ERRAND Embroidery 101 Finished

𝐸mbroidering was something Amadea had never tried before. It always seemed like one of those old lady activities; once she has old and gray, she would sit in her rocking chair next to the fire, gossiping with her other old lady friends while they embroidered a hat of some sort for their grandchildren. This was certainly not how Amadea imagined her first embroidering session. The closest Amadea had ever come to embroidering was making friendship bracelets with her sister, Kat. She wondered how much harder embroidering could be.

As Amadea made her way to the courtyard, she noticed that there were already a few students at the table, doing their embroidering. Amadea wasn't surprised; it was a beautiful day out and embroidering was a great way to pass some time. The sun was shining and the sky was blue - it felt warm and inviting. Amadea had promised herself that when she came back to Hogwarts she wouldn't get so caught up in working all of the time anymore. She loved spending all of her nights studying and working on assignments to make sure that they were absolutely perfect for her classes. She worked hard for all of the grades she received; she didn't understand how some students could just breeze by their homework and still get O's. But then after the...incident, Amadea had a change of heart. Schoolwork was always still a priority for her, but she knew that she needed to balance out her time more. Sure, she would still spend plenty of time studying in order to not let her grades slip, but she also had to budget some time to spend with her friends, just having fun and also spend some time just for herself.

This was what she was planning to do today, spend some time with herself and hopefully learn a new skill. Amadea only recognized Serena Towers at the table, but this time she wasn't scared to be approaching a group of strangers. She was hoping that she could just find a quiet corner and figure out this embroidering thing. That way, she could spend some time just with herself and also not have to worry about making small talk with other students that she didn't know. There were a lot of materials out on the table, and Amadea listened as Professor Jensen explained what to do.

Amadea picked up a large embroidery hoop, which was supposed to be the easiest one and grabbed some fabric and water-soluble markers. Then she grabbed an informational sheet to figure out these stitching things. Putting the sheet next to her, Amadea began sketching out her idea. Taking inspiration from the weather, which was warm and spring-like, Amadea quickly sketched out a flower and hopped to work. She picked out a few different flosses to use and scrunched up her nose in concentration as she attempted to thread the needle. The eye was so small and it took all of Amadea's concentration to stop her hand from shaking and put the thread through. Once it was through, she scanned the informational sheet, looking at the different types of stitches. There were two listed for beginners: the running stitch and the backstitch. Amadea took a deep breath and poked the needle through the fabric, hoping that she wouldn't mess this up.

She worked mostly in silence, ignoring all of the other sounds around her, focusing on her stitching. She was determined to not mess this up so she could brag about her new skill to her friends and her sister. As Amadea stitched, she daydreamed a little bit. She loved being back at Hogwarts; there was something so unexplainable about the atmosphere that made her just so happy. She shook her head, thinking back to only a few months ago when she was perfectly content on just staying at home until everyone here forgot about her and she didn't have to come back. Now, she laughed at herself, wondering how she could have possibly wanted to leave for good. Hogwarts was her home and she loved it here. She had so many amazing friends and every day she learned so many new things.

Amadea paused, tilting her head to look at her design. The circle in the middle of the flower was definitely a bit lopsided, and the petals weren't perfectly sized either, but for her first attempt, it was pretty good! This was a good exercise for her; fighting the urge to undo the stitching and redo the flower to make it absolutely perfect, she repeated to herself that it was good enough. Not everything in life was going to be absolutely perfect. Amadea knew that. But she liked to make everything that she could control absolutely perfect. It wasn't always a healthy thing, but she prided herself in being a perfectionist. Unfortunately, she was beginning to realize how bad it was for her mental health. Before she could second-guess herself more, Amadea switched the colors in her needle, moving on to the details around the flower, trying not to stare too hard at the lopsided petals. She could just focus on making the detailing perfect.

After a while, Amadea finished her design. She stared at it for a long time. The flower still didn't look perfect, but it was less of a bother to Amadea now. She had put in a lot of effort to make up for the lopsided flower in the detailing and her hard work had paid off. All of the leaves looked perfect, to her at least, and the little accents she had put inside the flower made it look less pathetic and lopsided. She grinned, proud of herself for A: not giving in to the part of her that wanted to take apart the flower to make it better and B: for completing the rest of the embroidering without making any visible mistakes. She set down the needle, following the instructional sheet by taking it off the hoop.

