Raised Eyebrows

Runners squeaked across the cobblestone, the steady clap of feet announcing a man on a mission. Or... a boy on an escape in this case. That much was clear enough by the figure darting out of the alleys, a bag hugged to his chest. Behind, the clear sound of catastrophe could be heard as a number of  dismal owls soared into the sky, raining down feathers on the ground. A single, burly man in a messy apron shoved his way through the crowd not far behind.

He needed a place to hide, and quick.

Quickly he raced through the exit of Diagon Alley and into the tavern. The busy room was packed, the perfect place to lose a pursuer. Now he just needed-



Crud. Muttering under his breath, he shoved through the crowd and quickly dove under the first table he could find. It was a pretty impressive slide, barely managing not to dump his books on the ground in the middle of his escape, but it was none to gentle on the girl seated as he hit the table with his arm on the way in, earning a nice bruise and upsetting whatever number of tools and sensitive pieces she'd been working on.

His heart was hammering, and he made a shushing motion, peering up from under the table next to the girls legs. Hoping and praying to the gods for her understanding and cooperation, he hunkered down as the burly man with the stained apron shouldered his way into the crowd. Balding with a thick and greasy beard, the man was an imposing size, and looked unafraid to use his size on whatever currently sparked his temper.

Which just happened to be Ahkar, it seemed. If all went well though, and the girl didn't out him, it wouldn't be long before the man likely, and hopefully, shouldered his way back out into the muggle-covered streets in search of his troublemaker.

The table shook and the items went everywhere across the table, "Ah freaking frack!" Astid almost yelled as her arms scurry to gather all the pieces. She looks on the ground just in case anything fell off, and sees a boy's leg under the table. She blushes and quickly move away from him.

"U-Um... What are you doin-" She looks up and sees a big dude come into the tavern. He was clearly angry from his red face and messy robe, and seems to be looking for something. 'Oh, so he's hiding...?' She wonders. She also wonders why. And why under HER TABLE. She was mostly mad over that.

She decided to be a team player and pretend that nothing happened, going back to her machine and screwing in the last screw. She put her hair in her face and her face farther up her nose, making her face less visible. The man was still in, looking at everything and everyone, and eventually her. She felt dread over her, contemplating if she should just rat him out so she wouldn't get in trouble. Did she look suspicious?

After awhile of doing nothing, the man eventually left, and Astrid sighed with relief. She looks back up and puts her hair behind her ears. She never felt some much relief but awkwardness at the some time. She looks under the table to see a Hogwarts student, like her, trying to hide, "He left..."

The boy was more than a little relieved the girl didn't rat him out. He didn't want to find out what the man had planned once he got his hands on the youth, but thankfully he didn't have to. The man was soon gone, giving Ahkar the freedom to slip out from under the table and into one of the free seats beside the stranger, knocking a few more things astray in the process. A hand lifted, and fingers ran through his hair, fixing it over half his face to obscure what scarring was present while he caught his breath.

A flat expression was held, no smile to indicate his relief, just an exhale and a slight softening around the corner of his eye. A nod given to the girl, followed by a glance to be sure the guy was gone. He shouldn't even have been in that alley, but when he'd seen the owls being used for meat, well... how was he supposed to resist opening every single cage before bolting for the exit? Idly he reached down to flick a few feathers from his clothes, then reached down to grab his things. All supplies for the first year, if a first glance drew any hints via the titles of his books.

"Thankyou." A thickly accented tone was present as his eye briefly met the girls again. Nothing more said, but now his gaze had slipped over the strange construction, and his hands were moving to pick up stray pieces that had been knocked to the ground in his haste. Some sort of project he'd disrupted, and the girl had still covered for him? Couldn't be half bad if she hadn't ratted him out despite being a disturbance.

He stared at one of the loose screws for a moment before abruptly getting to his feet. Without another word, he was gone, but not for long. Shouldering his way to the counter through the crowd, he fished out an appropriate amount of coin, and through a series of gestures and broken English, managed to successfully purchase a pair of butterbeers, since that seemed to be the popular local drink here. Then again, he'd been only two wrong gestures away from accidentally ordering something less appropriate for their age group.

Returning with the frothing drink, he placed it down in front of Astrid, this time with more care not to make a mess of whatever she was working on. His expression was still neutral as it usually was, the light frown giving him an almost permanent look of mild irritation even when he wasn't in such a mood. Indeed, if anything he was curious over the construct right now, the earlier chaos easily shrugged off as if he did such things with regularity.

She watch as he climbed out from under the table, knocking some things off the table. Her breath hitched and she scrambled again to catch the things falling, but fail to the most part. She looks at the boy sit next to her with a blank expression, and a nod. She felt really uncomfortable, but tried to not say anything about it. She went back to her project when he started to pick his stuff up.

"Y-You're welcome..." She tried to keep quiet despite him being right next to her. More pieces got placed on the table by the boy. 'Oh, I missed those, didn't I?' She thought. She saw the boy leave to go to the counter. Despite feeling awkward as all hell, she found him interesting. Mysterious in some ways. Maybe there's a lot of people like him but her bad people skills makes her not know. If she was actually brave, she would ask a lot of questions right now, but oh well. He seems cool over all. She continues with the base, building the walls of it. She kept multitasking between look at the blueprints between building the machines.

A drink got placed in front of her, a surprisingly it was a butterbeer, "Oh! You didn't have to buy me a drink but... Thank you...?" She was really thankful for that, but she wasn't sure how to she it. She picked up the cold drink, and took a sip. 'Hmm... Not bad.' She thought. She placed it back somewhere out of the way and went back to working.

