Summer Ready Errand

The year was nearly over, and I was ready for the summer. A beautiful season full of tire swings, and cartwheeling on the grass, and tree-climbing, and bubble-blowing, and dancing in the rain and ice cream and late nights up, and also my favorite flowers, sunflowers. Not to mention that school was going to be out. I loved summer! However, before I focused the next 2 months on summer fun, there was just one thing: doing Mother Nature a favor.

The Great Lake had apparently gotten very unkempt over the months, with bits of trash, leaves, and twigs in different places along the shoreline. I decided to work on the leaves first. After all, it would be just like raking the leaves back home in Folkestone...well, anyway, after we were told the instructions for the errand, I grabbed a rake and a bin and started on an area especially littered with fallen leaves and twigs, raking them towards the bin and dumping them in.

There were a lot, but I was getting it done quickly. Eventually, using the rake got boring, and tiring as well, so I decided to try something else. Why not use a spell to pick up all the twigs and leaves and trash and put them in the bin? I practiced on a crumpled piece of parchment. "Wingardium Leviosa!" I said, and the ball of parchment lifted right into the air.

I dropped it into the bin and dusted off my hands for show. Then I tried doing the spell with more objects; using the Levitation Spell to put all the little bits and pieces I saw into the trash bin. Then I noticed a large rock nearby. We had been told to throw large rocks into the lake if we could, so that's what I decided to do. I used the Levitation Charm on the rock and plopped it into the lake, watching as it made a huge splash in the water.

Won't you look at that, hard evidence that magic can make anything more fun, despite what my dad says. I looked around to see if anybody needed help, but it didn't look like it, so I looked for more grassy spaces to clean up. Even though this job was great, I still couldn't wait for the bonfire event, to be honest...but, if somebody needed a helping hand, then I would help with absolutely no hesitation, because I needed to do more.

Axyen decided to come to the special event and help the Great Lake because it'd make him feel better, but not only that, it was a wonderful start to summer and it just felt right as well. Axyen noticed how there was multiple activities to choose from. Hmmm.... I think I'll do a little of each activity. Axyen thought to himself. So he needed to decide what the first activity would be, there were multiple options and Axyen would be doing each one anyways, so what was the rush? Axyen decided his first activity was to look around and start piling a few sticks and twigs near the ground and began piling them up. It wasn't a difficult task at all, it was also weirdly enjoyable as well, so Axyen didn't mind going around the huge lake to find a few extra twigs and sticks.

Axyen then finished up with the sticks and twigs and grabbed a rake and began raking up all the leaves that fell down, there were dead leaves that have been there for quite a while and then newer leaves that might've recently touched the ground, it took Axyen a short amount of time to realize how to rake the leaves. So this is how Muggles do it! Axyen thought to himself happily as he was still raking some leaves around the area. It wasn't that hard, it was also a nice experience, the soft calm water that was still and nice. Axyen rake a few more leaves and crouched by the water feeling how cool it was. It was a relief to touch it, it was a nice soft, yet slightly cold feeling. Axyen closed his eyes for a second before finishing up with raking a few of the leaves.

Now the final task Axyen was given, clean up any trash he may find. Axyen walked around and found a bit of teared of parchment, he also found an empty chocolate frog container. Who would do this to such a beautiful lake...? Axyen thought to himself, it was quite a horrible thing to do when this lake was such a great area, despite Axyen only being there once when he got off the Hogwarts Express. Axyen was finishing up cleaning all the trash that was around the edge of the Great Lake. Axyen found various things, balled-up parchment.... one last empty chocolate frog container... he also found one or two empty drinks! Axyen was actually stunned that this really happened to the Great Lake, but not everything got fair treatment, Axyen supposed.

Now the final, but the unnecessary task... throwing medium-sized rocks or small rocks, Axyen found a small rock and he aimed his hand upwards to send it farther into the lake. Axyen threw the rock, it actually didn't go as far as Axyen expected it to, but it was decently thrown into the lake. Axyen found a slightly bigger rock and the tried the same thing but with more energy to it, as Axyen was about to throw the rock he jumped, sending it slightly farther than the first rock. Axyen celebrated as he managed to get the rock farther.

