Tea and Tribulations Errand Solo Finished

After a hectic few weeks marked by anxiety and stress things were finally starting to settle down for the young Callie. Although she wasn’t entirely sure if she even wanted things to settle down as this came hand in hand with the end of the academic year, which Callie had mixed feelings about. On the bright side for once the infamously temperamental Scottish weather seemed to be playing ball. Sunshine was always something that Callie found joy in as with good weather came the promise of great adventures. However, these days Callie was a considerable way away from the forests she called home. Regardless even after a few months of residing within it’s walls Hogwarts was still packed with more than enough wonder to entertain her. September seemed so long ago yet Callie felt like she’d barely scratched the surface of the castle’s mysteries. Such a sentiment had brought Callie into the courtyard on what felt like a fine summer’s day.

Callie’s robes billowed behind her as she meandered into the courtyard and took a moment to enjoy the rare sunshine that graced the grounds of Hogwarts. Usually the light breeze would’ve proven to be a nuisance for Callie as wind tended to make her already wild looking hair even wilder. However, these days her hair was far longer than it’s usual shoulder length and instead trailed down her back. Some would’ve envied her ability to grow hair at such a rapid rate but not Callie. She utterly loathed allowing her hair to grow to such lengths as it only got in the way. So much so that before she even considered setting foot outside, she had tied it back into a decidedly messy looking bun. It didn’t look at all spectacular, but Callie never had been one to care about her outward appearance. She quietly hummed as she wandered through the courtyard with a book tucked firmly underneath her arm, only to be side-tracked by the sight of a variety of tables and the smell of tea.

Tea wasn’t something Callie had ever considered much as to her drinking tea was the hallmark of adulthood. In the young child’s mind drinking tea came hand in hand with the entrapments of work, bills and maturity. Drinking tea had to be the gateway into adulthood – her parents drank it all the time! Callie wasn’t entirely sure if she was ready to make the ascension into adulthood through drinking tea but some of the teabags seemed to resemble cats which ignited a deep interest in the matter. Could tea really come in the form of a cat? If so, what other forms could tea come in? These questions lured Callie closer to the tables where she discovered the errand set up by the Gryffindor prefect.

Callie didn’t often partake in the errands around Hogwarts as she preferred to keep herself busy with other things. Most of her time each day was consumed by schoolwork as Callie often felt as if she had to put in double the work to even meet the level of the more experienced wizards. Thus far her grades were reflective of the sheer amount of effort she put into her studies, but this came at the cost of being more involved in other aspects of life at Hogwarts. The last errand she had partaken in had resulted in Callie learning some degree of origami which she’d certainly continued to work on ever since. The sheer amount of paper animals sitting at her bedside was evidence enough of her newly discovered passion. While it was complicated Callie had come to found it rather relaxing and often idly folded new animals to add to her collection while pouring through textbooks. Perhaps this errand could spark a similar interest in tea – even if, in Callie’s eyes at least, tea came hand in hand with the perils of adulthood.

Callie hesitantly took a seat at a nearby table and carefully set her book on the tabletop. The girl sat quietly for a moment until a house-elf brought forward the necessary supplies, which she accepted happily with a thankful smile. Callie attempted to lay out the scissors, sewing equipment, thread and paper out neatly but her own clumsiness quickly thwarted such intentions. Instead of laying the scissors down on the tabletop they instead slipped from her hands and tumbled to the ground below. A mild groan of frustration escaped her lips before Callie picked up the scissors and promptly got to work following a small set of instructions. The animal of choice wasn’t something Callie had to take much time to consider as she’d always been a great lover of cats, with a total of four different cats residing around the farm she lived on back in Inverness. Her favourite of the four cats was an older black cat by the name of Pebble, a notorious hellraiser who often brought in dead mice as a ‘gift’ to the family. Naturally Callie decided to make the teabag in honour of Pebbles the hellraiser although making a teabag which looked like him was rather difficult. The result of her crafting endeavours was by no means perfect, but the imperfections had their own distinct charm. The teabag cat ears were mismatched, and one eye seemed to be bigger than the other, with the imperfections being topped off by one of its paws being longer than the other. While it was no means beautiful in the traditional sense Callie adored it, nonetheless. Deciding on the type of tea contained within proved to more difficult than Callie ever expected. Who knew there was so many kinds of tea? Was having so many different types of tea necessary? Was adulthood so difficult it required what seemed like a hundred different types of tea? Callie wasn’t sure if she ever wanted to become an adult if it meant having to decide between this many kinds of tea. However, the girl eventually put her crises aside and decided upon a simple blend of green tea which she was entirely unaware if she liked or not.

The moment of truth came when Callie was finally ready to pour hot water on top of her latest creation which she had mixed feelings about, but she was certain Pebbles would approve. Destruction was a language Pebbles was more than familiar with and the time he destroyed her mother’s favourite pillow was proof of such things. Callie let out a brief squeal of delight as the cat swirled around the cup which made the young girl feel somewhat awful for pouring scalding hot water on top of its person. Time seemed to slip away as Callie watched the cat dance around the mug until the liquid eventually turned cold, prompting her to take a sip of the concoction. Sadly, Callie and green tea was not a combination that was meant to be and after forcing herself to drink the liquid the girl was thoroughly unimpressed. Perhaps adulthood wasn’t all that it was hyped up to be afterall, especially if the tea they seemed to covet so highly tasted so vile. After mourning the loss of Pebbles the teabag for all of two seconds Callie quickly bounded off to continue her day in the sunshine with a book in hand and a newfound hatred of tea.