Xylon watched her work, the amusement in his eyes clear. Of course it was only a matter of time before she would make sure he paid back. But for now he was enjoying the look on Gold's face.

"I only know Xylon's Superb Everyday English," he smirked.

We.
Well she had one word right at least.

"It's correct," he said, the amusement in his eyes transferring to his tones. "Turn each word over, Fire." He paused for a moment. "Two fives will be two fives."Hint.

SCORE!

So what if it was only a tiny, two-lettered word? It was correct, and that made Gold want to continue trying!

She beamed down at her notebook, before she realized what he had said. Two five's will be two five's. But of course! Five and five. Switch the numbers, and they would still be five and five! She got the trick now. But she didn't need to jump to conclusions. She couldn't. Because she obviously had to check first.

Which Gold did at once, of course.

Five minutes later, she straightened up, eyes alight. "I got it!" She said, the cheerfulness in her tones thick and happy. He hadn't missed out any words, after all. They were all there, right in the code. She had only had to turn each coded word over, to get what it meant.

It was only now, now that she screwed the cap back on her brand new bottle of PINK! ink, that Gold actually took in the message she had decoded. It was actually deep, a word that she knew Xylon could very well be, when he wasn't trying to annoy the light out of her day.

"Smarty-pants," she said, but she was smiling, a smile that she rarely ever gave Xylon. Come to think of it, most of their conversational exchanges were based on silly nicknames, smirks and the need to annoy each other. Which, frankly, wasn't her fault. She had tried to be nice to him countless times, before it dawned on her that it didn't matter.

Because he would still annoy her, no matter what.

So now she annoyed him, too!

She had figured it out.

To be honest Xylon wasn't surprised. "Guess I should have expected this," he said, hands tucked in the pockets of his jeans. "People aren't always as dumb as they look." He grinned, the kind of grin that said it was a joke. Gold was alright.

Even if he did love to annoy her.

"Well do you have a code for me then?" He asked. "Or did the Fire eat it?" His smirk couldn't have been more obvious.

WHAT?

"Xylon Saar." Gold drew herself up to her full height. Of course, it didn't matter that she was still basically shorter than him because, at this moment, she was standing. He, on the other hand, was comfortably seated. Point? She looked impressively angreh.

Or maybe not.

"Xylon Saar," she went on. "If you dare to call me dumb ONE more time, I am going to..." She had run out of threats. Really. "To run away with that matchbox turtle of yours, whatever his name is." Oh yeah, that sounded downright intimidating. Especially since he knew her well enough to realize, at once, that she never brought pets into their fights and, if she had, that meant the threat was obviously an empty one.

Her head hurt, now!

"I think Fire prefers to eat Water," she said pointedly, as she dug in her school bag, for the coded message. She had placed it one of her journals, but which one? Aha! There it was. She took it out, carefully attached to a page in the journal; and then, removing the paper clip, held it out for him to take.

The piece of paper was light pink, cut in a circle, and the code on it was obviously a result of her signature, PINK! ink. He had better not crumple it up, she had spent time on the design!

"I'm not giving you hints, until you ask," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. Mwahahaha.

Pfft.

"You know you won't, Fire," Xylon said easily. His turtle was safe, he had no doubts about that. "You can't even smirk, I don't expect you to make away with someone's pet."

Fire eats Water. He liked her comeback. But he wasn't about to say so. Instead, he lifted an eyebrow at the paper she had handed him. "You went to all that trouble for a code?" he asked. His voice was incredulous, until it turned to teasing.

"It doesn't make it look any better you know. It still seems like a headache."

Smirk.

The smirk faded when he looked down at the code. Several commas and ------ "I don't remember the Pythagorean number system employing the use of zero's, sweetheart." Looked like there might be something interesting in this code after all.

Yes, she couldn't smirk.

But did he have to rub that in?

Git.