Amadea decided to make it into a pin, albeit a large one. She couldn't wait to send it back home to her sister, who she knew would hang it out on display. She was already crafting the letter she would send to her sister in her mind: Can you believe I learned how to embroider? I feel like an old lady, but in the best way possible! Taking her newly embroidered pin, Amadea thanked Professor Jensen for hosting this activity and headed off to go write to her sister.

WC: 1086

While she did try to make sure no one would notice her little accident, someone did notice.

"Hey, you okay?"

Maria’s head snapped up as she was met with the face of Serena Towers, an older girl she knew was on the Hufflepuff Quidditch Team. She was by the table choosing her own embroidery paraphernalia and must have seen Maria approaching.

The younger badger felt her face heat up, embarassed that someone had seen her predicament. But from her short observation Serena she wasn’t laughing at her, nor did she look like she thought Maria was stupid for doing this to herself.

“Um yeah, it’s just that I kinda put myself into my work.” The first year winced at her corny joke, lifting the hoop a few inches to show Serena. “I-it’s kind of my first time doing this so I may have gotten carried away.” She continued to ramble. “I was just actually for looking for some scissors, don’t mind me.” With a nervous smile her eyes darted around the table looking for a pair. When she spotted them, she made a move to grab them, unaware of the stack of hoops near her hand, knocking a few over in the process. She winced as they fell to the floor and huffed in annoyance. She pinned the hoop in her hand to the side, making her jumper shift with it, and bent down to pick up the fallen hoops. Her eyes dared not to look at her companion at the table, her ears burning with embarrassment.

Interacting with @Charlie Woodward

Open to Interaction

So many errands. And so many of them had something or other to do with crafting. Why? The red headed Gryffindor found that to be rather peculiar. Were people really so bored? Could they really find nothing better to do around the castle than to play the role of a forlorn lady (yes, girls and boys collectively) hidden away in their castle in the hills, rather than the aspiring young witches and wizards that they ought to be?

Surely there were tasks about the castle that needed doing. Gardens to weed. Lawns to tidy. Classrooms to clean. Ingredients to prepare. Or perhaps, she supposed, the faculty were leaving such laborious tasks to the likes of those who landed themselves in detention. It was a shame one couldn't opt to sit in on detention by choice to carry out such necessities in exchange for House points and chocolate frogs. Evelynn couldn't help but feel those, especially in the company of the ones who had not landed themselves there by choice, might have offered a might bit more interest than the plethora of frivolous time sinks.

Or so the thoughts had flitted to the surface of her thoughts the moment she had set foot in the courtyard to see the gathering of tables in one of its corners. Then again...perhaps she was being just a might bit too harsh. Was she not, herself, a supporter of all things fine arts? Was she not, herself, a dancer, a violinist, and a novice artist? Did her mother not encourage her, time and again, to set periods of her day aside for such pursuits in the name of mental health and creativity, highlighting the important of feeding the soul and pursuing a passion capable of inspiring the same in others? And most importantly, would this not — like every other little errand — come attached with those precious little prizes she so coveted?

Evelynn's head rocked back on her neck as her gaze lifted thoughtfully to the clouds above. Or perhaps it was more a reaction to the helpless state as she felt herself become quickly ensnared by those two simple words: House Points. Oh, why did she care so much about how well the Gryffindors did compared to the rest of the school? It would be so much easier if she could take a leaf out of Aurelius' book and just flippantly dismiss any notions of extraneous effort on her part to pursue those little lures, where the ratio of effort to return was arguably negligible. And yet...

And yet…

There she was, stopped in her tracks, debating whether or not to forego her initial plans to take a trek to the stadium for some after lesson flying and start practicing on some of the trickier seeker maneuvers she had been looking up, and instead seat herself amidst those gathered there by Slytherin's Head of House to thread the needle of an entirely different sort. But what would she even make? Even from this distance, it was clear to see that the errand involved embroidering. The tension rings indicated as much. By the looks of it, however, everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, few following any particular pattern. A sense of unease settled uncomfortably in the pit of her stomach. Was everyone really so comfortable with cross-stitch that they could simply improvise a design? If she actually joined them, she'd no doubt be made an absolute laughing stock. And where would her carefully cultivated reputation be, then?

