Love Note Leavers Errand Finished

Mentions: @Dymphna Teague

Serena made her way through the library until she reached the designated writing area. The library had been a place she had not spent much time in this year - or the first, for that matter. She mostly avoided studying until she realised the importance of it and spent far too much time trying to catch up and practice her skills. But things were changing now. She was spending more time playing Quidditch than anything else.

Writing letters was something she had to do from a young age. Her mother would insist on her writing thank you letters after every birthday party to everyone who attended. Good manners, she was told. But the truth was, with Quidditch and everything happening, she had not had much time to write recently. Today, she figured she would try and change that.

Dear Dymph,

It has been far too long since we hung out, I miss you. Things have been very busy as of late and it is pretty annoying that all I seem to be doing is studying or playing quidditch but I guess it has been paying off. Hufflepuff won all three matches this year, which makes me so happy. I am actually kinda surprised that I helped the house to win, yano yanno?

I wonder if we could play sometime together? Summer holidays - at mine? Not sure if we're allowed to use our brooms outside of hogwarts but I sure hope so!

Pizza's been a little down since I've been kinda busy lately so I thought I would spend some time with him and write letters to everyone I haven't really been able to talk to in a while. Lets meet up soon - its almost our birthdays, maybe we can plan something for it with the whole gang?

Lots of Love,

Serena J. Towers

Serena signed off the letter and folded it up, addressing it to the Ravenclaw she had not seen in a while. They used to write to each other quite a bit though, when they had more time. It was only fitting that she started off the day by continuing this tradition.

Errand Progress: 1/5

[font=Monotype Corsiva]Dear Lizzie,

I know for a fact I am not good at words or maybe I am but I just do not realize it yet. Anyhow, I am glad that you are my friend (along side with Blake too) in this big castle, it is not so bad and would not feel so lonely when you have friends in here.

As I wrote this, you were no longer in the library (I see you before but you have your serious thinking face on and I do not want to bother you) which mean you are somewhere in this big castle, doing what you know best, perhaps. Also you're a Ravenclaw for Merlin sake! You need to found a solution to crack the riddle so you can entered your own Common Room.

Back then when you said you do not know how to crack the riddle I want to laugh because like I said, you are a Ravenclaw. Cracking riddles should be in your blood, metamorphically speaking of course. About that thing we will make soon, the three of us (you, Blake and I) should discussed it in private and maybe it will be wise to not say anything at all general places where eyes and ears can hear and see or in this letter that I will send it to you, in case this letter got intercept (I hope it would not).

Lastly, I know it is a stretch but I do hope our friendship will last for a lifetime. You are funny, smart and a fun person to be around with. Never doubt yourself even for a second.

Cheers, mate!
Phoenix Cassandra Ironwoods

p.s : you know by now I dislike my first name so yeah[/font]

@Lizzie Verdine

Reducio

Ink, Quill, Wax Stamp Set that Cassie used

Word Count Letter : 286

Word Count RPG : 268

Errand Progress : 2 / 5 Letters

Mentions: @Caradoc Browne

Hjørdis paused, wondering who she ought to write to. She was severely running out of people that she actually spent time with. It was probably something she ought to be embarrassed about but honestly, she did not care. People were a weakness. If there was anything her life had taught her, it was that. Caring about someone made you weaker. It was why she almost broke down after the attack on the Slytherin common room. She cared too much for them. It was making her weaker. And she hated it. Keeping a distance from people was actually kind of smarter. In some cases, the information she knew about them could be used against them - to manipulate them. It had worked wonders on Griffith not too long ago.

She sighed softly. Her list of people that she actually spent time with in the school was shortening regularly. There were a number that had now left their positions and moved on. She ought to write to them but she was attempting to keep this within the school to lift some spirits. This was actually harder than she realised. She was challenging the students to write five letters, at the very least, she ought to attempt to do the same. So far, she had three done. Perhaps Caradoc Browne and... She paused, who did she actually know well enough to write to them? Alaric, perhaps? Cover all of the Heads of Houses that way?

