A Chance to Win

[Edward Elric]

Edward didn't really get a chance to speak with Professor Kain when he had Charms, he was honestly a bit embarrassed considering it was him that had taken so many house points from Gryffindor when he had caught him and a few others in the Forbidden Forest at the beginning of the year. Now with the year coming to a close Edward could clearly see that he had made a grave mistake and that it may have ended up costing Gryffindor a chance at winning the House Cup, something that hadn't occurred in years. Edward figured it was better late than never to make things right and so with a deep breath he stood outside Professor Kain's door and knocked loudly three times. "Professor Kain are you busy?" Edward asked loudly through the door.

@Professor Robert Kain

 

[Robert Kain]

Rob was in the middle of cleaning out his man cave towards the back of his office when he heard the knocks on his office door. Last time this happened, he'd ended up giving extra tuition to one of the Hufflepuffs, which while he was more than glad to do so, at least this time round he would have gone into it more prepared than he had the first time, and he wasn't about to let his coffee go cold. He grabbed his mug, wandering across the room as he pulled up his sleeves, before waving a hand across his office door to see one of his Gryffindor students in the entrance. How..intriguing. "What can I do for you Edward?" he asked, recalling that during their last interaction he'd had to take many points away from his favourite house after catching him and his friends in a place they should've have been. There was only so much professors could do to ensure the safety of the students, and while they tried their best, professors couldn't always have eyes in the back of their heads. He motioned for the first year to come in, closing the door behind him and couldn't help but wonder whether he'd brought a baked good with him as his other student had.​

 

[Edward Elric]

Edward was a bit nervous to be seeing the Professor one on one, history had shown that this wasn't something that turned out pretty for him and he wasn't just referring to his previous interaction with Professor Kain. He thought back on the Quidditch Practice he tried to hold and how disastrous that had turned out even if it had helped him make some good friends. He wished he would've asked Allison and Stan to come with him but at the same time knew that this was probably something he should do on his own. "Well the thing is Professor, I'm not very good at practical magic but I am good at studying and I've tried to earn as much extra credit House Points for Gryffindor as I could throughout the year" Edward began as he tried to remember the speech he had practiced the nice before.

"I honestly don't try to get in to trouble but it sometimes just happens" thinking that he probably should have brought a cake or something help make his argument. Then again he was a terrible cook and probably would've ended up costing Gryffindor more points if he had tried serving Professor Kain something like that. "Anyways, I was wondering if there was anything I could do to help you out and maybe earn back some of the House points I lost Gryffindor, I'm good at helping others!" Edward blurted out perhaps a little louder than he had originally intended. He felt his face start to turn red as he became a bit flustered again. "Gryffindor is close to winning the House Cup and if we lose then it's because of me!" he added trying to hold back the bad thoughts that had been swimming in his mind the past week.

 

[Robert Kain]

Rob listened as the Gryffindor tried to explain his way through his reason for being here. It was understandable with the houses so tightly in competition with one another and so few points between them that Edward would feel a sense of remorse of his actions. “House points are not a bargining chip, you lost those because of your disobedience and refusal to listen to a professor and prefect. You had plenty choice to step away from the situation before you and the two others lost them,” he said, walking round his desk and taking a seat, leaning forward on one hand as his mug was held tightly in the other. He knew it must have been frustrating to lose such a large portion of points, although hopefully the extra credit would make up for it. Rob watched the boy for a moment, he’d been in his shoes once too although he spared him the details. “That being said,” Rob shifted in his chair, leaning back and resting his feet up on the corner of the desk instead as he took a sip of the hot liquid. “I’ve been attempting to finish that,” he pointed across the room towards various of wooden panels scattered around the floor towards the back of the room, although his head didn’t turn as he was watching the Gryffindor, “before the end of the semester. Believe it or not, it’s a desk, although with so many little drawers and a high backing it’s been taking a lot of my time, and as you can imagine during this time of year, I don’t have much of that.” Rob was much too busy marking to be putting furniture together. “You want to prove that your communication has improved, to show a professor that you can do something for them and not just your own interest? Finish building it for me, then we’ll see about those house points,” he said eventually, figuring it was a good a start as any, “and of course, magic isn’t an option in this case, although the instructions provided should help you sufficiently,” a smile by now had appeared on the mans face. He had better things to be doing so perhaps it would serve to benefit them both, “You can come and go as you please, as long as it’s done by the end of the semester. And feel free to rope in those friends of yours.”​

 

[Edward Elric]

Edward had thought about pointing out that the whole House Point system was really nothing more than a bargaining chip to get students to behave and do well in classes, however he also figured now wasn't the time to argue. Sometimes it was better just to keep his mouth shut and besides he found himself looking at something that the Professor was showing him and his heart began to race. Edward had been taking things apart and putting them back together pretty much all of his life, it was one of the reasons he enjoyed trying to invent things.

"It's a desk right? just a regular one? No Whomples or Snorlacks gonna come out of the wooden panels?" Edward asked not sure if those things actually existed. "My dad's a wizard technically but he hasn't performed magic since before I was born so putting it together the muggle way isn't a problem, got any tools?" Edward added as the Professor mentioned not using magic. Why on Earth would Edward have wanted to take short cuts magically when he could get down and put it all together by hand. The fun part of building things was seeing all of the individual pieces and how they fit together and coming up with solutions when something didn't quite fit right.

Edward actually couldn't believe his good fortune at being given such a project since it actually seemed more like a reward than a chance to redeem himself. He figured it was best not to appear too excited though that didn't stop him from bouncing slightly on his toes as he looked over the individual pieces. It was actually similar to a desk he and his dad had built for his mother a when Edward was eight though his dad had actually done most of the physical work at the time.

