I don't know why you say 'goodbye', I say 'hello' (Tag Alex)

Timothy sat against a wall, fiddling with a brainteaser his mum had sent. Two twisted pieces of metal that were supposed to come apart. It was from a muggle shop, and the package advertised that you didn't need brawn, only brain. The package in fact had 6 brainteasers, this was merely one of them. He had been twisting it every which way and yanking with no success, and had even thrown it to the floor a few times in frustration. He was currently inspecting it closely, trying to determine if separating the pieces was even possible, or if it was just muggle junk.

Alex heard the clink of metal from the next room, and a couple of times she had even heard the clang of metal as it hit the floor. She had tried to ignore the sounds, figuring that whatever was going on in the next room was something that was supposed to happen. After a while though, she found it impossible, and decided to peer in. It was Timothy.

"Oh, hi," she said, leaning and balancing on one leg, so that her body was at a 45 degree angle. She had to hold onto the door frame for support at this angle, but she wanted to appear casual, because as soon as she had seen Timothy, she had felt herself get hot.

Timothy glanced up to find a Ravenclaw girl leaning against the doorframe casually.
"Hullo, didn't mean to bother you." He smiled briefly and resumed inspecting the toy.
Wait, she seemed familiar. He looked back up at her.
"I know you." He stated, then grinned. "Sorry, my memory's rubbish. You're..." He should know this. He remembered telling himself he had to remember this girl. The Ravenclaw. "It starts with an 'A'..."

How embarrassing. Alex blushed, wishing now that she had never bothered to check what was going on in the room. "Alex," she said. "We met in the music room?"
She glanced at the toy in Timothy's hands. "What's that?" she said, cocking her head to the side, furrowing her eyebrows.

Timothy smiled and nodded. "Right, sorry, Alex." He remembered now, nervous Alex the Ravenclaw, who played piano and had an owl and fancied him. She blushed, she had blushed before, he still couldn't remember what exactly it meant. Why would she be embarrassed in this situation?
"Just a muggle brainteaser my mum sent." He passed her the toy. "The two pieces are supposed to come apart. I haven't had any luck with it." She seemed genuinely curious about it.

Alex smiled, looking down at the toy. She loved brainteasers - the afternoon before she came back to Hogwarts, she had spent the whole day going through brainteaser after brainteaser. These were things that challenged her mind, things that actually made her brain work.

After tinkering around with it for a bit, she could see how it worked, but she wasn't sure if she should solve it - Timothy might have wanted to try and solve it for himself. She grinned and handed it back. "How long have you been trying to do this?"

Alex seemed to really enjoy the brainteaser, and asked him how long he'd been working on it.
"Not even an hour, but I don't think it works. I think it's a muggle rip-off where you just assume 'Oh, I can't figure out' when actually it's stuck like that. I've tried twisting it all different ways and nothing, I don't even think it'll fit." He shrugged, yanking the bits of metal again fruitlesssly.

Alex laughed, and shook her head. "This can be worked out though," she said, shrugging. She looked over at Timothy. Having only met him the week before, her feelings towards him confused her. She felt both frustrated and oddly at peace when she was around him... she didn't understand it.

As Timothy told her he had been working on it for about an hour, Alex's smile deepened - it had only taken her a few minutes to work out how to solve the brainteaser, although admittedly, she didn't know for sure if it would work - time had taught her that good knowledge of theory didn't always equate to good performance in practice. She held out her hand to Timothy, "May I?" she asked, pointing at the brainteaser.

Timothy grinned. "You think you've got it worked out, then? Give it a go, show me it's not muggle rubbish." He passed her the toy again. Had she really worked it out in that of time? Her posture was loose and open, she didn't seem to be shielding, and no reason for her to lie...

Alex laughed and took the pieces in her hands, and flipped the brainteaser over a couple of times. AFter sliding the pieces around a couple of times, she felt the satisfaction of feeling the two pieces come apart. She grinned at Timothy. "It's not rocket science, and it's not muggle rubbish either," she said, dropping the pieces into Timothy's hand.

Timothy laughed. "That's brilliant. No wonder you're in Ravenclaw." He fiddled with the now separate pieces for a few seconds, trying to replicate what Alex the Ravenclaw did, but backwards. "D'you think you could fit them back together?" He challenged, smiling, holding out the bits of metal.

