Family members were definitely a THING as far as personal influences and went... and it made perfect sense, too.

Zeke listened, lazily nibbling on his last cookie as they went about the circle. This lesson seemed odd to him, because he didn't feel as if he was really learning anything about HISTORY itself. It was just more about their personal histories, which he was sure nobody else really cared about. When exactly would they ever get to rebellion and war stuff? Hhhmm?

Stifling a sigh, Zeke reluctantly pushed himself up from the beanbag chair and stood for a moment. They were making cards. HE was making a card. For Emily. Wasn't that a little tacky? Would she even want it? He took solace in the fact that he didn't HAVE to give it to her - that was reassuring.

Approaching the snack station where the materials were gathered, Zeke rifled through the boxes and helped himself to a card, and some coloured paper (black and red) and some metallic ink pens too. There were also some stick on shape things, so he grabbed some stars, deciding to stay away from the love hearts. He wasn't yet sure if he was actually going to make this legit to give to her, but he figured he still had to put effort into the task anyway.

Pausing to stuff another couple of cookies in his pocket, Zeke then turned to find a spot to settle at.

Tables would be handy for this, no?

...

Shrugging, he moved to the side of his beanbag and placed his materials on the floor. Laying on his stomach seemed the best option right now.

Puck listened to her classmates as they brought up their favorite events and people it was all so interesting really. All of it, history was well, inspiring. When Zeke mentioned Voldemort she just grinned. That was a good point.

“I really personally find Cassandra Trelawney to be an interesting historical figure,” she grinned, “she’s not only a known name in the Wizarding world but some muggles even know about her because of her the fact that she was a Trojan princess and has even been depicted in greek mythology and books like Homer’s the Oddyssey,” she grinned.

“What I personally like about her is that even though no one ever really believed in her ability as a seer, because she was supposedly cursed by Apollo, but she had the forsight to not trust the Trojan Horse,” she grinned. “That, and the Trellawney line is infamous for having strong Seers in it such as former Professor Cybil Trellawney” Puck smiled because hello – Trellawney’s were cool.

.... Did they know? It was an interesting question. Well he was sure Lottie had to know... Kevin probably assumed really, but Zander couldn't really recall a situation where he actually said it outloud. They didn't do that mushy friendship thing. Well, other than the time when Kevin had two hours before he was going to be sent home. Because there was a heart to heart that happened then, but it mostly consisted of Zander trying to find ways to beg the Headmistress to change her mind. Which clearly didn't happen so uh that failed.

So anyways, maybe he'd make one for Lottie. But what would Kevin say about a card like that? Hm.

For now maybe just Lottie.

So anyways, the Gryffindor slowly stood up to gather some art supplies. He'd need some colorful papers and stuff and maybe he could find some fun scissors or something. Anything to strike up inspiration because Zander had zero. If only Lottie was around to do that inspiring thing, right!? Ha ha ha. Anyways. Getting up now. Sorry.

La la la ALL THE ART SUPPLIES!! Why couldn't they ever do this stuff in Potions?

Adi finished off the last of his cookies and was now sipping his hot chocolate. Yep, Professor Glendy. Benny did know how inspirational he was to him. Or at least he hoped Benny believed him.

Annnd...

ACTIVITY TIME! WOOT!

Soooo, Glendy said they could make a card to someone who is inspirational to them. Meaning ANYONE and not just the person they had just talked about. Well, since Benny knew what Adi thought of him, Adi would just go ahead with making a card for someone else he found inspirational and had been a really great friend to him ever since they met.

Jumping to his feet, he Hufflepuff strode over to the boxes to grab supplies for the card: coloured paper, scissors, glue, coloured pencils and so forth. An idea was already forming in his brain about the design of the card. Before making his way back to his bean bag, he grabbed a few more cookies. Hey, growing guys liked to eat.

