Errand Pride Day at Hogwarts

Tes walked into the courtyard of Hogwarts's pride fest with a bounce in her step and matching rainbow handkerchiefs on her head and around her wrist. While she didn't consider herself to be a member of the LGBT+ community, seeing as she was much too busy having fun and trying to pass her classes to think about liking anyone -yuck! Romance!- and she was perfectly happy the way she was with her tomboyish nature and feminine pronouns, she was most certainly an ally with her two mums doing their best to teach her everything they could so she would be accepting and polite of everyone. She always knew if she ended up as part of the community, she would be welcome at home, so she'd never put much weight into thinking about it.

She'd shown up a bit late, having gone outside for a long run and not realizing until she checked the time back in her dorm room that she was already late. She'd taken a hurried shower and put on her go-to summertime outfit of her short overalls and sunflower tank top. She included some knee high socks with a llama with rainbows in its wool that said "no prob-llama!" in a text box next to it. As she looked around, she saw Lucian standing over by the poetry looking slightly nervous with a friend, so she gave him a quick wave but ultimately decided her presence might not be all that wanted. She considered the painting canvases where she spotted Aurora, and tried to catch her eye for a friendly wave too, but knowing herself a little too well she was certain that just as much paint would end up on her favorite clothes as on the canvas. Not to mention art certainly wasn't her strong suit. Over at the bracelet making table, she recognized her classmate Mahlioz, whom she'd spoken to in flying class recently!

Settling down at the table near the girl she knew and one she didn't, she looked at the flags around the table, some of which she recognized, but many she didn't. There were beads and threads of many different colors, and she started gathering up a few she'd need. Blue, pink, white, for the trans flag, many shades of pink for the lesbian flag, and pink, blue, and yellow for the pan flag. "Hi Mahlioz! Fancy seeing you here," turning to the other girl she smiled, introducing herself, "I'm Tes, a first year Hufflepuff. It's nice to meet you!" She glanced back down at the table, setting to work making some simple plastic bead bracelets. "There's so many flags I don't recognize here. I'm just making a couple for my mums though, so at least I know these ones! What are you two making?"

Tes hummed happily as she worked, listening to students recite their poetry and people chatter around her. This was such a wonderful day for students and teachers alike that wanted to celebrate their pride, and especially for those that might feel unsure themselves or didn't have the support at home that they might want. She was happy she'd made it in time, and held up her bracelets with a joyful flourish once she finished them, beaming in delight at the cheap beads that hung slightly off center on the thick thread she'd strung and then tied them off with.

I felt relieved when Ash said that he too was anxious; at least I wasn’t the only one. I smiled at him, "We got this," I told him happily. I still felt the front urge to hold his hand. I was also a little happy it was Ash’s first too. We could experience this amazing thing together! And I would be his first.

I wondered about the poetry but Ash looked like he had his eye on something else. "You can go over there if you want," I told him, "And we can meet back at the poetry," and then I have another smile and nervously walked off to the poetry.

I had the perfect one in mind for my blue-eyed boy so I made my way over to the stage. With a shaky hand I scribbled down what I wanted to write. It had to be perfect. Well, of course it was perfect as I am the one writing it but… this is Ash we are writing about. The best human in the world.

I got something to write with and write what I was going to write. I hope he liked it… and that I don’t make a fool out of myself because this is coming just straight from my head.

I glanced up and saw Tesla pull her stare from me. I gulped. That was someone I knew who recognised me here. I knew this was a bad idea but no going back now. I took a breath and tried to find Ash. He gives me strength.

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@Ashley Montez
@Tesla Stone

^{@.Noah Jupe}

----Vale didn't really understand completely much of the meaning behind Pride, but it couldn't be all that much different than regarding other magical races as equal, right? That's what her father would tell her anyway. Pride seems to be about rainbows a lot. Sure, they weren't the many gloomy, somber shades of black like she is used to wearing, but rainbows were quite fun regardless.

"Ashes, how do my mother's tribe handle all these beads? They're so small, and I keep dropping them." Vale spoke to a small, ragdoll next to her person. It held a lackluster smile, and poorly done stitches that barely kept its stuffing from falling out. Despite its discolored body, it was already covered in slightly loose, colorful bracelets.

"Oh, I'm supposed to follow references here? Oh no..." Vale twisted her latest bracelet around to find it mismatching quite badly to the reference flags before her. "It's no use, Ashes. I never was quite creative in design...even with instructions." She stopped, reworking to turn the bracelet into colors referring to a flag.

