Lexi visibly cringed at the sound of Evelyn's question. Clearly they had NOT been making time to see one another... they had only spoken about two full sentences to one another and that was in Defense class. Hell, she had spoken to Nicolas more. SIGHS FOR LIFE. "Clearly we don't," she mumbled.

A small smile touched her lips and she nodded her head. "Good to know. And... thanks. Also, can you not tell him I asked you about him?" she said as quietly as she could but sure Evelyn could hear her. GAH. Having to resort to asking EVELYN how her BOYFRIEND was-- it was pathetic.

It seemed she was not going to be able to sit in the library today, knowing that she just had this conversation with Lexi, however...

Yes, however...

As she continued to stare at the girl, her frown started to lift into a smile. Not just an smile. A smile that said she had the wheels turning in her head, and it wouldn't benefit Lexi in any way other than the fact that Evelyn would keep her mouth shut. "And uh...what will I get out of this? To keep my mouth shut that is." She'd like to know.

Lexi's head snapped up and she glared at the girl for a moment and then shrugged her shoulders. "Not a thing. Tell him if you would like to. I don;t really care," she said sharply. How RIDICULOUS! Like she would pay Evelyn off in ANY way to keep quiet about an innocent conversation. Pffft.

"Now go away before I set your robes on fire," she said angrily as she went back to her work. Stupid girl. Ugh.

Oh, she hit a nerve. That was enough to keep Evelyn quiet.

Chuckling, Evelyn GRINNED as she pushed away from the bookcase and walked past Lexi, intending to hang out at the other side of the library. This had a happy ending after all. "For shame Lexi." she smirked, walking backwards to continue staring at her. "Having to resort to talking to me to check up on your boyfriend..."

Snicker.

Aw well, at least she could study in a good mood.

Lexi flicked her wrist in a deft motion and her wand slid into her hand. Turning she glared at Evelyn with tears in her eyes. "SHUT UP!" she shouted with her wand trained on Evelyn. "Just... shut up, Evelyn," she said again, quietly this time as she wiped at her eyes with the back of her wand free hand.

Her grin widened once Lexi snapped, eying the wand that was pointed at her. They were both walking on thin ice right now, both for different reasons. "Relaaax, would ya?" she said, the final chuckles subsiding as she raised her hands in defense. "And lower your wand. That is not a smart move."

Obviously Lexi wasn't thinking clearly. What happened to the feud they usually had where it was just words? There was only one circumstance where it resulted to more than words, but Evelyn knew better now.

Definitely hit a nerve.

"Do not tell me what to do, Evelyn. I do NOT care one bit if you ARE the Head Girl and you well know it. And you damn sure know I have no qualms about using this wand either. Now the smart thing for YOU to do would be to get away from me. Now," she said in a commanding tone.

Evelyn KNEW better than to provoke Lexi when she was upset... KNEW. BETTER.

Orlando Renaldi could swear he did not do this on purpose. It was just his darn luck that he had, yet again, walked in on Round 2: Head Girl Vs Yearbook Editor.

Some higher power wanted him to be the audience, surely.

And this time - it didn't seem like it was some cheery 'throwing insults at you to annoy the crap out of you' fight either. It was serious. Because Lexi was standing with her wand pointed at Evenlyn and tears in her eyes.

Should he just turn around and leave? Probably not.

"Lex! What's wrong?!" he questioned, walking toward her. Hoping his random slip of words didn't annoy her and got him cursed instead. "Are you guys going at it again?"

Her telling Lexi to lower her wand had nothing to do with her being Head Girl, though Evelyn bit her tongue from saying so. For one, they were in the library, and two, the girl's Head of House was in here. All in all, the Slytherin girl was actually trying to do Lexi a favor. "I'm not taking orders from a Gryffin-"

Meh..

Seeing Orlando suddenly turn up, Evelyn snapped her mouth shut as she eyed the both of them. Were they going at it again? Well duh, he had two eyes and ears didn't he? "If you could call it that." she muttered, taking a side step as she was just thinking perhaps she should leave. "Lexi is just being her unstable self. As usual."

Now she had to study in a bad mood. Merlin, it was like a roller coaster ride right now.

Lexi glared at Evelyn and was thinking of casting on her... when she heard Orlando's voice call out to her. Shooooot! Lexi lowered her wand immediately and wiped at her eyes once more.

"Nothing's wrong with me. Although SHE is a nutter," Lexi said evenly as she tucked her wand back into its holster.

If Evelyn thought she was doing Lexi Kennedy any favors she was stupider than Lexi already thought she was. HA. Madame Donovan was indeed in the library, but Lexi was her precious angel. Heh. So joke's on you, Evelyn Flores.

