ERRAND Embroidery 101 Finished

Alan had been outside for a while already and watched the professor prepare something. She set out a lot of colorful stuff that looked like yarn and weird wooden hoops and Alan had no idea what their use was. But it made him curious enough to watch the professor from afar playing a one person guessing game where he tried to figure out what it was that the professor was preparing. He had seen the light haired woman once in the great hall before in which the Hufflepuff head of house had been dancing during that time, which also distracted him enough to actually strike for a conversation with the snake chief. No matter for how long the third year watched and stared he could not actually figure out what was up, so he finally decided to approach the professor. A couple of other kids were already gathered around and seeing them work gave Alan some sort of idea what was going on here in that moment.

Embroidery. It was a word that Alan was only vaguely familiar with. He knew it included a thread and a needle, but that was as far as his knowledge about it reached. It was quite artsy and while Alan liked artsy stuff he was quite bad at it. He did not care though as long as it was fun and carried away his mind away for a moment. He sometimes needed a break and often spend that time studying creatures and even Muggle animals; since he had a book now. A book about Muggle creatures. Not the normal ones, but exotic ones that lived all over the world like toucan; they were quite funny looking and extremely beautiful. He even read that most of their skeleton was actually their beak alone, which seemed like quite an amusing fact considering how big their beak was. But it also made him wonder how that could be even possible since it must be quite heavy on their spine in comparison to having a more average or balanced build. He assumed it would have a plausible reason though or perhaps it didn't, he actually has not gotten to read that far but now he definitely felt motivated to read a little bit more about that interesting bird and the fact he was willing to read something educational was an oddity in itself.

He asked if he could join the fun little task and was quite curious on how it would work. Upon getting the confirmation from the head of house that he could indeed join, he plopped down on the ground, sitting on a grassy patch as he listened to the instructions. For now it sounded quite simple. He would just have to think about something, whatever it was and how he wanted it to look like. Excitedly he grabbed one of the embroidery hoops that were not in use at the moment and it turned out to be a smaller one, measuring around ten centimetre in its diameter. It seemed perfect as it would not be too difficult to make something pretty with it. He would place the hoop in front of himself and stretched a piece of fabric onto the hoop as instructed.

Alan knew exactly what he would be making and reached for one of the pens that were sprawled across the area possibly because multiple students had already used them for their own creations and began to doodle onto the cloth. He did his very best to make it as realistic as possible and had to say he was quite proud about how the sketch of the lion turned out. One could easily feel intimidated by that proud lion doodle, but to accentuate the pride of the creature even more he would add a 'ROAR' into a speech bubble next to its head and gave his work a satisfied nod. It turned out perfectly!

Now that this was done the third year had to learn about the actual process of embroidery and it did sound more complicated than he had first anticipated. However he was willing to make this work. he by accident pricked his finger with the needle from time to time, but it seemed that he was doing a well enough job. His tiger turned out perfect and looking at it filled him with pride. He had created this, he alone! Well with the help of the professor of course, but nonetheless it was an accomplishment he would not let anyone take away from him. he would stare at the embroidery hoop for a while until he finally got up and thanked the professor for teaching him the ways of embroidery. He even showed his creation to her and hoped she would be seeing the spot on resemblance to an actual lion in his work of art.

After standing up he would pat on his pants to get rid off any crumbs of dirt and soil that might stick to the fabric of his black pants, but he seemed fine and even if not he could always just get a new set of clothes from his dorm and get changed again. Well he would have to go to his dorm anyway so that he could safely store away his new hand-made treasure. But he quickly had another idea that would be even better and a new plan formed in his head. He would simply send it back home because he was sure that his mother would love this little gift. His mother liked artsy stuff and this was without a doubt a work of art and he hoped that she would cherish it. But again he had no doubt that she would do exactly that. So after saying his goodbyes to the other kids and especially the professor, he would walk away with a soft bounce in his step, clearly excited about writing a letter home to his parents. Sadly he would have to use a school owl for this since he couldn't just borrow Cadmus for a flight that would most likely take more than a day.

WC: 1017/1000 | Completed

{ Interacting with: @Maria Dee }

Serena blinked at the sight, wondering how the other girl managed to get herself caught up into the embroidery. In fairness, she had yet to actually stitch anything so perhaps it was easily done. "I... Yeah... That doesn't seem to be right..." She replied with a smile on her face, "But I guess it's one way to keep it with you the whole time. I'm sure you can rock it as a patch or something," Serena added, trying to make the situation better a little. Well, at least attempt to cheer the girl up from feeling so awkward. It was a mistake, it was fine! Worse things have definitely happened on these grounds.