Just when she had conceded in her idle observation of the gathering that perhaps she'd best pass on by this time (and fighting dearly with that side of her that lamented the idea on losing out on the potential for House points), movement nearby caught her eye. Not that there wasn't plenty of movement happening anyway, what with the coming and going of students to and from the courtyard nearby. But something about this one in particular — perhaps it was a familiar silhouette, or perhaps the way the sun caught the sandy blonde hair just right — made her turn to glimpse, only to bring with it a warm wave of familiarity.

"Woodward!" Her subconscious acted on its own, feet pushing off to wind herself a path through the spattering of meandering students to make her way over to the Gryffindor chaser. Her hand slipped into the crook of his elbow when she caught up to him just as a faint smile curled her lips. "You have convenient timing," she announced happily, her mind making a snap decision.

"It's just come to my attention that there are House points—" Possibly (but she wasn't about stem the momentum of the courage that had just been conjured). "—to be earned," she reported matter-of-factly, as though it were a very normal thing for her to interrupt whatever it was that he was doing with the expectation that this new revelation should take precedence in his focus. "Do you see the tables there?" She queried, swiveling her attention to the corner of the courtyard where the small tables had been arranged. "It seems Professor Jensen has put together some sort of crafting. Embroidery, by the looks of it."

Again, as though the Slythering Head of House had conjured it there herself, a snake writhed in the pit of Evelynn's stomach as she spoke. It was promptly ignored. "Would you join me?" She queried, turning an imploring expression back onto the Texan. "Oh, please? It might not be quite so terrible with company...Plus, if there are rewards to be earned, that would be twice as many in favour of Gryffindor..."

It was strange, really. Standing there, requesting the presence of another for such a thing. It wasn't her first time, of course. She'd had a habit of pestering Aurelius to participate in these things, but this was different. It was less the nagging of a house mate to take pride in their House's success, and more that...she couldn't quite place her finger on it. But he was comfortable? Somehow? As though she felt a certain sense of security with his proximity...

Word Count: 1,022 | Errand Progress: Complete

Katrina returned to the courtyard a little bit later, inspiration in her eyes. The idea to embroider a dragon into the sleeve of her Gryffindor sweatshirt and school robes had been one that she had randomly thought of while finishing the weekend's homework. The more she tried to push it away, the more the idea pushed to the front of her mind. It wasn't like she could get in trouble, was it?

Katrina returned to the table of materials and grabbed the same supplies as earlier except for the fact that she grabbed only teal thread and no swathes of fabric.

The 12-year-old walked around the path and found a quiet bench with no one that she could see around her. She didn't want to ask for trouble, after all.

Katrina drew out her sketchbook and flipped to a recent page. A simple dragon sketch gazed up at her. It was just the basic form, one she drew all the time. Large outstretched wings, four legs, reptilian form.

Katrina bit her lip as she took the sleeve of her Gryffindor sweatshirt in flipped it inside out. She began on the inside, only going deep enough in the fabric so that it would stay, but not deep enough that it would come through to the outside of her sleeve. It was much harder than she had originally thought, and Katrina found time slipping away.

After a what felt to be hours, but must not have been nearly that long, Katrina was done. It was incredibly satisfying to see her end result and she began working on the next one immediately.

If one were to see the dragon, they would instantly recognize it, but most likely not understand it. To Katrina, the dragon reminded her to follow her dreams, to not give up, to keep doing what is right. It reminded her that sad things don't last forever and sometimes you have to realize that you must let guilt go. It spoke of sleep filled nights and the feeling of a stomach full of food, of smiling faces and escaping into books. The dragon meant finding a place. No one would ever know how much the little dragon would mean to her. Nor would they truly understand why she chose a dragon.

To see the finished product was more than rewarding for the lioness. Katrina slipped the Gryffindor hoodie over her clothes and found herself admiring her handiwork. She pulled back the inside of her sleeve and ran her fingers over the design feeling each bump and ridge. Katrina rested her robe over one arm and grabbed her supplies with another.