She had no idea but she figured she would start on the next letter. Hjørdis started addressing the letter, before crossing some out. Picking up a muggle fountain pen with emerald ink, she drafted out the whole letter, unsure of what she should actually say and ended up crumbling it up. It rolled off the desk and landed on the floor. Starting over, she wrote out another attempt.

Caradoc,

I hope you are doing better.

Thank you for your help with the patrols. It has become apparent how important they are. I will schedule you into some with Galim in the coming weeks. Look out for the schedule in a later owl.

In more important news, any updates on the current situation?

Regards,
H. Jensen

She assessed the second letter, nodding to herself. It was far better than the first. This would do.

Errand Progress: 4

Reducio

The First Letter:

Interacting with @Hjørdis Jensen | Mentions : @Hugh Lowe

Sweating bullets, her eyes fixated on the pages with words. Words that she didn't read but only saw. They were nothing more but symbols to her. If she could, she'd try to find a way to crawl in the space behind the letters, hoping to hide there and dissapear from this plane of existence. Folding up her body in the letter O or crawling underneath the letter P...

"Miss Shymane, why don't you read us a few paragraphs?"

The stern familiar voice of her Head of House, snapped her awake. Where even was her mind right now? Blinker a few times, Nico noticed why she was having such a hard time to connect with the book infront of her.

It's upside down.
Of course it is...

Slowely, Nico looked up at Nora. Her blue eyes would stand out in the midst of her now tomato red face as she hesitantly smiled at her. Why was it that she could never have a decent, normal conversation or eye-to-eye moment with an adult in this school. Was she that clumsy? That weird? Maybe it was part of being a Dhampir but she didn't know for sure. She should owl her dad about this... again. Against all odds, the Professor was more amused than upset. A bit of the lead that sank on her stomach, had been lifted...

As she was reading her freshly inked letter, the young Prefect tried to distract herself from the fact that her Head of House, a person she looked up to, was actually reading her letter. Hands fidgeting with her Quill, rolling the stem between her fingers. Her leg was gently bobbing up and down under the table, without a sound. All different ways, to keep her body in check before it would run rampage.
Her eyes glancing at the ceiling, once more checking out the ceiling high bookcases. What could people possibly write about? Mystical creatures, languages, cooking recipes, spells,... love?

Moments had passed until the sound of paper sliding over wood, caught her attention. In the time she had been daydreaming about the dusty books on the shelves, Professor Jensen had read AND written her a letter.

A letter? For her? She wasn't supposed to deliver this somewhere? Oh. It actually had her name on it. Written in such an elegant way. Nico promised to herself to practice her handwriting some more when she'd get back to her dorm. Carefully and curious, she'd open the envelope and read it. Her gaze taking in every word. The further she got, the more tears started to well up in the corners of her eyes. Never had she been touched by a letter before. Not one like this. The supportive words, that Nico had been looking for all this time at this school, were right here. The struggle with being quite different and odd... She wasn't alone in this. There were plenty of others who suffered in a similar way...

Quickly, Nico searched for a tissue in her pockets, pressing the fabric against her cheeks, catching the red tears. This... was a turning point to her. Even though the recent events had broken her, changed her... She wanted to be strong. This was the push she needed...

Her murky eyes, looked up at the Professor as she gently pressed the letter against her chest, nodding at her as to say thank you. She would treasure this and pin it above her bed. She'd memorise the words in times she needed them the most to carry on. With her new found motivation, she got inspiration to write another letter.

Placing the words of the Professor as if made by glass, next to her - she placed another page of paper infront of her. Who would be the next to retrieve her written words?
Her mind went down a list of people she could write to... Maybe Quinn... It kinda made sense that she would but there had to be more people that she cared about...

Hugh Lowe. Wauw. Been awhile since she heard that name. What was that Scott up to?

