Just another fool

Calvin hummed to himself as he walked through one of the long hallways within the
ministry, a styrofoam cup filled with coffee in his hand, a large envelope in the other.
Upon arriving, he had been told to take the envelope to the Minister, and he would do
just that. It was an honor to get to deliver something to the minister when you didn’t
exactly have a high rank in the Ministry. Calvin brought his coffee to his lips and took
a big sip of the piping hot liquid. He stopped short and coughed, his tongue hanging
out of his mouth. “Owe! Owe!” he cried, grabbing onto his tongue, as if it would help.
He jumped up and down in a circle. He looked incredibly foolish and unprofessional,
but at that moment he didn’t care, all he could think about was how much pain he was
in. “Hot!” he whined. Someone walked past him in the hallway and eyed him, slowing
down, trying to make sense of his little dance. He stopped abruptly, waving at the au-
ror, his tongue still hanging out of his mouth. The Auror quickened his pace to get aw-
ay from Calvin as soon as possible, leaving him there to feel like a total idiot.

“I cant even taste it anymore,” Calvin muttered under his breath when he took another
sip of the coffee, carefully this time. He guessed a few of his taste-buds had been
burned off completely, for the once perfect flavor of the coffee was almost completely
gone. “well, at least they grow back quickly,” he told himself, looking at the positive side
with a nod of his head. He continued forward, humming again, though his tongue was
still on fire, he had a job to do.

Calvin rounded a corner which lead him to another hallway, and then the library, rea-
ding the front of the envelop out of curiosity. “Classified Information…” he read aloud,
“hmmm, I wonder what it would be like to be the minister. He must get important letters
like this every single day!” He wondered aloud, hitting the “up” button on the elevator af-
ter walking inside. There was no music in the elevators within the Ministry, so Calvin co-
ntinued to hum to himself one of his favorite muggle songs, waiting for the door to open
again when he was on the right floor. Calvin leaned his back against the wall, nodding
his head in sync with the tune he was humming. The elevator stopped abruptly, bobbing
up and down for a moment, sending Calvin to the carpeted floor. “oof,” he ground, peel-
ing himself off of the floor, rubbing his face. The elevator had started up again, but he
couldn’t help but wonder why it had stopped short all of a sudden, “maybe their was
a glitch…”

When he had fallen to the floor, Calvin had dropped both the Minister’s letter and his cup
of coffee, which he just then remembered. He turned around, sitting there on the floor,
his eyes wide. “No… Oh dang it!” he cried out in horror. There was the envelope, dren-
ched completely in brown coffee. Calvin reached forward and picked the letter up in his
hands, shaking it in a futile attempt to dry it. “Oh no. Oh no. Oh no,” he groaned. Just then,
the elevator doors opened with a loud ding!, as if to mock him.

Calvin ran out of the elevator with the soaked envelope held out at arms length. “I have
to fix this! This letter could be extremely important! What if aliens have been sited! Or-or
-or” he didn’t finish his sentence, he was too panicked. Calvin came to the Minister’s
office and saw that the door was open, running quickly inside. He set the letter down
on the Minister’s desk- wincing when it got the wood surface wet with coffee- and pull-
ed out his wand. He waved it above the letter and whispered a spell that he had learned
in school that was supposed to dry things. Calvin watched, leaning down so that his face
was inches from the envelope, waiting for something to happen. It was silent. Poof!
Calvin yelped and jumped back; a puff of smoke came from the envelope suddenly. He
neared the desk again and screamed when he realized the paper had caught fire. “No!
Oh my gosh!” he howled, slamming his hands down on the letter, trying to put out the fla-
me. I have just lost my job.

Calvin heard the minister’s voice behind him, causing him to jump. He hadn’t managed to put out the
fire, as a madder of fact, it looked as if it was getting worse, not to mention the burns all over his
hands. What was that spell that put out fires? Aqua… Aqua what!? “Uh, um, no, nope, actually
it said classified information. I read it in the elevator- not the letter! I meant the envelope!” Calvin tried
to explain, stumbling over words as he waved his wand around frantically, shouting words that he
was sure weren’t even close to any spell anyone had ever heard of.

He groaned and pocketed his wand, looking around for something else to use to put out the fire.
Calvin noticed an ivy-looking plant on one of the windowsills and quickly made his way over to it;
there had to be water inside of it if the plant was still alive! He grabbed the flowerpot and ran back
over to the desk, turning the pot over quickly, dumping the plant, the soil, and the water on top of the
flaming envelope. Calvin exhaled; relieved that he had managed to put out the fire. He remembered
that the Minister was there and squeezed his eyes closed shut, turning around slowly. “Um, what
was in that letter?” Calvin asked.

