Restore Glory from Dust Errand Closed

Opeila first didn't even want to participate in this errand. Cleaning the trophy room, or library, or corridors didn't sound very tempting.
Still, a minute later she had found herself putting down her name for the trophy room group. Gris was leading it, so it might be fun, she thought. She had never met the Ravenclaw prefect, and only briefly spoke to Xailah once.
So apparently the house-elves would let the students clean the trophy room for once. Opeila was surprised about that, from what she had heard about the little creatures, they loved every second they spent serving Hogwarts. But well. This was a good opportunity to have a closer look to the trophies, the names, everything.

So she followed Gris and the other four to the trophy room. She didn't know any of them. Wait, that wasn't true. The girl from her house... Was her name Tori? Thora? Never mind, she'd find a chance to get to know them.
When Gris opened the door and the group entered the trophy room, Opeila was astonished. This looked like no house-elf had entered this room not for weeks, but for months. Immediately the Slytherin breathed in some dust and coughed a little.
Opeila saw a few spider webs here and there, but luckily no spiders. After the desaster in the common room, she couldn't stand the sight of those animals anymore, but when she thought about it, she was lucky, that none were here. They were here to clean this room, so it wouldn't have been surprising. Those thoughts about spiders caused the girl to nervously look on the floor, checking if there was any sort of insect planning to attack.

She looked at all the dust on the awards and trophies. That was almost disappointing. Why would anyone leave the trophies until they looked like this? She felt like the awards should be treated with a little more pride and respect.
Her attention turned to Gris, when the prefect started to explain the students' task. She thanked the five of them for participating in the errand and showed them, where the equipment was. It seemed a little risky to her, that Gris would just trust them all to not steal or break anything. Surely she didn't know everyone of the five close enough to be sure that nothing would happen? But then, if she was willing to take that risk. There was after all a reason, that the prefect was a Gryffindor.
She sent a little smile to the leaving prefect and then grabbed a feather duster and a bucket with polish and cleaning towel.
Then the Slytherin looked at the other four. "Let's do it then.", she said. Even though her motivation wasn't that great, she was determined not to be broody and impolite today. She volunteered for this and she would at least try to have fun. "Uhm... I don't know any of your names. I am Opeila Seilun, nice to meet you all."

WC: 497 Words
Mentioning @Thora Larkston @Griseldis Edelhardt (Everyone else briefly)

Interactions: everyone but specifically @Opeila Seilun and @Marla Quinlan

Thora was literally the ultimate stalker of errands. Rarely did the girl miss an chance to help out in the school, eager for the reward and opportunities they offered. Today was no exception, as she had jumped at another one of Gris' errands. This time, cleaning. Cleaning was never fun, and certainly wasn't as intriguing as some of the other errands she'd done, but perhaps it might be made better with the people in her group. Besides, her Gryffindor prefect friend never failed to make tasks fun, so she was more than happy to take on the job.

As she followed Gris down the hallway, Thora glanced at the other students in her team. They looked like a typical group, and the girl was happy to recognize a couple people for once. A brunette not much smaller than herself was definitely someone she'd seen before, someone she associated with darkness, fear, and spiders… It wasn't the other girl's fault for this, but it was just that Thora couldn't help but realize that she'd seen her a couple weeks back in the house's rather frightening adventure.

"Hey, Opeila, right?" It certainly wasn't typical of Thora to initiate conversation with someone she'd never even talked to, but hey, nothing at Hogwarts was exactly normal at the moment. And being a year older (or so she presumed), it was only natural for her to do so as a second year. "And hi Marla," Thora grinned at the Gryffindor. It seemed that they were forever meeting each other in errands, for it had been Professor Mactavish's last one that had brought the two girls to the same place.

"I'm Thora, for those of you that don't know me," the Slytherin bit her lip, glancing between the two boys she had never seen before. For some reason, she just felt uneasy being left with a bunch of students carrying half of the authority, since the other boys, while taller, did look a bit younger than herself. However much Thora would've liked to hone her leadership skills, it certainly wasn't happening now. No, not here.

So, grabbing a polish-filled bucket and an old rag, Thora set off for the trophies. She'd never really been in here, and the room really was quite intriguing, despite the shiny metals that reflected blinding beams of light that just happened to hit the students straight in the eyes sometimes. There really were a terribly large sum of awards in here.