"Surely someone will like one regardless?" The ragdoll wouldn't respond, only sagging over by the weight of the bracelets being put on it. Vale's eyes stared down at the doll, as if a whole conversation was being made.

"Well, let's try doing an actual rainbow this time. These beads are awfully small." Vale struggled to keep at making a proper bracelet. Her aunts seem to have a natural talent for it. But in all fairness, they did nothing but making bracelets. And wonderful bracelets they were. Vale liked when they send her ones that were gold in color. How do they make sure they were tightly fit? Concidentally, the beads fell down to the table. Amber eyes stared down at the table, no sound of frustration and peril escaped the girl's throat. A calm was instilled eerily too well. Vale's doll had the perfect downward position to view the colorful mess that laced her spot.

A blink of the eyes. Another blink. "You think the painting area isn't so packed now, Ashes?" Vale took the bracelets that somehow are still intact off of her precious doll. A quick clean up of her area was enough to send the young girl off to attempt her luck somewhere around the area. "Well, I like to believe painting can't be so bad now. Harder to mess up making a rainbow of colors there now. Maybe mama will put it up on the portrait wall...what do you mean it has to be a painting of someone? I'll have it be a painting of you. Oh, silent now? Hm, I better include the other dolls too. They'd become jealous." Vale bickered away to her lifeless doll, carrying it in an arm as she traveled over to paint the most memorable painting to exist.

To her eyes, at least.

Vale exited the thread.
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𝓐madea tilted her head and peered at the canvas in front of her. She had finished the basic outline of the painting and it was looking pretty good to her. Even though she had been using Kat as her muse, Amadea had decided to add a little detail to make it her own, partially because pride was a celebration of her identity and partially because it was her birthday! She counted one more time to make sure she had drawn correctly...yes, there were seventeen purple flowers in the foreground of the canvas, waiting to be painted.

Amadea looked around and began gathering the colors she would need to fill in her sketch. She felt bad taking so many of them, so she decided to focus on the background first, grabbing a few shades of blue and white for the sky and a darker blue/gray for the mountains in the distance. As she returned to her canvas, she noticed a familiar face setting up next to her.

It was none other than her fellow housemate, Serena Towers, accompanied by her pet rat. Amadea tamped down her urge to shudder at the sight of Pizza Rat. Even though she knew that he was a wonderful pet, Amadea couldn't help but feel biased against rats ever since that one time she had been exploring the tunnels at school and had been swarmed by an army of rats. Pizza Rat was different, she reminded herself. Serena had trained him...presumably. And he didn't seem to be causing any trouble now as he sat in between Serena's legs.

"Hi Serena!" Amadea said cheerfully, recovering quickly from her initial apprehension about seeing the rat. She hoped that Serena hadn't noticed, otherwise Amadea was nervous that Serena would think she was hesitant about seeing her instead of her rat. Setting down her paints, Amadea turned to see what Serena was doing. She had gathered a variety of colorful strings and was laying them down to begin a rainbow pattern.

"I'm just painting a little landscape," Amadea said. "Using purple flowers because my sister's favorite color is purple," she added as an explanation. "And she is probably my biggest support especially throughout the whole coming out process." She smiled thinking about Kat. "How about you? What sort of bracelet are you making?"

Mellani nodded. "Yeah, I think it might be written on the back part of the flag, let's check.", Mellani said, advancing towards the flag, a curious look on her face. As she walked towards the back side, she noticed the text. It wasn't very big, but it was big enough to be read. "It says here that it's the agender flag. I guess that refers to people who have no gender or something.", Mellani said.

Mahlioz answered the question too, saying that her favorite flag was the aro one. "Ah yeah, I love the greens on that one too!", Mellani said. Mahlioz then stated that xenogender flags were pretty too. Mellani was not sure what that meant. As far as she remembered, she had never heard the word 'xenogender' before. "Ohh, what's xenogender? Never seen those flags.", she said. She was becoming more comfortable with talking to Mahlioz as the time passed, and she was glad that she had approached her.

That was when another girl walked over. She seemed to know Mahlioz and she introduced herself to Mellani as Tes, which Mellani was pretty sure was an abbreviation of her full name, but that didn't really matter. "Nice to meet you, Tes! I'm Mellani, first year Slytherin." When Tesla asked her what she was making, she didn't know what exactly to say. She wasn't sure if she should state that she was an ally or not, because she still wasn't sure if she was just an ally or was actually a part of the community but just didn't know it yet. Tes stated that she was making some bracelets for her mums, and Mellani realized that she'd said it plural, and her respect for Tes immediately grew. Tes was confident enough to state it, and Mellani liked that. "That's cool! I just made a casual bracelet for myself because I wasn't really sure what to do.", Mellani said, a smile on her face.

