Closed Errand Mass Thread Four Walls

7 April 2024

So absorbed was Harmony in the new world of Hogwarts that she had decided to stay at school over the Easter holidays. While her father’s letter following that particular announcement had seemed perfectly fine, her mother had been clearly and understandably disappointed. Melody still had not sent a letter. But then again, neither had Harmony, so there it was.

Harmony had been very excited as the holidays began; she would do so much exploring and perhaps make some new friends and eat lots of new good Easter food! But as the days went by, the appeal of pretending to be a tourist or adventurer quickly wore off, she still had not talked to anyone new, and her motivation to go traipsing through campus was dwindling.
The final day of the holidays was a drizzly one – the perfect neutral weather to do whatever you wanted – so, feeling suddenly inspired by a wave of holiday guilt, Harmony marched herself through the castle. She was going to go outside, touch some grass, spend some time enjoying the architecture of the school, and romanticise this weather if it was the last thing she’d do.

Harmony speed-walked through the halls(she never quite remembered that it was a lot more difficult to enjoy things if you speedran them), eyes set on the grassy expanse stretching beyond when something that definitely hadn’t been there before caught her eye. A professor sat surrounded by pages and what looked like colouring utensils while she doodled away at her own page.
Harmony slowed down.
There were no posters or signs signalling that only a certain club could join and it seemed several other students were already conversing with the professor or beginning their own drawings. If Harmony thought the hardest she’d thought these past two weeks, she could vaguely remember hearing about a well-being activity to do with colouring and some word beginning with “H”. Well, this must be it.

In a split-second moment of intense self-argument, Harmony settled on discarding her original quest – the grounds would probably be squishy and yucky soon, anyways – and having herself a good few minutes of colouring and mindfulness. After all, she was just a child(and an artist) and she liked to colour. Understanding herself would also be a good side effect.
She approached a table and sat a socially acceptable distance away from the students already there before reaching to pick up a piece of paper. After a brief battle to separate the top piece from its lower companions, she was staring blankly down with little clue what was going on.
There was a house. The house had what looked like labels in another language with the translations in English underneath. Maybe she was supposed to colour in the house and keep an awareness of the different types of wellbeing?
Harmony glanced up, scanning for the professor and hoping for an easy way into a conversation. It would be very scary talking to an adult but she needed to know what the heck she was supposed to do, and how bad could an adult who enjoyed colouring be?

No interactions yet but open for them
WC: 517 - more to come

As the school year was winding down, and final exams where approaching, Charlie's to do list had become over a mile long. Studying, essays, quidditch, clubs, and friendship always made there way to the top of the list, often pushing some of the essentials to the bottom of the list. Things like non school related reading, for fun, exercise, hockey, sleep, and some times even basic hygiene were sacrificed to complete assignments and study for tests in time. Charlie knew this was extremely unhealthy, but she had raised her standard over the summer time and had goals to complete all of her assignments, and actually get good grades on them, unlike last year.

As Charlie wandered around Hogwarts she spotted a new professor setting up some tables in the courtyard. After the professor finished what she was doing, Charlie exited her school, Hogwarts, and looked at the papers that were gently placed on the table. A basic black outline of a house was drawn on each paper, as well as some words that looked almost identical to gibberish. Physical (Taha Tinana), mental (Taha Hinengaro), social (Taha Whānau), and spiritual (Taha Wairua). What does that even mean!? She thought to herself. Not knowing what the paper was, she reached over and grabbed one for herself. Others began to color in the house with supplies that had been placed in front of them, so Charlie joined in.

She picked out a lovely shade of blue, one of her favorites, and began to color in the front panel of the house. As she continued to color in the house, she realized what the point of the errand was. Reviewing their aspects of their lives. She finished up coloring the blue front panel and began to color the chimney a beautiful shade of purple. The shades of blue and purple reminded her of two things, the colors of her decor in her bedroom back home and also her hockey uniform. Her bedroom, which she had decorated with her mum when she was around six, was painted a shade of dark, royal blue with white furniture. Her bedding was purple which happened to be her favorite color at the time, and although it wasn't anymore, she still loved the color. There were gold accents around the room which Charlie would incorporate with golden dots or speckles around and on her house.