They were going to make inspirational cards? Like those Hallmark greeting type cards? Hmm, he could do that. Maybe he could make a few...one for his dad, his mum and...llia? Oh yes...his bestfriend too. Henric felt like he needed to give her some encouraging words. llia hadn't been herself for some time,perhaps his letter for her could cheer her up. Henric glanced over at Adi, oh...not to forget the hufflepuff prefect as well! He wanted to say thank you for all the times Adi had helped him and the pumpkin pies he brought for him. He stood up from his seat and walked towards the front so he could get the materials he need. Henric grabbed a couple of markers,stickers,coloured papers and more before heading back to his seat. Once settled, he picked up a black marker and started titling each card.

Family members were definitely inspirational. Her dad inspired her. They were making cards for people who were an inspiration to them? That was a great idea! Snaps for cool craft projects! Professor Glendower's lessons were always fun. They needed to have more lessons like this one.

She heard Puck talking about Cassandra, the princess of Troy. Cassandra had an interesting story. Something about Apollo giving her the gift of prophecy because he loved her, but then cursing her so no one would listen to her because she didn't love him. "The Trojan princess Cassandra had the gift of prophecy, but no one believed any of her predictions." Cassandra had foreseen the destruction of Troy, but no one believed any of her predictions. Greek mythology was fascinating.

Her thoughts still focused on Greek mythology, Penelope got up to get some art supplies. She needed something purple or blue. After grabbing some paper, pencils, and other supplies, Penelope headed back to her beanbag to start on her card.

Decorating cards didn't come easily to him. It was a girly task, one he wasn't very good at. The card he had made in Astronomy the other year had been completely different, because that was a simply THANK YOU card. But a simple thank you would not suffice in this instance.

In the end he managed to add coloured strips of paper - the black and red - to form a sort of abstract arty looking pattern panel thing. Yeah. Yeah. And THEN, he started sticking on silver and gold stars. They began randomly at first, but eventually he found that he had used it to spell out the letter E.

That would do....

Or would it? Was it special enough? He wasn't sure, so he pulled some of them off and stuck them around randomly again.

Instead, he took up the metallic gel pens and started CONNECTING the stars with lines instead. This way it looked more like a constellation, which in his opinion was considerably fancier.

So, like, they were just doing art stuff today? Fine with Eden. She was exhausted, anyways, and it felt to her a blow off class. Blow off classes were nice as an outgoing seventh year who was so ready for summer she could practically smell it.

Merlin.

She had to figure out what to make Emmalee...and she thought she'd make a little enchanted paper crane, curtesy of Maddie Cooper's brilliant mind. The girl was good at the little things and Eden had learned to appreciate it over the years. She would miss Maddie...Kyroh...and Thornton >.<

So Eden stood up to shuffle over to the supplies. She needed paper...she wanted to make it really pretty...hmm. Maybe she'd make two for her...to represent the BABEHS. Hehehe. Eden felt like she was going to be aunt even though the kids would only be her cousins...but still. Aunt Eden. It felt more right than just...Eden. So she was making two? All right. Two it was, then.

So today... they're just making a card? Jackson wasn't a person who loved doing crafty things. In fact, he's terrible. But well, he's gonna try to do that. He decided to make a card for Sora since he hadn't sent her any letter since two months ago. And now he's gotta tell his former piano tutor who now became a very famous concert pianist that she's his inspiration to be a good concert pianist. Awww...

Getting up for his beanbag chair, The Korean boy walked to the supplies box. Well, what should he make by the way? Like he'd said before, craft things wasn't his thing. Jackson just grabbed some parchment and colored marker and.. Just that. Since Sora and him liked piano and any music stuffs, maybe he should draw things that related with music like.. the piano or musical notes... That's such a good idea.

Angel was totally looking forwards to this and she knew who she was going to sent this one too, she decided that since her dad had been mentioned she would like to give a card to someone else, she thought about her sisters, but well she would have to write them both on the cards and they both inspired her in a different way so that was a no go. She wouldn't have enough room to write it all down.

Angel then thought about Benny who was amazing but he knew that and well that was a no go, then she suddenly had an idea, she would write it about Professor Flamsteed, she thought about Professor Bentley but well she had no idea if it would get to her because she had no idea where she lived, but she could give it to Professor Flamsteed because he had inspired her to be a better Gryffindor when she had asked if she could leave Gryffindor because she had lost points.

