[Hogsmeade] The Hog's Head

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary tapped his foot impatiently, arms crossed loosely over his chest. His gaze drifted slowly toward the rickety sign looming over the small inn. A boar's severed head stared back at him beside the words "The Hog's Head"

Zachary grimaced before quickly looking away. The pub was off the mainstreet, situated in a much more dirty part of Hogsmeade and he felt more than uncomfortable. His discomfort only grew when suddenly a man wearing a heavy, dark hood stumbled out of the pub obviously drunk and giddy with what was probably a very good trade. He flashed his crooked, yellow teeth in a disturbing grin, before walking a few more steps and apparating away.

Surpressing a shudder, Zachary looked around hesitantly again, waiting Thom with a scowl on his face. "Hufflepuff's have no sense of time," he mumbled to himself distractedly. [/color]

[Thom Moen]

Thom had made sure he would be late on purpose, telling the Slytherin to meet him outside of the Hogshead at three o'clock. He had made a point not to leave his dorm until half past three, and he was now strolling merrily along at a steady pace, whistling to himself with an amused expression.

He rounded the the corner into one of the dirty side streets, and immediately set eyes upon the younger boy, his arms wrapped around himself defensively as he gave churlish looks to unappealing passers by. Thom hitched up the brown sack on his shoulder as arrived next to Zachary without him noticing. He tapped him hard on the shoulder. 'Wake up!' he said accusingly. 'Don't pay attention round here and you'll loose your snake skin purse, dear.' Thom said mockingly as he patted Zachary's cheek. He knew the Slytherin would be less ready with comebacks in his nervous state.

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary let out a small cry when something tapped him on the shoulder, half expecting the man with horrid teeth to be staring down at him. Then he saw Thom's obviously amused expression.

Glowering at the Hufflepuff, he rubbed his cheek with a look of disgust on his face, before digging in his robes deliberately. "You're late." He said scathingly, a small tremor finding its way into his voice.

Finally, his rummaging paused and he pulled out a handful of silky white hairs. "You said something about a trick," he said pointedly, holding them possessively to his chest in case any of the suspicious characters emerging from the pub decided to try anything funny. "Come on, then. I haven't got many things to trade other than a few of my mother's rings and these." He made a face, before looking at Thom in the eye. "That bloody centaur made me put everything else back."[/color]

[Thom Moen]

Thom grinned greedily as the silvery unicorn hairs were revealed to him from under Zachary's robes. They glinted in the weak sunlight that seemed to never be quite as bright down this particular street in comparison to the rest of Hogsmede. He took them from Zachary without asking and placed them inside a black cloth, draping it over his arm. He was about to at last reveal the trick he had mentioned when Zachary mentioned the centaur. 'Oh shut up,' he growled harshly. 'Stop pretending! My head still hurts because of you.' he then saw the rings. 'Did you take them from your own mother? I suppose you have to start somewhere - but your mum?'

With one last dirty glance at the Slytherin, Thom slipped from his side and entered the Hogshead, a heavy bell ringing above his head, although the groaning hinges all but drowned out the sound...

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary watched Thom take the hairs from his hand suspiciously, before listening to him with a mild shrug. "My mother's got a million-- Wait a minute!" He said indignantly, watching Thom walk away easily. Glaring, he pulled open the door and looked around for the Hufflepuff.

Dust obscured his vision and he grimaced, taking another step forward. A horrible stench reached his nose, and he scrunched it up in distaste, carefully avoiding an area near his right where a cluster of wizards cackled evily. "Moen?" He called once, catching sight of the bartender. His eyes gleamed.

Just as he was about to walk over, a witch stopped him and pulled her veil over her face more securely. Her lips quirked into a devious smile, as she held out a wrinkled hand. "What a pretty little boy." she said in a sickly-sweet voice, her bony fingers closing around the green pendent in her hand. "It's expensive, but such a handsome boy must have one." Her hand snaked out and held it to his chest securely. "And it matches those gorgeous eyes of yours..."

Zachary glanced at it curiously, his ego swelling with each of her compliments. With clouded eyes, he began to reach into his pockets for his change, the hazy atmosphere of the pub swirling around him in a foggy blur. [/color]

[Thom Moen]

'Ah ah ah, I don't think so...' Thom said in a singsong voice as he grabbed Zachary's wrist and the witch's imposing hand at the same time. He dragged Zachary away and stood between the two. 'I'm sure she's very pretty, Daniels, but you're a bit old to be accepting gifts of strangers, eh?' Thom said mockingly as he twisted the witches hand away from the Slytherin. She gave a rasping cry of disapproval, tearing it away with a victimized expression.