"It's homework," she said, as if that explained everything. "I mean, it's an assignment. Everybody hands in the same, boring, oh-so-professional assignments. I like doing things a little differently. It makes me feel good to know that something about the homework I hand in might make a Professor smile, or brighten up their day."

She shrugged, her point made, and then smiled at his question. Clever way to ask her what the hint was - or hints were - without actually phrasing his question, that way.

"I coded my message, bunched it up in blocks, and that's actually it. The commas are there to help you figure the code out. The zero's," she went on, cheerfully. "Indicate that a word ends at the preceding number, and the one succeeding is a code for the first letter in a new word. There aren't zero's at the start of every new word, only a few. I thought it would make the code easier," she added, in case he couldn't figure that out.

So.

"Go on, try to decode it!" Gold said, brightly.

Codes = GOOD.

But of course. Gold and her ideas.

"You're right," he said. "It's homework." His pointed intonation said it all: Homework lady, homework! It was going to be boring no matter what! But Xylon decided not to press the point.

He had a message to decode.

Her explanation made it much easier for him to get a move on. Even though the commas and 0's ---- contrary to what she had said ---- were staring at him from the surface of the pinkish paper like they were there for the one and only purpose of mocking him.

He looked down at the code and opened his journal. "As a...." he said after five minutes of trying to decode. "On the right track?"

Gold decided to ignore his pointed intonation, the way he threw her own words back at her with a completely different meaning. Because if there was one thing she had started to become really good at, it was ignoring Xylon when he was being a jerk.

Which he loved to be, most of the time.

She sat down, hands clasped, eyes fixed on the fire that wasn't there. In the fireplace. It was summer, of course, and the weather was far from cold. But Gold couldn't help but think fondly of the fire that was there pretty much all the time, all the brighter in winters or cold showers of rain. She could imagine them pouring down now, the showers.

She looked up, surprised back to the present by Xylon's voice.

"Righto," she said, cheerfully. "G'job."

Back to looking at the fireplace.

She was looking at the fireplace again.
In a rather creepy way.

He shrugged and returned to his work. As a ----- as a sword! He could make out the pattern now. In fact there were two words that were exact replicas of each other. Of course her trick had distorted them. "Cannot," he said softly. As a sword cannot.

He had it!!

He sat up straighter and realized she was still staring at the fireplace. "You nostalgic?" He asked as he laid down his quill. "I figured out the message by the way. As a sword cannot cut itself, or a finger touch its own tip, mind cannot see itself."

"Touching."

He grinned.

Gold looked up, startled at the voice, and realized it was Xylon's. He wasn't speaking to her. More to himself.

"You're on the right track," she said, encouragingly. Cannot. Indeed. She knew he had correctly figured out the beginning of what her message said, when decoded. She didn't doubt his ability to decode the rest of it, either. Especially since he knew the catch, now.

"I think so," she said, in response to his question. "We have a few fireplaces at home. Huge ones. There's one of the reasons I always go back to France from Christmas." Memories. "Dad used to let me sit on his knee, right in front of the dining hall fireplace, when I was smaller. Much smaller," she added, with half a smile. "He read me stories, till I fell asleep." God, she loved her father. She wanted to write lots of letters to him, now. She wasn't even sure why she was suddenly talking about him.

She shook the thoughts off, and looked down at Xylon's notebook. Perfect! "You did it!" She said, grinning back at him.

"Not as 'touching' as yours."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"That really sets things straight, doesn't it?" Matt grinned as he leaned in to give Tori a brief kiss on the forehead. Then his face turned solemn and he sat down at eye level with her. "I love you." he said softly, hazel eyes sparkling. "It really feels weird to say this, for the first time of my life, to such an amazing girl. But yes, I'm head over heels in love with you, Tori Hardene."