Calvin put his hands up defensively as the Minister got nearer, he stuttered but he knew it
would not help anything. His eyes got wide when he was lifted off of the ground by his shirt,
“The elevators! It was the elevator- the electricity it- it wasn’t my fault!” he tried to explain fur-
ther, trying to remove Matt’s hands from his shirt, only to fail miserably.

He let out a sigh of relief when the Minister let go of him and he dropped to the floor. He scra-
mbled back up and backed up a bit. “Azkaban!?” he asked, sounding terrified. Calvin knew he
wouldn’t last long in a prison cell, maybe a month tops. “I was in the elevator and the electricity
had a glitch causing me to spill my coffee on the letter and then I tried to fix it but it caught fire
for some reason unknown to me- please don’t kill me!” Calvin screeched, shielding his face with
his hands. He was more of a muggle than a wizard, for the fact that he still had his wand- wh-
ich he could easily use to defend himself- with him didn’t even cross his mind. Though he wou-
ldn’t have been able to send a hex the Minister’s way even if he had thought of that, he just
didn’t have it in him, plus, Calvin looked up to the Minister.

“It threw me to the floor. Don’t take this the wrong way, Mr. Minister, but I’m pretty sure if an
elevator throws the people inside, to the floor, it has something wrong with it. I’m pretty good
with electrical devises if you want, I could take a look at it,” he offered, as if everything that
had just happened, hadn’t, but only for a moment.

Calvin dropped down in the large, wooden chair behind the Minister’s desk, rubbing his face.
“I’m going to lose my apartment, my internet, my life,” he said to himself, looking utterly broken.
He leaned back in the chair, placing his arms on the armrests. He fidgeted for a few seconds
in the chair, trying to get comfortable as he watched the Minister look at the destroyed letter
angrily. He had never spoken to the Minister before, and he had to admit, even if he was ang-
ry, it was quite exciting to be in the same room as he was- his office, even!

“Auror Training!? Sir, I think your mistaken- and I don’t mean to be rude, really! But you see, I
haven’t actually been through auror training. In fact, I don’t even know how I got mixed up in
this auror business, I’m with the muggle department here at the Ministry, you see, but I’ve been
involved in quite a bit of auror stuff lately. I think they want to promote me or something,” he ex-
plained, pulling his feet up on the chair with him. “Duel you? Mr. Minister, I’m sorry I made a mis-
take, but…”- he looked at him wide eyes, looking rather desperate- “I would never win in a duel
against anyone. I’m terrified of hexes, actually.”

Calvin jumped when the Minister shouted at him. “Really, maybe it is just that elevator, and I’m
telling you I’d be able to help with the wiring and all that,” he tried, his voice sounding weaker
than he would have wanted it to. He stopped trying to persuade Matt to allow him to help when
he saw the look he was giving him. Calvin looked down at his hands, he knew that look, it was
the one that came right after the “Calvin is an idiot” thought. He looked ashamed of himself- not
to mention embarrassed.

“No, I take notes and I write out the applications that the Aurors have to fill out before getting the
job- that sort of thing. I’ve been called out onto the field before… it didn’t end very well. I broke an
arm and almost died of shock,” Calvin replied rather quietly, still staring at his hands.

Jumping up quickly, Calvin fallowed the Minister’s orders, saluting like a military soldier before
running out of the door. “I wonder what he wrote on that paper airplane note…” he thought aloud,
and made a split-second decision to run after it and find out for himself. Curiosity always got the
best of Calvin, and there really wasn’t anything he could do about it.

Running as fast as his feet could carry him, Calvin flew down the hallways, one of his arms ex-
tended as he attempted to grab the note. It was moving a lot faster than he was, and it kept turning
corners and going through rooms, making it harder for him to keep up with it. “Come on, come on,”
he muttered, but it didn’t obey, in fact, it began to fly higher so that he would have to jump to reach
it. Calvin stopped; he had an idea. He turned to the left and pushed open one of the doors, knowing
after spending many years at the ministry that there would be another door, an exit, on the other
side of the room.

Calvin ran through the room- which luckily, was empty- and pushed the other door open. He found
himself in another long, white hallway. Perfect. His plan was working. Calvin prepared himself to
spring, and waited. “Ready….go!” he shouted and jumped up, reaching his hands towards the ceil-
ing as soon as he could see the note. He felt the paper in-between his fingers, and closed his fist,
falling back to the floor. “oof,” Calvin groand. He had landed on his back, knocking the air out of his
lungs. “uhh.” He looked down at his hand to see the airplane struggling against his grip, desperate
to break free and continue on its way as the Minister had ordered it. “Yes! Wahoo!” he cheered,
laughing with the hugest smile on his face.