Disclaimer: I own nothing except Michelle D'Aubigne, Cecily Van Buren, and Ivy Burns.

Okay, I haven't written a Harry Potter fanfiction in…well…a really long time, and I haven't written a Lily/James before. So, this is my first attempt.

Thwarted Plans

Lily Evans had always had a plan for her life. Even when she was a little girl running around with her friend Severus, even when she didn't know she was a witch, she had a plan, a timeline for her life. Sometimes it changed, like when she received her letter of acceptance to Hogwarts her years of schooling shrunk drastically. But, for the most part, Lily's plan stayed on schedule.

What she had wanted from her school years was to get good grades, make friends, and perhaps casually date. She had succeeded very well until her seventh year. In her last year of schooling, Lily's plan crumbled right before her eyes.

Yes, she was the smartest witch in her class, getting all O's in her classes, O.W.L.S., and N.E.W.T.S. Yes, she was prefect and Head Girl. She made four of the best friends anyone could ask for and she even fit in a few boyfriends here or there – when they weren't scared off by the nagging, arrogant toerag, James Potter.

But, then again, Lily didn't expect to fall in love.

Unlike her friends, Lily wasn't a hopeless romantic. Lily Evans didn't pine for guys day and night, nor did she believe in soul mates. She was certain that her life wasn't a fairytale like her best friends all believed. Lily even pitied her friends, telling them that yearning for the perfect guy, the one that swoops a girl off her feet such as in books, was going to get them nowhere in life.

At the end of her sixth year, she truly believed that. While all her friends scoffed at her for ruining their daydreams, Lily liked knowing she would never be disappointed like her friends would be.

And then, that summer Lily received a letter from one of her best friends, Ivy Burns. She wrote on and on about the boy who had moved in across from her parents three months before their return from Hogwarts. Ivy, like Lily, was muggleborn and immediately fell head over heels for the bright eyed muggle boy. She'd even told him about Hogwarts and he didn't run away, understanding the need for him to tell no one. "It is true love," Ivy said.

Lily just rolled her eyes. It wasn't true love, it was naivety.

On the train to Hogwarts, it wasn't just Ivy that shared stories of handsome and perfect boys. Cecily Van Buren, a pretty girl from a highly regarded pureblood family, had met the boy she was betrothed to since birth. Lily and Ivy, who couldn't fathom arranged marriages from their muggle background, watched in amazement as Cecily proclaimed her love of her parents's decision. "It was fate," she said with a new light in her blue eyes.

Lily shook her head. It was a coincidence, she thought, nothing more and nothing less than a coincidence.

Within the first few months of schooling, Lily began to feel betrayed. Not only was Potter the new Head Boy, but her best friend out of the three, Michelle D'Aubigne, told her to sit down one October evening and said, "please, don't be mad."

In seven years of friendship, Lily learned to avoid the little phrase, but looked up sincerely at her best friend. Her blonde hair fell to her shoulders and her large brown eyes stared at her, as if begging for approval.

"Sirius asked me to Hogsmeade this weekend and I said yes."

The words were rushed and after she spoke she shut her eyes tightly, as if protecting her vision while waiting for Lily to explode.

Lily felt her stomach drop, but knew she should have been expecting this. Sirius hadn't dated anyone since the end of sixth year and the two had stopped bickering. They had actually been decent to one another while they were usually arguing about their best friends.

This was part of the reason Lily felt her stomach drop into the lowest depths of her abdomen. She knew Michelle had always had a monstrous crush on Sirius, and knew since fifth year when she overheard Sirius and Remus Lupin talking at breakfast that the feeling was mutual, but because of Lily's feud with Potter, the only words she had said to him was, "bug off, Black, Lily will never go out with your bigheaded best friend!" Perhaps if Lily hadn't been so bigheaded herself, her best friend could have gotten the fairy tale she wanted, and all the girls Sirius dated wouldn't have had their hearts broken by the guy who used them as an escape from the unattainable Michelle.

The other reason, while Lily knew how selfish it seemed, was that her Hogsmeade weekend was looking rather bleak without her friends. Michelle would be with Sirius and Cecily had gotten permission from Headmaster Dumbledore for her and Ivy to go into London for the weekend, as her parents had stated "she needed to start dress shopping" as her wedding was the day after graduation. The girls, unbeknownst to the staff of Hogwarts, would be meeting their boyfriends as well.

