Arts and Crafts Time

Jude wandered around the Quidditch pitch, which was empty at the moment. He wasn't looking for anything in particular, just wandering. As he made his way around, it was easily apparent which students occupied which sections of the stands. Each was marked with the colors of the house that would sit there.

He sat momentarily on a bench in the Slytherin section and smiled to himself as a devilish idea popped into his mind. It was childish for sure, but there was no one there to witness it, so what was the harm. He dug through his pockets as he made his way to the Gryffindor section, extracting a self-inking quill with neon-green ink that glowed in the dark as he arrived there. He checked again to make sure there was no one around, then ducked down and began scrolling anti-Gryffindor graffiti on the benches and surrounding area.

He stopped when he heard footsteps approaching, hoping that it would be a professor to get him into trouble.

Jasmine reached her destination of the Quidditch Pitch and had a look around. She wasn't a huge fan of flying, but she enjoyed it all the same. Much like one enjoys lettuce. People rarely say it's their favourite food, but most people enjoy the taste of it.

She walked around the ground and looked up at the stands, seeing, in the distance, a boy by the looks. In the Gryffindor section. She rolled her eyes, and walked closer to the stands to see what he was up to.

Getting much closer to the stands, Jasmine could make out the uniform of the boy was not what she expected, but green in colour. She was very curious now. What was a Slytherin boy doing in the Gryffindor section? She had to check this out.

Walking through the stands, Jasmine made it to the Gryffindor section, and creeped up on the boy. She wanted to see what he was doing, before she made herself aware to him. She obviously wasn't doing a very good stealth job, as she saw the boy stop whatever he was doing. She sighed and walked up to him.

"Wishing you were a Lion, instead?" she asked him. If he answered yes, his boy wasn't someone she would associate with for long; just in case it rubbed off on her.

Jude was frozen in place as he waited to see if the person approaching him was a professor, but he went back to doodling on the seats as he realized it was not an authority figure, but rather a girl of his own age, also a Slytherin, judging by her robes.

He snorted as she asked if he fancied a change of house. "I would rather marry the Whomping Willow and move to Russia to raise herds of flobberworms," he said with a deadpan face as he added a bludger zooming towards a line of stick figures wearing Gryffindor robes, looking not unlike a sketch of someone playing muggle bowling, if you replaced the pins with pinheads, that is.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of making your acquaintance?" he asked in a bored voice, still facing the bench, not sure if it was actually a pleasure or not yet.

Jasmine snorted. Marrying the Whomping Willow is quite extreme, unless he likes the idea of being in pain, but his answer was suffice.

"Good answer," she said, leaning forward to see what he was doing. She grinned at the display. "Very nice," was her reply.

Hearing the question, Jasmine replied. "Nothing. I was just wondering what a Slytherin boy doing in these stands," she said, wondering who still spoke as he did in this day and age, "But I can see you are doing vital work, so I shall not bother you, if you're busy." Jasmine had the feeling that this was the Jude boy that Alli said was her friend. "I'm Jasmine, by the way; Alli's friend. In fact, I was just looking for her. You seen her around?"

Ah, so this was Jasmine. Alli had mentioned her a few times, and Jude had seen her around, but he had never spoken to her before. "Jude," he said, feeling rather like a caveman with his one word answer, but it didn't matter much since she already seemed to have an idea of who he was.

"I think she's in Muggle Studies right now," he replied. He still hadn't worked out why Alli was taking that rubbish class in the first place. "She said she'd meet me here later and we'd go out into the forest. I heard there's an acromantula colony in there."

He fished around in his pocket, then extracted a second quill identical to the one he was already using. He offered it to her and said, "You're welcome to stay and wait with me, if you want."

Jasmine nodded slightly. She was right. This was Jude. Alli was definitely right. He was pretty cool.

"The Forest, hey? Sounds awesome." Jasmine hadn't been in there before, but loved the idea of it. Danger and discovery; two of her favourite things.

She glanced down and saw the quill he was offering her. "Sure. Happy to," she said, taking it as she crouched down, much like he was.

"I have to admit, I'm a horrible artist, so the Gryffindors won't be offended by my artistry. In fact, it'll probably be a challenge for them to interpret what I'm trying to insult them with; dense as they are."

Jude rolled his eyes. "I'm sure you're not that bad. Plus, it doesn't matter what we draw; those cavemen are going to spend hours trying to figure it out."

Any other 11 year old boy in his position would have seized the opportunity to add a few obscenities here and there, but even as a graffiti artist, Jude had more class than that. He started drawing a rather large, dumb looking person, dressed in Gryffindor robes, looking dopey as they all looked. "I think I'd have AK'd myself if I'd been sorted anywhere else," he said truthfully.

Jasmine had to agree; anything she did actually draw would take the dunder-brain Gryffindors a million years to figure out. She placed the quill to the wood beneath her and started to draw. She hadn't drawn anything this much fun for quite some time and realised that she rather missed it, even if she hadn't been very good at it. Jasmine traced out a vile looking troll, garbed, of course, with a Gryffindor uniform. She had to giggle at the sight of it; very realistic, in her opinion.

