Fatigue. That was all Church felt after last night. Patrolling the entire castle in the middle of the night was more tiring that he had imagined. Good God how did people manage to do this? He hadn't even managed to get to bed after his shift last night being way to restless. And he had another one tonight with the Fifth years... and another Wednesday night with the seventh years. This was going to be a hell of a week. But on the plus side he had managed to get all his homework done...

Church slumped his way to the Ravenclaw table, finding a seat in an empty section. Thank God for that, he probably wouldn't deal well with people right now. Although he might need some company to pour cold water on him in a few minutes. In an almost trance like state Church piled some food on his plate, not paying much attention to what type. Lazily he ate, barely managing to keep his eyes open. Defense was going to be painful...

After a few minutes Church fell forward, head slamming into the table next to his plate. Guess the romance between forehead and hard wood wasn't over yet. He let out a small groan but didn't bother to pick himself back up. "Someone kill me..." Church muttered before emitting a loud yawn.

Alex, sliding into a seat with minimal numbers of people in the surrounding area, got on with the business of eating toast- lovely, nourishing, toast- for her breakfast and reading her book. She completely missed the arrival of the Head boy, but when his head slammed onto the table, she looked up. Asleep, it would seem, and no wonder, since he had to do all the late night patrols.

"Someone kill me..." he moaned quietly. Very late night patrols then. He did actually look quite sleep deprived, she could imagine what it must be like to be ordered to stay up until the small hours of the morning. Well, actually, she thought it would be fine so long as you had a book to read, but if you had to just patrol the halls of Hogwarts on the offchance that you would find a student unfortunate enough to actually be caught out of bed, she could see that it would be a problem.

Returning to the matter in front of her, who had been lucky enough to avoid his food, she grinned, "Of course," snapping her book shut and sliding it into her bag, "Is there any preferred method of death?"

The noise from a book snapping shut caused the Ravenclaw to jolt up slightly before returning to his current face-on-table position. For all intents and purposes it probably just looked like he had twitched albeit rather violently. Church heard a voice and words connected to it, but it took him a moment to comprehend what was said. He was still trying to figure out how long he had been asleep at the table. After all he didn't really recall anyone being near him when he sat down.

With another groan he rotated his head until his chin rested on the table and lifted his sleepy eyes to whomever the nearby girl was. It was probably someone he was friends with, bu he couldn't quite place the voice. Church blinked, trying to take in the sights. But it seemed he had forgotten his glasses, which meant his vision was blurry. Finally his eyes focused enough to see across from him and get a good look at who had responded.

Oh. It was Alex. "Whichever method is most efficient," Church answered. "I'm not too particular so long as you don't make me suffer." With a slight smile Church pushed himself up off the table and rested his head upon the palm of his hands. "How long was I out?" he inquired, though he was unsure if she would know the answer. "I don't remember you being here when I sat down..."

Watching Church, Alex, deciding that caffeine was in order, poured a cup of coffee while he tried to stay awake for long enough to string five words together. Sentence complete, she slid the cup across the table. "Drink this," she ordered, then froze, "What is that?" she said, looking at his bowl aghast. Was Church actually trying to kill himself? Pulling her arm back, her expression returned to normal, and she picked up a piece of toast before continuing.

"If you want a painless death, why are you putting porridge, bacon, egg, what I suspect is orange juice, and jam into one bowl?" she asked, looking at the mixture in the other Ravenclaw's bowl with distaste. The ingredients individually, yes, but not all four together. That was just… wrong. Horribly, awfully wrong. "And you've been asleep for a total of seven minutes and twenty four seconds since my arrival," she added, deciding that moving the conversation away from the contents of the bowl of, well, it was technically food, was the best move possible.

Because throwing up was not a good way to start the day. "So, how's being head boy going? Other than having to roam the corridors of Hogwarts in the early hours of the morning."

Doing what he was told Church drank from the cup offered to him without even checking to see what it was, nor did he bother to check if it would burn his tongue. Which it did, along with probably a good portion of his mouth as he gulped down a mouthful of the hot black coffee. He paused for a moment and cringed. Church was a real baby when it came to coffee. Whenever he had it he had to pour a bunch of sugar and cream into it to make it tolerable. Drinking it black was just... horrible. Simply one of the worst things he had ever done. Although admittedly the shock woke him up some.

