Main Errand Flag Decorating Closed Archive

...Now what was Remi going to write and draw onto the paper that would resonate with him. Sure, he could do the boring, and scarily similar flag like Ireland, and be done with it. However, that would be lame and the teacher would totally see his plan from a whole mile away.

Time to think, what did Remi like.

'What do I like, hmm.'

As Remi thought to himself before looking around for something that stuck with him but this room was, funny enough, was lacking anything that made him think about it as this was a Muggle studies classroom. Boring Muggle stuff, nothing with magic.

Magic.

...Of course! It was simple but now, his mind was flowing with some ideas on what he was brought up as; magic. It was something that was actually fun with the droning topic about Muggle culture and whatnot. Magic was his life, any place in the wizarding world; he could find it.

"No-no-no. Lemme start with the background."

He took a simple look over towards his right where the paint supplies. Getting a wide brush, a cleaning cup for the paint, and a couple of different colors; orange and green. Dipping his wide brush into the orange paint and carefully painted one side of the paper, not wanting to go over the border of the picture so it wouldn't look tacky.

As he washes the orange off, he dipped his brush into the green paint and did the same thing on the other side. Leaving the exact middle a solid white, "The Ivorian flag." He had a slight gut feeling that he messed up on the flag but he ignored it, he always got that feeling whenever he drew the Ivory Coast flag due to being the same as the Irish Flag and his parents use to harp on him heavily whenever he made that a mistake OR he said that it looked like the Irish Flag or one of those flags near there. Never really understood why, but he just chalked it up that parents being a parent. As long as he doesn't see Harold, the decrepit house-elf again.

With a thinner brush before drawings. As he drew, he made an oaky-like wand on the paper that fired out a couple of yellow sparks. With his limited time at Hogwarts, he knew this drawing was one hundred percent Muggle influence but it was fine. That wand was drawn onto the orange side and allowing the green side to dry a little before painting the other wand with the same little oak details and the same sparks as well.

"And my favorite animal: the elephant."

He said, trying to draw an elephant, but thankfully not from memory but from a reference book which allowed him to draw the elephant and make it look somewhat decent actually.

In bold letters, the title wrote:

"Ivorian Pride!"

With a couple of gel-pens or something, he liked it but he knew he could better if he practiced drawing.

WC: 501 + 562 = 1063 (Completed)

Product:

Reducio

Damion had weird tastes in things that he liked doing. He had decorated cup cakes, embroidered and well made paper folded animals and not to forget a lot of other interesting loner things except for washing his cat. He did that with his friend Logan. He had started liking being here, but that didn't mean he was forgetting his friend back home. Oh no! that was not what this meant at all. A part of him would always miss his dear Dylan. He wished Dylan was here with him. Oh well, in his thoughts Dylan was always here with Damion. Damion could hear Dylan talking to him in his thoughts.



Damion missed his friend a lot and wanted to be able to get through things without thinking about his friend that wasn't here. He should concentrate on the person that was here like maybe his friend, Logan. Well probably that would be a good idea. He was not sure. He wished he could ask someone like Dyllie about it. He looked at the blank paper in front of him. He was going to do some flag decorating. He wanted to get something made. He was thinking of something that would make not only him happy but also Dyllie proud of him.



He shrugged away the thought. Snowman and Jack-O-Lanterns it was.



Yep that was it. That was what he was going to draw. He knew what his flag was going to look like now. He had an exact idea of it.



Now it was clearer to him what his flag would look like. He was somewhat glad to have a voice of Dyllie in his mind speaking to him. He didn't mind having a conversations with himself. Well it was all mental so no one was hearing what he was thinking.

He took a black marker and started drawing the outline of things that he'd have to color in later. He five Jack-o-Lanterns- out of which two on the corners; right and left corners and three were stacked in the middle.



The next thing that Damion drew was the hat that the top Jack-O-Lantern was wearing. He was going to make it pointed and it would have a star and a ribbon with white dots. Something that he had learnt from Dyllie.



