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Bill, Adriana and Jimmy
Author: Bill Weasley
Date: 04-06-12 17:37
There was no shortage of Weasleys at Career Day this year. In addition to Fred and George, or Gred and Feorge as they were calling themselves today, Bill, Charlie, Percy, Ron and Blossom had tables in the Great Hall. Bill represented Gringotts Bank, the institution for which he had worked for many, many years now. Whenever somebody dropped by his table, he talked about banking in general, but the topic he loved talking about the most was curse breaking.
It was what he'd first done upon gaining employment with the bank. Bill certainly enjoyed the administrative duties he found himself handling these days, but running the Hogsmeade branch lacked the adventure curse breaking in Egypt had done. He was just wrapping up one of his more exciting stories, in which he'd nearly gotten hit with a counter-curse cast over an ancient Egyptian tomb, when Adriana Fairchild joined his audience.
The students eventually peeled away from the table, but not before taking some of the chocolate galleons, sickles and knuts Bill had brought with him. He turned to Adriana at last, but she spoke before he could offer her a greeting.
"Having fun?" She glanced over the pamphlets Bill had brought with him.
"Sure. How about you?"
She gave a sort of shrug and took a copper foil wrapped chocolate. "I thought I should make an appearance, being a professor and all."
"Yes, I suppose that is your obligation. Have you looked around much? I've never seen Career Day this big."
"Not yet," Adriana replied. "I've only just arrived and with your table one of the nearest ones to the doors, you're the first person I saw. I thought I would say hello. It's been a while since we've spoken."
"Not since the wedding, right?"
"Right, I––" but then she stopped abruptly, having caught sight of someone across the room. "Excuse me for a moment."
She walked off without another glance at Bill and crossed the Great Hall.
"Can anyone become a wandmaker?" asked Flora Dalton.
"I think everyone has the potential to become a wandmaker," Jimmy Kiddell thoughtfully replied, "but it takes great skill. Not only do you have to learn how to whittle wood into desirable and practical shapes, you also have to understand the different types of wand woods, the optimal lengths, and what sort of wand cores are best. That said, I think only few wizards can become GREAT wandmakers. I'm sad to say we lost a great wandmaker recently. I didn't know Gregorovitch personally, but I certainly knew of him." Jimmy sighed. "He was retired, but it's still a great shame."
The students in front of his table started to grow bored, not knowing or caring who Gregorovitch was. They wandered away to other tables. At first, Jimmy hadn't realized he'd lost his audience, but then he snapped out of his thoughts and saw Adriana. He smiled.
"I didn't know you were volunteering today," Adriana told him.
"I thought about telling you but then I thought it might be more fun if I surprised you."
Adriana didn't find it that "fun" at all, but she shot Jimmy a coy smile. "You got me. So, what's this about Gregorovitch?"
Jimmy frowned. "He died. He was on the list I gave you, remember?"
"I remember. If he was retired, then can I presume he died of old age?"
Jimmy's frown only deepened. "Adriana, he was murdered."
She gasped. "Oh, no. Is the murderer in custody?"
"I don't think so. It's been in the papers some and I've heard news from some of my colleagues, but nobody seems to know who did it or why it was done. Nobody really seems to know anything."
"What a shame."
"Yeah."
Adriana saw a few children drawing near and gestured to them. "Don't let me distract you from doing your thing." She stepped away before Jimmy could tell her anything else, but he quickly found himself occupied with answering questions from eager students.
Adriana swept her gaze around the room and saw that Bill was looking at her curiously. He raised his eyebrows. She smiled and turned away, leaving him guessing.
It's Getting Hot in Here
Author: Lysander Stratford
Date: 04-06-12 19:13
The Twice Told Tales table was surrounded by teenagers of the female persuasion. Most of them did nothing but giggle at Lysander and Julian, whereas some babbled nonstop about their interests, which included a strong an emphasis on old books and bookselling. By now, Lysander and Julian were used to the attention they received when they visited Hogwarts for Career Day. For his part, Lysander was thankful that Harriet Snider wasn't still on staff and shuddered when he remembered the attention she'd given him several years ago.
He briefly wondered what had ever happened to the former Hogwarts headmistress. Was she still in Azkaban?
