Wood Shop

Entering the Room of Requirements and barricading the door, Indiana found a wide assortment of wood-cutting instruments and machines. Hack saw, band saw, table saw, sanders, and various others along with a large cache of tools.

"First, I need to strip the bark off this." the youth muttered before heading to table saw with the very large and solidly thick branch. The sound of a metal blade cutting wood echoed throughout the Room of Requirement as he carefully removed the bark with precision. It was a good thing that the branch was dead as the wood was very hard and strong just as he wanted it to be.

Having not been in the Room of Requirement in a long time, Will decided to visit, hoping to find some sort of entertainment what with the dry spell of adventures lately.

When he tried to open the door, he found it locked. Raising an eyebrow, he knocked on it, wondering if someone was using it.

"Oi, is anyone in there? Or has the Room finally cracked under the pressure of all the whims of first years?"

'This is a bit harder than I thought.' Indiana thought to himself as he continued to remove the bark of the large branch with the table saw. Perhaps the branch itself was enchanted wood that added a good amount of resistance to being cut by Muggle means. Still, it wasn't impervious and Indiana knew that it would just require a bit more time.

As he continued his work, the table saw continued to make such a loud noise that Indiana didn't even hear the person outside knocking on the door.

Will could vaguely hear strange sounds coming from the other side. He wondered if it was muggle-related stuff since he never heard of any sounds like that before.

Or, maybe it was some sort of beast. Though curious, he shrugged. Must not be open for a reason. He headed off, finding other entertainment worth seeing.

After the bark and minor branches had been sawed off the thick branch, Indiana then moved to a machine for sanding and polishing. Slowly, he fed the large branch through the machine before watching it come out with a more smoother and completely flawless surface. The tree branch he had brought in had now become a long solid and thick rectangular-thin column of wood that was about four feet in height.

Throughout the rest of the day, Indiana continued to apply some carpentry work to the tree branch, proceeding very slowly since his skills were limited and he didn't want to make a mistake. He worked in silence, deciding to use smaller tools since the machines was only for major working.

Soon he finished with the desired results before taking the result of his craftsmanship, after removing the barricades, heading out of the Room of Requirement to his dorm.

The absence of the Hufflepuff lasted for only fifteen hours before he returned and, this time, Indiana had something else that he had to do, getting the room to supply him with plywood boards. With the materials and equipment needed, Indiana went to work.

The sounds of machinery in active mode could somewhat be heard through the door.

Shelby went up to the Room of Requirement with determination. She hadn't heard from Indiana since he ran off saying something about a wood shop and if he was in there without supervision, which he almost certainly was, she wanted to make sure that he didn't hurt himself.

Sure enough, when she got to the seventh floor, she could faintly hear the sounds of machinery. "Indiana!" she pounded loudly on the door.

She realized that if she could hear the machines out here, there was no way he would be able to hear her in there. She waited for the slightest break in the noise and pounded again. "Indiana, it's Shelby. Let me in! And I'm going to say 'I told you so' if you're missing any fingers!" she shouted.

Indiana had just completed running three plywood boards through the table saw to create a series of rectangular pieces when he heard Shelby's voice shouting from the other side of the door, registering her sentences.

'Well, I took safety precautions at least.' the youth thought to himself.

Shutting the table saw down, Indiana placed his goggles over his forehead and took his gloves off before heading to the door and opening.

"Hi Shelby." Indiana greeted.

"Hi. I just wanted to make sure that you were alright. You didn't really give much explanation yesterday when you ran off, and since you were unlikely to have adult supervision..." Shelby trailed off, looking curiously into the room behind him.

She entered and stepped around him to closer inspect the contents of the room. "I'm glad to see all of your fingers are still attached to your hands," she smiled, "What are you making?"

'Always the curious one.' Indiana thought with amusement before explaining.

"In 1821, a blind Muggle Frenchman named Louis Braille developed the Braille system, which was used by the blind to read and possibly write. The system was based on an early but flawed method of communication that was supposed to have been used by Napoleon Bonaparte's military two hundred years ago in regards to silent communication without the presence of light. That time, the literate blind are given a strip of wood with a particular set of drilled holes arranged in a format in order to read by touch."