The next thing on the list was to do the Snow man. He was going draw it perfectly. He needed this to be perfect. He needed everything to be perfect. He didn't want it to be wonky. He would hate it if it was not up to par.



Damion kept a steady hand. He was happy that Dyllie knew him so well. He liked this so much. He was happy that he had such a good friend with him. He looked at the drawing. It was coming along beautifully. He was happy and proud of himself. He looked around and wiped the sweat on his forehead.



Now it was time to color each and everything that he had made. He had a dark blue paint, white paint, black paint, yellow paint and red paint. He was going to have to make an orange color. He took out his palette and started mixing yellow and red color to get and orange color. He was going to start with the orange stuff. Those were somewhat the majority of his picture. Other colors were not that much. He had two yellow stars, a red scarf, two round snowman snows, black buttons, hats and faces and lines of Jack-O-Lantern.



First Damii colored the orange stuff. He was pretty happy with how it turned out. Well he let it dry before moving to do the black stuff on the orange. Slowly and steadily his flag was coming along. He was happy that this was looking good as the colors started getting added to it. He was very proud of it.





Snowman was the perfect reflection of how Damii saw his friend Dyllie. Pure and untarnished by anything. This was how he saw himself too. He was implying that they were both- the pumpkin when they were being naughty or mischievous and snowman when they were being angels. Pure and white.





Damii was waiting for his paper to dry so he could color the remainder of his flag in dark blue color. He was liking how it was turning out to be. He was happy that his mind had let him not get too drawn to Dylan. He liked Dylan no doubt but he didn't want to be thinking about him all the time. Well this time he had thought about only Dylan as he had let Dyllie guide him. He had let his voice stay in Damion's head. A part of him never wanted to leave Dylan but um... he had to when he moved to Hogwarts for studying. No doubt he loved getting to know more about Magic and studying in a place where he could make his parents and his friends proud. He was proud himself to be here. He kept looking at his flag that was drying up. He loved it.



A smile appeared on Damion face as he looked at the drying Flag. It was the perfect thing that he could draw. maybe some words could have made it better--- naah! It was perfect the way it was. He liked it how it looked. It was so nice and he was sure Dyllie would have liked it if Dylan had been here.

The idea was just to join an errand and get some points for Hufflepuff. She had the free time, so why not? But then it became something more- who was Lea? Her mind couldn't find one definite answer, mind fluttering between what it meant. Where they talking of heritage? Personality? Ideology? How others viewed her or how she viewed herself?

It would be challenging to find someone willing to give an honest opinion and knew her well, she thought, not entirely paying attention to the others around her. Or the fact that she didn't really know where the Muggle Studies room was. But it was on the same floor as the Hufflepuff common room, so the girl was able to find it after a few minutes of wandering around. No need to bother the upper years for directions- quite yet.

Brown eyes would peek into the classroom, actually stepping in once she noticed the art supplies. There was a sense of relief that seeped through her veins, unsure quite yet as to why this room felt... comfortable. A little closer to home, perhaps. The first year would find herself a place to sit quickly grabbing one of the pages formatted for her flag- and staring at it.

What was this supposed to be?

Lea knew where she was from of course. She was raised in Ledbury, England with no other siblings and plenty of friends. Her parents were always kind and helpful, although her dad was often gone for the day and her mother busy but at home. She was mainly English and German, but was also from plenty of other places although not nearly as prominent. Her family lived in England and Germany, and her cousins were also both magical. But where did that leave her? In the middle of it all, of course, but it didn't really feel like her. Still, it would make for a good flag assuming she could put them together well enough. The Union Jack seemed a little too complicated and relied on many more straight lines- not an artistic strong suit of the young girl.

Would it make sense to add the magical sort of thing? Lea was a witch after all- and a muggleborn. Magic was (supposed to be) unusual within muggle families, a bit of an anomaly. And yet here she was, her first year and having been sorted into Hufflepuff. A badger seemed like a really challenging thing to draw, so perhaps instead she could just add the colors. This idea involved some hasty erasing, the shavings scattering on the table beside her. Lea was quick to pick up her pencil once more, hesitant at using the more permanent art forms. Perhaps later, when she actually had her idea set up.