Jasmine looked up at Jude when he spoke and nodded again. "I said a similar thing to Alli. I really would have. I couldn't imagine anything worse that being stuck with those idiots all day, every day. Stuff of nightmares, that is."

She asked the Slytherin boy a question. "So. How come I've never seen you around? Prefer to keep to yourself?"

Jude nodded. "It's either that or spend my time playing figure out who is worth talking to and who isn't. I don't like that game very much though because it usually turns out to be a waste of my time."

He looked at her drawing and reached over to improve it; it was missing one vital element. He sketched a few drips of drool coming out of the troll-creature's mouth. It was crude, but he'd seen those apes eat, so he figured it was appropriate. "Much better," he declared.

Jasmine was liking this boy already. He seemed to have a lot of things in common with herself and Alli.

"I know what you mean. I can usually tell if someone is worth the time by the first few words from their mouths... and if they are Gryffindors or Hufflepuffs, I don't even give them a chance. Why bother?"

She watched on as Jude added something to her drawing. His body was temporary blocking her view, so she let him complete the drawing and then she'd have a look. As she moved away again, Jasmine had a look at what he did. She burst out laughing.

"I agree. That is much better. I cannot believe I actually forgot something so important. Shame on me."

Indeed, you should be punished for forgetting such an important detail. Maybe I can snatch a Gryffindor robe out of the laundry for you to wear as pennance for your sin," Jude said.

He was joking, of course. He would never wish that pain upon anyone, unless they really deserved it.

He moved to the next bench up and started making up a song that he scribbled as he went. He thought hard. "I need something that rhymes with stupid. And idiot."

Jasmine shuddered, "Oh please don't," she cried. "I do anything, but please don't make me wear such a degrading uniform. I couldn't handle even the thought of someone actually thinking I'm a Gryffindor." She shuddered again. "Gross."

Jasmine shrugged. "I'm no good with rhymes. Don't ask me for anything. I swear I created a poem with the word orange as one of the words I had to then rhyme with. Not good. Really."

She picked up the quill Jude lend her and started to draw another picture, this time it was a picture of a large cauldron, with several Gryffindor students placed within. She added detail to the flame underneath the boiling pot. How delightful.

Jude shrugged. "I guess it doesn't really matter. It's not like any of them will actually notice if it rhymes or not. I'm pretty sure they all converse in grunts anyway."

He peered down at her drawing from the higher up bench. "Gryffindor stew, how appetizing," he said sarcastically. "I think that would actually be toxic, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone."

Jasmine laughed, something she was doing often with Jude. He really was a very funny boy.

"It would be rather disgusting," she agreed, adding the finishing touches to her drawing before straightening her back. She looked out to the Quidditch Pitch, wondering what it would be like to actually play a real live game of Quidditch. She had watched matches, sure, and she had even flown a broom before, but she had never actually played.

"Are you a fan of Quidditch?" she asked him.

"Of course," Jude replied. Quidditch was his favorite sport, his escape. He loved everything about it, except some of the professional players. Well, most of the professional players. "I'm not taking the flying lessons here though. The professor is rubbish. Can't be bothered to waste my time with that nonsense. I will be trying out for the team next year, of course."

He finished off his poem and moved to the next bench to doodle aimlessly, rather uncreatively scribbling "Gryffindor sucks" every once in a while. "What about you?" he asked.

Jasmine nodded in agreement. "I have to agree with you there. I am in the flying class, but I'm not expecting to learn much. I saw some boys fawn over this so called celebrity professor, but she's nothing to rave about. She couldn't even win a premiership, so really, she's not even that good."

Jasmine thought about being on a Quidditch team. "I wouldn't mind trying out, I guess. Might be kinda fun being a beater and having an excuse to whack something hard towards some Gryffindors and not get into trouble for it," she beamed. That really did sound like a lot of fun.

Jude nodded. "I play beater as well. Let me tell you, I'll be glad if my bat accidentally missed the bludger and gets one of those Gryffindorks in the head," he said, borrowing Alli's term for the Gryffindors.

Further along the bench, he started to write another poem. "I can't believe they actually think that they're going to win the house cup," he scoffed. "Completely ridiculous.'

"I know, right!?" Jasmine exclaimed, a little more excited that she would normally would behave. "They really have no hope to win at all, if you look at it logically. That dismal lose last week means that they'll have to win against us by at least 300 points, and that just isn't going to happen," she shook her head.

"Really.. Someone should pass on the message to the Gryffindorks that false hope is damaging... Hell, just tell them that they should cut their losses and that they should never hope for anything; less painful for them."

Jude nodded in agreement. He was glad that Jasmine clearly had the same mentality as he and Alli did, although sometimes he wondered about Alli. She was very curious about muggle life and she had a bit of a soft spot for muggleborns. She tended to think that she could "fix" some of them, for lack of a better word, and rid them of their stupidity. Easier said than done.

"Why do you think Alli likes muggles so much?" he asked, wondering if Jasmine perhaps had more insight than he did on that aspect of their friend's life.

(OoC: Permission to GM Alli Walker)