'I should have told you - don't touch anything someone other than me offers you in here. Can't you bloody well see a curse when you're shown one?' he looked sharply at the necklace, and a faint moving glow could be seen in the center of the stone. 'What would it have done to him, knave?' Thom snapped sharply, towering over her threateningly.

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary spluttered, his eyes refocussing as Thom pulled him away. "I was making a trade, you git!" He said half-heartedly, his arm dropping to his side a bit embarrassedly at his mistake.

He watched Thom loom over the witch with raised eyebrows, placing the few galleons he had grabbed back into his robes cautiously.

She sneered at the Hufflepuff, nursing her hand close to her chest. Her teeth, Zachary noticed, were sharp and different shades of yellow and he frowned disgustedly.

"You insolent brat! She shrieked, hastily moving the necklace from Thom's vision. Her eyes darted toward Zachary, and her lip curled, before looking back at Thom. Her gaze faltered, and she shrunk back. "Nothing with lasting affects," she muttered, "They trade a lot worse here, you of all people should know..." She drifted off as a couple of nervous boys entered the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me..."

Zachary looked at Thom after she had left with a frown. There was an awkward pause, in which he flushed a bright red, before he looked away pointedly. "She wasn't pretty." He said flatly, "In fact, she had very horrible teeth."[/color]

[Thom Moen]

'Whatever, don't let me stand in the way of your love life,' he winked with a lopsided grin before grabbing hold of the front of Zachary's robes and pulling him along towards the back of the pub.

'Right - like I said, don't talk to anyone or touch anything. There isn't a single person in here out to do to a fair trade or to do you no harm.' Thom narrowed his eyes at he stared into Zachary's, inspecting for any trace of the magic that witch had pressed upon him. He quickly snapped his fingers several times in front of the boy's face - to be annoying more than anything else.

He sat down on a barstool when he was satisfied he had disorientated the boy enough. 'See over in the corner? That's Blind Burgess. He's a useless old sod, half blind in both eyes and absolutely no way of making up for it...' Thom's point was proven as the horrendously obese warlock lumbered from one table to another - the previous being too covered in empty flagons - managing to knock several chairs and two wizards on the way. He was fumbling about with his hands, his neck craned forward slightly as if to smell his way about. 'Sightless for fifty years. Never learned to compensate.'

It was then that Thom reproduced the unicorn hairs. 'Now how do you suppose we could get twice the galleons out of him for these?' he grinned, looking at Zachary patiently.

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary looked back at Thom, after staring quite rudely at the man with a look of pure distaste on his face. "Cheating a blind man, Moen?" He said carelessly, walking over and swinging a leg over one stool. Pulling himself onto it with slight difficulty, he pouted suddenly, "Couldn't we just tear off some of your hair, charm it silver and convince him it's unicorn hair?"

His fingers reached over as he seriously considered the idea. With a smirk, he plucked one off the top of Thom's head easily and made a face. "Nevermind, it'd never pass. Much too coarse." He dropped it to the floor with a grimace, forgetting that a misplaced hair in a place like this could aid in many unwanted potions.

Leaning back on the protesting stool, he shrugged. "He's blind, we could cheat him tons. What I really want to know, however-" He looked back in front of him hungrily. "Is if I can get some of that." He nodded in the direction of a row of bottles labeled firewhiskey. [/color]

[Thom Moen]

'Ow - hey!' Thom winced as he felt a minute sting on the top of his head. He glared thoroughly as he watched the Slytherin inspect then drop it. 'You little sod! And my hair is not coarse, thank you very much. It's quite soft.' he said defensively.

He looked along the far to a slim, youngish man sipping firewhiskey carefully, making a face as it touched his tongue. 'You're too little,' Thom said in a baby voice. 'Maybe when you're all grown up, Danials. For now...' Thom slid off his stool, making a small effort to knock Zachary's own with his foot, causing the boy to fall off. 'A little severing charm...' Thom ran his wand tip across the rope of unicorn hairs gently, showing Zachary as the hairs sliced through the very middle. There were now twice as many hairs, but all half the size of a proper unicorn hair.

'Like I said - can't do anything. Most blind people learn to judge with touch, but not him. He'll be able to tell their unicorn hairs by the slight shimmer, but he'll completely miss the odd length.' he grinned, winking.

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary heaved himself off the floor, his face positively glowing with anger, just in time to see the severing charm. "I'm not too little!" He cried, snatching the hairs from Thom's grip. "And I believe those are mine."

He stared at them for a moment, before pulling a stringy one from the pile. "What do you expect we can get for these?" His gaze drifted across the pub, noticing many people were staring at the hairs greedily. He shifted uncomfortable, before looking back at Thom , "And I really don't care what you say, Moen. I'm having a drink of firewhiskey before we go back to Hogwarts."[/color]

[Thom Moen]

Thom smirked at all the people watching them. 'They can plainly see I've just cut them in half - thus lowered their value.' he began to walk towards the corner of the pub that harbored the bulging Blind Burgess, gesturing for Zachary for to follow with the hairs. 'And so you know - I get fifty percent profit for doing this for you.' he said quickly.

