One of the furies

Wally smirked a little, always glad to make a point. Besides, she did this mainly for herself, not to prepare for anything. She didn't buy into all these extremists preaching the end of safety and goodness. As far as she was concerned, the world had always been a mess and that made it safe since they were all grown in a chaos they had long ago evolved to accept. She wasn't worried.

She stopped bouncing and walked forward again, her bare feet feeling cool on the mats they lined the dueling arena with. He began speaking and she took to the dummy again, bouncing around it and trying her jabs on his weak areas. "I've been practicing a mixed self defense method since I was seven. So, for half of my life, I've been trained to kick your ass." She smirked to herself. She smiled again at his words, trying her best not to be flattered. "Thanks. You take a punch better than most of the males in this forsaken castle, I'll give you that."

She was starting to warm up to him a bit, even smiling, which made Brian feel a bit more comfortable. He felt like he did not have to constantly worry about being socked in the face or the crotch, which was nice, since when he first met her he felt like he was constantly walking on thin ice. He was making progress, little progress, but progress none the less.

"Sure, you can kick my ass, but plop yourself on a broom and we will see who is king." Brian was confident with every word he spoke, but when it came to flying, he felt he was next to none. He had been playing quidditch and riding brooms since he was a wee little lad and he had met no one, young or old, who was better than him. Besides maybe some pro players, but if they asked him, he was better than them anyways.

"Taken more than my share of licks over the years." That much was true, there was no number high enough to count how many times he had taken a bludger to the back of the head or to the face, maybe it was an exaggeration, but it did not seem that way. He was used to pain by now, and if he started being scared of it now, everything he had worked for would have been a waste.

"Most of the males in this castle are too scared to stand up and be a man. Call me what you want, but I am not afraid of a challenge. Actually, I am not really afraid of anything, life is too short to worry about insignificant things like pain or fear. You live and you die, might as well have a blast while you are living."

Wally opened her mouth to refute his claim, for she never liked to be one-upped. However, Wally didn't kid herself. She was incredibly self aware, and she was never one to delude herself. She snapped her mouth closed, considered it a moment, and then shrugged. "Yeah. I'm sure that's true. I haven't been on a broom since first year flying class. Give me a year, though, and I bet I could hold my own... for awhile."

She smirked at his words, continuing to bounce around the dummy in circles, this time more relaxed, more casual. She had been going at it about awhile, and should think about wrapping it up soon. She smiled a wry smile. "You look like someone people would want to hit. No offense."

He continued on and she nodded, speaking between breaths. "Animals do not think about what scares them. They react. The fight, or they leave. If humans responded like that, people would get everything done so much quicker."

He perked up a bit when she admitted he was better on a broom. Through all the other bull crap that was all he wanted was a little recognition. Sometimes he felt like he did everything in his power to be the best but no one really cared. It was one of the reasons he was so in your face about everything, because he just wanted someone to recognize his talent, and sometimes he felt like no one cared about any of his successes. Which was why he decided if no one else would, screw it, he would at least be proud of himself.

"I wouldn't know why they would want to punch me, are we looking at the same face?" He smiled sweetly, trying to get some sort of laugh out of the girl, he hoped she caught on to the fact that he was joking.

"They would either get things done quicker or this world would turn into one violent death after another. We are above animals for a reason, because we have more thoughts than run or kill, but what do I know?" He paused for a second, thinking about what the world would be like if instead of thinking things through they only did what their primal instincts told them.

"Hey, if you're interested, I can pay you back for teaching me my sick new moves." He did a few punches in the air to accentuate the fact that she had been teaching him to fight. "We can go to the Quidditch Pitch and I can give you a few pointers. You can ride my Lightning Bolt. It is the fastest and most agile broom on the market." He perked up when he spoke about his broom, it was his pride and joy, and he loved showing it off.

"I wouldn't know why they would want to punch me, are we looking at the same face?" She twisted back, still bouncing though she stopped hitting the dummy, giving him a full look in the face. "Hmmm," she said, looking very thoughtful. "Yep. I still see it. I could definitely see someone wanting to take a whack at you." She smirked at him, a smile twitching at her mouth.

He began to muse aloud, and she paused, before quickly turning back and resuming her original activity, sending a powerful hit towards the dummy's head. On the release, the dummy's head was knocked loose and it spun around. "I don't like all of that philosophical bull," she muttered.

He offered to teach her to fly and an immediate no burbled from her throat to her lips, but she swallowed it down. She liked to learn and she liked to acquire skills she considered to be practical. Flying could certainly come in handy. "...Sure. Okay."

At first, she did not seem to be interested in his offer to teach her to fly, but she actually came around to it. It was strange for him to be talking to a girl without the intention of getting into her pants. Well, maybe he was, but he was going for the long con instead of being straight up about it. Worse comes to worse, he got to fly, which he was not complaining about.

"Alright, it's a date!" He knew she would not like it being called a date, which is exactly why he did it. Brian yawned and he touched the spot where he had been hit. "So I am going to go and ice my face for the next eight hours, thanks for the lesson in fighting, it was really cool." He put his hand out to shake her hand, trying to be friendly. "It was nice to meet you Wally, how does this next weekend sound for flying lessons, which is definitely not a date." Yet.

Brian immediately made Wally regret her decision to agree to flying lessons. She dropped all sense of amusement and her face resumed its robotic, blank expression. “It’s an appointment,” she corrected. “Ten minutes of training with someone of my expertise on self defense is probably worth ten galleons. You’d better deliver with the flying lessons then. I expect a fair trade.”

She did, however, flicker the briefest of a smile of a smile as he suggested icing his face for an extended period of time. She was glad to have inflicted some pain – it meant she was getting stronger. He seemed to be wrapping up their meeting, so she began to turn her attention to the dummy, bouncing around it and begin to jab at it. “Next weekend will suffice for our appointment. It was nice meeting you, Brian Sullivan.” Her entire air exuded the idea You may go now.