Eghhhhh, this place smelled. It smelled like the Hag old eggs that had been left to turn green in the bottom of a dirty old sweaty sock. David's nose crinkled up as he made his way toward where he thought the Potions office was, but the truth was that he was starting to doubt the validity of his own map.

Why would anyone label this a Secret Passage if it just led to the potions storeroom? Silly maps, surely he should be coming upon what he wanted any moment now...

See, the thing was, that a Secret Passage wasn't really a Secret Passage if it wasn't....well....secret. As in unknown. As in she didn't hear about some older years talking about it and where it was. As in, if it was so Secret, she shouldn't have been able to find it so easily. Or there should have been SOMETHING secret about it.

She was hitting a right rut of disappointment, however. There wasn't an ounce of interesting down here. Even the smell was beyond interesting. It was simply right awful. So awful the walls seemed to be rotting from it.

The place was wretched and horrid and foul. The only semi-interesting thing about it, was that it wound about in dark and twisting ways. Which meant that Amur was able to test her gall as she traveled it without a light.

Really, the imagination could run wild in a place like this but it had the beneficial property of never actually running into something. Her own feet and person, however, was a completely different story.

One moment she was in the middle of the corridor on her own, the next ---- OMPF!!!

Right into something semi-squishy and a few inches shorter than herself.

"Blue crabs!" Amur stumbled back a step, rubbing her chin from whatever it had knocked off.

False. The maps were FALSE. This passage was the second-WORST kept secret at Hogwarts, because OBVIOUSLY it wasn't secret, and also because it was OBVIOUSLY a dead end. How disappointing. David tsked to himself and turned around at the end of the passage, tired of a facing a literal brick wall. It happened as he turned around, however, that someone walked right into him.

"WHERE?" the second-year responded to the shout of blue crabs! NO REALLY, WHERE?! He dug his wand out of his pocket and hurriedly cast lumos to illuminate it. "I don't see any! Did you follow them down here??!" He turned his wand toward the taller person's face so that he could see her as he asked that question.

Oh. Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh. It was the business girl from Madame Primpernelle's. She'd thought he had a girlfriend. Oooooooooooooooooooooooh. Annnnnd David was blushing, all thoughts of blue crabs suddenly scuttling out of his mind.

To top off the sting in her chin, there was suddenly a bright light and a loud voice to acompany it. Not exactly the exclamation that Amur had been expecting, and with one hand still nursing her chin her other reached out to try and cover the light or at least lower it from her face.

"Your head." Yes. His head was the blue crab. Made sense to her. She scrubbed at her chin again, squinting at exactly WHO was so excited about blue crabs.

Her hand stopped in mid rub and all irritation of pain, light and sound vanished. It was her potential business partner! "Oh hey!" Should she apologize? Probably. "You know I've been meaning to track you down to talk about things." Total apology right there. "Funny how we just kind of keep running into each other."

Maybe she needed to read a book on apologies.

Chloe wasn't exactly sure where she was. A few wrong turns and now she was in this weird, dark and damp place. She knew the Slytherins lived down here somewhere but she had no idea why. This place was obviously a breeding ground for mold.

Gross. So, so gross.

And she would have left if the winding hadn't been impossible to back track. She wasn't lost but she definitely was not one hundred percent sure how to find her way back. Not lost. Momentarily misplaced.

Bastien wasn't lost or momentarily misplaced.

This was part of his temporary home, and he and Rula spent the better part of their first few days exploring the castle. He wasn't exploring right now. Right now he was letting his bat fly around in the passageway while he followed along, tossing up a piece of fruit occasionally for her to catch.

It was during his stroll that he caught sight of the ever doubtful Chloe. He tilted his head at her, and moved closer. Half attention on her, and half on his roaming pet. "Never thought I'd find you down here."

She jumped, startled, when she heard Bastien's voice. Her hair whipped around with the rest of her head as she took in what was happening in front of her. Seriously, though, what was happening? Bats were not cats, toads or owls and the school rules stated they could only have those in school.

He was breaking a rule. Did he know? Merlin knew Chloe was going to tell him because in a way by just owning the bat it made him wrong. And she loved telling boys they were wrong.

