Business Associates

Jack had to hurry out of the Great Hall, hands clamped over her screaming bag. The problem was that she always had merchandise from the shop she co-owned with her cousin Elliot. Moreover, the problem was that said shop was Weasleys Wizard Wheezes, which meant that unexpected things were bound to happen.

Today, she had brought a broken set of a Re-useable Hangman, hoping to fix it over breakfast. The poor guy refused to step up to the gallows, which at first made it more interesting, but began to make the player frustrated... and then guilty as the man was dragged towards the noose. Sure, he was made of wood, but it was sad.

And now, when she had been prodding him with her wand, he had let out a bloodcurdling scream. Jack had clamped her hands over him, but he had managed to scream- how he did so without a face, she did not know- but it was drawing attention. Bad for business, she stopped the situation by stuffing him in her bag and stomping out.

She sat down outside the Great Hall and drug the guy out, and his minuscule high-pitched screams met her ears. She pinned him down and pointed her wand at him. "Silencio!" He fell silent, but continued to squirm. She picked him up. She had speant hours on the guy the night before. She shook him. "How can you be afraid to die! You aren't even alive!" She held her wand in his face, muttering a flurry of spells, none of which seemed to calm him down.

Walker kept his head down as he hurried out of the great hall, stuffing a bagel into his mouth and trying to scribble something on a scrap of paper at the same time. So far, he was failing miserably, but that had never stopped him before. In fact he was incredibly close to a breakthrough, and his eyes lit up as something sprang into his thoughts - an answer. A brief and fleeting moment of pure brilliance that he had from time to time. He pressed his pencil to the paper, smile widening...

"How can you be afraid to die! You aren't even alive!" Someone hissed from in front of him.

Gone. Vamoose. There went his moment of pure brilliance.

He hadn't even had time to write it down.

Walker closed his eyes and tried to count to 10. He got to 1 before rounding on the source of the whisper with murder in his eyes. "Could you please speak a little louder?" He snarled, looking down on the girl. "Because I'm sure everyone here wants to hear your problems, yes? Now what is so pressing an issue that you see fit to resolve it in the middle of the hallway?!"

Suddenly someone was snapping at her. Jack tipped her head up and one of her eyebrows raised as she surveyed him with a look that said she was surprised he had the nerve to talk to her so brusquely. She did not do much to command kind words from her peers, but she was used to intimidating and/or scaring them into a respectful silence and acceptance. Not many people would be so quick to snap at her.

Obviously he did know her.

"I'm fairly sure there is no sound level maximum, last I checked, this was not the suburbs. And obviously, there must be truth to the statement, for here you are, inquiring more about it." She half smirked and raised her eyebrow higher.

In a blunt voice, she said, "This damn re-usable hangman is glitching or something. The spell has gone haywire I think. The hangman keeps screaming and crying and begging instead of heading up to the gallows." She sighed as he broke from her grip. She tripped him with her foot and pointed her wand at him. "Immobulus." He froze. With a sigh, she picked him up and surveyed him.

Walker sighed. If there was one thing he couldn't stand more than an idiot, it was something broken. And while he couldn't fix idiocy, he could at least fix broken things. He could definitely fix broken things. "Gimme that," he muttered, grabbing the tiny wooden figure from Jack's hand. He tapped the side of his glasses, and felt it heat up with a little electric jolt.

The world burst into color, magic swirling through the air, sinking into the walls, bunching up around the little wooden man he held in his hand.

"Well no wonder it doesn't work," he said, shaking his head and pulling out his wand. "These spells are all wrong. Look at this," he said, shoving the thing in her face, ignoring the fact that she couldn't actually see anything. "I mean really. You haven't even animated all the parts correctly. No wonder he's breaking down, he can barely move correctly." He swished his wand across the wooden man, muttering to himself as he did so. "And the spell you're using to give him a measure of sentience is all wrong. Honestly, it looks like someone was intentionally sabotaging it." He looked down at Jack. "Or you're just stupid."

He glanced back down at the wooden doll, giving his wand one last flick. The man fell limp, and Walker tossed him to Jack. "See if he works now."