Lately they only met during Quidditch games. Talking? Not really. He must be busy. Sigh. A letter atleast wouldn't hurt would it? Determined, her pen slid across the paper:

Hi Hugh,

Congratulations with Gryffindors victory during our last Quidditch tournament. It was a rough one, you deserve this achievement. Don't tell my Captain I said that. He'd probably scold me...

What have you been up to otherwise? I noticed you gained a few inches again. Do you ever stop? It's been abit crazy on my side... Something weird went down in my Common Room, I'm not sure if you heard of it. It would kinda surprise me if you haven't. We're still not sure what happened or why it happened... Honestly, I'm terrified I'm abit scared.

Anyway, since we haven't really talked in a long time, I just wanted to send you this letter. It's the least I can do, right?

Stay safe

Friendly greetings,

-Nico

Setting her Quill aside, she folded the letter and slid it in an envelope to send with an owl later that day. Who knew. Maybe it would cheer him up?

Errand : 2/5

Interacting with @Hjørdis Jensen

Zahid was quite surprised when the Head of Slytherin handed him a letter. It was far from the first letter she had written him, they had exchanged a few of them especially after things grew more busy after October and they could no longer find the time to meet up to read and let their cats have play dates. Still, it was strange to be straight-up handed a letter. It made sense though. Why wait until later to send a letter if they actually crossed paths? He would have to read it as well, then. But first he'd have to finish addressing Caradoc's letter and then he would write his friends in Italy before he read this one. Even if a few more minutes would matter little that letter was overdue enough already.

Rolling up and tying the roll of parchment, he set both of the letters to the side and grabbed a new piece of parchment and began writing his friends.



He hesitated. He did not want to worry his friends so he had not told them about what had been going on since October, but it still felt disingenuous to simply lie and say that everything was fine and he was sure that those two, out of all the people he still corresponded with via letters, would definitely have noticed that he had answered less as the time between his letters had grown longer and longer.
I will not bore you with the details... Was this truly the best he could come up with?

Casting his mind back to their last letter, he drew a blank for a moment. It had not been particularly filled with detail either and he didn't think there was anything he'd need to answer directly. That little note from Rosario, however... He was not sure what possessed Rosario to send him an announcement of his child's birth considering that they had spoken maybe twice during his time in Italy, but it did give him something to ask his friends about.

After finishing with his second letter he set it aside to dry and instead of taking a new piece of parchment to write another letter, he picked up Professor Jensen's letter back up to read.

Reducio

Dear Antonio & Constanza,
it has been too long since our last correspondence, I must apologize. I expected life at a boarding school to be busy but the extent of it caught me by surprise. And just when I had thought I had just about settled in, things got far more complicated than before. I will not bore you with the details, but things have grown even busier than before since late last year. But to be honest, I simply underestimated how different boarding school life would be from university and it did not help that I hadn't taught anyone in- Alright, I can already hear you disagreeing, Constanza, let me rephrase: it had been years since I taught a group of people.

Outside of school life, there is nothing new to write about on my side really, as I do not have the time for much of anything and I spent most of my free time reading as you very well know. Though, I must thank you both for introducing me to Violetta. Some of the books from her sister's bequest that she had wanted to throw away, have come in handy as one of my colleagues expressed an interest in them so you can tell her that someone (to quote her) 'might still get some use out of them'.

Herodotus his still his adorable curious self. He is really starting to get to big now to carry him in my jacket the way I used to in the beginning, but he makes a lovely scarf – he is quite partial to curling around my neck. It is quite soothing, I must say.

On another note, a little birdie told me that congratulations are in order. How does it feel to have become godparents? I know you said that you had no interest in having children yourself – not for a long while yet at least – but I must admit I am wondering if watching your godchild is as horrible as you imagined it to be so that you would 'praise everything holy when I can hand that child back to its parents'. Do not worry, I am only teasing. Still, I admit I am somewhat curious to hear how you fare now that it has become reality.

And how is your research going, Antonio? You did not mention it in your last letter, has it not been going well? If that is the case, do keep your head up, you know that set-backs happen and as a good friend of mine told me -they are just more opportunities to learn from. So, do not be discouraged if that is what happened.