"You really are a heartless wretch," Lexi said to Evelyn before she turned her attention away and looked pitifully at Orlando. "Sorry you had to see that mess again," she muttered as she started to rearrange her notes and things meticulously to avoid looking Orlando in the eye.

By the looks of it, the two of them were pretty used to these fights, weren't they? Nonetheless, he was gld Lexi lowered her wand. He rolled his eyes when Evelyn spoke. "You both need to start avoiding each other,"

Before Evelyn lost her head girl badge and Lexi her sanity - as if she didn't already had enough on her plate.

"Ah .. no worries. Just not the best look on you, Lex" he told her, with a weak smile. What else was he suppose to say to a crying girl?

She was the nutter one here? Did Lexi hit her head over the summer?

Evelyn couldn't help but raise her eyebrows again. This was all very surprising but then again, it wasn't. Figures. Looking from Gryffindor to Gryffindor, the Slytherin girl rolled her eyes before shrugging. "Whatever." she muttered, eying the both of them again before turning and starting towards the other side of the library.

Figures that the Gryffindors would stick up for one another. Never their fault. Was all the Slytherin's fault wasn't it?

"Much easier said than done, Orlando. Much easier. We HAVE to be around one another more than I would like to. And not to mention... for some reason only Merlin knows why, Salander considers THAT a friend. Of course it doesn't matter much what she says or does to his girlfriend. Hell, it doesn't matter what any of his friends say or do to me. He still thinks they are his friends," she said miserably as she looked up from her notes and wibbled her bottom lip a bit.

She didn't even LOOK at Evelyn as she heard her speak. She didn't care what the girl heard or saw or DID. She was OVER IT. Over it all. No matter what happened Lexi would be blamed for it anyway. She was ALWAYS to blame no matter what.

She had heard it all: You should have just walked away. Be the bigger person, Lexi. Well you know it isn't true so what does it matter what is said about you? Did you stop to think about how it makes ME look?

Yeah. She was over it. Anyone that didn't like the act first think later Lexi had a seriously rude awakening coming for them. "H-h-how have you b-b-been?" she asked with a shaky voice.

It seemed Round 2 was subsiding with no real damage. Evelyn was once again walkin away and Orlando, yet again, had nothing to say that would stop her. Stopping her would cause more bickering. Lexi thought otherwise because she was venting. Venting out how it was unfair of her boyfriend to call Evelyn his friend.

Orlando wasn't really sure what to say. He wandered if Evelyn heard and decided to say something back? She might .. girls liked to argue, he had observed.

He shook his head at Lexi's attempt at changing the topic. She was upset .. Lando didn't like it, at all. Sighing, he lowered his voice so only Lexi could hear: "Forget about me, Lex .. you wanna get out of here? Wwe can go to the kitchens .. or somewhere else, where you wouldn't want to cry .."

Lexi chewed the inside of her cheek for a moment and wondered where she might possibly go that could cheer her up. Hmmm. She had one idea. Nodding her head slowly she picked up her things and shoved them haphazardly into her rucksack.

"I want to go to the Room of Requirement. Is that -- is that okay?" she asked him as she stood up and pulled her sleeve across her face in an attempt to rid it of any tears.

He nodded right away, when she suggested the place she wanted to go. "Whereever you want, Lexi. Just promise, you will be smiling when we reach there," he said, picking her books up.

There were a lot people said about Lexi. And true, he usually did catch her midst of on going trouble but she was his friend. And friends help each other out. It was his duty to make sure she was okay.

"I can't promise that right away, but I will definitely try," she said with a little nod. She was just so stressed out. SO STRESSED OUT. She wanted to run to Sal and talk to him about all that was going on, but she also didn't want to bother him. SIGHS FOR LIFE.

Lexi hooked her arm through Orlando's and said, "Alright let's go, then." She hadn't been in the RoR in a good little while... she avoided all corridors on the seventh floor except for the corridor to and from her CR. SIGHS AGAIN.

Again Jory was pleased to hear that Ari had enjoyed the muggle books. And he certainly would enjoy reading some wizarding books. "That's an excellent idea,'' he told Ari. "Do you have any on the ones like muggle fairy tales? You know, like made up stories parents tell their kids were small?'' Jory had not gotten around to reading any of those as yet and he was quite looking foward to it. "And I've got loads more to lend. I buy new ones almost every month.''

Jory had not seen the sign. But he made a mental note to visit the kitchens. Hopefully, by that time everything will be sorted out. "I think I'll go check on the situation before I head back to the common room. Maybe you would want to come too?'' he asked Ari.

