Paper Magician Errand Solo

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When Claudia opened the doors into the great hall, she was taken aback. The sound of laughter filled the air as groups of students worked together to create their masterpieces. Claudia watched as frustrated pupils suddenly figured out the folds and as perfectionists created one after another of the delicately folded animals, starting over after just one flaw. Despite the difficulty of the origami, Claudia saw many dragons singeing girls' hair and saw quite a few ravens flapping their wings above the tables.

She wondered why so many young students like her took a liking to the errand and felt the need to complete it. Maybe it was because the reward seemed worth the risk. Maybe many just felt the need to do something. To Claudia, it didn't matter what their reasons were as much as what they were doing. They were all seeming to have fun to her, and wasn't that what truly mattered? Claudia thought that whoever came up with the idea for this errand was a genius.

As she scanned the room for an empty spot, she realized that an empty seat was few and far between. Students lined the tables on all sides, some sitting and some standing. Claudia had to examine each table multiple times looking for a place she could sit. She didn't want to break up a group, but at that point she was getting pretty desperate for a place to sit. Finally, she found one. It was a small spot squeezed between two people, but Claudia could make it work.

Claudia walked over to her new, cramped spot. The students on either side of her moved over to give her more space and didn't complain, so she was sure she was welcome there. As she looked at the gobs of supplies, she found that in her particular spot most of the supplies were already used. She picked out simple, plain white paper and took out the only template that was left. As she turned the discarded piece of paper over, she realized that it was a unicorn. She hadn't seen many unicorns prancing about the tables, so it made sense that it was the only one left. But still, Claudia was embarrassed to be making an animal that was so... girly.

Claudia looked over the template before she started, just to see if it had any requirements. It looked like the unicorn started with a square sheet of paper, so Claudia gathered up a ruler, scissors, and a quill. She first measured the paper so that it was a perfect square. She supposed that she could've just folded the rectangular piece and then cut the excess, but origami required perfection. After she made sure that the ruler was straight, Claudia ran her quill against it, marking where she needed to cut. She folded along the line just to make sure her scissors cut straight and evenly, and only then did she trim the paper into a perfect square.

Next, she needed to fold the paper in half and make some sort of diamond shape on one end, which she guessed had to be mimicked on the other side. She gathered the triangle's two end points together below the top point and pressed down. She then had the diamond shape.

The third step told Claudia to fold over the corner points to the middle of the diamond on both sides. She folded them over with some difficulty, but managed anyway. It was just like when she made paper cranes and other animals at home! She folded the diamond in half vertically and started on the next few steps. The easy steps were over.

Claudia became confused on the fifth step. It didn't seem possible to her and she had no idea where to fold from. After many missed tries, and careful consideration she finally completed the step. When she moved to the next, she knew exactly what to do. She folded the top triangle over backwards to create a spot for the body. After that, she did a fold that resembled a twist. The unicorn head was complete!

Claudia knew something still wasn't quite right about her unicorn. There was a whole half of the body missing! She knew she just couldn't create it out of thin air! As she looked over the steps, she realized that she needed to make a whole different piece to add on. She painstakingly repeated all the steps, fixing what she needed to make the other half and then glued the two separate pieces together. The folding step of her unicorn was done!

All that was left for Claudia to do now was ask a house elf to enchant her unicorn. She held her origami piece in her hand and shyly walked up to the nearest one. "H-hello. Could you, er, could-you-enchant-this-unicorn-for-me-please?" She stuttered. The house elf nodded and she watched as the unicorn suddenly danced as if it had a life of its own. Claudia nodded at him as if to say thank you. She had had fun making the unicorn, even if it was a little girly.

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Word Count: 858