"You can't have a bat here. It's against the rules."

Bast raised his eyebrows. He knew the school rules, and he knew that he wasn't leaving his bat home with his mother and baby sister. So he brought her along, simple as that. If he wanted permission, he would have asked.

"I can have whatever I want." Did she not know that by now? "Are you hear to scope me out, or..." He looked around, then back to her. "Why are you here?"

"Scope you out?" She stared at him. Stared at him some more. And then scoffed really, really rudely. "Merlin, no. I'm just wandering and happened to run into you." The ego on this guy. The nerve.

She wasn't really surprised, though. Boys in general were dumb. Bastien just upheld that truth better than most.

Hang on. "And what do you mean you can have whatever you want? That's just not true." Society would crumble if everyone took what they wanted whenever they wanted it. That kind of behaviour was why the environment was falling apart. People just having whatever they wanted.

He wasn't even offended at her reaction or response. This was Chloe. She practically hated his existence for no other reason than he was a boy. "Yeah, whatever. You're wondering in an odd place." For a Ravenclaw at least. She was far away from their precious towers.

"But it is true. I can have whatever I want. She's proof." Bast whistled lowly, and his bat flew over to him as commanded. His hand went up and he let her latch onto his fingers. Gwenog got fond looks. Chloe got confused as hell looks. "Why are you going on about the environment?"

She crossed her arms squarely over her chest, "I'm always trying to find out more about the castle. That's not odd. It's smart." In case something happened at Hogwarts, as Hogwarts was want to do, and she needed to find the best hiding place. Because only dummies ran into the face of danger.

Soliders, too. But teenagers weren't soldiers. Just Gryffindors and idiots.

Her eyes bulged and her face went bright red, which wasn't exactly pretty with all of her freckles lighting up like a highlighter, "I, uh, didn't mean to say that out loud." Chloe's voice dropped low and into nothing. Speaking of hiding...she wanted to hide in her hair right about now.

He rolled his eyes. "Well you've found out the dungeon's secret." Literally. This passage wasn't know among many of the students in this school. He knew this because him and Gwenog spent a lot of time down here.

She was doing that thing again whenever he said something he probably shouldn't have said. The blushing thing. He hadn't yet figured out exactly how to avoid making it happened, and he never would know how to skirt around it. "Sorry." Awwwwwkward pause. "I'm not hurting the environment, or whatever. I just have a pet bat." Who was now hanging from his robes.

"It wasn't really about the bat," she countered, "It was about what you said. About having whatever you want. That kind of thinking...is dumb and can hurt the environment." Her Daddy always said. Too much, actually. And while she wasn't an extremist like him he wasn't exactly wrong. But she didn't mean to talk about the environment. Honest.

Just about how his way of thinking, the whatever the heck he wanted thing, was misguided. And untrue. And destructive.

She glared at the ends of her hair instead of his face. His dumb, dumb boy face, "Even though you shouldn't have the bat." She wasn't going to let that go.

"You call me dumb a lot, you know." It was exhausting to here, and try to disprove. "Just because I can have whatever I want doesn't mean I go after all the things I want." He might have been a boy, but he did have self control. It was a lot of thought that went into getting Gwenog, and they had had to prove to his parents that he could handle her. She wasn't a whimsical buy.

He watched her glare at her hair. She was so odd, and rude. Mostly rude. "You say I shouldn't only 'cause the school rules say I shouldn't." Shrug. "They're just rules. Don't need to follow them all." It was impossible actually. To do so, and still have fun.

She did, didn't she? Chloe supposed calling him dumb was better than other words she called other boys. It was the least offensive one in her arsenal. Bastien should be so lucky to be so highly regarded. "....okay." She was still suspicious of his way of thinking but she would let it go for now mostly because she did not want to fight.

Boys were always picking fights.

She snapped her eyes up to him and took an urgent step forward, "How can you say that? Rules are there to keep us safe." They went to Hogwarts. Constant vigilance.

