Ready and Waiting
Author: Bill Weasley
Date: 07-27-04 07:28

Bill arrived at Hogwarts about twenty minutes early in order to prepare his table for the day's event: career exploration for the students. Having agreed to volunteer on behalf of Gringotts Bank, Bill came prepared with pamphlets and brochures on the various occupations available to graduates of Hogwarts.

He also provided extra information on his former line of work, curse breaking, with which he continued to dabble despite his promotion, and that of his current job, bank management. These informational materials came in the form of booklets, complete with moving photographs on the cover and inside on the glossy pages.

For incentive to visiting Bill's table, the red-haired Weasley intended on giving gifts such as complimentary knuts, quills with Gringotts Bank printed on the shaft, buttons with the Gringotts logo and candy. He arranged a bowl of lemon drops on one corner of his table and a round basket of the buttons on the other. The paper items were spread out on the table before him, which was draped with a blue cloth trimmed with gold.

Satisfied that all was in order and noting that students were starting to trickle into the Great Hall, Bill stood tall behind his table and put on a friendly smile.

Walking on the Edge of a Cliff
Author: Emma Crusher
Date: 07-27-04 08:46

Emma wasn't afraid of heights. Had never been afraid to take that last step over the edge and into the unknown oblivian. With her, that same chasm that so many people found terrifing was more seductive than anything.

Which is why she wasn't afraid now, as she stood on the brink of the metaphorical cliff, balancing her every-day life of going to school and being the good little Ravenclaw, and the darkness that was slowly threatening to consume it all.

She wasn't afraid of the dark, either.

*

That morning, Emma had woken up early and snuck down to the kitchens to get a bit of early breakfast. The house elves didn't ask questions, simply scuried about in their typical house-elf fasion to fetch her a plate of fruit and pancakes.

She'd then taken the plate off to the astronomy tower, which was deserted during the day. Because today was career day, she was likely to not be missed.

Sitting down with breakfast in her lap and her shoulder bag at her side, she had pulled out her aunt's book, worn now as the pages were from flipping through them. She opened it up deliberately, aiming for a certain page, and only missing it by three. The spell was simple, compared to the rest of the text, and only required her wand and concentration. In the end, she was supposed to be able to become invisible. She wasn't going to move from that spot until she'd mastered it...

Quarter to Three
Author: Rolan Boyd
Date: 07-27-04 15:45

"How often do you do this!?" asked Rolan Boyd incredulously, glancing from a half-eaten tray of treats, to a mug of hot chocolate, to a pile of used parchment, and then stopping on Lisa Turpin, curled up on a couch with a familiar book, More than Merlin..., and a blanket wrapped around her person. The Ravenclaw common room was dark and silent around them; the two friends were located in their room's center, basking in the flickering light of the fireplace.

Lisa smiled and set her book down next to the parchment before adjusting herself on the couch so that there was room for Rolan to sit. "I have trouble sleeping most nights," replied Lisa, still amused by the look of surprise across Rolan's face.

"I never knew!" Rolan exclaimed as he stared into the mesmerizing flames before him.

"You don't know everything about me, despite appearances. I don't even think Su knows," laughed Lisa, reading his thoughts. She reached toward the coffee table to retrieve a cookie from the tray. Rolan casually watched her do this before being seized by a thought.

"Where did you...certainly you don't make trips to the kitchen each night!?" he exclaimed. Lisa was again taken by his surprise and began laughing.

"Last year I left a note here for the house elves. I explained my habit each night and asked if they might provide me with some sort of a snack. It's not always the same, but they have delivered graciously," she replied, obviously pleased with herself. "I figure they must have known though. Unfortunately I feel I've thrown off their cleaning schedule."

"Yeah. I supposed. So you..."

"Sleep for a few hours each night and then wake up? Yes," interrupted Lisa knowingly. "I used to wake up in the middle of night and just lay there for hours. Now I try to be productive. Plus, I find that when I eat and read, I generally become tired again within a couple of hours."

Rolan nodded his head softly. His eyes returned to the dancing flames and his head began to swirl with a rush of thoughts. The night had been uncharacteristically cold, and Lisa either felt him shudder or had been waiting to comment.

