Yep, That's a Hole. errand solo

It was a beautiful day for a walk down by the lake, particularly considering that a walk down by the lake meant that she was anywhere but inside the castle. It felt dark today, and cramped. The flickering shadows from the wall sconces, the echoes off of the stone corridors, all usually homey to Cecily, today felt unsettling. Even the Ravenclaw common room, with its wide open floor plan and huge windows, seemed to small for the girl. She craved a breath of fresh air, the sunlight glimmering off the Great Lake, the breeze rustling branches overhead.

Overhead was just where she was looking as the ground seemed to disappear from beneath her feet, dragging her to the ground with awkward stumble and wholly undignified shout. What the— she sat on the ground for a moment, brain catching up with her body. Cecily regained her bearings to find herself with her leg shin-deep inside a hole in the grass. Oh. A hole. Right. That was... normal? She was pretty sure there wasn't typically assorted holes around the grounds, unless this one was just recently made, perhaps by some sort of animal. But as she began to stand up, she noticed another one nearby. And another. And... another. Where the hell did all of these holes come from?

Cecily slowly rose to her feet, dusting herself off of the dirt that still clung to her clothes. So this was what the Hogwarts grounds crew had come to, huh? Leaving holes scattered across the grass for unassuming students such as herself to trip in? Hey Headmaster, maybe it was time for a new Groundskeeper!

She skirted around the hole which had done her such wrongs, continuing on her walk with an abundance of caution. There really were an incredible amount of holes in the area. She felt the ground slip underneath her once more and hopped out of the way just in time to avoid a second intimate encounter with the ground, now beginning to doubt the coincidental nature of these holes. As she took a moment to debate the merits of continuing down this path, she heard a rhythmic sound coming from behind a tree just to her right. It sounded almost like...

She made her way around another hole to round the tree, coming face to face with what seemed, to Cecily, like the culprit. "You— What are you doing?" Cecily blurted out before she could stop herself. It wasn't like her to speak to someone so blatantly, but then, it also wasn't like her to leave a mystery unsolved.

The girl looked up at her with a puzzled look. She couldn't have been older than a third-year, more likely second. The girl explained to her, in no uncertain terms, that she was digging a hole. Upon Cecily's frustrating request for more information— yes, clearly you're digging a hole— the girl divulged that it was, in fact, a Groundskeeper-sanctioned activity. Oh, so they didn't need a new Groundskeeper, the one they had just needed a sanity check. But the girl went on, explaining that he had sent the students out with shovels and other weapons of mass hole-digging in order to beautify the grounds, expecting to fill the holes with assorted plants.

Nodding thoughtfully, Cecily thanked the girl and left her to her shoveling. Upon rounding the tree once more, now completing a full 360 around its trunk, Cecily nearly tripped— again— over a stray shovel lying on the ground. Someone likely abandoned it after digging their hole, which happened to work out well for Cecily, who had since made up her mind to dig a hole of her very own. Although she didn't feel great about the idea of destroying the lovely grass, if nothing else, whacking at the dirt with a shovel could be cathartic, right?

Cecily leaned over to pick up the shovel. Choosing a spot near the shore of the lake, she planted the sharp tip into the ground, using her foot to drive the spade-shaped head into the ground. Leaning on the handle, she pried a chunk of grass up from the ground and tossed it to the side. Okay, so maybe this would be a little more effort than she had expected. It had been a long time since she last dug a hole in the ground. But hey— she was outside, she was getting some fresh air, and she was getting her energy out. She drove the shovel into the soft dirt once more, scooping dirt out of the rapidly growing hole. Her head began to clear as the repetitive motion and rhythmic sound of the rough metal slicing through soil drowned out her thoughts. Okay, so maybe all the students who had torn up the grounds of Hogwarts had it right.

Cecily stepped back from her hole, shovel grasped in her hand. Yep. That was a hole. Mission accomplished, she guessed. Nodding, she threaded her way through the holes to return the shovel to where she found it— she would've returned it properly, but she wasn't sure where it came from originally— and turned to head back inside the castle, which no longer seemed so dark and imposing to Cecily. Somehow, that had been just what she needed to drive away today's funky mood. Eh, whatever works, right?

WC: 888

@Dealla Prince u owe me