 

[Robert Kain]

"Just a regular desk," Rob nodded, sitting back with his beverage to see what the Gryffindor would make of it. He sounded quite excited at the prospect, which gave him hope that maybe he'd get some nice furniture out of it too. "All the tools are in there. It's what I was about to do before you came by," he smiled, knowing that the timing couldn't have been more perfect. "Please, be my guest," he said to the first year, waving a hand as though he was free to get cracking whenever he felt like it. "Do you want a drink?" he asked, knowing that this sort of project could be thirsty work, and while Edward would be doing this as a punishment for being out in the forest, Rob wasn't going to make things even more difficult than they needed to be.​

 

[Edward Elric]

"No thank you, I'm good" Edward said as he was already pulling out the tools that he believed he would need for the assignment. He then walked over and picked up the instructions for the desk, it would have been easier with a power drill to assemble the pieces but the instructions made it simple enough for regular hand tools to be used. This was a good thing since Edward was quite sure that power tools were unable to work on Hogwarts Grounds. The first step was reading over the instructions carefully, Edward absorbed every word as he read through them quickly. Despite not being very good at practical magic he was at least in his element in trying to assemble the desk.

He paused once he had finished reading over the different pieces of the desk that were supposed to be in front of him and began to separate them into groups so that it would be easier to find and put together as he continued following the instructions. Once he'd finished he turned towards the Professor "It looks like your missing the screws that connect Pieces 1A, 1B, and 1C together, do you know if they got mixed up anywhere?" Edward asked as they were were smaller and meant to connect the drawer's inner frame together so that the actual drawer could simply slide in to the desk portion. Edward probably could have used a spell to find summon them but of course that would have violated the conditions of the assignment.

He didn't mind looking around the office for them of course but figured Professor Kain might have had private things that he didn't want a First Year to accidentally stumble upon. "They're small but there should be eight of them and these twelve here are supposed to connect the larger the drawer together" Edward explained showing the Professor what the missing screws were supposed to look like. It was common for smaller pieces to get mixed up when assembling big items so Edward wasn't too surprised. He'd even had a couple that had arrived with pieces missing and was forced to go to a store and buy the missing components rather than wait the two to three weeks for the company to ship him replacement parts.

 

[Robert Kain]

Rob was surprised how quickly Edward took to the task, making his way over and beginning the assembly immediately. The professor watched him curiously for a few minutes, before continuing to stack up some papers that still needed to be graded before the end of the week. Rob had to wonder who had taught the Gryffindor, or at least who had gotten him involved enough to be confident at eleven to do this by himself, but it was refreshing to see. They may have been a magical school but there were still a variety of muggle situations that Rob believed would be important for the students to be aware of after graduation, as many of their peers should they reconnect with the muggle world as adults would have additional knowledge that their students would not. It was all about balance in Rob's eyes.​

​

When he heard Edward speaking, he looked over to see the first year had already made considerable progress, but was missing a few key things he needed for one of the drawers. The man walked across the room, eyeing up the pieces that remained and thinking where else he could have moved some. "Most of parts were still in the box," he said, peering around the cabinets at the end of the room in case he'd left a small bag lying around by accident. The professor dropped to the floor, searching underneath the cupboards and cabinets that were pressed up against the wall, sliding a hand underneath to try and search for them in the dark. His fingers felt something, and he managed to pull out.. a wand. Huh. He looked it up and down curiously before laying it out on the carpet beside him, still running his hand along for the screws. "This what you're looking for?" he asked, presenting a couple of silver metal pins to the Gryffindor, hoping they were the screws he'd needed and they just rolled away from him. The professor remained sat on the floor, just watching,somewhat impressed as Edward had managed to put parts together that in all honesty had confused him a bit when he'd first found out what he had to do. "You've done this before haven't you." Rob smiled. It wasn't a question though, it was obvious.​

 

[Edward Elric]

Edward looked over the pins, they appeared to be the correct ones but they were still a few short. Edward decided to double check the area where Professor Kain had found them and was indeed able to find the rest scattered a bit more. He collected them quickly before jumping back up to his feet "Yep! those are the ones" he exclaimed as he took the others and began setting back to his work. "My dad and I built one just like this a few years ago before I knew he was actually a wizard so we did it all the muggle way" Edward explained as he quickly attached pieces together with the help of a screw driver.

He looked at the pieces and realized that while he was capable of assembling the desk, it was still at least a two person job. There was simply no way for him to get attached the back piece without needing someone else to hold it up. Suddenly an idea popped into his head, he wanted to prove that he could do this by himself since it was his fault they all got in to trouble back in the forest. "Be right back" Edward said quickly as he stepped out of the Professor's office and quickly walked down the third floor corridor and into the Trophy room.

It was full of trophies of course, and Edward only had a brief moment to covet the Hogwarts House Cup before opening one of the cases that was still left empty. Inside were the stands where future trophies were going to be held but at the moment left unoccupied and unused. He picked up one of the larger stands and slowly carried it back to Professor Kain's office where he was able to set it down and use it as a base to help hold the back of the desk in place so that he could screw it in. He was sweaty profusely by this point as it hadn't been an easy thing to carry and his arms ached a bit but it also meant that he would be able to fulfill the request without having to use magic, ask the Professor for help, or stop in his progress. "Don't worry Professor, it wasn't being used and I will make sure it get's put back" Edward said quickly hoping the Professor wouldn't mind his use of ingenuity.