Katrina smiled as she put her materials back and felt the comfort of running her fingers over the dragon. This crafting certainly had grown on her.

Total WC: 628+466= 1094; Errand Complete

For once, maybe the very first time in her life, or at least as long as she could remember, Dealla was alone, and actually preferred for it to be that way.
It maybe - probably - most likely - had to do with the letter she had received last night, that she had read, torn up, fixed with the Mending Charm, barely kept herself from burning, and finally tucked into a safe, private corner of her trunk with the strict resolution to never look at it again. She had also promised herself to never think about it again, but that was easier said than done.

The strange, melancholy mood that had taken possession of her afterwards had carried her through the whole day. She'd been quiet, stand-offish, unmotivated, and therefore almost unrecognizable. Not for a minute had her usually vibrant, larger than life personality shone through that day.
She didn't feel like studying to make sure she beat everyone in the next Potions assignment, or like exploring more hidden corners of the castle, or even like talking to one of her friends. Instead she had decided it might be nice to find a quiet corner to read a book, or to sit by the Great Lake in the shade of a tree and just enjoy the warm weather, the sun on her face, and try to absorb some of that quiet to calm the turmoil inside of her.

That was where she was headed when she stepped into the Courtyard, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand, and spotted the tables that were set up in a corner of the place.
Even in the state she was in, a bit of curiosity surfaced and made her slightly change her path so that she would at least pass close enough by the tables to see what was going on.
It seemed to be another one of Professor Jensen's craft activities - she had seen a few of those at this point - and there weren't very many students around this time. It should be very easy to just find a corner to herself.
Embroidery, huh. Well. If that didn't sound like calmness and tranquility, Dee didn't know what did. You couldn't even compete with others while doing it, because what would be the criteria?
So... might as well try it, right?

Putting the book she had taken with her, just in case she ended up being bored of simply sitting by the lake, down on a table, Dealla took a seat and moved to study the instructions that were placed neatly on the table next to the linen, hoops, and embroidery floss.
She had absolutely no experience with embroidery whatsoever. They had had a few crafts classes at the Muggle school she had gone to before Hogwarts, but that had involved more pottery or paper mâché, and nothing involving pointy things such as needles.
It didn't sound very hard, though - she probably wouldn't need to ask for help. The stitches seemed easy enough, and she would be very disappointed with herself if she needed help to put the fabric onto a hoop (and even if she did, hell if she'd admit it).
But - first things first, she needed to decide on a design.

What design did she want to stitch? How big should it be? What did she want to turn it into at the end?
Dee had already laid out a piece of linen in front of her, a marker in her hand, ready to draw, hovering just over the cloth, but she came up empty.
What did she want to make? She'd never done this before, and she didn't want to spend hours on it, so anything too complicated was out. But doing a simple design like a heart or a flower just seemed... boring.
With a theatrical sigh, Dee dropped the marker on the table and put her head in her hands. Well, this wasn't giving her anything close to tranquility so far.

Maybe, she thought, she could decide on a design if she picked the colours first.
Letting her eyes roam over the neatly arranged bundles of floss, she first picked out a deep indigo blue thread, then a light beige, a warm brown, and finally a pale, icy blue, before she took in the four colours in front of her and scowled.
Well, she had just picked out her own colours - her hair, her eyes, her house. That didn't really help her much at all.
However, while staring down at the four threads laid out side by side, came another memory from Muggle school: While they hadn't done embroidery or anything that required needles, they had worked with colourful thread - to make bracelets. Did she still remember how to make those?

Switching the pale blue out for a soft pink on a whim, she cut off about a meter of length from each of the threads, tied them together with a knot, and fixed the short ends of it in a hoop to gain some leverage.
The simplest design, she remembered, had consisted of diagonal strips in alternating colours - surely, she could manage that.
Starting with the thread on the far left, she started tying two small knots around the thread next to it, then repeated the same with the second to the right, and lastly with the one on the far right, before starting over again on the left side. She quickly built up a rhythm - it wasn't very complicated, really, kept her fingers busy and her mind free to wander - and soon, she had a slim bracelet that should probably fit around her skinny wrist.