"Ahh-" She exhaled as she saw the stack of hoops start to fall. Serena quickly reached the pile to try and stop more from falling, repositioning them back to their original placement before picking up some of the fallen ones. The rat, that was now in her pocket, started to move around again, "Pizza, will you calm down?!" She hissed, turning her head towards her right cloak pocket, which was moving. Serena sighed, not really knowing what was wrong with him. "Sorry, he's a little agitated for some reason today, nothing to do with this!" She quickly added, hoping the girl knew that this was all unrelated to her.

Replacing a few more of the hoops onto the table - hopefully before the professor noticed - Serena smiled at Maria, "So what design were you trying to make? Mine's... kind of boring..." She admitted, struggling to come up with everything actually half decent. Sighing softly, she took the little rat out of her pocket and stroked the top of his head and his back to try and calm him down a little. Her own linen was scrunched up a little in her hand as she had been picking up the hoops instead and was now busy with her rat but she still held onto it. There were about five messy outlines on it, which was not ideal.

Total Words so far: 601 + 340 = 941

Mentioning: @Katrina Walker @Evelynn Decipio

Why was Jo Morgan here of all places? Sure, house points were house points and the prospect of "helping out" had dragged her to many an errand before this, but she had so many other important things to do. Like homework. Her grades were dropping, and if she didn't step up her homework game and finish her first year off with an O average, Lady Aithne would never let her get a cat! All things considered, she shouldn't have been here. She hadn't invited any of her friends, and nobody had invited her, either. It certainly wasn't that she had a passion for embroidery - although sewing and simple embroidery were taught in Japanese schools, Jo never found her interest piqued when a needle poked through thread.

She was here because she needed a distraction. (Oh, and also because she thought she would be doing the errand indoors. Who thought it was a good idea to get sunburned and dirty while working with a tiny, easily-lost needle?) She was tired of being worried about, of being told she looked stressed out, grumpy, and on edge. Somehow, she needed to take a break from everything. Why this involved getting into more such "things" was past her comprehension, but it never hurt to try. Surely it couldn't be that hard to take her mind off of things.

Jo reached for a medium-sized embroidery hoop, but quickly swapped it out for a smaller one. She didn't want to be here forever, did she?

Taking some fabric and a green marker, Jo began to sketch some curling vines and ferns. Minimalism was the key to success. She'd go for a slightly masculine or at least neutral style today, just to show she'd learned a thing or two since the toad house errand.

When she was satisfied with the design, curiosity got the best of her and she allowed herself the luxury of watching a few other students work on their hoops. She saw Katrina and Evelynn, both hard at work on their patterns. Normally she would have called out to them, but that was exactly how one got themselves into the "things" that she had mentioned earlier. Things bred drama, and drama bred fights. It was best to simply leave the two to their work, as they were leaving her to hers.

A sigh escaped her lips as she grabbed five strings of embroidery floss, each a different shade of green. Still wondering why in the world she was doing this outdoors, she took a moment to reflect on...

Wait. No. She wasn't supposed to be reflecting on things. That was the whole point. She had chosen to do this errand to take her mind off of things, not give her even more time to sulk. At this point, she wasn't even thinking or reflecting any more - just bathing in the lugubrious dismalness of her current mood with all the grace and poise of an angry, drenched cat scrabbling to escape a bath.

She'd always thought of herself as creative, but failed to see that creativity was nothing without the ability to translate that creative thought into action. Some were creative with their tongue, others with a sewing needle or a quill, still others with a paintbrush or a computer. Jo was creative, sure, but what could she craft? A marvelous painting? A helpful phone app? An embroidered rose, or perhaps even a dress?

An insult, at best.

Her creativity wasn't useful for anything - that was the problem. Sometimes people thought she was clever because of a nifty plan or two that she thought up, but that didn't mean she was any good at puzzles or riddles. She used to be so great at thinking logically and objectively, but recently something was off. She was letting her heart dictate to her instead of her mind. Where was the bright young mind that had led the Acid Pop Club? Gone...somewhere, she supposed. Thinking with her heart caused nothing but damage and catastrophe. Who knew? Perhaps one day it would...

Oh. My. God. She was doing it again, wasn't she? Brooding. Sitting there with a sullen look on her face as she thought and thought and thought with a brain that did nothing but think. That wasn't creativity, it was uselessness. Like a dog chasing its tail; one thought would follow another and lead right back to the first.