Angel went over and got the supplies that she would need, seriously it was important that she made this card look amazing because well she wanted her head of house to know how much she appreciated the advice and how much he inspired her to be better, plus he travelled a lot and talked about space.

Angel finished gathering the equipment and that she smiled as she went and sat down at her desk to make this amazing card, it was going to be perfect or her name wasn't Angel Leigh Valentine.

The card wasn't going to look any better than it did currently, so Zeke decided to STOP with working it on the chance he made it worse. Too much could be as bad as too little. But as hard as that had been, the hardest part was yet to come.

Though he had written about this (more or less) in his project, writing words that were intended for HER was hard. He would have to choose his words carefully, and condense his rambling to succinct sentences. Firstly, so as not to bore her if she were to receive it, and secondly because space was limited.

Using the gold gel pen, Zeke opened the card and began to write.

Mum,

That was a good start, right? He paused, pen hovering, biting his bottom lip and he considered how to put all that he felt into coherent and non sappy words.

I'll probably screw this up somehow, but I want to try to put into words what you mean to me.

- Because he NEEDED a disclaimer for whatever was about to come, failure was imminent. Already he was constructing sentences in his head, and crossing them all out. Nothing felt right.

You're not my only thing, or my everything, because you taught me to have more to live for. But you are a very important part of my life, which for now I couldn't even bring myself to think to live without. You taught me that you don't need books to be smart, that you don't need to be a bully to be strong, that you don't need to say nice things to be a good person. I like how you care without saying it, but by showing it, and I just want to say thank you for caring for me. I love you.

Yours always,

Zeke.

...

Zeke stared down at the card. It was better than he expected. Somehow he managed to get words down, that didn't sound entirely ridiculous... though they did a little bit.

Snapping the card shut, Zeke pulled himself off the floor and returned the materials he'd borrowed. Then with the time to spare, he returned to his beanbag chair and flopped into it.

Supplies with him, Adi grabbed blue paper and a pair of scissors. The paper he had grabbed was a shade that mimicked the colour of the Swedish Short Snout. Short Snouts were Henric's favourite type of dragon, after all.

With the scissors, Adi did his best to cut the paper into the outline of a flying Short Snout. You know, with the wings spread out and all. It took a WHOLE LOT of snips and adjustments before he was satisfied the cut out resembled a dragon. The tail was the easiest part to get right, by the way.

RIGHT! The basics for the card was completed. Now came the design. Adi pulled the coloured pencils closer to him. The first drawing was one of the Tree House on the Grounds with a stick figure that represented Henric. The stick figure was hovering in mid air while another stick figure that was Adi held pointed his wand at Henric. Hehe. This was that time the older Puffer levitate him up to the tree house.

The next drawing was of stick Henric surrounded by a pile of pumpkin pasties. Adi's friend was obsessed with those things, yo! A picture of the duo in the Common Room with Gus and Princess was added before Adi coloured each of them. Finally, he used the animation Charm to get them moving.

Now the drawings showed Henric moving up and down in mid air, him eating the Pasties and the boys laughing at a joke in their Common Room, the toads hopping about.

PERFECT!

Now that all of her supplies were obtained, Janelle needed to work on the cover of her card. She looked down at everything she had and waited for some inspiration to strike her. At first, she couldn't decide what to do. Then she had an idea. She folded her parchment in half to make the card. Then she took a piece of blue paper to use for her inside page. Grabbing some glue, she pasted the pieces together to make the card look just how she wanted it to.

Janelle decided to make use of the many stickers that she had. She wasn't really into flowers, but Jasmine liked all of that girly stuff. So Janelle used her flower stickers as trim on the corners of her card. She had to include a few pink ones because pink was her sister's favorite color. of course it was Next, she found a few butterflies to add to the overall girliness.

Once that was done, Janelle decided that she needed some words on her cover. She had something in mind, but it was kinda corny. Oh well, Jasmine would probably be happy with anything she gave her so she went with her corny idea. Taking some markers, she wrote down her words and added a few more stickers for good measure. When she was done with the cover, Janelle looked it over and was pretty much satisfied with the result. Now all she had to do was finish the inside. She needed some words that would say just how she felt.

