For the longest time, he wanted to tell her to just leave. To just leave him the hell alone. But through his tears he couldn't bring any words forward, couldn't even think properly enough to warrant a proper sentence.

Only when she slipped under his arm, when he could feel her eyes on his face, did some train of proper thought return to him. Bowing his head, he rested his forehead against hers, eyes pressed closed as the tears continued. His voice came as barely more than a whisper, one of fear and regret that tore him up. "Do I really...make you feel like you are...so...unimportant to me?"

Lexi closed her eyes as he rested his forehead on hers, his tears kind of splashing on her face mingled with the tears that began to fall from her own eyes. Crud.

"I don't know... maybe... Perhaps it's just me. Maybe I feel unimportant altogether and I project it? I just feel... like with her in your life there isn't going to be enough room for me. And that's fine, because I want you to be happy and she makes you so happy... I would... it would hurt like hell... but I... sometimes... I feel like that, yes," she muttered out. She knew it was convoluted and silly and just plain SOMETHING.

It was time to slay all the demons though. Time to get it all out. Purge and perhaps make everything better? Or it would end here and now and she would have to pick herself up off of the floor.

Alex had been running, no actually he had been sprinting from the dungeons to the Great Hall, all that just to beat his girlfriend to the Lion table. Winning.

He jogged up to the Gryffindor table looking around for his certain brunette, when he didn't spot her he did a little dance of victory, arms in the air and everything. He was faster than his girlfriend, and now they would eat something, mainly because his stomach was screaming at him (like it always did) and because they would be rebels and eat at the Gryffindor table.

Hopefully the lions wouldn't roar at them and kick them out...

Agony tore through him fresh at her words, at the honesty in them. A small gasp of that pain left his lungs as tears started fresh, harder. His arms came up and wrapped around her head and shoulders in what normally he would have considered an awkward hug. But now, it was just raw, painful emotion and he wanted her to know. He just didn't know how to tell her. Everything he did seemed like it didn't matter. All his past actions seemed to mean nothing. All the sacrifice and the pain. What else was he supposed to do?

"I'm sorry..." The words fell from his lips unhindered, drawing a new belt of emotion from him. He wanted to disappear. He wanted to save her from all the pain in her life. "I'm so sorry...."

Lexi cried harder as Sabel hugged her so tightly, the emotion flowing out of him and washing right over her, it seemed. She wrapped her arms around him and balled her hands up in the back of his robes. "And I'm sorry I always seem to hurt you, Sabel." The words came out choked and so quietly. She didn't mean to be like this... it was just that aside from Salander, Sabel was the most important person in her life. She was selfish... she was stupid... and she felt like the lowest of the low in that very moment.

He managed to shake his head a little, to try and convey that she didn't need to hurt because he was hurting. They seemed to do this a lot to one another; a basis of misconception and misunderstanding that had them shedding more tears than Niagara Falls. But then, it couldn't really be helped, could it? They gone through so much together.

"You are my best friend Lexi...You are worth so much..." How did she not know that? How could she not know?

Lexi lay her cheek against his chest and cried her little heart out. She didn't want to say goodbye to him... but she had no choice. Things had always been complicated between the two of them... always. More tears, blood, and well... most tears and blood and a lot of shouting, too.

Giving a lifeless chuckle she shook her head a small amount and choked out, "I am not so sure about the latter, but you're my best friend, too. The only one that never turned his back on me. I owe you my life," she whispered. It was true. He had saved her. So many times. Literally and figuratively. Great Merlin's pants... this was going to kill her.

"It's true." The words came out choked, his arms wrapping around her better, holding her to him. Wanting to protect her. Never wanting to let go. "I wouldn't lie to you."

Lexi held onto him for dear life. "I think you might be a bit biased, Sabel. There is really nothing special about me. Aside from my uncanny talent to make people hate me... there is nothing else there," she said in a teeeeeny tiiiiiiny voice.

Ellie had practically flown down the seven flights of stairs towards the great hall, trying to get there before Alex. She knew her chances were slim, of course; all he had to do was go up a flight of stairs before he was there. Cheap.

Sprinting down the corridor, Ellie finally bursted through the open doorway and shot her eyes toward the Gryffindor table... Where she saw her boyfriend.

Dancing. -___________-

Catching her breath, she smoothed out her blouse and walked calmly toward him. "You're a terrible dancer, you know." She said matter-of-factly, taking an apple and biting out of it. Ellie glanced up at him with an evil smirk and continued chewing. She would win next time.

Drawing back a little, Sabel cupped Lexi's cheeks, resting his forehead against hers. With some sort of desperation he tried to wipe away her tears, while his own continued to fall. "Don't say that...you are beautiful. You are so beautiful...inside and out."

Lexi kept her eyes shut tight as Sabel cupped her face. Shaking her head slightly she sighed heavily. "You have to say things like that... you're my best friend. And I am being pathetic so..." Lexi said in that same tiny voice. There was nothing beautiful about her. She put on Gryffindor courage, and played the part, but she was broken.

Opening her eyes just a little she watched tears falling down Sabel's face and choked on a sob. She was the worst friend ever. She was hurting him and she couldn't stop it. "I don't even know why you're friends with me. I am so terrible to you. I hurt you all the time..." she said as she attempted to pull her face from his hands.

He didn't let her draw her face away, instead pressing his lips to her forehead in a gentle kiss. "Please...stop hating yourself..." That, more than anything hurt him. Had the tears stinging more potently against his eyes.

Lexi sniffled and cried, and cried and sniffled. It was all she could seem to do. When she felt his little kiss to her forehead she cried harder still. "I can't stop... It... I am so... it is all I know how to do," she said through sobs.

"I-i-i think I need to go to the common room. I don't want anyone... else... to see me like this. Last thing I need is someone telling Aparecium some crazy story and getting me in trouble or something," she said, but made no attempt to move just yet.

He held her as she cried, rocked her as she sniffled. His tears remained, but they were no longer of importance. There was a great deal of anger towards anyone that had made her feel this way, towards himself for being a part of it, somehow.

When she mentioned going to the common room, he rubbed her back a little bit more. "Let me walk you?"

Lexi took several deep breaths and finally got her bearings about herself. Wiping her face on the sleeve of her robes she didn't really care what she looked like. She just wanted to go wallow. Alone. In her dorm. Until the feast.

"Yeah, please do," she said pitifully as she pushed herself up from the bench and waited for him to join her.

With a small smile and a sniffle of his own, Sabel drew himself up from the table. One arm wrapped around her waist while the other set to work on clearing away his tears and cleaning up his face. Way too much crying had happened. Way too much hurt had been present. He just hoped, they could resolve things before it was over.

Lexi leaned against him as he put his arm around her and set them on their way to the Gryffie common room. Great Merlin. What an emotional roller coaster. She knew it wasn't over yet, either. There had to be a resolve. She just wasn't sure what it was.