The Potter Kids

The Potter Kids: Chapter Nine, James

Relationships and Chess Sets

I was heading up the stairs when I remembered I hadn't gotten back my Self-Notes quill from Fred, so I turned to head back. As I jumped of the last two steps (Can someone say rebel!"), Alana skipped past me, practically beaming with Al looking like a Squib just performed magic. Aha, I knew that look. Once I knew she was all the way up, I ran over to Al and stuck my hand on the back of the couch and jumped off, making a sinking sound in the cushion.

"Ahh!" Albus jumped, clearly not expecting me.

"LITTLE ALBUS HAS GOT A GIRLFRIEND!" I exclaimed in a sing-song voice. Everyone looked over.

"Shut up James!" Albus hissed, throwing a striped pillow at me.

"Did you two romantically snog over the warm fire?" I asked in a sickly sweet voice.

"I. Will. Kill. You. James." he snapped.

I sang softer this time, "Alana and Albus sitting in Madam's Lee's,  S-N-O-double G-I-N-G. But Albus is mean, and Alana turns fiend. First comes fighting, then they're ex, never again will they have some-"

"Woah," Albus snapped, plugging his fingers in his ears. "Bloody hell shut up, mate! And that woudl never happen!"

"Did you snog?" I asked seriously.

"Well, sort of..." he said bashfully. He played with his fingers.

"Ahh. The old 'turn-my-head-at-the-last-second' trick, wasn't it?" I smirked.

Al stared me down. "Yes," he admitted.

"Listen, lil bro," I said wisely, "that's good. It means she's testing you to see if you really like her. She's playing hard to get."

Albus thought it over for a moment. "Is it like a girl thing?" he asked slowly.

I shrugged. "Ask Lily."

"No, she's like eleven, she won't know about this sort of stuff!" Al said, shocked.

"I don't know, she's getting pretty friendly with that Felix Malfoy kid, ain't she?" I asked matter-of-factly.

Al looked stumped. "Fine," he said, defeated. "I'll ask her." he looked around. "Where is she, anyway?"

I also looked around. "Hmm, she's probably down in the little dark section, you know, where I sometimes go with Beth, with Felix and is-"

"Bloody hell man!" Al exclaimed, clamping two hands over his ears.

"Calm your knickers!" I said. "Shes probably on her way up."

Al sighed and sat back down. "You want to play chess?" he offered after a moment of silence at looking at the growing flames, covering the logs and turning them into white hot ash quickly.

I secretly smiled. Even though Al was way better at Wizards Chess then me, I had recently got a chess set from Uncle George that made your Pieces automatically win, no matter what. "Sure," I said. "Let me get my chess set, it's upstairs. Be back in five." I ran upstairs to my room.

Inside, I found my roommates, Fang, Scooter, and some kid I hoped slept with one eye open were already in there. I bro-fisted Fang and Scooter as I passed them to my luggage. Luckily, my chess set was on top and I grabbed it, and turned to head out.

"Dude, is that a chess set?" Scooter scoffed, flipping his long sandy blonde hair out of his face, looking at me with his baby-blue eyes.

"Yeah, but it makes me win everytime. And I'm going to bet Albus two galleons I'll win." I smirked evilly.

Fang whistled. "We could go ways with that set." he said a bit greedily. I shook it off and shrugged.

"Well I'm going, bye." I said, already out the door.

Down in the commons room, I saw that Al was arguing with Lily, who must have appeared when I left.

"Stay out, Albus!" she shrieked, throwing her hands in the air.

"I'm trying to help!" he screamed back. Lily whipped out her wand and muttered a curse that made Al fly off his feet and hit the wall behind him, scattering papers and dust. Lily's eyes widened and she ran off.

I set my chess set down and went over to Al. "Woah. You 'kay, man?" I asked, pulling him up. He grunted.

He coughed and dusted off himself. "Man, where did she learn that spell?" I asked aloud amazed at the damage. "I gotta find out!"

Al gave me the death stare. "I mean oh no she is in trouble, shame on her!" I said mock-sternly.

"I'm going to bed," Al said sourly, waddling awkwardly up the stairs.

I called out sadly, "But what about chess? You said you were going to play!" but he didn't turn.