Summer Ready Errand

Reducio mentions and pings: @Ava Winchect dhapmir

Reducio Reducio ooc notes: n/a

6/28/23 • english • irish (gaeilge) • wc: 633/400

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Charlie had heard whisper of what could be a school wide event at Hogwarts. It was a clean up, around the Hogwarts grounds, and the way Charlie was thinking about it, it was pretty much a way to get free child labor. But later, when she would learn there would be a bonfire she would quickly change her mind.

Charlie threw on the very first thing she happened to see, which was a hoddie and sweat pants. She left the dorm ten minutes early to make her long descend down the moving stairs of Hogwarts. Since she had almost completed her first year at Hogwarts, she had mastered the art of descending the stairs quickly. The location of the other dorms would have been more ideal for her, especially since she loved to spend time outside.

When Charlie finally made it outside, she started the walk to the great lake. When she got closer, she was surprised by the amount of students that had actually showed up. The students seemed to be chatting, so Charlie began scanning the heads of the people there. She was looking for one of her friends, well her only friend, but she knew deep down that she would settle for anyone that she knew.

Ava and Charlies friendship had been really strong from the start, but once Ava was sent away for making bad choices, thats where things started going downhill. As soon as Charlie found out, anger began to build up. She didn’t even know why her very best friend would do something like that. Their trust was broken. It really hurt her heart, and made her want to cry. After a month, she finally decided to send her an owl to her on valentines day. They chatted until they got into a disagreement. Over half breeds. What Ava didn’t know is that Charlie was a Dhapmir. A half breed. Their friendship was broken, and Charlie was in a real low point. Her grades went down, she barely went out, and avoided Ava at all costs. But, just a little over a week ago, the two first years made up. Charlie was much happier, and was glad to have her best friend back.

Charlie searched the crowd and spotted her best friend. She ran at her through the crowd and Ava ran at her too. Ava wrapped her in a hug which surprised her. “Ava!” She exclaimed, her voice coated with shock. “I’m glad to see you.” She added as she hugged Ava back.

The two girls had time to chat for a bit before the prefect, Monica, called the large group of students to attention. She explained that they would be cleaning up the grounds by raking up leaves and moving sticks. Charlie wondered why they didn’t just get someone to wave their wand and magically have everything perfectly clean. But she was here, and it would be weird to not help, right?

The two girls went their separate ways during the clean up. Charlie stayed away from the lake while Ava went right up to the shore and began moving sticks and rocks. Charlie went for one of the rakes that had been set out, and she began raking up a pile of brown, dead, leaves. She also found a few pieces of trash which she placed in a trash bag. She loaded up the leaves into another bag, and tied it up. It felt good to give back to the outdoors that had given her so much during her months of struggle.

Once everything was all clean, she put the rake back and found her best friend Ava, in a group with people heading to the bonfire. She announced that they were going to the bonfire. “Yup! Lets go!” Charlie spoke, as she smiled.

Mood: happy
Main action: cleaning and giving out lemonade
Interacting with: none
Mentioning: @Monica Evans
Word count: 405

Summer Ready

Wow. This was just wow. This day was going to be great, for sure. Not only did Elizabeth loved cleaning up sometimes, she also was up to some muggle-cleaning. There were rakes, shovels, bins, bags and more muggle cleaning items. She was 100% ready for the fun.
A prefect, Monica, spoke, "Thank you all for joining in helping tidy up our marvellous Great Lake before heading off to summer! As you can see there is plenty to do! Our main focus will be the grass area, picking up any twigs or sticks and piling them together, raking up any fallen leaves, or throwing away trash you might find. It will also be nice to have some people doing the same along the shoreline, picking up, and clearing away twigs and sticks, and even tossing big rock off into the great lake. Simon and I will be around if you have any questions at all! And if you finish a job, maybe see if someone needs help! And don't forget the bonfire after the clean up! A fun way to end a good hard day of work! Playing games, and eating snacks!" and she dismissed everyone.
Elizabeth bounded towards some tools and grabbed everything she could get her hands on. She, like everyone else, has only 2 hands and was having trouble picking up a shovel.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" she said, pointing her wand at the shovel, causing it to float behind her.
It was hot, but Elizabeth liked it. Chatting with random passersby or friends she already knew, she picked up twigs and sticks. Her favourite part was when it came to rock-throwing. As rocks swooshed into the lake, it made splashing sounds that eliminated her. She threw rocks too, and the splashing sound made a rhythem, a rhythem which Elizabeth sang happily to.
Time flew past, and quickly her work was done. Before checking anyone else needed help, she stuffed herself with lemon drops and chocolate frogs. Oh this was so fun! Then she helped some other people. After that she began giving out lemonades from the house elves for anyone who felt thirsty and recommending them some rest, while drinking 11 glasses of lemonade herself.
Everything was highly enjoyable. What Elizabeth looked forward to most is the bonfire.
OPEN FOR INTERACTION