"Rolan. I'm cold even with this blanket around me, you must be freezing," she said, her teeth shivering a little for emphasis. Rolan blinked and tore himself away from the fire, now noting that he was only wearing his undershorts and his skin was fading into a bluish tone. "Come inside."

Lisa sat up and move next to Rolan, offering him a side of the blanket. He accepted her offer, wrapping the blanket tight around his side so the two were cocooned inside. Rolan felt a surge of heat all over, and his naked skin tingled as it came into contact with Lisa's body, which was leaning into him. He felt her hand on his stomach. "You're warmer than you look." Lisa smiled. Rolan looked into the fire.

"Terry talked to me the other day," said Lisa after a period of silence. "I guessed you had something to do with that?

"I might have mentioned something to him."

"I'm glad you did," said Lisa. "By the way. What are you doing up?"

"I couldn't sleep. Too many things on my mind. I just needed to get up and move around," Rolan replied.

"Now you know how I feel."

They continued to sit for several minutes, the cracking of the wood replaced their words. A feeling of discomfort was rising inside of Rolan. When Lisa began to open her mouth again to interrupt the silence, Rolan outpaced her.

"It's quarter to three," he said, glancing at the shadowy hands of a wall clock on the fireplace mantel. "I'm going to try and get some sleep."

"Rolan...Hey...Rolan..."

Rolan peered through his eyelids to find two enormous eyes staring back.

"Merlin's beard!" shouted Rolan. His eyes bolted open and his jerked head away as Kevin Entwhistle's laugh filled the dormitory.

"You're going to miss breakfast again mate. You should be thanking me."

Rolan mumbled an unthankful response under his breath and slipped out of his bed; the air was warmer than last night.

"What was that?" asked Kevin as Rolan sleepily picked up a book and flipped through its pages. He cleaned away some crust from his eyes as he read his handwritten entry: Career Day.

Once he was ready Rolan began his way down to the common room where he found his four friends waiting for him. As they exited the room, Rolan pulled aside Lisa, feeling the need to apologize for leaving abruptly the night prior. When he did so, however, Lisa threw him a puzzled look.

"Last night? What are you talking about Rolan?"

Preparations for Potions Promotions
Author: Nevvyn
Date: 07-27-04 17:46

I have spent the better part of the week, working on Miss Desdemona Diamond's little problem. I researched the problem of developing a charm or philter of some sort which would warn the wearer of the approach of one certain person or thing. Firetalk with an old friend in Armagh, gave me some ideas and sent me to another acquaintance in Nairobi. I studied the shards with various spells, and was finally able to isolate the source of the "Magical Impulse" which caused the shattering. Though I could not conjure a name, or even a face, the "signature" was that of a powerful female… a witch of the darkest sort. Using that information, I ground the shards and infused them with purest gold, a single faerie tear, some shavings of dragon scale and a small amount of unicorn blood. This concoction, I fused together in a small furnace to produce a delicate and completely innocent-looking heart of crystal. The combination of the heat and the added ingredients turned it a nice shade of ruby red. With the addition of a fine gold chain, the charm was ready by Friday.

While I have been otherwise occupied, the Toms have been busy preparing posters and handbills for the Hogwarts Career Day. They vanished on Wednesday and reappeared on Thursday, both times when I was not around to see how they did it. It seems that both Brownies and House Elves have a similar method of "travelling". Better than apparating, in that they can cover long distances and go over water with no apparent problems. In this case, they had been to visit an old friend in California, to get the handbills printed up. At any rate, they returned with stacks of neatly-printed materials touting the joys and rewards of a career in the making of potions.

Now, it is the BIG DAY! The Toms and I toted our displays and pamphlets up to the Castle in the early morning, and we set up our display at one side of the Great Hall. One section shows the growing and harvesting of ingredients, another discusses the drying and grinding and all the other processes which go into the preparation for long-term storage, and the third shows the making of the potions. All in all, a rather complex undertaking, just for a small phial of colored liquid. In front of the displays is a selection of equipment: cauldrons of varying sizes and materials, retorts, alembics, reflux condensers, a self-grinding mortar and pestle, and a special "chill-jar" for freeze-drying some of the ingredients.

