Forge Your Future Career Day Errand Open

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| Location: School Grounds | Date: June 20, 2026 | Word Count: 1140 | Speech | Thoughts |
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Ooh, is that a sword?

Henry hadn't known what to really expect from Hogwarts' Career Day, to be perfectly honest. Before learning about the magical world - and discovering that more than one of his dear, dear friends had known about this whole thing the entire time - he'd considered looking into becoming a zoologist... or maybe a zookeeper... something with zoo in it, he liked animals and nature. People were hit-or-miss for the Muggleborn, in a way that was rarely true about the great outdoors and the critters to be found there.

So far the only magical careers he'd borne witness to had been those at least tangentially related to the school - professors, a headmaster, a groundskeeper, a caretaker, a librarian, a nurse, various merchants. All noble careers, but only some of those held any appeal at all for the lad.

A professor? Maybe someday, for the right class. Charms and Transfiguration were fun, but not enough to devote his life to them. Defense Against the Dark Arts held a special place in his heart, mostly because he vibed with the current professor - without Orion at the helm, he doubted it would be nearly as enjoyable. Herbology and Astronomy kept him outside, though his grades trended more towards Exceeds Expectations than Outstanding. Glimpses from the castle windows granted visions of a course that dealt with magical beasties. Working with creatures sounded interesting, if a bit intimidating.

Headmaster? Coming for Solomon Lear's position? Henry hadn't been brazen enough to even let the thought cross his mind. He sooner would go toe to toe with a dragon. And with the current headmaster serving as his only point of reference, he doubted he had anywhere near the intimidation factor to pull it off.

Librarian? He liked books, but no.

Groundskeeper? He wasn't entirely sure what that even entailed. Could be cool, so long as the job description didn't begin and end with mind-numbing tasks like mowing the lawn all day.

Caretaker? He was tidy - sometimes - when it didn't come to his own bedroom back in Bristol. Look, that's his space, and he's fully aware that it looks like an earthquake just took place, thank you very much. It's part of the uh... charm. And besides, who asked your opinion on the matter in the first place, honestly? Moving on.

Nurse... well, he did enjoy the thought of helping people, however he was the sort of boy who was constantly second guessing his decisions - hardly a trait he thought would be good in a medical context.

Merchant didn't hold much of an appeal for him, with rare exceptions. The most prominent of these exceptions thus far had been pet shop owner, wandmaker, and broommaker. Especially wandmaker. The thought of him making a tool so vital to most of wixdom, it made him smile. He would definitely need to buckle down on his Herbological endeavors to have any hope of making it in the field, but it was a nice thought nonetheless.

However, none of those hyper-specific choices seemed to be on offer. Or at least if they were, he'd yet to encounter them. Now, one could question whether most eleven-year-olds truly have anything even encroaching on a solid grasp on what their future holds. Regardless of that observation, though, when he'd peeked his head in to ponder at the plethora of presented professions, his expression showed more kind but casual interest, rather than any actual glee, ya know?

Until he arrived at the school grounds.

Only once he was here did his polite fascination bloom into any measure of honest-to-Merlin enthusiasm concerning the occupational offerings on display. And boy did it bloom. For you see... Henry did have other interests beyond books and nature and some of the classes. Ranking amongst those special interests... were swords; the closer the blades were to being the same (admittedly pint-sized) height he was, the better in his opinion. Meaning once that U of tables came into view, replete with planes of polished metal that glinted where the sunlight lay, he didn't casually walk towards it. Henry ran closer. Ran as fast as a pair of little secondhand sneakers could carry a boy over field and under tree.

Eventually, he skidded to a halt. The giddily breathless not-quite-twelve-year-old bobbed up and down on the balls of his feet, brilliant blue eyes wide and focused on the wonderfully crafted metallurgical masterpieces. So focused, in fact, that it took him a solid minute to register that he was not - in fact - the only person in this particular area. Granted, it took him seeing them reflected in the curve of a helmet to notice them, but he got there!

The main thing that tipped him off that the individual beside him was the one who'd (presumably) crafted the objects - rather than a fellow student - was the fact that he'd gone all year without seeing her. To be honest, the woman's stature, so similar to his own, at first made him question whether he'd somehow overlooked one of his own first year brethren. But no, no, that wasn't the case, she was just a little shorter than average. At this point, with most of his peers (especially the other boys) already starting to zoom upwards, Henry was starting to relate to that. Then obviously there was the armor she was wearing, as expertly made as the rest of the pieces to his eye. The only person he'd noticed in the castle wearing armor was the headmaster, albeit perhaps there were others he hadn't encountered quite yet, but it was novel enough to take note of.

