Origami Creations Errand PV Closed

With the end of the year just around the corner, Thomas was eager to finish his first year at Hogwarts on the highest note possible. That, of course, meant long nights evenings in his dormitory, rereading over his notes tirelessly. For some, this routine may have seemed like a chore, but Tommy reveled in working hard and getting back good grades as a result. The feeling of getting an 'O' was practically euphoric to the young Ravenclaw, and it spurred his efforts on just as intensely as his typical want for knowledge. Those two factors made Thomas' determination practically indomitable; he wrote essays and read ahead in his textbooks and desired to be the greatest duelist around. It may have seemed futile, for a muggle-raised first year to be working towards such a goal, but to Tommy the goal was everything. He would do anything to become an accomplished duelist as fast as he possibly could.

With that desire, however, came a lack of patience. And with his lack of patience, came the lingering feeling of burnout. Thomas wasn't exactly the best at pacing himself, and that day, in particular, the young wizard was facing the consequences. He found himself yawning excessively during his lecture just before, and was currently riding the feeling of happiness that came with not getting detention of being a nuisance in class. It was likely his professor noted Tommy's lack of enthusiasm that came with his energy deficit and took a bit of pity on him. Not that Thomas would be found complaining! If he was less tired, perhaps he'd be affronted, but currently, he didn't have the wherewithal to be upset.

Not fighting seemed to be rather characteristic Thomas' exhausted state. As Callie babbled excitedly about origami, an art form Tommy had no interest in whatsoever, he just sighed and nodded. He had no desire to make paper animals, not even vaguely, but hey! Maybe it would end up being a treat. If it didn't, it would at least be a break from schoolwork: solace he wasn't even aware he needed. So, it was no great surprise that as Callie grabbed his hand, for once in his life, he didn't resist in principle, allowing himself to get dragged to the Great Hall. Man, he never did get tired of the ceiling there...

"I think I'm going to make a raven. I don't really know what you can do with paper, but if we can do that, that's my game plan," Tommy mumbled, to himself.

WC: 420

• • •

While Thomas seemed to be tired because of his hard work and ambitious dream chasing, Sylvie was tired due to a completely different reason! The girl simply refused sleep at a reasonable hour. After a horrendously BORING day of school work, the only things she was concerned about were some food and some r&r. Listening to her teachers sigh and roll their eyes while she nose-dived at her uncomfortable wooden desk was especially irritating. Hearing them say, “Ms. O’Niell would you kindly pay attention to the lesson!” was possibly even more so. She could always get better sleep at night and get rid of the issue altogether, but... There were so many things to do in the evening. Like stay up past lights out! And devour all the refreshments in the common room. In short, her in-class performance would not be improving anytime soon. As long as her grades didn’t slip, she hadn’t a care.

However, despite nap time calling her towards the dorms, she was a bit distracted by the slightly less sensible of the Ravenclaw pair she accompanied. Walking backwards in these hallways was not the finest decision. They were constantly crowed with people going on and not paying any mind to things around them. Such as Callie was doing right now. Sylvie opened her mouth to suggest that perhaps her friend should turn around- the traffic would only get worse when they grew closer to the Great Hall. But before she could, just as she thought, Callie had bumped into an unsuspecting student. She shook her head. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last. To be quite frank, it was a blessing she was as tired as she was. The two girls would have been like flame to the other’s tinder, and it was a wonder that Thomas could deal with the both of them in the same place at any time.

“This could be quite fun, don’t ya’ think?”

Her attention was pulled to whatever has managed to pique Callie's interest and she looked over the flyer with a quirked brow. Now, the young Gryffindor liked many things. However, paper folding was not one of them. She tried it once! A housemate had made an attemp to teach her, but Sylvie wasn't able to get a hold of it. Lots of paper was ripped up that day. Needless to say, Sylvie's temper and the art of paper folding did not go hand in hand. "Origami? I don-" However, before she could protest, her hand was taken and she was dragged into the Great Hall. "Um... Maybe I'll just try to make a unicorn or something. Those are pretty, right?" She tried to make the best of her very unfortunate situation. Goodness, the last thing she wanted was to embarrass herself.

