| Details for Some Assembly Required |
| Summary: | After much strange behavior recently, Ogg enlists some unlucky students into helping him build a carriage. |
| Date: | December 7, 1941 |
| Location: | Groundskeeper Area |
| Related: | — |
| Characters |
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It is a late fall afternoon. The weather is warm and drizzling as the sun descends to the west, with bits of reddish light peeking through gray clouds. Close to the Gate but still tucked away in a woody copse is a large hut surrounded in crates and tools for maintaining the grounds of Hogwarts. To one side of the hut is a field of pumpkin vines and on a hill to the other side of the hut is covered in strawberry vines. The hut itself is sizable, simple and made of stone and mortar with a thatch roof.
Ogg gives a little pained gruff cry and shakes out his massive hand as he's just gotten it a bit crushed between a couple of roughly hewn beams that have been whittled down to posts from logs. All by himself he seems to be trying to erect something similar to a very large saw horse looking structure. Diagonal beams for 'legs' that hold up a bigger beam horizontal and about five feet high off of the little muddy field that was previously filled with pumpkins. Scratching his bald head with his good hand he continues to flex and shake his just hurt hand while sizing up what he's working on. "Ogg… ogg, mmmmr." He talks to himself out loud as he circles the construct.
Phoenicia was in mid-air when it happened, apparently practicing her broomflight; she couldn't have heard a little cry like that, not way up high with the wind whistling past her and her quidditch uniform whipping around, but she could definitely see the oddity that was taking place on the ground. She leaned to the right atop her seat and pushed down one of the gilded rods on the broom's crossbar, 'falling off' to the side. It'd take her a few seconds before she got close enough to interact with Ogg, but someone would likely see her coming if they looked up.
Like most of the attentive students, Virgil had noticed the way the grounds had been, but had mostly assumed that Ogg was simply on holiday. Seeing the giant saw-horse from afar, he walks across the lawn just in time to intersect with Phee as she descends from the sky. "Phee," he says conversationally, and sniffs a bit at the inclement weather. He stares at the growing wooden monstrosity and comments, "I'd thought he was away, having grunted conversations with the in-laws or whatever Trolls do," he says, not meaning it disparagingly, if his nature is any guide, but simply observationally. He then glances at her broom and pulls out his notebook of Quidditch-Player statistics and makes a note.
Augustina was already there, not that most of the other people had a clue; she was hidden carefully in the higher branches of a tree, still and unmoving. The tea leaves had spoken of Ogg this morning and with as weird as he'd been acting — even for Ogg — that could be big news if she was the first to know. Knowledge was power. Which was exactly why she was so irritated to see Virgil walking up and a big red-robed blob moving through the sky. Accursed serendipity! She remained quiet and still.
"Ogg!" is another pained cry as he pulls a toothpick sized splinter out of one of his smooshed finger with his teeth. Spying the gathering of curious students as he sucks on the small wound he in particular waves his good hand at Phee. "Ogg!" The wave then turns into a beckoning of her closer.
Laurean is taking one of his quiet and meditative strolls when he unexpectedly encounters with a remarkable wooden structure and the grunts of his crafter. When the young Ravenclaw notices that Augustina is already there, he greets her from afar silently and proceeds to come closer, probably because he has some matters to discuss with the Slytherin.
Phee waves to both Virgil and Ogg before she can quite recognize who the former is; it takes her a few more seconds to be in hearing and facial recognition range. "Well, 'ello!" she says cheerfully, with a note of caution in her voice; the first time she'd met Ogg, he looked like he was about to toss her off of his begonias for falling onto them. That was five years ago, and she'd seen him at a distance now and then doing her night patrols, but it had been a pretty frightening moment. "What's all this, then?" she asks brightly; she stays seated on the broom a few feet above the grassy lawn and only glances down to make sure there aren't some flowers planted underneath she hasn't seen yet.
When Phee is waved closer, Virgil follows but hangs back several steps. He waves his wand then at the ground on a nearby hillock, creates a cushion with a gesture of his wand and spoken word, "Pulvino." The youth then promptly takes a seat on it, to avoid having to sit on the ground directly, and draws out his notes again, and appears to be making notes about Phee's flying technique even now as she hovers near the groundskeeper.
