Twelfth Night errand Closed

Interacting/mentioning: @Lucia Fox, @Cassandra Ironwoods

When Cash asked what she wanted, Samantha gave them a little smile. "I can't just say hi to my fellow students?" After that she turned her attention to her gift box. She would start with the box for her sister. She would paint it pink and add little flowers to it. The young opened the paint and started to paint the squared box in the pink color, which reminded her of her sister.

Cash called her something, Samantha had no idea what it meant as it wasn't English or Dutch. "You have a memory? I didn't know that you could have a memory without a brain!" she said as she acted as if she was surprised. Samantha noticed Lucia taking a seat next to Cash and the young girl wondered why anybody would do that willingly.

After she had covered the whole box in the pink paint she laid down the paintbrush and picked up the pair of scissors. She would use white paper to make little daisies, which she would later glue onto the box. The young girl drew the flowers on the paper and started cutting them out when Cash started naming all Sam's nicknames. After Cash was done chuckling, Samantha looked at them confidently. "From where you stand the list is creative, but that isn't that hard with a bar that low. You would probably find the nicknames a five-year-old could come up with creative as well."

When Cash mentioned their favorite, Samantha knew exactly what they were talking about. Don't listen to them, that idiot doesn't know anything, she told herself. But still, when the word reached her ears, she was hurt. The brunette looked away, not wanting to give the Slytherin the satisfaction of seeing her hurt. She continued cutting her flowers and ignored Cash.

When Samantha heard Lucia tell Cash to "shut up", she looked up in surprise. She gave Lucia a grateful look, but she didn't say anything. If she would thank Lucia, Cassandra might think that Sam needed help and use it against her. Samantha couldn't hear the rest of the words as the Hufflepuff was talking rather softly.

The Ravenclaw had finished cutting her flowers and started to glue them on the box. When she was finished with that she took a good look at her masterpiece. It turned out pretty good even though she had to deal with that annoying idiot. Just as she thought about the idiot, they spoke up. Telling Samantha to "zip it" gave her even more reasons to talk.

"You don't want to talk about how your winter break has been? I mean it must have been a lot of fun seeing your loving parents again. I can already imagine you guys chatting about how your time at Hogwarts and your parents just loving you so much." Samantha knew that that wasn't the case for the older student. Every time she mentioned Cash's parents they exploded, which was precisely what Samantha wanted to happen again.

Now she had finished her first box, she started working on her second one. This one would be for both of her parents. She painted the left side blue, for her father, and the right pink, for her mother. She added some glitter on the right side and cut out some heart in every color paper she had. She randomly glued the heart on the box and admired her great work.

"Hey Cash!" she repeated the words she had spoken earlier. "What do you think of my box?" She didn't really care what they thought, she just wanted to let them know it was for her parents. "It is for my parents! Look, you see all these hearts?" Samantha pointed at a couple of hearts on her box, "They represent the love that I have for my parents. And these," she pointed at the other 6 hearts, "represent the love that my parents have for me! Do you think I need to add more? Because they do love me a lot."

The last box would be for her best friend. Samantha painted the box blue since navy blue was Vivian's favorite color. She added a little glitter on the box because she knew her friend would love it and finished the box by adding an S and a V. The letters didn't look that good as she had used way too much pink paint, but she knew her friend would love the effort.

Word count: 516+742/600

[ @Cassandra Ironwoods • @Samantha Salwis ]

To Lucia's slight suprise, Cash didn't disagree with her. They certainly looked like they were going to, at first, when their head swivelled around as though they had been bitten by their house's emblem. They... they asked her if she was okay. And they even went to the effort to correct themselves on Lucia's name. They often forgot that Lucia didn't like nicknames, and somehow, the fact that they had remembered now touched the Hufflepuff, who smiled a little at her classmate in response. Cash then admitted that the two barely talked to each other any more, which was quite true, and decided that it was their own fault, which wasn't. Lucia hadn't exactly sought Cash out any more than Cash had sought out Lucia, so the blame was on both of them. Not that Lucia really thought that blame needed to be assigned in this situation. People grew apart. That was okay. But she did want to talk to Cash again. Cash was nice (to Lucia, at least). They liked music. They lived close to Lucia, which was a bonus. Lucia wasn't really sure why they had grown apart, now she thought about it, and maybe that was what Cash was thinking as they blamed themself for it. "I..."