Her hockey jersey which was part of her old team that she unfortunately had to quit when she decided to attend Hogwarts, was back near her home in Ireland. The team, officially titled The Penguins, had a purple and blue swirly jersey with a black and white penguin on the front. Of course, Charlie was number 13, her lucky number, and her last name, which was Jacobsen, was sewn on the back of the jersey. She missed playing for her team, and hoped to visit or even play a match with them when she returned to Ireland for the summer.

Charlie colored the wall the same shade of purple and colored the pillar like posts of the house a dark black color. She moved on to the roof where she grabbed a fat black marker and pressed in on the paper, drawing the outline of a checkerboard. She began to color in every other square attempting to create a simple checkerboard pattern, which she successfully did. She had originally planned to leave the squares of some of the checkers white, but she noticed it looked sort of unfinished and not neat, so she colored it purple to match one of the walls and the chimney. She colored another bit of the roof black, and then added colored the spots, which were grey and gold around the house and colored some remaining details like the window sill and top of the chimney yellow.

She was finally done coloring the house, so she moved on to writing the words about her life. At first she didn't know what to write, but after a small peak at her neighbors paper (it's not a test, therefore not cheating!) she began. It took her awhile but she finally came up with one or two ideas for each section.

physical (Taha Tinana)- hockey, exercise every single day.
mental (Taha Hinengaro)- journal, prayer
social (Taha Whānau)- make more friends
spiritual (Taha Wairua)- prayer, read bible more

When she was done, she admired her work, and smiled as she held it up in front of her. Let's do this. She told herself.

Charlie's house

Reducio

wc: 751 + house drawing | not open to interactions unless asked.

banner by ulysses drake

Sereia's Calming Presence is in effect

sunday, 7th of april, 2024

The Divination professor was well aware of the new students popping in and eyeing her. She had a pretty good sense for these things, however intangible they were. It was a skill you learned to pick up when people tried to hide things and you were too curious to ignore. Sereia gave the girl hovering around [Harmony] a smile, hoping it would give her the confidence to come up.

As for Minnie, Sereia prepared her drawing in her hands. "Yup, all good. So there's this analogy we use to evaluate wellbeing in New Zealand, which is a house with four walls. Each wall is associated with one aspect of wellbeing; Taha Tinana for physical, Taha Hinengaro for mental, Taha Whānau for social, and Taha Wairua for spiritual. We believe that, if you don't maintain all of the walls equally, the house—and therefore, your wellbeing—will fall apart. So, it's good to maintain a good balance across every aspect!"

Sereia held up her drawing and briefly explained each of the goals in her walls. "The first three walls are pretty straightforward; just small strategies you can easily do to improve them. Spiritual confuses people sometimes because they think it's only limited to religion. But actually, spiritual health is also about how you view yourself. Are you happy with where you are now? Do you have a good connection with your purpose in life? Another way to think about it is how you view yourself in relation to the world."

She had a tendency to go in circles with the hopes that repetition and rephrasing would eventually get it into their heads. It worked for the little kids she used to work with! They needed time to process and understand the content being given to them.

"You can use my house as a starting point. I've got some pretty basic goals for Hauora," she said with a smile.

Sereia looked around to assess more of the students. It looked as though many of them were onto it, colouring in and contemplating their goals. She looked back on her own drawing and hummed. Could she do more to work towards better wellbeing? Sereia was purposefully ignoring her Taha Wairua wall, but it was hard to think of other strategies to improve the other walls. As of right now, her house seemed stable with everything she was doing to maintain it.

During her look around, Sereia found @Evelynn Decipio deep in thought but without a page in front of her. Sereia subtly frowned but let the girl figure things out. Of course, the professor barely knew her, but with what limited experience she had talking to these students, there was a time and place for intervention and you could only intervene to a certain extent. This was one of those moments.