Axyen suddenly remembered the prefect who helped organize this little event mentioning a bonfire, Axyen got excited and headed back to where the bonfire would be taking place. Axyen felt proud of himself, not only did he help clean around the Great Lake but he also did it like a... Muggle? Axyen realized how much better it'd be if that simply stayed in his hand, Axyen noticed a small rock and wanted to try something, he took out his wand and aimed it at the rock, Axyen cleared all temporary distraction from his head and focused. "Tarantallegra!" Axyen said as the rock suddenly went dancing until it hit lake in which it instantly stopped dancing.

Axyen found that spell specifically to be funny, and Axyen wouldn't know why, it was just silly watching things.... dance, even something as small as a rock. He'd love to talk to his Charms professor, professor Fresnel about more spells, but then remembered how she wanted to keep it a surprise. Axyen had to deal with the disappointment until next class for now.

Axyen remembered he was distracted by charming that one rock and then stopping and thinking about how his professor wouldn't let Axyen get a sneak peek at the next lesson. Axyen quickly ran off to the location, to him, there wasn't extra time to have more fun and charm another rock to dance into the water.

Out-Of-Character Information

Clothes

Reducio

• Long-sleeved grey shirt with yellow stripes at the top.
• Yellow and black tie.
• Robes with three(3) yellow stripes at the end of each sleeve.
• Scarf with black and yellow stripes and a few light yellow patterns in the spirit of Hufflepuff.
• Black jeans.
• Black shoes.

Items Equipped

Reducio

• Wand
• Folded Note

Word count: 761/400

"How time flies! I just cannot believe it is summer already! It feels like yesterday that I have just attended the spring court, which was filled with chaos, surprises, and fun, and now that spring has slipped away with a blink of an eye and summer has stepped toward in Scotland! But on the plus side, school will be finishing soon, and I just cannot wait to go back home and spend some time with my parents during the summer holiday!" When Rita noticed there was this summer cleaning event going on in the great lake organized by a few prefects, and quite obviously, days are getting warmer, and trees are getting greener, the black-haired Hufflepuff beater thought with a lot of surprise, "Thankfully, the summer in Scotland was not as hot and sweaty as the summer back in Shanghai where my mom and dad grew up in and I still remember how uncomfortable it was when we went back to China to visit my grandparents in summer a few years ago, but compare with the colorful spring and autumn and the snowy autumn, it was still comparably a boring season, but with the summer vacation ahead, I guess it was not that bad?"

Anyway, back to the summer cleaning event itself, Rita found it to be a quite necessary event, since with all kinds of activities being held around that great lake area, even it may not be that dirty, there must be at least some rubbish left in that area as well as other stuff such as leaves. "Giving some great lake area a makeover really seems to be a great way to end this year in that sense, and those prefects who come up with this idea must be a genius! Let me go to the great lake to do some cleaning right now before it is filled with people!" The black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff first-string beater thought as she quickly headed to be great lake to begin to the cleaning errand.

When Rita headed to great lake area, she found out there was only two students there, one was her partner to the spring court ball, Roro Griffith, and the other was a boy who also seemed to be a Hufflepuff with Hufflepuff pride clothes and the black-haired first-string beater thought she might have seen the boy around in the Hufflepuff common room. "Hi, Roro! How are you doing these days? Would you mind if we do this together? " The black-haired badger waved to her little fellow Hufflepuff friend and walked up to the girl with wavy dark red hair, "Other may not believe it is the badgers who are most excited for this cleaning errand, but it just shows our kindness and devotion, isn`t it?"

Then Rita watched Roro used a levitating spell to lift some piece of trash. "So you can use spells on this task? Let me do that as well." The black-haired Hufflepuff beater also handed out her wand and pointed to a piece of tissue on the ground, "Alright, concentrate on this. Wingardium Leviosa!" The tissue was listed and transfered to the bin in a matter of seconds.

"Wanna go to the bonfire event with me together after that event, Roro? It sounds really fun to attend!" Rita then turned to her little friend with a friendly smile on her face before looking back at the ground and beginning to focus on the cleaning task once again. There is at least a fair amount of cleaning to do, and the black-haired Second Year Hufflepuff beater did not want to waste too much of her valuable time on those casual chats.
WC: 612/400
Interacting with: @Aurora Griffith
Mentioning: @Axyen Dragonclaw

Open to Interactions

There were only a few more days until Lea would see her family again and have officially completed her third year at Hogwarts. Longing and excitement settled into her heart, days transforming into long everlasting hours yet short blips of time in a way that had always baffled the girl for how could both be true at the same time? And yet it was, leaving the third year searching for activities that could fill in those hours and let time pass a little quicker. The hufflepuff found about the errand as she made her way through the castle, only taking a few seconds to contemplate before changing course towards the main doors. While her preferences leaned heavily towards staying inside, the warmth of summer swayed the scales a little closer to even.