She'd been working for a while now. The fern was a bit lopsided, but considering her low skill level Jo thought it was not too bad of an effort. Garbage compared to the masterpieces of some of the more seasoned seamstresses at the table, but she knew that even before she came.

There was a difference between minimalistic and dull. Jo knew she wanted muted colors, but there was nothing more disappointing than a boring work of art. Extending her hand once more towards the craft table, she settled on a gray thread to highlight the lightest green color.

Green and gray, green and gray, green and silver - Slytherin colors. Was this a subconscious attempt at...

Shut up! There she went, waxing philosophical again. It didn't take much to send her down the rabbit hole of philosophy, apparently. Just two or three minutes and a mundane task. Move the needle in and out. Change the thread and do it again. Ironically, the task seemed almost perfect to describe her recent temperament. She was on "pins and needles", just killing time as she waited around for the next bad thing to happen to her. When would it be? Today? Tomorrow? A year, perhaps?

She hopped up out of her seat and stretched, the uncomfortable physical consequences of remaining in the same position with her back hunched loudly making themselves known through a series of cracks as she meandered her way to Professor Jensen, popping the linen out of its hoop.

With a light greeting to the Slytherin Head of House, Jo ambled back to the castle, still not fully aware of why she came in the first place. Well, at least she had earned a few house points for Gryffindor.

Word Count: 1025 Errand Complete!

Damion kept finding himself in things that he had enjoyed doing before he had come here to Hogwarts. A life- that he was soon to forget with the time he was spending here at Hogwarts. A life that he wanted to keep alive with his time and not able to be there to do things. A life that he wanted to cherish no matter what the consequences- though it was not a bad thing but still. The quiet Damion made his way to the courtyard with his embroidery equipments. He had an Embroidery Hoop to fit the pattern, Embroidery Floss in two contrasting colors. Damion took out DMC 816 & 761 for the hearts and DMC 3799 for the strings. He then needed Sewing Scissors, a Water Soluble Marking Pen and an Embroidery Needle.

He placed took the white material that he had for the embroidery and started drawing the pattern he wanted to embroider. He drew a heart on the piece of cloth. He then took the red DMC 816 thread and threaded the needle with it. With his non-needle hand pinch the cloth a few inches from where it exits the fabric and then hold it taut with your hand not holding the needle. He placed his needle in front of this stretch of cloth. He wound the floss around the needle twice and continued the tension of the floss with his left hand (non-needle hand) to prevent it from uncoiling. He re-inserted the tip of his needle just next to, but not into the same exit point on his fabric. He gave the cloth a little downward tug with non-needle hand, so that the coil will tighten up, and slide down his needle to make a little bundle against the surface of his fabric. With your coil snugly held in position against the surface, he now pushed the needle through. He had successfully made a red French knot. He looked at happy with his achievement and smiled softly.

Something about doing a French knot in a heart reminded him of his time with his family back in Wales when he used to learn doing a French Knot. His mum encouraged him to do things that his little heart desired. His ambitions were high for a tiny young boy of a mere eleven years old. He aimed to be the highest scorer of his house and wanted to be a prefect. Above all he wanted to achieve so much more than maybe was possible to achieve. A slight wind blew across his face and hair and Damion found himself relaxing against the tree he was sitting in the Courtyard. Sitting under a tree was something he used to do when he was back at home.

Damion looked around as the breeze flowing around him made him feel really close to his home. He was very happy to have a connection with things that reminded him of the good old days back at home. Everything he was doing was to get himself used to the fact that he was away from his home but still somewhere he was connected with it. He didn't want this place to completely take over his persona. he wanted to have a control of things and still do what he desired.

A small sigh escaped Damion's mouth as he glanced at the surroundings he was in. He was really liking the fresh air in the courtyard. The blowing wind through his wavy black locks. Everything about being outside was something that Damion really liked. He enjoyed being in open fresh air. He loved how the blowing wind made him feel. He loved how the weather here was something that he had not seen in a while. Something that Damion appreciated.

Damion looked down at his Embroidery hoop. It was time to change the thread from the red DMC 861, it was time for the DMC 761. He had to repeat what he had been doing to finish his heart with small french knots. He looked at his red colored knots and was happy about it. He loved the way they had come out. They were very pretty and Damion couldn't be prouder for them. He loved how they looked so far. He knew it was not ready yet. He had to fill in the french knots with the the other color before heading to do the black sting. Taking a deep breath Damion started making the French Knot in the second color he had. He looked at the embroidery and smiled. It was really coming together. He was really happy that he was able to get things to work. He loved how these two colors that he had chosen were matching together so well. Like contrasting together. He loved that he had chosen such colors.