Without realizing, however, a memory would slip from the deepest parts of Sereia's brain, its finer details seen by the Gryffindor lioness if she paid enough attention.

Reducio

Note: this memory is private to Evelynn only. Other students will not know of this yet.

New Year's Eve was usually when Aunt Verena and Uncle Damien visited New Zealand from England. Clairmonts, they were, living up to their family name as distinguished oracles. As Sereia prepared the table, they came in bearing numerous gifts and kisses on the cheek. The couple were still young and had no children, so it was always safe to assume the gifts were for Sereia. They loved to spoil her.

Aunt Verena approached Sereia with kisses and the tighest hug. "D'oh, You're such a fine lady now. Your nose looks very auspicious." Sereia beamed as Aunt Verena tapped her nose. Her aunt then paused to eye Sereia's hair, something the teenage girl had already been self-conscious about. Could she tell? "Your hair still looks as brown as it was when you were a child! You've had no visions?"

"I-" Sereia began but was quickly cut off by her father.

"She does not have them as frequently as we hoped," he said forcefully. Who was he trying to convince? Himself? Sereia had already long-realised she was not the Seer daughter her father hoped. Yet, he kept reassuring her that she was just 'a late bloomer'. "But she has an incredible eye for the unseen. Her tutors at Tenūsa are always impressed."

Sereia gave a tight smile. Her father didn't lie then, technically. She had a pretty keen eye and an intuitive sense that never failed to alert her to a change in atmosphere. The topic of her Seer talent, however, was already a sour one with just her parents, so she continued on with the table. The correction was not needed.

┏		┓
	Pericles hadn't planned on attending the errand, yet as he crossed the courtyard after a morning flight, the fifth-year found himself in the middle of it. He had nearly made the mistake of interpreting it as an arts and crafts session. On closer inspection, he quickly realized it was a valuable peek into another culture, on top of being aimed at promoting self-care. Curiosity led to participation. Once he understood the assignment, Peri plucked up a house sketch and found a quiet corner to himself. The colors he chose were less about deep personal meanings than they were aesthetically pleasing: night sky blue, charcoal black, whalebone white and azure armor. As he studied the concept, he was strongly reminded of his family's spirituality. The wizarding ken were not religious, though his mother had her own otherworldly beliefs as a seer, and his grandmother followed a loose, witchy interpretation of Hinduism. Mamo Tama had shared her beliefs with Pericles ever since he was young: as she taught it, everyone had the chance to choose their own path, though they sourced from a collective wisdom as guidance. Much like this four walls concept, his grandmother described four aims in life: Kama (love, pleasure, and psychological value), Moksha (self-realization, spiritual value), Artha (wealth, economic value) and Dharma (righteousness, moral value). This Māori ideal of four walls wasn't a far cry from the four goals- social (Taha Whānau), physical (Taha Tinana), spiritual (Taha Wairua), and mental (Taha Hinengaro). Only, instead of end-goal pursuits, it seemed to focus on long-term ideals to uphold in order to better one's life. Pericles would take his time dissecting the methodology, looking deeply lost in the sauce as he was sucked into the therapeutic aspect of art. He began with the roof of his abode, filling it in with an ancient symbol known as the Greek chain, or Meandros. A separate piece of paper was turned and traced repeatedly, using it as a stencil to create a symmetrical, unbroken pattern. The roof would symbolize Taha Wairua, the spiritual objective. Pericles, being born in Greece, found inspiration in the pattern. It was meant to be interlocking, unbroken, a representation of the eternal flow of human life. Though their bodies faded, their cycle lived on. As Peri mused over how to enrich this aspect of his life, nigh lost to a trance, he realized this reflection was exactly what he needed. Mamo spoke often of the benefits of meditation. It had been ages since he simply sat down with his thoughts and turned them inward. The eagle began shading in the door with smooth strokes of azure, letting the shape stand symbolic as the mental aspect, Taha Hinengaro. The mind was an entryway to the being after all. As he considered it, he took a coin from his pocket to trace a perfect circle, layering the shape inward until he had designed a circular eye. Watchfulness. Ceaseless observation. Like any teen, he often allowed stressors and needless negativity to slip through the door and crowd the interior. Pericles made a point to be more mindful- pun unintended- of where his thoughts dwelled. He went on to shade the foundations of the house with the color of bone, symbolizing Taha Tinana, the body. One's physical health was the foundation for their health in general. Pericles kept considerably active, what with his morning jogs, swimming in the summer, and ice skating on vacation. He tapped the pencil to paper as he mulled on what to improve, the answer interrupting him in the form of a soft groan from his stomach. He hadn't eaten yet. Pericles understood the essentials of diet, but he had a nasty habit of getting so caught up in his plans, projects, and spontaneous objectives that he sometimes skipped meals. He made a note to continue exercising, but to also be more aware of how to strengthen that foundation. Consistency. Last but not least, he closed in his home with deep blue walls: the shelter, friends and family. Taha Whānau. Pericles believed strongly that one's relationships could act as a shielding barrier from the external world, the old "safety in numbers" concept. He was forming something of an apprenticeship with another ecclectic and hungry mind, @Mahlioz Evethisawe, and actively pursuing a friendship with the cunning albeit elusive @Evelynn Decipio. There was always @Dealla Prince, too, his "not accidental friend, but friend on purpose". She was a consistent presence in his life, though he feared that would fade as she pursued racing, a disturbing thought that only just occurred to him. Mahlioz was shy, Evelynn was guarded, and Dee made a point to keep busy on her path to self-growth. If he was going to maintain and improve his connections to them, he realized he would have to play an active role. Pericles had made the mistake of being a passive presence in the past, never really pursuing ties, letting people drift into his life and eventually fade away. He resolved to reach out this time, at least in these few instances, until he had a better grasp on what it meant to be a contemporary companion.
┗		┛

