Errand ❀❀ Get Messy! ❀❀ Closed

Cecelia Queen skipped joyfully to the Charms classroom wearing muggle clothes she had brought along with her while going to Hogwarts. She wore oversized white t-shirt and leggings. Cecelia was the kind of person who would pack things just in case. She always liked to pack muggle clothes on her trips to Hogwarts because... well why not?

And sure enough, her plain muggle clothes were needed. Cecily had received an owl from a professor. She was quite surprised at the owl, as she rarely got letters from Professors at Hogwarts. It was the Charms Professor, Miss Elaine Seaborne.

Charms was one of Cecelia's favorite classes at Hogwarts. Sure, learning the Charms were amazing and all, but Cecily deeply loved the Charms classroom especially. There was something about it. It was such a warm, comforting, and homey feeling which made her even adore the class more.

When Cecelia received an owl from Professor Seaborne about painting the Charms classroom, she was more than happy to help. She had already liked the look and feel of the classroom, but adding more color would make it even better! She did have some studying she had to do, but it wasn't every day that she was invited to paint a classroom.

Cecily absolutely loved to paint, although wasn't the best at it. She was much better at drawing or sketching, as she was able to work with the pencils better than the paint brushes, but still enjoyed it all the same.

Excited and nervous, Cecelia stepped into the Charms classroom quietly. She noticed the Professor already there, waiting.

"Hello, Professor Seaborne. Thank you so much for inviting me to paint your beautiful classroom," Cecily greeted politely. "I am tremendously excited to start. I absolutely love painting. I'm sure it will look phenomenal after we're finished."

Cecelia was going to say more, but caught herself in time. She always had a habit of rambling on and on about random things, but she certainly was not going to do it in front of a Professor. She put her hands behind her back and waited for the Professor's instructions and for the other students to arrive.

A few days ago, Aurelia when she was leaving charms class, the girl had spotted a bright notice hung on the wall right beside the door. It wasn’t a very professional one, it was splotched with many different colours. Apparently, the Professor needed help with the classroom. Making it a bit more lively to be exact.

Aurelia didn’t really interact with Professors when there wasn’t a need to. But she had nothing to do for the day and so she had decided to show up. The twelve year old knocked on the wooden door, upon noticing it was unlocked, she pushed it open. The face of a Ravenclaw girl, Cecily she knew was already in the room as well as the Charms Professor Ms Seabourne.

Professor Seabourne was a professor who blended into the youths in the school, she wasn’t like any other Professor, something about her just makes things fun in class and never was a student ever sleeping in one of her classes.

It was fairly simple. She just had to make the room colourful. Aureli pulled her hair into a ponytail, tying it into place. “So, when shall we start?” She asked before walking across the room to get a paint brush.

To put it bluntly, Elijah was only doing this to suck up to the teacher. Well, sort of. Not entirely. What was he even trying to say? His main reason was to gain some good favor with the young Charms professor, certainly, but that wasn't the only reason why he wanted to go. He never did anything for just one reason- that was a waste of time and wasn't efficient at all. The other reasons were less logical, however, and to be honest, he was pretty ashamed of them. 

One was that he just wanted to put off doing his homework, which was incredibly irresponsible and would've earned him a lecture from his mother if she had been there, for sure. He was still a mere child, however, and the urge to shirk responsibility did not escape him. It would be good for him to take a break every once in a while, instead of sniffing the dust off of musty old textbooks in the library. It was with a small bounce in his step and a faint smile dusting the corners of his lips that he made his way from the Slytherin common room to the Charms classroom, both excited and daunted at the possibility that his limited artistic abilities might be drawn to the surface.

His branch of art was certainly more unusual than one's more traditional ideas of what "art" was supposed to be- he, essentially, did origami, but cheated with glue and paints. He created models, out of metals, out of woods, but primarily out of paper and cardstock. He would always start with a plain base, then build the basic shape, then paint the details onto it, but painting an actual painting? That required actual talent. Which he didn't have.