Onto what she considered the last step. Personality. Herself. Was it necessary to add more to what seemed like a rather filled up flag? And what, exactly, was thought of as uniquely hers? There was a momentary look of panic on the twelve year old's face as she began to have a existential crisis. But no, no, she was twelve! There was no need to find who she was yet. She had time. The thought was calm Lea down, promptly setting the pencil down. There was no need to add anything more to this flag- especially if thinking about it was only going to lead to panic. There were too many people in this room to panic- but just enough to glance back down at her paper quickly if she ever made eye contact.

The hufflepuff would stand, walking over to collect some markers of different colors. Yellow, black, red. There was a momentary pause, surprised at how few colors there would be. But a quick calculation told her that that was correct. She was quick to scamper back to her flag and her paper.

The girl would wait a few moments, debating whether to get rid of her pencil sketch. It was a few moments before she decided not to erase it. After all, it showed that she liked to prepare stuff- or something like that. This whole finding oneself was both having a hand in everything and not making itself present enough. Lea would start with the black, finding a surprising happiness in seeing the dark bold lines form on the paper. Perhaps she got too excited at working on her flag, though, since the black began to reach outside of its boundaries. A little disappointing, but Lea found that it looked good enough. Art had always been an interest, but not necessarily something she practiced or did well.

The red marker, though, was the one that gave her trouble. She kept going over it, trying to uniform the color, but instead certain parts would get dark as others stayed light. The scribbling would grow more intense, giving one last attempt at bringing it all together... before she gave up. "Why didn't you cooperate with me, red?" Lea asked the marker, putting the cap on it before grabbing onto the yellow marker.

This one also seemed to have the same issue, but the hufflepuff was able to control it more this time. Perhaps because it was smaller chunks of yellow rather a large + in the middle of the flag. Either way, the yellow was more peaceful in its attempt to get on the page, a smile forming as she heard the satisfying snap of the marker lid clasping back onto the marker itself.

"I think... that's it?" The girl would mutter to herself, examining the paper. It looked, by no means, as good as others that she happened to catch a glimpse of, but it looked nice enough. Lea was actually able to do art. An impressive feat in her mind, even if she was behind all the other students in terms of art skills. The smile would grow a little more as she nodded. Yes, she liked it- it was her own original idea and a little part of herself.

"Thank you Professor," the girl would call softly, hoping not to be heard as she stood up from the table, preparing to exit the classroom.

Lea exits the thread unless stopped.

Word Count: 1029 /1000 (complete)

There was not all too much that urged Alan to draw something as boring as a flag. He could not think of anything less boring to draw and while he understood why the task was given, the only reason he had taken interest in this task was the promise of praise and house points. His house could really need them so who was he to actively stand in the way of getting a couple of them. He liked earning points for his house and if this was the way to get them he would gladly do this errand, or well, activity the Muggle Studies professor had thought up. To be fair, Muggle Studies by itself would tend to be quite the interesting subject but also rather complicated to grasp. Alan had an easier job just asking his muggle-born friends if there was anything he really had to know. Willow was great for that; she was nice and always explained things to him if he had a question so the fourth year was glad to be her friend but he was sure that Muggle Studies was a step too far ahead for even him. It sounded quite complicated and like a lot of reading as most Muggle things would not work in this school it was mostly taught in theory. Perhaps his decision would have been different if this class had been more practical but like this he preferred things like Care of Magical Creatures a lot more.

Perhaps they would not have to draw their country flag anyway as Alan really did not like that idea. Maybe he could think a little bit outside of the box rather than from within. He could do something about his house instead, because after all his house was also his origin in some way and not only he but his father too had been in Gryffindor. His mother had been a Slytherin and was probably the best mother he could wish for at least in most scenarios as she tended to be quite strict sometimes.

