Errand Christmas Click-Clacks PV Serena

Serena gazed up, observing the candles floating in the air. The Great Hall looked very... non-festive, for some reason. She was not one that really cared for Santa or getting gifts at Christmas. Mostly because, she didn't. But she did enjoy seeing a beautifully decorated Christmas tree, fairy lights absolutely everywhere and the cutest decorations around. Still kind of afraid of the dark, December bought the light back into her life. It was beautiful, in a way. No matter what was going wrong at Hogwarts, it was always kind of nice to see a tinsel on a tree.

Perhaps with the events that happened in Hogwarts not too long ago, Christmas had been cancelled this year. It was most definitely less festive than she remembered December being. She sighed softly, returning her gaze to the tables around. It would not be long till the holidays hit. She had been determined to make this year better than the previous ones but it seemed much harder to do than she had originally hoped. She spotted a few students gathered around a table, that appeared to some shiny materials. Blinking, Serena made her way over to see what was going on and what had the other students so fascinated.

As she approached, she recognised the shiny materials as parchment but... glittery. There were tubes of liquid glitter too. Peering over, she spotted a range of writing materials and art equipment. The hufflepuff rubbed the back of her hand on her nose, wondering what they were doing. After a few moments, it became clear that they were making something creative. She pondered for a bit before sitting down near a girl she did not recognise. Perhaps one of the first years, maybe second.

There was so much on the table, it was possible to make a range of things. Perhaps she could make something too. Though, Serena had absolutely no idea what she would make. She picked up some nearby glitter parchment and just started to fold them absentmindedly as she wondered what she could make. She noticed the baubles, wondering if she could create something festive for her dorm mates or house mates. Maybe she could stuff them with some glitter so they sparkled in the light, or paint a little design on them. Perhaps she could make some paper snowflakes with the white glittery type of parchment or paper stars from the gold ones. The possibilities were endless. There was so much stuff, after all and the only limit was one's imagination.

Glancing over to the girl next to her, Serena wondered what she was doing - hoping to get some ideas or inspiration from her. She looked quite young and Serena knew she was not in same year as her, at the very least. But the younger girl seemed to know exactly what she was doing. There was no hesitation in her movements. She had gathered a bunch of supplies. Well... almost everything, from the looks of it. Serena blinked, wondering what in Merlin's name the girl was going to make with all of the supplies she had taken. It was not very easy to guess when she had acquired a bit of everything. "Hi, may I ask what you're creating?" She asked the girl suddenly, hoping to answer the question that was floating around in her head.

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A fine paint brush in hand, Evelynn painted a calligraphic "4" into the top corner of the triangle she had just cut, then did the same with each of the other two corners, only with a "2", and then a "1". Each time she did, however, she turned the triangle 120 degrees, so only one number was ever right-side up. Even as it dried, the gold paint shimmered in the flickering candlelight. Then with charcoal that she had worn to a fine point, she shaded selective edges to give the numbers the appearance of being embossed onto the crimson triangles.

Although to call them triangles wasn't quite right. The sides of some of them had little tabs that had been included which warped the shape just slightly; but it the general shape remained a triangle. One. Two. Three… Wait, hadn't there been a fourth-- Oh there it was. Evelynn counted the triangles that she had cut so meticulously. Quite literally had she counted them as well, double checking that no errors had been made in the numbering of the corners. She piled them together, lining up the most recently cut with the previously completed. Brows pinched as she held them close, inspecting for error. Even the slightest imperfection could result in misalignment and spoil the whole thing.

Smiling broadly, she set them down and began to work on folding in those little tabs oh-so-carefully. Then glue to attach them together, ensuring proper alignment and as little lifting as possible… So absorbed had she become in the little project that for once, she didn't register the nearby movement of a student. It wasn't until the table wobbled just a little bit, that Evelynn's attention snapped up and away from the source of her focus. It was then that she realized that a girl had sat down next to her.

"Oh," came the sound of mild surprise, brows raising. "Um, hello."

Grey eyes flickered quickly over the unfamiliar girl's features, down to her cloak and garb, and then to any accessories or identifying markings. Evelynn wasn't normally one to frighten easily, but neither was she particularly used to be addressed by other students. Thus far, any acquaintances she had made had largely been at her own initiation, and for the most part only with those of her own year or House. This individual was neither, Evelynn concluded quickly.

