Written for the GGE. Feb: Sam - James/Hermione, Soulmate!AU, same age.

Strategy and Soulmates

James Potter/Hermione

For Sam

"All I'm saying is that Hermione Granger is a sexy witch," Sirius said to the other Marauders as she walked past, dropping down in a seat further down the bench.

Remus shot him a look of disdain. "Really?" he asked. "I'm sitting right here."

"You know I love you, my delicious Moonpie. It's just… don't you see the cardigan and books? She's like the girl-Moony."

Remus rolled his eyes. "God help her when she meets the straight version of Sirius," he muttered.

"What? It's the highest compliment I can give," Sirius insisted.

"Look, Lily's just turned me down… again. Half the girls in school are laughing at me," James said, frowning at his friends. "Scratch that. I'd say more. Can we just focus on the problem at hand?"

"We are," Sirius replied. "You said Granger's name appeared the morning we came back which is the same day Granger turned up. I don't know why you still try it on with Lily. When will you get over this, James? You convinced yourself that Lily's name would suddenly appear on your body, and you thought that yours would appear on hers. You refused to see reason until now. You need to get over it and realise that Lily has someone else's name on her."

"I know, but I've invested so much—" James started.

"And that was because you had no soulmate name," Peter said, finally joining the conversation. "James, you had no name so you set your sights on the person who wasn't meant for you. You knew she'd never give you a chance, and I bet that's why you carried on. If you kept going after Lily, you wouldn't have to face up to the fact that you had no-one."

"That's not—" James tried, but his friends weren't finished.

"He's right," Remus said. "Now your name has finally shown up just like you always wanted, and what do you do? You ignore her; you disrespect her by chasing after another girl."

"Not everyone stays faithful to their soulmate at first… well, not until they get together," James murmured. "Sirius, how many people did you date before Remus?"

"Three. I didn't throw myself at them though," Sirius said with a shrug. "Remus dated two Hufflepuffs before me."

"It's not about us though," Remus said. "We were both uncertain how to approach each other in a way that wouldn't mess up our friendship and the group, so we ignored the names until we couldn't deny our feelings any longer."

"Plus, Sirius only dated them so he could follow Remus on his dates and make sure they weren't… what was it you said, Sirius? Weren't taking advantage of your Moonpie? You were both so useless," Peter added with a laugh.

"But you and Granger..." Sirius added. "That's another story. You are single. She's being eyed up by Malfoy and half of the boys in the school. I mean, new girl after them seeing the same faces all of the time. Of course she's getting all of their attention. Now, how many of them do you want her to date before settling for you."

James glared at his friend. "It's hardly settling," he muttered. "I'll think about it."

"Just remember something, James," Remus said, reaching for some sausages that had appeared on the table. "You got Hermione's name and she also has yours. You could hurt her feelings by ignoring her. She's your soulmate, and you're also hers, so maybe you should be considerate."

...oOo…

For the next week, James stopped in his attempts at getting Lily's attention and started thinking hard about the things his friends had said to him.

He had always felt like he was the odd one out by not having a name on his body, but there were different things that a lack of name could mean.

His soulmate wasn't born yet; his soulmate was dead; or he just didn't have a soulmate. If there was any other reason, he couldn't think of it.

James hated all of the three assumptions. The first meant that with every year that passed by, the age gap between him and his future soulmate grew, and it was less likely that they could be together once she (or he) was of age. He didn't want to find her when he was like forty and then have to wait for her to be an adult. That felt a little creepy.

The second meant that he had lost his soulmate without even getting the chance to meet them. He wondered if it was better this way. He wouldn't have to worry about age, or about knowingly losing them, but the idea still made him feel sick.

Finally, the last. The one he suspected was the real case. He didn't have a soulmate. Fate had forgotten about him when matching soulmates with each other. So when he woke up the day he was due to leave for Hogwarts, he didn't even notice the name at first, going about his usual routine of a shower and 'swinging his beater's bat' as Sirius called it, before heading to the sink to brush his teeth. It was only when he returned to his room and stipped off the towel that he caught his reflection in the mirror, his eyes quickly finding the name.

Hermione Granger.

The first thing he had done was call for the other Marauders who didn't appreciate that James was completely nude when they rushed in, but after he put some trousers on, they all congratulated him.

But James was secretly thrilled. Finally he had a chance to have something like Remus and Sirius had. It was something he wanted for himself for so long. Finally there was a name on his body, and the girl shortly followed, appearing at Hogwarts to be sorted as a 7th year—something unheard of, according to Remus. (and Remus would know, he had read the school history so many times that he could recite facts from it.)