The fourth year would shake his head as he started to think up on a plan about what he could be doing for this errand and slowly began thinking of an idea. He would need a lot o colors for that however and kind of wished that Jake was around so that he could help him. Alan was not really that great at art, but Jake was incredible with it. But then the lion shook his head as he knew he had to make this work on his own, after all this would mean house points and suddenly with the idea he had it felt a lot better and interesting to draw a flag. He had no idea how the professor would react but if he was being honest that was not his biggest worry. He would take some of the materials and walked back out in the hallway as the area itself was already quite crowded and the fourth year needed some space to think and be creative. He was not all that sure whether that even made any kind of sense but he shrugged that thought off as he sat down in the corridor of the castle right in front of the Muggle Studies classroom and began to paint. He would begin with shades of orange red and yellow as he just splattered them all over the canvas, even tho it was no real canvas but in a way it was. Alan was no artist but in a way anything you would draw a masterpiece on would be a canvas, wouldn't it be?

The smears would slowly turn into something that could resemble a setting sun and once he was happy with the result he would draw a big smiling sun into the top left corner of the sunset just so that everyone would know what he had been attempting to draw there. It surely was not looking as great as something that Jake would draw but he was proud at the result and a grin was forming on his lips. As his nose itched he subconsciously reached up to wipe the back of his hand over his face, smearing the mixture of red and yellows over his cheek and the bridge of his nose before he would continue.

This time he would reach for some grey paint and not knowing better he would begin to paint across the still wet paint, making it smudge a little. The result was not as clear as the sun, but with a little bit of imagination and perhaps the knowledge of what the Gryffindor was trying to depict, people might be able to guess what his attempt could have been with the art he was making. But this was not even the most difficult part as he had a lot more to work on at this point. The Gryffindor would yet again look for a yellow color and began to choose a thinner brush as he did his best to give form to something that was standing on top of the what had been supposed to be a mountain. A few splashed of brown color and he was nearly done with the drawing. He had no idea whether this was how it worked correctly but he would wash the brush and replace the color with black as he began to outline the things he had drawn onto the map, as he was trying to make the forms stand out even more to make it easier for people to know what it was that he had been drawing. In the end as he was finished he was immensely proud with the result which depicted something from his favorite movie. It used to be the only movie he had ever watched but that had changed when he was visiting Jake on his birthday as they had watched another movie there. But here, right in front of him was a flag depicting the pride rock from the lion king. With this being done, he turned in the flag and wiped his hand clean on his already dirty pants. He had made a mess while he was drawing anyway so a little bit more paint would certainly not hurt.

Ami had a lot of pride in who she was, but what made her who she was always ended up being something that everyone else also had pride in. The daughter of a military man, a bonafide woman-respecter, and half-American; these were aspects of her identity that were core to who she was, what she valued, and what her beliefs were. But again- these always tended to be things that many others took pride in, as well. Not that she was complaining- having a community of people that shared your interests was a luxury that not many people had. Still, she had always struggled to find something that was really her own, even at Hogwarts, where it seemed that every student had some sort of tragic backstory or something that just made them incredibly special. Compared to them? She was probably one of the most normal of them all.

Save for one thing. She didn't actually know if anyone else at Hogwarts was interested in it, but as far as she could tell, Ami seemed to be the only student who liked to slap on a crap ton of makeup and go by a different name. Drag had started out as something she was curious about, but it had quickly snowballed into much more. A hobby? An obsession? Her one true love? Whatever it was, it had become an integral part of who she was, and she liked to celebrate it whenever possible. For example, back in June, she had run around the castle in drag, introducing the students and professors of Hogwarts to the one and only Chad Preoccupied.

Speaking of professors who had had the misfortune of meeting her drag persona (and having her in class), Ami found herself in Professor Galim's classroom. She waved to her Muggle Studies professor, accompanied by a quiet, "Hey" before taking a seat at one of the tables. Taking one of the sheets of paper, Ami took in the spread of art supplies on the surface of the table. So they were going to make a flag... well, she'd definitely have to get creative with this. She knew she didn't want to make an American flag. It was... overdone, pretty ugly, and really, not all original. She wanted to do something original, to create a flag that meant a lot to her, personally. She debated on making a rainbow American flag, but she knew that it was a concept that had been done before; she had seen pictures of a rainbow American flag online on social media, so she knew that concept was out the window.