Shelby was unfamiliar with the system and listened with interest. "You know so many things. How are you not in Ravenclaw?" she teased.

"So you're going to use the Braille system to communicate with May without alerting Euphemia Albion?" Shelby asked, glancing up from the stuff scattered around the room to look at Indiana.

"I have a feeling that I will only have one shot at tipping May off with the Braille system. Two if I'm lucky. At the same time, however, I have some contingency plans just in case." Indiana answered before deciding to change the subject.

"The Sorting Hat muttered something about achieving a balanced quota, whatever that means." Indiana replied vaguely before heading towards the bench and pulled out a letter that he would be sending to Euphemia. The youth made up his mind and decided on what to do.

"I need a Gilroy and some gas masks." the youth spoke, allowing his intention to be known to the Room of Requirement. A small vial along with small paper squares and gas masks appeared on the bench.

"If you wish to stay, then you should put the gas mask on." Indiana spoke, offering one to Shelby while taking the other for himself.

"It probably means that in order to stop one house from dominating the others, there was a little manipulation by the hat to make sure there was an equal number of students in each house," Shelby shrugged. "So I'm guessing that Hufflepuff wasn't your first choice of house, was it?"

She raised an eyebrow at the request. "Gas masks?"

Placing the gas mask on with his free hand, Indiana spoke through it, though his voice sounded a bit synthetic. "The Sorting Hat didn't tell me on what House I would best fit in with. It was rambling a bit that I hardly paid attention enough to figure out the meaning in its words."

The youth held the gas mask out to Shelby. "You don't want to smell this stuff. I'm not sure how strong the Gilroy is."

Indiana knew that he would have to explain to Shelby on this Principal Manner soon.

Shelby realized that the door was still open and went to close it, then walked back to Indiana. She took the gas mask from him and put it on. She didn't know what a Gilroy was, but she figured it would be best to do what he said since he clearly did know. "That's okay, you're an honorary Ravenclaw in my mind," she watched and waited to see what he would do next.

Seeing that Shelby placed the gas mask on, Indiana placed on gloves and opened the vial containing the Gilroy before taking a pair of tweezers to grasp one of the paper squares and dipping it into the liquid. He held it down there for a few seconds to ensure that it was soaked completely before placing on one corner of the letter. Indiana repeated this process until he had placed a Gilroy-soaked paper square on each of the letter's corners.

After getting a stack of envelopes to appear, Indiana carefully placed the now heavily-scented letter into one before sealing it up completely.

"I think Euphemia will certainly enjoyed this." Indiana muttered to himself as he placed the letter aside before pulling a stack of love letters that were also written to Euphemia Albion. He then took a set of gloves and offered them to Shelby.

"If you want to help, then you should wear the gloves." Indiana offered.

Shelby watched as Indiana dipped the papers and sealed the letter. "Of course I'll help," Shelby took the gloves offered to her and put them on.

"So, you're just planning to distract her?" she began to seal each letter in its own envelope. She wasn't entirely sure that she understood Indiana's plan.

"That is very much the primary objective." Indiana replied after he completed adding the soaked paper squares onto the letters, using up all of the Gilroy, before Shelby sealed them. "I'll be emptying Owlry by sending all of the letters out at the same time."

The youth then pulled out the letter that had written for May that had very small, almost microscopic markings all over the parchment that looked like accidental drops of ink here and there as though the writer had used a quill with a broken tip.

"A long time ago, people wrote letters in a particular manner of wording in order to keep a hidden message from being discovered even if it was intercepted." Indiana spoke. "After reading the letter, the recipient would fold the latter into a strange arrangement or a complex arrangement such as an origami rose to find that hidden message amid the right words lining up. The Braille system come into play later after this stage if the need of contingent plans is required."

Once the letters were completed and the empty Gilroy bottle closed, Indiana gathered them into a box before placing them on a table where he could take them on his way out. The youth then activated a number of fans in the wood shop, allowing them to vacuum and purify the air, removing the scent of the Gilroy that might have integrated into circulation. After several minutes, Indiana shut off the fans before taking the gas mask off to smell the fresh clean air.