He wasn't threatened by her stepping forward, blue eyes holding her intense gaze. "Gwenog's not a threat. Here." He carefully plucked her off his robes and held her out for Chloe to take. "Hold her, and see. She's only a fruit bat." Not harming anyone except a piece of fresh fruit.

"Rules are made to keep us safe, but they're made for the extremes. Like people who wanna bring dangerous pets to school or something." Those were idiots, and he was not. "It wasn't made for me." He selectively followed the rules.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tazenhani

To top off the sting in her chin, there was suddenly a bright light and a loud voice to acompany it. Not exactly the exclamation that Amur had been expecting, and with one hand still nursing her chin her other reached out to try and cover the light or at least lower it from her face.

"Your head." Yes. His head was the blue crab. Made sense to her. She scrubbed at her chin again, squinting at exactly WHO was so excited about blue crabs.

Her hand stopped in mid rub and all irritation of pain, light and sound vanished. It was her potential business partner! "Oh hey!" Should she apologize? Probably. "You know I've been meaning to track you down to talk about things." Total apology right there. "Funny how we just kind of keep running into each other."

Maybe she needed to read a book on apologies.

His head had blue crabs on it? No it didn't.......... did it? David momentarily touched the top of his hair as though he needed to check, before his hand slowly drifted down to his side. Ah. Nah. She was JOKING.... er.... and she was happy to see him?

David didn't notice if that joke had really been a slight. He itched his cheek in the hopes that the slight flush there would subside, and then chuckled awkwardly at the comment about running into each other. "Literally." They did, didn't they. Ha. Ha. "What things did you want to talk about?" The second year looked up at her curiously.

Her sister was the animal whisperer, not Chloe. Growing up animals had always, sort of, avoided her and she them. They had a tentative truce. So she really didn't want to touch the bat. But she wasn't going to step away either and look too cowardly. Chloe was perfectly fine with cowardice when she felt it was going to protect her but this bat couldn't hurt. Really.

Chloe cautiously put her little hand out for the bat to latch on to or whatever bats did. It seemed to just hang off of Bastien like a clothes line.

Curious, Chloe proded, "What makes you so above the rules?"

Amur's grin brightened to it's fullest extent. So calling his head a blue crab had deterred him from having a conversation, which meant she was so not missing this opportunity.

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in being my partner." Cue wide grin and head nodding, as if those eleven words made all the sense in the world. "I know you said you didn't really know what you were looking for in the shop, but you've clearly got so much more experience than me and I could really use the extra pair of hands to kick it off."

He'd want a cut, wouldn't he? Amur's nose crinkled in thought. "I could give you say, thirty percent." That was fair, wasn't it? After cost and her own payout and resupplying, thirty-percent was totally fair.

She bounced a little on her feet. So, was he going to help her?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tazenhani

Amur's grin brightened to it's fullest extent. So calling his head a blue crab had deterred him from having a conversation, which meant she was so not missing this opportunity.

"I was wondering if you'd be interested in being my partner." Cue wide grin and head nodding, as if those eleven words made all the sense in the world. "I know you said you didn't really know what you were looking for in the shop, but you've clearly got so much more experience than me and I could really use the extra pair of hands to kick it off."

He'd want a cut, wouldn't he? Amur's nose crinkled in thought. "I could give you say, thirty percent." That was fair, wasn't it? After cost and her own payout and resupplying, thirty-percent was totally fair.

She bounced a little on her feet. So, was he going to help her?

Partner... she.... she wanted him to be her partner? "Partner how?" Davie squeaked before he could give the word partner any more, ah, thought. And the blush was back, mostly as a result of all her grinning and nodding. And the word partner. David was still mulling that one over... so uh, was she still set on establishing a business within the school?? Is that what this was about?

Hmm... he shook his head. "I dunno. I dunno what experience you're looking for." And then there was this sudden suggestion of thirty percent... Davie adjusted his glasses at the figure. "Uhhh." He'd have to consider this, maybe, but he was still confused about how suddenly she was talking about businesses. "You would be getting seventy in this scenario? That doesn't seem like partnering to me." Partners were supposed to be equals in his opinion, if they were putting in equal work.