I step back and survey the layout. Everything seems to be in order. The pamphlets are neatly stacked for easy access by the students. Best of all, the Toms are standing quietly to one side. They have given me their solemn promise that they will be on their best behavior, today. With a satisfied smile, I suggest they might want to go and look up their friend, Dobby. Very calmly, they all walk to the main doors and disappear somewhere into the bowels of the castle… the realm of the House Elves.

Now, we just simply wait for the students to come by. I am also keeping an eye out for Miss Diamond. I am sure she will be interested in what I have for her. Meanwhile, I join Bill Weasley at the snack table for a cup of hot tea and some delicious scones with clotted cream.

Lots to Think About
Author: Harry Potter
Date: 07-27-04 18:59

Harry stands just inside and to the right of the entrance to the Great Hall, studying the handout of which tables are what. He stops first at the booth for spell research, talking a few moments with Carola Canon. She seems pleased that the famous Harry Potter is showing an interest in her field. Harry asks questions that would make Hermione proud and even takes notes. He also takes the pamphlets Ms. Canon gives him, sincerely promising to sit down and read each thoroughly later in the day. Harry deposits the pamphlets, along with the goodie bag of special inks and parchment Ms. Canon is handing out, thanks the lady then moves on.

The next table Harry approaches is the Magical Law Enforcement booth. He'd briefly met aurors Geoffrey Blackwell and Jaiden Peters once with Sirius when meeting Dierna at MoM for lunch. Ms. Peters gives Harry a very effervescent greeting. "Harry! So good to see you again! Dierna's mentioned many times your interest in becoming an auror. Let's get you one of each handout and pamphlet, shall we?"

"Thanks, Ms. Peters, I'm... "

"Jaiden. Let's not be so formal, Harry."

"All right, Jaiden. I'm interested in the auror field but I'm not decided yet if it's the career I'll pursue. I'm definately going to take some classes as the university, maybe even go completely through a program there."

"The auror program there is new - well, all their programs are new - but they have great people running it and back at headquarters we've been hearing good things about the first ones going through though the true test of that auror program will be when the first ones graduate and get field jobs. Now here, have one of those little cakes. Geoffrey and I special ordered them from Briar's Bakery to have little auror symbols on them."

As Harry accepts a cake and begins eating, Jaiden and he continue talking about the auror program and the requirements for acceptance. By the time he walks away from the Magical Law Enforcement table headed toward the Banking and Curse Breaking booth, Harry's mind is spinning again on whether he wants to be an auror or not. At least if he decides not he got more cool, free stuff and a couple of cupcakes made by Briar's.

Dorian Somerset
Author: Ethan Somerset
Date: 07-27-04 21:00

Dorian Somerset scanned the length of the Great Hall, and silently mused how little Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry had changed over the years. He'd signed up to run a booth on behalf of Vitruvian, Inc., a wizarding corporation in the medicinal field for which Dorian served as a member of the board.

It had never been his intention to volunteer for the career day. When the CEO of the company had mentioned the opportunity at a board meeting several weeks ago, Dorian had sneered and turned his nose up in disgust. Mingle with sniveling brats, many of whom had muggle blood coursing through their veins?! Absolutely not!

He prided himself on his pureblood ancestry, and thereby averted situations with muggle and muggle-born persons unless otherwise unavoidable (he particularly disliked a fellow member of the board, whose father was a muggle carpenter). Dorian's extensive and well-documented genealogy proved the veracity of his wizardly familial lines.

Despite Dorian's very Slytherin (which had, of course, been his house during his younger days at Hogwarts) mindset with respect to muggles and muggle-born wizards, he had made a very important sacrifice for the dark cause for which he and several others had had such high hopes. What later transpired, none of them expected. It seemed that twenty years of effort had been wasted.

His thoughts then on his fallen prospects, Dorian had agreed to take on the volunteer position. He could collect the remainder of Ethan's belongings, as the younger man had fled with little of his possessions after fearing the wise eyes of both Headmaster Dumbledore and Head Auror ni Ciaran. They'd never been sent to the house in Canterbury, and while Dorian cared little for Ethan he did wonder if there might be something of interest among his items--something that might explain why what shouldn't have happened did.

