Trampled Papers
Location: Courtyard
Tag: PV @Elisa Shakestra
Date: October 14th, 2025
Time: 11:50am
Word Count: 733
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Corrine had always been thankful for the free time she was granted by being ahead of class, but for the first time in her life, she’d lost that privilege. Ever since the start of October, her attention had been taken with a whole different matter outside of class, one that required the utmost focus on dedication: research. Much like how she had with marine animals earlier in her life, the girl had taken it upon herself to spend plenty of hours in the library—if not outright living in the library outside of meals and class—for the sake of discovering more about the magical creatures of the Wizarding World.
To her glee, Hogwarts was not in short of books delving into the matters of magical creatures, and it was only a matter of time before she made good progress.
All of it came at a cost, however. Just as the passing of time became her greatest asset in achieving her research, it also became the bane of her existence; she’d realize way too late that she’s spent much too much time in the library without actually doing any of her homework.
In an attempt to remedy her problem, she had chosen a day to finally focus on those. History of Magic had ended surprisingly early, so she had left and gotten lunch. By the time she arrived at the courtyard, it had been empty, as the other students were either in their own classes or in the Great Hall, having lunch. It was peaceful having the space to herself, with only the quiet whispering of the wind. The tree overhead, with its branches littered with Old Man’s Beard, arched over a table—a space she gladly took with a relieved sigh, since it had the most shade.
It’s not long before her items are scattered all over the table. On the farther end, there was her pile of books—A History of Magic, Magical Theory, Magical Drafts and Potions. On the closer end, her quill and her ink were laid out, placed on the parchment that held her draft for one of her essays. She was only two one and a half pages in, and the requirement was to reach two pages, so it wasn’t too bad.
When lunch had finished, the area was filled with a crowd of bustling students eager to relax after their classes. The sudden increase of volume in of itself didn’t bother her; by now, she’d gotten used to actually being surrounded by students around her age who were more extroverted and louder in comparison. There was even something pleasant about having the laughter and joy surround you. Unfortunately, just because Corrine didn’t mean the volume doesn’t exactly mean that she didn’t mind the crowd itself. The amount of people she didn’t know made her stomach drop, and she couldn’t stop the tension of her body when students would pass by even while minding their own business.
Only a few minutes had passed when Corrine abruptly decided that she, in fact, cannot handle the amount of people in this courtyard. Cursing herself for her horrible tolerance of crowds, she hastily stood up in order to reach for the other end of the table where her books were laid, only for her elbow to nudge her container of ink over the edge. Now on the verge of actually cursing herself out loud, she leaned over the other side of her bench to pick up the undamaged container of ink, except this time.. There was nothing holding her parchment down.
Freezing, she could only watch from below as her parchment flew off the table with just a single blow of the playful wind, landing on the dirt not too far from her. However, since it had gone so quick, nobody had time to react before several feet stepped on the parchment, leaving their dirty footsteps all over her essay draft.
My draft, she thought to herself with a heartbroken look. Really, she should’ve had the heart to stand up and shout at the students to at least prevent any more damage to be done to her paper, but she could only muster up the last of her energy to sit up properly with the ink container clutched in her hand. More footsteps came, not realizing that there was something underneath their feet.
Corrine had to hold in her tears right then and there.
"In every life, through every door. . . I hope to meet y0u again."