A shiver ran through her back at the slight breeze, but the sun offered its warmth and bright rays to boost the girl's mood. This was going to be a good time. Lea made her way over to where other students seemed to be gathered, offering a small wave and quick glance away to those she recognized. She didn't have to wait long for instructions, listening as the prefect spoke. The tasks were simple enough, deciding to focus on the grass area first as that was the main objective. The first step was grabbing supplies, finding both a rake and a bag before she set off to find an open space in the grass that had yet to be cleaned. It was interesting to observe some of the other students, curious to see who had some experience raking before or watch the struggle of others who hadn't.

"Surely there's an outdoors version of Scourgify for lawn work?" She didn't remember such a spell in the curriculum, but there was likely something out there. Her own list of familiar spells could probably work too, but it was easier to rake the leaves up than testing the different creative uses of magic. Any twigs, trash, or sharp pebbles caught in the tines of her rake were tossed to the side to be sorted later once all of the leaves formed their pile. Before the small breeze could carry any off, she dumped the collected leaves into the bag with only a little struggle as a few fell out of the bag instead of into it. They wouldn't make it very far before the Hufflepuff caught them and stuffed them back with the others, tying off the top so that no more could escape.

"Alright, next step." Brown eyes looked over to glance at her thrown miscellaneous pile. It wasn't much of a challenge to sort, all categories look pretty different from each other, so the process took only a short amount of time before her small piles could be added to the bigger piles with everyone's work. Twigs in a pile and trash thrown away, the only pile left were the sharp pebbles that the Hufflepuff didn't want other students walking or sitting on. She picked the collection off of the grass, cradling and rolling the rocks in her hands as she thought of what to do with them. They weren't big, but tossing them into the lake would eventually wear down the edges, right?

The hufflepuff meandered her way over to the lake edge, occasionally glancing towards the prefects before turning her attention back to the lake. She transferred the pebbles to one palm, grabbing one with the other and throwing it into the water. Some of the flat ones Lea would even try to skip across the surface until all of the rocks submerged into the waters of the Great Lake. And with that last little bit of fun, the Hufflepuff had completed her tasks. She'd offer a small nod and thanks to the prefects before leaving. Whether Lea would make it to the bonfire had yet to be decided, but snacks did sound appealing.

WC: 657/400

Whatever possessed Duvessa to go outside and help out was a mystery. And the ones were people would puzzle over for hours before the answer is revealed in a dramatic way. The ebony haired Slytherin stuffed her pale hands inside the pockets of her grey, below the waist coat that was perfect for the evening, just as the breeze began to tap her face and hair dance in the wind.

She plaited her hair into a tight bun with a braid on the side, to let her fingers have something to do. Going outside was only one of Duvessa's routines nowadays, for she found the peaceful atmosphere soothing and close to having a best friend. Close to. And today was a day where her head was simply bursting to think of anything, so the Slytherin slipped outdoors.

At once, the sunset greeted her cheerfully as it had done every day before. That's when Duvessa noticed that there seemed to be a crowd near the Great lake... what on earth were they doing? Not a club meeting of some sort that late? And the inquisitive student settled determinedly to go and investigate. She kept herself to herself until she saw a prefect in front, and realization dawned.

It was a small event to tidy up the lake. Her dainty face rested on the tools before she felt herself willing to walk away. But how would she be able to concentrate with the crowds anyway? Duvessa decided to join, perhaps watching people would be a better amusement than walking by the trees alone.

She walked up to what seemed to be the least dirtiest job in her opinion. So the Slytherin selected a new, elaborate one and set to work. She choose a more isolated part of the grounds. Duvessa started with the bushiest lot of leaves, perfecting every corner and piling them into a bag she had taken to later put into the bins.

𝔓𝔬𝔰𝔱 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔨𝔢𝔯: X
325 +
Interactions closed to @Simon Tilia
OOC Note: We can still plan a bit but I'm posting this here so far.

