Errand Sweet Hearts

Ugh.

Not this again. Despite her continued efforts to deny the reality, the time had come, and there was nothing Renelle could do to stop it. It was the sickly sweet time of year where love was in the air, and pink was everywhere in sights. Hearts too. Fun fact: a real heart looked nothing like those typically seen in everyday life. She imagined the reason for the usage of the more well-known version was so as not to scare people off the holiday forever, though she herself preferred sticking to the authentic products. The weak-hearted did not deserve to celebrate holidays. Survival of the fittest.

She liked cupcakes though. In fact, one could say she enjoyed them a little too much, which was how she found herself being swept into the Great Hall with the seas of students on this particular lovely day. Looking around, the Ravenclaw grimaced. It was no secret that she despised both crowds and doing anything remotely productive on a Sunday, but she simply couldn’t help herself. Not when she found out about this particular desert-y errand.

So here she was. Quickly heading over to the Slytherin table where the food was being kept, she found a spot and grabbed one of those ridiculously shaped cupcakes, vowing to finish this as fast as possible so she could get back to sleeping in her dorm.

She would get a pet squirrel before she admitted it to anyone, but the decorating was actually kind of fun. The first year totally went nuts with the theme, drowning her poor cupcake in pink icing until one could barely see the pastry underneath, then piling it high with candy hearts and sprinkles in the same colours. She topped it all off with a storm of glitter to make the Grand High Fairy Princess jealous. Once all was done, Renelle stepped back to admire her work. Not bad! If her current plan of squirrel exterminator didn’t work out, she would seriously consider this as a career path.

Now that the fun bit was done, who ought she address the letter to? That was a seriously difficult decision. When she’d first come here, her thoughts had purely been filled with thoughts of a cupcake feast- she hadn’t thought that far ahead yet. And now she was stuck.

Romantic attachments she had none, which was sort of the whole point of this cupcake event. She’d only been here six months, and at eleven, that sort of stuff wasn’t exactly the biggest thing on her mind. Her brain power was really more devoted to things like riding the world of evil squirrels, pranking the headmaster, and somehow scraping up passing grades on her assignments despite a complete lack of studying. Her second choice would have been Astra, but their relationship was really a bit shaky these days.

Suddenly, she had the greatest idea in the history of wizard kind. It was so awesome, she half expected Rowena Ravenclaw herself to appear out of nowhere and present her with a crown of laurels as a reward. Alas, nothing of the sort happened. She was still pleased though!

Finding pen and paper (both pink, of course- it was an aesthetic thing), Renelle leaned down to scribble a message on the note, brows furrowed in concentration. This had to be perfect. Work done at last, she straightened up, looking down at her work with satisfaction. The sorting hat truly did no wrong.

She sealed both into one of the boxes provided, then left it on the high table as instructed. Turning and strolling out of the Great Hall, she couldn’t help but smirk a little.

Reducio

Dear Ms Renelle Dalton,

I’m actually not sure if this is allowed. As far as I know, there aren’t any rules saying it wasn’t though, so… yeah. Anyway, since we’re supposed to be all sappy in this, you’re awesome and… Just keep being you!

P.S. Fun fact: It is physically impossible for pigs to look up into the sky. Did you know that? I bet you did. Fascinating, isn’t it?

Best wishes XXO,
The other Renelle

Blue in English, Red in Korean

Eun-ji didn’t have any big plans for today. She was done with all her homework and decided to go and practice ballet for a bit. As she passed the Great Hall however, a familiar scent of baked goods hit her nose. The Ravenclaw wasn’t too fond of sweets but she knew most of Hogwarts students were. Considering this, it was not surprising that they decided to give the Valentine cupcakes another go.

At first, Eun-ji hesitated. Last lime she spent a great effort to make some only to find out later that they have been tampered with. She didn’t want to be involved in yet another round of love potion spiked cupcakes. The thing was however, that a certain little lion loved sweet things and he especially enjoyed baking. She knew he was struggling a lot lately but Eun-ji wasn’t all that great at comforting other people. Hell, she couldn’t even comfort herself. Sure, she was great at listening and she and Kim understood each other well without having to say anything but recently, the Ravenclaw wondered whether it was enough. When you were constantly being told how lacking you were by the people that were supposed to protect you, it was fairly easy to start to believe them. Perhaps, this was an opportunity to do something for Kim, no matter how small it was.