"I'm making Christmas tree ornaments," Evelynn recovered, pushing her surprise and curiosity aside in favour of a warm smile. A determined smile, even. "For my mother. I thought I'd surprise her when I go home for the holidays."

Previous momentum returning to her, she resumed crafting, applying gold paint along the edges to hide the seams, a few lines of charcoal for depth once again, and some well-placed glitter for a little extra flare. As a final concluding touch, she applied a fastener at the top, and fed it through with a ribbon before tying it off with a little knot and snipping off the excess. The piece finished, she held out the cue-ball sized creation. Only it wasn't a ball or bauble at all. It was a pyramid. In fact, anyone familiar with table-top games would recognize it as a four-sided dice.

"I'm going to make a whole set of them!" she said enthusiastically. "What about you?" She wondered, eyeing the absently folded parchment. "Are you doing origami?"

Word Count:565 | Total Count: 1248

A cringe ran across her face, as the girl next to her seemed a bit off with her introduction. Serena hesitated, holding her breathe for a moment as she waited for the girl to continue to talk. The tension surged through her body. She smiled as warmly as she could, trying to help the stranger feel more at ease. Luckily, the girl continued to speak, which put Serena at ease in return. "Oh wow! That's really sweet of you," Serena replied, as she found out that the ornaments that the girl was making were for her mother.

Her eyes glanced to them. They were really interesting. She had no idea why they had numbers on it but perhaps that was why she was intrigued to see the end result and figure out what was going on with them. "I'm sure she'll like them," the Hufflepuff added as she appreciated the beautiful lettering on the pieces.

"I uh... I don't know." Serena admittedly honestly. She had better luck creating jewellery with a bit of metal at one of the Blossomfest events than she did here, "I'm just kind of er folding it and hoping I can make something out of it..." She continued as she peered down to the folded paper, that was kind of just getting smaller and smaller but seemed to be taking no particular shape.

The Hufflepuff quickly unfolded it, trying to make something out of it. She stared at the page, with crease lines everywhere and then looked back at the other girl's beautiful work. The girl had made a pyramid shaped object, with numbers on each of the sides. It was like an odd shaped dice, missing two sides, but it looked pretty. "Do you know how to do origami?" She asked, wondering if the girl did. Serena could make some basic things from it but... nothing very festive.

Spending a few moments just staring at the page, Serena tried to think of what she could turn her badly folded page into. Creating a Christmas decoration out of nothing was a lot harder than it looked. There were so many possibilities that she was kind of clueless which option to take. Decisiveness was not exactly her forte. She leaned onto her palm, resting her elbow on the tabletop and stared at the materials for some more time.

Then all of a sudden, she jumped a little. It was as though she had an idea. She reached into the materials, grabbed a pair of scissors and carefully started to cut her folded page into little rectangles. "I'm Serena, by the way, a third year Hufflepuff," She finally introduced herself as she continued to cut the page down, "Sorry, I should have started with that."

Once she had cut the page down into a bunch of rectangles, Serena put down the small scissors and picked up a quill. She also grabbed a few bottles of ink. As she gathered her materials, she looked around to see what else she might need. Her idea was very simple but it came from something the other girl said. Serena counted out the rectangles she had. There were only sixteen equal pieces. She pondered for a little while before deciding that she needed more. She picked up a few different pieces of parchment and started to fold them too. The last few moments of actions were all over the place, rather like her racing mind. It was clear she was getting excited about whatever it was that she was making by the way she wanted to do everything all at once. "What's the idea behind the pyramids, if you don't mind me asking?" She asked, clearly never seeing a four sided dice before.

Word Count: 621 | Total so far: 1178

The affirming praise from the Hufflepuff student -- and an older student at that! -- sent a rosy blush across Evelynn's cheeks. Perhaps competition was a trait common to Gryffindors, or just many of the students she had encountered thus far, but she often felt the need to justify herself; or to prove herself equally capable or more-so than her peers. More often than not, it left her feeling inadequate and insecure, her attention forced to shift to minimizing error and maximising quality. Which, in turn, was usually at the detriment to her own enjoyment. Here, she felt at ease. Supported even.

