Capsulizing History Errand

Dear Reader,
My name is QrowMcCloud, a first-year muggle-born Slytherin. Proud of it too.
My first year here is slowly coming to a close, and when September starts, I'll be joining my peers in moving up into my second year. I plan on trying out for Quiddich.

So far my own experience here has been fantastic, I hope as you are reading this that you think the same about your own.

For those of you who are new to the magical world, I hope that you find yourself just as mesmerised as those before you, if not more so. I know that new things can often be scary, but that's just because you fear the unknown, as people often do, and believe me, we all do. I hope you find yourself at home in Hogwarts, and you'll often find that people are more willing to help you than you expect.

For those of you already well acquainted with the world of magic, a little kindness can go a long way, and remember, "The tree remembers what the axe forgets." Your actions can affect how those new to this world of magic, perceive it, so be kind.

From my own experiences, I suggest visiting the library every now and then. If you enjoy reading like myself, the armchairs by the windows are comfy and have great lighting. They're also far off enough from all the study tables that if the library is busy, the noise fades out to a dull buzz that's rather relaxing to read with. The Library is also a great place to make unexpected friends, though that may just be my own experience.

The Great Lake is also an excellent place to visit, and, if you're a Slytherin you'll know that the creatures within are mesmerising to watch from the common room windows. Whilst the view above isn't quite as breathtaking as the view below, the great lake is a peaceful place to sit if you're in need of some alone time. Personally, I find it a great place to draw or paint, and in the autumn, when the surrounding trees have all turned to vibrant shades of amber and red, or in the winter when the lake is frozen over, and snow covered everywhere is a soft blanket, the scenery is especially enchanting. It's also just as beautiful during the warmer seasons, though, not quite as quiet, with other students coming out and enjoying the warm sun and company of friends during summer, or having impromptu picnics under the blossom-covered trees in the spring breeze.

Whilst I would love to keep describing my own experiences at Hogwarts, I am only a first year, and my experience is only one of many.

To whoever reads this letter,
I hope you find your own experiences to be as fantastical as my own, and I am sure that you will find your own home at Hogwarts.

Yours faithfully,
Qrow McCloud.

A time capsule. That was the task of todays' particular event. They were required to contribute something small that represented them that would later be dug up and opened by a future generation of Hogwarts students some ten years down the line. It wasn't a wholly disinteresting thing. It could be very enlightening to see what sort of items common to a time would survive their dance with age and find themselves to still be relevant. Or more interesting still, to see what sorts of fads would fall into the unyielding grasp of the obsolete and forgotten in so short a time. Unfortunately, it was much more interesting to dig up such a capsule and filter through its contents than it was to create that very capsule. Still, like the good little prefect that she was, Evelynn had made an appearance to participate in just that task.

The question, then, became what exactly to contribute. Contemplating that very question, Evelynn took it upon herself to walk among some of the others. There were some books... some artwork... and many a letter. She supposed that was the easiest thing to do, to write some sentiments to the future students of the school. But there had to be something more significant. A muggle pound dated from this year... Or a snitch she'd caught in a game... or Perhaps a passage from her favourite book. Except that she didn't have any of those things readily available, and neither did they really speak to her in the way she might have hoped they would. Perhaps she simply wasn't looking at the task from the right direction, she reasoned. Instead, she tried to imagine what she would have found interesting or useful to receive from a past student. Advice.. or some token that may have made a difference to her when she had first joined the school. And that was when it hit her.

Of course.

As soon as the decision was made, she went into a blur of motion collecting those items she would require from amidst her rucksack. Never certain when trouble would strike, she had made it a point to always be prepared, carrying such items with her everywhere. Into a fold of cloth, she placed a couple of magical floating candles, empty stoppered bottles, a length of twine, some enchanted magical paper airplanes, matches, a couple dungbombs, some hairpins, and the copy of the daily prophet that had started it all. This would comprise the core of what had come to be known as her survival kit. The last item to enter before she tied it all off like a little gift would be the letter.

A good day to you whoever you may be,

I imagine many of your peers will be opening capsules and finding letters not so dissimilar to this one. Theirs, however, are likely filled with sentimental and flowery notions, comments on the current times and positive thoughts to fill your own. If it was for that which you were hoping, I regret to provide you otherwise. Take what I am about to say with a grain of salt, but do not dismiss it outright. I hope very much, for your sake, that the warnings on this page will be for nought and that Hogwarts finds itself in a safer state than it is now. But if that is not to be the case, take heed.