But now Cash was speaking to Samantha again, not continuing the arguement - thank Merlin - but ending it instead, albeit with an insult. Lucia sank down into her seat in relief that at least some of the tension had gone, before realising that Samantha was still talking, apparently intent on making Cash blow up. Winter break. Lucia's winter break had been the worst period of her life to date, because she'd spent almost all of it trying to deal with the fact that Alexa had- that Alexa had never made it home. Now, she stiffened and stared at the desk. Lucia didn't want to be involved in this conversation. Instead, she just pulled the wrapping paper which she had deposited on her desk towards her. She had collected two rolls. The first which had caught her eye was a deep, dark blue, speckled with golden stars and dots. Meanwhile, the second contrasted with it, consisting of golden swirls on a creme background. Lucia placed the wooden box which she had collected in the middle of the desk and started quietly ripping up bits of the wrapping paper and sticking them on so that they overlapped each other, slowly creating a scrapbook, decoupage-like effect on the lid. Once the lid was covered, she turned it over and began working on the front of the box. By this time, Cash was already drawing a pattern onto the top of their second box. When Lucia moved onto the third side of her first box, Cash got up and started looking through the wrapping paper just as Lucia had done when she came into the room. Unlike Lucia though, Cash finished their box pretty quickly again, pushing their three completed projects aside as the Hufflepuff started pasting wrapping paper scraps on the bottom of her own box.

Cash had obviously realised that something was wrong, as evidenced by their words. Did they not know? Did Lucia have to explain it? Oh Merlin, Lucia didn't want to have to explain it. It would be so much easier if everyone just... already knew. Shouldn't it be more publicised, when a student died? When Cedric Diggory died, there had been a speach from the headmaster at the time, and everybody had known. Alexa deserved that, she deserved even more than that. She... she deserved so much more than what she had gotten. "It's... Well..." Lucia mumbled, unsure how to start. How did you tell someone of a death? Had Cash even known who Alexa was? Were they friends? How-

Before she could say anything more, however, Samantha jumped in, having probably not even heard Lucia's words. She was talking about her family, and how much her family loved her. It was a strange topic of conversation, for sure. Was there a direction that she was going with this, or did she just like talking about her family? Lucia glued a few more scraps of wrapping paper onto her own box as she waited for Cash's response.

Closed to Interactions
Interacting: @Nigel Read | @Lucia Fox
Mentioning: @Cassandra Ironwoods | @Sam Salwis
Word Count: 949/600

Henry normally isn't a teacher's pet or one that goes on to try to impress or get a teacher to like them. The teen never trult trusted any of his professors, finding it best to keep to himself and occurs raise his hands in classes.

However, a few weeks into January he have haerd that the astronomy professor woild be hosting a errand for Epiphany; a holiday that only a few knew about. Henry have read about it before, knowing the basics of the day but nothing in detail.

The teen didn't see that he had much of anything else so he decided to attend, checking his schedule to see if it interferes with another event. The teen noticed it will take time out of his studying and reading for the night, two areas that he have been lacking in with dueling pratices and club meetings.

The teen decided to attend for a few minutes then leave. Walking up the stairs of the astronomy tower, the teen felt nerves rise within as Loki nibbled the top of his ear as a distraction. The orange feline stayed perched on his onwer's right shoulder, helping him in the small ways that he knows how.

Nearing the door, the teen took a breath. Focusing his mind and deciding on his words until he stepped through the entryway. Gazeing around, he noticed a few familiar faces.

Lucia Fox. Sam Salwis. Cash Ironwoods.

The teen was about to go over to the three students when he heard Cash say a word that made him sick. Mudblood. The teen felt his stomach drop. His heart beat quicken and mind ached. Refusing to believe that his friend would use such a word, would refer to another by such a word especially since Henry often talked about Alexa Mackenzie in past years to them. Talking about Alexa, longing to talk to her, and asking for Cash's advice. Alexa was a muggleborn and Henry didn't think he heard Cash say much about the fact.

