We could be immortals PV Hugh Lowe Finished

Serena tugged on her sleeves as she looked down at the grass. Friends. Goblin friends. She did not really have any, no. Unless her father counted - they were sort of friends, right? Then again, friendship was not really something she did easily. It was weird. She knew a lot of people, she cared for them and she would do anything to help them... But the term 'friends' always made her feel a little lonely. She felt like she did not really have many friends. More often than not, she felt lonely.

At some point, she got used to it. There were only a handful of people she would turn to when things got hard and those were the people she really considered to be her friends. Or rather, her close group of friends. The rest were friends. Ahhh, she had no idea. The girl was torn by the word 'goblin'. "I- I guess not... no..." She mumbled, in response to the question about whether or not she had friends, assuming he was exclusively talking about goblin ones.

Other than her father, she did not really know many goblins. Perhaps that was something she ought to change. Maybe her dad could introduce her to others... His friends must have kids around her age, no? Surely some of them did, at the very least! "I- N-no, I'm fine. I'm sorry- I just-" She mumbled, not entirely sure how to feel. The heat was not affecting her. But a part of her did feel a little sick. Nauseous, at the fact that this conversation was happening. He knew... How did he know...? She was supposed to hide it. She did not really know what to do now that it was out.

"I- I guess I don't really know many goblins..." Serena scratched the back of her head, trying to figure out what to do, "W-why?" The part-goblin asked, trying to understand what he thought about her being goblin or how he figured it out.

She stared at him, almost flabbergasted by his innocent behaviour. He seemed to have moved on with the conversation but that did not stop her panicked heart from beating loudly as she tried to figure out if he actually knew or how he did. Was it really that obvious? Why had no one told her before? Her brother certainly would have kicked up a stink, that was for sure.

Watching him shrug, stare down at the ground and carry on talking about materials or something. Sighing, as she tried to push past it. He was not going to give her the answers she sought, not right now anyway, nor was she in the right frame of mind to ask them. How could she bring up such a sensitive topic like that? Focusing on his words, she tried to ignore the panicked feeling in her chest as it seemed to tighten, "Oh uh. I don't know. I haven't quite... figured that part out..." She mumbled honestly. Her father would certainly send her some if she ever needed it but she was not entirely sure if tons of metal could be transported by owl post. An owl likely could not carry such heavy goods and it was not as useful in small quantities. Not when she needed to practice, anyway. Perhaps she could melt down one of the suits of armour in the castle... but she might get expelled for stealing or something.

"Though I've uh asked my head of house and he said he'd look into it so, maybe he has an idea," She continued with a shrug. Professor Browne had not made any promises when she brought it up but he did say he would look into providing a forge on the campus. Right now, she had no idea if that would be a reality or just a dream. She also had no idea what it would look like but it seemed like neither did he. Oh wells, time would tell, she figured.

For now, she was doing the only thing she could - focus on the actual designs. If needed, she could always practice making them at home in the holidays or send the designs to her dad. The planning stage often took just as long, if not longer, than the building stage. So, this was fine. "Oh- uh well-" She paused. Serena was about to show him what she had but hearing his words, she was thrown off a little. Wh-

She blinked, staring at him. Then her lips pressed together as she pouted, like a child throwing a tantrum. Was he mocking her! So mean! There was a small smile on the edge of her lips that tried to break free from her pout. This was outrageous! But it was kind of true. She must have looked really ridiculous during the entire conversation. Socialising was far too hard! Scratching her head a little as she looked down at the pages, pouting a little more, "Well I was thinking of making something if I do join the broom racing team... Heard it might be a sport played here so, thought I might give it a go," Serena mumbled a little hesitantly as she picked up some pages and held them out.

There was a page showing designs for the winged metal boots that she actually ended up making with her father - it lay next to her. Another page sketching out some knee pads, shin pads and general leg armour. A page on elbow pads or a long glove type thing. None of them were final designs, by any means. Just sketches of what it might look like. Everything was still very much a work in progress, except the ones related to the winged boots, where the end result was very much on display for both to see.

The one that she had been working on when he arrived was a helmet. She had drawn a few different designs, scratching them out, as she could not quite find the right thing. She did not show him this one, it remained at the top of the pad of paper with the pencil still on top of it. It was not very good. Serena wanted a helmet that not only provided protection, it also covered her ears at all times, whilst looking good enough to wear daily - without the worry of looking completely out of place. A slightly hard ask... Nothing was quite 'right'. How did one subtly cover their ears when they tied their usually loose hair back?