She grinned back at Matt and turned an even deeper pink when he kissed her on the forehead. As he became more serious Tori's grin fell a little to a gentle smile. Then everything went to high definition.
'I love you.'she blinked and then focused on Matt's hazel eyes.Her heart raced, he mind went blank. She didn't need to think, her heart spoke for her,"I love you too Matt.", was all it said. She looked down at her hands and realized they were gripping each other so hard that it hurt. She had dug the nails of her right hand so hard into the back of her left, a small bead of blood began to swell.
"Oh no, clumsy me."she looked back up at Matt and said,with more clarity, "Matt, I really do love you too.I'm not sure when my heart decided it but I know it's the surest I've ever been in my life."Her brown eyes began to twinkle as little crystals were swelling at the corner. She let out a little laugh as one of them escaped and bejeweled her cheek.She swiped at it but another fell."I'm sorry. I'm such a cry baby."she apologized even though there was a light note in her voice.

"Here, let me handle it." Matt grabbed his wand, pointed it at her little wound and said, "Episkey,- pause- Tergeo." It healed at once, with the bead of blood vanishing as though it have never been there. And when tears started falling down Tori's cheek, he also put his hand up to help her wipe them away. "It's OK to cry sometimes, in fear of the unknown. My case, the future. Yours, the decision of falling in love with a sixth-year Gryff who would do just about anything for you."

Aw Rex thats of the nicest things anyones ever said to me! Shaylee said smiling. Your pretty great too.

ooc: sorry it took so long, i was at a camp.

" Well, you deserve those accolades" Rex smiled at Shaylee. "Well, thank you, I thought msybr pretty good" Rex laughed. " I am glad you came over to the castle, everyone liks you" Rex explained to Shaylee.

Shaylee smiled and said, Reeally? Well thats good. Im glad people like me. She giggled and started to tie her shoe so it wouldnt trip her later.

"Well, who would not like you?" Rex asked Shaylee. " No more tripping right?" Rex asked Shaylee? " I will make sure to help you from being a danger to yourself" Rex laughed.

Lucy entered the common room and saw her friend Rex sitting and went closer to him "Hey there Rex, how's you" she asked with a smile on her face

"Well, how is my good friend doing?" Rex asked Lucy. " I am doing fine" Rex said to Licy. " Of course my love life has been like an ice cream flavor, 'Rocky Road" Rex laughed. " how is your love life?" Rex asked Lucy.

She looked up at him, chuckled and bit her lip.It was what she spent some sleepless nights and empty days thinking about. What would be like to fall in love someone who actually loved her back? It was real and was more than she expected in all the best ways possible."Matt, I'm not scared of falling in love with you because I'm already in love with you.I'm just happy and relieved that you feel the same way.I don't even care that you're a sixth year. All I know is that I love you."she said with genuine conviction and feeling.

"And that is exactly the thing that matters most," Matt smiled and then stood up. He suddenly felt exhausted from the barrelful of events tonight, and so decided to return to his dorm. Well, we can say that the peace and quiet of the dorm is a good place for Matthew Archuleta to whoop and celebrate and does a handstand, whatever that he prefer. On an entirely mere whim, he bent down and gave her a kiss on the hand like any gentleman would do. Wow, he seemed to be following whims a lot tonight. "G'night, milady." And with that, he set off towards his dormitory for some heartfelt celebration, and then sleep.

Tori smiled when Matt kissed her hand and bid her goodnight. She herself decided to go to her dormitory as well, "Goodnight, Sir."she said softly, before turning toward the girls' dormitory and heading up the stairs. She smiled as she went, for she knew that she would be up all night thinking about the guy she loves, the one that loves her back.

Nessa strolls into the Gryffindor common room looking around to see what everyone is up to. 'Wait exams have started maybe there are about the castle or at the library,' she thought as she glanced down at her bag full of books. Nessa grasp her bag and walks upstairs to the girls dormitory.

Ginny walked into the Common Room. She had been busy with classes. It was getting tiring so she went to sit on the couch near the fire seeing if anyone would sit with her.

Meredith walked into the common room and saw a girl that was sitting on a couch near the fire. "Hello, can I sit with you?" She said as she walked up.