused before walking up to the cauldron and pointed his wand at its exterior, "Glacius," He murmured as a surge of cold air shot out of the tip of the wand. He watched the water noticing the number of bubbles reducing. That made it definitely colder but they weren't supposed to leave it like that, so he pointed his wand again and murmured, "Chaudensis," It'd take time till it boiled. So for now it would simmer like it's supposed to. He was buried in his own thoughts but Léa caught his attention when she took off her shoes. He, at first, was perplexed by this gesture. Did she feel more comfortable without them? Which wasn't something he knew of nor expected. But then it all clicked in his mind and made sense. The squeezing. He nodded at her, and got up walking closer to her after picking up her shoes.

"Zis is smart," He grinned at her as he reached out, shoes in hands and pressed the shoes together with the aloe in between.His eyes were focused and sharp as he counted the drops. Three....Four...

Slowly he kept squeezing, eyebrows knitted in concentration. They only needed ten drops and there was no way they could get rid of an extra drop without having to start all over. They definitely didn't want to do that.

Eight.. Nine...Ten

With that he pulled his hands and set the shoes on the ground. Another step down.

He let the the liquid to simmer and walked over to one of the palm trees pointed up his wand and said, "Diffindo," as he waved his wand downwards then upwards in the correct movement. With that a couple of leaves fell to the ground and he immediately picked them up and walked back to sit down near the cauldron after picking up a galangal plant. He spread the leaf and held the galangal above it while his other hand pointed the want at it. They needed galangal powder. He eyed the plant thinking of how they could get the powder. The only solution he thought of was the severing charm. He had to cut it into very small pieces. "We need to turn eet to powder," He said to himself more than to Léa before waving his wand at the plant in his hand saying, "Diffindo," more than once until the plant was cut into small pieces in his spread palm.

He kept repeating the spell until the small pieces turned to powder. Carefully, he brushed the powder off his palm and onto the spread leaf. He reached for his wand again and pointed it at the powder and waved it drawing an upside-down 'V' shape. "Incendio," He uttered and watched the powder on fire now waiting for it to turn brown. Once it did he reached for the shoes and extinguished the fire with one sending an apologetic look in Léa's direction. He owed her new shoes.

Sébastien rose to his feet and slowly picked up the burnt-now-leaf with the powder on it and added the powder into the cauldron. He figured it was enough simmering. The process had taken him quite a while.

Turning to his friend he offered a cautious smile, "Désolé... I weel buy you new shoes," He promised her with a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth. Though, only one shoe was a bit burnt, he was sure it could be repaired but he still would buy her new trainers.

Léa watched him lower the fire to simmer and held the aloe over the cauldron. He apparently chose to squeeze the drops out of aloe. She was fine with it. In fact, it was better for him to do since her arms still hadn't quite recovered from the wrestling. It was painful to hold the aloe over the cauldron straightly for him to squeeze, but she only grunted once or twice during the process. She was holding the aloe with her right hand while the left supported it, and she did her best not to wince for her shoes. Needless to say, they were of the best sports brand. It broke her heart and she turned her head away. She didn't even count the drops - she had full trust in him, but also she didn't want to watch her shoes' getting ruined. Instead she sang her favourite song in her mind and once she understood he was done, she walked to where the aloe had been and put it down.

She didn't even glance at her shoes. She wasn't going to wear them again. It was probably all sticky and... dirty. Ew.

She was still too exhausted to move her hands much, so she was very grateful when he took charge of the galangal plant. She decided to check the time and started counting an hour. They had to stir it when one hour was up... but it wasn't. He was done within an hour, so none of them stirred it before adding the burnt galangal. Her hands were thoroughly rested by then, so she rose to her feet, moved them for a few seconds to get off the numb sensation, and looked around for a stick to stir. There was none, of course, and she couldn't risk stirring it with only her wand, so... she walked to the snargaluff with wand in hand, yelled "Stupefy!" while jabbing her wand at a random branch. It stopped its movement, and she said "Diffindo!" this time, waving her wand downwards and upwards. A branch fell to her other hand. It wasn't a smooth branch, but it was long enough to fit the cauldron and she didn't primarily want smooth either. She checked her watch, walked to the cauldron, put the snargaluff in the potion and started stirring counter-clockwise as fast as her arm allowed her. It was a hard work and after two minutes, she switched arms with only slowing her stirring down for a few seconds.

...

Five, four, three, two, one...

"Zat's it." She stopped stirring but kept the stick inside and bent down. To stop the cauldron's heating, she said "Finite," and the heating stopped.

"You win me zis round and zat’s enough.” She smiled. “Now we wait for eet to cool down." She sat down next to it. How long would it take?

