A/N: Ehehehe, James (: He's mah babeh. And he just keeps making friends. Y'all enjoy!

CHARACTER: James Potter

YEAR: 6th/1976

PLACE: Hogwarts corridors

WORDS: 962

Lisa the Ravenclaw

Sometimes—and he will never admit this aloud, ever—he is jealous of his best friend, Sirius Black. Sirius can get any girl he wants, and he usually wants any girl he can get his hands on. Literally. The girl he's usually with is Marlene McKinnon.

Peers say James can get any girl he wants, too. But they're wrong, so wrong. He wants one girl, and her name is Lily Evans, and she wants nothing to do with him. It drives him mad. She drives him mad.

"You're distracted."

The girl has red hair, not as red as Lily's. And her eyes are blue. And her face is soft and sweet. And she's in Ravenclaw robes.

"Sorry," he says, hand going to his hair. "I—"

"It's okay. I understand," she says, tucking a strand of loose hair behind her ear.

He still feels bad. Especially about thinking of another girl while he was kissing her. And she is the fifth girl this month. The first redhead. With the other girls, he discovered he just doesn't like any shade of blonde or brown or black on girls. One of them had blue hair. That was interesting.

"Sorry," he says again.

She smiles at him. "If it makes you feel any better, I was using you, too." At his disbelieving stare, she continues, "My friend, Sally, was bragging about being with your friend, Sirius, so I thought I could one-up her."

He grins. "Well, you have. And I've one-upped him, if we're going to do it this way."

She smirks. He thinks he can definitely be friends with this girl. "I'm thinking I tell her and you tell him we had the night of our lives, and let them think what they will."

"I like the way you think…" Fuck. The one time he actually wants to remember a girl's name.

Her smirk remains. Finally, she decides to take pity on him, "Lisa."

"Lisa. I like the way you think, Lisa the Ravenclaw."

"I like the way you think, James the Gryffindor. Shall we?" She offers her arm, and he loops his through hers.

"We shall. Sirius will be in the Astronomy Tower, so we'll be behind the tapestry of Merlin on the second floor. Sound good?"

"You can go behind that?"

James chuckles. "Oh, Lisa, you have so much to learn. Yes. Yes, you can."

"I want to! Right now!"

He doesn't remind her that it's almost one in the morning, that the caretaker or a professor could catch them at any time, that he doesn't want that particular short-cut to get out, because he desperately needs it to get to all his classes on time.

"Let's go, then," he says, pulling on her hand.

They don't make it. Halfway down the second floor corridor to the tapestry, Lily Evans and Dawn Asher turn the corner. James forgot to ask Remus about the night's prefect rounds.

James and Lisa skid to a stop. Evans' eyes train on them, on their linked hands. Dawn Asher coughs uncomfortably.

Evans walks right up to them, crosses her arms, and grins wickedly. "Potter, Kantor. It's one in the morning, well past curfew. I do believe that should count for at least two detentions, don't you, Dawn?"

The other girl shifts from foot to foot and shrugs.

"I do," Evans continues. She meets James' eyes. "Isn't it a bit low of you to sleep with a girl with red hair because you can't have the one you oh-so-desperately want?"

"Isn't it a bit arrogant of you to think he's sleeping with me because I have red hair? I'm one of the best students in my year, I'm the Keeper of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and I happen to be a hell of a lot more pleasant to be around than you," Lisa says before he can open his mouth.

Dawn's mouth drops. So does James'.

"Don't fool yourself," Evans all but spits out. "Once he's done with you, he won't look at you twice."

Lisa's face adopts the smirk from earlier. "We'll see." And she pulls James past the two prefects.

"Hold it!" Dawn seems to have found her voice, and James stops in surprise. He's never heard the Hufflepuff sixth year say much more than "hi." She steps right up to him, arms crossed. "I believe Lily and I decided on two detentions for you two."

"I thought it was just Evans that had decided that," James says, unable to keep the words in his mouth.

Her face grows red, as does Evans'. "Back to your dormitories, both of you," she says.

James and Lisa exchange a glance.

"Well, if you don't mind, I'm going to escort the lady back to Ravenclaw Tower. Safety in numbers and all," he says, turning and walking down the corridor with Lisa. "I'll be back in the common room for you to yell at me later."

Before they turn the corner, James can hear Evans mutter, "Professor McGonagall needs to make his punishments more severe."

They're quiet all the way to Ravenclaw Tower. Once there, before Lisa asks for the riddle, she spins around to face James. "I think that went well."

He shrugs. "I'm up three detentions now." Her brow furrows, so he explains, "Sirius and I kind of have a contest going on. Remus is our scorekeeper. I now have three more detentions than Sirius."

She nods slowly. "That is one serious competition." Her sarcasm makes him smile. "You still owe me a trip to that tapestry of Merlin," she reminds him, poking him in the chest with a finger.

"Thanks for that, by the way."

She cocks her head. "For what?"

He grins. "For getting to Lily Evans in a way I've never seen anyone do before."