Jack let him take the wooden man, not minding his rudeness nor his blunt down-to-work attitude as much as his claims that she was an idiot. She put up her hands defensively, a defiant look on her face. "Hey, they are not my spells. They were handed down like a recipe. This guy was the only one out of a huge new batch to start malfunctioning, so don't start pointing fingers at someone if you don't know the whole story."

She pushed herself out of her sitting position and kneeled. He threw the doll towards her and she deftly caught it, pulling over the set of gallows and tapping them with her wand. She set the man up an said in a clear voice, "X." It was almost always a sure-fire fail world, and this time was no different. Instead of his prior reactions of pleading the little man took a step forward towards the gallows.

"Z." He continued closer. "Q." He took another step. "Y." Another. "V." He reached out towards the gallows. She looked up at the boy, an impressed smirk on her face. "Well I'll say, not every arrogant jerk does not have a reason to be somewhat self-assured. It worked. You're not as useless as the rest of the students here." She nodded as if this were a great compliment. "I'm Jack Dyllan. What's your name?"

They did say that the quickest way to a man's heart was through his stomach.

This did not hold true for Walker. The quickest way to his heart was through his abnormally massive ego. (It was truly enormous. If Walker ever bothered to run the calculations, he would find that his ego would be able to sink a large aircraft carrier with little difficulty) In fact, perhaps unknowingly, Jack had become Walker's favorite person in all of Hogwarts.

(Of course, this was not difficult. Walker knew the names of approximately three people at Hogwarts)

He chose to ignore the barb and instead focus on the positive. "I'm Walker," he said, sticking out a hand in greeting. The fingertips were stained with ink and grease but otherwise well taken care of - there were a few scars here and there but nothing that truly jumped out at you. Walker's father always told him to take good care of his hands - the only thing more important was his mind.

Walker did not seem to mind her crassness, which meant he was not as coddled and petty as the majority of people Jack ran into. Most people would have taken not being an idiot as some sort of rude assumption, but Jack could not help herself. She assumed most people were stupid and not worth her time unless they proved otherwise.

Jack disengaged the toy and began to pack it up into her bag before she put her hands on her knees and pushed herself up until she was standing. She offered him one of her usual sneaky, mysterious looking grins as he held out his hand to shake, informing her that his name was Walker.

"Jack." She shook his hand firmly before releasing it. She gestured toward her bag, where the hangman was stowed away. "So... you do that sort of stuff much? Fiddling with little inventions and gizmos and gadgets and whatever other various scientific names they have now for stuff?" She was starting to think she could put his talents to work...

Walker snorted. Did he fiddle?

Did he fiddle?

He was Walker Marshall! He did nothing but fiddle. He had failed all his classes last year because he was too busy fiddling to receive his class schedule! He was like the king of fiddling. Fiddling was his life, his love, his passion.

"I might a little bit, yeah," he said, rocking back and forth on his heels. "What's it to you?" Best to play it cool. Nobody gave you anything if you wanted it - you had to make it seem like you were giving them something.

When Walker snorted she understood that her statement must have been an understatement and she raised her eyebrow. She did not know how she was expected to know that; she had finally recognized Walker, and she knew him to be the Ravenclaw no one ever really saw because he was off in his own world. Okay, well her question was obviously answered.

Nevertheless, he answered casually, and she raised her eyebrow higher. She had the distinct feeling this was a boy full of pride, so why so casual about his abilities now? She crossed her arms, observing him as though trying to figure out the best tact to deal with him. She could use his inventing work... best appeal to his pride then... "Well, you know Weasleys Wizards' Wheezes? I need some new products for it. Would you be interested?"

Walker snorted. "Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes," he said, grinning a bit. "The pathetic joke shop? Yes, I'v heard of it. I assume that's where you received that horrendous hangman?" He asked. Without waiting for a reply, he continued, running his hand through his unruly hair as he did so. "It's almost not worth my time...almost. I suppose anything I can do to help those less talented. Of course, we'd have to get more specific on the money involved in this little deal."