House of Toads PV Group 2 Errand

Juniper didn't know much about toads, and as soon as Reid finished with his instructions, she got to work over-thinking things.

She moved over to where she could face Scully, their charming three-legged reference point. Bending down to Scully's level, she locked eyes with the amphibian, trying to envision the world from his point of view. If she were a toad... what would she need from a house, exactly? Some water, perhaps? Definitely some shade, a good place to hide... probably something on the cozier side.

She began gathering materials. She picked a medium-sized terra cotta pot, and the dish from a much larger pot that she thought would make a nice pond of sorts. She scooped a handful of rocks and sorted through them, filling the dish with stones that were smooth and attractive (only the best!) and replacing the bumpier ones for another project.

Setting the terra cotta pot on its side, she nestled it into the bed of rocks within the dish. That seemed like a good start; it would at least be a cool, comfortable little cave. She eyed Scully again, trying to get a sense of the size of his feet. She re-arranged the rocks and put back some of the smaller ones, trying to imagine how the walkway would feel beneath bumpy toad toes. Scully blinked back at her, seemingly content with anything.

To finish it off, Juniper made a little mound of dirt to covered the pot and secured it to the dish. She was hoping this would keep the house cool, and maybe make it easier to blend into the surrounding landscape, wherever on the grounds it would end up. Maybe she could bury it just a little and coax some mosses or grass into growing over the top...



As a final decorative flourish, Juniper found some moonstones among the other decorative pieces Reid and set out and added them to the bed of rocks. There! The house was ready to go, which left her wondering where it would be going.

She looked back to the supplies they had left. She wanted to find a use for all the bumpier rocks she'd put back. She eyed another little pot that had a conveniently toad-sized chunk broken off the rim, and had an idea.

"Excuse me, @Reid Kovacs ? Would you happen to have any glue or... spells, or... something I could use to fix some rocks on the side of this pot?" Juniper held up the pot she wanted to use, and added "Do you know where we're going to set up the houses when we're done?"

Waiting for a reply, she looked around to see what the other members of her group were building.

@Reid Kovacs @Juniper Irving

[font=Segoe Print]Being the rather daft, uneducated young boy that he was, Rafael had never been the most creative. Sure, his sketches were a bit brilliant [if he did say so himself], and his mind seemed to spin up crazy amazing ideas in the heat of a tricky situation, but that was just about where his imagination ended. Though, that wasn’t to say that he couldn’t pull a creative stunt every once in a while. He had proven himself wrong on countless occasions, only out of the sheer will to do so. Which was to be expected, coming from a stubborn boy like himself – once he put his mind to something, there was no telling what heights he could reach. He lived by this standard every day, pushing hard in everything he did and never giving up. Even when it bloody exhausted him – which was quite often.
 
That fact alone was what brought him to the House-Building station on this fine morning. Because, if he were completely straight, he had much better things to do with his time. Quidditch practice, homework, research with Jo, exploring the grounds. Sure, he hadn’t the motivation to do half of those things, but that was beside the point. The fact of the issue was, about a month ago, he had been jeered at by a fellow Gryffindor for his ruddy ornament-making skills. [His ornament hadn’t even been that bad! In his professional opinion, at least. He supposed everyone had different beliefs – even if they were outrageous, they would always have to be considered.] Due to this good-natured challenge, he’d been jumping at a chance to prove the girl wrong. He would do just that, making the best ruddy toad house the school had seen yet.
 
The young Gryffindor wasted no time in bumbling into the station, clutching his robes in an attempt to warm himself up. It seemed as if the January air had leaked into the small room, leaving the glass frosty and the air biting. But no matter. There were more important things to attend to. Rafa’s eyes quickly brushed the scene laid out in front of him, instantly meeting an assortment of pots, dirt, and bits of wildlife, all strewn on the tables in front of him. Somehow, in a way the first year couldn’t particularly describe, the setting brought him an ounce of comfort, the sort that drew you in, almost ensnaring is senses. Before he knew it, his sleeves were hiked up, his hands covered in dirt.
 
