Paper Pandas Errand Private Closed

𝒜madea had been back at Hogwarts for almost a month now and she finally felt like she was settling back into the normal schedule of life at school. She was used to having a busy schedule, filled with classes, homework, and extracurriculars. If she was being honest, she liked the business. It didn't give her any spare time to think about anything that she definitely did not want to think about. Unfortunately for her, today was an unusual day. There was absolutely nothing going on today. Normally she would enjoy the downtime, spending it with a friend or exploring a new place around the school. Right now, though, she longed for something to do.

As she ambled into the Great Hall, relief flushed over her body as she saw that the tables had been cleared of food and in its place was paper. Scanning the room, Amadea spotted the familiar face of Serena Towers. She was practically Amadea's idol; the girl was the epitome of a Hufflepuff and Amadea aspired to be like her. Mustering the courage, Amadea walked over to the table where Serena was sitting and sat down next to the girl.

"Hey Serena," Amadea said quietly, scanning her surroundings. On the table were information sheets and many pieces of paper. Evidently, it was origami day. Amadea had never done origami before and she wasn't very confident in her paper-folding skills. Thankfully, there were some tutorials laid out in front of her that she could follow. Picking up the first piece of paper in front of her, she studied the tutorial. It was a unicorn and Amadea tried to follow the correct folding, making triangles and creases. Once she had finished, she held up the wad of paper. It resembled...well, to be honest Amadea wasn't sure what it resembled. She unfolded the paper, flattening and smoothing it, hoping that her second try would be slightly better than the first.

Looking over at Serena, Amadea was glad she wasn't the only one having trouble. Serena's badger was not turning out like the picture. "Why is this so difficult?" she asked jokingly.

WC: 352

Art wasn't something Saskia always dabbled in, although this school sure did have some kind of agenda to push students to try it out. Almost every time she went to help out for an errand, it involved something related to art. There was the Christmas ornament decoration from last year, where she encountered Thora in the great hall and conversed with her while they were decorating together. Then there was the toad house errand in the Herbology greenhouses, where Saskia and a group of other people made houses together. Unfortunately, she wasn't in the mood to talk that day, especially once she saw who exactly she was grouped with. But the extra concentration must have paid off, and she made a surprisingly cute toad house afterwards.

Today, she would step inside the great hall to find another art errand happening. This time, she would be seeing arrays of tables with different coloured paper lying on top of them. Students had already gathered around the tables, and instead of using the drawing supplies that were beside them, they were folding the papers instead. It quickly came to the girl's mind that they were making origami. In other words, they were folding paper until it looked pretty. It wasn't something she hadn't tried before, but it sure did sound fun. She wasn't going to pass on that opportunity, and from her last artistic endeavors, she was confident that she wouldn't mess this one up too terribly. Either way, it was meant to be fun, and she needed something to do for the rest of the day.

Walking further in the hall, she scanned the different tables, observing as students concentrated on their origami. Some weren't exactly getting anywhere with how they were folding the paper, but others seemed to already know what they were doing. One kid was making a snake, and another was almost done with their unicorn. Were there instructions for these things or did they somehow know how to do them on their own? There had to be instructions for these, right?

Saskia went further down the tables, looking to see if she could join one of the groups. She didn't feel like making origami all by herself, and it would have been nice if she had some company if she was going to spend some time here. Glancing around once more, a smile made a way through her lips as she spotted Serena. She was a good friend of hers, and also someone who had stuck with her on some of her harder days. She was with another girl who she didn't recognize, although she looked nice enough too. If she was a friend of Serena, then surely they could get along too.

She made her way to the table and greeted the two cheerfully. "Hey guys. Mind if I join you two?" she asked, gesturing towards the table.

Word Count: 482/800

Upon entering the Great Hall, Cecily was very much not expecting to find it quite so busy. That wasn't to say that she didn't know what was going on-- well, that may have been false. She didn't know what was going on at first. And so, slowly making her way into the hall, Cecily peered down at the tables she passed, trying to catch a glimpse of the event currently in full swing. Stacks and stacks of colored paper sat strewn over every table, with students folding them into intricate shapes. It took the Ravenclaw quite a few steps before she made the connection: the Origami errand! Of course! She had heard whispers about it-- not Bootleg Ball-type whispers, of course, but rather snippets of conversation in passing-- but she had not known on exactly which day it would take place. Well, it appeared to be this one.