He was glad she didn't look too upset about her shoes. She obviously wasn't intending to wear them. He considered 'scourgify' them but she would have probably thought of that. Plus, they had more important issue at hand. Looking over at the cauldron and it looked ok. He hoped they had brewed the potion correctly and didn't forget any step or overdo anything.

As Léa looked around, he figured she was looking for something to stir the potion with. He too started looking around for a twig or something? What were the odds of them finding such thing in a cave? Then he saw his friend approaching the snargaluff. He wondered if she needed help but figured she would have told him so. His thoughts were confirmed as she drew her wand and used the stunning spell. That was smart, he thought.

Seeing that she got the hand of it he stepped back letting her take care of the stirring and kept his eyes on his watch tracking time. Two of them doing so was better. They were almost done and couldn't risk making a mistake at the very end.

Once she finished and sat down, he went and sat next to her returning her smile. He sure hoped they had done everything correctly and as required. He also wondered what the other competitors from the other two schools were doing. Did they have the same task and another elf? And speaking of which. Sébastien turned toward the elf with the swollen face and approached him. "We made you a potion," He said addrssing the elf. Could the elf hear him? Did he know what they were doing. "Eet will 'elp and 'eal your swollen face," Hoping they brewed it correctly and if not then hopefully it wouldn't harm the elf. The fifth-year boy looked around and considered using palms' leaves to apply the potion to the elf's face. Would he let them? Sébastien waited for any sign of agreeing or disagreeing from the elf since talking wasn't really an option.

Léa waited for the elf to react, holding her breath, but poor thing was far too dazed for that apparently. She got up and got the snargaluff's stick out of the potion. She'd forgotten that there, and it might get alive. She threw it next to the rest of the snargaluff plant and grabbed a palm leaf. "Zis won't 'urt, we promise," she said with a smile and careful to not touch the potion, got some of it on the leaf. She carefully walked to elf and smiled once again as best as she could. She was scared of it, but she had to look brave, she figured. She slowly reached for its neck and tried to apply the potion.

Let her, please?

Shooting a glance towards the cauldron, Sébastien reached out and touched one of his fingers to it cautiously making sure it did cool. The fact that he didn't snatch his hand away confirmed it. He watched as Léa approached the elf with the leaf. He reached for a leaf as well and dipped it into the cauldron but hesitated. Should he approach as well or would that frighten the elf. Though he didn't know elves to be afraid of people. But this elf was probably in pain so it might be different. He let his friend handle this for now and watched to see if the elf would willingly let the potion be applied. And if so, he'd wait to see the effects of the potion. Hoping it was correctly and accurately brewed.

He watched closely his hand holding the leaf carefully wondering if he should apply some to the elf's face. Probably wait first.

As time passed, beads of sweat had formed on the swollen house elf's forehead. Time was of the essence and despite the elfs obvious discomfort, it held its breath as the draft was administered. Slowly, the effects of the potion started to show.

First its ears lessened in size and lost its swollen sheen. Next its eyes started bulging in its sockets as its eyelids reduced in size, considerable.

The house elf emitted squeaks and squeals as it regained the ability to breathe, see and speak freely.

"Thank you," it uttered, bowing and almost grovelling at the students' feet.

Beauxbaton's representatives had been successful.

Léa held her breath, one hand still holding the palm leaf while the other was on her chest. What if it didn't work? But it did! It worked well! She breathed in utter relief and smiled - an all-teeth-showing smile.

"Eet iz alright," she said to elf and bend down slightly to stop it from bowing. Normally, she was one of those people that thought elves should serve humans perfectly, but this elf won her heart and she didn't want it to bow. She seemed to have overcome her fear of it as well and although she was still reluctant to touch it, she wasn't afraid to come very near.

"Iz zere any message you should deliver us?" she asked. "Or some-zing else we should do?" She had to make sure this was IT before relaxing and celebrating with Sébastien.

His eyes were locked on the leaf which Léa held and dabbed the potion with. She seemed to be doing quite a good job and he didn't see need for him to tower over the poor elf who didn't look too comfortable. Understandable, no one liked strangers applying potion to them, elf or not. At first he thought his minds were playing tricks but then he glanced at Léa and saw that even she had noticed the changes. He smile grew larger as the face of the elf returned back to the way it was supposed to be.

By the time the elf started making grateful sounds, Sébastien was grinning. Proud and whole lot of euphoria caused by the results of success. He nodded his head at the elf trying to keep his cool posture. Despite feeling like it, he was never going to squeal, beam or jump happily.

Then Léa cut right to business. Which was wise. Were there other elves with swollen faces around or something? Did they need to brew another potion. Hopefully the elf would tell them something useful or maybe show them.

The elf had no message for the two competitors. It merely shook its head gratefully and bowed and gestured for them to exit the gave. No more instructions were to be found here, just pure gratitude!