The witch took a breath and finally walked into the crowded hall. She didn’t talk to anyone an steered her steps towards the table designated for making cupcakes. As before, the baked goods were already preprepared so she wouldn’t be able to do anything about the taste but she could certainly decorate. Alright…what are the things Kim likes? The previous years, Eun-ji would have made a dueling themed cupcakes but that probably wouldn’t be a good idea now. What used to be the boy’s big passion, turned into a rather painful experience this year and she wasn’t about to make him a reminder of it. Alright…he has been enjoying some gardening recently, hasn’t he? Flowers it is then. It was not the most innovative idea but Kim would probably understand the thought behind it. Not willing to overthink and spend more time amidst the cheery crowd than absolutely necessary, the girl set out to work.

After a short consideration, Eunji grabbed the chocolate flavor, knowing the Gryffindor liked that one a lot. Since she was hoping he would share the treat with someone, she decided to make three. If nothing else, Bailey would surely want to have some. When it came to the flower decorations, Eun-ji didn’t use any premade ones. Instead, she took the colored fondant and made her own from scratch. It felt more sincere that way.

Once she was done with the cupcakes, the witch moved towards the stationery table. She always found it easier to write down her feelings rather than talk about them but it was still hard. Besides, she was a bit worried, something might happen to the letter before it reached its intended owner. I probably shouldn’t write anything too specific then. Taking a deep breath, Eunji finally picked up her pen and started writing.
THE LETTER:

Reducio

Dear little lion,

I smelled the sweet scent of cupcakes and immediately thought of you. I know you are having a tough time and I’m sorry for being as unhelpful as ever but hang in there! Even if things are looking incredibly hopeless right now, there is always something good to hang on to. People can’t be perfect all the time. There is a quote I really like from one of my favorite books and it says: “The one standing in infinite glory is you; the one fallen from grace is also you. What matters is ‘you’ and not the state of you.” I think it’s rather fitting. You are a great guy. Both me and Charles know this and we are always here if you ever need to talk or just…you know…hang out in silence. For now, enjoy the little things, like these three chocolate cupcakes for example. Share them with Bailey if you want. I know she is as much of a fan of baked goods as you are. Hopefully, they are actually good.

Love, Eun-ji.

As expected, she wasn’t all that great with words but it would have to do. At least for today. Eun-ji nodded to herself as she picked both the letter and the cupcakes and placed them on the designated table. She could only hope there would be no accidents this time.

Mentioning: @Kim Sato and @Bailey Glade

"I love you for all that you are, all that you have been, and all that you will be." ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧ I almost squealed at the idea of sending cupcakes for Valentine’s Day, it was so cute! I immediately knew who I would send one to: my best friend Madi McQuade. Of course, I wouldn’t send it as anything romantic or whatever, but I’m sure she’d like a cupcake, and a nice message too. I mean like, who wouldn’t? As I entered the great hall, my nose was filled with wonderful smells, I took a deep inhale to breathe it all in. My eyes widened at the sight of all those beautiful cupcake decorating ingredients, oh what a treat Madi would get. Immediately, u ran over to one of the tables to get to my decorating. Not only did I want Madi to have this, I just really wanted to make it, it seemed really fun. Wait, there’s a three cupcake limit? I thought we could only do one I wondered I could make Madi three if I wanted to!. I shook the thought out of my mind. No, there were other kids here, they needed cupcakes, let’s not get greedy, it’s supposed to be for three different people, I can’t send them all to Madi. Hopefully someone would send one to me. It was taking so much to not just send one to myself, everything looked so good! But I didn’t want to be that one selfish person or whatever who just made a cupcake for themself, but I would take one if it was sent to me. And gladly that is. I peered around at all the delicious flavours of icing, which one shall I choose? They all seemed like they would be amazing, but there was one out of them all I had never seen before: cotton candy. I’ve had many cupcakes in my life (none of which were in cute little heart shapes though) but I’ve never tried a cotton candy icing. That’s the one I smiled. Covering the cupcake in a nice amount of icing, not too much, but definitely not too little, I decided it was time to move onto the toppings. Again, they all looked wonderful, so, I chose to use a bit of all of them. Was I going a little bit crazy with this, yes, but would it be the most amazing cupcake you’d ever see, also yes! Candy hearts, glitter, chocolates, various colours of sprinkles, everything. I think that the candy hearts are the cutest, but thats just me. Once I was finally satisfied with how the cupcake had turned out, I made my way over to the table for making letters. There were a bunch of options, I didn’t even know this many types of paper existed, but I really liked the more classy one, so that’s what I went with. On the paper, using my favourite quill, I wrote Happy Valentines Day! I just want you to know this cupcake is going to you for a specific reason, you’re so amazing and I need you to know that. If I never came to Hogwarts I wouldn’t have ever met you, and I don’t know what I’d do. Having you here in my life is amazing, even though we haven’t known each other for long. On that note, I hope we can get to know each other better as the year goes on along with our journey with magic! It’s so much better being here at Hogwarts, but you make me enjoy it so so much! Thanks for being here! Anyways, that’s all, but I hope you have the most amazing day ever!! I smiled and stepped back to admire my work before nodding, it was great. I grabbed my, well, Madi’s, cupcake and note, and walked along to the what’s usually Hufflepuff table to hand it in. I placed them in the box, just for Madi. Taking on final look and smile, I pushed it a little farther onto the table, away from men ready to be shipped out to my best friend. 𝕄𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟𝕤: @Renelle Dalton 𝕆𝕆ℂ ℕ𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕤: Letter mix up, wrongly goes to Renelle Dalton 𝕊𝕖𝕝𝕗, 𝕆𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕤, 𝕋𝕙𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙𝕥𝕤 word count: 664/600