He felt a nudge and shook all thoughts of the witch from his mind.
"Can you get more journals for the table?" Julian asked him.
Lysander nodded and ducked to get to the box at his feet. He picked up a handful of the leatherbound journals and set them onto the dwindling stack on the table.
"Thanks," Julian said. "Where'd you go?"
"What?" Lysander asked. The group of girls had wandered off, but a new set were already wandering over to give the handsome booksellers their attention.
"I was talking to you and you weren't hearing me, so obviously you were somewhere else in your head. Please tell me she was gorgeous and willing."
Lysander pulled a face. "Hardly, and it's not even important. Look, we have more fans. Hi, ladies. Interested in bookselling? Here, have a journal." He passed one of the girls a journal bound in dark green leather.
"We love books!" she squealed.
"That's great. Stop by the shoppe during the next Hogsmeade trip. We're going to have good deals, especially on study material for the O.W.L. and N.E.W.T. subjects."
"Okay! We will!" She giggled and pressed the journal to her chest, as if it were more precious than anything else she'd ever been given.
After a bit more discussion with the girl and her friends, Lysander and Julian had another moment to themselves. Hogwarts was often a bit drafty, especially in the winter, but Lysander had started to feel hot. It probably had something to do with how many warm bodies were in the Great Hall.
"Think my mum's gone barmy watching all the kids?" Julian asked.
"They're good kids, so I'm sure she's fine," Lysander replied, pulling off the v-neck jumper he was wearing.
There was a thud behind him.
Lysander and Julian turned to see a girl on the floor, with another leaning over her fanning her face with a few pamphlets. The girl on the floor looked a bit flushed, but she seemed to be okay. She let her friend help her to her feet and with a dreamy smile, drifted away to get something to drink.
"Imagine what would have happened if you hadn't been wearing something under that jumper!" Julian quipped.
Lysander threw the jumper at him in response.
Career Day
Author: Charisma Stone
Date: 04-07-12 06:03
Blake and Isma had both been up early, gotten breakfast and spent some time working on homework (as it was likely the only time their books would be opened at all today), and then when Career Day started at ten in the Great Hall they headed there after putting their things away from spending time in the library.
They had, like most of the student body, heard the rumors that had been floating around about the Ravenclaws that had been busted by Professor Kent, both the false one and the one that held more truth because Isma had seen Megara around and honestly didn't think that she would do something like have an orgy. The one about the truth serum however, was the one she actually believed and the fact that Errol hadn't done what the rumors say he did was a good thing.
"You alright? You phased out on me for a bit." Blake said, after squeezing her hand causing her to look up at him.
"Am alright, was just thinking, and wondering what is going to happen to Megera and Errol, I know that points have already been deducted for the prefect and the other boy involved, but so far nothing has been said about what punishments had been given to the other two." It truthfully had been all pretty much anyone had been talking about, and some had even been surprised that Alastor hadn't lost his Prefect badge over the incident.
"Who knows, but we really should start looking at the booths. Gotta have some information on what we want to do in three years when we get out of here." He said with a grin and gave her a peck on the cheek as they wandered into the Great Hall already teaming with bodies.
Isma wanted some of the goodies that were being handed out, but she was also quite interested in some of the booths that were set up for their interesting line of work. "I think I am going to brave the gaggle of drooling, giggling neanderthal girls to talk to Mister Valentine and Mister Stratford from Twice Told Tales." Said moments before Lysander had taken off his jumper causing some boy crazy twit to faint.
"Sure you aren't just going over there to scope out the eye-candy?" Blake teased and she swatted at him.
"Decidedly not, though I must say, I wouldn't mind upgrading my current beau to something much hotter." She teased back at him before dropping a kiss on his cheek. "Now, I know you are itching to go talk to Professor Krum and Professor Fine about professional Quidditch so go." She shooed him toward the Quidditch table which was manned by two of the players for the Hogsmeade Humbatas and current professors at Hogwarts.
Isma on the other hand briefly slipped over to the Twice Told Tales table and offered both Julian and Lysander a smile. "Hi. So what is the most interesting part of being a bookseller?" She asked, fingering the journal that she'd been handed, covered with a deep, rich burgundy leather.