He suddenly felt sick. The teen felt his eyes well with invisible tears. The thought of Alexa now circling his mind, chilling his spine. The teen often thought about her thse days, his mind ached now with the addition of Cash's voice saying that one word.

Trying not to imagine the situation. Trying to tell himself that there has to be a mistake, another reason.

Retracing his steps, the teen walked over to the professor. Offering a soft smile to the man he grew to trust as he spoke"Happy Epiphany, professor," eyes flickering toward the food then the materials to design boxes before landing back onto the professor as he spoke"this is brilliant professor, thank you for doing this," smiling softly up at the professor for a moment before politely excusing himself to decorate a few boxes.

Finding a spot alone. No longer looking to socialize with his friends or people that he enjoyed talking to before. Placing a box in front of himself, the teen never been the creative type so he struggled a little bit with the task at hand. Deicdeing to cut lengths of a stained newpaper and wrapped the box in that, tying it together with a piece of twine. Finding a black marker and doing a quick sketch of a wolf in the center, underneath the twine.

Nodding at the box, the teen decided to do another box as he set the first decorated box aside. Placing a second in front of himself, the teen decided to cut pieces of a red papers that he wrapped around the box. Covering every inch of the box in red paper. Finding a branch with three leaves and a red flower. Placing them in the center of the box, tying a piece of twine aroind the box to hold them in its piece.

The teen nodded at both boxes, figuring that he did what the professor wanted. Placing the two with the others as he got up from his seat. The teen walked back toward the astronomy professor, waiting till he would be available until he spoke"decorating the boxes was fun to do, thank you again for hosting this professor," the teen smiled softly up at the professor, both literally and figuratively finding the man's eyes as he spoke"have a good evening, professor. I'll see you in class."

Waiting aoment then turning on his heels to leave, finding the table with the food. The teen headed there, getting himself a single cake. The teen turned and started to walk toward the astronomy door finding that he will pass directly in front of Cash, Sam, and Lucia on his way out.

The teen came a to halt. Took a deep breath. Loki nibnled his ear tip to help him control his anxiety. The teen knew that Alexa was special and rather important to Lucia as well, the two did have that fight before the holiday but he could feel Alexa tell him to mend their relationship. Apology for her.

"Hey, mates," Henry spoke eyes flickering to each; Cash, Sam, Lucia along with a soft smile. The teen didn't stay to chat, his mind still turning with Cash's voice and that word as he looked over at Lucia and spoke"I'm sorry, I miss her to." Two lines. It should be enough for now, not wanting to say much that night.

The teen smiled at Sam then at Cash, they were still his friend at all. Turning on his heels and heading for the door. Walking through then down the astronomy tower stairs.

The teen headed for the library taking careful bites of the cake that he took for a little study stack that evening.

Reducio

Clothes-

Victoria thought it was over, but when she heard that something was happening at the astronomy tower, she immediately went there.

There were different shapes in front of the door and it was really weird. Victoria came in and called out to the Professor; "Hello Professor! Happy Epiphany!!" Victoria chose a suitable table and sat down. Victoria listened happily as the professor explained what they had to do. Victoria looked at the materials, realizing what to do. There were cardboards, scissors, bottle caps and more. Victoria smiled, "Okay, I think I've figured out what to do." Victoria smiled again. But she looked around for other ideas. The first person to catch her eye was Lily. She had made a beautiful gift box. When she saw Victoria Clair's gift box, she liked it and made her decision.

Victoria looked at the first statuette. She didn't know why, but she wanted to make the first box golden yellow. She took the paints and drew a king's crown on a piece of wood. Then it took 5 minutes to cut but the result was good.

Victoria then carved the inside of the crowns and painted them yellow and glued them together. The first gift box looked very nice. Victoria added glitter and set the gift box aside.

Victoria looked at the second figurine. While She was thinking about what to do for a while, she ate a bite of the Twelfth Cakes presented to her. She did not neglect to ask the teacher about the signs she saw on the door while she was eating.

