Quote:

Originally Posted by kayquilz

OH DAVID TRUEBRIDGE. He got an enthusiastic wave from Myers. "HELLO m'boy! Nice tire...thing!" Whatever it was. It was nice, though, because Davie was doing it. The boy could do no wrong, according to Paul. "Come get a plant when you have a chance, all right?"

"It's going to be a tire SWING, sir," Davie offered up helpfully, charmingly of course, as he grinned real big at Myers. BUT OF COURSE he would come get a plant! The second year nodded and gave Myers an enthusiastic thumb's up to show him that he heard him.

But for now, back to the tire show!

SPOILER!!: Blaise B & Tenacious D

Quote:

Originally Posted by Steelsheen

Ok so looks like the tire crew was headed this way, with more supplies too. Huzzah!

Tenacius stood back a looked at his swing now hanging on the formerly scraggy, broken fence. Very not bad eh? He pushed his tire swing and gingerly put his weight on it. Very not bad, given that these were all worthless junk earlier. The miracle a bit of elbow grease (and a bucket load of sweat) can do eh?

He watched the others get their tires into gear. And speaking of making old tires useful, the Gryffindor boy also started rolling more tires nearer to his work area. Yup he's got another project a-brewin' under that curly noggin of his.

Keep on rollin... Keep on rollin....

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaniDiNardo

He wasn't close enough to hear most of the discussion and in fact this garbage had him distracted but he DID hear Davie's shout. THEY GOT ROPE! They could make the swing! Quick as that, Blaise dropped everything he'd been sorting into the big garbage heap and hurried back to his friends.

Tire moving over to that Tenacious kid from his house--who'd already made a swing. Neat! It was kinda like a playground. Sorta like what he'd imagined when the Professor asked how he'd have felt playing here. The thing was, this place had so much raw potential that he knew something like this was possible and the boy took hold of the tire Davie needed help with.

"On three, we lift."

Fingers buried beneath the tire, Blaise took a moment to collect himself, gather his strength if you will. "One...two...THREE!"

Liiiiiiiiiffft.

On three... right! "One..." Davie counted out with Blaise, getting back to squatting, "two...THREE!" He lifted at the same time as his friend and once the tire was up, Davie put a steadying hand against it to make sure it didn't suddenly go anywhere. "Time to roll!" he called out gleefully, giving the tire a push so it would start to move toward the other Gryffindor.

This was gonna be GREAT. A GREAT use of class time.

Ariadne exchanged her cleaning gloves for a fresh pair of gloves that would be perfect for painting. That part was easy. The paint color she wanted was something else entirely. As much as she loved a rainbow fence, she knew it wasn't exactly practical, and no one really had that in their front yard. She glanced around and looked at what other people had done. What would look good with THAT? In the end, Ariadne decided to paint the fence board white and then paint pretty flowers going up and down a few of the boards. Yeeeaaaaah! That's what she'd do!

Ariadne got the rest of the painting supplies together then headed over to the fence. She chose a board that had already been repaired by another student then sat down in front of it. She laid out a piece of plastic, so the paint wouldn't drip on the floor then placed a tray down on top of it. She poured a bit of the white paint into the tray then dipped the brush in it. Then she began to paint the boards. Oddly enough, painting the fence was kind of calming and peaceful. She didn't know if it was the fact that she was beautifying something, or the fact that paint itself was such calm motions. Either way, this was kind of cool! Pretty soon, she'd painted three boards all by herself!

Earthy tones... browns and greys... he actually hadn't considered that. "Mmm, maybe," he replied agreeably. He'd keep it in mind for when he bit the bullet and purchased a tin. If it proved too difficult a choice he could always pick a colour at random, and live with the consequences of it. No biggie, so long as it wasn't pink... or purple... or girly in general.

He was conscious of the fact that things were going on around them, but he didn't much care for it, painting would do for now... all he really wanted though was to get out of here.

When Hady set her brush down and said something about flower pots, Zeke waved his brush in her direction, probably adding to the paint on her clothes, "Sure." Flowers. He didn't much fancy planing flowers. Painting was beautifying enough, was it not? And what was the point in planting flowers in an enchanted space they wouldn't be seeing again anyway? What was the point of any of this?

...

Yuck. Now Dot herself needed cleaning and beautification. She tugged off her glove and gave her injured finger a careful swabbing before wrapping it up again. Was there anyone who could help her... not really. Everyone was engaged in their projects, and it was just a little cut. The glove went back on over her bandaged finger, and Dot tried to ignore how much it stung.