He sighed as he remembered the first time he had tried to do the French Knot back at home and had ended up screwing it over so much. Damion was happy that he had not messed it up this time though. Other wise he would be in trouble. He felt that French Knot was something that he would have not perfected if he hadn't tried to do it over and over again yo make perfect knots and not have any tangling with each other. A messy French Knot is not a good one. So his mother had mentioned to him.

Almost done!! Damion thought to himself. As he looked at the fabric he had on his lap. It was almost finished. Just a few more French Knot and he'd be done with the task on his hand. He smiled as he looked at the French Knots in front of him. He was super- duper happy. He just wished he could have shown it to his parents and his best bud. No harm in getting their opinions now was there? He couldn't help and wonder how they would have felt about it. There was a part of him that always wanted to know how Dylan or his parents would like him doing these things. Things that he was doing to try and find what he liked and what he wanted to do.

Words: 1032. Errand is Complete.

Interacting with: @Serena Towers

It was a relief to Maria that the older girl didn’t think she was total loser for doing this to herself, or for being clumsy. In fact, from what she could the Quidditch player was actually sincere. She even reassured her that she wasn’t the reason for her pet acting up.

“Aww, maybe he wants to come out.” The younger badger remarked before her eyes shifted to the table, eyes scanning for the scissors she had originally approached the table for. She reached for the carefully this time, lifting them and making sure that she wouldn’t hit anything else. One instance of clumsiness was enough for this interaction, she decided.

With a quick few snips on the floss her hoop separated from the sweater and she carefully placed the scissors back.

“Um, it’s this little owl guy, I wanted to keep it a little easier because, well I’m not exactly used to this…” She blushed as she held up the hoop. “I’m sure it’ll be great.” Came out of her with a nervous laugh.

All her nerves however, disappeared as soon as she set her sights on the rat that Serena currently held in her hand. “Oh he’s adorable!” Maria exclaimed, shyness dissipating at the sight. The girl cooed, waving a finger at the little animal. Once she recovered from all the cuteness, she composed herself, but was more relaxed than she previously was.

“Uh, sorry about that, I get a little excited.” She cleared her throat and looked down at her hoop. “I should get back to working on this, I’ll see you around!” She had only taken a few steps before she realized she had forgotten to do something important.

“My name’s Maria, by the way.” With one last smile, she made her way back to her place and started working on her design again. About an hour, several crooked stitches and a few prickled fingers later, she proudly held up her work. If anything, this experience taught her maybe embroidery wasn’t for her. But nonetheless, she was happy she tried it. She took her work out of the hoop and put it back with the others, fortunately avoiding any more accidents. Cloth in hand, she took her leave to go put her accomplishment in her trunk, happy to have spent her time well.

{ Interacting with: @Maria Dee }

It was kind of impressive how creative Maria was. At least, Serena thought so. She really liked her attempt at the owl. Despite the mishap, there was definitely effort being put into it and Serena could appreciate that, at the very least. "That's really cute, to be honest. I'm sure it will turn out great!" She replied encouragingly, once it was detached from the sweater. It would have made quite a nice patch though.

She chuckled as she saw the other girl's reaction to Pizza. The brown rat always had two reactions - it was either along the lines of a declaration of cuteness or it was one of disgust. Not everyone was a fan of rats, to be honest. She had seen that when she went to the pet store and saw him for the first time. Serena thought he was adorable, to be fair. "No no, it's fine, he is adorable," She agreed, fully understanding the excitement. Nodding as the fellow badger mentioned finishing off the embroidery, Serena agreed. She needed to do the same.

"Serena. Serena Towers," She introduced herself in response, "Yeah, I'll see you around!". In everything that happened, she kind of forgot to mention her name earlier so she was glad that Maria had thought to do that. Serena pet her rat and put him on her shoulder, "Let me finish this off and then we can go play, okay?" She mumbled towards Pizza, who seemed to be happy sitting on her shoulder.

Serena grabbed some red embroidery thread, a needle and the hoop. Following the instructions, she managed to get the linen into the hoop and then moved to sit down. It took her some time but she created a stitch around the outline of the heart. It was not perfect, by any means. Nor was it particularly difficult. In reality, she had just stuck to the most basic stitch that the professor had shown her and run with that. Simple yet effective. The badger frowned a little, the marker underneath was still visible as she had created a few outlines.