Cecily moved to turn her back to the chaos and walk out the door. As fun and crafty as Origami seemed, it also looked rather tedious and frustrating. But before she could take another step, her eyes caught a familiar face, one belonging to a good friend. But Amadea hadn't yet looked up and seen Cecily, seemingly engrossed in her task and her conversation, so the blonde could still make a run for it. There was nothing keeping her here.

Except for the fact that her best friend had been gone for months and now was the perfect opportunity to make up for some of that lost time. Also, she couldn't pretend that she didn't actually really want to try her hand at the elegant art of paper folding-- not that elegant was a word she might use to describe whatever she made, surely. And so, her morals and curiosity winning out over her introversion as they so often did, Cecily begrudgingly snaked through the occupied tables cluttering the floor, stepping over crumpled sheets of paper that had found their way onto the ground, the sad-looking remains of unfinished or mangled animals. As hard as she tried, though, she couldn't stop a smile from slipping onto her lips as she approached her friend and the two other girls. She recognized one of them, Serena, from the Hufflepuff's short stint as head girl, as well as being in the same year as she. The other one, still standing next to a chair, looked so familiar, like Cecily knew her from something. Try as she might, though, she couldn't quite put a name to the face.

"Amadea," she greeted with a smile. Something about her friend always managed to put her at ease. "Fancy meeting you here. Mind if I join?" Cecily pulled out a chair without waiting for an answer and took a seat. Overbearing? Maybe. She internally shrugged before smiling at the other two students, who likely didn't know who she was. Many people didn't. She had a habit of not talking to people. "I'm Cecily, by the way," she added as she surveyed her choices.

WC: 506

Serena frowned as she folded her paper in half again. No. That was not right. She unfolded it. What even were these instructions? It made it look so simple and yet hers was nothing like it should have been! She heard her name, a soft voice of - "Amadea! Hey, how's it going?" Serena replied enthusiastically with a grin on her face, glad to see a fellow face. She chuckled as she admitted, "I have no idea what I'm doing..." She seemed so clueless but she was glad that Amadea seemed to be finding it difficult too.

"Sas, hey! Of course, please," Serena replied, motioning to the table for her to join. The badger actually had no idea if the other two knew each other. She kind of just assumed that they did. Mostly because if she knew them, they had to have known each other. At least, that was her logic. She was not popular or well known - at least, in her own eyes - so the idea that Saskia might not know Amadea or vice versa was not a thought that occurred to her.

Her lack of knowing people was proven by the entry of another student, that she did not really know. The girl looked familiar but she could not place why until she heard the introduction. Cecily. Ah, one of the Ravenclaw perfects, was she not? Serena had left her tenure as perfect / head girl some time ago - a long time ago. It actually felt like a decade ago now, but in reality, she stepped down near the start of her second year. "Hi, I'm Serena!" She replied, introducing herself to Amadea's friend, who had joined them.

"Does... anyone actually know how to do this, by the way? I'm pretty sure this... is not right..." She asked as she lifted up her attempt of a badger. It honestly looked a little like a bit more like panda at this point, based on the rather large body she seemed to have given it, but not quite a badger. so far, the body was turning out kind of fatter than it was meant to - much more panda like. "I should have picked an easier one... What the heck is this?!" She asked kind of rhetorically as she continued to hold it before revealing the finished result. It looked like the badger but... the head was squished, much smaller than it was meant to be - according to the instructions - and the body was fatter and rounder. Yeah, it definitely looked more like a bear or a panda than it did anything else but even then, it still was not right.

Maybe there was an easier one she could attempt to do instead?

WC: 364 + 459 = 823

𝓐s Amadea held up the mess of a paper that looked like some lopsided turtle, another girl approached the table. Because Amadea had been gone for most of the year, she didn't know many of the students and did not recognize the girl. Embarrassed, she lowered the paper, unsure of what to say or do. Amadea moved over, giving the girl more room to sit. Clearing her throat, she wiped her sweaty hand on her sleeve and began to extend it towards the other girl. "Hi, I'm Amadea," she said quietly. Before her hand was all the way out, she quickly whipped it back to her side, playing it off as though she was tucking her hair behind her ear. What was she thinking? Shaking someone's hand seemed much too formal, especially for a situation like this. She blushed, looking back down at the paper in front of her. Being away from school for almost her entire third year had definitely took a toll on her social skills, not that Amadea had many to begin with.

Thankfully, the awkwardness was broken and Amadea looked up again to see her good friend Cecily pulling up a seat to join the trio. Amadea's face broke out into a wide smile as she saw her Ravenclaw friend. "Cecily, hi!" she said, hoping she didn't sound too enthusiastic. "Of course you can join us! Maybe you can help us figure out how we're supposed to do this." She held up the mess of folds in her hand.