"That's usually how it starts, isn't it?" Evelynn smiled, pausing from her own creation to lean in on her elbows to marvel at the folding of the paper becoming ever more minute. "Sometimes when I'm sketching, I don't always know what I'm going to make. I'll just start drawing some shapes or lines, and sometimes, if I'm lucky, I'll sort of just see an image come out of it. Like cloud watching."

It wasn't until the girl quickly unfolded all her work that Evelynn returned to her own. Once again, it was triangles that she set to stenciling and cutting out of the shimmery red cardstock.

"Uuuh….sort of?" Her reply to the question of her prowess in Japanese folding sounded more like a question. And an uncertain one at that. She paused in her cutting quest, an unfocused gaze lifting to the candles floating high above. Could she even fold anything anymore? It had been ages since the last time…. "I think my mom showed me how to fold a crane once. And a frog?" Lips pursed as she considered that. "Yes," she decided with an affirmative nod, lowering her gaze to the table. "There was definitely a frog." She lined her fingers to show the general shape. "It's face was kinda squashed, and it had little front legs, and bag legs that sort of folded like this--" She did her best to emulate how the joints worked. "And when you pressed on it would hop when you slid your finger of the end of it," she laughed, grinning with nostalgia.

"Oh, oops.." Evelynn's laugh quickly turned from spirited to self-conscious as Serena interjected with the delayed introduction. Tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, she replied, "I'm Evelynn. Evelynn Decipio. I'm a Gryffindor first year. It's nice to meet you."

The momentum of her previous exultations forgotten, Evelynn returned to her crafting, but not before casting a curious eye in Serena's direction. It seemed to be that the Hufflepuff had forsaken her folding in favour of cutting out a plethora of rectangles. Curious. And it seemed to continue well past the point where Evelynn had finished amassing eight triangles of her own. Trying to think of what Serena might be planning, the redhead painted single silver numerals numbering one through eight onto the faces of the triangles.

"Oooh! I wonder if you could charm origami frogs like chocolate frogs!" All of a sudden, mind reflecting back on the recent talk of origami, a whole slew of ideas had come to her that she had never had the opportunity to consider before coming to Hogwarts. "Or cranes so that they flutter around! That would be a whole different way to pass notes in---"

Now what was she doing? Evelynn had lifted her attention to Serena to see her reaction to her ideas only to see the girl elbow deep now -- figuratively -- in her crafting. Brow lofting in marvel, she watched Serena gather up a quill only to stop, assess the various materials, and then put it right back down again before starting on folding. As the first-year assembled her own triangles into two more pyramids and apply the finishing touches, she continued to watch her would-be partner. It was like watching her dog when she had the zoomies and ran around the house and yard trying to play with everyone and everything all at the same time. Eventually, Evelynn set back to her own work, and for a good while, the two worked independently, each seemingly absorbed in their respective task.

"Theeese," Evelynn replied, drawing out the word as she concentrated on finishing the last touch of attaching the two square pyramids together at their bases, "are dice!" She rotated the just-now-finished eight-sided dice for Serena to see. "My mom is a pretty big fan of table-top games like Dungeons and Dragons, Traveller, and Call of…Something."

Despite the name of Cthulu escaping her for the moment, Evelynn was pretty used to people not knowing about the different kinds of dice or the games for which they were used. Even in the muggle world, table-top games weren't exactly mainstream.

"That first one is a four-sided die. We call it a d4. This one--" She set the current one over to sit next to the first. "--is an eight-sided dice. We call it a d8. There are also d10s, d12s, d20s, and normal d6s. And something called a percentile dice. Those are probably the most common. My mom also has a d3, and a d30, actually. She likes to collect them. Different colours and different sets. She even has a rose quartz set and a tiger's eye set."

Perhaps her nostalgia had left her complacent. Or perhaps she had grown accustomed to students actually being generally non-judgmental here at Hogwarts as compared to the schools she had attended previously. But that wasn't always the case, and she knew for a certainty that there were still certain topics that could draw forth snide remarks from even the kindest-seeming peers. By now, Evelynn was acutely aware that she had nerded out significantly more than what would typically have been accepted even in the muggle world. Here in the wizarding world, she doubted the implications that would come with it would be received much better.

Voice trailing off to silence, she put her head down to her crafting again, and mentally prepared for the anticipated backlash.

Word Count:1,005 | Total Count: 2,253