But faced with a soulmate and a beautiful girl that took his breath away, James struggled to get out of his usual routine of approaching Lily and asking her out. Because he was used to Lily's rejection and her eyerolls. He was used to her reaction to him.

Hermione on the other hand… James couldn't bear if she rejected him too. But if he didn't approach her or ask her out, she wouldn't be able to reject him.

His friends had hit the nail on the head though. He had been the one to get Remus and Sirius to admit their feelings for each other. After all, they were soulmates and made for each other. Very few things were more important than their friendship, but soulmates were one of them.

James had told them that they've already found each other, so why would they even need to consider going on a date with someone else? That had been at the start of the holidays and they were so happy, something James wanted to feel with his own soulmate.

Of course he was dragging his feet.

But not anymore, he decided. They were right. From that moment on, he'd try and be good enough for Hermione Granger. She had probably heard all of the rumours—and some stories that were likely true—about him, and James hated the idea that she just had a bad opinion of him.

Maybe he could show her that he was a good guy whilst starting the courting process.

...oOo…

It was a month since they had started back at school. A month since Hermione had walked into the school and joined the Gryffindor table, much to the shock of everyone. A month since Dumbledore told them that she was new and had been sorted privately.

A month since her name had appeared on his chest.

James suspected that it wasn't a coincidence that her name appeared the same day that she did, and it was clear that the girl had secrets. After all, September had been roasting and she had been the only girl with buttons done up to her neck on her shirt and sleeves down to her wrists. He had heard rumours that she had a private room because of terrible nightmares that had woken the other Gryffindor girls up.

But those were on future-James' list of things to find out about. Right now, James had to impress Hermione and show her that her soulmate was extremely mature and awesome, with great hair.

He started to think of ways to impress her. Quidditch was his big talent, and he was quite smart. He was also one of the best in the duelling club. Pleased at the list already, he decided that it wouldn't be too hard to impress Hermione. After all, who wouldn't want him?

Well, Lily Evans didn't want him.

But Hermione was his soulmate. She wouldn't hate him like Lily did… would she?

Feeling a little less confident, James started making plans.

...oOo…

"So… Granger, I've noticed you haven't signed up to duelling club," James said, as he dropped in the seat next to her.

She looked at him, her eyes widening as they met his, and the surprise quickly moved into wariness. "I didn't know there was a duelling club," she replied after a moment.

"Well, it hasn't started, but the list is up on the noticeboard. Same as last… right, you weren't here last year. Well, we have a duelling club. Did you do any duelling where you were before?"

"We had one dueling club, but I learnt," Hermione replied, with a small smile. "Though our teacher was quite terrible at what he was doing. We were better off practising without him."

"So… why don't I show you our club? We have Professor Flitwick as our instructor. He's a duelling master."

Hermione bit her lip, considering the idea. "I've had a bit of a tough summer holiday," she finally replied. "After… after things, I'd prefer to focus on my studies and take it easy for a bit. Maybe I'll take you up on that offer after Christmas?"

"Yeah, sounds good," James replied, a little bit downcast. He reminded himself that Hermione hadn't said 'no' to him, even if she had blew him off for a later date.

He gave her a warm smile before standing up again and heading back to his friends. He shook his head slightly to show that he didn't have any luck.

"She said maybe after Christmas," he murmured. "She had a hard summer."

Remus stared over at Hermione. "I don't think she was making excuses," he replied. "You need to think: she's the only student to transfer to Hogwarts… and Hogwarts is the safest place to be. So Hermione has some secrets. Maybe she's recovering from something or maybe she doesn't want to draw attention to herself?"

Sirius scoffed. "She's here to make the school look good," he replied, knowingly. "Have you seen her swotting away in class? She'll get top results which will make Hogwarts look good, turning out such a brilliant student."

Peter shrugged. "She said she had a private tutor, but where would a muggleborn get a private tutor from?"

"Muggleborn?" James asked, eager for the information Peter was providing. "How do you know?"

"She acts like Lily sometimes. She dropped books the other day and picked them up by hand rather than using a spell to do it. I notice the muggleborns do things themselves rather than using magic as the first response. But Hermione's a bit odd. I mean, she doesn't 'get' house-elves either. She's always talking to them, befriending them… and she acts… there's a lot she doesn't know about the magical world. That's it."

"So it's just guesswork?" Sirius asked.

Peter nodded, but pulled a face at Sirius. "It might be a guess, but it's the right one," he replied. "I've seen her in the library. She searches for books instead of summoning them."

