Lily Evans races through King's Cross Station, dragging luggage behind, and aware of a scandalised screech from her owl, Merlin. Stabilising her luggage and gasping for breath, she pauses in front of a narrow brick wall, separating platforms 9 and 10.

She sees her mother and father running as fast as they are able, her mother red and radiant, hair slightly dishevelled, and her father, eyes bright, as they come to a halt, panting, before her.

"H-have a great t-term, Lily, I'm g-goint to m-miss you s-so much!"

And pulling her daughter into a tight hug, she kisses her hair.

"We'll miss you, Lily."

And glancing at her watch, Lily shrieks.

Pulling them both into a tight, double-one-armed-hug, she seizes her luggage and leaps through this narrow space of wall, turning her head towards her parents at the last moment and glowing.

Smoke billowed from the Hogwarts Express, and as she ran towards the nearest compartment, lily beamed inside.

She was home.

She wrenched open the nearest door, flung her luggage in, and as the doors began to close again and the wheels to move, she desperately tugged pulled at the doors, she felt a pair of strong arms seize her around the waist and pull her inside to safety.

She lay, panting, on the chest of this person, feeling safe and infinitely relieved, her eyes slowly moving to the owner of these strong arms that enfolded her.

She was gazing into the warm hazel eyes of one James Potter.

She wrenched herself free as one of James' hands went to his hair.

She quickly looked away, darted to the floor and began to pick up her spilt belongings.

As James knelt down, she placed both hands firmly on his chest and pushed him away.

"I thought you wanted help, Evans?" Came the insolent remark.

"Not from you, Potter-I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself," She added, a touch of scathe in her voice.

James put his hands up in mock surrender, and backed away, so that he was surveying her from the corner of the room-all of a meter away.

Lily finished collecting, threw the assortment of belongings into the trolley and made to wheel it away in search of her friends-When James' arm darted out and held the trolley fast.

"I think I'm owed an apology, Evans-a thank-you, even?"

"What on earth am I to be apologising for, Potter?"

"Your rudeness and dismissiveness of my dashing charm, your utter ungratefulness at being saved at a near death experience..."

Lily snorted.

"Potter, I would only have been late for the Sorting! Near death-"

"Aha, Evans! So you admit it! I saved you! A debt easily replayed by the act of courtship…"

Lily's answer to this was to push the loathsome boy out of her way, amidst shouts and cries, and to continue on her quest to find her friends.

But James smiled slightly as he slid a hand into his right pocket, where he knew was a well worn picture of Lily.