"Huh?" Church inquired, frowning slightly as he dropped his eyes to his bowl. Oh well, that was an interesting mix. "Oh this... hm..." He shrugged and scooped up a small amount with a spoon. Now that he was kind of awake and his taste buds were beginning to work he wondered how bad it would taste. Throwing caution to the wind he put the spoon in his mouth. There was another pause as he made a variety of facial expressions, slowly removing the spoon from his mouth. It wasn't as bad as the coffee... "This is clearly the breakfast of champions." Church said with as straight a face as possible before shaking his head and pushing the bowl from him. "I don't recommend it..."

Couching slightly at the disgusting mix of flavors in his mouth, Church considered the time and pulled a clean plate in front of him which he soon piled, much more neatly, bacon and eggs. "Seven minutes... not bad." Although ten would have been nice. He shrugged again, taking a bite out of bacon and swallowing before speaking. "It goes," Church  confessed lightly. "Last night was probably the first real thing I've done with the title. Other than throwing illicit parties in bathrooms," he gave her a small smirk. "If things stay this calm all year the job will prove quite boring, if tiresome."

Church stifled a yawn behind a hand and continued eating. Yes, he felt much more awake now. "How are things in the land of sixth year?" He asked, sipping from his cup again. "Feel better now that your OWLs are done with?"

Alex watched in slightly horrified fascination as Church actually ate some of the vile concoction. That was impressive, the interesting selection of facial expressions that followed convincing her that she should stick with toast. She munched on a piece as she waited for Church to finish, smiling at his admission that being head boy was actually quite dull. Well, if her plans went well, there would at least be something for him to do, but she wasn't planning on being caught, so maybe not quite as conductive to introducing some excitement into the role of head boy as possible.

"How are things in the land of sixth year? Feel better now that your OWLs are done with?"

"The weather's awful, but the crops are doing well. The diversification of produce has definitely improved the economy, and the lift of the trade ban really helped things out, but there's a threat of war with the land of homework. Other than that, the monarchy seem to be managing things quite well," Alex replied, her answer deliberately cryptic. Actually, it was more nonsensical, but she could think of several plausible explanations for the statement, so cryptic would remain its descriptor.

"I'm looking forward to this year," she admitted, "The introduction of foreign students is good, it's made lessons much more interesting. And it is nice not to have exams looming over me the whole time. Although I suppose next year that threat will return. Anyway- you've already lived through sixth year, I want to hear about Seventh year. What does my future hold, other than toast and tedium?

Church smirked at her description of the land of sixth year. It was, truth be told, quite creative. Of course, this was a Ravenclaw girl after all. No real surprise at that she could come up with something like that on the spot. Although he suspected it had nothing to do with anything until the last, equally clever part. "Tread lightly, the armies from the homework kingdom are strong. And if a cold snap comes and ruins the harvest you'll be in real danger."

He shrugged and continued eating as she spoke, nodding slightly at her comment on the foreign students and trying to to choke from laughter when she asked him about seventh year. "Alex, I'm not a soothsayer," Church replied before taking another swig of coffee. For a moment he considered, trying to think of how this year would differ from the last. "If I had to guess I would say it held classes, exams, love, loss. The normal stuff of life. Very boring." Again he shrugged.

"I wouldn't worry about it until you get here," Church confessed. "Worry about the here and now, the future will become your present eventually." He let out another stifled yawn into his hand. Sleep, it seemed, was trying to catch up with him again. Today was going to be long... Slowly his mind began to drift to random places. No, bad Church. Stay focused. Keep the conversation going.

"So, what do you think about the whole tournament thing? Did you put your name in the Goblet?"

Alex frowned, "But surely we have to worry about the future? If we lived solely for the present, we wouldn't build, wouldn't create." The we she was using was now the general we of mankind. "It's like freedom of choice. Ultimately, we have the freedom to chose the consequences we'll face. Living in the present is confining. It limits your potential."  As, she reflected, does drifting off when the person you are talking to is making an excellent point about life choices.