"Professor! It's very kind of you to organize the event. What do the strange shapes on the door mean?" said Victoria excitedly, after looking at the door. "The letters represent names, right? Year in numbers! Or is "12" the twelfth night of Christmas?!" Victoria moved on to the second box, hoping her guess was correct.

She had painted an existing black box bright blue. She pulled the clouds over her, for no reason, she just wanted to do that. She left the box to dry with the words "I'm always better than you" on the box.


Victoria was tired and decided to get some rest. Only those who made boxes were leaving the event. Victoria greeted the departed. She said their boxes were beautiful, although she didn't know any of them. But really everyone made the box beautiful.

After getting some more treats, Victoria decided to move on to the third box. Inspired by a book, Lily decided to paint on a star-shaped box how she was feeling after watching a movie she loved in Victoria. "Thanks for your opinion, Lily!" Victoria called to Lily, who was sitting at another table.

She sketched a dark forest outline on the star-shaped box and painted it using silver, black, and navy blue. She sprinkled gray glitter on the box. Victoria drew a scared boy walking with a flashlight after it dries. She thought Muggle-borns knew about this movie.

Victoria took the withered crown box and didn't want to leave it empty. She put the white roses she had brought with her in this box. Then she looked at the box from afar, and when she was satisfied she placed the box in front of the first figurine. While she waited for the other boxes to dry, she listened to some theories about what was written on the door. But Victoria had chosen her theory as the most plausible one.

Later, Victoria took the cloudy box. She put purple lilacs in it. When she was happy in that box, she put it next to the second figurine. She was somewhat unrelated, but the box was still beautiful. Victoria put the black tulips in the last box. She placed this box in front of the last statue and she leaned back. Then she muttered to himself in a low voice;

"We just finished another tiring job, huh?"

Word Count- 655/600

Serena could tell that the holidays were over, as students flooded back into the castle. It was a little overwhelming, being suddenly surrounded by people and noise. She liked people and being alone was... well, lonely, for the lack of a better word. It sucked. However, there were times when she had no idea what to say or do. She felt a little overwhelmed surrounded by happy energetic faces when her inner energy did not match that. For some reason, she found herself just wanting to be alone for a bit, left to her own thoughts. And crafting somehow helped. It was like a form of self-care for her.

Walking through the Astronomy tower, Serena made her way to the classroom for the crafting activity. In truth, she did not really know what the idea behind it was or why it was a thing. But that did not matter. She wanted to take part with the hopes of actually being able to craft something cool or just spend a few moments in her own little world. She needed inspiration - something she was lacking the past few days. There was a limit to how much the girl could make in her forge without running out of muse.

She was not one of those people with a million ideas. She needed to find inspiration and muse to come up with something cool. Every idea she had, she never thought it was good enough. Thing were not perfect. It was hard when she was her biggest critique, never knowing what she should make. But today was different. She did not need to make anything fancy, there was no expectations. Even if the item she made was trash, it would not bother anyone - right?

She sat down at a free seat on the large table. They were to make some sort of gift box, though she did not quite understand the purpose of why. Could they take the gift boxes home or was it something to leave here? She had no idea. Well, it did not really matter. She eyed up the supplies. If she had thought about it, perhaps she should have made a cool metal box. That might be a pretty good gift. Not just an empty box, she could have turned it into some sort of storage unit. Like... a jewellery box or make up box or something. That might have been cool!

But alas, she did not think of it before. Looking around at the current supplies, she pulled one of the wooden boxes towards her before looking at the other supplies. Her plan was to decorate the wooden box but... she had no idea how. Newspapers and magazines seemed like a bad idea. She was not sure it would look good. Perhaps paint? She could try and paint something?

The Hufflepuff pondered for a while. It would be easier if she knew what the gift box was for but she was feeling a little too shy to ask. Plus, she did not really feel the need to engage into conversation with anyone. A polite greeting to the professor when she arrived was enough for now. She would say something before she left and that would fill the quota of conversation for the day.