The little Hufflepuff gave her an excited smile as he kept bouncing ever so slightly, This is bloody wicked, did you make all of these yourself? I didn't know we could grow up to be smiths! Also aren't you warm in that armor or is there magic to keep it cool? How long have you been working a forge? Were your parents in the business too? What's your favorite thing to make? Congratulations, the generally shy - to the point of occasional muteness - boy's hyperverbal mode had officially been unlocked.

Ope, looks like he wasn't quite finished, Do you use hammers and anvils like Muggle smiths? Are they heavy or do you use magic to help? I'm not super strong but maybe I could work on that. Did you know you have a rat on your shoulder? I guess that's a bit hard to miss, innit? What's its name?

Looking past the part-goblin woman, he beamed as he caught sight of one of his friends - one of his longest lasting friends, at that. Hi Rin! You're here too! Isn't this cool? It's like Lord of the Rings. Did your dad and aunts let you watch that?

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| Interacting with: @Serena Towers + @Noirin Polkinghorn |
| OOC Notes: Thank you for putting this up, btw! Hope my yapping (and his yapping) was charming, rather than annoying lol. Henry is so down to talk shop! |

Despite only just having completed her first year at Hogwarts, Lorelei had been greatly anticipating career day. She was absolutely a planner, and had jumped at the opportunity to see first and foremost where she could end up in the future. Having been raised in the muggle world, many wizarding careers were entirely foreign to her, so she was not going to discriminate between any of the booths around her.

Scanning her surroundings, one particular booth caught Lorelei’s eye immediately. A metal charmer, how cool! The thought of magical metalwork hadn’t really ever crossed her mind before, but as she continued to turn the idea over, it started to make more sense and seem even more cool simultaneously.

Metalworking certainly wasn’t at the top of her current list of potential future careers. As a small girl with no particular inclination towards strength-based activities, Lorelei was nowhere near what someone might first picture when thinking of a metalworker. Still, she thought, an interesting demonstration was an interesting demonstration, and she wasn’t going to discriminate.

Making her way over to the setup, Lorelei saw the woman here presenting this career path, a Ravenclaw girl, and a very exuberant Hufflepuff boy in the middle of asking a series of questions. As he spoke, she was relieved to find from his mentions of muggle tools and Lord of the Rings that he was likely from the same world as herself.

Phew, if she harboured any confusion regarding the magical portion of this demonstration, it would likely be mirrored in this boy. Judging by his current demeanor, he wouldn’t hesitate to ask further questions, which was a godsend for Lorelei and her penchant for staying silent in situations like these.

She waited for him to finish asking questions before moving further into the booth, sitting at the right table. She picked up a few of the pieces of wire in front of her, and began slowly and meticulously twisting them together into a bracelet. As she worked, she kept her ears open for any responses the metal charmer had for the boy, interested in her responses, especially when it came to the question about muggle tools.

S E R E N A - J O D H A - T O W E R S

you must forge your own path for it to mean anything

Who:@Noirin Polkinghorn, @Henry Holbrook and @Lorelei Witte

Serena became even more excited as she saw one of the students come over. "Hello! Please look around, feel free to ask any questions or take part in the activity if you want," She grinned brightly at her, allowing her time to look around without feeling the pressure to ask any questions.

"Oh hm. I don't have a pamphlet... but I do have this!" She started, suddenly realising she had a parchment of designs drawn up using the wires or copper blanks so people could see examples for inspiration.

Now that she thought about it, pamphlets probably would have been a good idea but let's be fair, that was not going to be Serena's style nor the style of the owner of the forge. They weren't leaflet kind of people - or organised enough for that.

She allowed the student to look over the designs without interrupting any thought process as sometimes the silence helped brewed creativity. However, it was not long till another body arrived. A boy who talked even more than she did!! Serena could not help but chuckle a little at the excited babble of questions. She had no idea where to begin answering them but she was thrilled that someone else was just as excitable about metalworking as she was!!

