Errand Stinging Determination Solo Finished

Set Saturday 29th June, at dusk

The day was growing weary, and the grounds of Hogwarts basked in the last rays of sunlight. A girl meandered her way towards the Great Lake, the trees above casting their growing shadows across her face. Her short hair fanned out from her head in the breeze, the sunlight highlighting it a bright golden as she smiled up at the birds above. It was her last day at Hogwarts for a whole two months, and she’d decided that she’d spend her evening doing something constructive for the community before she left. This was definitely the reason that she held a rubbish bag in hand as she walked, filling it with the little bits of litter that could be found dotted around in the grass. It wasn’t at all like she was litter picking to win the offered reward of ten sickles. That was a preposterous accusation, for she was Margo White, and she never had ulterior motives. 

Besides, it wasn’t like the money wouldn’t go to a good cause. It was her family’s dog- Mimi’s- birthday at the end of July, and Margo wanted love and money to go into the presents that the lucky canine received. Mimi was lucky in a number of ways. The first, was that she shared a birthday with the most famous wizard to have ever existed- Harry Potter- and the second was that she was best friends with the dog next door. Margo had always been slightly envious of their closeness, though she doubted that friendship was as complicated in a dog’s mind as in a human’s. Whilst at primary school, she hadn’t found anyone she could get close too at all. Perhaps it was the hint of magic she gave off that her classmates unknowingly avoided, or maybe she only clicked with very specific people. Either way, Margo refused to ever be lonely. Loneliness implied boredom, and if anyone accused her of that then they were just insulting her imagination.

She had Ruby now though, she supposed, and the other girl did seem to get her. The way they both spoke, the reasons behind their actions- they just had a mutual understanding of each other’s predicaments, Margo thought as the breeze picked up, blowing away the wrinkled sheet of parchment she had been about to pick up. Pulling the rubbish filled bin bag over her shoulder she strode after the offending pics of litter. How dare it elude her, she wouldn’t give up now.

However, just as she was about to catch the parchment again, the wind decided to mock her. Frowning, Margo chased after the now airborn paper, the black sac bouncing unevenly against her shoulder blades as she ran. It got caught against rocks, shrubs and even narrowly avoided a dip in the lake, but still, she never managed to clamp down on it with the litter picking stick. It was like fate was against her, but she sent fate to hell, because she would not give up.

Finally, the epic and exhaustive journey of the offending parchment ended, and Margo glared at it, her cheeks pink from the exercise. It had gotten itself caught in a patch of stinging nettles. However, these were no ordinary stinging nettles. Almost towering over the young Slytherin, they gave off a rather sore vibe, the nonvisible hairs on their leaves very present and dangerous.  

Leaning forwards on her toes Margo stretched her arm and the litter picker out as far as they could go and tried to grab the parchment. Almost there. Another inch. So close. And CRASH, she toppled, cursing, into the forest of plant demons.

It was lucky that nobody had seemed to fancy taking a walk around the lake during that lovely evening, for Margo was certainly a sight, and sound, to behold. Her eyes boring holes into the leaves of the surrounding plants, she sat amongst the nettles, her mouth spewing many kinds of nettle directed insults. 

When imagining a solitary evening helping out the environment she had not envisioned the stinging  pain along her arms, legs and neck. With her eyes growing disturbingly shiny, Margo jumped to her  feet, haphazardly jumping out of the nettles. She hastily brushed at her smarting skin, picturing tiny needles poking out of her flesh. 

“Damn.” She muttered, ending the vocal offensives for now. She had experienced worse pain before than some nettle stings, of course, but her determination bringing her misfortune? Now that was unfair. Life wasn’t fair though, Margo thought sadly. The last time she’d gotten hurt she’d only been trying to put her brother in his place. It was a completely innocent and world defining mission. Yet... it had taken days to get the snap of her wrist breaking out of her head. She had briefly imagined having to live with the injury at the time, for what did muggles do without magic to heal them? A wrist was a pretty important joint and a young Margo had been mind blown at the thought of not using it for six weeks. Magic truly was a miracle. 

Perhaps there was a magical pain numbing spell, Margo thought as she lifted the litter picker. Thankfully, the horrible, enticing piece of parchment was still caught in its piece like grasp. Honestly, she didn’t know what she would’ve done if it hadn’t been. There were always exceptions and circumstances to one’s morals to prevent extremism, yet, how was one to know exactly where to draw those lines? Margo had no clue whatsoever, and perhaps it was a question for another time, but just then, she had a hospital wing to visit. 

Using her stinging arms to wave the runaway piece of parchment over her head, Margo started the long walk back up to Hogwarts. She would keep the paper as a trophy towards the future, a reminder of her unanswered questions. But now, well, sometimes logical thinking overtook everything, and Margo’s stinging skin was telling her to do just that. If one was to look out of a window of Hogwarts they would see a sillouhette of a girl against the sunset, a lumpy sack in one hand and a fluttering piece of paper in the other.

It was the paper that had proved her resilience. The paper that was the cause of the almost frown on her face. However, it could never a full frown because the girl believed in herself, and that, with the sunset, always warranted a smile.