Once it was done, she went up to the professor, asking the older lady to help her turn it into a lavender sachet. Professor Jensen obliged, taking the hooped linen and returned it as a sachet not too long after. Since Serena used the smallest piece of linen, the end result was something that could fit into the palm of her small hands. It was kind of cute. Serena smiled, thanking the professor, pocketing the sachet and putting everything else away.

With Pizza Rat still on her shoulder, she ventured back out towards the grounds, so she could let him roam around in the grass for a bit.

Total Words so far: 941 + 451 = 1,392 - Completed
Minor godmodding of @Hjørdis Jensen

[THREAD LEFT]

It was the aspect of creating a full picture with a multitude of the tiniest stitches that caused Jack to be fascinated by the concept of embroidery. He had always been the sort of kid that entertained focusing on the most minute of details and nuances while simultaneously learning how they were incorporated into the big picture. In this case, the 'big picture' was quite literal, but that made it no less intriguing to the young Slytherin.

Further interested to know that the organizer of the event was none other than his own house head, Professor Jensen, Jack thought this would have been a good opportunity to learn more about her and her hobbies as well as, perhaps, why she liked them. It didn't hurt that he was always up for learning new skills and gaining knowledge of all kinds, either, because one never knew when a bit of seemingly miscellaneous information would come in handy.

When he sat himself down at the table to learn, however, he realized though the technique seemed simple enough, he hadn't the slightest idea about what picture he hoped to ultimately create as an end result, nor what he would want to use said picture for. There were a few people he would have liked to give gifts to, but what gift would be suitable that could be embroidered and with what image?

Somewhat at a loss, the redhead idly glanced around, hoping to get some inspiration or other from watching the students around him.

When Elspeth saw that there would be an embroidery workshop offered today she'd gotten quietly excited. She'd never attempted to do any kind of textile art before, mostly just pencil sketches in her notebook. But she loved to learn new ways to craft and was excited to take a break from so much theoretical study to do something that was more tangible. Plus it was one of the more formal artistic get togethers she'd be going to since coming to Hogwarts. Between the nerves and needing to study, Elspeth hadn't been able to participate in many extracurricular activities at the start of her year. Maybe she would meet someone new at this activity to hang out with?

There was no way to know how many students would be there, or what social groups they belonged to, so she was at a bit of a loss as to what to wear. The activity was going to be outside, and it seemed casual enough. She chose a light blue button down long sleeved shirt and a pair of jeans. Something basic, which was her style, if she could say she had one. She hopped down the steps, spinning around the banister at the foot of the stairs toward the courtyard doors. It seemed odd to her that she would feel so springy on her way to a social event, but if there was going to be something that would suit her needs this would be it.

That bright blue sky never ceased to make her happy in the spring time. Seeing it after months of snow and rain put her at ease, it reminded her that things would get better if she just gave it long enough. There were students sitting at a cluster of tables over in the corner with sewing notions. Zzzzzp. Elspeth felt her nerves act up all at once. If she was going to get overwhelmed here, now was her time to back out before anyone would notice. She stood by the courtyard entry, staring in, and weighed the pros and cons. It was probably going to be low key. It might be attended by regulars who will get frustrated that she's new to the trade. It was probably going to be with other quiet artsy students. It might be really frustrating and she'll have to stay so no one thinks she's a quitter. It was probably going to be just fine. She might make a fool out of herself next to some really talented artists. The thoughts continued to ping back and forth until she just flipped a coin in her head. Go. Commit. Do it.

There were times when it felt a bit like she was outside of herself looking in. Moments where she decided she had to just pick something at random were like that. Those were madeup rules that she felt like she had to follow and she couldn't explain why. It's just what the universe told her she had to do. And right now, she knew the right thing to do was get over her nerves and go sit with some people and do gentle crafts.

A quick scan of the room let her know that most all of these kids were strangers to her, save for Cassie and Walker. She hardly knew Walker and didn't feel strongly about sitting with her or away from her. But she made sure to find a seat that wasn't anywhere near Cassie. Just looking at her sent chills down Elspeth's spine and she had to take another moment to regroup at the table. Can you still do this? She's not sitting near you... everything should be fine. Just run if she looks like she's coming up to you. After Cassie had cornered her in the rehearsal room, Elspeth had spent the past few days worrying about their inevitable next encounter. Hogwarts might be a big castle, but there weren't actually that many students here and they all were bound to meet up sooner or later.