Amadea turned toward Serena as the girl held up...well, as Amadea squinted at it, she tried to see the badger's features but it really did not resemble a badger at all. Why was origami so difficult? Amadea wondered. "Yours doesn't look too bad, Serena!" Amadea said encouragingly, showing the girls her own paper. The unicorn's horn looked more like a giant bump protruding from its head as if it had been in a very bad fight. The body was alright, but the legs were disfigured and not at all proportional to the rest of the body, stretching out much longer than they appeared to in the tutorial. The poor unicorn looked like it was suffering from scoliosis and a horrible concussion. Maybe I should have chosen a different animal, Amadea thought to herself as Serena mentioned it. Certainly, some of the other animals seemed much easier to fold, such as the snake and raven. No, she thought to herself. She wasn't going to give up, especially not in front of her friends. She needed to prove to herself that she could do it.

"I think I have to restart," Amadea said as she examined her unicorn. "There's really no hope for this poor little guy." She placed the unicorn to the side, grabbing another piece of paper on the table. This time, she focused on each step much more carefully. The perfectionist inside of her needed to get this correct and she didn't want to mess up twice in front of the others, even if they were struggling as much as she was. "So fold in half..." she muttered as she copied the first step on the paper. She folded back a little piece and bit her lip as she followed the rest of the instructions. When she finished, the paper looked...slightly more like a unicorn than her first attempt. It definitely did not look anything like the tutorial, but this time, if she looked hard enough, she could tell that it was a unicorn.

"I think I got it!" she said excitedly, holding up the creation in front of her. The horn was much more horn-looking this time, and even though the legs were still poking out at odd angles, it actually looked like a unicorn. Amadea could barely contain her excitement. She had done it! She looked around at the girls beside her, wondering how they were doing.

WC: 352 + 654 = 1006

She wouldn't be the only newcomer in the table. Another girl would come up to them, greeting one of the girls by name. Now that she thought about it, she actually did recognize the girl somewhat. She was the former prefect of Hufflepuff, was she not? She never had the chance to talk to her, however. There was always this divide between the older years and herself, and it was only this year that she was able to acquaint herself with the seniors. Quidditch had encouraged her to work with and talk to some of the third years on the team, one of which included Serena herself.

Amadea had called Cecily by name, meaning that Saskia could now put a name on everyone in their table. "I'm Saskia. It's nice to meet you all." She waved at the two, giving them a pleasant smile. Glancing around at all three girls, she was at the realization at she was surrounded by third years who had either been prefects in the past, or were prefects now, like Cecily. That had to be intimidating, right? These were the same people who held so much authority around the school. She was a former Quidditch Captain, and while she had some level of authority, it was only limited to the Quidditch Pitch. She knew she had her teammates trust, and possibly the respect of other teams and Quidditch fans, but she led people in a different way. She had responsibility for her own team. They, on the other hand, had the responsibility of an entire house.

Saskia was already the odd man out in this situation. But they seemed okay. It wasn't that she shouldn't take them seriously, but they were approachable. She knew Serena well enough to be comfortable enough with her, Amadea seemed nice, if not a bit shy, and even if Cecily didn't look like the talkative type, she was also pretty alright. It wasn't as awkward as she would have thought. She could do this.

Now, she had to assemble the actual origami piece. Looking closely at the instructions, she could see that there were different options she could take. There were the four mascots, a dragon, a unicorn... And a giraffe. She already knew what she was going to pick the moment she laid her eyes on the instructions.

She looked up at Serena and Amadea and their creations. "Yeah, it's a start. I'm sure it'll look better when you're done." She had to admit, it really didn't look at all like a badger, but who was she to judge? Maybe Serena had a different angle she was working with. Even if it wasn't the picture perfect badger, at least it didn't look like a crumpled ball, and that was something. Well, maybe that wasn't much of a compliment, but it was true.

Amadea had a bit of a rough start with her unicorn. The unicorn's torso turned out okay, but the legs and the horns were disproportionate. Again, not the perfect unicorn, but it was a unicorn. But the girl's second attempt looked a lot better, especially with the horn. Saskia gave an encouraging smile towards her. "It's coming along great, Amadea."