Mentions: @Linda Ramirez
Italics: thoughts

Outfit:

Reducio

As I picked up more trash, Linda said that she hadn’t been there for too long either. Another small breeze blew and lifted my hair. No longer exhausted I had more energy now. Linda had said that she would also love to go to the bonfire with me and that she hadn’t thought of that.
She also said that it was nice to meet now and then later in the summer.
I smiled. “Great! I’ll probably leave pretty soon…It seemed like a lot of the trash has been cleaned anyways! And yes it’s great to meet now and then later as well. I feel like this cleanup is not just a cleanup for our school but also for the students and teachers… Like a fresh start for summer and a new year!” I replied. Wow that was quite deep… I have no idea where that came from but I guess it’s good?
With this in mind I had a new batch of energy. I continued on picking up trash from the campus. For some reason this was relaxing for the mind even though it sure wasn’t for the body. I was super excited for the summer and soon I would go to the bonfire with Linda. I was going to enjoy these last parts of the school year and I was very happy.

Word Count: 238

★ Information ★

Reducio

DATE | TIME ☆───────────☆ June 28th, 2023

OUTFIT ☆───────────☆ Reducio

OOC NOTE ☆───────────☆ Open to any and all Interactions!

On a warm Friday afternoon, you could be doing anything. From staying inside and keeping cool, to chatting with your friends outside. Though on this particular Friday afternoon, Aisley had decided to go help with the pre-summer break lake cleanup that a couple of Prefects organized.

Birds sang happily and the sun shone brightly above the young Ravenclaw as she made her way down to the Great Lake to join the other students who had decided to take some time out of their afternoon to give back to the lovely school that they attended. Reaching her destination rather quickly, it seemed Aisley was right on time as the Prefects began giving instructions.

As the Prefects gave a small welcome speech and told them what the main focus was, Aisley looked around at her surroundings, and sure enough, the Lake was quite unkept. Leaves strewn around from the winds, sticks and twigs from surrounding trees on the ground from past storms, and bushes overgrown. After the Prefects were done speaking and the group of students had dispersed into smaller groups cleaning around the area, she decided to go down by the shore. Walking along a pathway down towards the shore, she waved hello to different peers she recognized along the way.

Approaching the shore, Aisley took a minute to just admire the beauty of nature around her. The lake's waves calmly lapped against the rocks at shore and a gentle summer breeze rustled the branches of trees nearby. It really was quite a gorgeous sight. One that Aisley wished she could forever trap in time and just enjoy the peaceful scenery.

Snapping out of her trance-like state, Aisley got to work by picking up the sticks and twigs she came across. After picking up as many twigs and sticks as she could, she made her way to another student on the shoreline who had grabbed a bin to put leaves and sticks in. Aisley dumped her armful of sticks and twigs into the bin before going back along the shoreline and getting more.

Exhausted from about a hard hour's worth of work, Aisley decided to take a break and sit down on a rock by the shore. Taking her black Converse and socks off, she dipped her feet in the cold water of the Great Lake, enjoying the distant sounds of chatter and the peaceful sounds of nature.

AngelFyre was bounce-stepping in place, eager to do her part in helping to promote a neater area around her beloved Great Lake while also supporting the most fabulous boyfriend/prefect/human being in the whole wide world, otherwise known as Simon Kincaid. She listened as Monica Evans, his Prefect partner in planning, explained what they were to do today, and what supplies were available to them to get it all done.

Then Monica mentioned the bonfire that was to follow the cleanup, and AngelFyre's ears really perked up. From the gathered crowd, she turned a beaming smile to her boyfriend who had teased that there would be an exciting surprise that would be announced, and boy was he ever right. Of course there would be a bonfire. AngelFyre playfully chastised herself for not figuring it out. It was a school sanctioned opportunity to get a fire going. Simon would be all over that for sure.

