Erin was in the common room, trying to study.  The problem with being in the common room and trying to study was that there was a large amount of bright and shiny silver objects in random places to show either house pride or just for decoration.  As it was, even though she had her DADA textbook open, she had probably only actually read one half of what she needed too, even though there was much more material for her to cover before the midterm exams.

Though Erin knew she had problems with studying, she knew that as long as she kept out of other people’s sight, she was usually okay.  No one really cared what you did in Slytherin, so as long as you did not cause problems for the house over all.  Though there were a few people who got tired with Erin’s antics, she had hoped that people had either learned to ignore them or move to the library after living with them for three years.
As Erin started skipping, she noticed a familiar dark-haired boy with dark brown eyes.  Ordinarily, Erin liked looking at boys who would be considered tall, dark, and handsome.  Aiden was a definite exception though.  He had not yet build sufficient muscle mass for Erin to be physically attracted to him, and his attitude did not cause Erin to be friendly with him at all. Consequently, they both got along about as well as oil and water.

Hoping that she could just ignore the fifth-year for the time being Erin skipped on past him, and proceeded to mess with one of the silver snake figurines that someone had left around.  Idly wishing she could animate it so it could bite the fifth year, Erin just decided to focus on the silver object for a few moments before skipping back to her textbook and studying a little bit more.

Thank goodness this day was close to its end.  Aiden despised Mondays, and this Monday had been particularly odd and stressful.  It had started out with a talk with Erin Harper about his rumored ‘snog’ with the crazy Gryffindor with an apparent need to kiss anyone in sight.  Then there was his usual line-up of Monday classes, however, they seemed to drag on much longer that day.  Aiden was actually starting to think someone had put a spell on the clock to make it go slower.  After classes, he was all set to just relax, but instead had a not-so-pleasant run-in, which involved ink being spilled on his robes, with Allie Hargrove.  Aiden had never been fond of the Hargrove girl prior to their run-in, and by Merlin’s buttocks he definitely wasn’t any the more fond of her now.

But that was all gone and done.  Aiden had settled on skipping dinner (he planned to sneak to the kitchens later that night) and just going straight to his dorm room where he changed out of his soiled robes and threw on some clean clothes.  Grabbing the book from his night table, Aiden entered the Slytherin common room and took a seat in one of the big, black armchairs.  He sighed, crossing his legs and settling comfortably into the chair, becoming the epitomy of calm, cool, and relaxed.

And he would have stayed the way for a long while if it hadn’t been for the restless being that was Erin Dark.  The two had never gotten along and the reason was quite simple: Aiden was annoyed by childishness and Erin was exactly that.  Aiden had been tempted many times to glue her down to a chair and secure her with rope.  That seemed to him to be the only way she would be able to sit still and not be annoying.  But, sadly, that wasn’t looked on very well.  So while Erin got up from her chair and started skipping around, Aiden could only roll his eyes and glare at her. 

“Could you perhaps.... move somewhere else?”

“Could you perhaps.... move somewhere else?” the young man practically spat.  Rolling her eyes, Erin wondered what caused him to be such a party-pooper.  Had Erin been more inclined to insults, she would have asked what crawled up his butt and died.  Unfortunately, she had a very limited vocabulary, so she had to make do with,

“Quit being such a flobberworm,” Erin said, sticking her tongue out at the young man.  Taking a look at him, she noticed that Aiden was lounging in the chair.  “Besides, you look like you are comfortable,”.  Not really planning on waiting for his reply one way or another, she skipped over to her book, before reading it again.  This time, Erin lasted all of ten seconds before she was off distracted by an extremely glossy snake that was shaped to show house pride.  As she was skipping towards the aforementioned shiny reptile Erin’s mind was actually thinking about the DADA test. Wondering what professor Storm had in store for them, Erin could not help but wonder if she had started studying soon enough.

Erin had been studying for sometime, and wondered if she could go find a boggart or something to practice Riddikulus on.  Since she had some idea what her test was about, she figured she might as well studied what he had gone over in class.  Wondering if someone had been thoughtful enough to leave a boggart hanging around, she decided to skip towards the door, before being distracted by something else.  Once more sitting by her textbook, she tried to start reading again.

“Quit being such a flobberworm,”

Aiden watched as Erin stuck her tongue out at him childishly and then proceeded to comment on how comfortable he looked.  First off, Aiden didn’t much appreciate being called a flobberworm.  Secondly, how old exactly was Erin?  Five?  Sticking out her tongue at him?  Really now... Childish things like that were major pet peeves of his.  He didn’t have much tolerance for them, and he definitely didn’t appreciate them either. 

Resting his book on his leg, Aiden sighed heavily.  Putting a hand to his forehead, Aiden rubbed his temples - a habit he had picked up from his father having seen him do it so much whenever he was stressed.  Today just wasn’t his day.  And he really just wanted to relax and read his book.... in peace... here, in the nice, relaxing armchair.  But out of the corner of his eye Aiden saw that Erin was once again skipping around, looking at the many snakes that decorated the Slytherin common room.