Serena chuckled softly, smiling towards the third student who arrived but stayed silent, before turning back to the boy, "Alright, alright, let's take it slowly! First of all, I'm Serena, hi! I am an apprentice metal charmer, which means that I work under a master and get tutored in the arts. I graduated from here a couple of years ago, and have been working in the forge since then. I guess uh, what else do you need to know about me? Oh yes! I made a lot of these myself - not all, some of them were samples that some of the other forge workers did. Oh! And uh I work in a goblin owned forge called Hokkar omd Huimd, which means Hammer and Hound. The owner is a goblin named Hokkar, and yes, he does love hammers. And uh, oh, I guess, I'm also part-goblin but uh, no, I- uh- well, my dad sort of helped me make this hammer, which is my precious baby but uh, a lot of it has been sort of after I started working," She rambled out, not wanting to go into the full story of why she disowned her father and family. Besides, this was about her job, not about her family!

"OH And this is Pizza Rat, he's my bestie," She added, giving a nod to the rat on her shoulder. She waved to the tables, "Have a seat, you can create anything you want with the items but I've drawn some sketches of designs as examples or ideas I guess if you get stuck. There's two main parts of metal charming. First, you have to forge the actual items and this is sort of what you learn as a forge worker. The second is charming the metal to have magical properties I guess. This isn't always necessary but yanno, it makes it cooler," She added before pointing to her pointed ears that were proudly on display.

She had very intricate earrings over her ears, highlighting their pointiness, which she had made whilst she was still a student when she decided to stop hiding her heritage, "These, for instance, will give me a warning when danger is coming. It gives me a chance to react and dodge it sometimes. They were very handy in broom racing games to evade some spells or obstacles," She continued, explaining how her earrings helped increase her ability to auto-evade things.

There was also a toy on the table that was charmed to open up on its own and reveal a little metal scene, playing some music. It was pretty cute. "Play around with the metal. If you want, I can show you guys a quick demonstration too? And uh, so what other questions did you have?" She asked, not entirely sure if she answered them all. In fact, she was certain she did not because she didn't remember them all.

─────Rin eyed the parchment. Had she been introduced to it before the metallic glitzes before her she wouldn't have been the slightest bit interested. While her friend bombarded Serena with questions she began to twist two copper wires together, one of the rectangles pulled towards her person for a not yet revealed purpose. Although her eyes were locked on the parchment whether it reminded in front of her or passed around she very evidently was not following along with any of the designs upon it.

When she was finally acknowledged by Henry, unnecessarily, she quickly lowered and raised the shoulder nearest him. A familiar, perhaps frustrating greeting. After all, her mouth wasn't occupied. Although... Her hands beginning to hurt from the strain weren't an issue, but her adolescent strength was. She hadn't reached her limit yet, but it was fast approaching as her fingers and wrists continued to work the metal.

She felt the presence of the other person, but much like the rat didn't notice the details which in this case was that they shared a house. Multitasking was never her, or technically anyone's, strongsuit without magical interference. Such magical interference she felt including the woman's earrings. "Sounds like permissible cheating." It wasn't a judgement, but actually closer to ready acceptance. Her neutral tone per usual didn't convey her emotions properly, but she genuinely felt the end result of a task always came first. Sports weren't her thing, but she knew enough that people didn't accept the rules in black and white. Would she be allowed to enchant her wand to behave?

"Has anyone ever combined metal charming and wandcraft? Part of her wanted the answer to be no, so she could be the one to bend it into a yes. It surprised her, because the very idea at its core was terribly inconvenient. While Rin didn't shy away from pain, she did try her best to avoid wasting precious time. Alas, quick solutions were not always available and or noticed. There very well could be just what she needed in blind spot beneath her nose. Raising the braided wires to her mouth if not stopped she would begin to use her teeth like clamps.

S E R E N A - J O D H A - T O W E R S

you must forge your own path for it to mean anything

Who: @Noirin Polkinghorn, @Henry Holbrook and @Lorelei Witte

Serena loved seeing other people getting absorbed by the metal. She could spend hours in her little hovel creating designs and playing around with the metal that she had already spent hours forging. There was something special about creating things with your own two hands, especially when that item was created in a beautiful material - and to the part-goblin, metal was one of the best materials. In fact, she did spend hours doing exactly that. Her best friend often said her boss made her work too much. But the truth was likely that Serena wanted to be there, she wanted to make things. Her job was her life. Outside of metalsmithing, there was very little to her identity or life. Sure, she had friends but as adults, you get busy and it was not like they could hang out all the time.