Adi spent a good moment looking at his animation as he grinned to himself. Levitating Henric had been particularly hilarious. On his part, anyway. Henric had been terrified and furious at him. Still… they had had a good laugh about it afterward while they exchange Chocolate frog and Dragon cards. Shifting his card away from his pal so the boy would not see, Adi thought on the words to put in the card. Something funny and witty obviously.



There! All done! The Hufflepuff has used the coloured pencils to write the note. And to think he had someone calling him Super Adi. Well, it wasn’t the first time someone did but he liked the nickname. It reminded him of Elodie. He missed her tons. Anyway, his card was DONE! He’d be giving this to Henric soon. Merlin knew the younger Puff could do with a bit of cheering up.

Marsha smiled softly as the older girl took the cookie from her. Really, she had no idea if it would help.. it wasn’t likely especially if it was due to lack of sleep that she was tired - but the sugar kick might help her through the cass if nothing else. ”It’s nice to meet you, I’m Marsha.” Before she could say more though, Professor Glendower started the lesson so she simply shot another smile at the older Slytherin before paying attention.

Marsha listened to the others in the class mention Harry Potter and a lot of other people and events relating to the war with Voldemort at the end of the 20th century. Really, she couldn’t think of anyone else in history off the top of her head so she nodded adamantly when her classmates mentioned the names that she DID know… that totally counted… right? Sure. why not. It was the last class of the year (where had it gone though?) and surely, a few nodding heads and missed answers were expected.

She bite her lip wondering if anyone would judge her for her answer? Did it matter? Did it even count? She raised her hand slowly, frowning a little as it was her turn. ”Um… I look up to my Tad.” Pause and she took a deep breath before continuing, ”He is a bodyguard and works with security - which is a family business thing… but he is super good at his job which has put various members of our family in danger over the years but he always gets them back and makes sure that they are safe and protected… He saved my Mum when she got kidnapped about seven years ago before they were married and he was instrumental in helping a selection of my other aunts and uncles in getting my Aunt Myst back when she was kidnapped due to being important to an uncle of mine.” Yup… Big security and infiltration style companies unfortunately meant people wanted to get back at you.

Okaaayyy. So everyone probably thought she was crazy now, or understood just WHY most of her family were trained in some form of martial art style. However, regardless of all of that, really she was just super proud of the man who was her father and she would be really upset if that didn’t properly show through in her little fast garbled out-burst. But his loyalty, trust, love, compassion and dedication all make him an amazing man and I hope I end up being like him when I’m older.

OH! Activity time…. making a card for her Tad? Sure! Awesome even, but first more cookies! Especially since she had given Zhenya one of the ones she had originally picked up for herself. Bounding upwards, she grabbed another cookie (smiles to you Professor!) before she she moved to the art pile… She stood in front of the pile nibbling on her cookie for a few minutes before deciding what she wanted to make… Her taddy wasn’t the biggest fan of cards, so she looked over the supplies wondering what else she could make him to let him know how much she loved him… maybe a picture? or a certificate?

OH! A certificate! Maybe? She eyed the Professor trying to remember if she had stated a card specifically… but honestly she couldn’t remember. Oh well! Certificate it was. Grinning, she picked up a few supplies to begin … well something. She didn’t know what yet.

Puck just raised an eyebrow over at Marsha – was she supposed to talk about the family business? Because that seems a bit…like top secret platinum level clearance stuff right? “Well, I’m glad your dad good to you Marsha,” Puck smiled over to her, sure, sure a part of that stung. But it always did whenever someone had the family she had never really had herself.

“Oh, this is going to be fun,” she took a deep breath got up and began to walk over to the art supplies. Now, now this was going to be interesting. Picking up a selection of paper and crafting supplies she couldn’t help but laugh.

She was writing a card to a dead person…maybe it would have been smarter or more fitting to write to her mother? Which, well, that might happen. “C-can we change our people to someone more fitting?” She asked nervously and chewed on the edge of her lip.

Really.

This was nerve wracking.

Because she hadn’t really ever gotten the chance to say goodbye and maybe, maybe this would be it. A card she would never be able to actually send.