"Excuse me, sir..." Dorian focused his eyes on a tall young man with dark skin. "Are you related to Professor Somerset?"

Dorian gave a firm "No."

"Oh, okay..." He exchanged a shrug with his two comrades before asking, "So, does your company have anything to do with healing?"

"We supply independent healers and hospitals like St. Mungo's with medical draughts and herbs. We are primarily in mass production, though we do individual orders if the price is right..."

Meeting Holly
Author: Natalie Rose
Date: 07-27-04 22:03

Natalie looked out onto the grounds of the school. It was once again an unbearably cold day. She knew she should be in the Great Hall with the rest of the older students but she couldn't motivate herself to leave the library. She bundled up in the quilt she had recently made with Maj's help and was glad had decided to stay in her muggle sweats today. Natalie was doing anything to keep her mind off Terry, and it amazed her how much she accomplished. She had been avoiding him since the Quidditch match afraid that when she saw him he would confide his feelings about Su to her and she couldn't bear that. Suddenly someone sat down across from her. She looked up to find Holly Markes a fellow fifth year in Hufflepuff house.

"Why are you in here?" Natalie asked shocked that anyone in her year or older would choose to be in the library today.

Holly smiled and replied, "Natalie, while I don't know you well I know enough to observe you've been avoiding anything social for the past week, I'm intervening, go up to your room and get showered and dressed, then come meet me on the fourth floor next to the jester painting."

Holly frowned as she noticed she might have upset the girl she was trying to befriend.

"How have you known I haven't been leaving Gryffindor tower except for classes and the reason is because something's bothering me? And, I know that we have some classes together but how do you even know me???"

Holly smiled inwardly relieved that the girl was just confused. "I know something is wrong because you haven't looked happy all week and I'm friends with some of the house elves and I asked them what was new and they got all excited and told me you had asked them if they would please bring your meals to your room for awhile. I know you because you answer quite a few questions in class and you have a reputation for standing up to Snape when he’s putting down students and I admire that, so I decided that being shy was silly and that I would just come up here and introduce myself and make sure you were ok."

"Wow," Natalie whispered in shock, "I didn't know anyone even knew I existed except for the few good friends I made."

"Of course people know you exist, what an awful thing to say. Anyway come on this is getting absurd and whatever it is that's bothering you isn't going to get solved by isolating yourself from the rest of the world. I haven't even seen you with that cute Ravenclaw seventh year who you picked at the Dating Game and you two haven't been separated since the last Hogsmeade visit."

At this Natalie broke out in tears, Holly looked at her stunned and did what was natural to her when someone was crying. She embraced Natalie. O Merlin, now this girl thinks I'm mentally unstable, pull it together Natalie she's right you can't stay in here any longer, find the courage to tell this girl everything so she can understand what's going on, Natalie quickly thought to herself, surprised at how nice the girl was being. Madam Pince then hustled over and yelled at the girls for making such a scene.

Natalie explained to Holly what had been going on. Holly nodded sympathetically and made all the right comments at all the right times and after Natalie had asked, told her what was going on in her life. After the 45 minute chat session ended Holly told Natalie to take a shower and dry her hair, they were going down to the career fair. Natalie realized how unreasonable she had been acting during the past week and thanked Holly for snapping some sense into her. Maj and Hermione had also noticed Natalie was upset and confronted her but when she explained what was going on with Terry they had just smiled like they knew a secret she didn’t. Then they told her everything would work out in the end. They had been worried about her not coming to the Great Hall for dinner but she had made the excuse that she was studying extra hard in potions, which wasn't a total lie.

Natalie left the room and showered and dressed, then walked down to the now abandoned class room. She found Holly sitting at the head of the room amidst make-up and various outfits. When Natalie asked her what was going on, she had smiled in response and said that Natalie was getting a make over and was going to make Terry's heart stop. She was reluctant to agree at first but then realized how ungrateful she was being to this girl she hardly knew who was being so gracious. Natalie dressed then sat down on a chair while Holly started to work on her. When Holly was done she handed Natalie a hand mirror and Natalie looked at her reflection, she didn't even recognize herself, she had never thought herself to be attractive but somehow Holly had made her feel beautiful. She hugged and thanked Holly and they left the room to join everyone else at the career fair.