WC: 469

Callie wandered into the Great Hall with Thomas and Sylvie in tow and released her companions before taking up residence on the nearest seat. All across the tables lay multiple stacks of papers in all different colours of the rainbow, coupled with the odd set of pens to adorn their future creations. The sheer amount of choice the girl had to create Arnie the Destroyer was immense and served to slightly overwhelm Callie. Who knew there was so many different colours? Was Arnie more or a blue dragon or a yellow dragon? Or maybe he was orange? There was too much choice! After a couple of moments of deliberation with herself Callie eventually went with her house colours, deciding that Arnie would become a mighty blue paper dragon. The only issue that faced her now was the inevitable creation of said dragon, which looked to be a million times more complicated than she thought. “This is so complicated! Why do dragons have to be so cool and intricate...” She grumbled with mild frustration.

Callie stared blankly at the paper listing the steps she had to undertake to bring Arnie into the world, already dreading the task laid out before her. Why was making something so unbelievably cool so immensely difficult? While Callie carefully followed the instructions on the sheet before her, she stuck her tongue out the side of her mouth in concentration. While she worked Callie’s glasses kept slipping further and further down her face, eventually getting to the point where they barely clung onto the tip of her nose. Callie worked slowly and carefully as she set about bringing Arnie the Destroyer into the world, although that wasn’t enough to keep the girl from talking. The world would likely end before Callie ran out of things to chatter about. “If I have to suffer through a day of classes like that again I think I might want Arnie to actually start burning things.” Callie joked as she creased another piece of paper. “Imagine if you could make a giant version of one of these? How cool would that be! I’m not sure they’d let me keep it in the dorms though..” Callie trailed off briefly while she considered the prospect of a giant paper dragon in the dorm room, while almost impossible proved to be an intriguing idea for the girl.

Eventually Callie successfully completed her task in bringing Arnie the Destroyer into the world and while it was by no means perfect, it at the very least resembled a dragon. The origami dragon looked ragged at best but to Callie it was simply perfect, prompting her to carefully grant Arnie the privilege of eyes with a pen. “How is yours coming along?” Callie asked with a faint smile as she looked up to Thomas and Sylvie, having not paid much attention to the progress of her friends thus far.

Word Count: 482
Total Word Count: 985/800

Thomas nodded in agreement with Callie and Sylvie's assertions. Personally, he was not at all invested in the origami project at the moment, but it was always possible that it could change in time. Tommy walked into the Great Hall shortly after Callie, taking in the atmosphere of students folding paper in a frenzy, and sitting down next to his Ravenclaw peer. Unlike Callie's careful decisions on what colors or other creative liberties he could take, Thomas simply grabbed the first sheet of paper that caught his eye: a square of red. Satisfied with his selection, he got to work, folding according to the instructions as best as he could given his limited attention span and need for a nap. Frequently he took breaks to rub his eyes and yawn, but regardless he wasn't one to quit. A shame that origami didn't seem to be Thomas' most natural art form, as he frequently made misfolds and other errors in the creative process. He wasn't a gifted child in regards to spatial awareness, much to his chagrin. The monstrosity of a bird he attempted to produce was ample proof of that. Thomas loathed being bad at things, so much so that if he were more awake and more uppity, it was likely he'd give up right then and there.

Instead, however, his tiredness made him less eager to give up, primarily because it was easier to idly crease the paper vaguely how the instructions told him to than to get up and walk away. Thomas worked in a haze of exhaustion, not caring much for anything that he was doing. "Classes are getting tough," he conceded to Callie, more evidence of his fatigue. Under normal circumstances, Tommy would never admit to struggling academically. "I think it's just the end of the year, trying to squeeze the last of everything into it. I'm still doing fine I guess, I got an E on the last Herbology assignment and I'm still kind of upset about it, though..."

Pausing for a moment to rest his aching fingers and his addled mind, he watched as Callie worked hard on her dragon. It was mildly impressive, for something constructed out of a square sheet of paper. In comparison, Thomas' raven was pretty ugly at the moment. What was even the difference between mountain folds and canyon folds? He couldn't care less. Tommy had just gotten to the point of nearly surrendering to the whims of a sheet of paper, when alas! The poor youth had been mortally wounded; a papercut on his left index finger nearly made him rip up the sad excuse for a avian representation right then and there. It burned... Oh god, did it burn... He was experiencing anguish like no other; even last summer when Tommy broke his arm couldn't compare to the pain of the laceration (although that was probably because he didn't remember the incident very well). It was an agony that was entirely unparalleled, even. Why, oh why, did Thomas have to constantly be tormented by such afflictions at every turn. Every step he took was tortuous and filled with woe.