If it had not been for the screaming seagulls, the tidy-up day by the lake could have been quite enjoyable. The sun was warm and there was a mild breeze. Why did Simon take part in the tidy-up day? Perhaps it was because he wanted to grab the chance of gaining a few extra house points. But that was not out of prestige. For him, this was a chance of at least make up for some of the mischiefs he had been up to throughout his first year at Hogwarts. He knew perfectly well that he had been risking points for his house (his fellow Ravenclaws would not have been too pleased if they knew only half of the stuff he had been up to). This was a way of at least ending the year with a clear conscience.

Even his family owl Hoax kept its distance from the overprotective seagulls, curiously watching Simon's activities from afar. It was not until one of the seagulls left its nest and nearly attacked Simon that Hoax intervened, chasing after the seagull, but the heroic act was quickly interrupted as yet another seagull joined the fight. It was almost like a scene from the World War II up there, except that there were birds and screeches instead of airplanes and gunfire. Hoax seemed to finally retreat, having enough of the mad seagulls, and headed back towards the Owlery.

The reason for a collective effort to tidy up by the lake quickly became clear. Simon picked up everything from candy paper and candy boxes from Sugar Quills, Liquorice Wands, Acid Pops and Pepper Imps, to an old leather shoe and a black swim short. (He hoped that whoever had lost them did so before he went into the lake and not after).

Simon was about to pick up a green plastic bag when it was blown away by the wind. He had to run after it but it repeatedly escaped his grip. It finally landed in a big bush by the trees. As Simon got closer he noticed that someone was on the other side of the bush. When the girl turned around he identified her as Duvessa Ember. She was wearing her grey coat, slightly brighter and longer than his dark-grey cotton jacket with thin white stripes.

"Oh, hello, Duvessa", said Simon and blew away a mosquito that was buzzing around his face. "I didn't know you were participating too. How's it going?"

Post Tracker: X
Interactions closed to @Duvessa Ember
Wordcount: 409

A green bag dashed as across the lawn as if chased. Duvessa looked at it curiously, before advancing towards the bush that it had landed on. Carefully, as if touching a live dragon she reached out for it until a boy about her age had run up presumebly after the bag.

Duvessa's eyes targeted him quickly as if judging.
"Oh, hello, Duvessa" he said, "I didn't know you were participating too. How's it going?" For a second the Slytherin stopped still. Who on earth - wait, she remembered him from the sorting. Sam, Samion (was that even a name?) and a surname...Tilia. She winced as she tried to remember, in truth not focusing on every students name she met.

What had happened to her? She couldn't even remember a classmates name. Testing her luck and forgetting to snap at him, she just looked back.
"Simon, I believe?" She continued, despite the chance of nearly forgetting who he was, "Yes I'm participating, a good long walk would clear my head." She said briskly, her mouth working without her brain. She then remebered that it wasn't his only question.

How was she? And most importantly, what did Simon care if she was telling him her woes?
"Same as always." She replied, not exactly telling a lie but evading the truth slightly.

𝔓𝔬𝔰𝔱 𝔗𝔯𝔞𝔠𝔨𝔢𝔯: X X
325 + 200 +
Interactions closed to @Simon Tilia
OOC Note: No idea how I had motivation this morning to finish this

"Simon, I believe?"

Wow. She knows my name. Simon was quite surprised because his impression of Duvessa was that she was more or less uninterested in people outside her own house. The few times he had met her dark eyes in the school corridors he always got the feeling that she did not like him by default. Why, he did not know. To him, Duvessa was somewhat of a mystery, and over the last weeks he had hardly ever seen her.

"Yes I'm participating, a good long walk would clear my head... Same as always."

"Yeah, that was what I thought too", said Simon with a small lopsided smile and sighed. "Are you staying for the bonfire and games afterwards? Because I'm thinking about sneaking back to the castle once we're done here. I'm not much for that kind of socializing anyway."

Suddenly a shadow passed the ground before he heard a splashing noise from his shoulder and looked down. Something white was pouring down his grey cotton jacket. With an annoyed look on his face he looked up to the sky only to see a screaming seagull leaving the crime scene.

"Seriously?", exclaimed Simon. "Okay, I'm so done with this..." He put down the bag and removed his jacket. "Never mind. Guess it's too hot for this jacket anyway."

Post Tracker: X X
409 + 203
Interaction closed to@ Duvessa Ember
OOC Note: Good job