Lunch was a rather quick affair. Harry had priorities and that was whittling away at the new blocks of wood. Every time that he whittled, he had the opportunity to try something new. And John talked about how nice it was to whittle with Basswood and Balsa so Harry wanted to see how it compared to the wood from the kit. Since the Basswood is soft but more expensive, Harry would save it for an easy, but more important project after he has more practice. The balsa was a better price and still supposed to be soft.
Harry once again went to the backyard. He walked outside and stared at the sky. It was a rare day when the sky was clear and the sun was bright, but not overwhelming. He was happy about this additional freedom, but he knew that it would eventually come to an end. He had more freedom than usual because of magic and no school, but the break from school wasn't going to forever. He usually looked forward to school starting up because it granted him a reprieve from the Dursleys. However, the start of school would probably lower the amount of time that he would have to whittle.
"Meow"
Harry's thoughts were redirected from his fears of the future at the new sound. It was one of Ms. Figg's cats. Her cats went everywhere and most of the people in the neighborhood were used to it. They slipped into neighbors' yards and watched everyone. Their eerie eyes were always watching. Last year, the neighbors tried to unite and get Ms. Figg to control her cats or keep them indoors but when they tried to capture the neighborhood cats nothing worked. The cats were smart and somehow avoided the people and their traps. One neighbor even called animal control but nothing worked. Harry respected the cats a lot. Nobody wanted them either but they didn't let it bother them.
The Balsa block would be perfect for a cat. They have smooth silhouettes and minimal detail. Balsa wood was good for carving but it wasn't ideal for anything too detailed. Harry wasn't sure why that was true, but he figured that he would find out when he tried it out himself.
Harry ran inside and grabbed his tools. He grabbed a snack bar from his collection and brought everything outside. He then set up in the garden. It wasn't too sunny that it would cook him and it was much easier to leave the wood shavings in the garden. He had his knife in one hand and in the other was his block. Harry had a little outline on his wood block for his bird; however, for the cat, Harry thought it might be better to try a bit of freehand. The cat's shape would require a lot of whittling down before he bothered with details so any outline would be shortly whittle away. The only thing Harry was apprehensive about was that his cat would look ridiculously tiny compared to a real cat. Perhaps, it was better to call it a kitten because nobody would believe it was a cat. It might even be mistaken for a toy with how small it'll be.
When he carved the bird, he didn't have to whittle all of the details on the feathers for them to show up. So Harry figured that he didn't have to add all of the details for them to be there. He just had to have a strong idea in his head about it working. The cat that Harry was going to carve was going to look like it was lying down. It would be the easiest shape to carve while still being a cat. Harry was going to start with a round shape. The cat's head will be resting in a tight curl. His tail will be curled around his body with only little bits of his paws sticking through.
Harry began by rounding the corners off so it was more of an oval. The edges were easier to round out if he began with the middle of the rectangle and it also gave him a better grip. The carving was getting easier with more practice but Harry kept trying new things so he wasn't fully comfortable with any specific technique. He switched between the different knives just trying new angles and grips. Harry had to be careful with putting just the right amount of pressure so he didn't carve too deep. The wood was so different compared to the stick that he had!
The sun was shining and the cat was lying down and staring calmly at the birds. These cats are well fed and so they often sat and stared at the birds. Harry wanted his cat to be as calm as the cats in the neighborhood. Harry wasn't sure what he would do if the cat that he carved was super energetic. He supposes that one of the reasons he wants to carve the cat is to have someone to sit with and just relax. His bird was perfect for adventures but not every day was an adventure. His cat would be with him in his cupboard and they could curl up together.
The shape of the cat was getting more clear but Harry wasn't ready to focus on the finer details. He put the cat aside and pulled his notebook towards him. Harry knew that he needed to start documenting his process. The scientific method wouldn't work if Harry didn't keep track of everything he did and why he did it. The more details, the better.
Harry had a couple of whittling projects already completed. He thought that he should keep track of the details in his notebook. The details that Harry wanted to document would be what he made, what wood he made it from, and the final result. Maybe he would try to draw a picture of what he whittled. Harry was used to not trying in school, so putting this much effort into a project felt odd. He wrote down all that he had done up to this point. Once finished, Harry thought that maybe he should also write down all of his ideas. Opening a new page, he created a list of his ideas while writing them down Harry realized that he was going to have to prioritize because there were just too many.
Other than ideas for future projects, Harry had a few thoughts of things that he would need to do soon. He would need to find a long-term solution to hiding his creations. His bird was fine with sleeping in the cupboard, but if Harry left him there then the Dursleys would probably see him. He really didn't know how he would explain the bird to his relatives. He would also need to set aside a time and place to regularly whittle that wouldn't interfere with anything else. Whittling while gardening wasn't a good option since it took too much time, but there weren't many other options where Harry was unsupervised. And finally, Harry would need to make sure that he could keep his tools safe. Keeping them under his mattress wasn't something he could do forever.
None of these goals and ideas would be easy for Harry, but Harry didn't care. The easy way would be to ignore these tools and just keep his head down, but he wasn't sure he could do that and he didn't want to try. Feeling a bit overwhelmed by all of the future obstacles and challenges, Harry wished that he had help from someone else. But who had the ability to help Harry?