She heard their instructions, but honestly, some of it just made bad ecological sense to her, so she would be doing her own thing for part of her time. She would of course pick up any trash she came across, but as for raking up leaves and bagging them to be carted off as trash, that was a definite no go. In fact, she decided to start by grabbing a rake and a bag of leaves and small twigs and walked towards her and Simon's favorite lake side spot. As she drew closer, her heart was bursting with smiles as there was a glorious display of wildflowers thriving in the area. It would seem their seed casting on her birthday had been an unqualified success.

She looked around and could tell the area had already been raked clear of leaves and other debris, so she grabbed the trash bag and upturned it, spilling the leaves and twigs into a dusty pile. Setting the trash bag down and weighing it down with a rock, she began to spread the bounty back around the area with her rake. Leaves and twigs decomposed and provided rich nutrients back into the soil or sometimes provided shade for seedlings. Plus, they offered shade, breeding grounds, food, and hiding places for insects, amphibians, and small rodents. If she came across any rubbish, she happily picked it out and put it in her trash bag.

The twigs she tossed back on the ground under a tree's canopy or near bushes. Squirrels and birds of all kinds were raising young and refreshing nests, so these needed to remain in the area as well. She repeated her process using 8 more bags and found she had covered quite a lot of ground (yes, pun definitely intended) away from her original starting point and had moved slowly back towards the main crowd.

She picked up 1 final bag and was keen to try out one final idea. Being only a second year, she did not know a spell that basically shredded things, so her idea was to pour only small amounts of leaves out onto the top of one of the trash bags and crush them with her feet, much like vintners used to do with their grapes. The difference here would be that she would definitely not be barefooted while crushing. Her hope was to pulverize them enough to be able to spread them back into the grass so that the nutrients would be more readily available to the soil and would not create the "eyesore" they appeared to be to some.

As she started, she was reminded of an 'I Love Lucy' episode where Lucy found herself in a vat of grapes and had fun crushing them while dancing. Well, hey now! If dancing worked in that scenario, she did not see why it would not work here, so she did what she does, and she dance-crushed the leaves to the music playing in her own brain. There were some tap dances, but those were not satisfying without the clear sound of the tapping. What worked beautifully was Riverdance. She had an absolute blast stomping, jumping, twisting, grinding, twirling, clapping, and bouncing, all while dancing to the beat of her own drum and the music in her head. Happily, in addition to having fun, she crushed the one bag of leaves in about 7 songs. If Colin had been around, the both of them together could have buzz-sawed through the bags doing the Highland fling!

It was fun. It was fantastic exercise. But 7 songs a bag was not going to be sustainable by herself. Besides, it looked like the cleanup was mostly winding down, so she picked up the bag of crushed leaves and broadcast it over a portion of the grassy area. She ran her rake over it all to work it down to the soil and then stood back to survey it all. It looked good, and she knew she had done some good. That was a win for sure.

Taking her rake back to the area with the rest of the tools, she also tossed her trash bag with the others. Looking down at her jeans and boots, she grimaced a bit before reaching for her wand. One Scourgify later, she was presentable and now on the hunt for a certain handsome hunk.

The sun was starting to hang low in the sky and she thought she could smell a campfire. If she knew her boy, he was at the heart of the bonfire festivities already, and so would she be soon enough.

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𝑀𝑒𝓃𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈: @ 𝐼𝓃𝓉𝑒𝓇𝒶𝒸𝓉𝒾𝑜𝓃𝓈: @

⟵ ---------------------------------- Thoughts | Speech

𝒪𝒪𝒞 𝒩𝑜𝓉𝑒 Reducio

Mellani was just taking a stroll around the great lake when she noticed people gathered around, doing something. Curious, she went closer, wanting to know what all of this was about. As she came closer, it did not take her long to figure out that the others were cleaning up. Finally they did something good for a change, instead of making those poor elves do all their work for them. Mellani looked around and smiled, loving how clean everything looked. By the looks of it, she'd arrived late, but that did not mean that she could not get involved, even now. Which she did.