spiritual (Taha Wairua)- meditate, don't just keep mind busy, stop to reflect
physical (Taha Tinana)- jogging, swimming, ice-skating. eat consistently
social (Taha Whānau)- reach out to sustain friendships
mental (Taha Hinengaro)- avoid thought spirals

7 April 2024

Talking to the professor herself would have been a good idea, but Harmony happened to hover awkwardly for long enough to hear detailed explanations of the house and the task: colour in the house and write strategies to improve your physical, mental, spiritual, and social wellbeing. The metaphor of the house was also very interesting and the professor had mentioned something about New Zealand? Culture was absolutely fascinating!

Harmony looked back down at her paper and considered her life. There wasn’t very much she could do at school to keep up her physical wellbeing the way she normally would at home, such as endless hours rehearsing some performance, but her physical activity was so low anyways that a slight increase would probably do her good. She’d done that foxtrot class and Quidditch in one day a few months ago; that was some pretty good exercise. She’d also encountered this activity on a walk, and she had to walk to all her classes every day as well, so perhaps…
Walk more
She wrote. Then she crossed it out and wrote Explore, with sparkly emojis and smiley faces. Exploring sounded much more appealing than just going on a walk, and it would be good for her – was it spiritual? – wellbeing, too.
On that note, she drew an arrow from Explore to the spiritual wall and added stop speedrunning and be an artist, with more sparkly emojis surrounding artist. She’d noticed she tended to race through everything to try and get it done as efficiently as possible, which was great for studies and the like, but not so much for discovering and connecting with yourself and your surroundings. Heck, she’d just been speedrunning to the grounds a few moments ago!