Tugging on the hem of his sweater, he felt slightly self-conscious about his Muggle clothes. Even though it had only been mere months since he had been wearing such clothes during the summer and at home, the routine of wearing school robes as his uniform had suddenly transformed into his new normal. His black pants were one of his older pairs, the knees fraying and graying and slightly too short. His tan sneakers, which now looked ugly to him, were scuffed and dirtied from wear and tear, and his sweater was slightly oversized, the sleeves pushed and rolled up to his elbows. He looked more like a college student than an eleven-year-old boy, but that's always how he had been taught to dress.

Knocking softly on the door to the classroom before pushing it open, he realized with a sinking heart that they had been waiting on him. Drats! And to think that he prided himself on his punctuality and ability to be early. He must have dawdled too long when he put his shoes on- oh well. Professor Seaborne, he recognized, of course, and he remembered Aurelia as well. The second girl, with blonde hair and casual clothing that looked more like pajamas, was unfamiliar to him, but he assumed that she was the Cecily Queen mentioned in the owl sent to him.

The Professor herself was among his favorite professors in all of Hogwarts. She reminded him somewhat of his sister- young, carefree, and not quite willing to grow up just yet. It would do him some good to get into her good books, and as he walked over to the group waiting for him, he smiled widely. "Hullo," he said cheerfully, grinning at everyone. "My 'pologies for being late- rather careless of me. Shall we get started, then?"

Reducio

Ack. Sorry for the late reply. Elijah's clothes ↴

Within a very short few minutes, the children were there in the charms classroom. The blonde woman would've jumped around with excitement if she could. Instead, she held a beaming smile at the three of them, in her eyes you could just see the joy. Like in the animated movies where the character's eyes got all big and shiny. "Hello, lovelies! Glad to see you make it. Jump right in! Put on an apron if you'd like." She aimed a nod at the paint supplies, gesturing for them to pick some up and go wild. 

There didn't have to be any words spoken about where or what to paint, it was all a 'you decide' thing. Though Elaine was a professor, she found it a little hard to press hard rules upon children if it wasn't really a big deal. Especially because she knew that not everybody liked rules. Or pressure. Standing in between the young boy and the first girl to come in- er, what were their names again?- the young woman patted their shoulders. "Go ahead and go grab a brush or two like miss- uh- like your friend over there did." With a tilted head and a bright smile she left them and went to grab two brushes, one in her hand, the other behind her ear. 

She could've sworn she knew their names. Just now... Elaine had a bit trouble remembering, that's all. Perhaps she'd just ask again later if she couldn't actually remember. One of her greatest weaknesses- remembering names. Or just remembering anything in general. The young woman laughed, turning on the wireless (magic wizard radio)  to play some music. "I hope you don't mind music. It helps me get in the mood to paint, I think. And I like to have dance breaks sometimes." Humming to herself, she began to paint a simple flower on one of the desks. She herself had no idea what she was going to paint on something as big as the walls, but a desk garden was a good place to start. 

It wasn't long until the two other students joined Cecelia and Professor Seaborne. Cecelia recognized the Griffyndor, Aurelia, whom she had met before, and gave her a polite smile and greeted her. She did not recognize the other student, but gave him a nod.

Following the Charms Professor's instructions, Cecelia quickly followed what Aurelia did and grabbed two paint brushes. She shook her head when the Professor offered an apron, however.

"It's alright, Professor. I don't mind wearing just this white shirt." she smiled when the Professor told them about music. "I don't mind. I love music, too. Sometimes it helps me think better."

As Cecelia dipped one of her paintbrushes in the paint, she became serious. Now it was time to get focused. She dipped one of her brushes in brown, and then kept the other one at her side.

Biting her lip and nodding her head slightly to the beat of the music, Cecelia carefully painted a tree trunk. It wasn't just an ordinary tree, but a very special one. A special tree to Hogwarts, in fact. When she finished with the trunk and tiny branches, she stepped back to take a look. She wiped the sweat from her brow and then turned to the students and the Professor.

