Chapter 1. Where our story starts

We know how this story starts. It's a classic. A boy meets a girl and he falls in love with her, but she doesn't catch on for a while. If Lily Evans had to describe James Potter in one word it was trouble, funnily enough she described him in exactly the same way – trouble.

It wasn't the first time James saw Lily that he realised. She wasn't all that noticeable. She was annoying and bookish and above all party pooper. First year passed, he didn't remember much about her except she was the know-it-all. Second year passed and she retained that reputation.

At the end of their third year at Hogwarts James view was completely changed. She gained the nickname 'trouble' during an unremarkable potions lesson on a warm May morning. They were brewing a simple Pepper-Up potion to help Madam Pomfery with her dwindling supplies. Naturally James was paired with his partner (in crime) Sirius Black and sitting in front of them were Lily and Severus Snape. Both pairs were working (relatively) studiously until,

"Oi Snivelly is that you who's stinking the room with grease or is that just Evans' natural eau de cologne?"

The Gryffindor boys burst into fits of giggles whilst Lily fumed. She couldn't let him get away with this again. Maybe she thought if she retaliated he'd stop pestering Severus, Lily had at least hoped that much. She didn't quite think through her actions or their consequences, so, quite simply, she kicked over his caldron 'peppering' James and Sirius up no end for the rest of the week.

At this the rest of the class broke down in hysterics. No one did that to James Potter. No one. Not even the other Marauders (although they weren't called that yet). They just didn't but she had! Even Professor Slughorn had commented on this;

"My oh my Miss Evans looks like you can be trouble if you want to be and 10 points to Gryffindor for the cheek!"

But from then on James realised he had met his match, and that he would do anything to win her heart. From then on it stuck. Trouble. She was never trouble in classes after that. She never rose to the bait any of the Marauders tried with her. But she got angry. She was always angry at them, fuming anger that matched her hair, anger that sparkled madly in her bright green eyes whenever she got cross. But she never got told off for these by the teachers, he did. She was his own personal brand of trouble.

For Lily he was just an annoying, hormone-driven, stark-raving-mad boy and it took almost 7 years for Lily Evans to realise why the two of them were always at each other's throats about everything. She didn't hate him per se. They were the two brightest students in their year and they just couldn't get on because she detested his arrogant self-assured exterior.

This is where our story starts. After the mudblood incident, after James saves Severus Snape from Remus Lupin as a werewolf even though he really doesn't want to.

Our story starts in another potions lesson in their 6th year at Hogwarts.