Maybe she'd use her wand to pick up the rest of the broken glass and metal? There wasn't anything that said they couldn't use a little magic to make things happen. Dot banished the sharp and unsafe bits, stacked the rest of the tires, and cleared up some old stacks of magazines. Were those worth saving? Maybe for another Maddie art project? She set them to the side.

"Oh thanks" replied Kitty to Ariadne calling her camera cool. "My mother gave it to me so I could take pictures of everything I saw so some day I can become a journalist like her. I don't if I'll ever be a journalist, but I still love this camera." She snapped another picture - this one of the fence when it was unpainted. She wanted to have a before and after picture. She also took a picture of the honking daffodils, giggling when Ariadne made them laugh.

"Me too!" Kitty said, bending down to help Ariadne paint the fence. Since Ariadne picked pink (which was her first choice), she went with orange and began painting.

Dima didn't mind Bast's humming; it was less off-key than his own would be, anyway. "Because I'm making tire art. And it's going to be white." Obviously. He continued painting, for the medium was school quality and needed quite a few coats to cover up the black of the rubber tire.

"What are you going to do after you finish... that?" His wall. Dmitriy had the same feelings about the scrubbing as his cousin did, not incapable of cleaning but more inclined towards using his wand. He wasn't pretending at all that he didn't like the creativity bit a million times better.

SPOILER!!: Spencer! <3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Savannah Granger

Spencer smiled. "That's great, I'm glad that you love your house so much, Gryffindor is great I love it."said Spencer. Spencer loved how nice people in Gryffindor were, they were so nice and friendly, he made some really good friends with his fellow lions. Spencer laughed. "No I'm not, after the rain started, it gotten me sick so I hid under the table until it was over. "said Spencer honestly.


"Thanks, guess I know how to do stuff like this, I do stuff like this with my mom every summer. "said Spencer. "You're doing a good job as well, we make a pretty good team Rachel. said Spencer. "That's a good idea Rachel, I'm sure they'll make be great for planting something in."said Spencer. Spencer seen that there were a few more laying around, Rachel was right, they'll be great to plant flowers in.


Spencer followed closely behind her walking towards Professor Myers. "Hello Professor, how do you do?"Spencer asked. Spencer looked at the honking daffodils, they were quite pretty looking and will make their buckets look great.

Rachel wasn’t one to judge especially not from the actions based on a few persons. Here was Spencer who was clearly not an unruly one. “I’m sorry to hear you got sick, Spencer. But I’m happy you didn’t take part in the fight.’’ She giggled. “I hid under the Ravenclaw table too.’’ Yes, she had. She had followed the actions of her student leader, Tia.

Spencer’s comments about helping his mother lead her to believe that he had muggle blood in him. This didn’t bother her. She adored some of the things done the Muggle way. “Doing chores with a parent is always fun.’’ She smiled, thinking of her own parents. “Thank you. It’s always handy to know about the muggle way of life. Yes, we do. We should work together more often in classes.’’ She finished painting another bucket with a flourish.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

“Thank you, Professor Myers,’’ Rachel exclaimed excitedly as she collected two Honking Daffodils. She fondly hugged them to her so that they honked which caused her to erupt in a fit of quiet giggles. “Are you going to plant any, Spencer?’’ He was always welcome to do so in their new buckets. After checking that the paint was sufficiently dry (she had to wait a bit), she transferred one daffodil and its soil into one of the buckets she had painted.

She stood back to admire the daffodil. “They look gorgeous together,’’ she told Spencer, referring to the bucket and the plant. Once she was done doting on the pretty combination of the two, she proceeded to repeat the step for the second daffodil.

Once the trash was picked up, Dot could focus on clearing the patch of all the weeds and things that cluttered it. Maybe she ought to keep the plants that weren't weeds, but... to be frank, Dot wasn't great at Herbology without her book and certainly didn't know which plants were weeds and which weren't.

And they all looked like weeds to her.

So everything came up, every dandelion, every branch, every vine twisting the life out of a square of pavement. She pulled up every single green thing until the entire patch was devoid of life. Green life. There was probably bug life under the ground, right?

Dot smoothed the dirt that was left as she considered her next step. It needed... ouch. Her finger. FINGER DISTRACTION.

Azura gave Colt a bit of a smirk, "Mmmmhmmm, look at me." She said with a warm smile as she grinned at him. Yeah, she may be a Ravenclaw, but she had some fight in her. She gasped as more paint splattered on her black shirt.. Truth was, it looked pretty awesome! But she wasn't going to tell Colt that!

