James always thought he had a pretty good read on Maddie, she was mischievous and seemed to like getting in trouble, and one thing for sure she didn't like James. The Gryffindor always took her dislike with a pinch of salt, he just figured he spent too much time with Amy and she didn't like that. For whatever reason. James never considered for a moment that Maddie might actually hate him, perhaps their dislike wasn't as playful as he had always thought. No part way through their second year it was like a joke that had run its course and the girl had crossed the line, she had overreacted to what was a harmless joke. The mandrake was one part annoying and one part cute (for a mandrake) what else could he call it but Maddie?
Clearly his comment about naming the cutest mandrake after her went over his head, all she wanted to do was insult him and his Herbology skills. Which he really didn't care about. Her attempts to hurt him were really not working, it was almost pathetic, but he still found it cute. Really he found her cute. He didn't like that. James didn't want to find her cute, it was weird, it was gross. It was wrong. What happened next, James would never have seen coming. Maddie drew out her wand and held it to James' neck. Surely Charlotte and Hemi weren't just going to stand there, surely Charlotte's unwavering support for Maddie would at least be shaken...surely. When Maddie asked him to give her a reason not to hex him, James smiled. A move he knew would infuriate the girl. "Actually, I can give you several. Number one, you don't want to hex an unarmed man in front of your friends who think so highly of you, especially since at least one of them is my friend too. Number two, if, when this gets back to Amy, she might never speak to you again, you wanna risk that? Three, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, you're too nice to actually hex me. Four I'm way too cute to hex, you said so yourself, I mean look at this face," At that last point he beamed at Maddie. If anything that make her more likely to hex him but he was having too much fun to care. "Five, you like me a lot more than you let on, other wise the mandrake thing wouldn't have hurt you, does the thought that I might think your ugly upset you that much? Oh and six, as this is the closest you and eye have ever been to each other, in the minutes you've been stood there, with your wand to my neck I guarantee you've thought about kissing me, at least once. Twice now that I've mentioned it, at least," That was it. He'd probably have signed his own death warrant if Maddie knew the spell for it. As much as he may have been joking, some of what he said was true. He knew he'd thought about it, at least once, well twice since he brought it up.