In the midst of his creative processes, he vaguely noticed a girl to his left – he’d seen her before, in the common room, if he remembered right. With that incident involving the Erika girl, and Galton puking in the chocolate frogs. Though he didn’t know her name as of yet, the girl had seemed friendly enough, unlike some of the other people that had been present at the time. Deciding that his silence had lasted far too long, he scooted a bit closer to her, near enough to start a conversation. “Hey, mate,” he told her, his eyes still focused on his toad house. “Think I saw you in the common room, yeah? Perhaps I feel a bit bad, not talking to you at all.” He grinned, directing his bright eyes at her for a second. “I’m Rafael. Would shake your hand, but – “ he lifted them up, his fingers caked in dirt and grime, “ – afraid I can’t. S’pose it’s the thought that counts, though, y’know?”
 
He began messily setting up a few pieces of wood he’d brought, making a rough structure. It must have been a funny sight, the focus the first year was putting into such a menial task. “Not so good at making frog houses, am I, now?” he joked good-naturedly, flashing a friendly smile. “Guess I’ve never been the most creative.” With a quick shrug, he grabbed a few more small items, trying to put together a reasonable setup. “Hey, Reid?” he asked, very familiar with the prefect’s title. “Do wizards even use superglue?”

675 Words

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[font=PT Serif]@Rafael D'Spacito @Juniper Irving  [/font]

@Reid Kovacs

[font=Segoe Print]"Jus' don't get it in your hair. Took me days to take it out."

Now, that seemed as if it would be an interesting story. Though, as much as he wanted to question the prefect on what exactly that meant, Rafael kept his mouth shut, instead focusing again on his toad house. “Thanks,” he told the prefect, taking the glue from Juniper’s side and putting it within arm’s reach of them both. Holding the brush, he started neatly applying the glue to the sides of the bark pieces. At least, as careful as an eleven-year-old boy could manage. The glue was a bit messy, he absently noted, the sticky substance already sticking his fingers together in an annoying sort of way. He groaned, wiping it on his shirt, only to spread the mess even more.

Muttering a few words he would never repeat in front of his mother, the boy continued painting the bark corners, sticking them together systematically as to make walls. It was about then that he realized something rather important. ‘Bird, you bloody idiot, he cursed. You don’t even have a base. Sure, the boy didn’t know the first thing about building a house, but any old moron knew that a house needed a cornerstone, some kind of base to support the structure. Otherwise…. Well, Rafael didn’t want to think of the outcomes for the poor toad who received his house.

Shaking his head in disappointment towards himself, his eyes quickly scanned the table for a viable support structure – and quickly caught something. A large slab of rock, lying against one of the Herbology Tables. It didn’t exactly look as if it were part of the assortments available, But the young Gryffindor wasn’t about to let that stop him. “Mind if I use this?” he asked the prefect, though it didn’t seem at all like a question. Without waiting for a response, the boy took the rock, bringing it back to his workspace and setting it among his other materials. He set to work shortly, carefully gluing his walls to the base, in a way that it would stay firm and still manage to look somewhat neat. The glue sticking his fingers together, his hands littered in dirt, he eventually moved on, taking a bit of string from his pocket [the same string he used to bundle letters together], tying it around the walls of the small house in the hopes that it would add more stability to the structure.

Lastly, he took a bit of straw and mud [a mixture of dirt and his own spit – run, frogs], mixing it together and caking it onto the top, to form some sort of straw roof. This was perhaps the messiest feature of the house, but the structure still held a nice look, almost neat. Perhaps one of his greatest creations, he was proud to say. “Whaddya think, Reid?” he asked, looking back at the prefect. “Worthy of a frog?” Crossing his arms, a raised eyebrow and amused smile, he awaited the prefects opinion, ready for anything.

WC: 495 Words [Not counting the quote from Reid.]

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Galton had stayed behind the others for the introduction and beginning. He still wasn't his full self after a certain event, and as such, was a bit hesitant to interact with others. Which was quite hard for the jolly boy, but he didn't know what type of feelings, questions, or accusations others held for him. So he watched, studied, and admired the toads.

Galton loved toads. His cat was named "Toad", the best substitute he could find for a slimy friend that his cruel parents had barred him from owning. One too many toads get out of a jar, find their way into a shopfront or two, and it's your fault. Unfair and cruel. No one seemed to care about the toads having a nice life. They just wanted a tasty treat. But no, Galton was to blame for "not being responsible", "bringing wild animals into the home" and "health risks to customers".

But this was the perfect place for Galton to interact with the lumpy fellows. His parents would never be able to touch him. He was helping a professor! Even if their spies were informed of his activities, he had spell-proof armor. And they'd hear. If anyone was a spy, it was the kids that would volunteer to help professors. The goodie-goodies.

