Open Artistic Musings

[Elsie Baros]

It wasn't every day that Elsie got to let her hair down. Well, figuratively anyway. Literally, she'd barely rolled out of bed and pulled her hair into a messy bun before she'd casually taken her leave of the common room and made her way somewhere peaceful. Even though this was a place that signified death, named after a student who'd drowned years ago, Elsie found it to be quite calming. She didn't know if that was morbid or not, but sometimes she liked to head down to Avie's rock and wonder what kind of person he was. She'd seen his pictures in the year books, but she knew nothing about him. She had to assume that all the people that knew him, went to school with him, all had their own lives now. It was sad really, that he never really got to live his life, he never even got to graduate, she couldn't imagine what that would be like. If she died before she got her NEWTs she was going to come back and pry them out of Professor Alicastell's hands. No way she was missing out on that. She breathed in as she sat, looking at the stone that marked the place of Death, well, she wasn't sure that's exactly where he died, but, it was soothing to look at. She sometimes spoke to Avie, though she knew nothing about him, sometimes you just needed to pretend someone was listening, and ever since Zennon had tried to tell her about his abilities here, it had become something of a symbol of truth for her. She'd overreacted that day, and she knew that, but she was better. She pulled out her sketchbook and lost herself in the art. She didn't have much time to sketch anymore, with her commitments mostly lying elsewhere, but when she did she often found it was someone in particular she sketched. She left her mind to wander and it was whatever she was thinking about, or confused about or nervous about that would come across on the page. Nine times out of ten, that was Agnes.​

 

[Teebo]

The free Hogwarts house elf was taking a break from his daily chores. Breakfast was served, he had even chopped all the vegetables needed for lunch and dinner and left them for the other house elves that were going to cook that day. Brushing up the shining objects of the trophy room could be done later, for Teebo was in need of some fresh air and some snail shells for his new crafts.

So Teebo apparated at the waterfront with his forage bag. He wore only three (!), single-colored, woolen beanies layered on top of his head, mastering color-blocking of cyan, fuschia and lemon yellow, along with a pair of lime-green socks and white tee with a peeled snitch stamp. His bat-like ears were flattened under the weight of the beanies and he had to adjust the straw, forage bag on his shoulder every now and then to avoid stepping on it. He was bouncing along the lake shore excited, humming Do the Hippogriff by The Weird Sisters. Every now and then he paused excited to pick an oval or spiring-shaped shell, checking if it was empty to put it in his bag. If a snail was inside, he let it be and moved on.

"Oh?" He squealed, surprised with what he had spotted half-buried in mud. He picked up the spherical object and washed it in the water to remove the mud. It was a remembrall, possibly dropped accidentally by one of the students. Teebo admired the sphere's stylized, swirling engravings on its surface and the fog that was trapped inside. Teebo had been collecting almost everything and a remembrall was missing from his collection. It was wrong though to keep something that someone could be missing.
"Hmm..." His bulging, green eyes scanned his peremeter for anyone that could be the owner of this remembrall and his ears twitched in excitement when he spotted a girl sitting close by a rock, minding her own business.

He skipped over to her direction, almost dropping his top lemon-yellow beanie on the process.
"Hello Miss." Teebo cleared his throat and bowed slightly before the girl. He was a well-mannered elf.
"May Teebo ask if this artefact is yours?" He asked sheepishly with his adenoidal voice and extended his thin arm to show her the remembrall.
"Teebo found it at the shoreline. Teebo swears" Teebo quickly explained before he was going to be misjudged and blamed for thieving.

 

[Elsie Baros]

Elsie was used to the comings and goings of house-elves, so normally she didn't pay them any attention at all. She barely even noticed the pop, or the appearance of one of the house-elves near her as she continued her sketching. She paid no mind to the multiple hats or the mud being flung around by the little elf as she continued her work and it wasn't until the odd little elf was standing in front of her, speaking, that she even noticed it at all. "Hm?" She looked up, at first not having expected to come face to face with a house-elf. They usually went unseen and it wasn't customary or common to strike up a conversation with one. She had no dislike or hatred of house-elves though, she just usually ignored them much like she ignored most people. "Oh!" She said, looking at the rememberall it had seemed to find. She looked around to see if anyone else was around and shrugged. "It's not mine... there's not too many people who come here though that it could belong to and surely someone would remember if they'd lost their rememberall, don't you think?" She asked, tilting her head slightly. "Best take it to the lost and found I think, perhaps someone will be by to collect it later?"​

 

[Teebo]

Teebo's ears twitched excitedly at the prospect that he might could keep the rememberall but he nodded several times at the girl's suggestion to take it to the lost and found. "Teebo will do so." He reassured her and tucked the ball on his forage bag, clanging with shells and stones. The house-elf then noticed that the girl was actually sketching something and his round eyes flashed with his features lighting up with enthusiasm.
"Can Teebo see what Miss is sketching, please?" He asked earnestly with folded, tiny hands. It could have been a strange request from a house-elf but Teebo was given his freedom and was more comfortable around humans than most Hogwarts' elves. In addition, he was an art enthusiast, serving for years a painter wizard. It didn't matter if it was painting, music or just sketching in a piece of parchment. Anything that included creativity was attracting him like moth to a flame.