John “Hams” Sullivan Hamilton, born as a teenager in the mystical realm of Non Hampshiria, graduated late from Hogwarts before moving to a small hotel in Boston where the management had recently banned all dancing and rock music. Hamilton, a huge fan of recreational proms for adults, found these living conditions to be stifling. However, while storing his cattle saddle in the basement, Hams made the acquaintance of Jonathan Castle, a renegade dance instructor who had made a home for himself behind the hot water heater. The two quickly bonded over the similarities in their first name and their fondness for warm water, and soon formed an underground dance troop beneath the hotel, which they dubbed the “Echoes of Sick.”

Tough times emerged for E.O.S. when the dance duo began to feel pressure to tour from other hotel basements in the area. Castle, content to keep the act stationary, couldn’t keep up with Hamilton’s big dreams of success and limelight. There were also growing conflicts over the merits of a new dance move, “The Belgian Bellyboy.” It was decided that Hams should break out on his own, taking his passion for the new dance maneuver beyond the hotel basement.

While shopping his routine around to various artistic academies and searching for a new place to sleep and store his saddle, Hams discovered a large, horse-shaped lump on the back of his knee. While waiting to see a doctor about the lump at a free clinic in Back Bay, he found a flier on a corkboard requesting designers for an interactive design company. Understanding computers conceptually from his days at Hogwarts, Hamilton applied for a position at The Barbarian Group. While he was never formally accepted, his audition tape (featuring a newly revamped rendition of The Belgian Bellyboy) garnered him enough popularity to earn him a desk in the studio and a new pair of hightop sneakers designed by James T. Russell of Bremerton, Washington.