Harry Potter: The Ring Maker

Chapter 15: Crafting lesson

'Chill mate , you seem more excited about finally using the workshop than me!" Nick joked with Harry who was already starting to recover from his malnourishment after a week at the orphanage. He wasn't at a healthy weight just yet but at least he wasn't nearly as scrawny as he was when Nick first met him. "How are you not excited!?" Harry asked in exasperation. That was the one trait that Harry was trying his hardest to break Nick out of , how unexpressive he was. It was clear to Harry that Nick was a very reserved individual and had trouble truly relaxing in the past week they've lived together and it bothered him.-

Harry knew all about keeping quiet so as to avoid attention , the Dursleys made sure of that. But Nicks silence was completely unnecessary and felt wrong to Harry , like the very thought of relaxing his guard scared Nick. He didn't know what had happened to make Nick like this but he didn't need to in order to try and help his friend recover from it. "I am reasonably excited about finally getting to work but you don't even know how to craft so it's weird how eager you are about it." Nick said with a roll of his eyes.-

"You're going to be turning scrap we found in the rubbish into literal treasure , whats not to be excited about?" Harry asked rhetorically with a smug look since he knew he won this discussion. Nick could only raise his hands in defeat since they both knew that Harry had a point and he had lost the battle. "I promise you'll change your tune when I actually get started since the whole process is honestly kinda boring." he said with a smirk. Harry looked less confident 'it can't be that bad.... right?' he thought worriedly.-

An hour after school Harry entered the shabby workshop with Nick excitedly only to be left stunned when he lit the fire place and fed it for thirty whole minutes. "Don't look at me like that. Getting a strong hot fire going is an important step with no shortcuts with what we have available." Nick said with a small chuckle when he saw how bored Harry looked. "So we literally have to waste so much time even ring just for you to get started?" the boy asked with a dread filled expression.-

"Nah , just the first ring mate. The fires job is merely to help keep the metal workable for longer after it reaches temp. The fun bit really comes when I'm shaping the metal into their chosen designs." Nick explained patiently while tossing a copper ingot into the roaring fire. "Thank god , I thought it was always going to be so boring. So how long does the metal take to heat up?" Harry asked curiously while wiping the sweat from his forehead. Nick shrugged "it depends on the metal , some are hard and take longer to get workable like steel while others are naturally soft and get hot quickly like this copper ingot here that's already done heating up." He explained as he used a pair of rough tongs to pick up the glowing ingot.-

Nick brought the ingot over to his makeshift anvil and carefully put it against the middle of it so he could shape it a bit. "Now You will see the preliminary needed to make a ring , see how this piece of metal is so large?" He asked calmly. "Yeah , what about it?" harry asked interested. Nick started to strike the metal while making sure to keep it still with the tongs.-

"I need to make this large piece of metal into a bunch of smaller pieces since a single ring usually doesn't use a lot of metal and this is far too much. Right now what I am doing by hammering the metal is called drawing it out , watch for a bit and it should become clear." Nick said without taking his eyes of the ingot or stopping his hammer strikes. Harry watched in amazement as the ingot got thinner with each strike but also longer as well.-

Nick Stopped after five minutes and put the metal that was nearly twice it's original length and half it's height into the fire again. He then turned to Harry "So did you figure it out yet?" he asked curiously. "By drawing out the metal it gets easier to obtain just the right amount when you break it into different pieces right?" Harry asked seriously. "Something like that , yeah. A small correction is that I won't be breaking the metal but segmenting exactly." Nick answered honestly. "Whats the difference?" Harry asked confused. "Segmenting is precise while breaking is not , if I was just messing around breaking the metal would be fine. But since I already have a design in mind segmenting works better." Nick explained patiently.

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