Turning to the social wall, Harmony thought of how she’d met her very small number of friends so far. By doing things. Darn.
Harmony begrudgingly advised herself in writing to try more activities/errands/things. She paused, then added Quidditch? next to her instructions to try more things, and drew another arrow to connect the latest addition to the physical wellbeing wall. She had met new people doing Quidditch, it had been very physically strenuous, and it probably did some good things for her brain and the way she looked at life- oh would you look at that. It also connected to her spiritual wellbeing.
The intertwining of all these wellbeing factors became more and more evident, and Harmony began to understand the house metaphor even further; one aspect of wellbeing failing would lead to others falling down with it, so you had to be sure to look after all walls of your house.

Finally, the mental wellbeing wall. Harmony didn’t quite know what to do for this one. She liked to think her mental happenings were alright – yes, a bit wild at times, but they weren’t massive causes for concern. Also, how could she have extended periods of bad brain-time at a freaking school of magic held in a massive academia-style castle?
Now that she thought about it, if she ever began to think too much about things that didn’t really need it, they tended to fade away if she had a good long blab to her parents. And sometimes Melody. Or, if there wasn’t anyone to talk to, she could do something that required the use of her brain and that would clear her mind. Well, those were even more ties to other walls!
Harmony wrote that she would talk to people/parents/friends/Melody more and, after a moment to think, that she would focus on one good thing for every bad thought, and she drew more arrows to connect these goals to their secondary wellbeing aspect.

A long while later, Harmony had a whare coloured in to look like an interestingly-shaped cottage, and she’d even tried her best to do some shading. Surrounding the colourings were a tangle of words and arrows and underlinings in an attempt to bring out the main points from the hodgepodge of thought, but Harmony thought it was such a fun representation of her and it looked really “artist”. She was already improving her hauora!

Although finished with the main task, Harmony would sit and continue to doodle little pictures in the blank spaces of her paper and generally have a fun time.

No interactions yet but still open for any
517(previous post) + 719 = 1236

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Dad

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Pa

Andrea

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Interacting with @	Date - 07/04/24
WC 946/600	Color Legend - Mylo | Thoughts

It was about half way through the holiday and Mylo had been looking through some of his school stuff to find a notebook containing some of his notes for class. Their parents had asked them to show them what he had learnt during the weeks at school and there was a bit of information that he just couldn't remember, hence the search for the notes.

They'd been looking through his pile of books when he spotted a drawing of a house, the students had been given this drawing to take home and complete during the holidays. Mylo had completely forgotten about it, but seeing it brought back memories of the assignment and he thought he'd have a go at it. This couldn't go wrong anyway.

Having found the notes they were looking for they made his way back downstairs with the notes and drawing in hand. He went and sat back down with the rest of the family and continued his story about what they'd been learning, Andrea seemed especially interested and Mylo could tell she was hoping she'd be able to attend the school as well. Especially after he'd told them about the wizards flying around, they'd been concerned as it looked like her eyes were about to pop out of her head.

After recounting most of the things he'd done he brought out the drawing, telling their parents about the assignment.

"So you have to put down goals you want to achieve? Like new years resolutions but different. Interesting, I do like the fact that they're teaching you about different cultures over there." His dad says, looking over the assignment.
"I do think this is one you should try and do yourself, if you really can't figure stuff out then come to us and we'll help you, but if we tell you what to add they're not your goals are they?"

Mylo thought about it and agreed on the fact that he should do this one himself, they didn't think it should be too difficult, and got out the stuff they'd need to start the project.

'Firstly let's look at the physical wellbeing I want to achieve.' He thinks. Mylo already did a bit of walking, and liked spending time outside just enjoying nature. One thing he had noticed was the sports teams that Hogwarts had, they'd never been into sports fully but they'd tried flying and found out that they didn't do to well with heights, so maybe there were other sports he could join. Jotting it down on a piece of paper he also thought it might be good to start stretching more, they'd tried once in the past but never fully committed, maybe if he put it down here he might be able to become a bit more flexible, you never know.

