Sophia and Gabriel Kramer became quite the item and topic of conversation over the next few days. They sat together on the Ravenclaw table every lunch, making fools of themselves, feeding each other and staring into each other's eyes and doing other sickening things like that. For once, I think Lily and I shared something in common, though it remained unspoken. We would both watch their nauseating displays of affection with critical eyes.
I could only imagine how Lily must have felt. Sophia was her friend. She had stood up for her when I first began to lead her on, and now she had spun around to shove a knife in the shape of Gabriel Kramer into her back.
"Get a room," said Lily through gritted teeth as we watched, sitting side by side but not quite together at the Gryffindor table.
"Tell me about it," I agreed begrudgingly. Lily gave me a half-smile. "What?" I asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Nothing, I just thought boys like you are supportive of each other's conquests," she said dismissively, but the half-smile still played on her beautiful lips. What I would give to kiss those lips...
"You underestimate me, Evans," I replied coolly.
"Do I?" she asked, very doubtful that she did.
"I don't support 'conquests' just for the glory of the win. Not if there's no feeling involved." Lily let out a little 'huh'. I raised my eyebrow again, waiting for her to elaborate.
"I didn't realize you cared so much for Sophia," she explained, somewhat sharply. I leant in with a sly smile, my nose brushing her ear, an action I had done many times with Sophia to make Lily jealous.
"Go on a date with me and you'll see how much I can care," I said in a low, husky voice. However, I didn't get the same reaction Sophia always graced me with. Lily instead went a deep scarlet and turned to face me. Once again I saw that fire and for a moment, I was almost afraid.
"You animal," she spat, and then pushed the bench- with me on it- violently away from the table and stormed off. That was unsuccessful, I thought casually, turning back to my meal. It was rare that my conversations with Lily ended any other way.
I determined not to be seen alone as long as Sophia was adamant to be on Kramer's arm. So, when Lily left I sought out the daring first year from the Quidditch match who had been so bold as to compliment my dashing handsomeness in my robes. She was sitting with a gaggle of other first year girls who fell silent the moment I sat down, each refusing to look me in the eye in a way that meant they had just been talking about me. I let a relaxed smile creep onto my face.
"Hey, James," said the bold girl.
"Kaise!" hissed a girl beside her. Kaise shot her a wicked smile. So this was Kaise Sommerson, quite infamous in the rest of the school. She was a troublemaker and a half, Filched had caught her a total of once, but anyone who tried to raid the kitchens since the new year started would have seen her trademark symbol along with a strategically plucked fridge so there was one of everything left, anything else would have been obviously pinched and then we'd have a teacher after us. And of course, lying in the fridge would be a simple postcard depicting a sunset and was magically rigged to say 'Where the Sommer-Son sets'.
Sirius and I had found a way to foil her plan in our own quiet way, not wanting to fully disrupt the genius of her little scheme. The kitchens had a smaller, secondary fridge and a large larder piled with food, and with a duplication charm I had made up, we were able to slip in and out unseen.
"Ah, Miss Sommerson, we finally meet in person," I said. Under my breath, I uttered an unheard summoning charm, and as she smiled at me I felt something blown into my hand. I winked at her, brandishing the postcard.
"You're familiar with my work," she noted, unfazed by my oncoming charm. The others girls were all melting towards me, though maintained an icy envy towards her. Nonetheless we continued to banter, and Kaise held the conversation well, never losing control and keeping a slight barrier between us, not subjecting to my eloquent compliments as quickly as the others. From her eyes intelligence radiated.
We soon tired of meaningless conversation.
"Come on, James," she said finally, ceasing the laughter. "When are you going to ask me out?" A smile twitched at the edges of my mouth. This was why I found myself attracted to her in the first place. Sophia was shy and nervous, it took coaxing to get her to the powerful woman she would be with me. Kaise was already bold and daring, and she lead with that trait, rather than with her heart. She was young, James would hardly be puppy love, more like a stepping stone towards other, more REAL relationships.
"Kaise Sommerson," I began obligingly, "Will you go out with me?"
Kaise leant in close in a move that I had expertly executed with Lily not half an hour before. With plump lips on my ear she whispered, "Nope."
She leant back satisfied by another game successfully won. I frowned. Around me whisperings erupted, girls unable to understand how anyone could say no to me, quite as stunned as I was, although I didn't allow myself to be for long. I masked it quickly, though I maintained the frown, hoping that Kaise couldn't tell how much she'd knocked me off balance.
"Now, now, Miss Sommerson, have we thought this through?" I asked, the frown turning into that of a more concerned parent than a shot down teenage boy.
"Most certainly," she said assertively. "You're going to have to play a little harder."
I winked at Kaise again, and then I stuck out my hand. As Kaise took it, I pulled her in.
"Careful Kaise, I'm undefeated," I warned. Kaise plucked her hand from mine with a sly smile turning to her comrades who were staring open mouthed at our exchange, still in shock.
"We're all rooting for you," she said, the rest nodding their heads in fervent agreement. I smiled and left with a small, respectful nod of my head. Yes, for short term purposes it might have been better to seek out a weaker girl to parade around, but my own swollen ego knew that I could not lose.
So, during History of Magic, Sirius and I planned our opening move. As we sat with the enchanted piece for parchment on opposite ends of the classroom, Remus leant over to me and began to whisper.
"I don't understand this, James. All this over a girl?" Remus' judging tone however implied that he was not talking about the scheme which Sirius and I were blatantly breaking the rules for, but instead the extent to which I was using Kaise to spite Sophia. I smiled indignantly.
"She started it," I breathed, and then turned back as the butterfly landed back on my desk.
Something slapped down on my table at breakfast the next morning. I looked up to find Kaise's eyes glaring at me. I picked up the small clipping of paper she had thrown down, regarding it with pride and remembering the previous night. Sirius had suck down to the kitchens under the cover of the cloak before the clock struck for curfew, a large risk considering the number of teachers still out and the reason why raiding was always done after hours. Sirius and I followed Kaise's impressive strategy, leaving one of everything. The part I was most proud of however was sitting in my hands, our response to her little postcards.
"What's this?" she demanded through gritted teeth.
"You wanted to play," I chided. Kaise continued to glare at me with utter annoyance like that I had when I had stumbled in to see my raid plans foiled. However, quite like when I had first stumbled upon the freshly plucked fridge, she also looked impressed. Her anger fizzed out and she smiled mischievously.
"Well played, Potter," she noted, and then flounced off to join her posse.
"What's that?" asked Peter, who had been off dozing and clearly not listening to our plan as we excitedly laid it out for him and Remus before scurrying off to complete it.
I handed it to him, beaming with pride. It was a clipping from an Astronomy textbook I had found discarded, detailing the magnitude stars. This particular page was that of the biggest star and Sirius' namesake. It showed a picture of a large star and underneath the caption read; James is always Sirius about his games.
We returned to our dorm that night to find Kaise's retaliation.
"Bloody hell," breathed Sirius as we all stared at it with awe. This went far past disrupting Kaise's raid. By some great show of magic and ability, Kaise, lowly first year Kaise, had managed to somehow reverse the gravity of the room so that all our beds, cupboards and belongings were pulled to the ceiling above us while we all stared. She had definitely had some help with this one. As we gaped up, something fluttered down from the bed to rest in my hand, contesting the charm, which demanded it stayed up on the ceiling like the rest of the objects in the room.
It was, of course, a postcard with a sunset on it. Where the Sommer-Son Sets, sneered at us. I handed it to Sirius who clutched it into a ball.
"Gather your armour, boys," I said, glancing from the scrunched up postcard to our bewitched furniture, "We're going to war.