Picking up the paints, she cracked open the yellow one. Yellow was one of her favourite colours, after all. And she started to paint. A simple yellow tulip. Or two. Serena was not sure why a tulip but it seemed kind of easier to draw than anything else she could think of. Picking up the green, she started to add a stem to each of them, before adding several leaves on each stem. The flowers were not detailed, nor did they have any shadowing or shading. They were just flat images for now but she waited for them to dry. Once they had dried, she added a darker yellow outline to the tulip heads to separate some of the petals from each other, and then some dark green lines in the leaves to add a little bit of definition.

It still seemed very simple. Taking a blue, she started to do some outlines around the edges of the box to add a bit more colour to it. Serena considered painting the entire box blue to represent the sky but figured that might be a bit too much. It would also take away the beautiful wooden colour of the box, which she really liked.

Once she had finished, she waited for the box to dry whilst helping herself to some food. There was no way she could touch it until it had dried a little, after all, or she would likely ruin it. Shortly after she finished eating her cake, she found the box was dried enough to move it. Carefully, she showed the professor. If he said that she was meant to keep it, she would take it with her when she left the classroom. The final result was not something she was super proud of but it was kind of nice to make something that she did not have to stress about getting perfect. It was just... what it was. Good or bad, it was what it was and that was kind of relieving.

WC: 881/600 Words

Serena left the thread.

AngelFyre made her way up the Astronomy tower to the classroom. She loved everything about this classroom. She loved that the classes took place at night for one thing because AngelFyre had been a night owl for as long as she could remember. Her sleeping habits had always worried her parents a great deal, especially her mother. She had taken AngelFyre to doctors who told her mother everything ranging from she will be fine to we must have a sleep study! In between those extremes, her parents had landed on having AngelFyre take glasses of warm milk before bed with a Valerian tablet. Blech! They had not worked as her mother had hoped, but in all measurable respects, she was a completely healthy young girl.

The problem was that AngelFyre could be up for 2-3 days at a time. She operated at very high cognitive, social, and emotional levels, but when she finally got tired, she really got T I R E D. Then she could sleep for 18 hours straight if allowed to do so. Of course, life at Hogwarts did not lend itself to recouping her sleep for 18 hours at a time, so she was making due as best she could. She had discovered that one of the best remedies for her sleeplessness was taking a walk in the bracing chill of wintry evenings around the grounds. Most students were glad to be inside the warmth of the castle, but AngelFyre loved the cold, so found it a nice getaway from the hustle and bustle of a boarding school kind of life. The air here somehow felt "clean" and refreshing. It was a calm, meditative, and prayerful time of her day, and it helped to wind her down in preparation for recuperative sleep and dreams.

That was but one reason she loved this classroom. Another was the spiral staircase one had to navigate through the tower itself. It was simply medieval. There were torches lining the walls on the long climb to the top, but they were spread out so you had a patchwork of lighted areas and dark areas. Just in that moment, a student opened the door of the classroom to leave and AngelFyre looked up to see the rays of moonlight and starlight breaking through the ceiling-to-floor invisible wall which surrounded the open-air classroom, reflecting and refracting off the shiny floor and the large mechanical orrery. In the brief time it took for the classroom door to close, AngelFyre felt as if she were in a beautiful kaleidoscope as the blue, silver and coppery beams briefly bounced off the stone walls of the spiral staircase. And just as suddenly, they were gone.

She snapped out of her thoughts and started to jog up the rest of the way. She passed a boy in a regal looking black cape and black outfit, and he was wearing a crown? Clever she thought. An interesting way to honor a holiday celebrating the Three Kings. As she opened the door and greeted the Professor with a nod, she wondered if there were two more kings in the room. A quick scan of the room quashed that notion.

AngelFyre saw people she recognized, but did not know. Two in particular caught her attention, mainly because they looked so sad. One was Serena Towers who had basically holed herself away in a far corner of the room, and the other was Lucia Fox. Lucia was sitting at a table with a girl AngelFyre did not recognize, but Lucia looked hollowed out somehow. AngelFyre's heart broke for her in that moment, wishing there was something she could do to help, but Lucia was an upperclassman, or was it upperclasswoman? Okay, she was third year witch and what could AngelFyre possibly offer her that she would want anyway? Probably nothing.