She chuckled softly, "I suppose it is. But it's similar to bringing potions in. Certain items are permitted to be used in official sports. Of course, there's rules and guidelines but just as brewing your own potions for a race is special, crafting your uniform is too," She responded as she thought about it, "I call it using your skills to your advantage," She added. Some people were innately talented or were physically stronger or faster than others, other people had to use potions, spells and magical items that they crafted themselves to find their advantage. That was also a life lesson in and of itself - life isn't always fair but you have to do what you can, with what you have, to make it fair.

"Hm, I'm not sure specifically but actually, I did have an intern recently. He was a Hogwarts Graduate, actually, who now studies in WAVAD. Might be here, in fact, no idea. But he did a week long internship with me at the forge, and he was particularly interested in wandcrafting. I think he wants to be a wandmaker in the long run," She continued, thinking of Lamik and the recent internship he had done. It was something she had considered before too - using metal instead of wood for wands - but she did not know enough about wandmaking to know if it was already done or a thing out there. It probably was, she'd have been surprised if no one else had tried. Or maybe people had tried but it did not work. She had no idea.

OOC: Sorry, I have to write 5 replies in this thread for it to count, so breaking post order to get them in!

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| Location: School Grounds | Date: June 20, 2026 | Word Count: 661 | Speech | Thoughts |
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The brown-haired boy absorbed the information with wide-eyed wonder. He was still practically a stranger to this magical world - one nine month stint at an institution devoted to studying the arcane certainly wasn't all it would take to impart the cultural context several of his peers innately had.

Part-Goblin, that did explain the ears. Considering some of his favorite fandoms, he'd very nearly asked if she was an elf, but he'd stopped himself. The only elves the wizarding world likely knew were hardly the ethereal and otherworldly beings found in the imaginations of Tolkien and Gygax, but rather those creatures that he'd heard tell of that helped out around the castle and wizarding homes. Servants, if you were being polite. Slaves, if you were being accurate. And judging by how some people talked about them, often regarded with some degree of undue contempt. Perhaps it was better that he'd kept his mouth in check. Ok, maybe in check is a stretch, but at least he'd had the wherewithal to avoid a potentially offensive faux pas.

His eyes tracked to the hammer that was introduced as the woman's precious baby - a description that brought a bit of a giggle bubbling to the surface, "Aww, does the hammer have a name as well?" He asked, being sure to take more breaths between his questions, and slowing the speed of his inquiries, though his curiosity was honestly perhaps even heightened now that he knew she wasn't just going to brush it off, "How long has Hokkar had his forge? He must think the world of you if he's comfortable with you having your own intern while you're still an apprentice."

He smiled to himself as Rin asked a couple questions. He knew how hard it was to open up sometimes, and he was honestly proud of her coming out of her shell, even if he could tell she was a bit frustrated right now. He also noticed the other girl who had come in as well, one equally curious and yet seeming to glom onto the information as it was given rather than asking questions of her own quite yet. That was also clever in and of itself in a way. Especially if you were of a shy persuasion.

He kept stealing glances at Pizza Rat. He'd never been fond of the rodents back at home - granted those were the pest variety, rather than pets. If he was her buddy, and she'd given him a fun name like that, maybe he wasn't too bad, though. Did Pizza Rat go to Hogwarts with you? Is he allowed in the forge, or would that be too dangerous for him?"

When the woman showed off her earrings, the boy was transfixed. Not only by the design - though that truly was something marvelous to behold in and of itself, but also by the ingenuity. Earrings that could help you hear when danger was coming? That wasn't just clever - that was potentially life-saving. "My wand can do that too! Well... ok, mine can't, but the wandmaker who gave it to me said it can if you get close to it. At this point he had a Horned Serpent wand, that one broke about a week or two after this conversation - RIP. Was it tricky learning the spells to do that?"

Apparently the Hufflepuff realized he might still be asking too many questions all at once, because he took one of the offered seats and started working on one of the activities the metal charmer had brought with her. Perhaps his parents would like a hook for the wall - sure, his work would probably be a bit shoddy, given this was his first attempt and all, but still! He made it, and that would count for something in the eyes of the elder Holbrooks. Still, he smiled at the offer of a demonstration, "That would be wonderful, if you really don't mind."