She smiled down at her work, her mood lifting for the first time that day. Although not embroidery per se, this was fun - and calming too.
Quickly tying another knot to the new end of the bracelet, Dee freed it of the embroidery hoop and then braided both ends with quick fingers so she could fix it around her wrist.
Then, she stared at the linen again in thought for a minute, before she shrugged, pushed it away, and picked out some more colours from the floss. Emerald green - turquoise - white - black. She could make bracelets for her friends, too.

Word Count: 1054/1000
She'll probably be sitting there for a while, making a few bracelets, and is open to interactions - otherwise leaving the thread afterwards.

Alan had been outside for a while already and watched the professor prepare something. She set out a lot of colorful stuff that looked like yarn and weird wooden hoops and Alan had no idea what their use was. But it made him curious enough to watch the professor from afar playing a one person guessing game where he tried to figure out what it was that the professor was preparing. He had seen the light haired woman once in the great hall before in which the Hufflepuff head of house had been dancing during that time, which also distracted him enough to actually strike for a conversation with the snake chief. No matter for how long the third year watched and stared he could not actually figure out what was up, so he finally decided to approach the professor. A couple of other kids were already gathered around and seeing them work gave Alan some sort of idea what was going on here in that moment.

Embroidery. It was a word that Alan was only vaguely familiar with. He knew it included a thread and a needle, but that was as far as his knowledge about it reached. It was quite artsy and while Alan liked artsy stuff he was quite bad at it. He did not care though as long as it was fun and carried away his mind away for a moment. He sometimes needed a break and often spend that time studying creatures and even Muggle animals; since he had a book now. A book about Muggle creatures. Not the normal ones, but exotic ones that lived all over the world like toucan; they were quite funny looking and extremely beautiful. He even read that most of their skeleton was actually their beak alone, which seemed like quite an amusing fact considering how big their beak was. But it also made him wonder how that could be even possible since it must be quite heavy on their spine in comparison to having a more average or balanced build. He assumed it would have a plausible reason though or perhaps it didn't, he actually has not gotten to read that far but now he definitely felt motivated to read a little bit more about that interesting bird and the fact he was willing to read something educational was an oddity in itself.

He asked if he could join the fun little task and was quite curious on how it would work. Upon getting the confirmation from the head of house that he could indeed join, he plopped down on the ground, sitting on a grassy patch as he listened to the instructions. For now it sounded quite simple. He would just have to think about something, whatever it was and how he wanted it to look like. Excitedly he grabbed one of the embroidery hoops that were not in use at the moment and it turned out to be a smaller one, measuring around ten centimetre in its diameter. It seemed perfect as it would not be too difficult to make something pretty with it. He would place the hoop in front of himself and stretched a piece of fabric onto the hoop as instructed.

Alan knew exactly what he would be making and reached for one of the pens that were sprawled across the area possibly because multiple students had already used them for their own creations and began to doodle onto the cloth. He did his very best to make it as realistic as possible and had to say he was quite proud about how the sketch of the lion turned out. One could easily feel intimidated by that proud lion doodle, but to accentuate the pride of the creature even more he would add a 'ROAR' into a speech bubble next to its head and gave his work a satisfied nod. It turned out perfectly!

Now that this was done the third year had to learn about the actual process of embroidery and it did sound more complicated than he had first anticipated. However he was willing to make this work. he by accident pricked his finger with the needle from time to time, but it seemed that he was doing a well enough job. His tiger turned out perfect and looking at it filled him with pride. He had created this, he alone! Well with the help of the professor of course, but nonetheless it was an accomplishment he would not let anyone take away from him. he would stare at the embroidery hoop for a while until he finally got up and thanked the professor for teaching him the ways of embroidery. He even showed his creation to her and hoped she would be seeing the spot on resemblance to an actual lion in his work of art.

After standing up he would pat on his pants to get rid off any crumbs of dirt and soil that might stick to the fabric of his black pants, but he seemed fine and even if not he could always just get a new set of clothes from his dorm and get changed again. Well he would have to go to his dorm anyway so that he could safely store away his new hand-made treasure. But he quickly had another idea that would be even better and a new plan formed in his head. He would simply send it back home because he was sure that his mother would love this little gift. His mother liked artsy stuff and this was without a doubt a work of art and he hoped that she would cherish it. But again he had no doubt that she would do exactly that. So after saying his goodbyes to the other kids and especially the professor, he would walk away with a soft bounce in his step, clearly excited about writing a letter home to his parents. Sadly he would have to use a school owl for this since he couldn't just borrow Cadmus for a flight that would most likely take more than a day.