Augustina keeps still at Laurean's greeting save a single flick of her wand upwards, angled in such a way that it couldn't be seen from Ogg's vantage point or those of the two students near to him.
When Phee flies closer the lumbering and fierce looking fellow grabs up some rope and ties it to the fallen end of the cross beam and then makes squishy steps in the mud to approach Phee, with aim to grab the end of her broomstick and tie the other end of the rope off with expressive, "Ogg, rrrogg, by hi ogg ogg OGG!" While gesturing to Phee then the rope then the broom and then up as he makes knots. He's not known for having great people skills and manners so it's not too shocking that he's not asking permission to recruit Phee into helping him with his contraption. "Ogg." Is directed at Virgil and Ogg pats one of the beams and then gives it a gripping hold. "Ogg igh."
"Ah, here you are Dipper," Laurean says with a sign of relief. He then lowers his tone in order to avoid anyone but her to hear the rest of the conversation: "November files are ready. Classified and tagged. Typos revised. Nothing too interesting if you ask me, but if you're interested…" The young Maestro pronounces this last statement with an intriguing voice, like a salesman that's trying to make an offer more interesting. After saying that, he focuses again on the current events: "So, what's happening here? Some sort of Renaissance invention?" Mutters Laurean, with a hint of curiosity.
Phee exchanges a glance with Virgil. She's used to people having a hard time understanding her, not the other way around, but the boulder is on the other foot today, it seems. She scoots a little bit further — hoping he doesn't just pick her up and throw her off the broom and attempts to take the rope end from him so she can tie it to the crossbar under her seat; it'd make more sense to her than trying to knot at the smooth tip of a pole.
What was once a late afternoon study sesh out in the brisk fall air turns into a curiousity-indulging trek towards the groundskeeper's hut after Michael Harker, a third-year Ravenclaw student, hears the large and formidible groundskeeper shouting. The sandy-haired youth takes note of the crimson-clothed figure hovering in mid-air with one or two students around them as he approaches. He spots a familiar face as he draws nearer, Laurean something-or-other, but doesn't approach him as the older fellow seems engrossed in a conversation with a tree. He walks past the older Ravenclaw and advances on the groundskeeper and the quidditch player. "What's wrong with him?" Michael asks aloud as he stops several meters from the large troll-man.
A bit hesitantly, Virgil puts away his notes and climbs to his feet. "If you had a simple diagram, I could probably fashion whatever it is you want to make with some simple charm work," he begins to say, then realizes that even this simple explanation will probably fall on deaf ears. "Right, what do you want me to do?" he asks and looks at the beam the large man had patted. "Sit on it? Hold it?" he moves close enough that he can do any of that, and if necessary, make use of his wand to make such actions easier.
Dipper nods and waggles her wand around silently; at the same moment that Michael draws attention, she chants 'Quietus', lowering the sound output of the area so she can speak freely. If Michael was more than a few paces, he'd not be able to hear them unless he really tried. "Honestly, no idea what that big brute's doing." She exhaled, puffing away a loose strand of hair from her face. "Tea leaves mentioned Ogg, I was going to see if there was anything here that might interest you. Been staying quiet, as I don't really want to get roped into … well. Whatever he's doing with those ropes."
While looking at the structure, Laurean enters into his artistic perception mode: "Oh, but what could it be? Some sort of magical beast perhaps? Or maybe a myhtological creature? And what purpose does it have? Simply decorative or will it be more functional once finished? Because it's uncomplete… right?" The Seventh Year makes a brief pause to breathe and tilts his head a little, trying to imagine the final result of Ogg's work.
Ogg doesn't throw Phee off, but he does drag the broom through the air and reaches high above him and that beam he seems to want her to help lift up. When he was done with the tieing of the rope it was pretty much wrapped around a great length of the broom handle so it's not going to be slipping off any where. Nor is it going to be exactly easy to unwrap and tie either. Large hands wave her to go higher. "By hi! By hi!" Then it's Virgil's time to get man handled some and Ogg shows him just how he wants him to hold the inverted V shapped legs just so. Ankles deep in the mud he sinks deeper as he lifts up the large beam after counting off, "Ogg. Ooooogg. oGGGG!" With a grunt he pulls the log out of the mud and hopefully with Phee's help from above gets the beam a bit higher than he was able to on his own. The legs in Virgils control needs a tipping and tilting just a bit to get it in place under the log and Ogg grunts at him and juts his chin about to instruck the Goshawk into doing so.