Amur's brow twitched into a frown. He didn't know what type of partner or experience? She thought she'd been pretty clear, but then perhaps not. It wasn't unlike her to run out the door without putting both socks on under her shoes.

Pursing her lips, Amur considered the kid, muttering offhandedly. "Never said anything about both of us being senior partners."

It seemed, that on top of his invaluable cosmetics experience and intel, he drove a hard bargain. Knew how to drive a bargain. Which, made her profits a bit more skimpy, but then, perhaps it would be the best thing for profits. Clearly, she had ideas but maybe not business sense.

Resting back against the wall, headless of what gunk might be clinging to it, Amur eyed David. "Alright, you've made your point. We'll break it profits at fifty-fifty." Because she did consider herself a fair person. "But I reserve the right to fire you, if you turn out to be a poor partner."

Which, brought them back to the question he had first asked. Partner of what? "Business partner, for the moving cosmetic station I told you about." He did remember, didn't he? "I....don't know a lot about cosmetics, but you seem to have good ... resources at least. It can be as valuable as experience."

Can being the key word. He would have to prove his worth to her, otherwise she might have to resort to finding another source.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tazenhani

Amur's brow twitched into a frown. He didn't know what type of partner or experience? She thought she'd been pretty clear, but then perhaps not. It wasn't unlike her to run out the door without putting both socks on under her shoes.

Pursing her lips, Amur considered the kid, muttering offhandedly. "Never said anything about both of us being senior partners."

It seemed, that on top of his invaluable cosmetics experience and intel, he drove a hard bargain. Knew how to drive a bargain. Which, made her profits a bit more skimpy, but then, perhaps it would be the best thing for profits. Clearly, she had ideas but maybe not business sense.

Resting back against the wall, headless of what gunk might be clinging to it, Amur eyed David. "Alright, you've made your point. We'll break it profits at fifty-fifty." Because she did consider herself a fair person. "But I reserve the right to fire you, if you turn out to be a poor partner."

Which, brought them back to the question he had first asked. Partner of what? "Business partner, for the moving cosmetic station I told you about." He did remember, didn't he? "I....don't know a lot about cosmetics, but you seem to have good ... resources at least. It can be as valuable as experience."

Can being the key word. He would have to prove his worth to her, otherwise she might have to resort to finding another source.

Mhmm, no senior partners here. MHMMMMM. David was still waiting, as though this bargaining... really meant something to him? He wasn't unwise, and he was half-Slytherin, after all. He could drive a mean bargain. He just hadn't tried yet.

"Fifty-fifty. Fine." Oh, and the part about firing him. Davie almost stuck his hand out for a shake, but he had to look as though he were at least as invested in this as she was. So he paused just a beat as though considering the 'firing' addendum, and THEN he nodded and stuck his hand out. "You have a deal. You can be the Chief Executive and... I...." Hmm, if she were the chief executive here, what was he? "I need an equal job title for this cosmetic business."

Cosmetic business = girl stuff. Eh.... Davie didn't really DO girl stuff. Sure, he could probably market it, since he was so brilliant and capable of accomplishing anything, but did he WANT to market it? Or did he just want 50% of the profits? Davie wasn't sure yet, so after shaking the girl's hand, he crossed his arms over his chest.

Had to look fierce, he did.

Well, that had to be the easiest negotiation ever recorded. Amur eyed David's hand when he finally stuck it out, briefly debating if she wanted to backpeddle out of this deal. It wasn't a spit promise, but it still was her word. Perhaps she should have asked for references first?

Too late now. To back out would pull the rug out from under this whole business idea.

"You can be the Executive Chief." That sounded about as equal as things were going to get as far as titles went. Needless to say, it was rather obvious that while Amur had big dreams and ideas, she didn't know the first or last thing about business. Still, she extended her hand, took David's and gave it a firm shake.

The deal was sealed. For better or worse, there was no going back now.

Once the shake was done, and David was doing his leaning thing, Amur sort of kicked at the cobbles. What now? She supposed she was supposed to talk then? Made sense. Make their plans and whatnot. "Soooooooo, you got any ideas on what sort of price tag we should put out for this Hogwarts lot?"