And there, standing in its bright but slightly smudged glory, was the Quidditch Cup. Thora couldn't help but be attracted to the trophy, not because she wanted the recognition or anything--well, maybe she did just a little bit--, but more because she simply loved the sport. Trying out, it hadn't stuck out to her as something that she would immediately bond with, but Thora had soon taken to Quidditch with a passion that rivaled that of hers to learning like a nerd.

She could do this. They wouldn't let Gris down, wouldn't let the house elves down. They would do the job right. And most of all, hopefully Thora could slip by and carry herself in a natural and controlled manner…

WC: 531/1000

Interactions: mostly @Thora Larkston

It was strange, seeing Hogwarts phasing back into spring weather. For so long, Marla had glanced out her dormitory window to see nothing but sheets of white. But now, trudging tiredly towards the trophy room as she traced the cool, carved stone walls, she noticed splotches of green on the fields of the school. The sun had finally shone once more across the grounds, something Marla was somewhat pleased about. Yes, the flurries of snow outside were fun at first, but after winter break, she couldn't help but be reminded of her brother Lachlan every time it fell from the sky.

Which was why Marla would take any and every distraction she could get. Something, just something, to take her mind off such a horrid memory. Because frankly, if she didn't, the Gryffindor would be driven out of her mind. And what were the odds, that Gris would be holding an errand just when she had been feeling her worst? It was quite ironic, Marla used to never have time for errands, her free time either being taken up with detentions or with her nose in a book. Now, they were pretty much all she would do.

Finally entering the trophy room, somewhere she had yet to thoroughly explore despite her curious nature, a metallic, aged smell hit her nose. She scrunched it up, looking around at the trophies, who's cases weren't caked with dust, but not squeaky clean either. Not too hard of a job. Then again, Marla had no room to complain considering she literally signed up for this. Glancing around, it seemed that three people had already arrived, two of them being familiar faced. Of course, there was Gris, a girl she briefly worked with when Marla was still a prefect. They hadn't gotten to know each other very well, but from what Marla could tell, the fellow Gryffindor was a sweet person and threw even better tea parties. The second girl was Thora, a Slytherin she had met during another errand assigned by Professor Mactavish around a month ago.

"Thora! Hey, it's been a while," Marla responded to Thora as she greeted herself, with a bit more energy than she realized she had. Taking a second glance at Gris, she gave the girl a smile and a wave, although the prefect had to stay professional for right now, it wouldn't hurt to still be polite, right? Realizing everyone was introducing themselves, Marla turned to the other people that she hadn't introduced herself to, "I'm Marla," She quickly stated with a toothless smile, silently cringing to herself. What in the world was that? For the past few months, it seemed every ounce of social skills she had just... Went down the drain, and she's been painfully awkward ever since. Then again, it wasn't too drastic of a change, considering that the Gryffindor was horrible in social situations to start. Now, the situation had just gotten a bit worse. Or maybe she was just being critical of herself. Either way, hopefully, no one noticed.

But, thankfully, this wasn't about being social, it was simply to clean the trophy room. So, the only thing there was to do was to get to work, and so she did. Picking up a duster from a pile of tools, she assumed a good place to start would be to get all the muck off of the cases. Marla was planning to make her way towards the glorious quidditch cup, something beholding so much beauty that she could look at it for hours without feeling even a smidge of boredom. However, Thora beat her to it. She didn't blame the Slytherin, it was impressive to a fault, and quidditch had always been one of her interests since she stepped foot into the magical castle. But Marla could simply come back later to see the quidditch cup, especially considering how much cleaner it would be.

Marla started by a few small trophy cases that were just a bit too dirty to read and began by lightly brushing the dust off. She'd rather start small and then build-up to the harder stuff to do, aka, she needed some mental prepping for the cleaning that was about to be done. Gryffindors were supposed to be very active and brave, but to say that Marla was lazy would be an understatement. She was practically a useless lump of flesh, considering the amount of time she spent simply laying around doing nothing. However, maybe doing an errand, even if it did include a bit of a reward, would help get her into better habits. Just maybe. But with both Gris and Thora there, and no one she particularly disliked, it wouldn't be so bad, right?

