A/N: Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry challenge, Year 1 Frog Choir, prompts: elbow, fruitcake, cumquat, squish, rainbow.
things end as they begin
1.
Ginny and Dean's breakup ended with an elbow in Ginny's side but it started with petty little quarrels that spread like a ripple in the water. But they weren't paying attention enough to notice the scrapes they left on their friends and classmates: they were too busy glaring at each other as their relationship shattered like a falling glass.
2.
Their tradition of overly sweet pudding on the first night was ended with fruitcake arriving on scene, but there'd been plenty of problems with upset stomachs and teeth decay before that. Still, it took the late-in-coming reception of Muggle ideals before the menu was changed. After all, they were Wizards and Witches, and the cures for upset stomachs were a simple potion that took away all aches and pains, and they'd never thought to simply prevent the cause to begin with.
3.
It took the greenhouses being demolished by war before more practical things were packed into them. After all, there was plenty of space on the grounds, and plenty of expenses lost in exporting plants they could easily grow themselves. Like the assortments of berries and flowers that now blossomed in Greenhouses Twelve through to Fifteen: from strawberries to cumquats to apples to oranges that were happily squished into juice.
4.
A Wizard actually climbed to the end of the rainbow and was killed by a goblin before other Wizards took the hint and left the pot of gold alone. But Wizards didn't learn too much through history as a whole. That was why Dark Lords rose and fell, and the side of Light waxed and waned like the moon. It was why society hovered between advancement and retrenchment; why some of the oldest foolishness stayed alive today.
5.
It took the creation of shoes before people started moving forward – in a purely metaphorical sense of course. And shoes also provided shoe-laces over which people tripped. Perhaps wings might have been better suited for advancement – but surely God would have found another way to hinder mankind.
Maybe, it was for the good of mankind – Wizard or no – that they couldn't get too far ahead.