It seemed Church had completely missed what she had said, but it was a little early in the morning for an in depth discussion about the finer points of human existence, so she continued the new thread of conversation.

"Is there anyone who can who hasn't?" she asked. "I'm going to use the Avis charm to spectacular effect." She smiled in recollection, but continued, "And you? Since you are now supposed to be a pillar of Hogwarts and an example to the student body, I assume you have. Although maybe you should be a bad example, for the sake of diversity. It'd be quite the bragging point if we could claim that the Hogwarts Head Boy was a delinquent, although I'm not sure how the students from Beauxbatons would respond. Abject horror, possibly, although they already think that we're savages, so maybe not quite as much of an impact as possible." She sighed regretfully, but her tone brightened, "Still, no reason not to be a bad example. You might even get removed from your post, thus sparing you from more late nights."

Not even realizing he missed her remarks on life choices Church simply shrugged at her question. "I'm sure someone hasn't put their name in. At least from our school. I imagine every single one of the foreigners was required to put their name in in order to come here." At least that's how Church would have done it. Why bother dragging a portion of your student body if only a few of them are going to compete anyways? Seemed like a waste of resources.

"But, yea, I put my name it," Church admitted. "It wasn't so much for that reason though. It's a challenge, therefore I signed up merely to meet it. Plus, it is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I don't want to look back in ten years and wish I hadn't even tried to compete."

Church frowned slightly. "Eh, I won't go out of my way to be a bad head boy," he said with another shrug. "That being said, I doubt I'll be transforming into a paragon of virtue anytime soon." Technically speaking he was already a bad example of the student body given his general reputation of laziness, apathy, and the aforementioned illicit parties.

"And Beauxbatons can think what they want. For the most part they seem to be all bark, little to no bite." With a smirk Church downed the last of his drink. "As for the late nights, well... They aren't so bad, depending on the company."

Alex felt herself smile. So he was worrying about the future after all- why else would he think about the ten year impacts of his actions? She gulped down tea to hide it, pausing as he shared his slightly surprising view of Beauxbatons. She disagreed- why else would Beauxbatons have a reputation for excellence? The Beauxbatons students might not have the same... power, for want of a better word, as the other students, but she suspected that they would weild theirs with more craft and subtlety than the others. No, dismissing Beauxbatons as weak because they were more discreet than others was not a mistake she intended to make.

But it would be far more fun to discuss his lack of misbehaviour. "I wouldn't say you were a bad example," she said, "After all, the party was illicit. If it had been widely publicised, involved large quantities of alcohol being consumed and ended with that irritating gryffindor boy being thrown out of the window, that would have been setting a bad example. Apart from the last bit." A missed opportunity, she thought wistfully. It would have been nice to throw him out of the window- or at least dangle him by his ankles for a bit, which would be less fatal. "You might not be a shining example, but you aren't a delinquent either."

"And I'd imagine it's not the nights so much as the mornings," she added, her gaze flicking down to the bowl in front of him. The neglected porridge was congealing, and it looked even more unpleasant than it had earlier.

Church shrugged at Alex's assessment of his current performance. True, he had kept the party withing fairly good restrictions, considering. "I like to keep in in the middle," he confessed. That was, after all, his normal stance for just about everything. Leaning too far one way often led to complications or illogical courses of actions. And Church never wanted to catch himself in one of those.

On her statement about mornings Church's eyes dropped down to see where she had glanced. Ah, yes... that... thing. Grimacing at the slop he had unintentionally created, he plucked up a napkin and used it to cover the bowl. "I suppose that's true," he agreed, looking back up at her. "But then, I usually hate mornings as it is." Although, he had never understood why that was so. He just never liked them. Well, of course, "Minus a few special occasions," he muttered, eyes shifting downwards for a moment as the memories seeped into his mind.

Blinking, Church suddenly snapped out of his technical reverie and glance quickly back up at Alex. What had they been talking about again? Patrols. Patrols and lack of sleep. Mornings after long nights. Right. That was it. "Of course," Church continued quickly, doing his best to pretend nothing had happened. "If you're here to pour coffee down my throat every morning after patrols I'm sure they won't be so bad."