"It doesn't matter," James said, shrugging his shoulders and sneaking another glance at Hermione. "What I need is a plan. Guys… we need to call a meeting."

...oOo…

"I need to know where I went wrong in the past with girls like Lily so I can avoid it," James said, looking at each Marauder in turn.

Remus snorted. "It'd be a shorter list to talk about where you went right."

"Thanks. That gives me confidence," James deadpanned.

"Mate, the problem with Lily was the way you treated Snape," Sirius said. "We hate that slimy, snivelly git, but you were so obvious about it, whilst, at the same time you were trying to get Lily to like you. Bad move."

"So… no hexing her best friend," James said, nodding. "She hangs out with Alice. Yeah, Frank would kill me if I even looked at Alice wrong, so no worries there."

"The love poems and overly romantic gestures need to stop," Peter said.

"No," Sirius disagreed, shaking his head. "Girls love that stuff. Remus—"

"Please don't compare me to a girl," Remus interrupted.

"I wasn't," Sirius muttered, defensively. "I was about to say that you really love that sort of thing too."

Remus nodded slowly. "I think that's quite a tricky matter," he said. "I expected Sirius to act like that because that's who he is. I knew it'd be loud, very public love declarations and stuff. So Hermione should have an idea of what you're like and be expecting it herself. If she doesn't like it, you'll have to work out what would be too much in her eyes but shouldn't change who you are to suit her."

"So I should just send her flowers at first and work my way up?"

"No," Remus replied. "When Sirius started courting me, if he had tried to treat me like one of the others he dated, I would not have been happy. You need to show her that you'll always try harder with her than you ever had with anyone else, but be careful not to overdo it."

"Moony has a point. Hermione has seen all the attempts with Lily this term so far. If you do better for her in your first attempt, it'll show her that you believe she's worth the effort," Sirius said.

"Go big or go home," Peter added.

"Okay, so giant romantic gesture," James decided. "And what else do we know about her?"

"She spends a lot of time in the library," Remus said. "She studies with the younger students and has taken a few muggleborns under her wing. I heard her a couple of weeks ago talking about the transition from muggle to magical world. She's been helping with spells and stuff. She's a good teacher."

"Studying?" James repeated. "Maybe she wants to be a professor? I could show her how smart I am?"

"Or she's one of those motherly types that takes people under her wing," Peter offered.

"Either way, she's good with the first years. Maybe you could try and be decent to the lower years if you want her attention."

"I'm decent to them," James replied defensively. "Now, I just need to wait for the best chance to get Hermione's attention."

...oOo…

James found himself staring at Hermione through the whole of Ancient Runes. Hermione had finished her work before anyone else in the class, and she had answered the most questions. He was impressed with her. She was extremely smart and so passionate about her subjects.

And Sirius was wrong. The more James watched, the more unlike Remus she was. Remus tended to be more quiet in classes whereas Hermione wasn't afraid to speak up. The only similarity between the pair that he could tell, was their love for learning.

That's why she'd fit into the group so well. She was his soulmate. She had a mutual love for books like Remus, and she wouldn't take any of Sirius' crap. Also, from what Remus said about her looking out for younger students: well, that showed that Hermione was patient. People needed to be patient with Peter.

The more he thought about it, the clearer he could see them all hanging out together. Peter and his mystery girl (who he still hadn't divulged the name of), Sirius and Remus, and him and Hermione.

He barely realised what he was doing as he slipped from his seat the second the bell rang. He headed to the front row, walked past Lily and stopped in front of Hermione.

He didn't feel smooth, he didn't have love-poems or big declarations. No flowers or enchanted items to help him.

"Hermione, I'd really like to take you to Hogsmeade on the weekend," he asked sincerely, his voice soft.

He waited with bated breath as she considered his offer, her eyes moving over to where he suspected Lily was watching.

"That'd be nice," she finally murmured, a smile tugging at the corner of her lips.

"Great!" His confidence came back quickly, but he held his tongue, not wanting to say something stupid and ruin it. "I'll meet you in the common room at half-ten? We could look around and have lunch together."

"I'd like that," Hermione said, her smile widening. "Uh… will Sirius, Remus and Peter be joining us, or…"

James felt the stirring of jealousy. "What? Why?"

"Well, I was just trying to work out if you wanted me to hang out with you guys, or if this was…"

James brightened, the jealousy disappearing. He had clearly jumped to the idea that Hermione could be interested in one of his friends. Instead, she was just trying to get a feel of what was happening that weekend.

"It's a date," James confirmed. "Definitely a date."

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