It was her turn to make something now. Grabbing a piece of spotted yellow paper, she got started on the folds. The first few steps were easy to follow, considering the folds were easy to make. Then there were the other folds. They weren't too complicated, but she had to really make sure she didn't fold too short or too long, or else the poor animal would have been horribly disfigured. There were some weird steps where she had to fold the paper inside out, and it definitely took a while for her to even understand what that meant, but she was able to get that part done without crumpling the paper too much. It was coming all together now.

Grabbing the scissors nearby, she made a small rectangular cut near the bottom. Letting the figure stand in place, she smiled. She was done her giraffe. The proportions were a tiny bit off and some of the folds were flapping outwards, but in her opinion, it was pretty decent.

"I'm all done. How's everyone else doing?"

Word Count: 482+ 716 = 1198/800

Cecily finally had a name to put to the face of the younger girl as she introduced herself as Saskia. The name vaguely sparked a memory-- she knew that the girl was a Hufflepuff...was she on the Quidditch team, perhaps? Yes, Cecily was sure that was where she recognised her from. If the Ravenclaw's memory served her well, Saskia was the team captain for Hufflepuff. Perfect, that was something they could talk about! If there was one thing Cecily learned from her time at Hogwarts, it was to always find a backup topic of conversation, or else they'd end up talking about the weather. Which was never interesting, no matter how often Cecily pretended otherwise.

Amadea had saved Cecily the task of introducing herself when the Hufflepuff welcomed her to the table, calling her by name. Just then, it occurred to her that she was the only non-Hufflepuff at the table. It was like a bad bar joke: Three Hufflepuffs and a Ravenclaw walk into an Origami errand.... Cecily was the odd man out. Besides, they probably all knew each other already, as those from the same house do. But it was alright-- she knew Amadea, and she had heard that Serena was very nice. Not that she expected them to, like, throw her out of the group or anything. It was just pleasant to interact with someone who didn't constantly have their nose in a book.

Once the tedious tradition of introductions had been gotten over with, Cecily surveyed the activity. She truly had very little idea of what she was getting herself into, but as always, she was determined to succeed. And so, naturally, once she had checked out her options, she inadvertently settled on the hardest one-- the dragon. Because dragons were awesome! Plus, her other choice-- the raven-- looked a little wonky.

Cecily selected a square of dark green paper and set to work. She folded diagonally, then diagonally again, the horizontally, then diagonally...the wordless instructions were incredibly vague, Cecily realised. Without even a base of knowledge to work off of, this was going to be significantly harder than she thought.

But at least she wasn't the only one having trouble with the task. From across the table, Serena held up her, uh, badger? Cecily was pretty sure that that was what it was supposed to be, but the rotund body and miniscule head did not resemble the creature quite as much as the instructions likely depicted. As the other two girls reassured Serena, Amadea finished her piece, which only ended up slightly closer to what it was supposed to be. Which...may or may not have been...a unicorn? Cecily squinted at the crumpled paper. Yeah, there was definitely a horn there, albeit smaller than usual. The legs, too, were an odd size. Cecily couldn't help but grin a little bit at the odd shapes the four of them were producing.

"Hey, this dragon's not having too great of a time either," Cecily admitted, holding up her crumpled sheet of paper that vaguely resembled a winged creature, even if the tiny, disproportionate wings would never be able to lift its stubby body off of the ground. Honestly, it looked more like a t-rex, if anything. Maybe she should have chosen something easier, like the wonky-looking raven. At least that might look something like what it was supposed to. Cecily let out a small laugh at herself and her deformed dragon before resolving to complete a successful origami creature if it was the last thing she did. The girl set aside her mistake and started again.

"Hey, those look great, you two!" Cecily exclaimed as the girls presented their creations. Saskia stood her spotted yellow giraffe on the table. Hey, she could tell what it was supposed to be! Sure, the patterned paper was a tip-off, but still, at least one of them would be successful today. And Amadea's unicorn, although still not perfect, was a huge improvement from the disfigured horse shape she had produced before. Serena still appeared to be struggling, but Cecily was as well. This dragon was turning out to be much more difficult than anticipated, and the Ravenclaw was starting to regret a lot of things, primarily her choice of animal.

WC: 506 + 708 = 1214

Awkwardly chuckling as she scratched the back of her head as Amadea and Saskia tried to compliment Serena's paper badg- no, paper panda. Serena frowned at her attempt, it was definitely more like a panda than a badger. She put it down and grabbed another piece of paper. Maybe she could try again. She attempted the process from the start after looking at everyone else's attempt that turned out so much better. "It looks like a bear or a panda to me... Whoops..." Serena admitted, quickly restarting the process.