She talked to Lysander and Julian for a little while, before wandering along the other booths. A chocolate almond filled croissant as well as a lemon cream one after discussing the art of pastry making and baking with Briar, though it was not really something that interested her, as she wasn't actually someone who liked to bake, however, the results of baking were quite delicious.
She'd also stopped by the Crown & Cauldron table, not for the freebies, but those were darn tasty as well she would admit, but to find out why Furnella Hodfuffer had chosen to go into her current career choice. That was the main question that she asked those she stopped to speak to.
She'd gotten some good information, and met up with Blake a short time later, he had moved on from talking to Professors Krum and Fine, to speaking with Siegfried Dewhurst about sports journalism.
Working With The Famous Ron Weasley
Author: Griffin Price
Date: 04-07-12 10:14
As a sixth year girl walks off with information on the requirements for becoming an Auror, Ron moves next to Griffin to comment, "She actually seemed interested."
"We've had a number of interested students."
"We've also had a lot of girls coming to bat their lashes at you and give you moon eyes."
"Not just me."
"Thanks for saying but we both know that's not true."
"You're a nice looking guy, Ron, AND you are the famouse Ron Weasley."
Ron opens his mouth as if to argue, shuts it again, and gives a low chuckle. "Yeah, true, though half the ones I've spoken with ask where Harry is this year."
"What's the deal there, anyway? Why would he "
"Help Peter Pettigrew?"
"Yeah. Isn't Pettigrew who disclosed the Potters' location?"
"Yes, that was Pettigrew. Made it look like Sirius Black did it and faked his own death, which also got pinned in Sirius. No idea why Harry would help him. Harry has no idea why he did it."
Another student approaches the table so Ron and Griff drop the topic for the time being. "Hi, interested in a career in law enforcement?"
The girl nods once. "Maybe. I'm only a fourth year so I have lots of time to think about it. My mum wants me to go into medicine, as a nurse or a healer she doesn't care. I guess that would be okay but right now it doesn't appeal to me as much as being an Auror does."
The girl, whose name is Anita Tuck, asks a number of questions before thanking Griff and moving on. Ron's talking with a couple of boys by then. He takes advantage of the lull to go refill his and Ron's coffee cups. Back at the table he hands Ron his coffee. In the process Ron notices something on Griff's left ring finger.
"What is that?"
Griff holds up his hand, waggling his fingers. "You mean this lovely ring?"
The ring is a costume jewelry plastic, garish orange with a swirly pattern of bright lime green. "My son decided that if Carys is wearing an engagement ring, I should too. He had this as a favor in a bag given out at someone's birthday party and thought it would fit me perfectly."
"Aw, and lucky for you it did."
"It could be worse. Carys has one with a flower that comes up about so high off the ring. That would have been his next choice since it's easily adjustable."
"You could always take it off after you leave the house."
"Yeah, but then I have to remember to put it back on again and make sure that in between I don't lose it. Here comes one of your fans."
"How do you know she's coming over here for me?"
"She's got an autograph book and a quill and is coming over here with a determined look on her face. Want I should see about having one of the school photographers running around come over so you can pose with her for a picture?"
Ron smirks and makes an off with you gesture with his fingers. "Good idea."
Griff snickers and then, just because he can, he gets the attention of one of those photographers.
Botanicals & Beyond
Author: Travis
Date: 04-07-12 16:12
Travis is putting out more small bags of tea samples and checking the levels of pots containing brewed tea matching those samples when a girl of thirteen or fourteen walks up. "Hi, would you like some tea? I've got an assortment."
The girl inspects the small name placards in front of the pots and samples of loose tea. She points to one. "What's guayusa?"
"Guayusa is a more rare herbal tea. It's made from the leaves of the Ilex guayusa, which is a type of holly tree, native to the parts of the Amazonian rainforest. It's naturally caffeinated. This is tea is just guayusa but in the shoppe I do have it in blends, such as with ginseng. If you like to sweeten your tea, sugar is fine with it but I think honey is better or, my personal favorite with guayusa, a dollop of maple."
The girl, who introduces herself as Lucy, says, "To run the sort of shoppe you do, is it necsssary to be really good in Herbology?"
