Emile sat in the commonroom, watching the fire blaze.  The room was warm, and pops and crackles were the only sounds that accompanied his breathing. 

He was wearing a blue hoodie with a pair of warm sweatpants of like color.  Despite the heat of the fire, he was cold as he relaxed in the dimly lit room.  He hadn't been up to much, so he wasn't particularly bored the way he usually was when he did things like this.

The windows were closed in an effort to keep all of the heat emitted by the fire inside, and it worked, too.  Emile hadn't seen Lexi in a while, only during class and occasionally in the room he was in then.  Summer was the last time he had met with the girl, and the results were sickening.  He had sort of crushed her heart, then proceeded to stomp on it.

The past was the past, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Lexi was still infuriated with him, so he usually stayed away from his fellow Gryffindor, worrying that she might bring something up that would spark a fight.  And Emile would probably have an issue with his righty hook on her jaw; he didn't really want to hit her.

He wasn't tired at all, and sitting there only made him more energetic.  Well, that, and eating a boatload of candy, which still rested on the table beside him.  He heard footsteps coming from the door, and a female voice saying the password for that month, and he directed his attention to the student who was entering the room, unsure of who it was. 

Lexi had spent most of her free time in the library, where she looked at books to help her with various homework assignments. As of five minutes ago, she decided she couldn't stand the quietness of the library, and all that information was strangling her. Not literally of course, but it just wasn't her kind of place, it was Alice's kind of place.

She proceeded to shove book after book into her black satchel, slinging it across her chest and scooping up two other equally large books that she'd need. Lexi made her way through the library, smiling once she got out and heading up the stairs to the common room where, hopefully, she'd get the rest of her studying done.

She took the stairs two at a time, bouncing to a stop in front of the portrait, "Wattlebird." Lexi voiced, remembering how one of the older years was surprised that they'd reused an old password. She liked it though, it was quirky and weird, and it made her wonder if there was such a thing as a Wattlebird.

But her energetic nothing-can-stop-me attitude fell a bit when she saw who was already in the common room. Well, it's not like she hadn't seen him in here before, but there were always others around. But now she was alone with him, and everything she'd ever wanted to say was sticking in the back of her throat.

"Emile," she said roughly, grinding the word out through her teeth. Lexi turned from him and headed towards one of the tables to set her books down. But she knew it was a hopeless cause, she'd never get any work done while he was sitting there. She'd be resisting the urge to punch him the entire time.

Gosh, Lexi was spending way too much time with Lucy if she was resorting to physical violence right off the bat. But Lexi shook off the thought, turning to her work and occasionally glancing at the other first year to see if he was still there.

Emile's jaw almost dropped when Alexandra McGee came into the room with a grimace on her face, like a mask of her smiling face she wore before she spotted him.  She promptly walked to one of the tables and began working, looking at him over and over again, like an assassin trying to find out how to hide his body. 

But it appeared as if she was trying to ignore him, but couldn't resist stealing a couple glances to make sure he wouldn't tackle her or something of the sort.  He decided that some taunting was in order; he wanted to see how mad he could get her.  "Hey, Lexi!  You're looking at me like you love me, is this true?  Because it would appear so,"  He said, his tone innocent.

"How about you come and kiss me?" He said, this time his voice antagonistic.  "Or do you have to disguise yourself so you can pull down my pants?"  He integrated the sentence so it inferred a few things two first years would never do, but that's why it's called taunting.  "Or would you like Annette to do it for you?" He pretended to suppress a laugh, but in fact, if he wasn't trying to annoy her, he would've just laughed out loud. 

It felt good to make fun of her when she wouldn't dare do a thing to him.  He'd beat her in a fight, easy. 

Lexi sneered at Emile, "I thought you'd gotten the message that I was over you when I stormed off after kicking you in the shin." She said, her tone not as innocent as Emile's. Truth was, she'd never really let go of him. Somewhere she still had a crush on him, but she couldn't help but shove that little thought deep down and lock it away forever.

"Ugh, do you have to be so vulgar! God, you are such a jerk!" She said, turning to him with fire in her eyes. Her fists were curled up, little half moon shapes indenting her palm where her nails were digging in. "Why can't you just stop obsessing over yourself and go talk to somebody who actually cares!" Her voice was like a poison, dripping from her lips. She would really like to just stand up and do something about the situation.

"Don't think I won't hit you. And don't think I punch like a girl either. They put me in Gryffindor for a reason." She threatened, turning away from him and going back to her work.

