Becca's Creations Martch '23

Booberries

Becca Cross sat on the common room floor and wiggled a little from excitement as her fellow housemate finished telling their joke. She had a good one. She just knew it was going to be the joke of the night. All of the people around were going to think of her as the funny one for the rest of the year.

Finally, it was her turn to tell a joke. She cleared her throat and looked at the circle with a big grin.

”What’s a ghost's favorite fruit?”

Becca waited for a moment for somebody to respond; although, she secretly hoped nobody did so she could say the punchline.

”Booberries! she said, immediately laughing after.

Nobody else did, and Becca looked at them all.

”Get it? Like blueberries, just with boo.”

“Yeah, we got it,” somebody said after another person coughed.

Oh.

Becca chuckled nervously again and leaned back slightly away from the circle as the person next to her began telling their joke. As her cheeks burned, Becca told herself that now she knew. Wizards and witches don’t like jokes about ghosts. That joke would kill with her muggle friends.

Spring Forward

Winter’s icy touch is finally gone
And new life covers the ground
Similar to the night broken by dawn
Yearly, the season comes back round

As the weather changes and warms
And Jack Frost flees back to his lair
The landscapes around transforms
And blooming flowers scent the air

The land is prepared to harvest
With the dead growth being supplanted
From the smallest plot to largest
When the soil is plowed and planted

A beautiful time of the year
We’re so glad its here

The Lioness's Lair

Courageous Cubs,

Have you all heard the news about one of our little lions? If not, worry not, because we have the rumor here. First year, Becca Cross, is making a name for herself amongst the lions. How, might you ask? Well, by her name.

It has recently been uncovered by one of our researchers that the surname Cross was shared by an infamous wizard in the 1800s. This wizard, a Cyril Cross, went bonkers for reasons unknown in Dublin.

He started hexing items on the streets, and it took an hour to catch him. Over twenty muggles had to have their memories modified by the time all the curses were broken.

To this day, it is unknown what caused Cyril’s outburst. Since nobody was injured, Cyril’s wand was not snapped, but he did spend a stint in Azkaban.

Yours truly did ask our lion about Cyril, but she told me that her father was a muggle. Is this an outrageous lie to hide her family’s shame or the truth?

An anonymous source has confided in us that Cross has been seen leaving the dorm after curfew and performing magic in the corridors. Is this a sign of future insanity or just normal first year behavior?

Only time will tell.

Until next time, my cubs.

The Lioness

Rain

Becca Cross sat on her trunk she moved under the window and watched the rain fall. The rain comforted her. When the rain fell, she knew even the world needed to take a moment and live in the sadness of life.

Her da had sent her an owl this morning. That should have been a happy thing, but it wasn’t. Her great-aunt, her da’s aunt, had been in an accident and Danica, her best friend since primary school, didn’t even want to read her last letter.

Either one was sad on their own, but both together was awful. Add in the fact some people here at Hogwarts was giving Becca a wide berth, and it came up with Becca feeling so alone. She didn’t know what to do about any of it.

So, she watched the rain falling from the gray sky and thought of how much the plants needed it. With any luck, this shower would be exactly what was needed to heal the ground from winter’s deathly touch. Just like, the tears streaking down Becca’s cheek might begin to heal the cracks forming in her heart.

The problem with rain, though, is there could be too much of it, and that could cause flooding and more damage. The thought came into Becca’s mind unbidden, but it struck her deeply. Becca wiped away the tears, afraid someone catching her crying might cause more damage to her already bad reputation.

She had to remember, while people liked a good shower once in a while, nobody liked it when it rained for a week straight.

New Experiences Aren't Always Great

Becca Cross took one final glance over her shoulder before she sat at the base of a tree near the Black Lake. The air had the slight bite from fall turning over to winter, and the sky was a bit gloomy. She was sure it was going to rain soon.

Which is why she decided to do this outside. She was nervous. She really didn’t want anybody to see her and laugh at her. Which she was sure was going to happen, since everybody in her year was trying to sneak one of the little buggers in her meals for the last week.

Today, she was going to try one of Bertie’s Ever Flavour Bean. She really hoped she would get a nice, normal flavour. Not one like trash, or earwax. A part of her thought the rest of the students were lying to her, and those weren’t actually flavours. But what if they weren’t?

She opened the small box and looked inside. She debated trying to pick out a flavour she knew she liked, but decided to just grab one at random. It was pink with white, diagonal stripes. Maybe it was cotton candy.

Excited by the prospect, she popped the bean into her mouth. And immediately spit it out.

It was not cotton candy; it was salmon. She gagged a little. Who in their right mind made a salmon flavoured candy? She drank some of the water from the bottle she brought with her, trying to wash the taste out. She grabbed another one, this one dark red.

Hesitantly, she popped it in her mouth. This one was cranberry, and it wasn’t so bad. Just a little sour. Boldened, she grabbed another one. It was gray with black spots. She wondered what it was as she put it in her mouth. Her eyes watered as she started chewing. It was pepper.