His mind drifted from shuddering thoughts of parental spies to that of toads sleeping happy in the houses he'd make for them. By the time he was done he'd have the most comfy toad house possible. Toads wouldn't want for anything in a Lansdale house. They'd sit happily at their entrance, waiting for a bug to buzz, crawl, or dart past them, so they could snatch it up with their sticky tongue and enjoy a nice meal. Or, they'd sleep a deep slumber upon a soft dirt bed, molded to their every bump. And, weather permitting, they would sunbath on the houses roof. Soaking in the rays, dreaming for whatever toads dream of (probably flies... or Galton's houses and how amazing they were).

Before the small boy knew it, the others had dispersed and begun, even returning to Prefect to ask some questions. All Galton managed to catch was "village". How had Galton not thought of it sooner. Why have the toads live isolated, when they could be right next to all their toad friends. They could play toad catch, or toad tag, or maybe even toad poker. The picture was just too funny. Galton couldn't hold his laughter in, letting it explode out of him, before snapping his hands over his mouth to contain himself. They'd notice him now, oh how he hoped they would just ignore him. He didn't want to hear the same questions over and over. They were the mean ones. Not Galton.

Before they did anything like talk to him Galton headed to the pile of pots. He would need pots that looked good together. And he would need five of them. Five was the perfect number for a frog village. And the perfect number for a good poker game, not that Galton would know. The other thing for consideration was the pot's character. They needed to feel like they'd been through some stuff, so the toads knew they could trust the pot with their little cute bodies. Pots needed some chips in them, some dirt stains, things that really spiced it up. The lad's fleshy little arms plucked suitable candidates from the pile, stacking them inside one another. They were pretty heavy for him by the time he was done, and the stack would only get heavier.

Rocks. Rocks would be needed to make the toad houses. He wasn't going to be lazy and just lay on on it's side. No, this needed to be a proper house. Walls, and a roof, and a door... hole. So he filled the stacked pots with rocks, as many as he could until the stack was almost too heavy. Galton gathered his breathe and picked it up. He made sure to use his legs, because that's what he'd always heard. He didn't actually know how to lift with his legs or back, he was just trying to keep the rocks and pots from coming clattering down.

When he was far enough from the others Galton began to build the ultimate village. The spot he had picked had two trees close enough to them that he could use them to separate three of the houses, and then close the ring in with the other two pots. He began by carving out the outlines for each house. He needed everything to be planned well, to make sure the toads would have a convenient town structure. If the door holes where placed the wrong way, or rocks placed too close, it could give the whole village bad vibrations. So Galton carved the outlines into the dirt on his knees.

He ascended to view the plan, and make sure everything was perfect. It was, Galton's genius had shown once again. Now for the construction. Pot one, then two and so on filled in their respective outlines. Then the rocks found their places. Cozy against the clay. The town really was going to be amazing. As he placed the last stone Galton had a realization.

The doors! He had no doors for the toads. Bringing them back to the staging area to cut them out would take much too long, and destroy all his progress, so he'd have to do it here. He took one of the stones in hand, gripping only half of it, to give him a good striking object, and lined up his shot with the first pot. There was a small chip near the entrance, he just needed it to be bigger. And then... crash, it was bigger! 4 more bangs and clashes followed. Some pots taking an extra swing or two to get the hole to look just right, but in the end his village had it's doors.

For the finishing touches Galton had two things. The first, a piece of candy for each house. Like always, he was able to fish out a piece of crushed lollipop from his robe to place inside each entrance. Then he'd place on in his own mouth. These toads would get to live the sweet life. And for the other, just needed dirt. He ran back over and fetched as much dirt as he could hold in his hands. This he poured over top the pots.

Galton smiled to himself. His town was ready for its toads. He'd wait to welcome them, mayor of toad town he would be. So he sat, in the middle of the ring of pots, waiting.

Word count: 1115

Permission to godmod granted by: @Ruby Cazares

Toads were quite interesting. Saskia didn't have too much experience with them, but she had played with some of them quite a few times when she was younger. In all honesty, they were adorable. Many people seemed to stay away from them, probably out of disgust or fear of getting poisoned, or whatever reason they might have had, but Saskia found joy in interacting with them as much as any other kind of animal or creature. Then again, she was happy to play with any kind of animal. Even the weird creepy insects people seemed to be afraid of didn't seem as intimidating to her as it did to the average kid, although she could have seen why it might have freaked them out. Nature was unpredictable and scary as it was, although that didn't mean there wasn't any beauty to be found in them either.