AngelFyre then began to look around at the supplies and was almost immediately drawn to the wooden boxes. She grabbed a rather decorative, but unfinished rectangular box, a few shades of green, blue, and black paint, some glaze, and gold leaf paint. This was going to be fun!

For as long as she could remember, she had loved malachite. She had a collection of stone animals at home, and by far, her favorites were the ones carved out of malachite or tiger's eye. Tonight, she thought she would attempt to make a faux finished malachite box. She looked around for a place to sit, and chose a table near Lucia. She smiled and nodded at everyone, but the girl she did not know was taunting another sitting at a different table, so she did not acknowledge the greeting, nor did Lucia who seemed to be elsewhere in her thoughts.

Sitting herself and her supplies down, AngelFyre started on her project. She knew it would be best to sand the box beforehand, but she hated the feel and the sound of sandpaper. She involuntarily shuddered at the thought. So, she opened up the turquoise tube of paint and did a couple of base coats on the box, avoiding the the feet and the decorative trim near the lid. Because it was acrylic paint, it luckily dried very quickly. While it was drying, she mixed a slate blue kind of color with some pine green, creating a deep, rich dark green that she loved very much. Excited now, she made a lighter greenish gray color and was ready to start painting the faux malachite pattern onto the box. She decided instead of doing a swirl kind of malachite design, she would do more of a vertical stripe as she felt it would look better with the lines of the box. She dipped her fan brush first in some clear glaze and then dipped 1/2 of the brush in the deep green with the other half in the lighter green. With her brush loaded with paint, she began to paint the body first, starting near the top, beneath the trim. She pulled the brush down slowly but firmly, wiggling it slightly as she did so, to the bottom of the box. As the fan brush was rather wide, she was able to cover a good deal of territory on the box. She loved the effect it was creating, but decided it needed a little more depth of color, so without wiping the paint off her brush, she dipped a corner of it in the dark green and black, and returned to the box, repeating the procedure. Perfect! She continued this process, all the way around the box and on the top of it as well.

The only downside to the endeavor was the sadness and nastiness coming from the table beside her. To her credit, the girl AngelFyre did not know was trying to be a helpful friend to Lucia, that much was evident, but she was also being kind of a skunk to Samantha, whom AngelFyre had missed when she walked into the classroom. While waiting for paint to dry, literally, AngelFyre could not help but hear the goings on, not because she was being nosy, but because she was kind of a captive audience at that point. When the box had dried enough that AngelFyre could touch it, she proceeded to paint the trim and the knobby feet with gold leaf paint. The malachite design showed off very nicely against the gold leaf, but it almost seemed a little too bright, so she knocked it back a bit by brushing it very lightly with some of the black paint and then rubbing it in crevices and rubbing some off to give it an aged patina look. Yes! It was turning out so much better than she imagined it would. Still, it did not have that smoothe, glossy shine that malachite has, so a moment of inspiration hit her. She went back up to the supply table hoping there might be a bottle of some kind of clear coat, and Eureka! There it was.

As she was coming back to the table, a boy AngelFyre did not know was apologizing to Lucia, and just as quickly as he spoke to her, he then left. As it seemed to be a personal matter, AngelFyre just sat down and gave no indication she had heard anything. She sat there, in silence, painting the clear coat on her box, and just felt.... sad. Not for herself, but for the others in the room.

Sitting there, she waited for her box to dry. Right now, the one thing she wished magic was able to do was wipe away the sadness from those around her.

@Lucia Fox -- OOC, Lucia, not trying to get you to interact, unless you want to. It is for added flavor that I mentioned you.

Word Count: 1455/600

Slightly interacting with @Nigel Read (no response required).

Dee was humming to herself as she made her way up the many steps to the Astronomy classroom. There was no real melody to it, just a low, calming sound, inaudible unless someone passed by very close to her. For once, she didn't feel like company, not because she was in a rush, but because she just wanted to mope without having to explain herself.

They'd only just gotten back from the winter break, but it seemed there was one last Holiday-themed errand to complete before Christmas was truly over. Frankly, she was ready for this holiday season to be done. It hadn't really felt like Christmas at her grandparents' house, she should have gone home instead. Perhaps this errand would provide some closure, a way to set a finish line to two weeks that hadn't gone like she'd hoped, to move on after.