"How do you like this, Professor? It is supposed to be the Whomping Willow. I wanted to ask all of you if I should paint the tip of the branches with white or green. White would be snow for the winter, and green would be for the spring and summer. I couldn't decide what to do, so I thought I would ask all of you. Although I do think snow would look good for this time of year," Cecelia said, staring back at her art job. She looked around the room and noticed the Professor had painted one of the tables with a flower. Cecily's eyes sparkled at its beauty.

"I love the flower, Professor. It is so pretty." She turned back to the wall to admire her own art.

It isn't bad. It turned out better than I expected. Oh, I hope Professor Seaborne will like it! Cecelia thought, putting down her paintbrush for a break. She then glanced at her clothes. The bottom of her white oversized t-shirt was covered in brown paint, but Cecelia knew that it was worth it. The Charms classroom would look splendid!

OOC: Sorry for the late reply. I was on a vacation and just got back!

Lovelies? Ah, right... that was the pet name that the Charms professor had christened upon the students, one that Elijah wasn't too fond of. He wasn't lovely- he was independent, he was stone-cold and suave! He wasn't lovely, only nice people were lovely. He was practically frosty, he was so un-nice. He was as prickly as a cactus, as hostile as a sleepy cat. He wasn't lovely, not in the slightest.

The direct opposite could be said about the professor herself, however. Professor Seaborne was certainly one of the nicest professors at Hogwarts, all sunshine and flowers, rainbows and happiness. She reminded him a lot of his own sister, who must've only been a few years younger than the young professor- they had probably gone to school together within the same approximate time frame, if he was one to judge. She practically radiated positive energy, like the sun was beating inside her ribcage rather than a normal heart... was there a chance that she was an alien? Well, anything was possible at Hogwarts, right?

Slapping on a wide smile that looked like he was careless and free-spirited, he echoed the Ravenclaw girl's words and sentiment. "A little paint's never bothered me much, professor," Elijah chipped in with a grin. "I think just my clothes will be fine." To be honest, he loathed getting dirty, even in the slightest, and his appearance had always reflected that- he was always immaculately dressed, his uniform always pressed and perfect, despite the dust and cobwebs hiding in the corners of the castle, or the brushing against so many other students. He already knew that he was going to have to burn and trash these clothes once this whole session was over, but for the sake of his facade, he would put up with it.

Making sure that his sleeves would stay rolled up on his arms, Elijah walked over to grab a brush, and watched the others carefully. Professor Seaborne looked completely in her element, already at peace and ready to paint. She had turned to one of the desk, beginning to decorate it. The Ravenclaw, what was her name...? He swore that he knew it- Cecily? Cecelia? Maybe both? What had the owl said, again...? Cecily, it was Cecily! She had started to paint using brown, and seemed to be painting a tree of some sorts... no, not just any tree, but the Whomping Willow itself. Clever, very clever. Rubbing his thumb over the bristles of his larger brush, he tried to think of something that was easy and simplistic, something that didn't require much actual talent.

Dipping his brush into a shimmery gold paint, he walked over to the wall over by the door, before flinging his brush at the wall without letting go. The action created a splatter across the wall, gold fleck and dots clinging onto the wall, some of the larger spots dripping a little it. He repeated the action, covering the wall in a spread of golden flecks, then stepped back to admire his work. 

Too boring, too solid. He needed some more color. Heading back to the paints, he washed his brush out before dipping it in white, and then turned back to the wall to repeated the process. The gold-and-white color scheme was starting to come together in his head, and he could already see the potential for it to become a backdrop. Shifting his brush to one hand, he called out to Professor Seaborne, "I have an idea! I think. Professor, if you don't mind me asking, what's your patronus?"

His idea became clear in his words. He would attempt- attempt -to paint Professor Seaborne's patronus onto the wall with the gold-and-white backdrop, and hopefully, it would look good enough to satisfy the Professor, who was clearly artistically talented in her own right.

Reducio

ahhh sorry this is so late and so short!