HARRY POTTER AND HIS LIFE THAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN
By JM Lane

Disclaimer: Everything belongs to JK Rowling and company except my imagination and this story. It begins with James and Lily's wedding.

PROLOGUE: The Wedding – June 1979

" … and by the authority vested in me by the Ministry of Magic, I now pronounce James Robert Potter and Lily Ginevra Evans husband and wife. James, you may kiss your bride."

These were words that neither of them thought they would ever hear—at least not in connection with each other. But destiny had obviously had other plans … and were they ever thankful for that! James lifted Lily's chin, met her green eyes with his hazel ones, smiled tenderly at her, then leaned close and kissed her. At that moment, Lily knew that her married life had officially begun—and if she had her way, it would not end until it absolutely had to. Not until one (or even both) of them died.

Truly, this was an "until death do us part" proposition, and considering how long witches and wizards usually lived, that could mean at least a century together, especially since they were so young now … just barely out of school, for that matter. They had graduated from Hogwarts just two years before, almost to the day. Lily had recently turned nineteen (just a month before, in fact), and James was just six months older.

However, he would turn twenty by the end of this year, having been born in late 1959. She had been born in the late spring of 1960. Her parents, having been fascinated by anything having to do with the wizarding world, had wholeheartedly approved her wish to attend Hogwarts, and been literally thrilled when James, a pureblood wizard from an old and distinguished (not to mention wealthy) wizarding family took a fancy to her.

They had met in their fifth year; Lily still recalled that James and his friends Sirius and Remus had reputations for being the biggest pranksters in the entire school. At the same time, they were considered "cool" and popular; all the girls seemed to be crazy about them. With a part of her, she could understand; they were all very good looking, at least physically. It was their juvenile attitudes that had originally put her off, although the majority of the time their pranks were harmless.

However, she eventually noticed that they seemed to be singling out certain other students to plague, most particularly a Slytherin by the name of Severus Snape. Their most recent prank involved using a Levicorpus Spell on him and dangling him upside down, showing his underdrawers, and taunting him about how ragged and threadbare they were. She had come upon the three core "Marauders," as they called themselves, dangling Snape upside down again and laid them out verbally within an inch of their lives.

"Why do you do such things to him? What has he ever done to you?"

"It's not so much what he's done as the fact that he exists. Know what I mean, Evans?" James had winked wickedly at her. "Of course, I might reconsider if you'd go out with me."

"I know only one thing for sure, James Robert Potter. If you don't let that poor boy down immediately, I'll report you to the headmaster. What's more, I wouldn't go out with you if you were the last man on earth!"

But Snape didn't seem inclined toward gratitude; in fact, once he had been put to rights again and she'd asked if he was all right, that she was sorry for what had happened, he had curtly brushed her off. "I bloody well don't need anyone's sympathy, Evans—least of all yours, you ruddy Mudblood!"

That had frozen her for a moment in shock, then anger welled up inside her—but James spoke
up first, furious at Snape's treatment of Lily. "You apologize to Evans right now, Snape, or I'll bloody well hex you into next year!"

"Yeah, Potter? And what will you do if I don't? Dangle me upside down again?" Snape threw back just before stalking off, not giving James a chance to reply.

Once Snape was out of earshot, Sirius said, "Well, it just goes to show that it doesn't pay to be nice to a ruddy Slytherin. They don't know the meaning of courtesy, much less gratitude," he put in with a derisive snort.

"Stay out of this, Sirius," Lily spat at him. "You're as bad as James is!"

"Hey now, lady! My friend just tried to defend your honour! The least you should do is bloody well show him some gratitude!"

But Lily walked off at this point, not responding to either his accusation or any of the efforts Sirius, James or Remus made to make peace with her. They were totally hopeless, she decided; nothing could change them or reform them. Especially James. Why did he have to be so godawful handsome, have such gorgeous hazel eyes, such a beautiful smile and gorgeous body, much less such incredibly sexy, eternally mussed-up hair which she so longed to run her fingers through? But she couldn't consider him seriously, not as long as he was like this, so unthinking of how his actions hurt others. He would have to grow up and mend his ways considerably before she would even consider changing her mind about him.

This incident was now two and a half years in the past. Fortunately James had matured by the time graduation neared—and matured to such an extent that Lily had begun seriously dating him. Not only that, she soon found herself falling more deeply in love with him with every passing day. By the time graduation rolled around, James had even proposed and Lily had accepted.

The only one who hadn't been pleased at the news had been her older sister Petunia, who disliked the wizarding world every bit as much as the senior Evanses and Lily herself loved it. Lily figured it had to be due to simple jealousy and envy on Petunia's part because she had once fancied James, but he wouldn't give her the time of day (although he had always been polite to her), having eyes only for Lily, since she was every bit as beautiful and nice as her sister was plain and nasty.

Worst of all, Petunia had allowed her jealousy and envy to fester into hatred and bigotry and eventually married a man just as nasty and bigoted as she (not to mention just as plain, if not downright homely): one Vernon Dursley, who was heavy-set and balding even then. They hadn't even come to her wedding to James, and frankly neither had missed them for a moment. Not that Lily hadn't tried to convince her … but Petunia had simply turned up her nose, as if being in her sister's company had become physically repugnant to her, and sniffed, "I wouldn't be caught dead associating with those ruddy magic-loving freaks!" Which obviously now included her, so this was the last time Lily had spoken with her sister.

After that day, all ties between them had been severed and they were as dead to each other as if they'd never existed, no matter how Harrison and Ginevra Evans had tried to patch thing up between them. Lily had then vowed that should she and James have children, to keep them well away from Petunia and Vernon in order that they not poison them with their nastiness and bigotry. For that matter, she might not even deign to mention that she had a sister, because she was dead certain that Petunia was doing the same thing—and that suited her just fine.

People with attitudes like theirs didn't deserve courtesy or any kind of fence-mending gestures. They seemed to be content to live in their own little world and ignore the fact that there was another, much better world out there, filled with loving, caring people. Of course, even the wizarding world had its share of villains and Dark types, but for the most part (at least as far as Lily could tell, anyway), she much preferred it to the Muggle world, where she had lived most of her life.

Especially since James was a part of it. And with luck, their child (or children) soon woul be. And what Muggle could possibly do for her on a honeymoon that James had not done? Lily knew that she would never forget it as long as she lived … first, taking her to that beautiful, wooded and flower-studded glade untouched by so-called civilization and beginning their honeymoon there by pulling her down to the grass near the crystal-blue water of the pond with a waterfall falling into it and making tenderly passionate love to her right then and there. At that point in time, she knew that Heaven had truly come to earth for both of them.

Lastly, he had taken her to the place where Arthur and Molly had had their own honeymoon, a house Unplottable to Muggles, so they were unlikely to have their privacy invaded by any unwelcome visitors and just be able to enjoy "increasing their carnal knowledge" of each other, as Sirius had commented with a snigger, prompting her to blush even as James glared at him. All the same, he had forgiven his friend when he'd said, "Seriously, mate, I truly envy you your luck. I can only hope to find someone even half as good as Lil. Enjoy yourselves now, and every happiness to you both!" He and Remus had then hugged the stuffing out of both of them and they were on their way after bidding farewell to their parents.