In the Snake Den

Alex blinked once or twice, his eyes studying the parchment paper in front of him wearily. It was only two months into the new term, and he found that he was actually desiring to go back to the summertime. Living with Peter was certainly every ounce of happiness better than with his biological father, so he supposed it made sense he wanted to go back. The Slytherin third year let loose a slight yawn, covering it with the back of his hand.

"No sense studying now," he sighed, slightly out loud, before he packed his homework into the pages of one of his textbooks and shoved it into the worn bookbag. He stood up and stretched, trying to get a kink out of his neck, when he looked over at some other student's work sitting innocently on the table, the student in question beside it.

"Wasn't that due yesterday?" he asked in realization.

The student in question looked up with a glare.

"I made a copy. One to turn in, one to study," she snapped. "Why don't you mind your own business?"

"Someone stuck themselves with a bad hex or two," snipped Alex in annoyance. "Enjoy solitude for the rest of your life with that attitude." He rolled his eyes and adjusted his bag before he started to head towards the dorm rooms.

Elaina, for that was the student's name, glared after him. Secretly, she was hurt, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of knowing that.

"Maybe I don't want you to be my friend," she whispered under her breath before returning to her work.

She sure had a lot of attitude, Alex thought in his head as he rolled his eyes at her glare. With one last look, he decided not to head back up, since she returned to her work, and he headed towards the other side of the common room, dropping bag beside the chair and seating himself there with a yawn.

After about ten minutes of working furiously, Elaina glanced back up at him with an annoyed glare.

"You know, if you're going to yawn every twenty seconds, you may as well go to bed. You haven't even written more than two sentences in the past ten minutes."

"Why don't you mind your own business," he mocked, repeating the same words she'd said towards him earlier on. "Stalking me now, aren't we darling? It's quite rude to watch me for ten minutes, as you're admitting to doing." He gave her a faux unnerved look before smirking back. If she'd wanted to be rude, he would just give it right back to her. Slytherins never played their hands, that he knew.

She raised an eyebrow at him.

"Well, it's a little hard for me to ignore you when you keep yawning. Besides, I wasn't watching you. I saw your paper ten minutes ago, and I can see it again now. You haven't made any progress."

"Considering I am on the opposite end of the common room, quite a ways from you, that is quite a feat," he responded with a roll of his eyes at her words. "My yawning has as little noise making as your breathing would. I suggest you find a better excuse than what you've given. It is still quite rude, at any rate, to harass me to mind my own business, when you look at my own paper." Really. She seemed as if she was higher than him. He probably should have left the common room, if only to escape this hypocritical girl.

Elaina narrowed her eyes at him. She considered telling him that when he yawned, he actually did make a funny little "yaaaah" sound, but decided against it, since this argument didn't seem to be going anywhere.

"Whatever," she said, snapping her textbook shut. "I'm off to bed anyway."

"Are you love birds done dissing at each other?" A female voice was heard from the entrance of the Slytherin common room. Piper Blackburn slowly walked in and looked at them, her eyebrows furrowed with an annoyed look. Her lips set in a frown and her dainty freckled nose wrinkled.

Piper had her bag slung over her shoulder with a couple of books inside. She was wearing the charcoal grey cardigan, the Slytherin tie poking out with the normal skirt, socks and black shoes. Since her socks were long, the wand was hidden there. She loathed carrying it. "Piper Blackburn, sixth year."

Elaina turned to look at her.

"Lovebirds?" she asked with a disgusted look on her face.

Alex couldn't help the snort of amusement that left him at this person's words. Love birds? His blue eyes, hidden by muggle brown contacts, watched as a much older girl came into the area from the portrait wearing the typical uniform that Slytherins wore during this season.

"Alexander James, third year," he yawned, bringing a hand up to cover the action. He didn't particularly care if someone saw him as such; he had better things to worry about.

Elaina gave them both a look, then turned to walk up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

Piper was about to answer to the much smaller female before the girl walked away and she raised an eyebrow in response, walking much deeper into the common room. "What a rude little first-year." She mumbled under her breath before scratching her fiery red locks.