Her fingers drummed rhythmically on the table as she thought, her eyes glazing over as she retreated into her mind. What defined her...? She was American, yes. She was a member of the LGBTQ+ community and club, which was also important. But, there was also drag...

And suddenly, Ami straightened up, and it was like a literal lightbulb had been turned on behind her eyes. She would recreate the epic drag-pride flag that she had made back in June- this time, without feeling the time crunch of depositing all 10+ of her flags throughout the castle within a day. She wondered if Professor Galim had actually decided to keep the flag that she'd left when she dropped by back in June... But maybe after Margo's intense glitter explosion, she had thrown everything out. Or maybe she was the sentimental type? Ami realized that she didn't know her Muggle Studies professor very well at all, and immediately decided that would have to change... after she finished this Very Official Flag, of course.

Cracking her knuckles, Ami reached for her wand first, instead of some paint. She wasn't going to spend 15 minutes painting the entire page black, and then wait another 15 minutes for it to dry only to do another coat on top of that. Clearing her throat uncomfortably, she pointed her wand at the sheet of paper, muttering, "Colovaria."

[d20: 16] + 5 = 21; success!

The paper turned black, to Ami's pleasant surprise, and she placed her wand back in her armband. Reaching for a set of acrylic paints, she dipped a thin brush into the pot of yellow paint. Squinting at the paper skeptically, she slapped the paint on after a single moment of hesitation, beginning to paint a simple crown. While the paint was still wet, she sprinkled a healthy amount of gold glitter over top of it, hoping that the paint would dry and the glitter would be stuck to the page. Blowing the excess glitter away gently, Ami set to work on a lipstick stain, which was significantly more complicated. She debated just slapping paint on her mouth and kissing the paper, but... well, that was kind of weird, and she might accidentally eat the paint. So, that idea was out the window. Sighing, she just tried her best, trying to remember what the hell a lipstick-kiss stain looked like. When was the last time she had even seen one of those?

Finally pleased with her bright red lips, Ami set to work recreating the quote around the top and the bottom of her little doodles. Dipping her brush into one of the various pots of red paint scattered across the table, she painted the letter Q, making sure to keep her lines as neat and crisp as humanly possible. She repeated the process with the rest of the letters, before stepping back to take a look at it all. For once, her impeccably neat handwriting had come in handy, and the letters were evenly spaced and pretty neat, for the most part.

But still, even though she had recreated her iconic drag pride flag nearly perfectly, she felt that it was time for an upgrade. Grabbing a heart-shaped stamp, she added an array of white hearts at the bottom, fading up towards the top- because the LGBTQ+ community was all about love, right? It was a nice sentiment- at least, in her opinion. Plus, something else was missing... oh, right! More glitter!

Taking a pot of glue, Ami randomly splattered some spots across the paper, before sprinkling some clear and white glitter across the glue spots. As hellish as glitter was to clean up, it sure looked pretty amazing. And after brushing off all the excess? Ami doubted that there had ever been as incredible a flag as hers. It was this intense pride, this borderline arrogance that fueled her very being.

Pleased with her work, Ami waved a gentle goodbye to Professor Galim before heading off to the library.

flag:

He had been avoiding these errands that everyone was always talking about. They all seemed so pointless. House points, what did that even mean? That students could be made to run silly errands for an arbitrary reward that meant very little? Why wouldn't they give more tangible rewards if they wanted the students to do these things? And what even was the point of these tasks? Flag making? To show what? That Hogwarts wasn't full of white kids? That they occasionally let in a foreigner or three?

He let out an irritated sigh as he made his way down the hall to the classroom where this flag-making errand was being hosted. He peered around the edge of the doorway, eyeing the other students inside. There weren't too many and they all seemed focused on this bizarre arts and crafts project. He crept into the room, quietly moving toward the table that contained the supplies. He stared in horror at what appeared to be a kindergarten collection of art supplies, including an excessive amount of glitter. Well, excessive to him. Which was anything larger than the quantity of zero. He eyed the glitter with disgust before moving his gaze to study the paints they had made available. He sniffed disdainfully at the poor quality and turned away, swiftly heading for the door. He surely had some better tools to work with among his own belongings.

