An Innovative Way To Destroy The House Errand

AUGUST 21ST

»»————-　✼　————-««

People had always wondered when Scarlett Aden would destroy the house.

Scarlett herself had often thought about this - if she could flood other people's cottages, accidently set ablaze a bungalow and crash through the roof of a villa, then it seemed incredibly likely that she would be able to demolish her own house one day. Today would...probably be that day.

The young redhead stood in the kitchen, rather shell-shocked as she read the letter she had received from Hogwarts's resident Keeper of the Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. It was fairly easy for her to cast her mind back and recall the face of this member of staff - the seemingly permanently hungry ginger one with a large figure and a magnificent moustache. Apparently, as stated in his owl, the guy wanted students to bake him something so he could eat them and judge them. Because he was...hungry. And they had to somehow send their food back by owl.

The handsome tawny that had delivered the letter cocked its head and tapped its claw impatiently on the windowsill, as if to say 'I'm waiting for you to start'. Then it flew away. Scarlett looked at where it had left for a moment, dark-brown eyes lingering on the spot, before she snapped to action. The ancient family owl, Loki, a mess of feather and bone, would have to suffice for the deliverer of the food. Her aunt's kitchen was thankfully fully stocked and her aunt herself was away for the day - perfect. If anything happened, she could just tidy it up by evening, the time Fiona arrived back home. As the Gryffindor began to move towards the shelf that contained cake mix, she stopped for a moment. Why was she even doing this? Scarlett couldn't bake for Merlin's sake. She thought about the time her pancakes didn't resemble the 'light, fluffy' texture it had said in the cookbook, instead looking (and feeling, and tasting) more like a rock. She thought about the time when she had attempted to help Fiona make ramen noodles and had almost burnt the dining room and the kitchen down simultaneously.

Well, third time's the charm, shrugged Scarlett nonchalantly, as she opened the cupboard and took out the cake mix. Perhaps this was why she was a Gryffindor and not a - say - Ravenclaw, or Slytherin. She had better not say that in front of her friend Rose Moon though. They had met over the summer and Scarlett had decided they were friends; Rose was sweet and nice and cool to be around. She was also not very fond of house stereotypes, which Scarlett so often mistakenly followed.

The girl was about to start baking when she realised she had not yet gotten the correct attire for this event. Robes and a top? Not exactly the most chef-like outfit, or the most kitchen-friendly. With this new realisation in mind, Scarlett rushed up the stairs to get dressed as quickly as possible.

***

Now clad in a flowery apron and jeans, Scarlett set to work. She had no idea what she was doing, but with cake mix and instructions, she couldn't go wrong. The girl skipped over the first step, which was to heat up the oven, because truth be told - who needed to do that when she could just set it to something like 300 degrees Celsius when the time called for it? It saved time. Scarlett glanced at the instructions again. Mix the cake mix, water, butter and eggs in a large bowl? Beat vigorously by hand for two minutes? These instructions were stupid - how was she meant to know how many eggs she needed? Sighing, Scarlett opened the crockery cupboard and grabbed 'a large bowl', which she then dumped cake mix into. Afterwards, she poured some water into the bowl, but her hand slipped and -

CRASH!

"Oh shoot," cursed Scarlett.

The water jug had been sent flying towards the immaculate tiled floor, and what was left of the water had ended up on the floor. Most had gone in the bowl, which was now a sludgy, soggy mess. Ah well, Scarlett could clean up the mess before her aunt came home. And surely there was some cake mix to be salvaged.

***

A vigorous clean-up had ensured, and Scarlett had changed clothes again. The apron had been dumped in the wash, in favour of more casual wear that she didn't mind getting dirty. Everything seemed to have gone well on attempt two - the second box of cake mix went in, the water was measured alright, the butter had gone in and the eggs...she had cracked around seven of them into the bowl. Better safe than sorry.

The oven had stayed cool the whole time, and Scarlett decided that now was the time to turn the knobs. 50 degrees, 100 degrees, 150 degrees, 200 degrees, 250 degrees and...300 degrees! Triumphant, Scarlett poured her cake mix - batter - thing into a baking tin, before opening the oven door, putting the cake in and closing it.

Now to rest.

***

The smell of smoke wafted up to her from the kitchen and Scarlett immediately ran down from her bedroom to check what was going on.

The redhead burst into the kitchen to see the inside of the oven in flames.

Well, that wasn't a great way to end the baking session. But the fire wasn't that scary. She was a Gryffindor and had seen plenty of fire before. Scarlett figured the oven fire would burn out soon enough - if it didn't, she could just wait until Fiona came home. It was stupid that she couldn't do magic outside of school, really. She knew just the spell for the job. Rolling her eyes, Scarlett trudged back upstairs.

***

"SCARLETT!" The terrifying noise of her aunt shouting was enough to wake Scarlett from her small nap. She wasn't afraid of a lot of things, but her aunt was not one of them.

And there Fiona stood, fuming as she flicked her wand.

"Extinguo!"

And the fire went out.

"How would you like to explain this, Scarlett?"

***

It wasn't that bad. The day ended with Scarlett grounded for the rest of the summer, which she didn't mind too much. Fiona sent Loki back to the Keeper of the Keys and Grounds, with a package of a slice of heavily burnt cake in his elderly claws.

1064/800
Errand finished