She flicked more black paint at him and smiled.. "That might be a good idea." She said with a smile as she worked more on her mural

She shrugged as he spoke.. "I guess you can put your initials on it." She said with a warm smile as she stood her her tip toes to put a little flourish on some music notes..

"There.." She said pleased with herself..

Once Scarlett had gotten all those newspapers swept up, she decided to hose down one of the nearby walls, which she also decided was going to be her CANVAS when she got to the painting bit of this project. But there were no hoses - just buckets and sponges. Ugh. That would have to do!

She walked over and grabbed herself a bucket, made sure it had lots of sudsy water in it, and then grabbed a clean sponge and walked over to a particularly disgusting looking patch of wall and began to scrub. It was kind of satisfying seeing all the dirty and junk wash away and the white plaster peeking through...it made her feel so accomplished!

It would be easier to do the creative part with someone like Dima helping her. Dot just didn't trust her aesthetic eye to know what to do with the space now that she'd cleared it. Something with flowers, probably, and it would be really cool if she could figure out a way to incorporate the stuff she collected back into the plot. Like a fence made of recyclables, or... artwork...?

She was rubbish at this part. Rubbish with rubbish. Give her cloth, and Dot knew what to do with it almost as soon as it was in her hands, but give her this... garbage and a plot of land, and she was stuck. Maybe if she thought about it like clothing, about embellishing the land in a way that took advantage of its natural beauty.

She could frame it with some of the rocks in the area, and then build inward from low plants to higher plants, making sure everything was visible. And then create a sort of central... something. And a path leading to it!

Dot immediately began collecting rocks, setting each one in a perimeter around her section of the lot so she didn't have to move anything twice. Ignoring her throbbing finger, she lined the whole area AND managed to find a good sized pile of the crushed rocks to make a nice walkway.

After the final bucket was tossed into his bag, Carl looked around. He found some more trash in the corner of the classroom and decided to work there. The rubbish consisted mainly of plastic bottles and used tissue paper. He picked them up (glad that he had gloves on) and put them into his bin bag. Now, the bag still had a bit of space but it was heavy, with all the buckets and bottles. There was no choice but to drag it around.

What to clean next? Everybody was working so quickly that the room was significantly neater. Some spying got him to discover the fallen leaves and branches hidden under a tire. That would be his next destination.

"A journalist sounds cool! You mean for the Daily Prophet or something?" she asked. "You could report on all the major things happening in the wizarding world! I think it'd be a cool job!" It wasn't something Ariadne would chose for her own career, but that didn't mean she didn't think it was SUPER COOL for others! Ariadne stopped her painting to watch Kitty take some pictures. Once she was done, Ariadne realized she was at a stopping point with painting the fence white and could probably start painting her flowers now.

Ariadne was NOT an artist. She was one of those people whose floral artwork would consist of a stick for a stem, some decent looking leaves, and then a few curly-looking petals on top. That didn't stop her from OWNING this painting task, though. She had taken a smaller paintbrush and alternated between brown, green, and pink to make her little flowers. She had no idea what TYPE of flowers they were, but they were PRETTY, and that's all that mattered! Ariadne painted her little flowers up and down the three boards that she's painted. "How's this look?" she asked Kitty.

His tire was white as snow, and Dima was in need of a new tool now. He ditched Bast for a second to go rummaging through the giant box of supplies the Headmistress had left them. A Severing Charm would have done the trick and probably made him feel a lot more confident with what he was about to do, given carving wasn't his favorite way to create art... but this was Muggle Studies.

Moxley had apparently been smart enough not to leave any sharp objects out for kids, so the Ravenclaw had to rely on... hm. He dug a particularly sharp broken glass shard out of a trash heap with a gloved hand, hoping the protective gear was enough to keep him from slicing his skin open. Dmitriy made his way back to Bastien and his tire with the sliver in tow, settling on the ground before attempting anything.

Obviously, this wasn't the ideal object for going through rubber, but he had no other options. He was lucky that this tire was dingy and worn, softer than most and devoid of steel. It was slow work, although the sixth year managed to make all the cuts he wanted in the end, pushing apart the tire to force it into the shape for which he'd been going.

He painted on a couple of black accents, adorning his masterpiece with a bright red beak for a finishing touch. Ta-da. Beautified enough?

"What d'you think?" More importantly, could he be done?

Once all the leaves were collected in a pile, Esme went about placing them where they belonged with the other yard waste. They were making really good progress in cleaning up the classroom.