"Not necessary, no, but it definitely helps even if only an employee. You can pick it up as you go along but even then, if it's something you find interesting you are going to learn it better and faster and learn more than just the minimum knowledge required. That's true of anything, not just a shoppe selling botanicals."
"Did it take you a long time to learn everything you need to open Botanicals & Beyond?"
"As I am still learning, that would be a yes."
"What do you mean you're still learning?"
"I am always looking for ways to improve my greenhouses, for more information on the products I buy from others, keeping an eye and an ear open to what customers might want, for new plants."
"There are new plants?"
"Oh yes, definitely. Not only are new species of plants periodically discovered but there are hybrids and there are plants that are engineered, that is, they are created, for example cotton that has been made to be more resistance to bugs. Oh, an example of how I am still learning is with the ice creams I introduced last year." Travis sweeps a hand towards the ice creams she's got set out in sample cups. "It's quite a process determining what flavors work and what don't and sometimes an ingredient causes us to have to tweak our basic ice cream recipe."
"What else do you have to know to run your type of shoppe?" Lucy asks, finishing off the guayasa tea sample and moving on to pick up a peach and white tea ice cream sample.
"To manage or own such a shoppe, in addition to needing to know or be able to pick up knowledge of botanicals, you should have some accounting skills, be aware of how to set price points, how to arrange displays to lure customers into the shoppe and then once inside, beyond the front door. You should be able to work well with people, have a system for tracking inventory... It's pretty much what you would need to know for running any sort of shoppe."
"What if I'm really bad with accounting or just don't like doing it so I hired someone?"
"That's fine, but the most successful business owners know the basics of keeping their books and tracking their finances so that they can check things themselves from time to time to ensure the person they've hired is doing an honest job of it."
"What do you dislike the most?"
"I actually don't like doing the bookkeeping and I absolutely hate having to fire someone, even if the person is an awful worker."
"What do you like best?"
"I LOVE experimenting with making teas and I very much enjoy keeping any eye out for new products or helping create one. The challenge of creating this Valentine's miniature rose bush was quite fun." Travis bushes her fingers along the rim of one of the small potted plants arranged on the tables and floor of her booth area. The blooms of this particular plant are in one of three colors: white, pink, and red. Having each bloom one of those three colors gives the overall plant the look of a mixed bouquet, which is the name Travis has tentatively given it. "This is the Mixed Bouquet."
"That's one plant?"
"Yes, one miniature rose bush."
"I know a flower can be more than one color but I don't think I've seen a plant with three individual colors like that. That's so cool."
"If you like it, you may have it. I brought plants both for display and as freebies. Some of the miniature roses, such as this one, are part of my Valentine's Day displays in the shoppe."
Lucy accepts the Mixed Bouquet miniature rose bush, which has care instructions with it, asks a few more questions, tastes some of the other food and drink samples Travis is offering then continues on her way, a few pamphlets about careers in Herbology tucked into a small handled bag. Totally alone for the moment, Travis considers going over to one of the tables to get some more substantial food or helping herself to some of the samples others are offering. Lunch should be soon but with no one currently at her table, it's a perfect time to at least go get some of the yummies Furnella Hodfuffer is offering at the Crown & Cauldron table.
Cold Coming On
Author: Plum
Date: 04-07-12 19:44
Plum had gotten up this morning feeling somewhat congested and headachy. It was really a bit late to try and get someone else to attend the Hogwarts Career Day as a representative of Devi Linguistics Services. Armed with a potion to help stave off fits of coughing, some lozenges to stuck on, something for the headache, and a couple of boxes of tissues she'd arrived at the school to set up for the day. Travis Ravenclaw has been kind enough to keep her supplied with plenty of honeyed tea and though she's not had much appetite, she's nibbled on tibits now and then to help hold that empty, weak feeling at bay.
Fanned out on the tables forming her booth are various booklets and pamphlets on different languages, jobs in the linguistics field, and the advantages of knowing even just one other language. There are some fun worksheets, quizzes, language aptitude tests, quills with writing down the shafts in such languages as Mermish and Gobbledygook, buttons on which the sayings displayed can be charmed to display them in other languages, and there are several very nice shirts, bags, and jackets with popular sayings written in another everything from Mermish to an obscure dialect of Tibetan mountain trolls.