Moving to step next to Virgil, Michael turns to the older student, spying his notes and looking for a way to enter the conversation besides simply repeating himself. While normally, his fellow housemates were rather easy to speak to normally, he also knew how frustrating it would be to have ones concentration broken when in the middle of an important task. And, seeing as how the groundskeeper had tied one of their Quiddich players to his rather perplexing do-it-yourself project, he didn't want to derail anyone's train of thought. Michael took a step back or two and kept his hands in his pockets, surveying the construction and keeping out of the way until he was either beckoned forth to help or told to bog off.
Ogg seems please that a more hearty looking individual has come along and with more grunts and gestures with his chin and head he indicates for Michael to help Virgil by taking hold of the other leg.
Luckily, it's more of a matter of balance than a matter of strength, because Virgil is a rather weak boy, even for a boy. He nods his head frantically when Ogg indicates that he should move the piece underneath the cross-beam and then looks at the groundskeeper expectantly, hoping he has put it in the right spot. Spotting the sturdier looking boy, Michael, near at hand, he says, "Michael, come here and help. He wants it moved underneath so that he can put it back on it." He of course, knows all Ravenclaw names, and most other students besides. Once he has the younger student working on it as well, he is able to stop struggling with it so much.
Michael did as he was instructed. The task itself was rather undaunting with Virgil's help. The older boy, while frail, provided the balance needed while Michael provided the lift. There was a moment where Michael very nearly dropped the beam entirely, but Virgil's grasp on the beam kept it from falling. Once coordinated, the pair of them were able to move the beam with minimal difficulty.
Phee squeals when she's suddenly yanked around on the broom, drawing a (magically quieted) snicker from Dipper back in the tree. The Gryffindor girl pulls her legs back against the crossguard and mentally pictures 'up'; the broom does her bidding, dragging the rope behind it taut as she goes up. She has pretty much no idea what on earth Ogg wanted, but she knew she wasn't getting out of it now short of a severing charm and cutting a beeline back for the grounds. "Does anyone 'ave the foggiest what we're scurryin' around an' 'elpin' build 'ere?"
Dipper snorted at 'functional.' The idea of Ogg and 'functional' was hilarious. "I don't know, but I'm starting to think I misread my leaves this morning. Surprised he hasn't dragged you in, guess you're still far enough in the brush he can't see you."
Ogg is a happy half-troll when the beam gets lain in place. He claps his hands and gives Michael and Virgil a pat on the back. With Virgil he obviously takes care, like the boy was one of his puffskiens. Another rope is used to fasten the beam to the top of the legs. Fingers are held up in a begging for a minute from his helpers. Large feet slurp through the mud as he trudges around behind his hut. Then a few grunts later he returns dragging a carriage behind him that has been stripped down to floor and chassy. As he draws the carriage towards the contraption he looks (with some worry) towards the castle. There's more of a rushed atmosphere around the Groundskeeper now and he shoves and drags the carriage up along side the contraption. "Oggiddup." He makes gestures begging for help from the others as he tries to lift and angle and hoist the contraption up onto the wheeled platform.
Laurean watches the scene with a doubtful expression. "Oh no, I'm more of a planner than a man of action. Everyone is aware of that. But maybe we should provide them with some additional help, more than just using physical strength." With a smirk, Laurean takes his beech wand out of his pocket.
Laurean gives you a cookie.
"I can use a charm to lift it, Ogg," Virgil tells the groundskeeper, but doesn't presume to just start changing the method. Instead he does his best to help as requested until he is told it's okay to use magic. Perhaps it's a point of pride for the groundskeeper. To Phee, he replies, "I'm sure it's connected to the state of things in some manner, but at least we've seen part of what has been keeping him busy. Maybe he's building a house."