Having put down their physical wellbeing he moved on to the social part, they weren't know for being very social but had managed to talk to a decent amount of students during the year so far and had even managed to make a few friends, at least he hoped that's what they saw him as as well. Unfortunately he sometimes did forget to owl them when they were away, so maybe that could be a goal, to talk more with their friends. Also maybe being more mindful of the people around them, they knew that they didn't notice people very often unless they'd been talking to him for a bit so maybe he could pay more attention to that. Jotting the two goals down he moved on to the next part.

Their mental wellbeing, he liked to think they were quite mentally well. They sometimes would have a bit of a anxiety attack or have their emotions get out of control but that didn't happen that often. Most of the time it happened when they got very happy or excited, which he thought was a good thing. Although thinking back they realised that he didn't often talk about what he was feeling unless it was impacting someone else. It was something that his pa had told them to do, talk about what they were feeling but Mylo had never really felt a need for it. Maybe talking about what he was feeling would help, it was worth a try.

Lastly he looked at the spiritual wellbeing, no one in his family really had a particular belief, and Mylo was raised to respect anybody regardless of what they believed in, but had never really found one he resonated with. So that took praying of the table, which was the first thing he thought of when thinking about spirituality.

Maybe something with just mindfulness, he'd been raised to appreciate everything they got and had, what about taking just a few minutes a day to be mindful of that, and to appreciate the world around them. Maybe that did actually fall under a form of prayer, just not to a god or deity.

Feeling proud of the things they'd come up with he started colouring in the house and putting the goals at the proper points. It felt good to do this and Mylo could see why they'd been given this assignment.

Stepping back into school he walked back past the courtyard, seeing other students filling in the house and working on figuring out their own goals, he was kind of curious as to what other students would have for theirs but that wasn't something for Mylo to know. Walking back up the stairs to his room he wondered where they'd hang up their drawing, somewhere where he could see it properly to remind him to meet their goals.

Reducio

OOC Notes -

Code by Ara Villa

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Interacting with: @Sereia Clairmont, @Quinn Brook, and @Kaitlyn Connor also Open for interactions!	Word Count: 277/700	Outfit: Reducio A Hufflepuff uniform with some black leggings. Her usual bag and her hair done slightly fancy in an extremely short braid.

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Minnie smiled at Professor Clairmont, finally understanding it. "Oh...thank you so much professor Clairmont, sorry for bothering you." And she scurried off, waving and smiling at Quinn and Kaitlyn. She sat down at the table and began to color in the house, still feeling a little silly but determined to prove that she could do this. She started to color the walls, a boring brown with occasional splashes of bright blue, supposed to represent her boring outside but fun inside. At least, she hoped that's what she was like. She finished her coloring, and admired it, before deciding to break a little to say hi to her friends. "Hello, Kaitlyn, hello Quinn. How are you guys? I'm doing well." She smiled happily at Kaitlyn and smiled normally at Quinn. Glancing at the divination professor, she decided to get back to doing it so as to not annoy her. "This is a fun activity, huh? Professor Clairmont is really nice to do this." Then Minnie smiled again and took a step back. "I should probably get back to work." As she went back to work, she thought about all of the four walls and how her life connected to them. She worked through it rather easily now that she understood it, but got a little stuck at the spirit part. She remembered that spirit didn't have to mean religion and moved on. A little while later, she had finished and was quite happy with herself. Her relationship with the divination professor had also probably improved! Now she wouldn't have to be terrified to take Divination in two years! Pleased with that thought, she smiled, happy and content.

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Emily walked out into the courtyard and saw the cluster of students frivolously working on sheets of coloured paper. She couldn't help but let out a chuckle; it was quite a sight to see a mixture of younger and older students colouring in like they were all back in Primary school again. Not that Emily was one to judge. She was proud to admit that she had seven colouring books dedicated to helping her to either unwind or stave off boredom back home.

So it's true... Professor Clairmont really did organise this...

Emily was quite fond of Professor Clairmont. She reminded her of her Primary Five teacher; sweet as honey and lovely as a flower - the only teacher to not scare the bejeezums out of Emily. Not that she would say that out loud, she wouldn't want to embarrass the woman.

