I want to be up there. I want to be doing that. I can't help it if I'm not good enough, or if you don't want me to be good enough. I won't compromise myself for you. I can't. One day I'm going to be living a legacy and you'll be watching. Weeping. Wishing you were me.
That's never going to happen is it? I will never be idolized by anyone, least of all you. Do you just not see me reaching out to you, trying to impress you? So maybe it doesn't look like I am, I'm shy and I can't help it. But I love you. I don't think I could ever love anyone else as much as you. But everyone idolizes you. You're perfect and beautiful. You've get top marks in all of your classes and still have time to be quidditch captain and the most popular boy in school. Your name's on the cover of every girl's notebooks. They drool and swoon at a smile from you. You will be a legacy at this school one day. Hell, probably one in the eyes of the entire wizarding world. But that isn't what makes me love you. Not at all.
There's another side to you, James Potter. One you never let anyone see. The sweet, caring, boy. The one who secretly loves to spend time with his little sisters. The one who listens to and respects and loves his parents. The one who really, deep-down cares about learning and schoolwork. The one who can really connect with someone, has the ability to empathize, even offer sympathy when applicable.
I've grown up next door to you. I've known you since we were three. That should count for something, shouldn't it? We've taken care of each other in some pretty rough times. Your sister's sickness, my parents deaths. The kids that used to tease me? those ones you got into a fight with over me and ended up hurt for a week? Even the little things. Like when we'd walk home together, or keep each other company while our parents attended those boring ministry functions. Or lie on our sidewalks coloring chalk pictures of when we'd go to Hogwarts? You probably don't remember any of that. I do. Every second I ever spent in your company. I keep it all in a little file folder in my mind.
You are a living legacy James Potter. I'm not. I'm Lily Evens. Just Lily Evens. Nobody at all. I'll never amount to anything and you'll never love me. Because you're the living legacy. Not me.