Phee keeps hovering stationary on the broom since she isn't sure if she should move or keep steady, but that didn't mean she couldn't help. She flicks her wand out of her robe and points it down at the carriage, and with a surprisingly loud, "Wingardium Leviosa!" she eases Ogg's burdens a bit on one side. "I'd use the wand meself, Mister Goshawk. I dinnae think he expected willowy auld us tae dae anything else. 'ey! Mister Maestro!" she shouts down to Laurean. "Can ye 'elp, or are ye gonna keep talkin' tae the bushes?"
"D'you know any house-building spells, then?" Michael asks Virgil, picking a splinter out of his palm and flicking it into the grass to his right. "The levitating charm would work wonders in case we need to lift another beam for him." Not that the physical labor bothers young Mr. Harker in the slightest; his father was a graduate from Hogwarts and had chosen to work as a hatter, preferring the use of his own hands over his wand.
Dipper laughs at the idea of using her wand to help, but instead starts making some quick calculations, attempting to get a feel for the carriage's magical resonance points. Maybe if she had some time to do a little math…
"…I'll see if I can do something a little better than just waving my wand about, but it might take me a minute, Laurean."
When wands are brought out and spells are cast, Ogg freaks out. He freaks the (f)OGG out! Large hands and arms swat and wave at those drawing wands while keeping the contraption half on the carriage using his shoulder and body as an anchor. "Ogg! Nog Nog NOG!" He angles his head looking a bit frightful towards the castle and his shouts quiet quickly into begging almost pathetic little pleading sounds. "Nog ooggly boogly." He wiggles his fingers in a mystical magical way. He then points up to the castle and then brings the pointed finger to his lips in that universal shushing way. That rush to get this done is back and even more so now as he shoves the construction into place on top of the carriage. A gentle little tug is given to the rope that goes up to Phee's broom. Trying to draw her down so that he can help tug her free of the rope.
Nodding at his own wisdom, Virgil nods his head at Ogg and help as best he can to push the sawhorse up onto the cart. Once it's there, he gives the big half-troll a nod of the head and says, "I'm off to class, best of luck, Ogg," and then waves at the other students and starts walking back up to the school. Pulling his scarf a bit higher around his face and clutching it there so that he can cough violently a few times, but otherwise isn't too bad off from the extra effort.
When Laurean hears Phoenicia's asking for help, his gaze turns determined. "Alright then! Maybe this could be an invigorating experience after all! I'll give them a hand, Dipper. Maybe we should get involved in the course of events more often. I want to leave a memorable legacy, so maybe the moment has arrived." While approaching to the structure and the rest of the group, Laurean looks back at Phee with determination and says with energy: "What can I do to help?"
"…'e's apparently gettin' a great gliff about the magic," Phee said with some surprise; she didn't understand what he was so scared about. But she stowed her wand back in her robes and directed her broom back down, the line slacking as she did so. She gave a little sigh for not just brooming her way out of there immediately, but nothing to be done about it now.
"Thanks for the help, Virgil," Michael says, waving to the older student. He is one of the few not to brandish a wand, his staying in his pocket. Once Laurean approaches, Michael takes a step back, waiting for further instruction and choosing to watch Phee on her broom with careful, quiet interest.
Augustina gave a little sigh. Manual labor? No thank you. But Laurean might say she was hiding in the tree, in which case she'd look worse and would have to help anyway. The fifth year grumbled and slid back down the tree, carefully grasping her way down. She forced a smile on her face as she turned about. "Well, let's get busy then, shall we?"
Ogg calms down pretty quickly when wands are put away. His glass eye is ironically enough fixed in his head in such a way that it's looking towards the castle while his good eye is on the work on the carriage. A box that was on the carriage floor is opened up and a fist full of nails comes out with a few hammers. He tosses the hammers to land within reach of his little helpers and then he roughly bangs a couple of nails into the base of the legs to permanenly affix the contraption to the wagon. Then the nails are tossed into scattered piles also within better reach of his helpers. They might be the first students of those currently at school to be witness to the extremely rare twist of lips that is a grateful smile to each of them as he hammers another nail into place.