She recognised a few faces already as she went to take a seat at one of the tables that were situated for the group. With a few empty chairs at a table on the far end, Emily went and sat down before lifting a purple sheet of paper with a design of a house on it. She examined it carefully.

Hauora...?

Not something that Emily was familiar with, despite all the reading she had done on meditation and well-being back whenever she would fret about something. Emily shrugged; now is as good as any time to learn something new, book or otherwise...!

As she began colouring in the house neatly with a selection of pink, lilac and red felt pens, she read over the different sections detailed in the descriptions. Reading clockwise, she came upon "Taha Hinengaro" - Mental and Emotional Wellbeing.

Hm...

There was a lot that Emily could say about that; trying to make new friends at Hogwarts, grappling with the fact that "Auntie" isn't here and she misses her, being a Muggle yet is somehow able to perform magic. The more Emily thought about it, it sounded like some convoluted dream. And yet, she was absolutely loving it. In the little box underneath, she wrote "Enjoy the time spent with new friends and smile at the little things."

Taha Whānau was the next one - social wellbeing. Emily felt she answered that already with mental wellbeing. Then again... While she made a few friends at Hogwarts already, she still felt she wasn't putting herself out there enough. Most people tended to come to her to talk, not the other way round... Something that irked Emily. She was social, but not too social. All of a sudden, the answer was obvious, and she ended up writing, "To make my voice louder and engage more in conversations with others." She made a side note in her To-Do list straight afterwards... "Auntie" ought to be expecting her weekly letter from her by now.


Her drawing was halfway coloured in by this point. Emily felt impressed so far, realising just how much she missed colouring. She figured she ought to do more of it whenever she had the chance to, or at the very least take up drawing again. She could make little doodles to go along with her poems, she thought.

Back to the task at hand, Taha Tinana was next - Physical Health and Wellbeing.

Emily tapped the bottom of a felt pen against her chin. She was pretty active as she was already, getting at least 1,000 steps a day between all the walking she had to do to get between classes, the library and the exploring she would do whenever time allowed her. Though that really was about it. She finally wrote, "To cycle more and continue to eat well." She did miss cycling with "Auntie" around town, and while she was physically healthy, she felt it couldn't help to get at least one more healthy snack in every now and then.

The last wall to fill in was Taha Wairua - Spiritual Wellbeing.

Emily felt she was quite spiritual. She remembered back to last summer where she bought a Tarot Deck from a nice shop at the back end of the town, designed after folklore creatures. "To be equal and become one with our shadows and dark side," the tagline read. She was also partial to incense which "Auntie" would burn for her at different stages of the day; Cinnamon for the morning, Lavender at night as an example, with Sandalwood and Jasmine in between. All for protection and healing, ash she would say to others whenever asked. Emily wasn't religious by any stretch of the word, but she did like the thought of natural energy guiding her whenever she felt she needed help. In the end, she ended up writing, "To continue having faith in nature and trust in the essence of the universe."

With a sigh of success, she admired her work of art before handing it over to Professor Clairmont, giving her a quick smile before she left the Courtyard. For such a simple exercise, Emily never felt so relaxed and quite frankly... Enjoyed every bit of it.

_{Word Count: 858}

Placeholder banner from Google Images until I get my actual one!

Coming straight from the astronomy faire in the warm, golden, cozy library to the slightly drizzling, grey weather of the courtyard was hardly an issue for Aly Salinger, who in addition to loving the rain was also too preoccupied to worry about precipitation, even as the light droplets dampened her curly hair. There was an astronomy internship. How exciting! Aly had technically been a healer intern in the Hospital Wing for just over the past two years, but following her short sabbatical the year before, her interest in nursing had waned, replaced with a passion for the stars.