Okay, so AJ wasn't the artistic type... like, at all. BUT she always appreciated an easy breezy class that didn't take a whole lot of thinking. That was something that she wasn't sure she was up for. However, making cards, that was something she could do. AJ was ALL over that.

Deciding that grabbing an assortment of things and just letting something come to her, she snagged handfuls of supplies. Walking back to her little area, she plopped all of the supplies down.

Before she could really get her creative juices flowing, she was going to need some more snacks. That much was a given. The lion walked back up to the front to grab some more cookies and refill her pumpkin juice.

All set. Okay. Now what to make for her grandpa? He would love anything really, but she wanted to make him something a little special. He deserved it. After all, where did her dad get his awesomeness from? Grandpa, that's right!

Eden grabbed two sheets of paper, markers, some inks, a quill, and tried her best not to spill it as she maneuvered back to her desk to begin working. By now, she was a pro at folding paper cranes. Once again, THANK YOU MADDIE COOPER.

So the folding began, and Eden went very slow to ensure that they were PERFECT. Oh. Maybe she should have...painted them first? Oops. So she carefully unfolded the paper and sighed as she tried to flatten out the crinkles and the lines...she did her best.

Okay so the first one, she was going to paint a pretty light green color...and the second one a pretty PINK color. Were they supposed to just be doing notes? Oh well. Eden could say she was doing an ELABORATE note, eh? Hehe. She dipped her brush into the ink and began to spread the color across her paper...first the green...and then the pink...normally, Eden didn't like pink, but she was dealing with it right now because she thought THE GREEN fit for one twin the PINK for the other, hehe. It would all work out okay.

Now...for drawing the little leaves one one and the berries on the other...because she had such a specific idea in mind..

AJ bit her bottom lip as she looked over her supplies that were laid out in a mess in front of her. What should she do? Too bad she couldn’t do something extra awesome and add a little magic to his card. Her grandpa would sure get a kick out of that. She wondered for a moment about how to make the card smoke every time you opened it. That would be wicked. It seemed like an awful lot work though and this was supposed to be a chill sort of lesson. Nah. It wasn’t going to happen. She just decided.

With that dilemma out of the way, she now needed to come up with a different game plan. A perfect idea immediately popped into her head. Baseball! Her grandpa liked all sports, but this was something that she shared with him and her dad. Perfect.

Rummaging through her supplies, she picked out the colors that she would need and got straight to work. First she needed to draw some grass. It had to be perfect. She wanted it to remind her grandpa of the time the three of them had went to the game together. What an amazing time they had. Sadly, it would probably be the last time that he would be able to go since he was getting up there in age. No, she wasn’t going to turn this into a sad thing. This was a happy card.

Marsha hadn’t thought about that - it was well known within their family so she didn’t think about it before saying it. The thought didn’t even pass her mind now, instead she simply grinned at her Prefect and nodded her head happily. ”He’s amazing.” … And he was everything to her. Well, and her mum and Alis of course.

Sitting back down at desk, she tapped one of the pens on her bottom lip as she stared at the paper. Okay… her Tad… heeeerrrr Tadddyyyy. Hmm. What did he like? Whhaaattt dooooeeesssss heee likeee? Griffin, this was hard.

Picking up her wand, she held it over the paper and said ”Colovaria!” as she imagined the paper turning a lightish blue/green/teal/thing. She didn’t really know the colour name but she liked the colour the paper had turned and she hoped that her Tad liked it too.

Okkkaaayyyy. Now that that was done, how did she want to set this out? Well, every certificate she had ever seen had a border on it - to accen… Hmph. To show off what the certificate was for. Yup, that.

So, she picked up a pencil and started to doodle around the edge of the paper. Little random images that represented them as a family. A dragon for Wales, a dummy for Alis. A horse and a cat for Duchess and Chestnut. A stable and a house. And so the pictures went around the outside. They looked nice and crisp in graphite against the lighter colour of the paper. Wheeeee.

Did they know how inspirational they were to him? Well... that was the question. When it came to his parents, Toby made it a point to tell them how much he loved them, as often as he could, but he couldn't really remember saying more than that. Mostly because sometimes he wasn't sure how much they wanted to hear it, because if they let him, Toby could ramble on for hours and hours and hours and it was usually smart to avoid doing that in the first place. In contrast, he'd told his grandmother often, and in great detail, how much she inspired him, so at least there was that.