The third-year Ravenclaw student picks up the nearby hammer with interest. He hadn't really seen one of these used, save for in the village where he grew up. He shrugged, watching Ogg use the hammer and quickly getting the gist of what was expected of him and his new tool. He found a spot near Ogg that needed to be hammered into place and began tapping lightly on the nail at first, then increased the strength of his swings until he tapped his own finger one too many times. Sucking the tip of his now-sore index finger, he went back to gently hammering nails into the spots that needed them. It wasn't well done by any means, but at least he was getting the nails into the wood at the right angles to hold things in place.
Phee dismounts her still roped-in broom, giving Ogg a moment to untie it on his time. Then she bends down picks up the hammer pretty ably; she helped with a few things around the house whenever she went home. Sure, she didn't look thrilled about doing it by hand, but she knew what she was doing at least. This is in distinct contrast to Augustina, on the other hand…
The Slytherin girl looks pretty miserable right now, yes, with a 'you wanted me to help with this, really?' frown affixed upon her face and directed at Laurean — though he had his back to her, so he likely wouldn't notice. "Please tell me this hammer is at least enchanted to be unusually good at missing thumbs," she mumbled to herself.
Laurean picks up a hammer and a couple of nails in order to show his proactive attitude. Then, he starts with the hammering, trying to emulate the action carried out by Ogg previously. "Ah, manual laboring, what a feeling! This is how Da Vinci must have felt while creating one of inventions." The young Ravenclaw tried to spread his positiveness to the rest of the group. After all, happy coworkers tend to be more efficient.
"I can tell you," Michael says, now sucking his thumb, looking over at the Slytherin girl, "They aren't charmed to /avoid/ thumbs. Takes some practice to miss your own hand, you see." He has gotten a bit better at using the hammer, however and tries to discern what locations on the beams need fastening with the nails. "Surely there's a way to have the hammers do all of the work, isn't there?" Harker turns to Ogg. "Maybe if you looked away for a bit while we enchanted the hammers? Would that help?"
Phoenicia carefully hammers without incident; the hammer has all the power, this she knows from past experience, while the talent in not getting smacked was your dexterity. "I dinnae think he really understan's language, Mister 'arker. Tone, an' words 'ere an' there, tae be sure, but nae language as such. Most 'is words are 'is own name."
Dipper kneels down and peers closely at the metal bits here and there. "Who's DaVinci? Sounds Italian, but it's no one my family's ever mentioned to me." She was, of course, trying to buy herself some time where she could look like she was trying but not actually do any hammering.
Once again when using magic is brought up he gets agitated and shakes his bald head emphatically. "Nog." He puts a shushing finger up to his lips again and points up towards the castle and then he strokes at his face like he had a beard and then taps his temple. He points to the castle then two fingers at his eyes then at where Michael's wand is in his robes and then his temple again. "Nog!" He then gives a pleading little noise before he returns to hammering, though he does pause long enough to give a lopsided gaze down his nose at Phee. The frown that curls his lips downwards is so great one could wonder if the ends of his lips will meet together on his chin. "Ogg." The girl putting up the biggest fuss is grunted at and then pointed towards a table beside his hut, there is a large folded up knitted blanket that's so big and spaced out in its weaving that it looks more like a yarn fishing net. Pointing to Dopper, then the blanket then back to the wagon with a beckoning gesture.
Harker finds himself gaining a new appreciation for the groundskeeper as he watches the series of hand motions and quickly discerns what they mean. No magic because someone with a beard was watching from the castle, or someone with a long beard would know if magic was used. "Fair enough, then," Michael says with a grin, crouching down and beginning to hammer with renewed vigor. It was easier to keep his attention on the task at hand once he was made certain that it couldn't be done a better way. Besides, it was kind of nice to help Ogg out with his chore.
It also helps that mimicking Phee's form and swing with the hammer was a lot better than his own clumsy efforts. She was easy to copy from.
In response to Dipper's question, Laurean states the following while he continues with the laboring: "From Florence, yes. Actually, Vinci was his birthplace, so he had no real surname. He was Leonardo from Vinci, so to speak. Polymath from the Renaissance, artist and inventor. In fact, you may have seen his portrait of Mona Lisa at the castle. The woman with a mysterious smile, does it sound familiar to you?"