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| Interacting with: @Serena Towers + @Noirin Polkinghorn + @Lorelei Witte |
| OOC Notes: You're good about breaking turn order! I don't mind! |

| Interacting With: @Serena Towers @Noirin Polkinghorn @Henry Holbrook|

Lorelei had untwisted and retwisted her simple bracelet about a million times throughout the duration of the conversation happening around her. As a huge perfectionist, it bothered her that the ends of the wire wouldn’t quite line up perfectly, and her initial choice to do a four-strand braid for the structure was really coming back to bite her as she struggled to hold on to all of the ends at once.

When she was (mostly) satisfied with her product, she tuned back in to the people around her just in time to hear Serena introduce Pizza Rat sitting on her shoulder. That caught Lorelei’s attention right away, and she admired the cute creature while listening to Serena explain a little bit more about her career.

Once Henry finished speaking, she chimed in “Sorry, not to pile up the questions here, but I did have something I wanted to ask?”, Her voice squeaked a little at the end, and she cleared her throat softly before continuing. “When you do the metal craft portion, like, before you actually charm it, do you use any magic or magical tools? Or are you just using muggle techniques? I always thought you had to be like super big and strong to be a manual metal worker.”

Lorelei realized how that sounded and jumped in to correct herself. “Not that you’re not—I’m sure you’re super strong and—sorry, I really didn’t mean it like that.” She winced at her own words and tried to move on quickly. “Also, again sorry for another question, but I would love to see a demonstration maybe? Of the process? If that’s okay.”

She looked away from Serena then, slightly embarrassed, and noticed that her anxious fidgeting with the bracelet she’d made had slightly misaligned the metal wires. She began to absent-mindedly fix her mistake, though she made sure that the majority of her attention was still trained to Serena.

S E R E N A - J O D H A - T O W E R S

you must forge your own path for it to mean anything

Who: @Noirin Polkinghorn, @Henry Holbrook and @Lorelei Witte

Serena pondered for a moment, contemplating the answers to the questions that were being asked, "I dunno, actually. He's pretty old so he's been doing this forever. They say that it was originally named after him and a stray dog that often visited when he first made it but Hokkar's more like a grumpy old man now," She giggled as she thought of her boss. Her best friend had visited her at work a few times and he often complained about Hokkar. She shook her head, "No, no, nothing like that. He allows people to train and do their own thing as a forge worker. Pretty sure he hates me most the time but he teaches me a lot and I love it there so it's fine," Serena was not good at compliments. The truth was that Hokkar never took personal apprentices. It was rare these days for him to train someone personally, so he very likely did see something in her that she did not see in herself.

As the boy spoke about Pizza Rat, Serena lit up even more. It was clear that her real bestie was her rat, "OH YEAH! He's been with me for years now! He does go into the forge but I have made a little house for him to sit in so he doesn't go near the fire. But you know, he's been through worse here so I actually made him his own little armour one time when we had to fight- you know what, those are dark times and I'm sure Hogwarts is better now," She continued, not wanting to talk about the times when she almost died or when she had to try and prevent someone turn into a hag...

"What years are you all in?" She pondered suddenly, realising that she knew nothing about them all, "In third year, you can take Ancient Runes as an elective and I highly recommend you do that if you're interested in metal charming. Runes are essential to the charming process as you can draw them onto the item and cast the magic that way. So I guess, for the charming technique itself, you do need to use magic like spells or runes but sometimes, you may use muggle techniques to like engrave the rune or create something to spell, if that makes sense?" She tried to answer the question, but it was a little hard without actually showing the full process but that would take weeks.

Serena chuckled though, "I'm definitely not strong but you don't have to be that strong. I use magic to do some of the heavy lifting sometimes - or have a friend help. A couple of my friends from Hogwarts actually help out at the forge sometimes. One's a part-giant so he's VERY strong and can hammer a sword into shape much faster than I can! Oh but-" She lifted her hammer and gave it a toss and a spin, "You can charm your tools to being pretty light for you, even if they are still strong," She explained, showing it was much lighter than a regular hammer of that shape and size would be.

Serena moved closer to the tables after putting her own very large hammer down, picked up a plain metal ring, inserted it into a holder to keep it steady and picked up a small hammer. "This is a ring that I easily made by pouring the metal into a mould. That's pretty basic forging. But even if you just buy ready made rings like this, you can add your own engravings or shape," She explained as she started to give it some taps with the hammer.