Right then. Card for Piers and Javy. That sounded like a good idea - and more feasible than a card for literally everyone in the world, of course. Just for the parents. Nice and personal.

Of course, Toby needed supplies first. He already knew exactly what the design of the card would be, and exactly how to decorate it, and so wasted no time in going up to get what he needed.

Or... trying to. Because first he had to totally wrestle himself out of the beanbag, which essentially ended with him rolling his way out of it and onto the floor, and then standing up. Ahem. Nothing to see here.

So... supplies. He needed card, of course, white and black and also blue and green. And pens. And glitter.

So. Much. Glitter.

Maybe he'd even get a snack too, to get in the creative mood or whatever.

Nessa hung back a bit from the supply boxes, nibbling on her peanut butter cookie as she watched students get started on their cards. Not that the necessarily had to show them to her as this was more an exercise for themselves and an honoring to those they have chosen, she was eager to see their creativeness at work. Perhaps she'd walk around the beanbag circle to see a bit for herself. But for now, she was making her own card!

She thought about doing a symbolic card for Wendelin the Weird because she knew she could make it really cool looking with fake flames and all. But instead she decided to make one for her BFF to let her know how inspirational she was to her. Thinking about her reminded Nessa that she still needed Cassie to do that reading for her to help her make a decision about the recent letter she had received. It was those thoughts that she was lost in as she reached into the box to get supplies for herself and she heard Puck's question.

"Oh you can create a card for anyone you find to be an inspiration in your life," she said as she pulled out some silver glitter and several colors of cardstock. "It doesn't have to be who you named just now." Hadn't she said that? Well, she thought she did and if she hadn't, she did now. Grabbing a handful of markers as well, Nessa made it back to her beanbag chair and set her supplies down on the floor in front of her.

Angel was going to enjoy doing this for her head of house, he was such an amazing person and she knew already what she wanted to do and how she wanted to make the card look he was so much a star trek fan and so she decided on the best design possible.

Angel started by making the enterprise bridge, she had the usual crew on their like Spock, McCoy and all the usual but instead of having Captain Kirk as the leader well she was going to put Professor Flamsteed in, she started to draw him trying to make it perfect, when she thought she had him down to a tee she looked at it and giggled how awesome was this... she wanted it to be amazing for him, she made sure that his hand was pointing like he was telling his crew to go full speed ahead.

One side of her card was covered in different colors. Green for the grass, and white for the bases, silver for the stadium and a multitude of colors for the people in the stands. Yeah, it wasn’t perfect because art wasn’t her thing, but you could tell what she was going for here. She even had a man walking up the stairs holding snacks for the game. You had to have peanuts at a ballgame. There were rules.

Now came the even harder part. She needed to write words. Actual heartfelt words. You see, AJ had it all in her head, but trying to write it all down was a totally different thing. It was hard, man. Why couldn’t she just give him a hug, and let the squishes do all of the talking? She sighed, and picked up a marker with a fine point. No more messing around. She had to get this down. In fact, she would reward herself with another sweet treat. There you go, Valentine. The ball’s in your court.



There. That actually wasn’t bad at all. Once her marker started to move it actually all just flowed out. AJ stared at her artwork for just a moment. It was perfect. She knew that he grandpa would love it. Hopefully grandma didn’t get jealous. Maybe she better get her mom to send some of her treats from the bakery to her… just in case.

Angel looked at her nice card, she hoped that the Professor would love it, seriously she wanted to know more about him after her chat with him, next term she was going to ask him if she could get to travel to another planet and see what plant life is like there. She thought it would be super cool if she could but she had no idea how one went about doing that, maybe he could help her.

Angel now had to think what to write in the card, Your cool and we all know you are was the first thought but she didn't like it, it was a bit lame and would be better for a chant, maybe if the Professor even left she would chant that to him.

Angel suddenly got what she wanted to say.



Angel was totally going to give her card to her head of house at the end of term feast. She smiled as she finished what she was doing and then she waited to see what the Professor asked them to do next.