Ari looked a little lost in thought when she mentioned her getting her stubbornness from her mother. Jory was sure Ari's thoughts had flashed to her father but he didn't say anything. He hated what the man had done to Ari and her mother. "Good,'' Jory replied ''She deserves to be happy. It's also good you approve of him. I know loads of persons hate it when their parents start dating some one else.''

"Maybe I can visit the shop one day?'' Jory asked eager too check out the books.

"So am I! Where do we begin?''

The weather was getting colder and Mina knew that the best place would be in front of the fire in her own common room, but she knew that just hiding away would be the coward things to do. No, she would let the incident control her so. She had been able to attend all her lessons with little to no issues and the library really was the best place for her to study. She did always seem to get more done when she was there.

It was one of her happy places and the front gate was out of the question at the moment. It really wasn't the best place to be studying, especially when she had a ton of homework to do. To say that she was slacking a bit was an understatement, but she had a lot on her mind. She needed to push all that aside and really focus on what was more important to her.

Making her way to her favourite spot, under the window of her house founders, she laid out her things and took her seat on the bench. They was a lot for her to do and she needed to get on it before it was too late. No one would really look for her there and if they did, she would just have to deal with it as it happened.

Nodding enthusiastically, Ari smiled when Jory said something about childrens' stories. 'Yes, we do have fairytales in the wizarding world as well. I grew up with the Tales of Beedle the Bard. I'm sure you'd love it.' Ariadne had re-read those stories dozens of times. That should probably be the first book to exchange.

Of course she wanted to tag along! Whatever was going on with the elves seemed interesting enough for her to want to meddle, so the girl replied affirmatively at once. 'Sure, I'll join you.Though then there will be so many stairs to climb till the seventh floor...'she complained, chuckling.

'As long as mum is happy, I think I would approve of anyone. But I genuinely have a good feeling about Matt.' Ari replied, certain that she could confide in Jory. 'Of course, you must visit the shop! I can't believe I haven't invited you yet, what was I thinking?' Ariadne started rambling, annoyed at herself for omitting that. 'How about the Christmas vacation?' That sounded right.

'Well, let's see. We explored the dungeons and the kitchen level last year, so how about the ground floor for starters?' Everything was logical and ordered in the Gryffindor girl's mind.

Jory was very interested in reading Tales of Beedle the Bard. "Do you have a copy I can borrow?'' he asked Ari. "Which was your favourite story?''

At Ari's complaining, Jory burst out laughing. ''You're not getting lazy, are you?'' he teased. "Before I came to Hogwarts, when Dad was home he'd make me work out with him and go jogging for miles. Being a cop, he likes keeping in shape. I suppose he's gotta chase bad guys alot.'' Jory grinned slyly at Ari. "Maybe I should let you work out with him. A few weeks of that and you're going run up those stairs.''

"And as long he's nice to you, too,'' Jory added admiring her love for her mother.
"It's no problem. If you hadn't invited me I would have found out where the Store was and invite myself,'' he joked.

"The ground floor sounds great to me,'' Jory said feeling the old exciting adventurous feeling creeping up on him.

With all her books laid out before her, Mina reached for her Transfiguration notes. She had been looking forward to changing her look a little bit, but just hadn't thought of the right style or colour yet. There had been a lot of choices running through her head, but she hadn't pin pointed the perfect one just yet.

Flipping through her notes, she tapped her quill. She had gotten the hang of the spells in class and she was pretty confident in her work. It really had been a fluke about the colour. This time around she would get it right.

Glancing around, she looked to see if she noticed anyone around. It was quiet and she didn't really mind if other students saw her new look, she just wanted to be aware of her surroundings and all. Concentration was key and she didn't want someone to come along and cause her to mess up or something. The spell was reversible, but she didn't want to have to re-do her spell work again. Once would be fine for her.

Pulling her wand from its holster, she pictured a hair slightly different than her own. Her hair was a bit curly and she had always wanted it completely straight and maybe just a bit longer. Her own hair just seemed to have too much volume for her and never looked right when she wanted to pull it up in certain ways. Thinking back about the style she had picked in class, she smiled as it hit her. She had just the style she wanted. Pulling her headband tight on her head, she thought of a clear vision of what she wanted her hair to look like and tapped her head once. "Fel-in-tas."

Feeling a slight cooling sensation, she reached for her compact and took a look. It was near perfect in her opinion. Her hair was straight and her bangs pin straight, perfectly separated down the middle. Her black handband was tightly atop her head and two pigtails pulled just behind her ears. It was just as she pictured it and that made her smile.

Setting her compact down, she reached for her wand again. It was time for the fun part. The colour. With her complexion, she didn't want to really go all that crazy with it. She already tried the crazy colours in class and that only resulted in her having lilac-coloured hair. Yes, it was fun for a while; but she wanted something that she could wear around for a few hours and turn heads.