Interacting with : Reducio @Tracey Bailey

Outfit: Reducio Impeccable Slytherin uniform Hairstyle: link Self-made tulip earrings: link

Notes: Reducio Speech: #3CB371 Thoughts: italics

Kaitlyn sat at the Slytherin table, her face flushed. Cupcakes to be sent for Valentine’s Day? She trained her sight down at the table. Who would she even send one to? She had a few friends here at Hogwarts, but would any of them even want to receive a cupcake? She had never told anyone at Hogwarts yet that she liked girls, but was that so obvious? Most of her muggle friends at St. Ann’s had known for about a year before she told them. At the moment, she wasn’t crushing on anyone either. Maybe some of her friends would like one? Her mind immediately went to Tracey and Minnie.

Tracey was a nice girl, was shy like Kaitlyn, had an awesome pet cat named Tiger, and put up with Kaitlyn’s lack of confidence. All were pluses in her book. Plus, she wanted to tease Tracey about her trio idea. It sounded awesome, in her opinion. But, she never heard of friend groups in such a way. Would her friend group from St. Ann’s be a quartet?

Minnie was also shy, like Kaitlyn. They had previously danced together in the ballroom and also interacted at the polar plunge. Minnie was also supposed to be a member of Tracey’s trio idea. And, Kaitlyn had asked Minnie to the Fox Trot dance event. Needless to say, she was incredibly happy and looking forward to it. She was also quite happy to have found the courage to ask Minnie. Quite often, Kaitlyn had trouble expressing her thoughts and often chickened out of saying her true feelings.

Of course, the only bad thing about Valentine’s Day was that she was often alone. Before coming to Hogwarts, she friend group made awesome plans with each other. They watched a movie together, painted nails, and ate out together. This was her first Valentine’s Day without them, and well, she expected to receive no cupcakes herself. Who at Hogwarts liked her enough to send her one? She was too much of a burden on the ones that she knew. She mainly kept to herself, as it was.

Despite her feelings of self-doubt, Kaitlyn wanted to decorate cupcakes for her friends. While she enjoyed drawing and baking, she never attempted to make anything fancy schmancy by decorating a baked good, like a cupcake. Any topping she placed on cupcakes she made was minimal at best. She wanted to practice and make each cupcake unique. Mostly, she wanted to show her friends that she cared and enjoyed being friends with them. Hopefully, she could get through these without crying. With all of the other students around, she doubted that anyone would watch her. But she still didn’t want to be known as the weird, shy Slytherin girl getting emotional over sending one of her friends a cupcake. She didn’t need all those labels.

Tentatively, Kaitlyn stood up and approached the table with the cupcakes. She’d decorate two for now. If a third person came to mind, she’d quickly make them one, too. She picked up two of the cupcakes and walked over to the frosting. She considered all of the options. She silently cursed herself for not asking her friends basic questions like their favorite colors or flavors. As much as she’d like to choose randomly, she wanted to choose something Tracey and Minnie would like.