It made her Hufflepuff heart proud.

Now what should she do....?

Considering planting those lovely daffodils, she looked around and spotted Azura with a Slytherin boy (Colt). "Wow, that mural looks amazing," she told her friend as she approached them. She was very impressed. "Maybe I can make one beside yours!!" That would be so much fun. She could do something really pretty even if she wasn't much of an artist.

"Hey, I'm Esme!" she added to the boy, realizing that she hadn't introduced herself. Humming to herself, Esme got some yellow paint and began to apply it. This was going to be amazing.

By this point, Cal was aimlessly dragging the rake around, collecting whatever came in his way. This was so boooooorrrrinnnggg. This could've been done so long agooooo.

He stopped to place his forehead on the top of the rake handle and spun around it.

Around, around, around, he went until his eyes were spinning around on their own and --whoa-- so is his head.

Cal wobbled around as his world spun, trying to focus on the people painting in front of him. That looks more interesting.

SPOILER!!: Zeke!

Earthy tones... browns and greys... he actually hadn't considered that. "Mmm, maybe," he replied agreeably. He'd keep it in mind for when he bit the bullet and purchased a tin. If it proved too difficult a choice he could always pick a colour at random, and live with the consequences of it. No biggie, so long as it wasn't pink... or purple... or girly in general.

He was conscious of the fact that things were going on around them, but he didn't much care for it, painting would do for now... all he really wanted though was to get out of here.

When Hady set her brush down and said something about flower pots, Zeke waved his brush in her direction, probably adding to the paint on her clothes, "Sure." Flowers. He didn't much fancy planing flowers. Painting was beautifying enough, was it not? And what was the point in planting flowers in an enchanted space they wouldn't be seeing again anyway? What was the point of any of this?

Maybe was better then a no. Plus it was only a suggestion. An attempt to possibly toss out some color ideas in order to give her friends a bit more to think on. Was she helpful or not with it, the snakette didn't really no but Zeke had said maybe ANNNNDDDD he hadn't made a face in disgust. Hady gave a small nod of her head and a slight smile in his direction. Earthy wasn't a bad idea. "Simple enough colors to keep a room light and airy and easy to decorate." Mhmm.

Ugh Zeke thanks! She really could've done just fine without that extra paint sprayed at her when waving the brush. Especially to her hair! Covered in paint was not how she saw her day going when she woke up this morning. Just so she got it all off before Frankie got a good look at her. More importantly though at the minute was getting herself a flower, planting it and then completing the paint on the fence.

Mel nodded, “I get that…I know some dogs nibble on people to say hello” she added with a grin. This place was going to be the pinnacle attraction of the well…castle when they were finished with it! Taking a broom and a rag she began to walk around thinking what she could possibly do here.

Using her rag she began to wipe at all of the cobwebs and little critter-filled-areas near the windows and tried to make the place look like maaaaybe a beautiful garden could be there…speaking of gardens did they have clippers? She could use them to get rid of the derelict fence and then make something of the area…like make seats and swings our of the tires…ooooooooh a colorful tire swing park maybe?

Now that she had her daffodils, Janelle carried them over to her little corner of the room. Nothing could brighten up dreariness like pretty flowers. Setting them down, Janelle surveyed the area once more. Annnnd she had an idea. Janelle would get to do some painting after all, just not of the spray can variety.

Going over to her stash of stuff, Janelle bypassed the trash bagas and retrieved three of her formerly overturned buckets. They would do just fine. Next stop, the supply box. This time, Janelle got some paint and a couple of paint brushes. Last, but not least, she got some sponges a bucket of soapy water and a bucket of clean water. Back to the daffodils she went, full of inspiration.

Dipping her sponge in the soapy water, Janelle began to clean the dirty buckets inside and out. Then she rinsed them and began to shake them to help them dry faster. Once the buckets were dry, Janelle retrieved her paint and paintbrush and began to chanel her inner artist. Thinking of things that made her happy, she began to paint. The first bucket had lots of yellow and blue and brown. Sunshine and sand and the ocean. If that didn't make people feel good, she didn't know what would. When that was done, Janelle put it aside to dry and got to work on the second bucket. Perky planters for pretty flowers, that's what her buckets would become.