But, she wanted to focus on the lesson now. The sky was blue. The birds were chirping. It was a beautiful day and everything was safe and fine. Elspeth was happy to see that there were information sheets printed to look at, before having to go ask for help. One small social step was already taken care of thanks to planning ahead. She looked at the materials spread out over the table. Although she hadn't planned out a picture beforehand, she knew she wanted to start with something really simple at first, at least until she got the hang of it. So she picked a smaller hoop, maybe 3" in diameter and some simple white cotton.

When stretched taut, cotton fabric will make a twanging sound when it's thumped on. As Elspeth tightened her hoop in and discovered this a small giggle snort found its way up through her, as if in a sudden burst. She clapped her hand to her mouth, a bit horrified that she'd made such a sound in front of the other students, but still infinitely bemused by the silly sound the fabric had made. She flicked it a couple of times, just to hear the twang again.

With her blank canvas assembled she looked over at the thread. Hmm... but I guess I can't pick thread out until I know what I'm going to be sewing. What do I want to sew? She didn't have much art hanging up in her dorm room. It'd been kept pretty plain this year as she was worried that if she decorated too much she'd have to clean all of her extra things more often. What would she like to see hanging above her bed? Her notebook was in her bag, maybe it could inspire here. There were sketches of different animals and plant life she'd seen around the castle since she started in the fall. They were nice, but none of them were really speaking to Elspeth at the moment. Plus most of them were way too complicated a shape to feel confident sewing on the first try.

But that's when an idea came to her. A little saying she'd been repeating over and over again in her head over the last few months as she worked to overcome all of the fears that had been keeping her back this year. A quick pencil sketch on the taught fabric and she had something to sew in. Her handwriting was sloppy, and writing on fabric made it all the wigglier. But it was nice and that was all it needed to be for Elspeth to feel happy giving a go at it.

As exciting as many of the threads out on the table were, she settled for a simple black one. Just the one color, but if she was any good maybe she could come back and try again sometime with a whole rainbow! She placed the string in her mouth, running it between her teeth to get it as skinny as possible so it would fit through the eye of the needle. Slowly, stitch by stitch, she was able to fill in the lines that she'd drawn. There were so many different options to try out for stitching, but she decided to just stick with a backstitch the whole way through. A nice, solid line of thread, nothing too fancy to trip her up. Just the same up and down and back motion over and over again.

The repetitive nature paired with watching her small sketch turn into an embroidery made for a peaceful moment. As nervous as she had been to come, sitting outside and doing something simple over and over again was really helping her feel content. No one walked over to interrupt her peace, and she was able to be peripherally part of a group and people watch a bit when she took breaks to stretch out her wrist. She was glad that she hadn't run away from it after all. And even though her stitches came out a little uneven, her cursive less than perfect, there was something really beautiful about knowing that she'd put each stitch in herself. No magic. No adults taking the needle away to do it for her. It was a bit ugly. But it was hers.

The last step on the information sheet was an option of what she could turn it into. As she looked at it, she could appreciate it for what it was, but she also knew that this was not something she wanted to be wearing around. She'd just take it out of its hoop and put it in her dresser drawer to see when she got ready in the morning. Unscrewing the fastener at the top, the larger exterior hoop popped open and quietly released the smaller inner hoop. Elspeth slipped the fabric out from in between, folded it into quarters, and delicately placed it in between the pages of a book in her bag so it wouldn't be wrinkled on the way back up to her dorm.

Maybe next weekend, she could try some new stitches out for her next idea.

Reducio

1527/1000 Words
(As someone who likes to embroider in their free time, this was such a fun errand idea!)

[Font= Times new roman]When Airlia happened to stumble onto the courtyard on an especially sunny and beautiful day as she was looking for a friend.

The whole day she had been so excruciatingly bored, but finding a Gryffindor wandering about always meant something interesting was about to happen. While Airlia wouldn't join the shenanigans she would sometimes watch a duel or a harmless prank as long as it was all fun and games.

It wasn't but a few steps into the courtyard when she stumbled on a pebble and fell to her face with an embarrassing shriek.

She winced as she pushed herself up to her knees and brought her fingers to her stinging cheek. While she didn't seem to be bleeding her skin felt prickly. One of her knees was hurt but since she would stumble and fall so often she really didn't bother going to the healing wing for a scrape in her knee.

By now the media witch could basically recognize her approaching from her footsteps alone.

