It had been one of those days. One of those awfully long, dreadfully boring days that never seemed to end. But, as all things eventually do, the monotony of the school day did draw to a close, and with it came dinner. Ah. Delicious dinner, the epitome of good food. Persephone Grosvenor had never been a good cook. That was why she hired one. The problem with that was that the cook she had hired obviously had never been a good cook either. In fact, Ava was positive that the only thing the cook was good at was necking a bottle of some horrible looking liquid that oddly resembled a garden gnome's pee, from a brown paper bag in the corner of the kitchen.

Alas, good food never went amiss at Hogwarts, and for that Ava was most thankful. But dinner was over. She had stuffed herself with meats and treats so much that she felt as though she was going to burst as she walked from the dining hall to the common room. And now it was time to tackle that two foot essay on mandrake draught as an antidote for petrification. How boring. Why couldn't they study something like amortentia? Then Ava would be able to slip some in a certain someone's drink. Ava started from her daydream in the large armchair next to the fire. She looked around, wide eyed - she had a tendency to talk to herself without realising it. And thus far, no one knew about her crush. She had kept it secret for six years, and wasn't about to let the cat out of the bag.

She rubbed her right eye with the palm of her hand and yawned as she thought over in her head what she could potentially include in the essay. All was silent in the common room, so it would be a good chance to get a fair chunk of it done.

The great hall was packed with students who had empty bellies, which caused them to be rather talkative. But after they were full sometimes it was hard to get up on your feet to leave. Like every other day Gavin couldn't help but stuff his face with anything that he could find and as a result he felt sick to his stomach every day. The process kept continuing everyday though because Gavin forgot the day before of how stuffed he was and how it made him hurt, like every other teenager.

He walked back alone to the common room this time, which was odd since Gavin was always surrounded by a group of his friends but he told them to wait up for him at the common room. He just wanted to think about a couple of things, like what the school was preparing for. He hated that stupid Hogwarts battle celebration every year.

He walked into the common room, one of the late ones, and found a girl named Ava. And was she day dreaming? Gavin did not know but since everyone else was busy talking and he had no idea where Nicola ran off too, he decided to talk to Ava and catch up on things.

"Watcha doing?" Gavin asked trying to scare here, hopefully it worked.

If she hadn't already been brought down to reality, she hit the earth with a huge thwump when she heard a familiar voice.

"Watcha doing?"

One word. Gavin.

One warning light. Snark.

Ava rolled her eyes and sighed. This was going to be fun. She would never be able to get rid of him now. Where was Nicola when she needed her? Those two were like limpets, always latched onto each other - so where was she? Why couldn't she come and get Gavin and take him somewhere else while she got some work done?

Ava plastered a smile on her face. "Well well. Gavin Snark. What a pleasure this is. For your information, I'm doing my potions essay. You might want to get a good start on it too - it's going to be pretty heavy going by the looks of things." She turned back towards the large leather-bound book open on her lap, in the hope that Gav would take the hint and leave her in peace. Much as though she liked Gav in a quirky sort of way, he knew how to push her buttons and get right on her last nerve!

"Essays, don't you know by now I hate doing essays Ava?" Gavin laughed, everything that had to deal with him writing something he didn't find interesting was something that he hated, which was common for pretty much everyone. He was a bright boy, very wise for his age but he didn't like doing things that considered work and this caused him to suffer. It wasted so much mind power.

Before anything else could be said, Gavin snatched the parchment Ava was writing on and started to read it. "Do you really expect a passing grade with this rubbish?" The truth was that Gavin just skimmed what she was writing, and the only thing he noticed was her handwriting which was ten times neater than his. Gavin did like getting on Ava's nerves just because he could.

Taking a closer look, Gavin thought the essay wasn't that bad. "You can look at mine if you want, I finished mine already." Rummaging through his bad, Gavin dropped on the table next to him three books before he got to his potions essay that was neatly written followed by extra parchment that he had messed up on.

