A/N: I was inspired by Taylor Swift to write this! The overall song's meaning isn't very Jily, to be honest, but those few lines really screamed JILY! to me. As I started writing, this kind of became an outline of sorts of how I see James and Lily's relationship happening overall. I might use this as a starting point for a canon-based multi chap when I'm finished with The Story. Please let me know if you like it/would read a multi-chap if I wrote one! Thank you!
I knew you were trouble when you walked in.
-Taylor Swift
If there was one thing Lily had always known about James, it was that he was trouble.
From the minute they met, it was obvious. That infuriatingly-messy-yet-somehow-perfect hair, that enviable confidence that radiated from him, that smirk…
trouble, trouble, trouble.
He had barged into her compartment on the Hogwarts Express, his newly formed Marauders gang right behind him. He wasn't nervous, or self-conscious, or desperate for acceptance (or, if he was, he sure was good at hiding it). Lily herself felt all of those things, and she instantly disliked this boy who could so easily walk into the unknown with such confidence. And then he proceeded to mock Severus, the only friend she had ever known from this world of magic. Though they did not know it yet, the hatred that was sparked on that very first day between Severus and James would forever change the course of Lily's life. But right then, James Potter embodied everything that Lily despised.
This boy is going to be so much trouble.
And those first years, she was proved correct at every turn. Not only was he spectacularly popular, and confident, and good-looking, but he was also talented. His skills both on the Quidditch pitch and in the classroom made Lily's blood boil with envy. She herself was a witch of spectacular talent, but for James, everything seemed so effortless.
Was there anything this boy couldn't do?
Yes, in fact, there was one thing at which James Potter failed: getting a date with Lily Evans.
He asked her out repeatedly. She was convinced he wanted her solely because he couldn't have her, and it was so easy and so satisfying to turn him down and throw sassy remarks his way when so many others worshipped the ground he walked on. He strutted through the school preying on the weak with stupid pranks and jinxes. She couldn't care less about dating someone who tripped people for fun.
If he's going to cause trouble, then I'm going to give him trouble right back.
Then, in Fifth Year, James Potter caused the most trouble yet. He pushed Severus to his breaking point, pushed him to that point inside of himself that harbored hatred mingled with pain and fear and jealousy and spite. His hatred exploded in the form of the most unimaginable slur, Mudblood.
James Potter had finally managed to bring out the worst in Severus, had managed to help destroy Lily's relationship with her best friend, had managed to break Lily's heart. And at first, when that horrible word was still ringing in her ears, she blamed James more than she blamed Severus.
But after it was over, after Lily had run away from both of these boys that had caused her such pain, after she had cried herself dry, James Potter proved her wrong.
He sought her out and offered remorse. He offered her comfort. He offered her support. And Lily let herself see, for the first time, a hint at a side of James that was pure and brave and stupid enough to fight for her in a world of prejudice and hate. Severus had been good, once—and parts of him still were—but he couldn't resist the temptation of hatred and malice. She should have seen it coming for ages, with those rotten friends of his, but how does anyone foresee something like this? James Potter was immature and hotheaded and overconfident, but he hadn't said Mudblood.
And as James' arms wound around her awkwardly on that fateful day, that day of broken hearts and pain and tears, she saw an unfamiliar look of sorrow and kindness and protectiveness in his eyes.
Boy, does this feel like trouble.
Sixth Year had begun so differently than any other. She did not meet Severus at King's Cross, she did not meet his eye in the corridor, and she did not sit with him at the Prefect meeting. Severus had chosen his path, and that was the way it was going to stay.
And, for the first time, when she came face to face with James Potter on the train platform, she did not scowl at him, but smile. And he smiled back.
Trouble, trouble, trouble.
After that day at the end of last term, something had changed between Lily and James. They hadn't talked at all during the remaining week of school, but he had looked after her in that stupid, cocky way of his. They were by no means friends, nor was she sure she wanted to be, but she couldn't forget how he had looked at her that day, afterwards. And when they met on the platform at the start of Sixth Year, he was still looking at her that way.
She was starting to get the feeling that maybe he had always looked at her that way, but she had been too stubborn and blind to see it.
And at some point that year, she wasn't sure exactly when, she started to think that maybe she didn't want to be stubborn anymore. She allowed herself to let him in. They were friends. And she thought later that maybe she should have known what was going to happen, but does anyone ever really know when he or she is going to fall in love?
And when Lily Evans does find herself in love with James Potter, she can't help but think:
I am in so much trouble.
Yes. If there was one thing Lily had always known about James Potter, it was that he was trouble.
If there was another thing that Lily had always known, it was that she never did quite mind a bit of trouble.