"Och!" Phee exclaimed as she drove another nail in, before moving to the next. "Ne'er asked, been meaning tae. Is that the real thing, Mister Maestro?" Phee asked. "Was 'e a wizard an' muggles jes' didnae know?"
Dipper talks as she gets up to her feet and heads over to the net-blanket-whatever. Better than a hammer, that was for sure. "…I can think of a few mysterious smiles, to be honest, but I'm guessing you mean the one that doesn't move." She tugged on the yarn and gave a soft grunt as she pulled it clear. "Good for him, I guess…" she said with a shrug, dragging it over into the wooden contraption.
Ogg's area of the contraption is nailed very securely into place. So he is free to help Dipper unfold and spread out the earthy brown and forest green knitted tarp and begins to throw it up and over the top of the contraption. This creates a roof over it all and as the nails run out he gestures for the helpers to go grab boughs and branches and cuttings that he's gathered in his duties and goes through the motions as an example for them of weaving and poking the flora in the cover.
Laurean turns his gaze back to Phee, in order to answer her questions, trying to keep a minimal focus into the hammering: "I think the real one is exposed at the Louvre Museum, in Paris, but I'm not sure, since I've heard that something happened 30 years ago… the painting was robbed and later recovered." Now looking to Dipper, Laurean exclaims: "Oh, but it does move! Well, at least her eyes. It seems like her gaze follows the viewer around. An optical effect, nothing magical, that's for sure. But still, he was a great man, a true visionary that inspired many more through history."
Phee puts down her hammer and straightens up; good thing she was wearing her quidditch robes, they were a little more suited to picking up pointy bits of flora. She leans down to scoop up a few branches, making use of her height (and the longer commensurate arms) to stack up a nice pile to haul back.
"A muggle painting that "follows" you with its eyes?" Michael asks, reaching up to weave a firm-looking branch through the weaved tarp to secure it to the frame. "How absolutely, bizarre," he adds, pronouncing the last word 'BEE-zahr.' He's not quite tall enough to weave branches and thistles through the woven tarp all the way to the top of the structure, but he does get an idea. As Phee walks by with an armload of branches, he says, "It might be easier for us if we can get your broomstick untangled from Ogg's knot. Then we could hand branches up to you and you could weave them in properly, rather than us have to stretch."
"Mmm." Dipper responds non-committally. It wasn't that elements of the muggle world didn't interest her — she liked 'mugglecycles' — but paintings were not her idea of a good time. "Looks like we're just about finished, but I still don't know what we made here. It almost looks like a wagon for taking flowers to market."
Laurean leaves the hammer on the ground and nods at Michael's statement, while watching the structure and trying to figure out the purpose of it. "You're right. Your procedure is more logical and, most importantly, efficient."
Ogg claps in applause looking happy again when the last of the foliage has been woven into a shrubby looking roof. "Ogg. Oggoo." He nods his head gratefully and then offers to shake hands and pat shoulders of his helpers. Then he lifts up a shushing finger again to each of them while the other hand pats the wagon. Once he's made certain that they understand that this is a secret that should not be spoken of he pushes the carriage back into the wood behind the hut. His helpers are given one last grateful wave and then a wave off as he steps up into the back door of his hut. What ever he plans for the contraption they built it's obviouly not going to be happening right now.
"…Guess I'll have tae free me broom meself, then," Phee says after a long moment look after the vanishing half-troll. She gave a long sigh. "Oh well. Least 'e's 'appy."
Augustina fell silent in thought, watching Ogg retreat. … She would have to watch him very closely after all. Whatever he was up to was potentially interesting. She glanced over to Laurean to see if he had the same thought.
Harker's face flushes a bit at Laurean's praise of his plan, but he says nothing else. Once Ogg is walking away from the contraption, Harker turns to Phee. "I'm good with knots. I'll help you out," says the young man as he walks over to where the broom stick still hovers and gets to work.
Laurean takes a final look at Ogg's creation and then, he turns to Dipper with an expression of curiosity and a smile on his face. "I think we had the same thought, right? I told you, involvement brings reward. After all, it's been pretty funny, don't you think?"