Piper walked infront of the fireplace and plopped down onto the chair, leaning back. Her brown eyes eyed the boy called Alexander. "Mm...you look much older than you actually are." Piper was rather short in height and she looked smaller than she was until she opened her mouth.

Elaina poked her head back around the corner.

"I'm a third year, thank you very much," she said wryly.

"I assure you, I am my age unfortunately," Alex responded with a slightly raised eyebrow in surprise. He supposed his new guardian actually feeding him on top of the midst of maturing was actually benefiting him, for once. There was hope that he'd be taller than his best friend after all...

"Your behavior begs to differ, dear," Alex said with a slight smile, one with little actual warmth. He found the other girl almost as bad as his Gryffindor of a childhood friend.

Elaina glared at him.

"Better watch out, James," she muttered, before turning and heading up the stairs again.

Piper looked back at the girl and waved her hand before letting out the snort of an upcoming laugh...that never actually came. "Well, I'm no psychic, now I know for future references."

She shrugged it off and leaned back into the chair once again, rather tomboyish. "Oh crap, I have practice tomorrow." Piper grumbled, talking to nobody then her brown eyes glanced over at Alex. "That's not your real eye-color, is it?"

Alex couldn't help but roll his eyes at the girl's attitude. Had she even said her name? Running his mind through his memory, he couldn't recall and then shrugged to himself. He'd probably find out later. It was a surprise to meet her for the first time since they were apparently in the same year, at any rate.

Yet another surprise from this older girl, Piper. Not many caught on to the change in his eye color, considering his real color was so much lighter than the ones he hid behind.

"My real color is blue," he informed her, leaning back in the chair. "I prefer that information irrelevant to others, if you don't mind." He wondered if she'd do anything with that information.

Piper's lips curled into a smirk and leaned forward, suddenly interested in what he had to say. "Why are you wearing muggle contacts? Don't you have glasses?" She asked him, her eyebrows furrowing in curiosity before her eyes widened.

"If it was really irrelevant, you wouldn't have told me to keep it a secret." Piper returned and leaned back again. "Don't worry, I'll shut up."

She was certainly to the point, he noted. Idly, he wondered if the other girl would reappear just to annoy him, but he let the thought dismiss itself from his head as he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. "Glasses as a weakness I'd rather not have," he said slightly stiffly, remembering years of losing his glasses to other people. He rather hated the vulnerability of not being able to see.

"It's appreciated," he said in answer to her promising to be quiet about the matter. He'd told her because once she'd noted that he did, in fact, wear contacts, it was only a matter of time before she discovered the color. It's not as if she knew what he looked like completely with such bright blue eyes anyways. That matter was safe, at least.

He was about to say something, when he cut himself off inadvertently with a yawn once more. "Staying up late is never recommended for two days in a row," he sighed.

Piper raised her eyebrows again and shrugged, "To each his own I guess." She told him and stood up, leaning against the couch before grabbing her backpack and setting it on the table near the wall, pulling out a couple of books. History of Magic, she hated it.

"Then go to sleep." Piper told him casually, stating the obvious. "Unless you have to study History Of Magic." Just as she finished her sentence, she made a gagging noise. "I, on the other hand, have to write an essay. Quidditch practice went on longer than I thought." She took a seat on the desk. Piper set the parchment paper on the desk and dipped the feather in ink.

Despite the fact the other girl had said the same suggestion to him earlier, he decided if two different peers told him as such, he supposed he might as well follow through. Picking up his book bag, he pushed himself up out of the chair. "I suppose I might," he hummed as he made his way towards the boys dormitory rooms. "Have a good evening... I suppose good luck with your own workload then. Make sure to win Slytherin another match."

Piper was already scribbling down on the piece of paper in a nice cursive handwriting. Her head looked up and nodded slowly. "Thanks." She murmured, too busy in the essay.

Some time had passed and she had finished the essay. Piper put everything away and grabbed her bag, making her way towards the female's dormitory to finally get some sleep.

(What now?)

((The end? We can collaborate a new thread later if you want. I'll close this one off.))

((or maybe just write 'the next day' and continue?))

(That too, I'll do what you guys want.)