It was no wonder that she took on the task to create a toad house for the little amphibians. She wasn't exactly the most creative or artistic person out there, but she wanted to try her hand at something new, and what better way than to do something that would help the toads who could have used a home? Maybe it would have given her an opportunity to improve her sculpting skills along the way. Either way, there were many benefits to it. There were house points involved, for one. Not that it was the biggest incentive there was, but it certainly helped. Not only that, but she would be helping professors and the toads at the same time. It would have been a good way for her to make herself useful once again.

Other than that, she didn't know what else to expect from this task. All she knew was that she would be making toad houses, although she didn't know if there was anything else to it. The quality of the toad house was definitely important if toads were going to live in there, but how far did she have to go to make it presentable? Was she just going to look like an embarrassment if her house ended up looking like a total mess if she didn't know what she was doing? She was going to have to be careful. Mistakes couldn't be afforded anymore. She didn't want to humiliate herself in front of everyone else. Even if it involved something as small as making a simple house.

Her Prefect and Quidditch teammate, Reid, was supervising the event, which gave her some relief. She trusted him enough to run the errand, and she would have no trouble going to him for help if she needed it. She still had issues with directly going to people for help, but it was still nice to know that she wouldn't have to ask it from someone who wasn't completely intimidating. She didn't know some of the other students that were there, although she definitely recognized Ruby. It was good to know that she would at least have a friend who she could turn to. Oddly enough, it would have been more comfortable for her to turn to the Slytherin for help than to Reid, although that may have been accounting the fact that Reid would have likely been busy helping the other students around, and less from the idea that she was intimidated by him. Besides, Ruby had proven to be a good friend. She liked her enough, and she was more than happy to work on this together with her if the opportunity arose.

But there was someone in particular who caught her eye. She still didn't know his name, but she knew who he was. It was hard to forget the person who pretty much stole her first kiss and attacked her like a rabid animal at the Masquerade Ball. Surely, she must have been angry to see him, right? On a normal day, she might have been. But there were other factors involved. For one, he was absolutely delusional the last time she saw him. He had been proclaiming about ruling a candy kingdom with him as the Candy King, and overall being insane. But now? He was quiet. He didn't talk to anyone else. He probably didn't even bother to acknowledge her thanks to what had happened. Could she have blamed him? She didn't know what was going on with him, but it seemed that all he wanted was to be alone. If anything, he was more focused on the toads than other people. Maybe she would be able to confront him one day, but that wouldn't be now. She had other things to worry about.

Reid had told everyone how to make two different kinds of toad houses. One was easier, but the other way was set up to be more of a house rather than a simple home. On one hand, the first way might have been better suited for her sculpting skills, or lack thereof, but she didn't want to go for something that was so basic. She wanted to put in effort. She was a fast learner and she was planning on taking extra care of what she would do, so there was a chance she wouldn't terribly screw everything up.

Taking one of the pots, she placed it down on the table. She had to make a door for the house, didn't she? She supposed she could have used one of the sharper rocks to make a dent in the rim of the pot, but that would have been hard, given that the pot was brittle and likely to break if she did too much damage. Although she probably didn't have much of a choice in the matter. She just had to make sure she calculated the dents and made a quick outline so she didn't get lost on how much she wanted the doorway to be.

Fortunately, it went rather decently. The gap might have been a little larger than how she wanted it to be, but it wasn't too much of a big deal. She had also decided to add another doorway at the back as an emergency escape, in case there was something wrong with the entrance. It might not have been completely necessary, but the last thing she wanted was to make a poor toad suffer because of her poor insight. Now she had to worry about the other parts of the house. She'd have to figure out where to put the house in the first place, and she'd also have to deal with decorating it so it looked pretty. Well, as pretty as it could get anyway.

She knew she would have to find some dirt for the toads, but she didn't want to leave the dirt scattered around. And so, the Hufflepuff found a container that was large enough to fit the pot and any surrounding objects, but low enough for any toads to climb over if they wanted to. After putting in enough dirt in, Saskia placed the pot upside down, so the two doorways were touching the ground, but hopefully not completely sinking in the dirt.

And then there were decorations. Deciding to make use of the rocks, she laid out the smaller ones as a pathway to lead the toad through the door, making sure to align them along the way. Moving onto the slightly bigger rocks, she placed them around the pot to create a circle of some sort. She really did not know what she was doing at this rate, but she did what she could. She was grateful that the results were decent as is. She probably should have decorated the house some more. Or could she make more houses? She wasn't sure if she had enough time. She would have to settle with what she had for now.

