Back to Basics

Wally had resettled. It was easy after having done it before. Her dormroom looked no different, except for the addition of the American transfer student, who had already taken to remodeling her corner of the room. Wally ignored the girl and stuck with what she knew best - practicality. She unpacked her clothes, fixed up her bed, and was done with the matter.

She was glad that she had transferred in the week, so she could right back to it. She was still waiting on her class schedule, but she was told she would have it handed over to her the following day at breakfast. Having already eaten, being unpacked, and still having a few hours until she had to fall asleep, Wally found herself at a bit of a loss as to what to do next.

She stumbled down the stairs of the girl's tower and walked into the common room, picking an armchair that was a tad set apart from the others. People were noticing her now - boys especially. Wally was aware of this information, but still not sure what to do with it. She got it - she was taller, blonder, curvier. She could still kick their asses if they made a pass at her.

She pulled out a copy of Endangered Beasts and the Dangers Facing Them and opened it to the page she had last been on. Perhaps she could while away a few hours here, and simultaneously avoid all the questions her dormmates were posing. That would be nice.

"I hate you," Keith growled at the bronze eagle knocker that separated him from the Ravenclaw common room. "Did you know that?"

"If you throw me from the window," the knocker said, "I'll leave a grieving wife. Bring me back, but through the door, and I'll be giving life!"

"Augh! You're the worst!" Keith shouted, kicking at the door. "I hate you and your goddamned riddles, why can't we have a password like the rest of the stupid school!"

"If you throw me from the window," the knocker repeated, "I'll-"

"Shut up!" Keith roared. "Shut up shut up shut up shut up! Just open! OPEN! O-PEN UP!" OPE-N-"

The door swung open.

"But...but..." Keith muttered, suddenly at a loss for words. "Open...O-pen...Ope-n. N. Window. Widow. Door...donor. Giving life. God, you are seriously such a tool!" He said, striding into the common room. The door closed shut behind him, oblivious to his defiant mumblings.

There was something different about the common room, though Keith couldn't quite put a finger on it. It was as if the energy of the room was off, subtly but noticeably. Keith frowned, eyes flicking across the room in an attempt to locate the disturbance.

And suddenly, he found it. Somebody was sitting in his chair. It was an old, leather armchair, set slightly apart from the general mish-mash of furniture in an attempt to get some semblance of privacy. Keith had claimed it in his first year, and by now every knew well enough to stay out of it whenever he was around (mainly because it wasn't worth the fight).

He paused for the brieftest of moments before deciding to settle this round maturely, and failing that, violently. So taking a deep breath, he marched over to where the chair sat and stared at the girl occupying it. He didn't recognize her, which was odd, but quickly forgotten.

"Hey," he said, staring down at her. "Yo."

And then she looked up, and for a minute, Keith forgot what he was doing.

Because it was Wally.

Well, no, not quite. Wally, his Australian friend who had vanished rather abruptly quite a while ago, had been a skinny little flat chested tomboy with the inability to express and perhaps even feel emotion. And while Keith couldn't tell if the new girl (who might've been Wally or some kind of freaky alternate-dimensional Wally) had the same emotional problems as the Wally he had known, she was anything but a skinny little flat chested tomboy.

"What the bloody **** happened to you?" Keith asked.

Wally was actually very content to be on her own. The eyes that had followed her had found worthier subjects to study, leaving her alone in the comfortable chair she had nestled into. Darwin was comfortably curled in the pocket of her jumper, gently breathing, his little heart hammering against her stomach. It was strange - Wally could be so indifferent to the lives of the people around her, and yet she was so fond of the little reptile who only respected her for the food she gave him.

It was probably because she knew what the deal was with Darwin.

She was vaguely aware of the entrance of someone who had been making a commotion outside of the common room, but she did not bother to look up at the vagrant who was now making a steady approach to her staked claim. The person spoke and Wally's mouth twitched a bit, and she lifted her chin.

Yep. This was Keith Nicholas. He had gotten taller, she was pleased to see. His voice had begun to deepen, but was still recognizably Keith. It took him a second, but a moment later, confused and uncertain recognition seemed to settle onto his previously deviant expression.

A sparkle began to shine in Wally's eyes. She had to admit, she did love having a semi-permanent shock factor over her peers. It would take them awhile to get used to her. She was sure she would soon get irritated with them all for the attention, but for now, it was a good distraction so she could get back to settling in.

He exclaimed and she said, in a characteristically flat tone, "And here I thought you would be happy to see me back."

Keith could count on one, two hands how many times he'd been shocked into speechlessness, and now he was beginning to remember why he hated it so much.

"Back...but..."

Guh, he must've looked like an idiot. struggling for words like that. That was Wally sitting in his chair, Wally who had been like, one of his only real friends, who had broken the law for and with him on multiple occasions, who had apparated off to Australia with nary a word goodbye. (Had she said goodbye? Keith...couldn't really remember.)

"You...left." Keith said, slowly regaining control of his words. "You're...not supposed to be here anymore."

Well obviously, idiot, she came back.

"Well, I mean, obviously I mean you came back," Keith said, the words rushing from his mouth like a dam had been opened. "Back from Australia, I guess, and, uh, huh, I guess you had a good time?"