Hogwarts is not to be underestimated. Within these walls lurk a variety of dangers. Living shadows have dwelled in the dungeons waiting to consume unsuspecting students with what has been come to be coined black blood. Dolls traverse the halls, made in the image of specific students and with a goal to transform themselves into that of their image, snuffing a life in the process. Dhampir have attacked students from the shadows. Human students have baited non-human peers into attack. Hags have lingered in the forest and the dungeons. Giants have infiltrated balls. Bombs have sounded, fires have purged, and lives have been lost.

The list goes on, and much of it remains unknown, forgotten, or dismissed. It's a dangerous place and so many students act as though curfew is an inconvenience and sneaking out to Hogsmeade is their right. The rules are there for good reason. My advice to you is to abide by them, keep vigilant, and report suspicious observations to your head of house. The professors can be trusted. Or at least they could be during my time. And should you, for some reason, find yourself where you ought not to be, I have found the enclosed items useful to find my way, collect clues, and distract opponents long enough to escape. Archaic and simple as it may be, this survival kit may very well help in some small way to ensure your own.

This all said, there is something I would ask of you. In my time, Mister Potter was trialled and sentenced to prison. We watched through the lens of the Daily Prophet as he lost his future and was closed behind bars. If this is still the case now as you read this, then perhaps you can help where we could not. He is innocent. The tapestries in Gryffindor Tower show the tale, but his wand remains lost somewhere in this castle. I firmly believe that to be a key to his release. Find it and carry on the mission. Do what we could not.

-E

With that done, she would fold the letter carefully and slip it amongst the rest of the items. Cloth secured tidily with twine, Evelynn would deposit her parcel into a capsule and place it with the rest before taking her leave.

Evelynn enters, puts together her capsule, and takes her leave
Word count = 952

Hex Colour:#38b6ff

As per usual, Aly was late. Quite a bit of time had passed since the capsule's opening, with lots of people putting their objects in - or so she guessed as she sprinted into the courtyard, past some exiting students, to see the place still full of people. Oh, I do hope I haven't missed it, occurred to her in her mind. I spent such time on this...

'Such time', really, had only been a few days of preparation and about an hour or so total of actually creating her capsule item. It was nothing crazy, really - just a small letter - but she had filled the folded parchment with dried flowers of her own creation, sealing them inside the paper with a pressed drop of hot wax, into which she'd placed even more flowers. They each had meanings, of course, that were relevant to her - her life at Hogwarts, specifically, as her life beforehand hadn't been all that... well... interesting. Who else but Aly Salinger would put such thought into her blossoms' intentions?

I just hope that if I don't end up opening this, that whoever finds this in the future, whoever they may be, appreciates the sentiment and the work that went into this, Aly reflected as she dodged her way through the crowds towards the capsule, which luckily still seemed to be open and accepting gifts. I'm sure other people are putting in things that are much more permanent, but... well, this has meaning to me, and I hope they like that!

She had spent the last few days hand-choosing which flowers she would include, and had eventually settled on a group of four - three to place inside the letter, and one to press into the hot wax of the seal. The latter was a lovely maroonish-red blossom of dried hollyhock, which in short symbolised remembrance and nostalgia; Aly hoped that by putting this one on the outside of the letter, someone would indeed be excited to remember her one day, far in the future. If she herself didn't open it, of course. On the inside, though, before folding her letter and sealing it, the curly-haired third-year had placed a dried white moly bloom, a single dried and pressed red rose, and a tiny dried purple wildflower. Each of these flora were from an important time in Aly's life, and though it saddened her to give them away, there was some relief in knowing that she would always have knowledge of exactly where they were - buried here, deep underneath the Hogwarts courtyard, for at least the next ten years. And, of course, she had jotted down within her letter a quick explanation of what each of these flowers meant, as well as a brief story behind them.

Aly had worn the moly bloom, for instance, to the Blossom Ball at the end of her second year, and upon searching for flowers to include in the letter, she had honestly been quite surprised she still had it. Moly symbolised magic and protection, as far as she knew, though it didn't really have a meaning in the Muggle version of the flower language, seeing as how it was a magical herb; to Aly, though, this particular flower had symbolised the beginning of her real entrance into Hogwarts society. After all, she had made one of her first real friends at that Ball, which she'd attended only shortly after making the Quidditch team, which had been the largest component of her social life this year. So, in the end, the moly reminded her closely of friends.

