Living the Life

James leaned back in his chair and wished Meg would stop bothering him. He glanced across the classroom at Alora Reid. Behind him Fred nudged Louis who promptly wolf-whistled. Binns of course, paid no attention and continued droning. The rest of the class giggled.

Louis whistled again and goaded by the lack of reaction on James's part, poked him with a quill. James took no notice of them but continued to stare at Alora, who gazed out of the window.

Fred flung a paper aeroplane at Alora but it missed and hit Meg, who was sitting beside her. She turned and made a rude hand gesture at him, at which Louis burst out laughing.

Binns paused and looked over his spectacles at Louis and promptly continued. The class sighed. Fred pretended to choke, while Louis pretended to faint. The class giggled.

James ignored everyone and tried to look at Alora around Meg's large head. Alora turned at face Binns and James got a quick look at her profile before Meg's head came into view again.

He looked down, defeated and tried to avoid Meg for the rest of the day, which was unsuccessful, of course.

"You're foolish." she told him, as the four of them watched Hagrid rub a green paste on a unicorn's leg that afternoon. "You should stop pranking her and tell her you like her."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because I don't like her." His reply sounded lame and untrue as soon as he said it. He didn't need Meg to roll her eyes or Fred and Louis to snort for him to realise that. "Oh, shut up." he said.

"Sure you do." drawled Fred and punched his arm.

"There she is," said Meg excitedly. James's head jerked up. Alora was walking towards them, her flame coloured hair streaming wildly behind her, her cream-coloured face impassive. "Shall I call her?"

"No no, wait!" James stopped her, thinking desperately for some excuse. "I can't tell her."

"Why not?" asked Louis this time, a glint in his eyes.

"Why should I, when Meg is too scared of you to tell you she likes you?" James's voice was wickedly triumphant. Meg's whole face went a deep red, and Louis shuffled his feet.

Having silenced them, James smiled a winning smile at Alora who had neared them. However, she, the incident of the Canary Cream and the burping goblets still fresh in her mind, gave him a frosty nod before walking past them.

Knowing that Louis and Meg were too busy trying to avoid each other's eyes to trouble him, James glanced at Fred, daring him to laugh or say something. Fred didn't. He kept his mouth wisely shut. James knew why of course. Fred knew that James knew what he felt about Sylvia Jordan, and that laughing would get him in serious, serious trouble.

James smiled to himself. Ah, the life of a troublemaker was so rewarding!