Kaitlyn spent several minutes glancing through the cupcake bases, at a loss for what to choose. Eventually, she went with a vanilla base for Tracey and Minnie. Tracey was going to get strawberry shortcake icing, and Minnie was going to get lemon. As she carried her two cupcakes over to the frosting, she noticed Tracey waving at her. Since she had no hands, she merely smiled warmly and approached Tracey. ‘I probably shouldn’t tell her that one of these is for her. I want it to be a surprise. She’s been such a good friend to me already. It’s the least I could do, anyway,’ she thought.

“Hi Tracey! I’m happy to see you here,” Kaitlyn smiled at Tracey as she set the two cupcakes down near where Tracey was. “How’s it going? I just spent an embarrassingly long amount of time choosing a base … I was completely indecisive,” she admitted with a sigh.

Reducio

Note: 712 words

Mentioning @Sienna Caldwell @Lucian Mornstern	IC Date - 11/02/24
WC 651/600	Color Legend - Thoughts

Roses, chocolates, cards, Mylo had seen many things exchanged during his childhood between their parents. All given with the same amount of love as the previous year and all received with the same love if not more. They had never really had anyone to gift anything to, had never really seen any reason to, but with valentines around the corner and this Sweet hearts event being put on, an event where students could decorate their own cupcakes and an accompanying letter to anyone they'd want to, Mylo had had two people immediately pop into mind for who he'd send these delicacies to.

Walking through the small hall on his way to the great one where the event was taking place he could already smell the sweet smell of cupcakes and decorations filling their nose, and stepping foot into the hall they were immediately bombarded by the sight of the tables filled with any flavour cupcake, any decoration and card imaginable, after taking a moment to let it all sink in and listening to the explanation they slowly moved over to the Slytherin and Ravenclaw table, looking at the different cupcakes and decorations available. Thinking to himself he wondered what the best type would be to get for their intended recipients. Settling on 2 different but still simple ideas he started to pick up the necessary things. 'I hope they like them' Mylo thought to themselves, hoping he was making a good choice.

One plain vanilla cupcake with green sprinkles and one Pistachio cupcake with black sprinkles, each with a simple gummy snake on top. Having gotten their cupcakes done and ready Mylo started looking at the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor table, there had been dozens of decorations laid out here for students to be able to decorate their own card to their harts content. Be it for a friend or for a crush or lover, there was something here for everyone. Picking up 2 plain white cards, some coloured paper, some glue and a pair of scissors Mylo made their way over to an empty spot at the table content to start creating their masterpieces.

After about an hour and a half of work he ended up with 2 quite nice cards, if I say so myself, 1 featuring the Hogwarts express showing two students sitting together in a carriage. And one showing a suite of armour, the same ones as one could find in the hallway here at Hogwarts. Having thought about what to write during the making of the cards Mylo got to work putting the finishing touches to the gifts.

On the Hogwarts express train he wrote;
Dear Sienna,
Thank you for entering the near empty carriage I was also in on the train, and for being my friend. I hope we stay friends for the time to come and that you know that I'm very thankful for your friendship.
Mylo

On the suit of armour he wrote;

Dear Lucian,
Thank you for helping me my first day of school, I'm not sure I would have made it to class if it weren't for you. And now I know to leave just that extra bit early in case the stairs decide to be late. I hope you know that you helped me a lot and that it meant a great deal to me.
Mylo

Having finished writing their heartfelt letters Mylo made his way over to the high table making sure to have labeled everything correctly, pistachio cupcake and suit of armour card for Lucian and vanilla cupcake and train card for Sienna, so that nothing could go wrong, he really didn't like the idea of that happening, but everything looked good. Feeling satisfied with the results he made his way out of the hall going back to his dorm for a little bit of down time hoping that Lucian and Sienna would appreciate their cards and cupcakes.

OOC Notes -

Code by Ara Villa

[quote][quote]

11 February, 2024

She thought she would be too exhausted to do anything after Simon's Surprise Birthday party had ended other than sleep, but it had been so much fun that she felt rather invigorated. As they were walking back to the Common Room, it was hard not to notice that there was some kind of something going on in the Great Hall. She turned to Simon and jokingly teased him that it was probably another Cupcake - Letter Delivery event for Valentine's Day, and they both nervously laughed and continued on their way. "They would be insane... or very brave... to take on such a thing once again knowing the disaster it turned out to be two years ago," she said matter of factly.

