History was easy, Richard decided. It was mostly about memorizing names and dates, and he had always been good at memorizing things. It was boring, too. No thinking. Grindelwald was bad and Dumbledore war good. Do not question this, and everything would work out fine.

Personally, Richard didn’t think Grindelwald’s ideas had been that bad. He had met plenty of Muggles who might look better as a zombie – pardon, as an inferius. Anyway – what was wrong with wizards ruling the world? Why should they hide? They were of superior power, after all. And hadn’t the Muggles proved over and over again that they were unable to take care of themselves, let alone the world? They were the ones destroying nature, they didn’t care about half of Africa starving, they had started two world wars – but he was fooling himself: at heart, wizards were the same. There were just less of them.

No, the only difference between wizards and Muggles was knowledge, knowledge of magic, which meant power. Hogwarts was full of knowledge, lying around for the daring ones to take.

Obviously invisible to his classmates. They didn’t really listen.

Richard couldn’t quite blame them. Grindelwald wasn’t a topic for first years.

“We’ll start on the goblin wars,” Professor Wegde announced instead. “But I do like to start with a short overview over the very interesting history of magic.”

Muggleborn, Richard guessed as he left the classroom, following Jocelyn Davidson, who certainly was a Muggle. For some reason, she seemed to be scared of James Potter. It was kind of nice to meet somebody who did not worship the ground Potter walked on, just for a change. However, it soon appeared that Jocelyn was scared of everything and everyone within Hogwarts. She had green eyes like a cat, but looked almost constantly like a startled deer seeing a car racing towards her. Richard gave her his best smile when she noticed him staring, but she didn’t smile back. Instead, she blushed and hurried of into the wrong corridor.

Richard shrugged and moved on to transfiguration. He was used to scaring people of his own age, and sometimes even older pupils. And if even James could scare Jocelyn… well…

She was the last one to slide into the classroom right before the teacher, Professor Bones, closed the door. She was rather young, another hero from the Second War, slender and not too tall. She wore black from hat to feet, and had a narrow, slightly elongated face.

Not so soft, Richard thought, when the Professor tipped her desk with her wand. There was a loud “bang” which abruptly ended the chatting of the girls in the last row. Professor Bones had that same poise all the wizards who had fought during the war seemed to possess.

“Thank you for your attention,” the Professor said with a brisk smile. “And welcome to your first lesson of transfiguration, which is – even if I say so myself – one of the most interesting subjects taught at Hogwarts. It also is one of the most difficult and dangerous ones. I will therefore not permit chitchat in my class.”

She threw a glance at the girls in the last row, which fell silent again. Richard rolled his eyes. They were seated exactly the same way as in history, him and Shila front row, the rest of the class behind them.

James heaved a sigh of relief at the end of the lesson. This was supposed to be his favorite subject? And how could Professor Bones be head of Hufflepuff? Weren’t they supposed to be the friendly ones, nice and openheartedly, but slightly dump? Everyone said so!

Professor Bones however was neither. If he hadn’t known better, he would have expected her in Ravenclaw. She certainly seemed to have the brains for it. She was her own subject’s biggest fan, and a strict teacher. There had been no talking after she had transformed Patricia’s ink glass into a big, slimy snail, when the girl would not quit chatting with her new friends.

James shook his head. This lesson had not been much fun, and there was a load of homework ahead of him. At least Richard and Shila hat stopped their little contest. Most of the time Professor Bones had been lecturing, and the eagerness on Richard’s face as he listened had made James want to hit him with something heavy. James was determined to beat Richard at least in transfiguration. He had to!

So when class was over, he met with Fred and pulled him over to the library to do the homework Professor Bones had given them.

“What’s wrong with you?” Fred asked, when James ran through the pages of “transfiguration: a beginner’s guide”.

“Nothing,” James gave back. “Remember that Richard-boy from the train? Got to beat him at transfiguration. You gonna help me? I need to do this homework, and then I need to learn that spell to turn matches into needles.”

“Sure I’ll help you,” Fred gave back. “But don’t you think doing better homework than him is somewhat lame? Let’s try for something more extraordinary!”

“Like what?” James asked.

“Like… like putting a jellyfish into his bed. Or better – transforming him into a jellyfish. Shouldn’t be too hard – he’s already as slimy.”

James laughed. “You’re right, he is. Where do we get a jellyfish?”

“No idea,” Fred gave back happily. “But I know a spell that’ll transform pumpkin juice into jelly. It’s really easy, how about that?”

“What does the jelly taste like?” James wanted to know.

“Like vinegar,” Fred replied.

James rubbed his hands with glee. “Great. We’ll best get started tonight. Got to show you something first. “He pulled out the Marauder’s Map. “Any place within the castle you wanted to go but never dared?”

He opened the map, and pointed his wand at it. “I solemnly swear that I’m up to no good,” he whispered, while Fred stared.

“What’s that?” Fred whispered. And then: “You’ve got to be kidding – why didn’t you say…!”

“Cause I didn’t want Smith to see this,” James gave back. “Who knows what he’d make off of it?”

Fred Weasley the Second gingerly ran a finger over the map, tracing corridors, smiling like a child in front of a Christmas tree. “How did you get this?” he asked.

“Dad had given it to Teddy, and Teddy gave it back. So I decided it was our turn now. What do we do? I want to use it!”

“Sh,” Fred hissed suddenly. “Someone’s coming.”

James turned around just in time to meet a pair of startling green eyes. Jocelyn blushed and hurried off, almost running away, leaving James to wonder what exactly he had done to her.