She seemed like the quiet sort, and Ahkar instantly felt more comfortable. Someone that spoke little listened more, and usually those that listened were a little more ready for the unexpected. Ironically, Ahkar wasn't always the most intelligent despite his quiet. Whatever she was working on seemed interesting, but no matter how much he peered at the title of the book, leaning forward to see better and tilting his head, he couldn't make the sentence understandable.


Ball-Maker? Ball... make? Ball make random number... His head was spinning trying to make sense of it, and he settled for wrapping his hands around the glass, smooth palms resting firmly against the sides as he took a slow sip. Her thanks was met with a small shake of his head, and a long stretch of silence before he finally spoke more than his initial thanks.

"Fair pay. You... didn't er... mouse out?" His brow furrowed for a moment before he continued again, leaning back on his heels before taking a seat, this time opposite of her. It was clear within those first few words that his grasp on the English language was not quite up to the modern par, but he took his time and did his best to choose words that flowed in an understandable manner. "Didn't speak on my hidden. So... is thanks." A nod towards the machine was made, carrying on with the burning curiousity he couldn't quite suppress. "What is.. Ball make of ran..dome number?"

Astrid raises her eyebrow. He can't speak English well, can't he? She started getting nervous. What happens when he can't understand her? Or does he understand her but can't speak it. She sighs then smiles, trying to keep looking as friendly as she can, "Rat out." She corrects him. She wasn't sure if that was rude or a nice thing to do, but she went with it anyways.

Next to her, she starts to build the insides, realizing she's missing key pieces and groans with frustrations, "Now I need to go out a get stuff and... ugh." She quietly mumbles. She self taught herself all of this stuff so she guesses it's reasonable that she wouldn't think to get this stuff. She fixes her hair again and goes back to the base, fixing it, "I thought i-it would be rude of me to t-tell on you... " She was proud of herself she didn't get scared and tell everyone he's there. It took her a lot of guts to not scream right then and there. Maybe her charisma is improving? Or bravery overall.

"Oh, it's the snowball maker random number. The thing I'm making now. " She looks at and smiles, "It's supposed to make snowballs but... I d-don't have the pieces." She looks at the mess on the table and sighs. She grabs her butterbeer and holds it up to her face before taking a giant gulp from it.

"I might need to go find more items later..." She mumbles again, stirring the liquids inside the cup with her wrists.

Rat out? Was that the term? He frowned, but not in offense. Rather he seemed to commit the bit of slang to memory with a fair level of effort, nodding a little as he did, and even mouthing the two words silently a few times before dragging another small sip from the butterbeer. England had some interesting tastes in drinks... not that he was complaining.

Hearing her groan, he leaned forward a little as if in an attempt to puzzle out the source of frustration before she explained it through low mutterings. Stuff? He wondered what sort of things would be needed for such a contraption, but he didn't yet get to address it, simply attentive as she explained why she didn't 'rat him out'. Ahkar blinked for a moment, and then abruptly snorted in response.

Rude to tell on him? She was a weird one, he decided, but that wasn't always a bad thing. He hid the brief hint of a smile in another sip, and it was gone by the end, only visible to the attentive and perceptive. Instead of commenting on her thought process, he instead allowed the topic to be moved onwards, his interest captivated by her work, even if it was something far too complicated for his sort of mind.

Snowball Maker Random Number didn't really sound like English to him, but he wasn't the most knowledgeable. It completely confused him, but almost as much as the first part. "Make... what?" His brows knit together,  placing his drink aside and leaning down to stare at the object at eye level, his chin hiding behind the edge of the table. "What is snowballs?" Living in various parts of northern and eastern Africa all his life, it was obvious the child had never even heard of snow, and hadn't yet settled into England long enough to witness his first snowfall.

"Balls of snow," She caught on to his question, "Do you not know what snow is?" Her eyes light up, and her mouth rises into a small smile. She REALLY wants to see his reaction to snow for the first time. There had to be a spell somewhere, right? Or at least fake snow would do. She puts down her drink again and inhales a deep breath. She stands up and softly slams her hands on the table.

"I will not rest until you see snow!" Her acts were a bit too open for her taste, especially that she doesn't even know the boy's name. She didn't know what her next move should be. Try to find some fake/real snow? Pretend that this was a joke? Try NOT to be awkward? She sat down and awkwardly coughs, "S-Sorry, sometimes I get a bit excited when it comes to me or others discovering stuff." She chuckles, nervously sweating a bit. She did a mix of being awkward with the second option.

It wasn't much of a lie to her excuse. Maybe the getting excited part was a little bit of a lie, but when it comes to finding out about stuff she doesn't know about, the world around her doesn't exist. She will help literally anyone to find something, even if it's as stupid as fake snow. Thinking about, she could just buy some from the jinx shop somewhere down this alley.

She starts putting some of her stuff away like her wrench and some bolts, and try to focus on the stuff she can partially build. She was afraid to ever look up and see people judging her. 'Why am I like this?'

It wasn't hard to be made aware he lacked understanding of certain things, though his frowning response to her excitement was both wary and a little unhappy with being reminded how in the dark he was. Being a foreign country was difficult, and he was suddenly less eager about this snow thing. He was just about to lie, to say of course he knew what it was, but her excitement and declaration caught him by surprise.

It was... sort of infectious really. He suddenly eased a little, curious what this 'snow' might be like. Was it edible? It sounded rare, maybe some kind of creature? That gave him a spark of excitement, and he leaned forward a little, studying the machine with deeper interest. She didn't seem to last long in her excitement though, becoming quickly apologetic. His gaze swept to her again, and he only shrugged to show how little it bothered him. Silence for a long moment, as he tried to find the right words.

"I will be... look backward to it." There, just for a moment, a hint of a stiff smile was present before it vanished again, and his hand gripped the drink he was halfway through, lifting it an inch in  some manner of toasting. He was interested in this thing that brought such joy to a fellow kids face.