So far Cora had no complaints. While she knew some of her peers weren’t altogether thrilled about being invited for this weekend, Cora was going to take the best of it. It was a good distraction for her and her mother. And she felt honored to be chosen for this. It was still a surprise for her but she was going to focus and work hard and just relax and enjoy the weekend.
 
After enjoying a delicious and fun breakfast, Cora bid her mother farewell for the next couple of hours and then went and joined the rest of her classmates. They followed the professors down to Hogsmeade and she cast the others a confused look, not exactly what was going on now. It had been explained to them before they had journeyed off the grounds but actually starting to get involved in what was described to them was a different story.
 
The exercise was intriguing and fun sounding in a way. Hey, at least she got to use magic. Cora was not about to complain about that. Besides, she couldn’t wait to put all that she was learning to good use for later on. She would have to be stupid not to see that there really was a point to all of this. She practiced the spell they were taught. Cora took her studies seriously. It was practically bred into her, being a Blair. And so she was careful to pay attention so she would know exactly what she was doing.  

“Alright, if you are ready, let’s begin. I can tell you there are no markers over there under the trees, or on the other side of the dilapidated barbwire fence. Otherwise, they could be anywhere. Oh, as an incentive, I’ve asked Madam Rosemerta to bring up a load of Butterbeer in an hour, so let’s see how many we can find by then.”

So they were off. Cora wasn’t sure if she were doing things right. So far she hadn’t detected anything. She walked around, glancing at the others to see how they were doing, feeling inadequate the whole time. Finally, after what felt like an hour but was probably only ten minutes, she felt the tugging that told her she had found something. Cora scrunched her brows up and performed the spell that would allow her to trace it. Several times she felt that she had reached the end but she wasn’t sure. She would get a tug and then start back up again. It really was a lot harder than it looked.

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