"Well, now comes making the Braille wood." Indiana muttered as he grabbed a large black marker. "I would have tried doing this with a modern approach but even I don't how that's done, hence going back to old school style."

"You'd better hope that nobody catches you in the Owlry. I have a feeling they'd be pretty ticked off if there were no more owls for them to use," Shelby joked.

She was unable to stop herself from sighing as Indiana spoke of origami and Braille. Removing her mask the second Indiana removed his, she leaned against a wall and watched him as he worked. "Is there anything you don't know?" she asked with a grin.

"I don't know if there are any possible alien ruins and technology hiding underneath the ice sheets at the center of Antarctica." Indiana replied. "No one ever made an expedition to the center of the continent or lasted long enough to do some excavation. Overall, there are things I don't know about and I'm still learning everyday."

After making several dots in the patterns of the Braille system on a strip of thin rectangular plywood, Indiana placed goggles and gloves on before taking a motor drill and began drilling holes through the marks with pinpoint accuracy. It wasn't long before he finished that Indiana repeated the same procedure of marking the Braille patterns on the other rectangular tablets of wood and drilling holes through them. By the time he was done, the youth smelled of burnt wood as he gathered the newly-drilled tablets before sanding their surfaces until they were completely smooth.

"Of course, I bet that you know more about the magical world than I do along with a lot of other subjects that I never even heard of." Indiana spoke with a grin.

Shelby shook her head at the mention of aliens. "I swear, you and my brother would be the best of friends if you ever met."

"You're probably right about me knowing more about the magical world than you. I forgot that you didn't know anything about Quidditch until I told you," Shelby laughed. "I guess I have my parents to thank for my slight advantage there. I have a feeling you'll catch up to me on the magical knowledge front though."

She looked down at what he was doing. "So what exactly is this wood for?" she asked, puzzled at its purpose.

"Once I'm done cleaning and smoothing out these tablets, I plan to stuff the holes with debris to bring them to match the overall surfaces before camouflaging them with wood polish." Indiana replied. "This is the most primitive way of writing with the Braille system, at least I think it was. Once the tablets are done and ready to be sent, I'll have to find a way to bribe an elf into taking these to May. Besides, this was how she taught the system to me and stuffing the holes was just her way of testing the sensitivity of my fingertips while testing my literacy in Braille, all with a blindfold over my eyes."

The youth continued with his intended procedures but couldn't keep himself from asking. "By the way, how's the Shield Charm going for you?"

Shelby smiled. She was a little surprised that he remembered. "I think I'm doing alright. I was considering asking one of the professors for permission to use a bludger for practice, since I know it will keep attacking me until it can't get to me," she knew her idea was a little dangerous, but the possibility of broken bones would probably be a good motivating factor.

Indiana raised an eyebrow as he packed debris into the drilled holes in the wood. A Bludger for practice? Sounded a bit dangerous if the name indicates it.

"You're rather bold in regards to that idea. A bit hazardous but since you played as a Quidditch beater, I guess that was expected from someone as strong as yourself." the youth remarked. "If, by chance however, that the professor turns the request down, there's the option of just having someone throw water balloons at you while practicing the Shield Charm. But that's your call in the end anyways."

"Speaking of Bludgers, what are they actually made of?"

"Iron," Shelby answered automatically as she considered Indiana's idea. Since she was sure to miss at least the first few, she was bound to get wet. She laughed a little at her own absurdity when she realized that she was more worried about getting her hair wet than breaking her arm. "Are you volunteering to be the one to throw them at me?" she asked, deciding that his idea was far better than her own.

'Iron. An iron cannonball it is then.' Indiana thought. That could certainly shatter bones at high velocities without a doubt. But then again, medical magic was more advanced and less painful than Muggle medicine on healing conventional injuries.

"I'll volunteer if you could also throw them as hard and fast as you can at me just to be fair." Indiana replied in an offering tone as he began applying coats of wood polishing onto the tablets. "I want to see if I can decrease the amount of time needed to normally cast the Shield Charm."