Keeping his strange, momentarily melodramatic monologue over his minor injury to himself, Thomas took a deep breath and grabbed a sheet of paper. The young wizard was really starting to resent his lack of skill with origami, and rather than quitting while he was behind, he was determined to actually get good at it. He paid extra close attention to the instructions this time around, with a face contorted into some strange expression of concentration. In truth, it just kind of looked like he was in pain. Eventually, the boy got to the half-way point and took a break, looking over to Sylvie. "How about you? Class got you down, at all?" Thomas fully expected the answer to be a confident no, given her immense desire to be a successful wizard, and the pressure her parents put on her to attain that very goal.

WC: 666
Total WC: 1086

• • •

Goodness gracious, paper was fragile. Every other fold Sylvie would have to start an entirely new piece as the paper would rip and she would get frustrated. Of course, the frustration only made her rough, which didn't much help at all. Over and under and then you fold this part to left and- Wait, where does this fold go? No, no that doesn't look right at all! She let out an irritated sigh. This was a bust in her eyes. Her hands simply weren't made for this sort of thing! It was like a wrestler trying to dance with a ballerina... While Callie prattled on, the young wizard crumpled up her sheet of purple paper and clenched her fist around it before tossing it into the ever growing pile next to her. She never was good with emotions such as anger or frustration or... Anything negative really. Such things tended to cause a bit of a lashing out. Luckily for those around her, she knew that was an entirely unnecessary outburst over a failed art project. She couldn't have been the only one struggling, after all. All of these steps seemed so simple and yet so complicated to the girl. One mistake and your pretty little unicorn could end up looking more like a misshapen mass of triangles...

It was time for a little break. Sylvie looked up after what seemed like forever to stretch and see how her two friends were coming along.It was no surprise to her that Callie was having a grand old time making her... What did she say she was making? A dragon? It did look nice, all little wrinkles included. It looked even better when it was finished!

“How is yours coming along?”

She gave her pile of big, fat FAILURES a side glance and scrunched up her nose... Yikes! "Uh... Not great!" Actually, it was coming along terribly. She tapped her fingers on the table. Her nails were atrocious... One polished white with rainbow polka dots, they were now chipped and she probably even had dirt under her nails from when she took off lunch to go look for worms and other creepy crawlies earlier that day. This didn't bother her in the slightest, however. "I'm having a bit of trouble with this. My stupid paper keeps tearing."

When the subject switched to that of the academic variety, Sylvie smiled a bit. She'd been doing well despite her laziness in her class. Studying was the way to go. Paying attention was not her forte, after all, and class was snooze inducing! She found that she had a better learning from the flashcards she made and the games she played to help her retain information anyway. Unbeknownst to her, while she was inwardly praising herself for her efforts to become all-knowing (not really her goal, but she liked to think it could happen some day), her friend was experiencing the worst pain imaginable. Paper cuts... Dastardly, they were. Luckily for Thomas, Sylvie was stocked with band-aids at all times. UNluckily for Thomas, she had... Absolutely no idea what was going on. Instead of offering him one of her incredibly stylish Peppa Pig band-aids, she went on to answer his question! "Mmm, well, not exactly. I've gotten in a bit of trouble lately for falling asleep in class but other than the usual things, I'm doing pretty alright! Except transfiguration. That class is always so hard... And it's only gotten harder. I don't even want to know what my grades in that class look like now."

WC: 591 + 469 = 1060

Callie eyeballed Sylvie's pile of failed attempts with a brief glance before moving to help along her endeavours in creating a unicorn. It didn't take a genius to realise Sylvie was having a little trouble with the intricacy involved in the art of origami and while Callie was by no means an expert, she was still willing to help. "You're rushing yourself too much, Sylvie! Take your time." Callie suggested with a reassuring smile as she carefully did the first couple of folds for Sylvie. It was by no means perfect but nowhere near as bad as it could've been. Slowly but surely Callie seemed to be improving at this crazily intricate art form. "See? Kinda like that!" She carefully passed back the developing unicorn to Sylvie before turning to listen to their other companion.