Word Count: 1306

~ * ~

A few of the errands that had been put up recently had interested Ruby. Being a prefect, she wanted to let other students have a chance to do them too. However, they were open to all students, and that involved prefects, too, if they so desired. The idea of building houses for toads had intrigued her slightly. It reminded her of time spent with her cousins when she was a little kid. The four of them together had built all sorts of small models and constructions, and this sometimes even extended to crafting whimsical "fairy houses" in the forest.

A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth as she thought of her cousins. They were by far the relatives that she was closest to, and they were like older brothers to her. Two Gryffindors and a Ravenclaw, the trio of brothers made a formidable pack of troublemakers. Ruby was a prefect now and had to put all rule-breaking on hold because of that, but her cousins had taught her many things—including everything she knew about the "art of pranking", as they would have put it had they been with her at the moment. They were in the older years of Hogwarts, and she could still seek them out when she needed to. There were always weekends and holidays that provided opportunities to reconnect with them and to hang out. With all the responsibility of being a prefect and a member of the newspaper team as well as constantly burying herself in books and research, Ruby sometimes forgot how important it could be to simply… relax. Occasionally, doing nothing and just taking a step back from life for a moment could be a good thing.

After all, she supposed that that was the reason why she had ended up here, volunteering for this errand—because she needed a small break to relax. She didn't have much of an opinion on toads themselves. They weren't bad, fairly cute too. Sure, they felt weird to hold, but that was hardly a problem to a girl who didn't mind getting completely covered in mud in the name of fun—an activity she had done several times over the years. She remembered the time just last year when she had met a girl who became one of her closest friends, named Margo White. They had met at a time like that. Caught outside in a storm, they had ended up slipping on the way back to the castle and having a very muddy race. She doubted that Margo would be at this errand, as while Ruby was aware that her housemate did some errands, they hadn't ended up in any together.

She wondered if she would be put in a group with people that she knew, but she didn't get her hopes up. It would possibly be unfortunate if everyone else in the group was a complete stranger to her, but that was hardly the worst thing. She could either just focus and work independently or she could maybe talk to the others and meet new people. Even that option wasn't so bad. She was pleasantly surprised to see Saskia when she arrived at the errand. Shooting a grin at her friend, she then focused on the directions. The boy, Reid, had seemingly offered to help. He was a fellow prefect and Quidditch player, as well as a former member of the Headliner, so Ruby recognised him and was well aware of the prominent roles that he had possessed at this school.

There were two types of toad houses that the students could choose to make. One was in the style of a cave and the other one was slightly more complicated and required a doorway being cut out. She was in a fairly decent mood and felt up for the challenge, so she decided to go with the more complicated one. She began meticulously carving it, glancing up at Reid's toad every now and then to make sure that it would be large enough. Eventually, she was satisfied, and began looking for a place to put hers. She walked near where Saskia was and then veered off to one side to put some distance between the two houses. She carefully placed the pot upside-down on the ground.

Now, it was decorating time! This was the moment to add some creative flair and a touch of her own tastes to it. She wandered over to the place where all their materials were kept and she gathered a few handfuls of mostly small rocks. She placed them around the base of the house, adding a larger rock to the mix every now and then for added variety, even though there wasn't a big difference in size. She then retrieved dirt, adding a small hill near the back of the house and patting it down to smooth it out a bit. To make the area by her house seem more… rounded, she also added some dirt to the immediate area in very gentle slopes. She set two large stones upright on either side of the doorway to her house, making sure that they had enough support so as to not fall over the second she walked away. She raided the supplies for extra materials and grabbed a few decorations, adding them to the outside of the pot, wedging a couple in the gaps between the rocks to make room for it. Taking a step back, she looked at hers. It wasn't… bad, it was pretty neat and tidy, actually. She could have probably done more and made it more impressive if she had had more time, but she glanced around and saw that people seemed to be coming to a finish with their own projects or at least nearing completion.

She wasn't sure what she was planning to do after the errand, but she could at least see it through to its end. Maybe she could hang out with Saskia afterwards if the Hufflepuff was willing and had some free time.

~ * ~

Points have been awarded to everyone, less Juniper who did not meet the WC. I will leave this thread open for 24 hours more in case anyone wishes to continue to make their exit. Thank you for participating!

Errand Ended, locking thread