WIS: 8 ACC: 7 STA: 5 EVA: 5 ARC: 6 STR: 5
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Mahlioz nodded and followed Mellani to behind the flag. Thankfully for the both of them, there was indeed a word on the back of it. "Agender". Mellani noted that it was probably for people who had no gender or something. "That's... possible?" Mahlioz asked, seemingly awed by the idea. How did that work? She barely even understood what gender was... how could you have none? Realizing what she'd just said might have appeared rude, she hoped no one was offended. She was just... amazed. And a little more confused than before she knew what the flag was.

Getting back to the conversation of what flags were their favorite, Mahlioz couldn't help but grin when Mellani agreed that the greens on the aro flag were beautiful. "Must be because we're Slytherins," she said jokingly. She felt great that she could say that with pride. It hadn't been at all the same at the beginning of the year.
"Erm..." she said, hesitating at Mellani's question. "I'm not actually sure. Erin - that's my sister's girlfriend - she told me one day that they were connected to things that weren't usually associated with gender or something like that? I actually have no idea what that means. But they have pretty flags!" She, too, was getting more comfortable around Mellani. Considering they had met each other three times - twice when someone was crying and once when they were throwing pillows at each other - it was nice to be able to talk to each other normally.

It was thanks to Mellani and getting back into being social again that Mahlioz was able to smile at Tes when she walked over to them. She'd only actually met the Hufflepuff once before (though they'd had a couple of classes together), and that was enough to like her. "Hey Tes," she said, wondering whether to introduce her fellow snake, but Mellani beat her to it.
Tes said something about how many flags there were that she didn't know and how she was making something for her moms. Mahlioz tilted her head. "You have two moms?" she said, having never met someone like that (or at least, that she knew of) before. "That's really cool!" She hoped that, too, wasn't rude. She was just curious - and found the fact awesome. Of course, she loved her heteronormative parents, but she was also so glad there was so much diversity in the world.

Tes asked what they were doing, to which Mahlioz shrugged. "We were looking at the flags and trying to figure out what they were. They have the names on the back though." Mellani said she'd made a bracelet, which the other Slytherin hadn't noticed until now. "That's awesome, it looks great!" She decided not to say anything about her ring. Maybe it was subtle, but... you never knew. And as much as she liked these people, she wasn't ready to be out just yet.

It was Pride Day at Hogwarts Daffy was in the courtyard where @Mateo Sáez and Maya Galim had planned some activities to enjoy and share some time with fellow students.
They could choose to have a delicious butterbeer while painting on a fresh new canvas a reflection of who they are, they could paint with brushes, sponges or even with their hands to create that special touch of their own, they could create their own pride bracelet or necklace for themselves or for a friend. They could keep it or exchange it with others, and they could also create poetry that speaks to them and their identity and share it with the world.
Daffy chose to have a delicious butterbeer while painting on a fresh new canvas a reflection of who you are, you could paint with brushes, sponges or even your hands to create that special touch of your own.

He headed towards the east side of the courtyard to begin the activity.

She started painting with a brush. Soft and thick but sweet lines, bright colours, shy colours, hesitant lines, fast lines.
Drawing a Cherry Blossom
Cherry blossoms are a symbol of the Japanese spirit: of beauty, life, impermanence and death. The blossoming of the flowers represents spring and a new beginning after a long winter.
Daffy painted the petals with his hands. What a satisfaction.
Frush, frush towards the canvas with the contact of the hands.
Daffy ran his finger gently over the canvas, shaping it into a distorted thing that would soon become her mirror.

Cherry blossoms were Daffy's favourite flowers. He also loved their significance in Japanese culture.
So he decided to paint a cherry blossom with his personality.
The soft and thick lines represented her character, sweet but strong, the bright colours her joy, the shy colours her shyness about new things, the hesitant lines her insecurity, the quick lines her anxiety.
I painted the petals with hot pink, the stem with electric blue (who says the stem has to be green?), the small details with green and soft fuchsia.

After having painted all that he felt better, he was freeing himself of charges and negativity.
But something was missing, some touch.
He searched inside himself and finally he found it.
He dabbed a sponge in all the colours and started to paint the background.

Because that was what made people unique. The variety and diversity.
And without that no one would be anything so everyone should dare to shout at the top of their lungs. I am unique and different. Because there is nothing wrong in that.