Mellani hurried over, picked up a bag and started looking for anything the others had missed. She looked around and picked up things like small wrappers. She also picked up all the leaves and laid them in a pile. Mellani did not mind getting her hands dirty every once in a while. This day reminded her very much of the cleaning drills that she was used to back at home. She loved contributing to keeping everything clean, and of course, being a muggle born, she had no house elves to do her work for her, and that was how she liked it. Mellani believed that the house elves deserved to be free, and that they should not be made to do the wizards' work for them, even if they did it willingly, which Mellani HIGHLY doubted.

Mellani wandered around, looking for more waste, but not finding much. She was just walking around, picking up twigs, but of course, not really paying much attention to other things. Her gaze was so fixed on a particular twig that she had noticed, that she failed to notice a log in her path. Her leg tripped, and she fell hard, a lot of the contents of her bag falling down, littering the area yet again. For a moment, everything hurt. It all hurt so, so bad, but being the conscious person that she was, Mellani got up and started cleaning everything up, ignoring the pain. Her knee was scraped and was bleeding a bit, but she went on anyways.

After she was done cleaning up, she limped to a tree, keeping the bag and sitting under the tree. Not so surprisingly, she had sprained her ankle too, increasing the pain. Mellani sat there and wondered if the others were laughing at her for tripping. Not that Mellani cared much, but she did wonder what impression she might have made on them, and she was one who hated being embarrassed in front of others. That too because of her own clumsiness!

WIS: 8 ACC: 7 STA: 5 EVA: 5 ARC: 6 STR: 5
Fearless

Open to interactions!

440/400

Interacting with No One | Mentions: @Hugh Lowe

Serena was practically an expert at this by now - or at least, she seemed to volunteer to help clear up the grounds whenever she could. It was always nice to be outside when the sun was shining. And she really did love just sitting on the grass, chilling with her rat, so it only made sense that she helped maintain the area to look pretty. Besides, it was easy mindless work. She did not have to worry about anything, panic about not knowing the right spell or groan at doing complicated homework. All she had to do was pick up leaves or rake the grass or whatever the task was.

Today was no different. Serena was there and ready to help. With a bag open in one hand, she started to walk around. Her eyes would search for any debris that could be removed - much like a seeker searching for the snitch. Though, this was definitely a lot easier - and she was much less likely to get whacked off the broom by a bludger and fall far too much. Grabbing a broken twig, she tossed it into the bag and continued. It was not long till she found some litter that was probably left over from someone's snacks or blown away from a picnic they were having or something - it looked like wrappers from some sweets. Throwing those into the bag, Serena continued to search for anything out of place. She picked up some more loose dried leaves - the heat likely did not help that - and a handful of litter and twigs. Okay. There were too many leaves.

Once she cleaned up the obvious items, she went to the front and grabbed one of the spare rakes. It was probably way easier to use that than pick up each of the leaves she could see. She went back, put the bag down near a tree trunk and then started to rake the grass - which proved to be a little more difficult than she had anticipated. The rake was a little too big for her and she struggled to get the leaves to behave as she wanted, not being able to smoothly move the rake across the grass. It took her about fifteen minutes before she started to get the hang of it but her noodle arms were definitely starting to hurt.

With a lot of bending down, she scooped as many of the leaves into the bag. Serena ended up sitting on her knees and just trying to scoop the dried leaves with her hands by the end of it as that seemed easier than using the rake! She shoved them into the bag, filling it with as much as she could.

Before long, she collapsed on the grass for a few minutes - just panting and needing to rest. She was definitely exhausted. Her arms were certainly not strong enough for this. Maybe that was exactly why she had to do this more often...

With a sigh, she got up and started raking again - for about five more minutes - before she gave up. The bag was full! That was her excuse. Hugh would probably not be impressed as it took her barely twenty minutes of using her arms to get so tired but in truth, she was quite proud of herself for trying for another five minutes after they already hurt. That was much more than she had thought she could do. Her arms were seriously knackered within a few seconds of this whole thing!

Okay, maybe she was not an expert at this. But she had helped and that was all that really mattered, surely! She returned the rake and a full bag of debris that she had collected, which she had tied into a little knot at the top to stop it from flying out if the wind hit. Maybe she would stay a little bit longer for the bonfire...

WC: 662/400
[Exit Thread but might go to the Bonfire]