So far the traffic at her table has been steady enough that Plum hasn't had overly much time to dwell on how increasingly wretched she feels but she is nonetheless extremely glad when lunchtime arrives. The scratchiness of her throat has intensified with all the talking she's doing and hasn't been helped when she has had bouts of coughing despite a liberal dose of the cough potion just before Career Day offiically opened. There are some very nice soups to choose from and though she'd rather find somewhere to curl up for a bit, Plum sits and eats a little rosemary chicken soup, the creaminess of the broth soothing her irritated throat.
The soup helps refresh her somewhat but it's still going to be a long afternoon. Career Day goes on through six this evening. Helping herself to more of Travis's tea at the next booth over from hers, Plum hopes that it along with the soup will keep her fortified for the next hour or so. She'll take a little break then and by that time she can take another dose of potion for the cough and the headache.
Turning back to her table Plum sees a young man twelve or thirteen standing there. Putting the smile back in place, she croakily greets the second year she knows from Language Club, "Hello, Bartholomew. How are you?"
"Good, thank you. Do you have a cold?"
"Yes, I think one has been coming on since I got up this morning. I don't feel at my best but at least it doesn't feel like the flu. Do you have any questions about working as a translator or interpretor or do you just want to look at what I've got to offer?"
"May I just look for now? I might think of questions after."
"Yes, of course. Be sure to pick out a t-shirt. You've got a choice of black or gray and there are five languages, each with a different saying."
"Thank you."
Bartholomew smiles, moving to check out the t-shirts leaving Plum to pop another lozange in her mouth in between sips of tea.
Blossom's Childcare And Gaming Center
Author: Blossom
Date: 04-07-12 22:14
Blossom had sampled enough food over the course of the morning that by lunchtime she didn't want much, eating half a toasted ham and swiss and a cup of sausage and white bean soup. Once the break had ended, she was back at the Blossom's booth, answering any questions students had on working in childcare. Questions have come in a wide assortment from silly to serious.
"What sort of training does it require?"
"How do you decide whether to have structure and lessons or just let them play in between naps and snacks?"
"Wouldn't it just be easier to have pony rides and that sort of thing every day?"
"It doesn't pay much, does it?"
Few who stop by are all that interested in a career developing young minds and bodies but a few have shown real interest. The majority of students, though, come by to see if she's got anything good to offer for them taking time out of their Saturdays to stroll from booth to booth, pretending they are giving any real thought to their lives after Hogwarts three to six years from now. Blossom has balloons that blow up into unsual shapes, some t-shirts, some silly stickers, and, most popular of all, tokens to the gaming part of her business.
At the next booth Daria is handling questions about the gaming portion of Blossom's. She's also had some with a real interest that aspect of the business but most are simply curious for cursious sake.
"Who thinks up the games?"
"Paint ball and laser tag are really based on Muggle games of the same name?"
"Do you get to play the games so much that you're wickedly good at them all?"
"Is it true I get ten game tokens just by coming over and asking you a question? Does that count as the question?"
Daria does have game tokens, paint ball wands, laser tag wands, game-centric shirts and visored caps and students may sign up for a drawing to be held at the end of Career Day. Five names will be drawn for year long memberships of unlimited game play. A student who's not that into the games at Blossom's can still sign up and if he or she wins, may have the membership put in someone else's name as a gift.
Because of the popularity of most of the items she has to give, the swag items are in bags with the Blossom's Gaming Center logo on it and are not spread out on the table. Daria will grab bags as needed when students come over to speak to her. It's a good thing she's not having to be keen eyed watching over a display of the tokens, wands, and shirts because Daria is near enough to the Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes booth to find herself both distracted and entertained.
Fred and George have many eye catching, fun items from their novelty and joke shoppe business, some of which have not been officially released yet. It's been quite fun watching students getting demonstrations, trying out weird foods and sweets, listening to the patter the twins have with each other and with the students.
Wanting something to drink, Daria asks Fred to keep an eye on things for her. When she comes back with strawberry banana smoothie from one of the side tables, Daria nearly spews the mouthful she's just taken as she tries not to laugh at seeing the large blinking eye Fred has set on her table.