So too did the rose, although its technical significance was one of love and romance. This particular bloom was one Aly had rescued from her crown after a disastrous Valentine's Day tea party earlier this year; sure, she'd been laced with Amortentia, and sure, she'd become obsessed with her own reflection for a brief while rather in the style of a narcissus rather than a rose, and sure, it had sent her on a really long and really odd wild goose chase to find the sender of a letter that turned out to be made up in the end, but it had also grown her far closer to her Housemate and roommate Dee, a girl she could now easily call her best friend. So, in the end, it had all turned out all right in Aly's book, and now she couldn't see a red rose without thinking of Valentine's.

Finally, there was the wildflower, Aly's personal favourite of the bunch. This one she'd picked on her fourteenth birthday, a day which had promised her fifteenth year on this earth to be nothing short of stellar, according to her own long-held personal tradition about what she did in the exact minute of her birth every year. (Long story.) She'd been twirling this very flower, which only represented success due to its colour - she hadn't quite figured out exactly what species it was yet to narrow down its meaning, and she probably never would - between her fingers during that minute, but it meant more than that. It was a wildflower that had been planted specifically for her, in the shape of her name, by her boyfriend, Aaron. So to Aly, that little dried blob of purple with its tiny sage-green stem meant more about affection or romance than a scarlet rosebud ever could.

Holding the letter carefully in her hands, Aly approached the capsule next to Professor Galim. Giving a brief, albeit bright, smile up to the professor, she knelt and gingerly put the letter atop a bundle of cloth that had been the last item to be added. Then she stood and stepped back to watch the capsule be buried. Sure, it was no book or relic or Muggle item, but these flowers meant more to her than anyone would ever know - well, unless they read the letter. And now they were returning to the earth from whence they had come.

At least for the next ten years.

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Emma quietly sighed in relief that she had chosen the right person. It would have been awkward otherwise, like when you waved back at someone only to realize they were waving at someone behind you. But it seemed like at least this one time she would be saved the embarrassment, especially as it wasn’t like she could play off things like one could with a wave. Emma nodded. “Oh, thank you. I appreciate it. I wasn’t sure if we should just put it in or if there was some other process or….” Emma bit her lip, bringing her ramble to a quick stop, her cheeks blushing a light red as she looked down, clutching one wrist in the other hand, her grip again tightened on the piece of parchment.

Taking a small breath, she looked back up as they answered their question about the names. Repeating them several times in her head, she said “It’s nice to meet you Kim and Eun-ji. And a bit like a letter I guess? It’s this thing called a brain dump I’ve seen done on Youtube.” Of course, they may not know what Youtube was as many wizards and witches did not but she wanted to limit her rambles. Emma awkwardly waved as Eun-ji left. She looked back towards the capsule, trying to decide if she should continue the conversation or just place her parchment in the capsule and then leave. But she felt it would be the more awkward of options. “Have you already placed your thing in? What did you bring?”
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Emma waited until Kim had confirmed that it was a simple matter of placing her sheet in the capsule, before turning back to see if there was a crowd and if she would have to squeeze her way in. Then she immediately turned back to Kim, not wanting to be rude or make them think something. She wasn’t quite sure what else they would think but still, better to be safe than sorry. She hated being the littlest bit rude or mean to others, and sometimes that made these situations….interesting. Well more like annoying as she tended to second guess her actions, but it was what it was and she had learned to deal with it at least somewhat. Enough that she didn’t feel like curling up in a corner.

Emma’s eyes widened, groaning at Kim’s words. “That was smart. I didn’t even think of that.” Emma looked down at her fisted hand, her brain dump held within it and wondered if it was too late to run to grab a jar. She looked back up at Kim, as Kim gave their goodbye. “Oh yes, I should definitely go do that now. Bye!” Emma assumed that the foreign word that she would mangle if she attempted to repeat it meant something like goodbye, so she raised her hand and waved goodbye.

Turning towards the capsule, she took a breath and moved through the crowd, placing her parchment carefully inside the capsule, before taking yet another deep breath and heading back towards the castle, trying to decide what she should do now.

Emma leaves the thread
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