Part of her wanted to go straight back to the common room and start working on her astronomy application, or maybe at least a well-penned letter to the Healer-in-residence here at Hogwarts quitting her internship, but she had heard of something else going on here in the courtyard, and it didn't hurt to stop by and check it out on her way back to the comfort of the Ravenclaw dormitories.

There were a few people she recognised, whether vaguely or well, in the courtyard, but Aly's head was spinning with so many starry possibilities that she barely even noticed. First, she took a moment to sort of understand what was going on - the instructions - okay, so it was... colouring in a house and writing some goals for the future? That seemed simple enough. Floating over to the materials, Aly took a piece of paper and a handful of pencils in various shades, then took a seat on the ground at the edge of the courtyard with her back against one of the low stone walls. From her satchel, she pulled a random textbook - it turned out to be Magical Drafts and Potions - so that she could brace the parchment against it, lest the pencils (a writing utensil with which she was still mostly unfamiliar, despite three years' worth of Muggle Studies classes) rip holes through the thin material.

Studying the paper in front of her, Aly noted the descriptions of all four walls: spiritual, emotional/mental, family/social, and physical wellbeings, plus the ground, which was a "land" connection. Some of them were easy, at least to colour in, mostly due to the teenage Ravenclaw's former obsession with flower language - there were still just some shades that reminded her of certain things, just like certain flora, and so she took the darkest shade of noir and coloured black streaks over the lower right wall. Familial well-being was certainly still in mourning, and though her social relationships at Hogwarts had bettered since returning the year prior, her once-broken nose still smarted sometimes even now. Also in black, Aly added a goal next to that wall: Goal: Go to the spring ball next week. That was a social goal, right? Especially after she'd fled from the last one so horrifically...

Then she took a salmon-coloured pencil, sort of a cross between an orangey peach and a soft pink, to the bottom left wall. This sort of fleshy, fishy shade signified excitement and desire, at least in roses, and certainly she was excited about the physical aspect of her life as of late. Just last week, Aly had signed up Ravenclaws only for the Seeker waitlist for the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team, and she was still waiting to hear back if she'd made it or not; respect for her sport, and the hope that she'd make the position switch before the last match of the year, certainly brought excitement and desire to her physical well-being. In the same colour next to the wall, Aly scrawled that: Goal: Make first-string Seeker for the match against Hufflepuff.

These last two walls, upper right and left, were perhaps a bit more difficult. Mental and emotional wellbeing - well, that was simply tough to nail down. Aly had had her great days this year, and she'd also had her worse ones; in the end, she settled for a neutral olive green, which in roses often meant new beginnings. She was different this year, after all, and she knew it. That counted. Her goal, scrawled in that same green nearby, read Goal: Stay happy. It was a simple goal, but nevertheless a good one. And spiritual well-being - well, was Aly even spiritual at all? After staring at it for what felt like an eternity of confusion, the Ravenclaw selected her favourite navy blue, the exact shade of her sweater vest and of the robes she often wore to represent her House. Blue roses, among other things, carried with them the significance of mystery, and spirituality was certainly mysterious to her. Plus, she had a Ravenclaw's spirit. Perhaps that was a bit too literal, but she didn't care as she wrote, Goal: Pull an Outstanding average on my O.W.L.s. Maybe that wasn't as "spiritual" as others would have liked, but in the Salinger house, academics had always been king. She needed to keep her grades high, prove her eagle spirit, not just to her family and to herself but to the rest of the world.

She left the ground uncoloured - white, the colour of innocence, a quality that her family carried (at least, her father's side). Though no goal was written there, a goal still lay unspoken: Goal: Connect with the Salinger side more. A side of her blood that had always been beloved, but not quite honoured. That much would change with her outfit for the ball, already folded carefully in a trunk by her bed in the Ravenclaw dormitories, having received it the week prior sent from her house-elf at home.

Turning in her house to the professor on duty - the new-ish Divination professor, a woman that Aly did mean to connect with more seeing as how she loved the subject, but she just didn't have the time today - the teenager turned tail and headed out of the courtyard. She had an Astronomy essay to write.