Dusting off some dirt off her white summer dress she untied a pouch from her belt and took out some gauze that she then wrapped around her knee, knowing that she could cleanse the scrape later. Smiling happily at her handy work she nodded and proceeded to trot froward when something caught her eye.

Tables were set up at a corner of the courtyard. Some students were gathered around the table and Airlia wondered what they were doing. Some were chatting quietly or laughing openly but a clear buzz of speech was clearly coming from their way.

It seemed like the people were doing something with high interest. Hands were wailing about and when Airlia rose to her toes she could barely see onto the table between the students sitting around it. Embroidery floss in so many colors were scattered among linen fabric pieces on the table and when Airlia saw the sun hit a needle pulling on thread she knew what they were doing.

Embroidery!

With happy tippy tappy steps Airlia skipped over to the table and smiled brightly. It took her about three seconds to reach forward for embroidery floss and sit down among the other crafters.

Truth be told Airlia was not too talented in crafting or even art in general. She always found a way to hurt herself or others, or just make a huge mess with paint. But embroidery was a whole other story.

She was raised in an old fashioned way. Her upbringing belonged to the fair ladies of the 18th century and as it happens embroidery was one of the many lady-like skills she was taught by her mother. Embroidery floss, hoops, and a needle were placed on her hands to learn under a mastery at a young age and soon weekends became embroidery days while weekdays were for studying magical history, etiquette, and pureblood family lineages.

The colors of the thread and the wooden hoops were truly a sight for sore eyes to her as she had missed having something to do with her hands. This was something she excelled at. Something she knew how to do in her sleep if she was given the chance.

Choosing a pale pink embroidery floss Airlia cut a piece out of it, struggling with the blunt scissors that could barely cut through the yarn and then nodded proudly when she had a piece that was just right. Pulling her hair back and smoothing it along her head to make a very clean and polished looking ponytail Airlia tied her hair with the piece of embroidery floss to keep it off from her face.

Nothing was more annoying than having to deal with hair strands in her vision while trying to work on a complicated pattern. Her hair was so fluffy and thick she felt like she would have to tighten the thread over and over again along the day but even that was better than having to constantly brush it off from her face.

When trying to figure out what sort of design she should make today she thought back to a walk she had the other day along the side of the forbidden forest. She'd seen some mushrooms growing and thought they were so cute. She could just imagine them as little houses for teeny tiny people and she really wanted to embroider them somewhere.

And what better than her pouch that she carried around because just like moments before she fell down often and suffered some minor scrapes every other day it seemed like. The pouch was boring and simple with a brown-ish linen color that had a slight purple hue to it. It tied closed with a pale brown leathery string. The pouch really could use some cute mushrooms for decoration.

She had to use a really small four-inch embroidery hoop so she could slide the inner hoop inside the pouch, then place the outer hoop on the outside and click them together before tightening and adjusting them to make sure the linen of the pouch is secure and tight. When Airlia thought of a pattern she decided just to freehand most of it. It would not be the first time and she had always preferred embroidery to be something she could change as she went and not to be restricted by a drawn on pattern.

By then Airlia had to choose which colors to use for her embroidery and few of them were quite obvious as she would need white, red, and brown for the mushrooms but deciding between a golden brown and a grey-ish brown was harder. When she finally decided on the golden-brown she started unwinding the embroidery floss from its spool until she has a piece that was around an arm's length.

Finding the right length was always hard. A too-short embroidery floss piece would have to be rethreaded way too many times and a too-long one was always getting tangled. She then split the thread so it wouldn't be too thick and look bulky as she threaded her needle and got to work.

She started her mushrooms with a chain stitch which had always been her favorite when making cute designs like this. The loops of the thread looked absolutely adorable and made for a nice textured pattern. She made all the mushroom stem's and caps with the chain stitch and then details and the greenery at the bottom of the mushrooms Airlia made with a backstitch to make them smooth and to ensure they cover the fabric well.

Most of the day went by with her sitting in silence embroidering and focusing harder than she ever had in class. If she loved studying as much as she did embroidery she might actually be a good student.

By the time her work was done the day was running out and she was left to admire her work. Taking the pouch out of the hoop Airlia smoothed her linen fabric and while it was a bit wrinkly it did look rather gorgeous.

Her favorite mushrooms were the purple and red ones with an orange hue. She then proceeded to name each mushroom and clean up after herself when she was entirely done with her work.

Words: 1213
Errand Finished!