WC: 1017/1000 | Completed

{ Interacting with: @Maria Dee }

Serena blinked at the sight, wondering how the other girl managed to get herself caught up into the embroidery. In fairness, she had yet to actually stitch anything so perhaps it was easily done. "I... Yeah... That doesn't seem to be right..." She replied with a smile on her face, "But I guess it's one way to keep it with you the whole time. I'm sure you can rock it as a patch or something," Serena added, trying to make the situation better a little. Well, at least attempt to cheer the girl up from feeling so awkward. It was a mistake, it was fine! Worse things have definitely happened on these grounds.

"Ahh-" She exhaled as she saw the stack of hoops start to fall. Serena quickly reached the pile to try and stop more from falling, repositioning them back to their original placement before picking up some of the fallen ones. The rat, that was now in her pocket, started to move around again, "Pizza, will you calm down?!" She hissed, turning her head towards her right cloak pocket, which was moving. Serena sighed, not really knowing what was wrong with him. "Sorry, he's a little agitated for some reason today, nothing to do with this!" She quickly added, hoping the girl knew that this was all unrelated to her.

Replacing a few more of the hoops onto the table - hopefully before the professor noticed - Serena smiled at Maria, "So what design were you trying to make? Mine's... kind of boring..." She admitted, struggling to come up with everything actually half decent. Sighing softly, she took the little rat out of her pocket and stroked the top of his head and his back to try and calm him down a little. Her own linen was scrunched up a little in her hand as she had been picking up the hoops instead and was now busy with her rat but she still held onto it. There were about five messy outlines on it, which was not ideal.

Total Words so far: 601 + 340 = 941

Mentioning: @Katrina Walker @Evelynn Decipio

Why was Jo Morgan here of all places? Sure, house points were house points and the prospect of "helping out" had dragged her to many an errand before this, but she had so many other important things to do. Like homework. Her grades were dropping, and if she didn't step up her homework game and finish her first year off with an O average, Lady Aithne would never let her get a cat! All things considered, she shouldn't have been here. She hadn't invited any of her friends, and nobody had invited her, either. It certainly wasn't that she had a passion for embroidery - although sewing and simple embroidery were taught in Japanese schools, Jo never found her interest piqued when a needle poked through thread.

She was here because she needed a distraction. (Oh, and also because she thought she would be doing the errand indoors. Who thought it was a good idea to get sunburned and dirty while working with a tiny, easily-lost needle?) She was tired of being worried about, of being told she looked stressed out, grumpy, and on edge. Somehow, she needed to take a break from everything. Why this involved getting into more such "things" was past her comprehension, but it never hurt to try. Surely it couldn't be that hard to take her mind off of things.

Jo reached for a medium-sized embroidery hoop, but quickly swapped it out for a smaller one. She didn't want to be here forever, did she?

Taking some fabric and a green marker, Jo began to sketch some curling vines and ferns. Minimalism was the key to success. She'd go for a slightly masculine or at least neutral style today, just to show she'd learned a thing or two since the toad house errand.

When she was satisfied with the design, curiosity got the best of her and she allowed herself the luxury of watching a few other students work on their hoops. She saw Katrina and Evelynn, both hard at work on their patterns. Normally she would have called out to them, but that was exactly how one got themselves into the "things" that she had mentioned earlier. Things bred drama, and drama bred fights. It was best to simply leave the two to their work, as they were leaving her to hers.

A sigh escaped her lips as she grabbed five strings of embroidery floss, each a different shade of green. Still wondering why in the world she was doing this outdoors, she took a moment to reflect on...

Wait. No. She wasn't supposed to be reflecting on things. That was the whole point. She had chosen to do this errand to take her mind off of things, not give her even more time to sulk. At this point, she wasn't even thinking or reflecting any more - just bathing in the lugubrious dismalness of her current mood with all the grace and poise of an angry, drenched cat scrabbling to escape a bath.