Hearing him chuckle, she pouted further. Was he laughing at her? That would be absolutely outrageous! Twitching her nose side to side as she pouted for a moment before grumbling in a slightly childish - even for her - voice, "Stop laughing at me," She would playfully grumble, as her lips tried to continue to pout. The edges curled upwards a little though, as she was trying not to laugh at herself. She must have looked really ridiculous whilst stuttering out her words, so she could not blame him for laughing at her. At least, that was what she was assuming he was laughing at!

Blinking, she looked up in surprise at his words. He asked about a helmet, which was actually what she had been working on. It was a strange coincidence, perhaps, that he mentioned that specifically. But that was not what surprised her. What surprised her was that he seemed... genuinely interested. He did not say her designs were terrible or just toss them away or return them without much thought. He seemed to actually be intrigued by the conversation, encouraging her to design more, if anything.

"I- I was actually working on a helmet..." She responded, her tone of voice soft as she blinked, still a little surprised by this. Serena had not really shown her designs to others before but... she expected something different. Maybe to be laughed at or told that these were ridiculous? At least, she could be sure that was what a few others she knew would have done!

As his joke set in, she tilted her head, grinning a little. "Not all of us just fall over though," She teased in return. Her head did not stick out much! Her ears were the main thing she worried about hiding but usually, it was fine. She hid them behind loose hair. Sometimes, she had to take them down a little to avoid sitting out too much but in the winter, woolly hats helped too. It was mostly summer and indoors, where hats were seen as rude or impolite. Sighing, she picked up the pad of paper she had been working on and sort of held it back in the air. In a way, she was offering it to him to look at but she was not leaning it towards him. Rather just... up in the air, as she referenced it, "It's not very good... I'm actually just... I dunno, they are dumb. I can't really find something I like but, I tried," Serena both justified her drawing whilst defending it from his criticism, which she fully expected to follow.

If he took the page, he would see a bunch of different heads and helmet designs on it, clearly drawn by her. Inspired by helmets from the ages. It was clear she had flipped through a few muggle books on helmets for inspiration or straight-up design copy. There was also a Quidditch Keeper style helmet sketched out. Several helmets were scribbled out, Serena decided that they were not the right ones and a few were circled. From her words, it was clear that none of the circled ones was 'perfect' in her book but they were obviously her favoured ones for now. By the helmets, there were some notes jotted down in ink, for the most part. They were likely hard to read behind some of the scribblings but there were quite a few references to ears. In some of the scribbled images, he would likely be able to see non-human shaped ears in the design. Non-human shaped ears that matched her own, which were covered by her loose hair and taped back right now. However, they were a similar sort of shape, nonetheless.

OOC Notes:
Artwork shown in the thread: IC Drawn by Serena
[Credit: Head bases were traced and are NOT mine: credit here
A lot of helmets were referenced from here, the rest are either generic or made up ideas]
[Hugh, I can send a bigger version to you if you want to be able to read the text]

Biting her lip, Serena stayed silent. She just stared intently at him, watching him observe the work that she had shown him. Her stomach bubbled a little out of nervousness. It was not that she particularly sought his approval, she barely knew him after all. Her main impression of him was that he was some kid that thought she went around kissing boys and was kind of scared she might do the same to him! It was not his approval she wanted, nor really a compliment. But this was also the first time she had really shared her work with anyone other than her father or anyone in the field.

Perhaps it was just that simple. She did not want to be told she was rubbish. He was one of the few people that seemed kind of interested in the armour making, at least based on the conversation so far. Hopefully, her skill would not scare him away now. A smile crossed her lips as she heard his compliment, the sigh of relief escaping her as she took it back. She did not really know why but she had stopped breathing. It was not intentional. But she noticed it when she exhaled out of relief finally when he spoke. How long had she been holding her breath? She could not tell you.