So, on Hogsmeade weekend, after telling Michelle that she looked fine forty times, Lily found herself in the Head's Common Room, reading a book she had taken off the shelf in the seventh year girls' dorm. It seemed to be a fairytale, not something Lily intended on reading, but she was lonely and bored, and had already read all the volumes in the library, even quidditch books and those from the restricted section.

"What are you doing here all by yourself?"

Lily didn't need to look up to know who was talking to her – as there was only one person that could get inside besides herself – but she turned away from her book. Her eyes landed on the spectacled hazel orbs of James Potter. She had to admit, he did have very beautiful irises. She picked out the small flecks of blue and green in the sea of golden brown.

"Lily?"

She stared at him, as if truly seeing James Potter for the first time. He had grown up during the summer, she could tell, and he hadn't asked her out once since they arrived to Hogwarts. She almost missed his constant attention.

"Lily? Where are all your friends?"

She shrugged, looking back down at the pages of her book. "You know," she said quietly. "Michelle's with Sirius and Cecily and Ivy have gone into London with special permission."

For once in his life, James didn't prod for more details. He just stood before her and Lily marveled at the fact that this, a moment when she was entirely alone, wasn't destroyed by him asking her to Hogsmeade with a terrible pick up line or just plain insincerity.

"Why aren't you at Hogsmeade? A girl like you must have a ton of friends that wouldn't mind going with her," he stated and while it was slightly prodding, it didn't seem like it used to. Lily shook her head, actually enjoying the conversation, and he continued quietly. "Well, you could come with me if you'd like. Not on a date or anything, but as friends. You know where Padfoot is, Moony's off with his sick mother, poor woman, and Wormy's blown up Slughorn's cauldrons again and is stuck in detention."

Lily stared at him for a moment, taking in his invitation. It would be nice to stop moping around. "I'm surprised you're not in detention, James."

A slight look of surprise crossed his eyes at the mention of his first name – as she never called him that, while he had begun to call her Lily at the beginning of the year, she just couldn't bring herself to call him by his proper name – but he recovered quickly. With a smile, he pointed to the badge on his robes. "Remember, Lily, I'm Head Boy. No more maraudering for me."

She smiled as well. "Your parents must be so proud," she muttered. "Sure, James, why don't we head down there?"

Again, Lily's plans were foiled. She hadn't expected to fall in love and with James Potter no less. But, when James asked her if she would go out with him the following month, she said yes for the first time. It came as a shock to everyone, including James who had to be slapped on the back by Sirius before he realized he had stood frozen in his spot.

With Lily's ruin plans came new ones that included James. Her plan of casually dating, turned into fall in love, and by March, Lily knew she wanted to be with the arrogant toerag forever. She and Michelle would stay up late at night, talking about how they envisioned their lives after Hogwarts. Michelle's ideas changed constantly from traveling the world – as Sirius was still clinging to the idea that he was going to be a famous quidditch star – to settling down in the English countryside with the big house, kids, and dog. Every night it was something different.

But Lily's plans stayed the same.

She would marry James and they would live in the cute Muggle village of Godric's Hollow, which she saw in a book about Godric Gryffindor. James would be an auror and she would be one as well. As Lily didn't want daughters because of her strained relationship with Petunia, they would have three boys. Each boy would look just like their handsome father with small differences that would set them apart. The first would be a mix of the two in personality, the second a lot like her, and the youngest a mini-version of the lovable James Potter. There would be dog.

"What about names?" Michelle asked, always intrigued even though it was the same story every time.

And Lily would always sigh at this point of her story. "I want to name one of my sons after my father. And then I love the name Harry, but I just can't picture a little James running around with a name like Harold." Then she, as she always sighed, would always smile. "And then, of course, there's the name Jamison, which means son of James."

But it seemed that Lily's plans were never fulfilled and always changed. They were always thwarted by something or another. But it didn't matter. When she heard James's yell, she rushed up the stairs and grabbed baby Harry in her arms looking down at the little bundle. What would have happened if things had gone differently?

But, she reminded herself as the stairs creaked under Voldemort's feet, it didn't matter. She would never know.

Alright, tell me what you think and drop a review. I love hearing from you guys. And I know that this kind of interludes into a what if story, so if I get enough reviews on this, maybe I'll post more.

Thanks for reading!