She'd always thought of herself as creative, but failed to see that creativity was nothing without the ability to translate that creative thought into action. Some were creative with their tongue, others with a sewing needle or a quill, still others with a paintbrush or a computer. Jo was creative, sure, but what could she craft? A marvelous painting? A helpful phone app? An embroidered rose, or perhaps even a dress?

An insult, at best.

Her creativity wasn't useful for anything - that was the problem. Sometimes people thought she was clever because of a nifty plan or two that she thought up, but that didn't mean she was any good at puzzles or riddles. She used to be so great at thinking logically and objectively, but recently something was off. She was letting her heart dictate to her instead of her mind. Where was the bright young mind that had led the Acid Pop Club? Gone...somewhere, she supposed. Thinking with her heart caused nothing but damage and catastrophe. Who knew? Perhaps one day it would...

Oh. My. God. She was doing it again, wasn't she? Brooding. Sitting there with a sullen look on her face as she thought and thought and thought with a brain that did nothing but think. That wasn't creativity, it was uselessness. Like a dog chasing its tail; one thought would follow another and lead right back to the first.

She'd been working for a while now. The fern was a bit lopsided, but considering her low skill level Jo thought it was not too bad of an effort. Garbage compared to the masterpieces of some of the more seasoned seamstresses at the table, but she knew that even before she came.

There was a difference between minimalistic and dull. Jo knew she wanted muted colors, but there was nothing more disappointing than a boring work of art. Extending her hand once more towards the craft table, she settled on a gray thread to highlight the lightest green color.

Green and gray, green and gray, green and silver - Slytherin colors. Was this a subconscious attempt at...

Shut up! There she went, waxing philosophical again. It didn't take much to send her down the rabbit hole of philosophy, apparently. Just two or three minutes and a mundane task. Move the needle in and out. Change the thread and do it again. Ironically, the task seemed almost perfect to describe her recent temperament. She was on "pins and needles", just killing time as she waited around for the next bad thing to happen to her. When would it be? Today? Tomorrow? A year, perhaps?

She hopped up out of her seat and stretched, the uncomfortable physical consequences of remaining in the same position with her back hunched loudly making themselves known through a series of cracks as she meandered her way to Professor Jensen, popping the linen out of its hoop.

With a light greeting to the Slytherin Head of House, Jo ambled back to the castle, still not fully aware of why she came in the first place. Well, at least she had earned a few house points for Gryffindor.

Word Count: 1025 Errand Complete!

Damion kept finding himself in things that he had enjoyed doing before he had come here to Hogwarts. A life- that he was soon to forget with the time he was spending here at Hogwarts. A life that he wanted to keep alive with his time and not able to be there to do things. A life that he wanted to cherish no matter what the consequences- though it was not a bad thing but still. The quiet Damion made his way to the courtyard with his embroidery equipments. He had an Embroidery Hoop to fit the pattern, Embroidery Floss in two contrasting colors. Damion took out DMC 816 & 761 for the hearts and DMC 3799 for the strings. He then needed Sewing Scissors, a Water Soluble Marking Pen and an Embroidery Needle.

He placed took the white material that he had for the embroidery and started drawing the pattern he wanted to embroider. He drew a heart on the piece of cloth. He then took the red DMC 816 thread and threaded the needle with it. With his non-needle hand pinch the cloth a few inches from where it exits the fabric and then hold it taut with your hand not holding the needle. He placed his needle in front of this stretch of cloth. He wound the floss around the needle twice and continued the tension of the floss with his left hand (non-needle hand) to prevent it from uncoiling. He re-inserted the tip of his needle just next to, but not into the same exit point on his fabric. He gave the cloth a little downward tug with non-needle hand, so that the coil will tighten up, and slide down his needle to make a little bundle against the surface of his fabric. With your coil snugly held in position against the surface, he now pushed the needle through. He had successfully made a red French knot. He looked at happy with his achievement and smiled softly.

Something about doing a French knot in a heart reminded him of his time with his family back in Wales when he used to learn doing a French Knot. His mum encouraged him to do things that his little heart desired. His ambitions were high for a tiny young boy of a mere eleven years old. He aimed to be the highest scorer of his house and wanted to be a prefect. Above all he wanted to achieve so much more than maybe was possible to achieve. A slight wind blew across his face and hair and Damion found himself relaxing against the tree he was sitting in the Courtyard. Sitting under a tree was something he used to do when he was back at home.