WC: 787/1000

The scruffy young Gryffindor didn't know any of the others attending this errand with him. Which wasn't exactly surprising, he didn't know any of the other students particularly well, but like most things, he saw this as an opportunity to make some friends.

He knew the Prefect in charge of course. The two had spoken briefly out in the courtyard not so long ago, but he wasn't sure if they had talked enough for it to really be considered a 'friendship.'

Acquaintances, he would call them acquaintances.

That thought would have to take the back seat for the time being however as he and his fellow students were immediately assaulted by dust which coated the stagnant air within the trophy room. "Gee whouvver us un cherge o' thus normally 'asn't been dooin' a veery goo' joab." He commented as he tried to wave the dust away from his face. He still wasn't sure exactly how every place in Hogwarts operated, but he would've thought they would take better care of their accolades than this. He sneezed loudly as a cloud of dust went up his nose, covering his face out of politeness. "Sorreh, 'scuse meh." He apologised, sniffling and wiping his nose.

It would appear that the girls seemed to at least somewhat know one another, but they at very least took the formality to introduce themselves. He was eager to return the favour. "Am AJ, AJ MacAllister, us neece teh meet yoo ull." He spoke as clearly as he could, aware that his thick accent could sometimes make things quite confusing. He could only hope he was being understood well enough by the others.

There was a moment of pause before his peers began to take up various cleaning utensils. A few of them seeming quite perturbed by the various cobwebs. AJ didn't really understand the discomfort, he had always found spiders to be quite fascinating. An elegant design in a creature, nevermind the fact that they ate other annoying pests. "I guss ull teek tha coabwebs thun." He offered, taking up a feather duster and setting to work on the darker and dustier corners of the room. He was fine with this job as it made him much less likely to accidentally bump or break something important.

As he was doing away with the older webs he came to one that looked fresher, still white without nearly as much dust on it as the others. His eyes then fell upon the small black spider scuttling around on the silken strands. "Oh, Hullo theer luttle man." He muttered quietly. "Aye don' ya wurry am nay here ta dehstroy yer hoose." AJ certainly couldn't speak spider, but he liked to think the Arachnid was appreciative of his delicacy as he gently did away with any of the nearby cobwebs. Hoping that the other's wouldn't presume he'd missed a spot. "Theer ya go, ull thus room noo tuh spreed oot." He whispered, taking his business to another spot. If there were no more cobwebs, he would start dusting.

WC: 507/1000

One of the few places Lark hadn't traveled to yet her first year at Hogwarts had been the Trophy Room. She came here once with James to show him the Quidditch trophies for school but it had been a short trip inbetween classes one day. He seemed overwhelmed at the knowledge their first week and now looking back she felt bad trying to cram everything in she could for her friend. Regardless, hearing Lark could help out with an errand she jumped at the chance to offer her hand at cleaning. Ruthie getting her into Quidditch had given her more pride in her house team and so she felt almost duty bound as well to dust off trophies and shine whatever needed to look sparkley new again.

The groups had been split up, Ruthie having to attend to her Prefect duties but Lark feeling confident in Gris'care. She had only briefly interacted with her and thought maybe this could be their chance to talk more, plus there were two others she had in her group that she didn't know. Arriving at the Trophy Room it was clear that the place did need some serious tidying up. Even the air felt heavy and caked with grime. Nodding at Gris' well put instructions for their group, Lark smiled at Opeila who seemed to cheer them on with their task. Everyone seemed to get right to it leaving Lark the last to gather two rags and a bucket, stuffing a duster into the back pocket of her overalls. She noticed Thora off to one side already polishing away and she gave her a wave of her hand, the rag flapping a waft of dust making the Ravenclaw cough momentarily. "Hey Thora!" She greeted before passing by. "I'll take this side!" Cutting across the room in hope they could meet in the middle, Lark hummed to herself quietly. Standing in front of a large shelf housing tons of various academic awards, Lark's attention was drawn to the corner not far off from her. A thick Scottish accent made her ears perk up as she began to dust the shelves figuring polishing could be last so the dust wouldn't cling to the freshly cleaned metals.