Alex shrugged and took the pieces back from Timothy. She studied them for a while, and she realised that putting them together was in fact easier. "I could," she said, smiling. "But I think you should try?" she cocked her head to the side and giggled. "These sorts of things are good for your brain. They make you better at problem solving... my parents used to make me do these everyday"

Timothy frowned for a fraction of a second, but quickly twisted his mouth to the side, making his face look less 'upset' and more 'thinking'. Alex the Ravenclaw tipped her head to the side, showing interest.
"It seems to have worked." He accepted the pieces back and smiled at her. "Have you seen this one before, then?" How was he supposed to fit the bits of metal back together when he couldn't get them apart? Granted, he knew what it ought to look like fitted together... He began twisting and pushing and wriggling the pieces, trying to get them to go where they should.

(Sorry for not posting earlier, I've been super busy with school work and ballet rehearsals..)

Alex shook her head. "Not this one, but I guess having done other Brain Teasers, this one was a piece of cake." She watched as Timothy tried to get the pieces back together. She wasn't sure about what she should say next - her tongue felt heavy in her mouth, and she was sure that if she spoke, she'd only say something stupid. So instead, she kept her mouth shut and watched Timothy as he wrestled with the pieces.

((It's cool, it happens. Break a leg w/ ballet!))
"Yeah, that makes sense." He thought he almost had the brain teaser, but no. He started trying from a different angle and the pieces popped together like the easiest thing in the world. He laughed reflexively, but he wasn't sure if he was more proud of having done it, or frustrated it took so long for such a simple solution. He stared at it in his hand for a second before deciding he was more frustrated and dropped it, declaring "Well, now I feel a complete numpty." Muggle rubbish; perhaps not how he'd first meant it, but rubbish all the same. He smiled at Alex the Ravenclaw, trying to show it was mostly just self-deprecating humour.

Alex shrugged. "No need to feel like a numpty - lots of people are incapable of doing them." She blushed. "Not that I mean you're incapable - I just mean - well, you're not used to them?"
She saw Timothy smile and relaxed, knowing that he was just making fun of himself. "You did manage to put it back together though," she said, awarding him a punch on the arm. "Well done!"

She stumbled over her words, trying not to insult him, jokingly punching his arm. "Thanks." Timothy chuckled. "Maybe I'll try again later." Possibly. If he was very bored. Not likely.
"What've you been up to?" He nodded at the room she exited from, for lack of anything else to talk about.

Alex shrugged. "You know... the usual?" She herself had responded with a question - she didn't know what to say, really. How could she just say that all she had been doing since she last saw him was studying and doing homework? Alex wasn't really the type to socialise - she didn't have many friends, and she never really understood most people her age. That was why most of her friends - or acquaintances... she didn't really know if what they shared counted as friendship - were older than her.

Timothy nodded. They settled into the dull school life quickly.
"Something needs to happen. Not like a quidditch game, or even the Triwizard Tournament or Yule Ball. Something nobody's expecting." He leaned the back of his head against the stone wall, planting his feet on the floor and resting his arms on his knees. He didn't even really know what he was talking about, just talking to fill up space.

Alex nodded. Timothy seemed distracted - the way he spoke, Alex sensed he didn't really have anything to talk about. She felt awkward, and behind her back, she clasped her left wrist with her right hand, shoulders slumping forward. "Yeah," she nodded. She wondered if she should go - she seemed to be boring him, and if she left, he would be able to getb back to what he was doing earlier.

They didn't tend to have much to talk about. Other than having her hands behind her back, concealing them, Alex the Ravenclaw seemed to be curling into herself. Shyness again. It'd probably be better if he left.
"Well, I've distracted you enough for today." He grinned at her, scooping the brainteaser off the ground as he stood. "You can get back to whatever you were up to, I think I'm going to go fiddle with this some more." Or toss it in the first rubbish bin he came across. "I'll see you around." He held a hand up for a second in a wave as he spun on his heels and headed down the corridor. He really needed to remember Alex the Ravenclaw who fancied him.
((This was fun :) Thanks for posting body language!))

Alex nodded, opening her mouth to speak, but Timothy had already walked away. "Bye," she murmured, looking at him as he left, before turning around walking out of the room. She wondered when she'd see him again.

(np! I remember you seemed to talk about it a lot last time so yeeep)