He returned to his dorm room and retrieved the cherrywood lacquered box that contained his calligraphy tools. He opened the box reverently, a hint of a smile curving his lips at the memories the box always brought him. He gazed at the varied sticks of ink, the different thicknesses of brushes, and the finely carved jade hanko. He nodded to himself in satisfaction, replacing the lid on the box and carrying back down to the classroom-turned-art-room. He found a table far away from the glitter and carefully began to set out his tools.

The practice of shodo had been expected of him from an early age, like so many other traditions. He carefully laid out the suzuri, pouring a small amount of water into the well. Then he unrolled the shitajiki, the mat over which he laid a thick, handmade piece of hanshi. Setting the bunchin along the top of the paper, he paused, frowning slightly. Shodo is down on long pieces of paper but a flag cannot be done vertically. He carefully shifted the mat so that the paper better reflected the shape of a flag.

Next he carefully lined up each of his brushes to his left, thin to thick, left to right. He stared at the blank piece of paper, contemplating the whole project idea. Obviously, the flag had to be more than just the flag of his nation. Undoubtedly the task was supposed to cause the students to soul search and discover personal ties to their individual perceptions of what that nationality meant to them. Kazuo needed no soul-searching to know what being Japanese meant. It was rigid discipline and an unbending resistance to change. It was peaceful benevolence that hid a dark underbelly. It was a strange mixture of natural beauty with human modernity. It was magic existing side-by-side with technology. It was home and it was far away.

His fingers trailed over the row of colourful ink sticks, pausing over the vivid red. He picked it up and carefully began to rub the ink on the suzuri, watching the water and ink mingle with satisfaction. He took the thickest of the brushes and began with the simplest of strokes, a single unending movement that formed a circle in the center of the page. There it was, as simplistic a design as any flag could have, yet encompassing the heart of an entire nation. The hinomaru, the circle of the sun. Brilliant red on a field of white, the great and powerful Amaterasu, the goddess of the sun, shining over her people. The field of white meant to show the Japanese people's honesty and integrity.

But what could he add that both represented his nation and himself? He carefully cleaned the suzuri then started the process over, this time with black. Choosing a thinner brush, he carefully added long branches, arching across the flag. Returning to the red, he added a small amount of white, letting it bleed to pink. Pink flowers unfurled beneath his careful touch, cherry blossom petals that Japan was so famous for. Sakura... fleeting beauty that swiftly fades. The beauty and sorrow of a short life. The great old sakura tree that grew in the garden of his family's estate. The magic that keep it eternally blooming. The soft petals that would drift down.

Was that enough? He carefully laid down the brush and cleaned the suzuri, once again turning to black. Along the left side of the flag he carefully added an ofuda, one of the magical seals that was central to his magical path. He shifted his attention to the bottom right, taking particular care to detail the kitsune, the nine-tailed fox. A quick splash of kanji in the top right then another switch back to red that had him thinking he should write his mother and ask her to send him an extra suzuri or two for projects like this one. Not that he planned to do more ridiculous arts and crafts, of course. It was simply useful to have spares. He carefully added the final details to the fox then carefully set his brush down, leaning back a bit as he examined the results of his work.

Simple enough, he thought. I can't imagine the sensei will have any reason to complain.

He let the ink dry, taking the time to carefully clean and put away the tools of shodo. One last thing, he needed to add his seal. He carefully withdrew the jade hanko and a small ceramic pot. He carefully lifted the lid, revealing the brilliant red ink that was not unlike a modern stamp pad. He carefully pressed the hanko into the ink then pressed it to the page, the kanji of his name to officially mark the work as his. He smiled as he cleaned the hanko and put it away, replacing the lid on the box before he carefully carried the flag up to the desk where the other students had left their creations. He glanced at the professor, gracing her with a respectful bow as he placed his flag on the table then quickly made his escape.