The two just squeezed their hands three times as they made their way up to the first floor to get cleaned up. It had been quite a day. Her first official Broom Race followed by Simon's Birthday party. Relaxation now seemed to be on the menu for sure. After sharing a sweet kiss in front of the fireplace, AngelFyre turned to head up the stairs to Badger Bungalow. All she wanted to be thinking about was a hot shower, but her mind would not let go of the Great Hall.

What was going on there?

Was it Valentine's Day related and if so, did she really want to miss an opportunity, no matter what it was, to send some love to her fellow? Definitely not! So she changed quickly and scourgified herself up enough to reasonably be able to join the folks downstairs. On the off chance it was some kind of sweets event requiring decorating, which it looked like it might be, AngelFyre opened up the cookie box her mother had sent her and took out two of the home made, heart shaped sugar cookies just in case. Then she ran downstairs.

When she walked in, it was clear that folks were decorating cupcakes. She looked around to get oriented as to where everything might be and noticed a couple of tables set up with stationery and quills again. Okay. It was as she suspected. She briefly considered leaving as the last time had been so traumatic, but then she stopped. There was nothing to fear this time. Nothing was on the line. A mis-directed letter would not blow up Simon's world, or anyone else's, like it had done before. This would be fine.

So, she gathered up her cupcakes and frostings and decorating supplies before sitting down to get to work. She could decorate as many as three cupcakes to be delivered on the 14th, but she thought one was going to be enough. Then she thought of Woofy, and bumped it up to two. Looking around the Hall to see if he was present, she then spotted Emiline. She liked Emiline and enjoyed being around her. She was sweet and easy to talk to. Okay. Maybe three cupcakes was on the agenda.

She found a spot near the end of the Gryffindor table and got to work. She had, like two years earlier, grabbed a lemon cupcake for Simon. She knew he would not eat it as he detested sweets, but his eating it was not the point. The point was that she was thinking about him and he would know that. She had been so disappointed that he had not gotten to see the materpieces she had made for him two years ago, but she supposed it had all worked out like it was supposed to. She ended up with the boy of her dreams, and she would take that trade off any day of the week and twice on Sundays! Besides, she had a similarly clever idea for him this go around.

She put a dollop of reddish pink cream cheese frosting on top of the cupcake and carefully smoothed it out, not taking it all the way to the edge. She then took out one of the heart-shaped sugar cookies her mother had sent and began to decorate that with black and white fondant. She was more than adept at this as she and her mother and Grandma Ruth had always done a lot of this kind of stuff back home. Her dad was the intellectual, but her mother was the creative one. She got the best of both them she liked to think. After about 15 minutes of meticulous shaping, she was quite pleased with tonight's effort, and set the cookie on top of the frosted cupcake. He might not eat it, but she knew Simon would love the thought behind his cupcake.

Next one would be for Woofy. His would be easy. She had grabbed a chocolate cupcake for him and some green food coloring for the vanilla icing. She put a few drops of green into the icing but did not mix so thoroughly that it would not be a completely solid green. She wanted a little variation in the shades. She piped a singular medium thick rope of icing in a circular tower and then took more of her white fondant and colored it green. She quickly rolled a bit out into an oval and used the middle of a toothpick to make a deep impression. Just a couple more bits of fondant shaped in tiny cones and she was almost done. Two small circles of black fondant were added and she had a decent replica of a Slytherin "snek" as Woofy liked to say.

The last cupcake was going to be for Emiline. AngelFyre had no idea what flavors she liked, so decided to play it safe and went with a vanilla cupcake and buttercream icing. The icing she colored two different shades of yellow and no fondant would be necessary this time. This would just be a case of piping to create a simple, but elegant floral cupcake. Sweet... just like Emiline herself.

For Simon Kincaid:
Happy Valentine's Day, my love! I know sweets are not your thing, but I could not resist the opportunity to get at least one piano decorated cupcake into your masterful hands! I love you, Simon. ~The other half of your perfect duet.

For Colin McCoire:
Just sending my favorite "snek" some love. You mean more to me than I tell you and I am so grateful for you each and every day. **hugssSssSSsSs ** Fyre Angel

For Emiline Hunter
Happy Valentine's Day, Emiline. I am so glad I came across you in the Corridor that night and walked away from it with a friend! ~AF

Satisfied with all of it, AngelFyre walked over to the table and boxed her cupcakes, wrote the three names on the cupcake boxes, and left the letters and cupcakes as directed.