The two of them stopped before the table supporting Blind Burgess. He gave a filthy belch as he slammed down a filthy flagon that had moments ago contained the worst mead in Hogsmede, and he swayed on his seat, his wide rear falling over the sides it. He had a massive round head, crimson with drink, and through the darkness they two of them could just make out the scabby little slits for eyes, the wet eyes clouded over with obscuring white. 'Burgess!' Thom suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, meaning the catch the poor man off guard.

'Graaah!' Blind Burgess gargled loudly. He sounded as though in pain, but it was really his attempt at a happy greeting. 'Moen!' he croaked, a smile much the same as a baby's appearing on his face. He stared off into space, feeling about the air until his grimy hands landed upon Zachary's arms. 'Sit down! What you got today, lad? Sit down!' he dragged the Slytherin into a seat next to him, slipping a fatty arm around his shoulders. The stench from his armpits were enough to make Thom sway, even from where he was standing. He almost felt bad fro Zachary.

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary's eyes widened as he was swept from where he stood and clumsily grabbed by the heavy man. He made a sound of protest, feeling the meaty arms wrap around him awkwardly, causing him to gasp for air.

He immediately wished he hadn't, and his face turned several shades paler, almost taking on a green tinge, screwed up in half a painful grimace and half a furious scowl directed at Thom. When the man addressed him, he seemed to find his voice again and tried to breath through only his mouth.

He didn't want people at the Hogshead to think they were trading with Thom, so he squirmed slightly in his seat shaking his head although he wasn't sure Burgess saw. "I'm not Thom-" you great tub of lard "My name's Zachary Daniels, and I have- have-" He made a face, squeezing his eyes shut as the man abruptly dropped the hand from his shoulders, the stench growing worse. "- An offer."

Sending one last death glare at Thom, he pulled the hairs out in front of him. "There's fourteen," he said brightly, obviously happy with the scheme. "You can even count them if you like." He added slyly, laying them gently on the table.

Then he looked toward Thom, an eyebrow raised. [/color]

[Thom Moen]

Thom was looking at Zachary with a broad, self-satisfying grin, his arms folded high across his chest. The Hufflepuff was rather surprised that Zachary had taken the initiative already, and was not looking at Thom for mercy.

Burgess's hand lunged forward, wrapping around Zachary's wrist in an attempt to inspect what was in his hands. He felt along until his fingers landed in Zachary's palm, a print of something wet and faintly brown left on the Slytherin's wrist. Thom lip curled as he took a few silently steps back and sat down a table away. Zachary seemed to know what he was doing.

'Offer?' Burgess grunted, giving a small belch a moment later. 'What's this, Daniels?' he twisted his fingers around the usually short unicorn hairs, and his face immediately lightened up, a small line of saliva resting on his lips, threatening to seep over onto his chin. He leaned forward, still with his arm around Zachary, and squinted at the hairs. 'U-unicorn?' he muttered. 'Unicorn!'

He stood up suddenly, the speed with which he did so being quite impressive for a man of his size. Zachary was knocked sideways slightly. 'Let me count, let me count!' he mumbled excitedly, gathering the hairs up in his fingers, taking a ridiculously long time to do so. 'You, you got at least half a tail's worth here!' he roared happily. 'Good boy, good boy - how much lad, how much?' he slammed a hand on Zachary's shoulder in happiness, almost throwing him to the floor a second time.

[Zachary Daniels]

Zachary flinched, his mouth shut tightly together in a grim line as he tried to hold back any rude statements. Turning to Thom for reassurance, saw the Hufflepuff's previous post empty and felt suddenly panicked.

"How... Much?" He repeated, rubbing his wrist and grimacing at the smell that wafted toward him. He looked around once again, before settling his gaze back on Burgess.

"I..." He wasn't quite sure what he could get in return for them, and Moen didn't seem to be around -- the prat. "They're... Expensive." He said lamely, keeping a close eye on the hairs. "I want... As much as you can give me. Everything--" His eyes gleamed as they flickered over to a silver wristwatch on the giant man's arm. "I rather like that watch... And that wouldn't happen to be dragon hide, would it?..."

He continued to ramble off, pointing at things the man owned, his eyes sparkling hungrilly with greed. "Oh, and..." He paused, keeping his eye out for a head that was Moen, or one that even resembled him. Seeming satisfied, he turned back to Burgess. "I want Firewhiskey... Lots of it."

He was positively glowing with glee.[/color]