Stopping in the door for just a moment, Dee sighed before moving into the classroom. Why had all the errands lately been crafting or decoration-themed? Not that she didn't enjoy dabbling and creating some lopsided decorations every now and then, but there had been a lot of that lately, and it didn't really provide any space for her frustrations to go.

At least there was food. Which is where Dee's feet carried her first, after greeting Professor Read and getting a short explanation on what she was supposed to do. Glue things on boxes to honour the three saints. She could do that, she supposed. Epiphany tart turned out to be a jam tart with a star-shaped lattice on top, so she grabbed herself a piece of that and a glass of milk, before setting them down on a table and going for a crafting supply run. One wooden box, check. Gluing was easier than paining, so she ignored the paints and instead went for origami paper, scissors, glue, a brush, and two generous handfuls of various buttons.

There was this decorating technique she'd heard of that just required thin decorative paper and generous amounts of glue, so she'd try that, she decided.

First step. Dip brush into a generous pool of glue, start painting one side of the box in stickiness.

Second step. Remember she had forgotten to cut the paper to strips in the proper size. Pause and stare at the box. Sigh.

Setting down the brush back into the glue, Dee grabbed a few sheets of the thin, dark blue paper, and started cutting it into uneven strips. They would be overlapping anyway, it didn't matter, or at least so she hoped.

Back to the gluing part, then. She painted a generous portion of the box with glue, then laid on one of the paper strips, covering it with more of the clear glue. Another strip next to it, edges overlapping, more glue on top. Hey, it might take forever to dry, but it seemed to be working. Once she had gotten the hang of it, Dee quickly managed to work her way around the box, folding the ends into the box and cutting them at the inner edge of the wood panels.

After taking quick break to scarf down the pie and drink some milk, the box lid was next, and when she set down the glue brush, the box was covered in dark blue paper and slightly textured thanks to the overlapping paper strips and the glue covering it. It was drying into a clear, shiny surface, almost as if lacquered. This had worked better than expected, honestly.

Leaning back, Dee ate more tart and surveyed the box and her remaining supplies, then idly reached out to sort through the buttons she had grabbed. They were all round and flat, in varying sizes and colours. Perhaps she could glue them onto the box in patterns? Flowers maybe, or just start at the bottom edge of the sides and make a sort of mosaic. That seemed easier than having to portray anything in specific, honestly.

After making sure the box had sufficiently dried, she tipped it onto its side, then applied more glue and began sticking buttons onto it, in reds and golds and blues. She didn't want to cover all the pretty glued on paper, so she stopped about halfway up the side, the upper edge of the button mosaic forming a wavy line. Nodding in satisfaction, she turned the box and started working on the next side. This was turning out rather pretty.

When she was done, the box looked like a night sky overlooking a wavy ocean of buttons. Mission accomplished.

Waiting for the box to dry gave her enough time to try the Twelfth Cake as well, and then she was off with her box in her hands, waving at Professor Read as she left, and in somewhat better spirits than before.

Word Count | 804 / 600

Thread left.

With the holiday season being nearly over, students coming back to school and classes starting again, Liana's mood almost came back to its normal state. She was still quiet and more withdrawn than usual, but at least not outright gloomy. And, having developed a mild liking to handicraft thanks to the artistic activities organized back in December, she even felt a tinge of excitement upon finding out that something similar would take place in the Astronomy tower today. There wasn't any place for crafts back at home, in a household that focused strictly on magical solutions, productivity and efficiency. Doing something artsy, especially the Muggle way, would not be approved of. Which is why she carefully omitted any mention of the time spent creating decorations when she duly reported to Father of how she spent the pre-holiday and holiday weeks. In some odd, childish and extremely mild way, this was like a revenge on her guardian. For denying her the chance to come and visit during the holidays. For doing it so coldly and nonchalantly. For sending her a broom and demanding that she improve at flying, despite her fear of heights. For a whole lot of things, really. And it made her feel better to rebel this way, so why not just keep on doing it. In her imagination, Marcus Kerr would be livid if he found out, but ultimately he would see that it was his fault, apologize and become more caring. In reality, however, she truly hoped he would not come to know of these frivolous and unbecoming pastimes of hers.

