When sitting on the Hogwarts Express after a long year of pranking and fun, with a bit of learning when required, James Potter always had a certain feeling of sadness. He would never admit this to the other Marauders, for they would surely mock him. The sadness was mostly a result of realizing that yet another year had passed without success- in the form of a date with Lily Evans.
Lily had caught his eye first year, as she had valiantly struggled with her trunk on the platform. It was easily twice her size at the time, but she was putting up a marvelous effort. He had been standing with his mother at the time. Always one for manners, she had suggested (or pushed, depending on whom you asked) that he help her. He went over reluctantly, and promptly fell in love. When she looked up, he saw that she had very interesting eyes behind the masses of red hair that had fallen into her face. They were an astonishing shade of green that James had never seen before. She looked at him for a minute. When he didn't say anything and just continued to stare, she said, "Are you just going to stand there, or are you going to help me? I know your mom sent you over here to help me."
"Uh, yeah." James grabbed the other end of the trunk and together they heaved it into the compartment. "I'm James. James Potter. What's your name?"
"Lily Evans," she said, and stepped onto the train. He waved to his mother, and followed her. He followed her to an empty compartment. When she sat down, he made to do so as well. His plan was thwarted with a crisply spoken, "What are you doing?"
"I was going to sit there, actually."
"Oh. Well… whatever." He watched in fascination as she pulled a book out of her bag and proceeded to ignore him for the entire ride to Hogwarts. He spent the time getting to know the four other first years who had also inhabited the compartment and figuring out how to get Lily to like him.
Looking back, that was probably the most civil conversation they had had since. Ever since he had asked her out in the third week of their first year, she had avoided him at all costs. When she was forced to speak to him, she said as little as possible. Matters were only made worse when she had come across him hexing Severus Snape in the corridor one day in fourth year. After that, she not only ignored him, but when he did attempt to talk to her, she yelled at him using some very creative insults.
Sixth year was now over. James was just as in love with Lily as ever, to the complete and utter exasperation of his best friends, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. He had managed to go through only one day in his six years at Hogwarts without talking about her. However, his jaw had been broken during a particularly foul-filled Quidditch match that day, and he spent several hours in the infirmary having it fixed. Lily had thwarted every one of his attempts to ask her out. James was now desperate for new ideas. He had decided to spend his summer finding out exactly how to get Lily Evans to fall in love with him.
As he got off of the train at the station, he saw his parents waving to him. He waved back, and began to head over to them. He retrieved his trunk, but as he was turning around to locate his parents again, he bumped into someone. A very short, very redheaded someone. "Sorry, Lily."
"That's okay, Potter." Then she did something that very nearly caused James to have a heart attack. She smiled, and said, "Have a good summer."
By the time he was able to respond, she was already moving away to find her trunk. "You too!" he yelled.
He was inwardly screaming, "She smiled at me! A real smile!" The panic did not hit him until he had arrived home with his parents. "Oh my God! What did it mean? Does she like me? Was she just smiling because she is nice, or was it because of me?" These questions ran around in his head until his mother startled him back to the real world.
"James, honey, are you alright?" she asked solicitously.
"Yeah, mum. I'm fine. I'm going to go upstairs now."
"Okay," his mother responded, but James was already halfway to his room. When he got there, he threw himself on his bed. His thoughts immediately drifted to Lily as they had every minute in the last six years that he had not been actively studying or planning a prank. His thoughts went back to the enigma of her smile on Platform 9 ¾, and resumed panic mode. "Arghhh!"