As she left the Great Hall, all she could do was hope they got to their intended recipients.

Ｐａｉｇｅ ★ Ｍａｌｌａｒｙ
𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝 𝐘𝐞𝐚𝐫 ║ 𝐑𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐰
➷ A Sweet Hearts➶

𝚂𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘: dNPC Kai Ledger
𝚆𝚘𝚛𝚍 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚝: 632
𝙿𝚊𝚒𝚐𝚎 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚊𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐: #320ced

The sweet aroma of cupcakes exited the room and Paige squealed as she got closer. Although baking wasn't something she usually looked forward to, this was for a special occasion. It was Valentine's Day! This was the first time she would get to celebrate it with someone she loved.

As soon as she saw the notice for cupcake making, Paige knew it would be the perfect gift. And that was why she was now standing directly in front of the doors. She confidently walked inside with a large grin that spread from cheek to cheek. Paige was one of the lucky students that actually had a partner.

The doors were open and the scent became stronger. Vanilla, cocoa, cinnamon. Anything one could imagine was inside this room. The thought struck Paige's mind when she began to walk over to the hooks where the frilly aprons hung. What flavour does Kai like? This thought caused her to panic. What if he didn't like what she made? Paige began to sweat, she had not thought this through well enough. She let off a giant sigh, and approached the closest bench. After popping down her bag, she made her way over to the shelves.

It was like a maze. There were so many options. Too many options. Paige was the most indecisive person one could meet, this could take her all day just to decide what batter flavour to use. She squinted her eyes, and wiped the sweat off her forehead. Vanilla? Too basic. Chocolate? What about allergies? Ugh!

She needed something unique. Something that reminded him of her. Searching through the shelves, she flicked her eyes across the hundreds of ingredients. Aha! A jar of cinnamon caught her eye, and as she picked it up, she noticed a bottle of chocolate sprinkles too. "This'll do," she whispered to herself, bringing the two items back to the bench.

Stirring together the eggs, milk, flour, butter, sugar, and finally vanilla essence, she sprinkled the cinnamon and chocolate sprinkles in, ensuring there was enough for decoration as well. It already smelt so good that Paige couldn't help but sticking her little finger in and having a taste. The batter began to come together, and that was when Paige knew it was ready. She searched for the perfect wrapper. The room contained all the colours of the rainbow, and again, Paige struggled choosing which would look best. Although it was Valentine's Day and red and pink colours are typically used, there was something Paige definitely knew about Kai - his favourite colour was green.

As soon as they went in the oven, Paige danced around for a few minutes. She then decided to write a love letter to Kai, and hide it between the cupcakes. Fossicking through her bag to find a pink pen, Paige began to write the letter as fancily as possible.

Reducio

Dear Kai, the love of my life,
You were always there for me when I needed it. I am very honoured to spend this year's Valentine's Day with you. You were the sun my life needed.
Love,
Paige xoxo

As soon as the timer went off, Paige darted to the oven and took them out, placing them onto the metal rack. The steam blew off the treats in a wavy form. They were so warm, and Paige almost dropped them after she realised how hot they were. But they smelt so good! The cinnamon definitely overpowered the scent. Nothing Paige complained about. Carefully filling a pipe with the red velvet frosting she had made, Paige swirled it around the top of the cupcake. She sprinkled a pinch of chocolate sprinkles onto the frosting, ensuring they were perfectly spread out. Something was missing though. These cupcakes looked plain. They looked like any ordinary cupcakes would. After she added the sprinkles, she stuck a paper heart into the cupcake and set them into the box along with the note. Paige blew the cupcakes a kiss, and placed them on the bench, ready to be handed to Kai.

Alec found himself hesitant to participate in anything after the mess that seemed to be any valentine's related event or errand he attended. The way the tea party event had devolved and ended up being nothing but wretched, how long ago was that even? Alec couldn't quite recall. The days seemed to blur as he was caught between his studies and running from class to class, none of it was memorable, he'd come to a routine. If he was honest with himself he'd admit that the only things keeping him from be holed up in his dorm room and working himself to the brink of exhaustion were the people around him, Opeila especially. He wasn't sure quite when he'd become such a recluse but the mounting pressure from his father to be successful and make something of himself certain didn't help the issue.

