It's Not a Product, It's a Time Machine

Padril carefully adjusted the cog, and then stood back to admire his handiwork. It hadn't been easy, and it had taken a full year, and a number of technical concessions, but it was working. A fully functioning Muggle film reel, the first in Hogwarts history to his knowledge, stood before the Hufflepuff and he was justly proud. It wasn't so difficult once you understood the concepts. Technology worked at Hogwarts, it did. Quills, masonry, beams, levers, all of them were examples of technology that worked in the school, they just had simple concepts behind them. With that mind, and working with the knowledge that a second year years ago had made a camera function in Hogwarts, it was simple.

Concessions were basic. He had to use one of the earliest forms of the technology, and change the film reels manually. Sound was definitely out; he was fairly certain a record player could work, but they would involve synchronizing the entire soundtrack of the movie with the film proper- which he had to manually change- would sounded like far too much work. After those few, yet crucial concessions, he just had to learn a bit about engineering and readjust some gears. He placed the first film reel into the machine and breathed deeply, soaking in the moment.

The dungeons had been perfect for his work. Light was easy to control, he didn't have to worry about distractions, and it made good storage for his collection of film he had brought from home. And on a Saturday afternoon like today, he didn't have to worry about nosy professors or students messing with his work. In his navy blue cardigan, skinny black tie, white button-up shirt, and black skinny jeans, standing in front of his own film reel, he looked the every part of the young intellectual. He just wished somebody was here to see it. Ah well, they probably wouldn't like silent films anyway, let alone Muggle culture, let alone 1930s Weimar Republic Muggle Culture, he thought to himself as he adjusted Metropolis's position on the reel.

Hallie was wondering the dungeons in search for the potion masters office. In all truthfulness she had never actually been there, despite being a potions student for the past six and a half years. She'd been in trouble in potions, received detentions from her potions professor but never served them in his office.

'I have no idea where I'm going.' Hallie muttered to herself. The reason why she was trying to find the office in the first place was not because she'd been in trouble, in fact the past few months she'd been on her best behavior, apart from sneaking out of the castle and being late to lessons - but some things will never change? Hallie was trying to find her professor to ask for help. Her NEWT essay about the interaction of ingredients in felix felicis was taking it's toll and after spending four hours on it so far she really needed the help to move past this barrier and begin her charms essay.

Hallie grinned happily as she saw one of the dungeon doors open ajar, a slither of light escaping at the seams. At last she had arrived! Not that the journey had been painful Hallie enjoy wandering the castle and was glad to have pulled the short straw to find the answer when her and her fellow seventh year academics were all confuded by the essay.

Hallie tapped on the door lightly before pushing it wider. Although she wasn't greeted with an office lined with shelves and spines of lion fish encased in jam jars but a boy who appeared not much younger than herself. He had set up an old muggle film reel, the motion picture projected onto a stone wall.

'Is there a movie club down here or something?' She asked the boy whose name she didn't know although was sure that she'd seen him across The Great Hall eating at the Hufflepuff table.

(OOC: Sorry it's a slow reply this is the third time I've wrote this! My laptop ran out of power mid-way through, then my iPod did so too! -.- )

Padril jumped up at the sudden incursion into the room, spinning to face the the visitor. A girl about his age, a fairly pleasant Gryffindor if the Hufflepuff consensus was correct (which it always was). He adjusted his tie as he glanced around the room, trying to respond to her question. "Oh, um, no. That's quite a good idea though. I'm not entirely sure how many students would want to watch old silent Muggle films, but I guess it doesn't hurt to try." He paused for a second, then looked back to the projector, then back to the Gryffindor.

"You recognised the projector. Are you Muggleborn too?" he asked benignly. Muggleborns always had the most interesting stories about how their families reacted to magic, and when you had a few of them together- whoah boy, you could talk for hours and laugh until you cried. Purebloods just couldn't fathom it. Padril didn't like to think about blood purity a lot, but purebloods missed out on more than they got, he was certain. Plus they tended to be outrageously obnoxious.

He stepped towards the girl, stretching out his hand "Padril Crennent. Nice to meet you."

(OOC: It's quite alright! It was a fairly hard setup to wander into as well)

Hallie smiled at the boys response. 'No I'm not muggleborn. Although I did grow up in a Muggle village in the Lake district?' She replied, raising her shoulders to ask if this was acceptable as a muggle link. 'You might not get many Slytherin's coming though.' Hallie responded her lips forming a sort of disheartened frown. Most of the Slytherin students were either Pure Bloods or anti-muggleborn's and if word got out about a muggle-film club then chances are everyone within the club would soon become a target for torment and teasing.

Hallie took Padril's hand with her own. 'Hallie Cooper.' She replied, a smile in her eyes as well as her lips. 'So what is it you're watching?' She asked before withdrawing a wand. Concentrating fiercely on the space at the end of her wand she imagined a wooden stool, about two foot high with a circular seat perched atop of four sturdy legs. Speaking the incantation in her mind a stool, much like the one she'd invented in her mind, was conjured from the end of her wand.

Hallie sat herself on the stool, crossing one leg over the other and tilted her head at an acute angle, waiting for Padril's response.

Padril whistled approvingly at Hallie's spellcraft. Straight-up conjuration was one of the far more difficult schools of Transfiguration, and the Gryffindor had just done it without breaking a sweat. She was at least going to get an Exceeds Expectations on her NEWTS, that was certain. It was a difficult subject though. Typically the only people who took NEWT-level Transfiguration were Ravenclaws, people who could've been Ravenclaws (like himself), or those wanting to become Aurors. The last seemed the most likely, which made Hallie all the more interesting.

