Art and Craft [Ella and HHoN staff]

Hogwarts newspaper! That sounded perfect for Evan. Money, glory, and creativity. And a chance to meet people who wanted at least one of these things. Why else could one work here? Although the opportunity to spread rumors one wants was useful too, Evan wasn't going to write anything, he wanted to be an illustrator.

He knocked at the "Hogwarts Hippogriff o' News" office door. I hope there is someone there.

Ell was cramped at her small desk as she had been for the past few years. She constantly rewrote her articles, trying to make them perfect. It was quite hard without a large staff to help her. Usually, the small room was hot, but today, it was chilly, must've had the first front of the year come through. She looked out the window and saw that there was ice around the edges.

There was a knock on the door, and as she called out "Come in!" she looked towards the door wondering who it was and what they wanted.

After Evan knocked at the door, he heard a voice telling him to come in, so he pulled the door open and stepped inside. Looking around, Evan noticed that the room was pretty small and only one girl was there. Probably fifth, sixth, or seventh year, she was sitting at a small desk, working on some papers. "Hi! Hoppogriff News, right?", Evan asked. It would be good if it's really the News office. Small and cozy. I like it.

As Evan was about 70% sure that the answer would be yes, he found a chair and took a seat.

"Yes?" Ella said more as a question, raising her eyebrow as the young boy, Ravenclaw, sat down. She dropped her pen and folded her hands on top of her desk. "May I help you?" It wasn't often anyone dropped by an it was even more seldom that someone was interested in joining the paper so she was intrigued. Very intrigued.

"Well, yes," Evan replied, making himself comfortable in the chair. "You see, a good newspaper needs good pictures. It's like everyone reads Martin Miggs and no one reads other boring pictureless stuff." Actually, Evan had no idea if someone else in Hogwarts read the Martin Miggs comics. But he couldn't imagine that one had ever preferred something to Martin Miggs. Loony Nonby wasn't that bad, though. At least it had pictures.

"Pictures. They looks much better than text, and one needs just a glimpse to get a lot of new information from them!" Now Evan needed to add just one last line, and so he did. "And, you know, I can help you here. Right. Um. I can draw and stuff." He definitely should have practiced the last line better. It was kinda lame.

Ella nodded her head as the boy talked. "And your name, House and year is?" she began after the boy finished explaining his reasoning. Pausing to write down his name, year and House, she spoke up again. "I see what you're saying. It would be fantastic to have an illustrator to draw what's going on as well. Pictures say a thousands words. Can you write articles to explain your illustrations as well?" she questioned. She needed the help but she didn't want a newspaper filled with strictly illustrations either. As she waited for his replied, she held her pencil up to her cheek and tapped it.

Evan Williams, Ravenclaw, third year, Evan answered automatically. "I suppose I can write some explanation, yes, but it's a tedious monkey work. Drawing is an art, you know, and this activity is just a craft." He looked at the papers on the desk Ella was sitting at. Maybe Evan shouldn't have told about writing in the way he did, standing inside the newspaper office, writers' temple. "In my humble opinion, of course," Evan added quickly.

"Young one aren't you?" Ella replied rhetorically with a smirk. She allowed the room to fall to an awkward silence before speaking again. "I was about your age when I began working here, maybe a little younger. It'd be nice to have some help and actually get an issue out instead of constantly restarting my work. If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty much alone here."

Ella hesitated for a moment, clicking her pen in and out as if frustration was getting the best of her. "Welcome to the paper Evan. You are now the illustrator of the HHoN. I need to know what you plan to do as your first illustration and description, shall we say, by the 8th of December."

"Relatively young, I'd say," Evan replied. He had some troubles with recognizing which questions were rhetoric sometimes. "This room is quite cozy, by the way." Evan noticed that the girl was clicking her pen. Not a good sign. He regretted that he allowed his artistic arrogance to take over him. But hey, how could letter-writing skill be compared to the art of shape, light, and colors?

"Oh, thanks. I would like to create art for the HHoN. I hope I get some ideas by the 8th, okay," Evan stood up and was going to leave the room when suddenly he stopped and turned to the girl. "Um, I'm sorry, but what's your name? Somehow I forgot to ask, and it would be, you know, better to ask now. Otherwise it will be even more awkward. Yeah."

Ella nodded as he complimented the size of the room. At times she liked it, but at other times, summer, it was extremely hot. As the boy turned to leave, hoping he could think of an idea, he stopped once more and turned to face Ella. Noticing he looked quite awkward, Ella dropped her pen as he explained that he forgot to ask for her name.

"Ella Fontayne-Vega, sixth year Slytherin." she smiled.

"Well, nice to meet you, Ella," Evan told her. He didn't even try to remember her surname as it was too long. He wasn't going to ever use it anyway. "Have a nice day!" Ella seemed to be a nice girl despite being a Slytherin. Old Slytherin stereotypes were probably wrong.

Evan left the HHoN room and headed for the Ravenclaw Tower. Now he had one more interesting and probably profitable activity. His only profitable activity, by the way. For now.