She folded the square again, carefully scrutinising the instructions again. She was not sure why but she really wanted to make a badger. Perhaps it was stubbornness, perhaps it was just the desire to actually succeed... perhaps it was house pride. Whatever motivated her, Serena's gaze flickered from the origami she was working on to the instructions. Back and forth, back and forth. Until she figured out the next fold. Okay, she could do this!

"Aww, that unicorn is so cute!" She acknowledged as she stared at Amadea's second attempt. It was really good - definitely looked like one in Serena's eyes. Saskia's giraffe was so good too. Cecily's dragon was a little bit off but the instructions made it look like that was probably the hardest one to make. It was a good attempt, given how hard it must have been. "That giraffe looks awesome, Sas! And that dragon is definitely better than anything I'd make, I can't even do this badger and it should be easier!" She said as encouragingly as she could to the ravenclaw.

Carefully folding the page a few more times, Serena leaned in close. It was almost as though the closer she was to the page, the more she could concentrate or get it right. Of course, this was not true but Serena leaned it close as she focused. She pouted her lips in thought, wiggling her nose moments later and and finishing up.

The end result was not the best but it definitely looked more like a badger, "Hey, I think I'm getting better at this.." Serena acknowledged as she held up the paper origami badger that looked far better than the first attempt. Holding them both up, side by side, she chuckled. The first definitely looked more like a bear or a panda, rather than badger but it was still okay. She had no idea what they were supposed to do with the origami creations but she did think they were kind of cute. "I think we can get these enchanted!" She suddenly claimed, remembering that a house elf could enchant it to move temporarily. At least, she thought that was the case.

She got the attention of a house elf and asked him to enchant the badger. It immediately burst into life, and started to run around on the table like a real badger would. It was pretty adorable. A huge grin appeared on Serena's face as she watched the badger run around. It was so cute! The whole thing made her chuckle some more. "It's so cuteeeee!!!" She squealed happily, bursting into a laugh.

── ❋ ──

𝓕rom what Amadea could tell, it seemed like everyone was fairing much better during their second attempts to make whatever creatures they were trying to create. She watched as Saskia placed the finishing touches on her giraffe and let it stand upright; Amadea fought the urge to clap for the Hufflepuff. Compared to Amadea's own lopsided unicorn, it looked much more like a giraffe than anything Amadea knew she could ever create. "Wow Saskia, that's so good!" Amadea complimented, genuinely amazed. As much fun as it was socializing with the girls, Amadea had learned from this event that origami was not her thing. Saskia, on the other hand, seemed like she was doing quite well.

Cecily's creation was the next to be shown off at the table, and Amadea let out her praises yet again for the dragon Cecily had made. Even though the wings of the poor creature looked like they would never be able to support the weight of its body, Amadea had to admit that it looked a lot like a dragon. Who knew? Maybe it would defy the odds and fly anyway; it could take after the honeybee. "Cecily that's great!" she said with a smile. "Especially for choosing one of the hardest designs." Amadea was glad that the paper she had picked up wasn't the one with the dragon instructions on it; from a quick glance over at the tutorial Cecily had been following, Amadea had noticed how many different folds she had to attempt and how vague the instructions were. She knew that if the dragon had been assigned to her, she would have probably eventually just given up and switched to something easier.

Similarly to Amadea, Serena's second attempt at her badger was much better than the first. "Woah Serena that's so good!" Amadea exclaimed as she held up the second version next to the first; Amadea could see a real improvement with the two. She was sure with a bit of practice all of them could become expert origami artists. Serena mentioned enchanting their origami, which Amadea had completely forgotten about; she had been caught up in the difficulty of executing the unicorn. After Serena had asked the house elf to enchant her badger, Amadea held out her unicorn to him and asked if he could do the same to the unicorn. Once the house elf had worked his magic, Amadea's small unicorn pranced around on the table, shaking its mane and rearing up on its hind legs. Even at its disproportional size, Amadea had to admit it looked pretty majestic. She looked over at Serena's badger who was running around and marveled in the excitement of magic. She couldn't believe that only a few years ago, she had no idea that magic existed or that this entirely new world existed. Now, she couldn't imagine life without magic; all of the little joys in life were enhanced even more by the use of magic. Successfully making an origami unicorn was enough to make Amadea joyous, but seeing it prance around once enchanted was enough to make her want to cry tears of joy.

"This is so cool!" she exclaimed. "Serena your badger looks so adorable!! And my unicorn looks so majestic; look at him shaking his mane! He looks like he could rule the school."

── ❋ ──