Damion looked around as the breeze flowing around him made him feel really close to his home. He was very happy to have a connection with things that reminded him of the good old days back at home. Everything he was doing was to get himself used to the fact that he was away from his home but still somewhere he was connected with it. He didn't want this place to completely take over his persona. he wanted to have a control of things and still do what he desired.

A small sigh escaped Damion's mouth as he glanced at the surroundings he was in. He was really liking the fresh air in the courtyard. The blowing wind through his wavy black locks. Everything about being outside was something that Damion really liked. He enjoyed being in open fresh air. He loved how the blowing wind made him feel. He loved how the weather here was something that he had not seen in a while. Something that Damion appreciated.

Damion looked down at his Embroidery hoop. It was time to change the thread from the red DMC 861, it was time for the DMC 761. He had to repeat what he had been doing to finish his heart with small french knots. He looked at his red colored knots and was happy about it. He loved the way they had come out. They were very pretty and Damion couldn't be prouder for them. He loved how they looked so far. He knew it was not ready yet. He had to fill in the french knots with the the other color before heading to do the black sting. Taking a deep breath Damion started making the French Knot in the second color he had. He looked at the embroidery and smiled. It was really coming together. He was really happy that he was able to get things to work. He loved how these two colors that he had chosen were matching together so well. Like contrasting together. He loved that he had chosen such colors.

He sighed as he remembered the first time he had tried to do the French Knot back at home and had ended up screwing it over so much. Damion was happy that he had not messed it up this time though. Other wise he would be in trouble. He felt that French Knot was something that he would have not perfected if he hadn't tried to do it over and over again yo make perfect knots and not have any tangling with each other. A messy French Knot is not a good one. So his mother had mentioned to him.

Almost done!! Damion thought to himself. As he looked at the fabric he had on his lap. It was almost finished. Just a few more French Knot and he'd be done with the task on his hand. He smiled as he looked at the French Knots in front of him. He was super- duper happy. He just wished he could have shown it to his parents and his best bud. No harm in getting their opinions now was there? He couldn't help and wonder how they would have felt about it. There was a part of him that always wanted to know how Dylan or his parents would like him doing these things. Things that he was doing to try and find what he liked and what he wanted to do.

Words: 1032. Errand is Complete.

Interacting with: @Serena Towers

It was a relief to Maria that the older girl didn’t think she was total loser for doing this to herself, or for being clumsy. In fact, from what she could the Quidditch player was actually sincere. She even reassured her that she wasn’t the reason for her pet acting up.

“Aww, maybe he wants to come out.” The younger badger remarked before her eyes shifted to the table, eyes scanning for the scissors she had originally approached the table for. She reached for the carefully this time, lifting them and making sure that she wouldn’t hit anything else. One instance of clumsiness was enough for this interaction, she decided.

With a quick few snips on the floss her hoop separated from the sweater and she carefully placed the scissors back.

“Um, it’s this little owl guy, I wanted to keep it a little easier because, well I’m not exactly used to this…” She blushed as she held up the hoop. “I’m sure it’ll be great.” Came out of her with a nervous laugh.

All her nerves however, disappeared as soon as she set her sights on the rat that Serena currently held in her hand. “Oh he’s adorable!” Maria exclaimed, shyness dissipating at the sight. The girl cooed, waving a finger at the little animal. Once she recovered from all the cuteness, she composed herself, but was more relaxed than she previously was.

“Uh, sorry about that, I get a little excited.” She cleared her throat and looked down at her hoop. “I should get back to working on this, I’ll see you around!” She had only taken a few steps before she realized she had forgotten to do something important.

“My name’s Maria, by the way.” With one last smile, she made her way back to her place and started working on her design again. About an hour, several crooked stitches and a few prickled fingers later, she proudly held up her work. If anything, this experience taught her maybe embroidery wasn’t for her. But nonetheless, she was happy she tried it. She took her work out of the hoop and put it back with the others, fortunately avoiding any more accidents. Cloth in hand, she took her leave to go put her accomplishment in her trunk, happy to have spent her time well.