Open A Museum Of Inspiration

[Marlow Sanderson]

Marlow had just come from the History of Magic Classroom. Normally after these classes, Marlow often found herself annoyed with having to take some many notes and sit still for so long. To be honest, that is how Marlow was feeling about most of her classes so far, too structured and too many hand cramps. But for once, that was not the case. Today in History of Magic, they had taken a surprise field trip to the Smithsonian Museum. This young Slytherin loved every single second of the trip. There were so many Art Exhibits and even a virtual room in which she was able to see her own artwork portrayed on the walls of the museum. It was honestly a dream come try for this young artist. All she wanted was to make sure her artwork was remembered. In a way, she really wanted to be remembered. In that moment, Marlow had realized how badly this desire was to have her artwork known one day, showcasing her talent.

Still on an almost endorphin high from the museum, Marlow began wondering the corridors. She needed to find a nice quiet spot where she could focus on the sketch she had worked on during the trip, a night sky image with all the shades of blue you could imagine. Marlow was on the second floor when she knew this was as good as place as any. She did not see a lot of people around, which sadly had been the case anywhere outdoors with this nice weather. The Lakefront was always packed with students as were the gardens. It was not the crowd that bothered Marlow. She enjoyed company, well the right company. It was the lack of quiet, when she so desired, when the inspiration hit. Right now was certainly one of those moments.

Marlow picked a spot at random outside what looked like an abandoned classroom. She knew should could probably use the classroom, but at this moment the young Slytherin had no desire to get yelled at by a prefect for being somewhere she shouldn't be. Marlow sat back against the wall, her legs bent in order to make a 'table' of sorts. The young Slytherin took out her sketchbook gazing at the quick sketch she made at the museum after she had created a design in the Immersion Room. The sketch was just an outline of a stars, glowing red giants, and a mosaic of blue sky (at the moment only labeled with the colors Marlow had in mind). This was what she needed to perfect.

Marlow turned to a new clean page in her sketchbook. She dug in her backpack for the pencils that always seemed to fall to the bottom. Marlow began to lightly sketch with a pencil, attempting to fill the whole page with her design. She was in her own world as she drew, not noticing people walking by.

 

[Aras Ragauskas]

Aras had recently discovered how entertaining was to explore the castle. So far his experience as a transferred student at Hogwarts was average. He found classes that didn't include any wand-waving boring and he was disappointed to find out that flying classes were only limited to first years. His biggest disenchantment however, was not making into his house's quidditch team, something he was really looking forward and the main reason he agreed to attend a boarding school. In all this disgruntlement, Hogwarts at least had its vast ground, a forest that for some reason was forbidden and an elaborate castle, full of secrets and hidden passageways.

Aras wasn't the type of person that would give up easily. He was determined to sharpen his flying skills by mastering new maneuvers and prove at the next opportunity that he would be an asset for the team. That's why he had chosen to learn how to balance while standing on a broom and eventually broom-surf. An upside of the past few days was the discovery of worn but still functionable Cleansweep Eleven in a closet on the fourth floor amongst other regular brooms and mops. Having no broom of his own yet, Aras was very grateful to the person who had mistaken the flying broom for an ordinary and placed it there. It wasn't a good one but it would do for hovering and balancing on it.

The quidditch pitch would have been an obvious choice for practising flying maneuvers but Aras found most of the time packed or booked by the teams for practices. An abandoned classroom on the second floor was the next place he had in mind. Many rooms around Hogwarts seemed to be not really used and the particular was spacious with high ceiling, perfect for trying to balance on the broom while hovering. Being in high spirits that day, Aras decided to also check a secret passageway that was allegedly ending from the fourth floor to the second one. He had witnessed older students using it, overhearing the password. After the end of the day's classes, he rushed to the common room, grabbed the Cleansweep Eleven from beneath his bed and went straight for the portrait in question.

Holding the time-worn broom in his hand, he stopped before the portrait of a witch terrorized by Cornish pixies.
"Shrilling Nuisance." He said the password and the portrait immediately raised to reveal the secret opening. He climbed in to find spiral stairs leading downwards. The moment he stood up, the portrait slid back in its place, sealing the corridor behind him. A loud sound followed and the steps melted together to make a long, smooth stone slide. Aras lost his balance and found himself sliding fast, letting a yell of excitement as he spiralled downwards, always holding tightly the broom. Light sneaked through an opening that appeared at the end of the slide and the next moment, Aras was spewed out of the secret passageway, into the second floor corridor. He tumbled across the floor to almost collide with someone that was sitting there. Instead he crashed into what seemed to be a backpack, pencils scattering everywhere on the floor. Laughter followed by some passing students but Aras ignored them, just hoping he hadn't hurt the girl. "I am so sorry for that. Are you hurt?" He apologized genuinely and let down the broom to collect the pencils from the floor.

