Errand Why Not?

Katrina made her way to the Greenhouses. The sun's liquid gold rays were spilling out on the dew coated grass. Katrina rubbed her hands on her arms in a futile attempt to warm herself. Absentmindedly drawing her cloak closer to herself- Katrina approached her destination. She paused for a second in the warm light peeking over the trees before remembering what she was supposed to start with. She reached the garden and the pungent scent of herbs nipped at her nose.
The Gryffindor bent down and began to collect small bundles of herbs, she gave up soon and collected all of each kind and placed them inside in small piles. She finished a row or two before coming back inside the greenhouse to bundle them. Soon the monotonous of the activity reached her mind and her focus wandered. She separated each pile into smaller piles with the height and width of her index finger. Doing this, reminded her the other two errands she had done.
Over the summer she had helped out twice around the campus. She gathered foods and vegetables while doing other yard-work the first time. The second time- she had been with Thora Larkston. Even thinking of her made a small part of her heart sting with guilt. She kept messing everything up. Katrina's focus returned to the piles of herbs. The little bundles began a soon-to-be mountain.
Soon the small mountain of tied herbs had piled in front of her. Katrina was tired and her fingers were cramped. She returned outside and into the freezing air. The air was slightly warmer than before, but the chill still bit her nose. She gathered the stalks and came back inside. She slowly defrosted as the liquid gold sunlight flooded the greenhouse with warmth. She was thankful for the warmth as it brought feeling back to her fingers.
She should be more involved in the school. She did nothing with her time and it was getting to her. She was not anywhere close to being good at riding a broom yet so Quidditch was scratched off the list. Too bad dueling was done, she could have done that. Katrina had shown a liking for spells but sign-ups are done. Maybe she could start brewing potions, she wasn't half-bad during class. A bunch of people were starting to make potions- it would be cool if she did that with somebody. She was a good artist, but not a good writer so no newlettering. She did enjoy helping around the campus though.
Part of Katrina wished she had closer friends at the school. It would be nice to do more activities with someone. Katrina wanted to go to a Quidditch match, she hadn't seen any yet. Maybe she could meet someone there? Thora and Bridget were on the Slytherin team, so she would at least know someone that was playing. She could just root for both teams, a small smile tugged at Katrina's lips.
The large pile of recently collected herbs had reduced to the last few bundles. Katrina sat on the floor and rested her back against the table. She stretched her wrist and back beginning to regret coming.
Katrina stood again and looked at the large piles of herbs. She tentatively sniffed the bundles. One smelled good, almost like an autumn scent that made her want to curl up by a fire. The next smelled really bad, there were no words to describe the scent and she was worried that smelling it might give her some weird sickness. And the last smelled like a tea that her mom used to make when she was sick. All of these herbs looked nothing like those that her mom used to cook with, and smelled nothing like them too.
The student went back outside and grabbed just about the amount of a dozen bundles. Just enough so she could smell them. She returned back inside when her fingers began to cramp up again. She bundled them up much faster than before. She was reminded of the fun times her and her brother would do chores together.

"I bet you I will finish before you!" Liam smirked expertly folding his pants with record timing.
"Let's see about that!" Katrina had already finished her pants and was folding her shirts.
The smell of freshly washed clothes and bubbles wafted through the small laundry room. Both siblings were rushing to fold their clothes.
"The first person to correctly fold, iron- if needed- and put away their clothes wins." A spark was lit in Katrina's eyes as she began to fold socks.
"And the looser has to do all of the dinner dishes." Liam grinned it was his night and it would be great if he got extra video-game time.
"Game on!" Katrina knew she would win, and the spare time she would spend finishing her self-portrait for art.
~~~
2 hours later…

Liam stood at the sink grumbling while scrubbing away at the dirty pans. Katrina had suggested mom make her chicken-macaroni casserole. It was delicious and made an awful mess to clean up. She brought out her drawing to the living room and enjoyed her extra minutes of undivided art time while gloating over her brother.

Katrina wondered what sparked the memory. She smelled the bundle she had just wrapped and was shocked, it smelled almost like the laundry detergent that she used to use. She went from bundle to bundle smelling the exotic plants. Most of which just smelled like the forest or greenery while others smelled like tea or sour milk.
Katrina finished with horribly stiff fingers but a smile on her face. The memories had brought back a hope that joy was still out there. She might not know if she would ever see her brother again. But she did know that there were still opportunities to have fun and enjoy herself. Katrina wondered how she was supposed to tell Professor that she was done. She was glad she had brought her satchel and brought out parchment and a quill and wrote a quick note telling them she was done.
Katrina walked back to the building a small bounce in her step. She stuffed her hands deep in her pockets. And relished the heat from the sun that had now risen quite a bit. She entered the door and rubbed her hands together. Boy, Katrina was glad she was done being out of the cold.

WC: 1060