Callie happily listened to Thomas as she fiddled with the paper dragon, coating its body with a layer of pink glitter. She very much agreed with Thomas in the belief that classes were getting tough, especially for someone like Callie who had minimal experience with anything magical to begin with. So far what she had been learning wasn't coming easily and she found herself having to work ten times harder just to understand what was going on. Regardless of the high effort she put in Callie still managed to find interest in her school work, particularly within potions and herbology which she'd taken quite a liking to. "You're complaining about an E?" Callie questioned Thomas with a hint of disbelief in her tone. "Cut yourself some slack Thomas! An E is great!" She reassured with a smile before absentmindedly rubbing her face, causing a thin layer of pink glitter to coat her cheek. Callie knew Thomas set high expectations for himself but she was still shocked at the level of perfection he expected of himself and didn't fully understand why. Surely passing well was enough? Was perfection really entire necessary? Or was she being too naive and not setting her standards high enough? Callie wasn't entirely certain what to make of the entire thing and doubted that would change anytime soon.

"Falling asleep in class?" Callie snickered at the very idea and to some extent was disappointed she was too engrossed in her schoolwork to even notice Sylvie's misfortune. "Is being a Gryffindor keeping you awake at night?" Callie teased with a grin before noticing Thomas' unfortunate papercut. "Uh, Thomas? I don't think ravens like to drink blood...they're not vampires!" She briefly dug through her pockets in an attempt to find some of the plasters she usually kept on her person, only to come up empty handed as she'd used the last of the supply yesterday.

Word Count: 1437/800

"Mmm, well, not exactly. I've gotten in a bit of trouble lately for falling asleep in class but other than the usual things, I'm doing pretty alright! Except transfiguration. That class is always so hard... And it's only gotten harder. I don't even want to know what my grades in that class look like now."

"Transfiguration is hard. Very precise, makes my head spin, and it doesn't help that I don't really... Care? I mean, it just seems like the other classes are more interesting to me. Even History of Magic." It was true, Thomas had no desire to learn about the inner workings of Transfiguration. Perhaps such was just the machination of his predominantly muggle upbringing, but to him the field of magic just felt like pseudo-science with very little rhyme or reason. It was overly precise, but also dealing with things that made no reasonable sense. To be fair, there wasn't much that made sense when you could cast spells, or when plants were sentient and carnivorous, or when imps actually existed and ran around causing mischief routinely, but in particular, Transfiguration befuddled the boy.

In a rather uncharacteristic move, in fact, Thomas came to the conclusion that he didn't particularly... Want to understand it either. There were far more sensical things in this nonsensical world of witchcraft that piqued his interest, and with so much information to take in, for the first time in his life Tommy would have to start narrowing his focus on things he genuinely cared about. "Maybe it will be more interesting later. But right now, it's really hard to care about the class... That's just me, though. Still, you probably should try avoiding falling asleep in class." Thomas dismissed Callie's reassurance that his grades weren't that bad. The boy was a perfectionist after all.

"Uh, Thomas? I don't think ravens like to drink blood...they're not vampires!"

Thomas carefully cradled his still bleeding finger, offering Callie a cheeky grin in response to her comment about raven vampirism. "I mean, that wasn't really part of the plan. It will make the raven look cooler though, they're birds of prey, right? Maybe it just hunted down a rodent, and just ate its guts or something..." In disgusting, child-like fashion, he purposefully bled on the beak just a bit. Perhaps the raven in question had just had a fine meal of a raw rat. Who was Tommy to judge an animal for simply doing what it always did? It was human—or perhaps, raven—nature. To allow something to rebel against something so evolutionarily integral would be absurd. Also, his origami would look cooler with blood on it. Even if Thomas was fairly mature for his age, he was still a twelve-year-old boy, and as a result, he was of the opinion that gore made things infinitely more awesome.

Eventually, the boy finished his raven! It didn't look half bad, barring the bloodstains of course.

WC: 420
Total WC: 1506