Half focusing on her work and half paying attention to the small conversation the boy seemed to be having, unsure of his name since she must have spaced out during any introductions, the silver haired girl watched him out of the corner of her eye. Who was he talking to? Was it one of the castle's ghosts... couldn't be.. Lark leaned back so get a better view and saw him move from his spot, cobwebs successfully cleared.

"Who were ya talkin' ta just now?" Lark asked the boy curiously, one of her slender brows raised. Kneeling down to get the last couple of shelves dusted she used her foot to push the bucket to one side so she could reach into the lower corners, moving aside trophies as she dusted.

Opeila turned around, when she heard someone say her name. The other Slytherin girl. The first year smiled at her. "Yes, and you're Thora?" He question was answered a minute after, when her housemate first approached the Gryffindor girl, who's name was Marla, and then introduced herself to the rest of the group.
Then the Gryffindor girl introduced herself as well. "Hey Marla, nice to meet you.", Opeila said, smiling at the girl.
The Gryffindor boy now commented on the bad job the beings did, that were normaly in charge of cleaning the trophy room. The Slytherin nodded. "I think, whoever is in charge, hasn't been in here in weeks or months." She looked around. The boy sneezed. Opeila's nose had also been tickling since she had entered the room, but she had suppressed the urge until now. She nodded in the boys direction, when he introduced himself as AJ. "Hello AJ." She was relieved when he said, he would take care of the cobwebs. Opeila wasn't eager to go near them.
She decided to go over to one of the glass cases, carefully took the trophies out and started to dust the shelves and polish the glass.
Her relief was immediately gone, when she heard AJ speak to someone. When he said, he wouldn't destroy someone's home, Opeila could guess, who or what the boy was talking to, and quickly brought some distance between them. The girl had more then enough of spiders.

The Ravenclaw girl, Lark, walked over to AJ and talked to him.
Opeila decided to go over to the other Gryffindor, Marla. She couldn't remember seeing her or hearing her name before, so she guessed, that she was a second or third year.
"Hey", she said and started dusting the trophy case next to Marla's. She glanced over to AJ and the trophies that she had taken out of their case and then left there. "I am not exactly keen on spiders anymore.", she quickly explained her escape.
The girl could still see the black skin of her bitten housemates and Elena Jones' motionless body on the floor... No, she definitely wasn't going to take any risks when it came to spiders anymore.

WC: 367+497=864
Interacts with @Allister-Jameson MacAllister @Thora Larkston @Marla Quinlan
Mentions @Lark Flaer

Interactions: @Marla Quinlan | @Opeila Seilun | @Lark Flaer

"Yep," Thora nodded towards Opeila. "Oh, hey, Lark!" she was pleased to see yet another familiar face in the small group. Even though she'd made a bit of an effort to get more involved with errands and events she would've shied away from without a cause or reward, it still came as a surprise to the Slytherin that people knew her. Knew her name, and could recognise her despite her distance.

Swapping her polish for a duster, the girl did her best to remove the honestly thick layer of dust from the cases. The glass-encased trophies were no doubt valuable--and important--if they were under an extra layer of security. So, being Hogwarts, there was probably also magical protection just waiting to be triggered, and Thora didn't feel like being the ignorant student that set off a whole bunch of obnoxious sirens, or got injured for being plain stupid.

Some of the taller ones were a bit out of her reach, Thora being quite small, so she was forced to tip her head back until tiny particles floating down from who knew where was all she could see. She huffed in frustration, coughing as thick dust found its way into her nostrils with the next inhale. With the few moments of suffocation came a feeling of helplessness, of hopelessness, of an overwhelming something that tended to envelop the Slytherin, no matter how much she fought it. It wasn't so much as being depressed, per say, but just a result of trying to do too much. Knowing too much.

With so much going on, from homework to maintaining the few friendships she had, it wasn't easy to keep up with everything. Often caught up in her own world of anxiety and stress, the brunette who cared more about her friends than she did herself had been falling short. Short of the expectations she set for herself. Short of being the girl she wanted to be. She simply hadn't been… herself.

But standing just off to the side was Marla, one of the very select Gryffindors she would even consider as kind. Possibly even a future friend. And although it was likely that nobody else would notice the change her rather spontaneous changes of demeanor over the past days--weeks, even--perhaps by doing something other than withdrawing from everything, Thora could redeem herself in her own eyes. Perhaps, it was just a step closer to what she wanted.

