James Potter

1. I never really thought that I had a chance with Lily. As horrifying as it was, what she had with Snape was just too fucking strong. Even after the whole O.W.L. affair I thought they would somehow end up together in the end.

2. That time Sirius called me "Reg" I heard but didn't say anything. It wasn't out of respect for him or insensitivity – except in so much as I just didn't know what to say. I always liked to pretend with him that Regulus had never meant all that much.

3. The same thing with the time I walked in on Sirius crying in the bathroom after he first showed us his Animagus form – the same black dog of his family's crest. Like I say before, he and I liked to pretend his family had never mattered to him.

4. I wasn't given the Invisibility Cloak on my eleventh birthday. I stole it from my father's closet. I let the house elves take the rap for it.

5. Lily always got mad when I brushed off her problems with Petunia. Of course her sister was just jealous of her. Everyone was jealous of her. Even I was jealous of her, she didn't have to try so very hard to be brilliant all the time.

6. Using Peter Pettigrew for Secret Keeper was Sirius's idea. I had my doubts. Not about his faithfulness, just his ability to pull it off. It's easy to forget he was always the best at keeping our secrets in school.

7. Deep down, I think I wanted it to be Harry and not Neville Longbottom. I always had this insane competitive thing with Frank, and, well, we're all idiots about how important our children will be.

8. I was actually kind of relieved when Sirius flubbed his Quidditch try-outs. He would have been a nightmare to coach, and Peter always got so upset when he didn't have one of us to hang around with. Plus Sirius would have been an absolute wreck playing against his brother. He didn't need a Confundus charm, just Regulus's presence.

9. It's very sweet and fitting that Lily's a doe and I'm a stag, but somehow it doesn't feel as intimate as the fact that Snape's Patronus matches hers completely. I hate that while I might "complete" Lily, as she says, he is her other half.

10. When I first started asking Lily out, it was entirely to annoy Snape. It wasn't until after she yelled at me during the O.W.L. incident that I realized how much I had come to like her.