“What was that about?” Fred asked.

“No idea,” James gave back with a shrug. “She’s in my year, no idea what’s wrong with her. Her name’s Jocelyn Davidson, that’s all I know.”

“You just hit a nest, didn’t you? Her, that Richard guy, how’s the rest of your year?” Fred shook his head.

“Oh, the others are all right,” James said, shrugging. “There’s Darrell, Jaden, Jermaine, Aldo and Finn… Oh, and Shila, you met her at the feast, and Patricia, and a couple of girls whose names I can’t remember right now. They talk all the time.”

“O well, not too bad then,” Fred replied. “Anyway, how about this: We can get your homework done tomorrow, and now we practice the jelly spell? I bet you can manage until dinner, and then we can give Jocelyn some reason to be mad at you. And Richard as well.”

“Sounds great,” James gave back, rolling up his sleeves, though he didn’t think that Jocelyn was mad at him. Something else was wrong with her. “Where do we practice?” he asked.

Fred looked at the map carefully, and finally pointed out an empty room. “Here,” he said. “Let’s hurry.”

Richard suppressed a sigh when he entered the library, seeing Potter and Weasley in a corner. He found himself a quiet space and dropped his things, before he began to leaf through the next row of books. It took some self-discipline to finish homework before dinner. History bored him a lot, so he finished it quickly, before he began to work on transfiguration, which was much more interesting. He was just done when it was time for dinner, and he hurried of. He couldn’t remember the last time he had had three decent meals at one day, and he wasn’t going to miss one now.

He was so preoccupied with that thought that he barely noticed Weasley and Potter, who were following right behind him. Only when he entered the great hall he noticed their faces, and a chill ran down his spine. If these two smiled like this, they were most certainly up to no good. Without thinking about it, his hand moved down to the knife in his pocket. Then it retreated quickly, seizing his wand instead.

But he was being stupid. Certainly even James Potter and Fred Weasley wouldn’t cause any mayhem at the Great Hall. That would be just crazy while all the teachers were watching.

Richard entered the hall and found himself a seat near the end of the Gryffindor table. He liked being able to see what happened down the long rows of chairs, especially with Fred and James grinning like maniacs. When he looked around, he noticed Jocelyn and Shila sitting together nearby. The girls seemed to get on quite well and chatted while looking at the food, deciding what to eat.

Richard had no idea what they were doing staring at it. It was meant to be eaten, not meant to look good. It was food, after all. And all the food at Hogwarts was delicious.

For a second he thought about joining them, but then he shrugged it off. What would that look like, a boy sitting with two girls? Not that he would have minded sitting with them. They seemed to be the most sensible of all the new Gryffindors, and he would have preferred to befriend them instead of Jaden and Darrel. But he had a feeling that might not be a good idea. At his old school boys their age did not befriend girls, and wizards were not that different. Or were they?

It was better not to take a chance. If he concentrated and kept his wits together he could pose as the shy boy who would not dare talk to the others at first, and slowly work his way into the Potter-Fan-Club Jaden, Darrel and Aldo had founded. Jermaine had already fallen in line, too.

Not Finn, though, Richard decided. Finn had apparently no idea what was special about James, but enough instinct to hail him with the others. Richard furrowed a brow and thought about the train ride. He should not have let the opportunity slip to befriend famous Mr. Potter then. Doing it now would be hard. Not unmanageable, though.

He smiled at himself while he piled his plate with food. He was a Slytherin after all, even if the hat thought that Gryffindor would do him good. So he would do like a Slytherin.

Bide your time. Work hard. Keep your head down until the right moment.

Stab them in the back while they’re looking the other way.

I should feel grateful to the hat, Richard thought. A smart and cunning Slytherin would attract the wrong kind of attention. But a smart and level-headed Gryffindor would be welcomed everywhere.

He dug in and rejoiced in the fact that from now on, there’d be just as much food tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, and every other day. Lost in thought he reached for his glass of pumpkin juice. And gagged.

James could not quite hold back his laughter when Richard stared at his glass as if it had bitten him. After a second Smith looked up and when their eyes met the laughter died in James’s throat. Even though Richard’s face was perfectly calm, something strange was gleaming within his eyes.

When Richard looked towards the staff table, James was certain he would call for a teacher. He was just the kind of know it all who would run for a higher authority whenever something happened to him. But Richard did not move, he just stared. He did not say anything either, and yet James was almost certain that he was trying to do magic.

Next, he felt strange pain underneath his left eye, as if someone had punched him right into the face.

“Ouch,” James hissed, too surprised to suppress the urge to raise his arms, as if he could protect himself this way.

“What’s wrong?” Fred asked. The next second he made the same motion. “Merlin’s beard,” he whispered. “What was that?”

James nodded in Richard’s direction.

Richard’s hands shook with rage, when he reached for his glass again to give the jelly-like substance inside a jiggle. It tasted like the milk his mother kept forgetting in the fridge, foul, with just a hint of sour. It still smelled like pumpkin juice, though.

How dared they mess with his dinner?

Didn’t they have anything else to play with?

And why him? He had not done anything, they barely knew each other! It was his first day at Hogwarts, he was knew, he –

But that was the point, wasn’t it? Go for the new guy before he makes friends and he will never find any, thus staying an easy target.

He held back a tiny smile. Sorry, James, a voice inside his head whispered. I’ve played this game plenty of times. No easy target here.

If James wanted a war, he could have one. Richard was determined to make sure that James would regret his little bit of magic. The invisible punch he had given them would just be the beginning.