Spitting it out, she chugged the water hoping to cool down her mouth. It didn’t help. After several long moments, the burning stopped and she stood up. She started walking back to the castle, vowing she would never try another one of those beans in her life. [/qupte]

Solmentum

Do you have fair skin, but wanted to take a spontaneous trip to the beach? Or been outside in Scotland when an infamous weather shift happened from gloomy to sunny, and you had to leave all your friends? Well now you don’t have to worry about the sun! All you need is to cast our new spell, Solmentum, on yourself with a wave of your wand and it instantly applies sun protection to even the fairest skin. Give it a try today!

Facing the Fire

Becca gasped in wonder as she looked at the newly emerged passage in front of her. Looking around to see if anybody else was watching her, she pulled her wand out of her robes and stepped inside. As soon as she walked through, she heard the passage’s entryway seal shut behind her and she was plunged into darkness.

That made her pause for a second. Where did this mysterious passage go? How would she get out? She turned around to feel the passage’s entry again, but all she felt was solid rock. Nothing to do but walk forward, she thought to herself.

She cast a Lumos and looked at the stony passageway surrounding her. She couldn’t see any distinctive markings, nor any clues for where she was going. She stopped walking for a moment to try and listen, but she couldn’t hear anything either.

After she had been walking forward for a while, she walked into a room. Torches hanging throughout the room suddenly lit and a suit of armor began glowing. Becca took a step before looking down to check for traps.

It delighted her to see a tripwire in the middle of the room. What was this place guarding? Stepping over the tripwire, she made her way slowly to the suit of armor. At the suit’s feet was a large shield. There was a gold painting of the scales of justice in the center and several runes etched into metal surrounding the scales. She bent down to look at it closely.

“I have been waiting for three hundred years,” a raspy voice suddenly said. The large, empty room made the voice echo repeatedly, which sent a shiver down Becca’s spine. “My last champion put me here and enchanted this place so as only a heart with a true desire for justice can find me.”

Becca began to back away slowly, wondering where the voice was coming from. She forgot about the tripwire as she walked, and fell down from it. Looking up at the ceiling, she saw it open up and something red begin to gather. She realized it was fire, and it would be coming down on top of her.

Standing quickly, she bolted away from the room and back down the passage. She had her wand in her hand, but didn’t cast the light charm. She ran in the dark, afraid of the fire and the voice. It didn’t stay dark for long, as the fire seemed to chase her.

She didn’t slow down for the entire length of the passageway, which seemed much shorter. The end of the passageway had opened back up to the hall in Hogwarts and she sprinted out. She hit the wall on the other side, and knocked herself down again.

After a moment, she stood up and turned around. There was no sign of the passage, and no smell of smoke. Shaking slightly, she hurried down the hall.

Exercising

Becca slowly went through her typical stretches as she warmed up for her daily morning run. It was raining softly and the air was a little more chilly than she liked, but she knew how important it was to show she was dedicated to this. After her stretches, she set off on her four laps of the entire Quidditch field, trying to ignore the students already up there practicing. She knew they weren’t paying any mind to her, but she felt self-conscious about it all the same.

As she ran, she thought of the last potion she brewed and its ingredients. Then she went through the ingredients list and thought of how it affected the potion, and why it was required. After that, she switched to focus to Herbology and thought of the plant the ingredient was from, and what it needed to survive.

Her lungs and legs were burning as she completed her third lap, and she had finished recalling the information she knew about the plants. So, she thought of her last Charms lesson and recalled the history of the charm. By the time she finished that, she wanted to quit running. It was too painful, but she knew she couldn’t stop. She had half a lap to go.

By this point in her run, she knew she could no longer distract herself by thinking of her lessons. Instead, she focused on her breathing. She tried to keep herself from wheezing, but she was not succeeding at the moment. She only had a little further to run, and then she would be done. She willed herself to pick up the momentum and finish strong.

Pumping her arms and breathing heavily, Becca passed her bag she sat down to mark her starting point and finished her last lap. It was difficult to keep herself from collapsing, but she forced herself to walk a lap around the track to cool down. She knew from experience that it was a bad idea to immediately rest. As she walked her lap, she thought of why she was doing this. Why she was forcing herself to run at dawn every day, then complete upper-body strength training with strenuous and punishing exercises, and then do it all over again after classes.

If she could keep this up, prove she could follow this exercise regimen for three months, he would teach her how to use a sword. That would make all of this worth it, right? And it wasn’t like there was no point in all of this exercising. She needed to build up her strength to wield the sword. It made sense.

She completed her cool down lap and immediately began her push-ups. It was Thursday, so she had to do two-hundred, fifty more than yesterday and fifty less than tomorrow. Once she finished her push-ups, she started her sit-ups. After that, she went to the next exercise before she ended with a plank that lasted two minutes.

She collapsed to the ground once she finished the plank with sweat pouring down her face. She panted as the rain, which had steadily increased, pelted her back cooling her down. Finally, she stood up and made her way to the Gryffindor tower so she could shower and cram in a last-minute studying session as she ate breakfast.

Love Is Not For Me
Cupid loosened his arrow and struck me
But I refused to show I felt a thing
For I would rather be lonely and free
Then entwined together by love’s fragile string