Kitty was embarrassed to admit that she didn't know what newspaper her mother currently worked at. Sometimes she wrote for the Daily Prophet but sometimes she wrote for other newspapers. She was a "freelancer", which was sounded pretty cool. "Yeah, I think it's for the Daily Prophet. That was why we had to go to Romania, because she was interviewing their Minister of Magic. It is pretty cool, but I don't like some of the rules that my mom says journalists have to follow. Like the one that says that you can't be friends with the person you are interviewing because it makes you biased."She thought it sounded very cold, and Kitty was not a cold person. "But other than that its pretty cool, right now I'm doing some investigating here at Hogwarts. Do you remember the Tapestry in the fourth floor corridor?"Maybe since Ariadne's mom used to teach at Hogwarts she would know its backstory.

"I love them!"Kitty replied about Ariadne's flowers. "Can I take a picture of them?" Without waiting for an answer she took two pictures.

Mel had run off again grabbing a scrapper down. Using the putty scrapper she began to scrape paint off of the wall near her and scrapping it as hard and fast as she could. It wasn’t bad work, no, it was actually kind of fun.

Now however there was a pile of paint chips on the ground in front of her feet and that was no good. But the wall was cleaned off and now….”lets do this sweeper,” she snorted giving the broom a lame name was easy using it to move the dirt and eeeevery small bit of debri into a pile was the harder part. Next, next she would have to get the debris into the trash before getting ready to paint the walls and well beautify the entire area.

And there goes the tires rooooolll....

Tenacius let the tires roll until they hit the wall as he made a short detour to where he set the wire mesh aside. While he waited for the rest of the tire crew to get to his work space, he's gonna get another project started.

Since there was a lot of tires, and there was the excess wire mesh from the fence, why not get a tire climb to go with it eh?

And that he started to do, dragging the wiremesh closer to the wall and laid it out as straight as he could. Lots of going back and forth just getting this done see. Times like this where he wished he was a lot taller and a lot heftier.

When the wire mesh was sorted out, he stacked up the tires next to the wall, giving him an extra boost so he can reach its top. He began hammering nails across, hammer hammer hammer, shift the tire boost further down the wall, hammer hammer hammer again.

Gah he cant feel his arms no more. Time for a break.

Janelle was really into her painting now. Bucket number two consisted of pictures of the honking daffodils all around it. Standing back, Janelle admired her work. Not too bad, if she said so herself. Setting the second bucket aside, Janelle was ready to get to work on bucket number three. The only thing was, she couldn't decide what to paint this time. She stood with the paintbrush in her hand for a moment and pondered the options, which of course were endless.

Finally, Janelle had an idea. What else made her happy? Her family and friends, that's what. So that's what Janelle painted, happy looking people circling the bucket, hand in hand. It made her smile and hopefully it would make others smile too. If not the theme, then her questionable painting ability should bring a smile to someone's face.

Once she was done, Janelle grabbed the clean bucket of water and carefully poured a little into the daffodil pots. Of course they needed to be freshly watered.......but not too much. Checking her first two buckets, Janelle deemed them to be sufficiently dry. Moving close to them, she took a quick whiff. Wouldn't want to choke the flowers with paint fumes, but everything seemed fine. Placing her buckets where she had envisioned them, Janelle brought her daffodils over and gently put them inside. Perfect, at least in her mind. When the last bucket was dry, she put the final plant inside. With a satisfied look, felt good about the transformation of her area.

Colt looked down on himself and noticed that he had white paint all over his black shirt. He began to decipher what shapes it could be. "I think you made a picture right here.." He pointed to his middle. "It looks like a flower. Very suave of you." She was a tricky ravenclaw she was. He began to see her mural and he tilted his head. Hmm it looked pretty cool. He appreciated her creativity. "So your into music huh?" he asked. Just a hunch.

Once he got his initials on it and now it would be forever there, he beamed and it looked nice. "You know it could use a splash of color..." he winked and was joking of course. He went back to potting his plant. He got his tulip all set and began to put soil around it and then realized he needed some water. He got up and got a watering can and began to sprinkle with water. He didn't want to drown the poor thing. Once set, he placed his new flower near Azura's mural. "There now it looks even better."

Chloe was sat down near all of the blankets she had collected and began to shift through them. One was ripped, one was destroyed but some were better than others. She could make do with what she had. After all, this was a basic shelter that she had to build without magic. She was twelve.

This was the best she was gonna do.

Once she had about twelve blankets she felt comfortable with, she took two of the tarps she found (tarps that had some suspect brown spots on them) and hung them from a nearby wall.

Well, kind of. It took several tries until it hung lamely from the wall. But it would do. She took a trash bin, dragged it over and then tucked the tarp in it. So it looked almost tent-like.