Reducio

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Fascinated by the marvelous display of colors, Sylvain decided he would introduce himself to the opportunity to learn, an opportunity that had been so kindly provided by Professor Jensen. Awkwardly, the scholarly boy made his way towards the last empty seat within his field of vision. Slowly dragging himself up to the table, Sylvain set his bags down beside his seating and settled in for instructions.

Sylvain quickly found that his imagination was lacking in the embroidery department, and while his hands could handle the dexterous task under the supervision of the Professors, Sylvain also found that he lacked the vision to see how each thread could contribute to the greater picture. After a good fifteen minutes of fiddling, the impatient student dissassembled the broach he was making in favor of something simpler, and more realistic for him. A friendship bracelet. He chose blue and yellow for its colors, and he already had the perfect recipient in mind.

Simply enough, one end of the bracelet was held down by a bit of masking tape, while Sylvain worked the end of each individual strand, slowly weaving them together to create braids. He then took each of the braids and began to work those together, hoping to create a band. It was a simple enough activity for him to do, but he was concerned that perhaps he should attempt to push himself and learn something more.

Determined to outdo himself, the young lad gathered a few additional colors. green, pink and black were the first, which he made into a simple bookmark for Flash Holmwood, who had always seemed as interested in books as himself. The bookmark looked a little strange, as it was meant to look like a snake, tasting the air around it. Instead, it sort of just looked like a big green worm with a pink tongue. "Not so far off that he won't understand it," Sylvain muttered to himself just quiet enough for the others not to notice.

Next he grabbed a bit of brown and blue string, and began to fashion it into a keepsake for Charlie. He made sure to boldly embroider the words Birds of a Feather on the charm in hopes that it would remind Charlie that he had a friend. He hoped that this keepsake would help Charlie feel more like he fit in with the rest of the students, or at the least act as a good memory when his riddle buddy had less fond memories to turn to.

Finally, after having applied himself to the basics taught by Professor Hjordis, Sylvain had a sort of vision of what he wanted to make. It was something he had wanted to make for himself, a little panel a lot like the one's the other more creatively minded students had been constructing. Sylvain wanted a keepsake for himself, something to remind him of his first year at Hogwarts. He wanted something to show his mother when she asked him if he made any friends. Something to maybe hold in his hands when there was loneliness in his heart.

Blue string for Charlie and himself, brown for the dirt of the courtyard, black for each of their robes, yellow for Willow, and green for Flash. He used a fleshy tone for their faces, and remembered to avoid covering up details so he might add them later when he became more experienced. He sat there for what felt like hours, slowly and carefully adding string after string, stopping only occasionally to remove a string when it didn't fit his big picture. In all reality, the level of focus he brought to the task was likely the most extraordinary thing about his efforts.

His tongue peeked, just barely, from the corner of his pursed lips, as his permanently sad eyes squinted to observe every detail of the miniature tapestry he attempted to create. His brow was furrowed into an almost angry sort of concentration, and his chest seemed to hum Gaelic tunes almost on its own. The boy was a natural, and while he may have lacked experience, it was clear in this moment that his life was going to be full of the rich details. The type of details only an experienced storyteller would remember.

As he finished up the project, he looked at it with pride. Flash's face wasn't perfect, Willow was a bit too tall. He had to fill in space between himself and Charlie, and in doing so, made the pair of them look kind of fat. Looking at the picture, it was plain to anyone that Sylvain had embroidered what he thought were his friends, and unrealistically, but perhaps not knowable, was that they were all in the same portrait together. His eyes still beaming, a single tear strolled down his cheek and flowed into the little project he'd spent the afternoon on.

Wiping the salty streak from his nose and chin, Sylvain looked up across the table to see another student searching the room with his crafty eyes. It was clear this student didn't know what to embroider, as his project lay upon the table un-started. The boy didn't seem bored to him, in fact, the boy seemed curious with what to do with himself. Raising an eyebrow, Sylvain reached across the table with a hand extended to greet the stranger.

"Hey there, I'm Sylvain" he said confidently, hoping the other kid would take what he said next well, "You look a little left behind, do you need help figuring out what to do?" His words were genuine, and he wasn't sure whether or not he would need to raise his hand and call a professor over to help with instructions, or if maybe the boy lacked the creative will power to make something out of nothing. Either way, Sylvain found himself sympathizing with his own assumptions of his table neighbor's feelings.

The sentimental and accepting eagle found that the longer his hand was held aloft, the farther his heart sunk. He really hoped the two could get along.

Interacting with: @Jack Burnett

Mentioning: @Charles Cutting @Willow Anderson @Flash Holmwood

WC: 1008/1000 words