Did your book club take off, Constanza? Not that I believe you for a second that your book club is more than a cover for a nice afternoon of tea and cakes. I love you dearly, my friend, but we both know you have very little interest in books for the sake of books. But I suppose it does sound more posh than a gossip party.

I hope this letter finds you both in good health.
With love,
Zahid

Letter: 2/?

WC (Letter): 520

WC (RP): 373

A blank piece of parchment could be one of the most intimidating things to see. All the endless possibilities of what it could turn into, but it is always so hard to know how to begin the process. A drop of ink splashed onto the paper creating a little pool of black. River looked at it for a second before she placed the quill down at the top of the parchment. There was one person she hadn’t heard from in years. And still there was rarely a day that passed without River thinking back to the memories of them. One of her family-friends back in Norway, Solveig.
River tried to not think too much of her time in Norway, it was painful to know she wouldn’t get to go back there. At least not to experience the same memories over again. There weren’t many people River remembered from those days. It was a long time ago, and most of the people River heard of now were just empty names without a real face she could remember. Solveig though, had always stuck with River, and here she was with a perfect chance to hear how she was doing.
There was a certain hesitant feeling in the ravenclaws chest as she started swiftly moving the quill across the paper. It felt only right to write this letter in norwegian, so that was what she did. What if she wasn’t doing okay, or what if she didn’t even remember River. Perhaps she wasn’t living in the same house anymore, though River couldn’t imagine her moving away any moment. She had been living on her family's farm for over 30 years. The only thing River could do now was write, and hope the letter reached her.

Kjære Solveig Lund
Jeg skriver nå til deg fra min skole her i Skottland. Ja, det er hit vi dro etter vi forlot gården vår. Du tenker kanskje ikke på meg så mye, eller kanskje du ikke husker meg, men jeg tror at dette brevet kanskje vil minne deg på meg.
Jeg husker alle minnene fra når jeg var hjemme. Jeg husker den gangen foreldrene mine måtte reise vekk i noen dager, og jeg ble værende hjem på din gård i mellomtiden. Jeg husker du ga meg en bøtte og så gikk vi inn i skogen for å plukke bær og sopp som vi stekte til middag den dagen. Og når du lot meg hjelpe deg å male gjerdet ditt fordi regnet hadde fått malingen til å skrelle av. Jeg veltet uheldigvis malingsbøtta, men du ble ikke sint. Og etter det spiste vi bærene som vi plukket sammen med vaniljesaus.
Jeg savner det.
Jeg savner at du kom innom hver dag for å gi oss noen egg fra gården din og du ble sittende å snakke med foreldrene mine over en kopp te på kvelden.

Jeg kan bare håpe at du har det bra nå, og at du er trygg og frisk. Har alle dyrene dine det bra? Det er nesten som at du har din egen dyrehage, og jeg vet du tar veldig godt vare på alle dyrene på gården, så de må ha det godt. Jeg ønsker deg lykke til videre og håper å høre fra deg i fremtiden.

Klem,
River Dewlight

Translation can be found below

Reducio

For Solveig Lund

I am writing to you from my school here in Scotland. Yes that is where we went after leaving our farm. Perhaps you don’t think of me a lot, or even remember me, but I do believe this letter might remind you.
I do remember the memories from when I was home. I remember the time my parents had to leave for some days, and I stayed with you at your farm in the meantime. I remember you gave me a bucket and we went into the forest to pick berries and mushrooms that we cooked for dinner that day. And when you let me help you paint your fence because the rain had caused it to peel. I accidentally tipped the paint bucket over, but you weren’t mad. And after that we ate the berries we picked with vanilla cream.
I miss that.
I miss you coming by every day to give us some of the eggs from your farm and you would talk with my parents over tea in the evening.