He couldn't remember when but sometime ago Opeila had mentioned leading an errand for valentine's day and even if he'd become adverse to the valentine's day errands and events, the promise of Opeila being there was all he needed to relent and be willing to go. He wasn't quite sure who if anyone he was going to make a cupcake for. The idea of making someone a cupcake for this valentine's errand felt different than when he'd participated in the valetine's errand last time. Alec had never taken these errands seriously before he'd never had a reason to take it seriously. With Opeila helping lead the errand he didn't feel like using it as a chance to mess around, obviously she cared enough about the errand to help lead it or she could have gotten another prefect to do it. Besides using the errand to mess around felt immature when there were those heartfelt in making their cupcakes.

Alec could take the errand seriously, and who knows, he might even have some fun. The worst part of baking was beyond him, no oven fires necessary. All Alec had to do was decorate and if he paper and pencil drawings were of anything to note in realm of cupcake decorating he'd be fine. Realizing he was at the entrance to the great hall Alec took in a breath and ran a hand through his hair, yeah, it'd be fine, he was sure he could decorate a cupcake, it wasn't that hard.

For all his pondering he still came back to his original question as he entered the great hall, who was he going to make a cupcake for?

Alec's somber and reflective expression lifted into a half-smile at the sight of Opeila. Walking up to Opeila, if she allowed Alec would hug her from behind, he would hold on for just a moment too long, if she allowed he'd rest his head on her shoulder, smiling up at her, “peila,” by now the nickname slipped out of his mouth without even having to think about it. “Do you want to decorate cupcakes with me? You could make one for your boyfriend.” Boyfriend... Yeah, Alec tried not to put too much thought into it. Really, he only worried she'd end up in a situation like the one he was in with his ex... But he couldn't let his own fear control people.

He knew there were more to his hesitancy to her being in a relationship beyond his own fears but he never let himself think further on it. In the end it didn't matter what he thought, Alec just wanted Opeila to be happy, and it seemed like she was happy with Aaron. Letting go Alec took in the array of decorating before him, the amount of choice was a bit overwhelming. Was ALL of it really needed to decorate a cupcake? “You know, I've never actually decorated a cupcake before,” maybe that didn't matter there wasn't rules to cupcake decorating right? He shook his head, whatever he'd figure it out.

“Speaking of your boyfriend... I don't think we talked about it but how did you two meet anyway?” He would have thought it strange she was dating someone he didn't know when by now there was no way he hadn't crossed paths with everyone in his fifth year class but he'd been proven wrong time and time again. Alec wasn't great at extending himself to meet new people.

@Opeila Winters | I'll post in the errand thread when alec actually gets around to decorating a cupcake xD

Esme walked into the room, though, with the urgency in her gait she might as well have been running. She looked around for Sere, an unfortunate and pained grimace on her face, she sighed and began to make her way in the direction of Sere. Oh what a hypocrite Esme was, and it felt unfortunate, to be in this situation at such an important time. Esme finally reached Sere and shook her head slowly. "I'm really sorry, Sere, I am really really sorry." She held her head low, not giving eye contact for fear of seeing an ashamed face. Perhaps Sere wouldn't even talk, that'd hurt Esme more than any comeback could, she wouldn't know what to do now that she's here, but she tired to put aside her worries for her bestie, surely she wasn't too late, right?


"Everything is looking pretty good so far, Excited to eat these?" Esme gave a gleeful smile, ready to decorate immediately. If I'm correct we could try and make these a mix of Gryffindor and Hufflepuff, we just need the right ingredients. What do you think?" Esme looked for some nice frostings, red, brown sprinkles, yellow, gold sprinkles. "Thoughts? I think this'll work? You know, a huge part of the process is outside opinions, otherwise it might only be something I like." Esme didn't expect anything huge in reply, but knowing how smart Sere is, Esme figured that she'd pick it up quickly and would be a natural sooner of later. As Esme prepared to put on the frosting she looked in the direction of Sere, hoping she was watching before she showed her how it was done. Esme applied frosting in a swirling motion, her arm being fluid with the movements, her face looked calm, it was almost poetic, the way it happened, slow and steady movements as she soon had a partially decorated cupcake.

"Get the idea?" Esme grinned innocently.


@Sere Nade