"Essays, don't you know by now I hate doing essays Ava?"

Ava tried to muster a smile as Gavin laughed. This essay was really getting to her - it just wasn't interesting. And much as though Professor Gunnar tried to make the class as interesting as possible, the topic just wasn't something that could be flowered up. So Gavin hated doing essays, did he? Well, Ava could well imagine it. But that probably wouldn't have stopped him from already completing it and rubbing Ava's nose in it.

And sure enough, he brandished a piece of parchment with neat writing on it, followed by a bit that had crossings out and smudges of ink on it.

"You can look at mine if you want, I finished mine already."

Ava looked away from the essay and back to her own work. "No thank you." She stated matter-of-factly, crossing out a sentence she had just written. "I am perfectly capable of writing it on my own. I don't need to copy someone else's work to get good grades." This was true - Ava's consistently good grades were based on her own hard work alone. But she did feel a resentment towards Gavin - he didn't even have to try hard to get good marks, and she felt it slightly undermined her own hard work, that so little effort was put in on his behalf for such good pieces of writing.

"A little hard work never hurt anyone." She muttered as she scribbled out yet another sentence, and re-wrote it, in slightly more scrawled writing.

"A little hard work never hurt anyone."

A bit taken aback for the lack of interest in his essay, Gavin decided to put his essay back away and stare at Ava's to make her feel uncomfortable. She seemed like an easy target to annoy. And Gavin loved to annoy people who hated it so. Smirking, Gavin started to yawn. He wondered what else he had to do for classes but he couldn't think of any at the moment. Everything seemed to be so boring to him therefore he never really participated in classes.

"Why, you think I don't work hard on my essays?" he said trying to act shock. Usually Gavin would just rant on something around the subject of his essay and he would get a descent grade. He was on good terms with all the teachers... well just about. He was well behaved in classes unless he had a couple of friends with him. Then he would be a jerk.

Thinking about what else he could say... Gavin pondered. What else was there to talk to a girl? He had a girlfriend, so there was no chance in flirting about something stupid. "You're boring." he let out. 

Ava watched  out of the corner of her eye as he let out a yawn. He was doing this deliberately - she knew him too well to know when he was doing something just to annoy someone. And this was one of those times!

"Why, you think I don't work hard on my essays?"

Ava rolled her eyes. "Don't act as though you're shocked. What else do you expect me to think?" She shook her head and looked back down at her essay. It was obvious she wasn't going to get anything done tonight, so what was the point in even trying. Gavin was like a small child who constantly craved attention. And apparently, Ava was going to be the one to give it to him. The 'chosen one'.

"You're boring." He finally whined.

Ava slammed her book closed and turned to him with a smile. "So what would you like to do, Gav?" She asked in almost a flirtatious tone. "Its up to you - I'm at your disposal." She knew he wouldn't be able to deny this request - she also knew that whatever they ended up doing, they would probably be breaking the rules.

So what would you like to do, Gav?" She asked in almost a flirtatious tone. "Its up to you - I'm at your disposal."

Was she really asking that question? Gavin thought about what he could do with her and a million thoughts flooded in and out of his mind in a split second, all actions that he would never dare take. He had Nicola, and even though the offer was on the table -- which in fact wasn't but Gavin liked to think that, he was going to be a good boy.

"Wow, I never thought the day Miss. Grosvenor would be at my disposal; I'm liking that idea very much." What teenage boy wouldn’t? "How about you finish your essay. I mean, I finished it in about 20 minutes." winked Gavin. This was false, for Gavin hated writing with a passion, well writing that he didn't enjoy, and it just about took him all night for his brain to fully function and focus on what he had to do. That was the problem at doing homework at night; you seem to get distracted by shadows and the opening and closing of the eyelids.

"What would you like to do? I never had a girl offer themselves to willingly to me." smiled Gavin. He loved getting Ava mad.