The Hufflepuff sat down on the stool next to the projector, putting his hand proudly on the reel. "Metropolis. Have you heard of it?" He doubted she did, but if she responded in the negative, he could talk about something culturally significant that he loved, which was one of his favourite past times.

Hallie opened her mouth slightly, her eyes in thought for a moment. 'No.' The word slurred off of her tongue whilst her face formed a curious expression. 'What is it about?' She asked, observing the black and White motion picture.

Hallie was certain the film must have been old, which meant she had no clue about the movie. Whilst at home she would watch ordinary day time television or action movies. She particularly enjoyed Thor, Iron man and The Avengers - to her these were old movies dating back to around 2010 which was a good twenty six years ago. It wasn't often she got the chance to watch films although enjoying them she'd much rather venture into the woods or go for a stroll by the stream running through her village. Despite this she was still curious as to what Padril had to say.

Padril beamed, delighted at his chance to educate. "It was a German film made in the late 1920s, during the period of the Weimar Republic.It was one of the first science-fiction films, and I think the first fully-fledged dystopia. The stuff they did was incredible. Look there", he pointed at the wall as a shot of the dystopic city sprung up. cars and people milling around the bizarre setting. "There weren't many graphics back then, so the director used a bunch of mirrors to project the image of moving cars and people onto a model of the city." His eyes lit up in delight, as he followed the characters around the screen.

He let Freder's scene in the working city underground speak for itself. Keeping in mind technical limitations, the churning gears, bellowing smoke, and panicking workers were simply a work of immense effort and talent. "The setting," he continued. "Is fairly common, but it's really the reason it's common. That's how influential it was. A future-city has been divided into two classes. The uber-rich live luxurious life-styles above ground, with feats, cars, mansions, dealing with billions of dollars of leisure. Beneath them in an underground city are the workers, who toil away to create the world for those above. The premise of the plot is that the son of a rich businessman falls in love with a worker and he, Freder, then pursues her and learns to sympathise with the working class. There's also a clone-robot, a mad scientist, and a revolution, but the class conflict is the important thing." He changed the reels of the film as they were needed, getting faster at the process as he grew more experienced. Unfortunately a lot of the film had been lost in the last hundred or so years, so there were blank gaps in the plot that had been filled in with little text cards.

Metropolis had been Padril's first silent film and he had been pleasantly surprised by its quality. He hoped Halle would be just as impressed as he had been. The best part about silent films as well was that you could talk over them, so he could explain things to Halle whenever she had questions. When the film finished, he turned to her. "What did you think?"

Hallie squinted her eyes paying close attention to the detail of how the producer had created such a film with little technology. 'Huh.' She murmured, seeing the cars and people that were there because of the use of mirrors. Who knew they could be used for things besides looking at your reflection. Hallie thought to herself.

As Padril continued to explain to Hallie what was happening and about the plot she stopped watching the film and turned her attention to him. He was talking with such passion she even wondered if he realised that he was stood in this dark, dingy dungeon and not on the set of the film projected on the wall ahead. Her eyes sparkled slightly. How Hallie was so intrigued with Padril, a plain looking boy, she had no idea. Perhaps it was with the passion ignited within him that he spoke? Or maybe it was the slight geeky side he was so unafraid to show?

'Kind of like Jack and Rose.' She replied, thinking back to when she once watched Titanic years ago. 'From Titanic.' Hallie quickly added, unsure whether he would know who 'Jack' and 'Rose' were, although Padril probably knew them more than the Gryffindor did. 

What did you think? Padril spoke. 'It was... Nice.' Hallie answered, slightly lost for words. Not really knowing what to think of the film, she certainly didn't find it as marvellous as Padril had yet it was rather mesmerising to the eye. This is probably the kind of thing that my Dad's parents would have watched. The seventeen year old thought. Ouch. Her Dad. She had gotten over his death, but thinking of her Father's reminded her of the times they had spent wandering the woods collecting concurs in the Autumn. The two had shared such a close bond that even death couldn't break.

He laughed at that, smiling, "I suppose they were a bit. If only Rose had a killer clone-robot, The film could've gone very differently." Hallie had obviously liked the movie, but she seemed to watch films for the simple pleasure of them- maybe a bit of escapism too. He went to remove the film reels from the projector, then noticed a strange, hurt look had overcome the Gryffindor. His heart pined out and he turned his chair to face her directly, looking concerned.

"Hey, are you okay?" he asked, trying to catch her eyes with his own. "You just looked a little sad suddenly then. It's okay if you want to talk about it."

Hallie looked up from her downward gaze when Padril had asked if Hallie was okay. 'I was just thinking about my Dad.' She replied. Hallie never usually spoke about her family. Yes she was one to engage in conversation about her emotions and opinions but when it cane to her family she kept them to herself. 'He died when I was little. Just, his parents would have probably seen this movie.' Hallie didn't know why she told Padril this, after all they had just met, but there was something about Padril. She had the sense she could trust him.

'Anyway!' She quickly added in a more positive tone of voice. 'What other films do you watch?' Hallie asked resting her head on the palm of her hand that was being propt by her elbow resting on her other arm that crossed her chest.

(OOC: hopefully the whole arm thing makes sense, wasn't sure how to describe it haha!)