So, feathery tool in hand, off she went. "Hey, how've you been doing?" An awkward start, nonetheless, but she was getting somewhere. Hopefully the other girl wouldn't take it the wrong way. It was meant to be a genuine question that a friend might ask simply for caring, though Thora supposed someone could take it as a stalkerish inquiry. But still, she stood her ground, green eyes wide and still unnaturally pale face set.

Because after all, sometimes the best thing to do was to hope for the best.

WC: 493 + 531 = 1024

OOC: So sorry for the wait and very poor quality post if you guys were waiting for me to post!

The Gryffindor girl seemed busy with her thoughts so Opeila decided not to bother her any further. She'd surely get a chance to get to know her sometime.
Instead she started to look at the trophies and read the names on them. Names she had never heard of. Had they been standing in front of one of these glass cases as well once, looking at trophies with stranger's names on them? The thought was fascinating somehow. It made her feel a little closer to those unknown people.
Maybe her own name would be on one of the trophies sometime? She liked the thought of being more than a temporary student in Hogwarts. Opeila didn't want to be forgotten.
That strange wish made her chuckle and she shook her head. She was being stupid and this was a stupid daydream that she would forget later, when she left the trophy room.

The first year went through the glass cases with a feather duster, making a grey cloud fall down on her. Opeila coughed and waved her hand in front of her face to stop the dust from getting into her eyes. Why on earth was this place so dirty? Did people leave it alone for months just to have students clean it later? Well. If one thing was clear, then it was that Opeila would shower later.

Mentioning @Marla Quinlan

Wordcount: 367+497+226=1090
Errand Complete!

OOC: Have to alter a bit from my last post since @Allister-Jameson MacAllister and I have backdated and met up IC

Lark continued to scrub away at some of the trickier dirt and grime that had caked itself onto some of the wooden shelving. Dipping one of the rags into the bucket of water that sat next to her feet, Lark wrung the water from the cloth and rested it over the bucket's handle. Looking up at AJ, she reached forward and grabbed the duster resting on the chair in front of her. Keeping an eye on the boy she tried to think up some form of conversation. Typically they chatted about anything and just about everything. For some reason now she felt all of her words escape her.

Instead she settled on focusing her energy into the glass items and various trophies stacked together ready to be cleaned before set back in their rightful place. Scanning the room everyone else seemed fairly busy themselves attending to their duties. It seemed a large task but all together they were making quick work of the room.

As she buffed at some of the small plaques on the bottom of each trophy listing off various years as well as names of Quidditch players and their houses. Carefully she inspected each name wondering if she would come across someone from her family listed among them. She was sure her father had played Quidditch at some point in his Hogwarts career, as for her mother she was sure a majority of her time was spent in the greenhouses and Potion's classroom.

"Do y'think that we'll get our names on here maybe? Eventually anyway.." Lark rose her gaze to her Scottish friend. "Could ya imagine people cleanin' off our names years from now." A smile crossed her lips thinking of how prestigious a thing it must be to have a trophy with your name listed among other great people. Were any of them famous players now? Was Professor Bercegeay on one of them? Lark tried to imagine what she was like during her schooling years, she found herself daydreaming she would've enjoyed her company in and out of class.

Finishing the last of the smaller trophies she had dusted and cleaned, she started setting them carefully back on the shelves. There were a couple more larger ones of bronze sculptures of brooms that had definitely seen better days. Tossing an extra rag at AJ, Lark rose to her feet and placed her hands on her hips.

"Can ya help me with this bigger one? I don't want ta drop it tryna' get it back up."

Giving the trophy another once over with the duster, she stood on one side and would wait for AJ to come help if he did, if not she would carefully lift the trophy up onto the lower middle section of the cabinet. Stepping back she admired the display before taking her bucket and supplies to the next set of cases on a skinny table. Most of the glass held the dust and protected the medals tucked neatly inside the case, each in their own space and some with ribbons or set up on what looked like a velvet material colored in whatever house color the winner had belonged to.

Maybe they would be remembered in here somewhere. Even if they weren't, Lark knew deep down she would hold onto as many memories of her friends as she could. If Hogwarts had taught her anything this far it would be that some things absolutely do not last... including one's own life.