"O-oh, thanks," She mumbled, blushing slightly as she took the sketchbook back without hesitation. Twitching her nose, she looked down to the page to observe it once more. That's when his whisper hit her ears. Her eyes widened slightly. "I- I'm not- what do you mean-" She started suddenly, quick to becoming defensive. She was not hiding! What would she be hiding? She had nothing to hide-

It was a lie. And she knew it. Her gaze fell onto the page that she had just shown him. There were several comments about hiding ears, scribbles that took out the helmet designs that exposed her ears and many, many attempts at hiding it. She knew that. She had spent hours trying to come up with different designs, trying to find something that might be both protective and covering. Something that would do everything she wanted it to. It had to be useful and protect her head, it had to cover her ears and protect her identity but it also had to be versatile enough that she could wear it to different events. She knew she would be taking part in broom racing, which would be kind of dangerous. But more than that, she also wanted a helmet that she could wear to the balls or events that also seemed to constantly be dangerous.

Could she just go around wearing a giant metal helmet all day along? A bit like how Headmaster Lear wore a metal armour suit all day? Perhaps but she was not entirely sure if that would bring more attention to her, or people would think she was a bit odd. Especially if she just had a helmet and nothing else. Ahhh, she was overthinking the whole mess.

Serena bit her lip. She was definitely hiding - and both of them knew it. She had shown him the notes. If he had read the pages - which it very much seemed like he did - he would also know. What was the point in hiding the fact that she was hiding?

He spoke about being a part-giant, which was definitely obvious. "No shit, Sherlock," She teased softly in a pouty whisper as she looked up at him, noticing the grin on his face. Her hand curled around the edges of the page, scrunching it slightly before letting go as she did not want to damage the work.

"I was told to. I made a promise I would..." She admitted after a few moments of silence, not sure how much she should really tell him, "I shouldn't have shown you- I'm sorry- I-" Serena fell quiet again. He already had known though - whether she had shown him or not, he knew. How did he know? Had he noticed her ears? Her unchanging height? Her abnormally long fingers? Had he heard her speaking Gobbledegook and recognised it? What was it?

Serena sighed softly, putting the sketchbook down to the side as she picked up Pizza Rat in her hands and gently ran her fingers over his head as she leaned back against the tree behind her, "My father made me promise. It would break our family. You see, my brother... well, he's about a foot taller than me," She explained, making it very clear that her older brother definitely did not share the same genes as her. She also knew that he would not handle the knowledge well but his elitist and misguided ways were not on the question here. "And I wasn't to even talk to my mother about it but, I think she kinda knows? I dunno. I think he's just... scared? He doesn't want to lose them," He was not wrong. But she did disagree with him. A part of her could not fathom the idea of marrying someone without them knowing who you truly were and accepting it.

She scratched the back of her head a little in thought. "How did you know?" She whispered suddenly, wondering if she needed to figure out how to hide it better.

"I- Well of course not!" Serena responded, slightly flustered by his comment. Of course, her father was not there! Why would he be here!? Admittedly, that was not the point that he was trying to make but still! It did not justify anything. If her father found out, he would still be hurt, right? And pureblood families had a way of knowing everything. Gossip travelled so quickly through the network, it was like they had nothing better to do sometimes - and truth be told, she sometimes thought they truly had nothing else better in their lives than that. "Come on, you know that's not the point. People talk. Half the purebloods know my family. It would get back to them through them, and that would be so much worse. It's the entire family's reputation or some shit, yanno?" She tried.

A guess?! It was just a guess?! That was not helpful! How did she hide something when people could just randomly 'guess' it?! "I didn't panic!" Serena said defiantly and rather defensively, even though they both knew she did.

Wh- What did he just call her! "Wh- HEY! I'm not that short!" She pouted as she suddenly stood up, putting her hands to her hips with a pout on her lips as though trying to show him how tall she was. Her - even with the straightest posture she could muster - tallest height was barely the same as him sitting down. If he was standing, she was not going to do anything by standing. Nonetheless, she would pout, stand up and show him with a pouty expression on her face! She was not short! She was taller than like... some first years! "I'm like taller than so many people! You're just tall!" She decided, before giving up and sitting back down with a pout on her lips. There was no point, he would not get it! He did not have the issue of being 'short'.

She paused for a moment. In theory, Hugh could have actually told her brother. He was at camp right now too... But she definitely preferred he did not. The Durmstrang student would not take it well, she was sure of that. "That is probably a good thing. Pretty sure you'd hate my brother more than I do," She responded to him.

"Don't tell him, please..." She whispered, in a more serious tone than before, as she genuinely did not want her half-brother to find out that he was just that, half. It would be an issue and she really did not want to see how badly it went. Hugh might not have known him but they could run into each other tomorrow for all she knew, "In fact... maybe just don't tell anyone?" She asked, hoping he could take the secret to the grave with him.