Would it be crossing a line to tell her she looked great? Keith wasn't sure if she would take that as just idel complimentary small talk or if he'd just end up looking like an ever bigger idiot.

"So yeah, you're back, back at Hogwarts, in Ravenclaw, in the common room, chilling, reading books, just like old times, except you know, differences," Keith said, barely paying any attention to what he was saying. "So yeah, long time no see, where've you been? Well, Australia, duh, already knew, already said that, um...what...what...what've you been doing?"

Wally had sort of enjoyed the surprise incited by her other peers, but that was because she considered them her intellectual inferiors. Well, she considered their basic existence inferior to her own. But Keith was an equal - in fact, for a long time, she may have even considered him a bit of a superior. He possessed the intellect and the disdain for others, but seemed much better equipped getting through the day to day drills of student life.

Wally's own self confidence may have improved, but she would always have a certain respect for Keith that no one else possessed. She was a bit off put to see him so uncomfortable. She would rather him looked unsurprised, make some sort of joke, and immediately ask her to continue on as a business partner.

She let him stammer until he seemed to get back on track and actually present a question. "It was fine. It was a very sudden move - that's why I wasn't able to give you my two weeks notice." She supposed this was her way of apologizing for being unable to say good bye before she left. "But there was a lot of sun, and animals, so... you know." She heaved a shrug.

He stumbled through a sentence that was more of a collection of words than an actual coherent sentence. She rolled her lips inward, nodding. So, he seemed to have noticed she was a female. Interesting. It was alright. Back when they were friends, she had hardly known it herself.

What had she been doing? She was only to happy to tell.

She grinned. "You might actually be proud of me. You, sir, are now the owner of an international product." She raised her eyebrows. "I have some savings set aside for you. Aussies really like British products, it seems."

She knew he would catch her drift.

And just like that, he was back.

Like, wham. His mouth shut. His eyes refocused. His brain stopped going in fifteen different directions and suddenly put all that raw processing power towards one thought, one goal.

Bloody hell no she had not.

"Aussies have always been copycats," he said, his mind still trying to process the new information. He was having an incredibly difficult time trying to figure out what to feel - on the one hand, Wally had started selling his product, his pride and joy, on the other side of the world, in some backwater little upside-down country descended from criminals. On the other hand, she had been saving his cut, apparently. This could be considered a...a business venture. One that he had not approved of beforehand but...that was acceptable. For now.

He flicked his wand at a nearby chair and it slid over to him, across the plush carpeting. He sat down and cracked his knuckles, keeping his eyes very firmly affixed to Wally's face. "But hey, that doesn't mean they don't have their uses," he said with a small smile. "I'm...impressed, I guess. How much did you put away?" He asked.

Business - that was the way back to Keith's brain. Keith may have been an unruly miscreant to others, but Wally saw that there was one thing he really took seriously, and that was all of his dealings to do with Spice. He stood by his recipe, he enjoyed the trade, and he reveled in the payoff. He would take this seriously.

That wouldn't stop him from insulting her, though. She smirked at his words - she might have round house kicked him a year ago for insulting her heritage, but she knew what would be following. He sat down, preparing himself, and asked the ever important question.

She blinked. "I can't give you a perfectly round number. But take an average of three to four hundred or so galleons per month I was gone, and you have your share."

Keith had to struggle to keep an impressed look off his face. He wasn't sure if he entirely succeeded.

"That's...a lot of galleons," he said, leaning back in his chair. He was just now even approaching that kind of intake, and he had invented the stupid drug. Wally had hopped right in and started making money like it was nobody's business.

"Wow," he said again, drumming his fingers on his thigh. It was time to expand. If Wally could do it, he could. "It's good you're back then," he said. "I've made some tweaks to Sugar - the smokable version? It's much less expensive to brew now, and I like to dilute it a bit with blast-end skrewt blood so that people end up buying more."

He glanced around the common room. There were people around, definitely, but nobody was close enough to be eavesdropping on the conversation. "I've got some friends at Beauxbatons and Durmstrang. I think it's time we show continental Europe what it's all about."

Keith's expression flickered and Wally was sure he would no longer complain about her Australian genes.

A lot of money. Yes. "They're pretty desperate for entertainment over there so I can't take all of the credit. The school's bum rules helped a lot. Besides, I didn't do any packaging. You were always better at that, so I kept production costs as low as possible, which increased the net."

Merlin she loved business talk.

She listened intently to the changes, finding her mind eager to soak in the information. She nodded and sucked in some breath at the mention of the skrewt blood - she liked that idea. "Brilliant," she couldn't help but hiss, shaking her head.

His next idea was one of his best. She nodded, saying, "We have to be careful though. I've heard rumors that Durmstrang has their owlpost checked, as they're so competitive. Anything foreign is detained. We're going to have to get clever."

"Oh yeah, Durmstrang's crazy," Keith said with a roll of his eyes. "Luckily it's basically run by a big group of rich families, so as long as you know the right people, you can slip stuff by the owlpost without a second glance. I think."

He shrugged. "I'll run the first few shipments through a proxie, just in case. Actually I'm more worried about Beaxbatons. I have a...friend, you could say, but, uh, I'm not really sure how trustworthy she is."