 

[Marlow Sanderson]

Marlow was struggling to get this image just right. It almost seemed easier on the digital pad that the Museum had offered. She had also seemed similar, less advanced, electronic drawing pads in the muggle world. She wondered if her father would buy her one of those. There were only a couple of hundred muggle dollars, that couldn't be that much right. Plus this young Slytherin right wanted it, she almost always got what she wanted from her overworking and mostly absent father. It wouldn't work here at Hogwarts though. The thought occurred. Marlow was certainly sick of the electronics rule at Hogwarts. She did not know the specifics, but she could not help but think it was another thing she disliked about this school.

But that field trip She thought to herself. Marlow knew she would not get that type of experience back home with her mother homeschooling her. She pushed thoughts of school out of her mind focusing on the work in front of her. Marlow continued to sketch in a single star, the shading was difficult to say the least. Marlow reached in to her bag to grab a light yellow pencil, throwing the black pencil to the bottom of the bag. It wasn't the most organized system, but it worked for Marlow. She knew were everything was even if it took awhile to find on some occasion.

The young Slytherin girl had moved onto the inner layer of her less than an inch wide star. This design was detailed, to say the least. As the young girl looked at her sketch, determining what color she needed next, she heard a loud noise. This noise shook Marlow out of her own little world as she looked up to see what the commotion was. The moment the young girl glanced up towards the corridor she was seated in, she noticed a young student tumbling towards her.

Marlow did not have time to react. The young boy had crashed right into her backpack, inches away from herself. A majority of her colored pencils were scattered around. Marlow's mouth fell open for a moment in shock. What just happened? The young girl thought shaking her head back to the real world as she heard a voice from the fallen student.

He seemed uninjured himself; he was apologizing and helping to pick up some of the pencils. Marlow closed her sketchbook and looked at the boy. Disbelief could still be seen in her brown eyes. Everything had happened so fast. Marlow was not sure if she should be angry or laugh about the situation. As student's passed in the corridor, Marlow heard them laughing about the situation. "Kia Ata" Marlow said as the students passed. A phrase that simply meant 'be quiet' here in New Zealand. The young girl rolled her eyes at the immaturity, however she was not sure how she would react if situations were reversed.

Marlow placed her sketchbook down, standing up to help clean up the mess. She began to start picking up her pencils noticing that many of them had chipped the top point. It was fixable with work. Marlow would probably just buy another set when able. As she picked up pencils, tossing them in her bag, Marlow remembered she had completely ignored the young boy that had caused this whole mess. The young Slytherin turned to him, surprisingly not angry, more surprised. "No I'm fine" She said, looking down at herself to do a quick check. No bruises or cuts. He had not even run into her, luckily. "No broken bones here. Can't say the same for my colored pencils though." She said leaning over to pick up a blue pencil that was a lost cause.

I needed that blue Marlow thought to herself absentmindedly. Marlow shrugged her shoulders and tossed the broken pencil into her bag with all the rest. She looked around the corridor slightly. She knew she had been zoned out, but this boy came from literally no where. He did not look old enough to appariate, plus he had a broomstick with him. "Where did you even come from?" She asked curiously.

 

[Aras Ragauskas]

Aras felt really bad when he realized that he had damaged a lot of the pencils that the girl apparently used for drawing from the looks of it. He had not artistic sense whatsoever but he guessed that they would need a lot of work to sharpen again the top points. His eye fell on the blue one that she held that looked completely damaged to be used. "I-I can fix it." He offered, although not entirely confident in the particular spell. He returned the pencils he had collected from the floor and his eye focused on the sketchbook and the drawing.
"That's pretty nice by the way." He commented and nodded at the sketch book on the floor, hoping that maybe this would make her feel better. He picked the broom on the floor and inspected it instead of worrying if he had got hurt himself. The scar overlapping his left eye was attesting that he was used to worse than a bruise or two.

Fortunately the already worn out broom looked intact, apart from a few broken twigs at its tail. At the girl's question he turned around at the opposite wall to see the portrait of a pirate-wizard now concealing the shortcut's opening, from where he had entered the second floor, after a long slide all the way from the fourth.
"Umm, I used a shortcut that I saw some older students use." He explained and pointed with the broom at the portrait of the ginger-bearded pirate who was whetting a beast-slaying blade.
"It got me from the fourth floor all the way here. It seems there are a lot of them. If only I could find them, I would never be late for classes again." Aras admitted, always losing his way or being distracted by something extraordinary on his way to his classes. "I'm Aras by the way. What's your name?" He asked and looked at the last pencils that she picked up.
"Seriously, I can fix it if you like." He referred to that one blue that needed a lot of work to regrow its tip. If he had all the pieces, at least he could try.