I can only hope that you are doing good now, and that you are safe and healthy. Are all your animals doing okay? It’s like you have your own little zoo, and I know you take very good care of all the animals on the farm, so they must be doing good. I wish you good luck ahead and hope to hear back from you in the future.

Love,
River Dewlight

WC Only RPG || 292

[/font]

Interacting with @Riley Swan

Dear Gran,

I hope you are doing great. I heard from dad that you were working on a new painting for me but he did not tell me the subject of the painting. I trust you to know my taste as you are the beast granny in the entire world but I will not say no to a small teaser.
My firsts months at Hogwarts were rather peaceful, I spend a lot of time in the grounds and I am starting to make a few friends. You can be proud of me, I was not homesick even if I can't wait to see you again.

I miss you, your little star, Riannon xxxxxx

ps: What is your favourite painting in the castle ? I love the one with the hippopotamus, it is so cute.

WC: 384 | Errand Progress : Letters 2/5

Dmitri was minding his own business in the Library, as he often normally does these days.

Nothing was out of the ordinary--just another one of his routines: eat, study, sleep, repeat. For a few precious minutes, he has so far started to have quite a pleasant, solitary time in his corner at this small sanctuary of Hogwarts' castle surrounded by books and pieces of parchment.

It was only in the middle of this study session that he noticed some kind of ruckus near the farther side of the room--it wasn't particularly loud, no, but it did seem like that one certain space in the library was starting to get slightly crowded. It was abnormal, to say the least. Most children by this time would have been outside or in classes--Dmitri made sure he was in the library when things are much quieter.

Striding determinedly toward the growing crowd, Dmitri was ready to curse the children out for disturbing the relative peace of the library. Except, there she was, the Slytherin Head of House. The boy gulped down his urge to lash out at the nearest kid and instead chose to tap one of the onlookers to ask what was happening.

"It's Letter Day. Miss Jensen is making them write letters for rewards! You should join!"

The student didn't need to say more. By the time Dmitri heard the word "reward", he already has a piece of parchment and a quill on his table, addressing a letter to the Head of Slytherin, first off.

However, as he poised the tip of his quill onto his paper, he seemed to be having a hard time coming up with anything remotely positive to say...

Dear Miss Jensen:

Good day.

You are... an interesting character in this castle. I seem to find you tolerable than most professors--in fact, though your hair is gray, you seem to be... not quite as ancient as most of the professors here at Hogwarts. Please take that as a compliment--young age is a rare feat in the academe if our other professors are any indication. Though I am dearly sorry if it's going downhill from here, I can offer my deepest sympathies--I do observe Professor Kibitzer quite closely during her lessons and can empathize on the woes of old age.

You are one of the few professors I would hate to see die and are surely not one I wish to. Please don't perish in the duration of my seven-year stay at Hogwarts as I appreciate your presence quite well.

Thank you.

And please, I request you keep this letter confidential. Especially from Professor Kibitzer.

Sincerely Yours,
Dmitri Kazimir Jones

Signing his name with a flourish at the end, the Slytherin folded the letter neatly in thirds and stood to hand it to his Head of House. He sure hoped the Professor appreciated it. He surely did quite have an enormously difficult time trying to find good things to say. But fortunately, he got through it just fine.

Words: 496
Letter 1/5

Dear Mr. Man,

I don’t know your name, so I don’t really know how to address you. Mum never really talked about you, so I never really knew what you were like. I’ve only really known you as “The Man” because that’s what she calls you. I don’t know if you’re tall, if you have a beard, or if I look anything like you. I do know you were a Gryffindor, and you had a knack for trouble. That’s basically as much as mum told me about you. Other than that, were always like that face in a dream that no one can remember. But I’ve never seen you so I guess you’ll always be faceless.

My mother always said that I would be better off not looking for you- that you were never really there so there’s nothing to miss about you. She’s right though, because as I’m writing this I don’t feel like I miss you. I’ve thought about you a lot though, especially since I came to Hogwarts.