"Oh, please...," He called out. "Of course you won't fight me, you're just a little girl." She was going to hit him, for sure.  He laughed at the thought.  "You know, you get too annoyed.  Just chill out," He  continued, doing a surrender gesture.  Yeah, no.  He snickered. "Oh, is it clear?  Or do you have to think it over?  After all, I'm pretty positive you're lying." He sneered.  This would be fun.

And that was Lexi's last straw. She'd put up with him since the beginning of the school, and now she just couldn't handle him any more. She pushed her chair back, standing up and crossing the room in a few steps. "How's this for not fighting you?"

She delivered a swift punch to Emile's face, landing right near his left eye, practically on his nose. She felt her fist collide with his skin and bounce back, and it felt good. It made her fist sore, but she didn't show that it had hurt.

"That's for everything." She said, rubbing her sore knuckles.

After the sharp pain of Lexi quickly punching him in the face, Emile's nose began to bleed, warm blood trickling down his face.  He brought his hand up, feeling the point of contact and rubbing it gently. "Rude." He said, fighting with his words rather than his fists, not wanting to hit her. "Punching people won't fix your issues, don't you know that?  You should be in Ravenclaw, smartie," He jeered in her face.  "You are quite brave, though.  Punching people like me who had no indication that your fist was about to hit me is a noble and bold act."

"You call that rude," she said as she crossed her arms. "You should really hear yourself talk every once in a while."

"Is it just your goal to make me as irritated and ticked off as possible? Because if so, you're doing a fantastic job of it." Lexi finished sarcastically, her eye on the small trickle of blood coming from Emile's nose. It made her sort of proud, but also not because that had to hurt.

She narrowed her eyes at him, a lot of people were scared of her. Purely for the reason that she had piercing yellow eyes and a problem every full moon. But Emile just tried to irritate her every time they were within ten feet of each other.

"Why, thank you, madam.  I specialize in antagonizing," He said, honestly, but his words weren't honest.  Lexi might as well have been staring into his soul, and it was creepy at best.  "You must be forgetting that I'm a Gryffindor, too, because intimidation isn't gonna help.  This brings a question to my mind, though.  Intimidation?  Or infatuation?" He snickered slyly, knowing he'd probably get punched again.  "Man, you are quite easy to irritate.  I don't need to be a specialist to piss you off."

"I'd ask the same to you, Emile. Is it detest that fuels you? Or desire?" Lexi smirked, if he was going to treat this like a game, she was going to show him how it was played.

She bit her lip, obviously in conflict with herself. Lexi didn't know what to do with herself, was she supposed to continue on like this? Just jabbing back at whatever he threw at her, or should this get rougher than it already was and should she throw another punch.

"Well, duh.  I wouldn't be asking you and antagonizing you like this if I desired you.  But you didn't answer me, did you?" Emile had mixed feeling about Lexi.  He used to like her, but with previous events he grew to hate her.  So, he was more or less on the hate side, but stuck inbetween nonetheless.  Lexi smirked, which threw him off a bit.  She just threw back his own question, refusing to answer his. "Lexi, are you avoiding something?  Like, answering my question.  I'm not quite sure..."

It was there. That creeping, burning feeling on the back of her neck when Lexi knew that she was going to start falling apart. It was a serious issue that she had. She could lie, but not for a very long time. And sooner or later, it was going to get ugly.

"Yeah, I'm avoiding you." She said, turning on her heels to go sit back down and finish up her work. Maybe Emile would take a hint and just go, or maybe he would knock it off.

But then again, probably not. It seemed like he took a lot of joy in annoying the hell out of her.

"Huh.  Big surprise.  Another excuse, I see?" He retorted.  Enile wasn't sure if she was asking for more by turning away or if she was trying to ignore him. "Trying to ignore me?  I noticed how easy that was before..." He trailed off, letting Lexi fill in the rest. Use your imagination, as his father said.  He silently laughed, awaiting a reply fron the irritated Lexi.

"You know, you could make it a little easier if you would just shut up. Would that be so hard for you?" She asked, sitting down in front of her work but not actually turning to it. She was still looking at Emile.

"Before what?" Lexi asked, in a mean tone of course. One that didn't betray her obvious curiosity. What had she done before? Did he know something she didn't?

"Before you got a crush on me," He laughed, thinkingvit was funny that Lexi had thought that he had some kind of secret intel, like a British spy from MI6.  "Y'know, saying shut up is quite rude.  But you must know that shutting up is one of my faults.  I can't do it," He said, facesious buried deep in his tone, undermining every word.  "But you wouldn't understand.  You're easy to shut up, if you're picking up what I'm putting down," He said.  He had no clue as to what he was putting down, but he may as well pretend he did.