"Yes, sitting on the fence," Alex agreed. "Nothing quite like it for avoiding consequences." Or avoiding actually doing anything, not that she objected to it. The middle ground was safe, much more reliable than other choices. Less likely to end in catastrophe. More likely to end in boredom. Although having said that, in this instance she would have to agree. She didn't want to behave the whole time, but neither did she want to spend her life in detention. It was just that she preferred to pay slightly less attention to the rules than Church.

Watching him cover the breakfast of champions- champions of food poisoning and insanity- Alex wanted to laugh. There was something slightly absurd about it, pointless, but at the same time very... polite. So English, she thought. Absurd, pointless, polite: three words to sum up a nation. Living in the past only worked as a phrase, and anyway, there were four words, which was a pity. Dreams of glory was alright, just a little pathetic, and too blunt to be English, not to mention being a phrase and therefore breaking her rules. No, Absurd, pointless and polite would remain her words of choice.

"Hmm? Oh, that," Alex muttered, pulled out of her descriptive daydreams. "I suppose that pouring a cup of coffee isn't too taxing, but I can't promise anything. Unless you want me to promise to be unreliable, which in itself would be a paradox, but more achievable than the other options, although it would slightly defeat the purpose."

Church chose to ignore the girls sarcasm, not being awake enough to debate thoroughly nor caring enough to do so. While he agreed it was sometimes good to choose a side, others times, most times, it was better not to do so. He didn't want to be a bad head boy or, really, go out of his way to undermine rules. The prestige of the title was enough to keep him from wanting to do that, for all he knew no head boy had been removed from the position. Church certainly wasn't going to be the first. But even still he wouldn't wield his position like a stick, smiting any and everyone for the smallest infraction committed. There seemed to be little to gain from that.

With a yawn he considered her incredibly roundabout proposition. Leave it to a Ravenclaw to comment on how paradoxical a statement is regardless of whether or not it matters. Church sighed. "Just don't promise anything then," came a sleepy response. "If you remember, fantastic. If you don't, whatever, I probably won't know the difference." At least not at the time. It would be likely that Church would recall later on in the day and just not care. It would be a favor if she did it, after all. Not something she had to do, or should be obligated to; thus not something he should get upset about if she forgot.

"Of course, all of this is moot if I remember or am able to drink it myself."

Alex regarded Church with calm eyes, then shrugged. "Glad to hear you're so concerned about your coffee fix. As for being able to drink it, it would have to be quite serious before you reached that state. And if you did, I would be tipping water over your head, not making you coffee." Alex smiled, leaning back. "Water from the lake. With pond weed in it," she added. Not especially sanitary, but still. If she was going to put in the tremendous amount of effort required to pour coffee, someone had to drink it, and Alex preferred tea.

Additionally, would it be possible to grow edible pondweed? Similar to edible seaweed, but grown in freshwater conditions. She'd visit the library after Defence.

Looking at her plate, she noticed a displeasing absence of toast, so she pulled a piece from the toast rack, starting to butter it before glancing up again, "Are you going to have breakfast? Apparently, it's good for you."

Considering the cleanliness of the lake water, or lack there of, caused Church's face to scrunch up in disgust for a split second. It was probably cleaner than he imagined it to be. Not that that was saying much, as Church imagined it to be pretty filthy. Not only for the creatures and other life inside of it, but he had a strange suspicion that the sewage would drain into it. It didn't really have anywhere else to go, that he could think of, and the lake seemed like as likely a spot as any.

Church let out a small laugh at Alex's words on breakfast. True enough, it was supposedly healthy to eat breakfast. He glanced down at the food he had put onto his plate, realizing he had barely eaten any of it. Odd, but truth be told he wasn't all that hungry. He almost never was in the morning. It was somewhat odd. From about sunrise to eleven, he was never hungry,  and if he did eat it usually made him sick. But after eleven, his body was in an almost perpetual state of demanding food. It was maddening.

Still, this time Church figured he would need the extra energy and forced himself to continue consuming the meat on his plate. It was delicious.

"So," he said in between a mouthful. "What classes did you decide to stick with? Which ones did you drop?"