Biting her lip in thought, she glance at the windows. She loved her dark hair, but to be honest with herself, she thought it made her plain sometimes. She wanted something that would get noticed a little. A colour that people would notice. Just then a little voice in her head, which she did hate to listen to, spoke up. You know you want to try it. She knew just what it was trying to get her to do and she really didn't think it was wise to even think it. Come on, you know you will get some attention with that colour.

Listening to the voices only got her in trouble, but there was a part of her that kind of wanted to see how it would look. You only live once.

Throwing caution to the wind, she reached for her wand again. She had heard that blondes seemed to have more fun and from what she had seen recently they seemed to get everything they wanted. What harm was there in testing the theory for a bit.

Raising her wand, she gave the top of her head another tap with the perfect shade of colour clearly in her mind. "Ris-TAR-is."

Giving her head a tiny shake as she lowered her wand, replacing it in its holster, she caught sight of her parted bangs and let out a small giggle. Grabbing her compact once again, she took a look at herself. She had really done it. Her sisters would never believe it. Odette wasn't the only sister that could pull of blonde now. Seriously, where was her camera when she needed it?

Getting her giggling under control, she put her compact away and turned back to her studies. It really wouldn't hurt for her to keep her hair like this just for a little while.

Stella knew she should be studying for her exams, especially as she had the sneaking suspicion that she might be behindin some subjects. Just because she had already found out classes here at Hogwarts were definitely different from the classes back at Beauxbatons, and not because she hadn't really heard of anything theatre-related here. She just was starting to worry that, besides a few subjects, she just didn't know enough to be able to pass all her exams at the end of term. Even if they weren't necessarily specific to Hogwarts. She was concerned, and that was her main reason for being back in the library. Although she'd headed for the stained glass windows as opposed to the study tables. She wanted a slightly less-populated area for now, especially as she'd thought about trying out the Transfiguration spells yet again.

It was just too tempting not to, especially as she'd gone back to wondering about what she'd look like as anything but a brunette. Maybe all the stress she was causing herself had gotten to her a bit too much, but practicing a couple innocent spells wouldn't hurt anyone. It wasn't like she planned on keeping her hair different, anyhow, just seeing what it looked like. First she needed to make sure she'd be able to see herself, which she knew the stained glass wouldn't quite work for. She still had her mirror, though, so after leaning it against the edge of her chair, supporting it with a couple books, she took her wand back out of its holster. She was tempted to go back to a similar look from before, at least going with straight hair was just so tempting, so she quickly tapped her head once. "Felintas!" Curls straightened out, and she felt herself growing bangs again as the ends of her hair shifted as well to be more layered.

But now was the fun part. Changing the color. She wasn't going to go back to light brown, either. No, she was going further this time around, no matter how silly it looked on her. It was just harmless fun, and innocent practice, after all. Focusing on the color she wanted, she tapped her head once more with her wand, giggling softly as it shifted her bangs. That was an odd feeling in itself, but then she giggled again, still respecting the library by staying as quiet as she could, as she looked at herself as a blonde. Definitely not her look, but at least now she knew that for sure. Therefore, after a couple quickly cast counterspells, she was able to get back to her studying looking completely normal. Something just told her she wasn't going to stop being a brunette any time soon.

'Sure, I have it here at Hogwarts. It's with a dedication from my uncle on the first page so I take it with me everywhere.' the girl explained. Her favourite story? Hmmm...'I know people usually say The Tale of the Three Brothers or Babbity Rabbity, but I prefer The Warlock's Hairy Heart. Good ol' drama.' Ari chuckled.

'I'm not getting lazy, I already am.' Ariadne laughed, at the same time thinking it must be dreadful to work out with a cop, even if he happened to be your father. Or especially then.

'Yes, he's great with me too, almost like my uncle. I'm sure in time we'll get friendlier still.' the Gryffie replied with conviction. 'I guess you'll meet him too, if you come for the holidays. We'd all be thrilled.'

ooc: Ground floor next?

Selina lugged a gigantic book over to the stain glass window seats. Once she arrived she grunted and heaved the book onto the desk where she was sitting. All of this trouble for Lafay's class seemed hardly worth it, but if she was going to get any better in that class she would need to buckle down in her studies. Although something in her told the small redhead that there was very little she could do to improve that class. It would take a miracle or a really good tutor. Both of which did not exist when it came to Selina and potions.

Before she threw herself down in her chair she adjusted her dress to sit and then flipped open the book. Her hand went to pick up her quill and she braced herself for what was sure to be a long night of study.