He let his arm drop down from his head to the armrest.  “You know, those things are the same as they have been since the doomsday that was your arrival here.  They haven’t changed.  Stop skipping around like a child and just stay there, in front of your textbook, and try and put something in that hollow head of yours.”

After Aiden insulted her, Erin wondered what his problem was.  She never usually got to him this badly unless she was intentionally aggravating him.  Not that Erin would have minded doing that, it was just that her attention span made it hard to make any concerted effort to annoy or harass any particular person.    Her personality seemed to run Aiden the wrong way though, and figuring she would never gain something in particular from him, she decided to insult him back.

“Did these snakes bite you as a first year?” Erin asked the man, speaking to him as if she was speaking to a little baby.  Wondering what the heck was making Aiden such a…poo-poo head, she wondered if he missed his mother or something.  It was as if he was upset everytime Erin saw him, and Erin wondered if she successfully cast “accio Aiden’s wand” if it would come flying out of his butt.  Erin thought about that for a minute, and wondered if that was actually the case.  It would explain (to her) a large amount of the reason why Aiden seemed so fussy.

Whatever her rest of the thoughts on the gentlemen were, they stopped when she felt something small land on her with eight legs.  Erin, never really being the calm cool and collected type to begin with, responded with her usual aplomb to arachnids.  She ran towards the nearest boy, Aiden, screaming,

“GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!” she yelled already imagining that the spider was going to bite her.  Or worse, tell other spiders that she was nice, warm, and a good source of meat so that he and his thousands of siblings could come back later.  Erin did not know why all sorts of creepy crawlies had it out for her.  She always seemed to find them in the most obscure places. 

Aiden started to wonder whether he should move somewhere else to read.  But where?  Not to the dorm... a few of the boys were already up there.  Aiden didn’t necessarily mind any of them, but most of their conversations consisted of bragging about their latest conquests.  He could go to the kitchens... but no.  He wouldn’t have much peace and quiet there, and there weren’t any nice comfy chairs to sit in.  And there was no way he was going to go coop himself up in a broom closet!  Anyway, this time of day none of them were probably unoccupied.  So, this was the only place Aiden could be.  And really there wouldn’t be a problem if Erin would just sit down and study quietly.  But that might as well be impossible.

“Did these snakes bite you as a first year?”

His eyes slightly narrowed.  How he really wanted to stand up, using his height as an intimidation weapon, and lecture her.... tell her that she shouldn’t talk that way to people older than her (an old-fashioned rule, but his father was an old-fashioned type of guy), that she should mind her own business, sit down, and try and squeeze what little information she could into that airhead of hers.  But what good would that do?  It would do just as much good as siting here, telling her to settle down would.  What sort of higher power had it out for him today, Aiden wondered.  Of all people to be down here with he was stuck with one that very easily got on his nerves.

“No, I-” Aiden was interrupted when Erin started screaming, “Bloody hell!” He huffed, dropping his book to cover his shocked ears.  The frantic girl then ran towards him, yelling at him to get whatever it was on her, off.  Did he really want to help her? No.  Did he really want her to stop screaming? Yes.  That left him no choice but to help. 

Standing up,  Aiden tried to pinpoint the location of whatever critter had decided to take refuge on Erin.  “Stop bucking around like a bloody bronco, will you?!”  Aiden growled frustratedly.  Aha, there it was, on her arm.  With one brush of his hand, the spider fell to the floor and with one movement of his foot, it was dead.

“There, happy?”

After Aiden killed the arachnid, Erin felt the compulsive need to go upstairs and take a shower.  She really needed to get a pet insectivore or something, since these bugs seemed to be magnetically attracted to her.  After Aiden nearly spat at her asking if she was happy, the tone and anger went right over her head.  Not for any particular reason, just that she was so relieved that the icky-crawly-thingy had been sent on to meet its maker.

“Yes, thanks for that,” Erin replied, completely oblivious to any spite in Aiden’s demeanor.  With one crisis averted, Erin tried to sit down and study.  Unfortunately, Erin and staying still happened only when she was hit by a spell.  Or when she was asleep.  Either way, she either had to be unconscious or incapacitated to stop moving, and sometimes that was not enough.  Consequently, she stood up with her book and front of her and read while walking around.  This multitasking kept her preoccupied for all of thirty seconds.

As she finally sat down and tried to read her book, she wondered if it would be worth saying anything else to the young man.  Erin decided not to, for a variety of reasons though mainly because she forgot what she was going to say.  That, and she did not think Aiden and her could hold a civil conversation if their lives depended on it.  Wondering how such a stiff got sorted into Slytherin, Erin figured such mysteries were better left into the sorting hat.