Where are you now? What do you do? Have you ever thought about mum? What was Hogwarts like for you? Are you muggle-born? I grew up in the muggle world, in Hillingdon with mum and dad. Mum met dad when I was two. He’s a writer. He likes making me breakfast in the afternoons and liked taking mum out to dance on Tuesday nights. I don’t know if you would like him if you met, I’m not even sure if you would like me if we met.

I’m writing this letter because I felt like I needed to say something to you or at least to talk about you at least once. It’s like this one-sided conversation has been in my mind for a long time, and now it felt like the right time to have it.

I don’t know if I’ll ever meet you. Frankly, I’m not sure if I want to meet you. I get confused sometimes, whenever I think about you, because I feel like I’m supposed to be fueled by anger because you’ve never been in my life, or sad because you never knew about me. Maybe sometimes I wonder if you ever think about mum or if you ever found out about me, and maybe at some point I thought of how bad you must’ve been as a person for mum to never want you to know about me. But now, being here in Hogwarts and learning more about myself, I realize I never really felt that, or anything, towards you, really. Is there really a name for the feelings you have for a mythical father? I don’t hate you, but don’t really know if I like you either. I do have questions though, so many curious thoughts about you that have plagued me for the longest time. I’ve learned to live with them though, and for a while now I know I may never answer them or may find the answers on my own.

I hope that if you ever find this letter it finds you in good health. I also hope that you’re happy, because everyone deserves that.


Wishing you all the best,

M.

Mentions: @Saskia Nicholson

Taking another piece of parchment from the pile, she picked up a pencil and then put it back down, deciding this was a letter not a drawing. Taking up the quill, she dipped it into one of the opened ink bottles near her and began writing her next letter. This time, she addressed it to someone she had gotten closer to over the past year. Before this year, she had no idea who Saskia Nicholson even was. Sure, they probably saw each other around and maybe even had spoken before but they did not actually know each other until this year.

Hey hey Captain,

Saskia, have I ever told you how utterly incredible you are? I honestly have no idea how you manage to tank every bludger, whack them out of the way or take out so many of our opponents. I kinda get how Quinn does it - he's like twice our height and clearly a million times stronger than me. But I find it so impressive that you're also a beater. It doesn't matter if I'm being targetted by bludgers or three chasers trying to surround me - or worse, cheaters being cheaters - you somehow always manage to be there to save me.

I got hit by a bludger in the last match - and bloody hell, it hurt! I have no clue how you survive so many of those every match or in training - so huffleTuff and huffleBuff! Heck girl, you're amazing!

Can you train me a little sometime? I'm definitely better at just catching the snitch than I would be at being a beater but, I guess, I'd like to gain some more muscle so each blow did not feel like I was being attacked and about to die. Again. Merlin knows none of us need that experience any more than we already get. Sorry - this should be a much more positive note. On a lighter note, I guess, I think it's absolutely amazing that we won every quidditch match this year. That's something we couldn't have done without your leadership and I just wanted to say thank you for your hard work.

I love our house but we do often get stereotyped into being weak or losers or whatever and, it's really flipping good to actually prove everyone wrong. I hope we get a giant cup to flaunt off. I know, I know, it's not really about winning, it's about playing and having fun - or some shit. (At least, pretty sure Browne would say that) But I don't care. I'm thrilled we won and we should be proud of that.

Maybe we can convince him to host a party? Merlin knows we could use some food, good music and a chance to actually laugh or celebrate without shit going to disaster. Ah, I'll have to ask him next time I see him. It would be cool.

Anyway, I have rambled on long enough for you to be bored so I guess I'll just stop now and see you at quidditch training!

Lots of Love,

Serena J. Towers

Serena finished up the letter after about fifteen minutes of solidly scribbling words down onto the paper without really thinking too much. Then she waited for it to dry. Whilst waiting, she grabbed some glitter glue and decorated around the edges, creating a square box around the letter in gold glitter. It kind of made it look pretty - though definitely more like a child's work of art. But she liked it nonetheless, it added a little something special to it.

Errand Progress: 2/5