As she entered the familiar classroom, she was greeted by several oddities. There was the chalk writing on the door that looked almost like a code. It took her a few seconds to figure out that there was the year 2022 incorporated in it, but she couldn't determine what the letters meant. Asking questions would just make everyone realize that she was unaware of something. And if some of her peers knew what it meant, they would surely think they were superior to her. This was not a delight she wanted to grant anyone, not at the expense of her own pride at least. Therefore, with a last lingering glance to the scribble at the entrance, she proceeded walking further into the room, where a trio of statues was stood at the front of the classroom. The girl had absolutely no clue whom they were meant to represent. A nagging suspicion at the back of her head was saying that this was something from the Muggle culture. It hurt slightly less to be unaware of something related to them, although it was still a nuisance when other people knew facts that she didn't. Liana didn't feel a particularly deep interest in the traditions of the non-magical peoples, but her very presence in something that was dedicated to them felt like a sufficient payback to her purist father.

The redhead politely nodded to the professor, acknowledging his explanation about what this creativity exercise would entail. The snacks she was largely indifferent to - they looked like they would contain plenty of sugar, and she didn't fancy getting a sugar headache today. Therefore, she merely picked up the supplies she needed - a wooden box (only one - while striving to show maximum effort in academics, Liana was not quite as enthusiastic about artistic endeavours, even though she found them enjoyable), a handful of light yellow buttons, some thick woolen thread, midnight-blue paint, a paintbrush, scissors and some glue. After neatly arranging all of the supplies on a desk, she sat down and began working.

First, she applied a layer of the dark paint to the box, one side at a time. Working slowly to enjoy the process, it took quite a while to get all the walls of the box coloured. By the time she was finished, the side that she had painted first was nearly dry. Next, she began gluing some buttons to the box, tracing out the constellation of Sagittarius. Not brave enough to ask the professor for a star map, she did her best to place the buttons in an astronomically correct shape from memory. Once that part was done, she began connecting the buttons with the thread, gluing strings of it carefully to the box until the constellation was complete. Since it was on only one wall of the box, she added some randomly scattered buttons all around to fill up the dark blue void, until it looked - with sufficient imagination - like the night sky. With the task being done, Liana placed the tools and materials back in the shelf and on the table where they'd come from, picked up her masterpiece and departed with a polite nod to Professor Read.

Liana has left the thread.

Lost in her thoughts while waiting for the clear coat to dry on the malachite box, AngelFyre stood up and walked over to look out at the night sky. She was missing home right now.... badly. Moments of melancholy always took her mind back to the farm. There, everything was warmth, laughter, love, and a sense of belonging. Here, everything was just not any of those things for her. Magic was wonderful and exciting, but there was a kind of heaviness overshadowing her heart.

She had never minded not being popular. She had never sought to be popular. She knew she was hard to get to know, but most people found the effort to be worth it if an attempt was ever made. But she did find she was minding very much feeling lonely for the first time in her life. She stepped out of her comfort zone a few days ago in an effort to make a friend, and in the process, found... well, she is just not sure what she got from those interactions. She keeps telling herself that the result of stepping out of the comfort zone, whatever that result may be, was far less important than the fact that she made the effort. "If at first you don't succeed, AF...."

Without realizing it, slow tears had begun to track down her cheek. Looking out into the darkness ahead of her, she was mindful that she could also see the light and warmth reflected in the room behind her. Wiping the tears away, she chose to focus on the light, however faint, ahead of her in the twinkling of the stars blanketing the night sky. Those stars had pointed to a miracle millennia ago to those who knew what they were looking for, but even for them it had been a journey to get there.

This place is your journey, now, AF. Just take another step. If you fall, get back up and take your next first step on that journey. And remember, it is the journey that is important, less so the destination.

And with those thoughts in mind, she collected her malachite box, said good night to the Professor, and headed back to Badger Bungalow.

AngelFyre has left the Thread

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