A/N: Just a fun idea for a drabble I thought up the other day. Review if you want to, don't review if you don't want to, and please enjoy as much as possible!

2013 - New Year's Eve

"I think it's a tradition," says James' Uncle Ron, pausing to define "tradition" for five-year-old Lily.

"That's gross!" Albus insists, wrinkling his nose.

Uncle Ron grins. "No, I think it just happens that way, Al."

"You won't think so when you're older," laughs Uncle Charlie, "or so they all tell me. You too, James," he continues, remarking on the eight-year-old's horrified silence. James isn't really horrified, though. He's just thinking.

"Potters always marry redheads," Uncle George tells the Potter children with a serious expression on his face.

"That's cute!" says Lily.

"That's weird," says Al.

"Al's right," agrees James.

But James isn't really agreeing. He's just thinking. There's a red-haired girl in his class at Muggle school. He must be supposed to marry her!

2014 - October

It's James' birthday tomorrow, and, he decides, he wants a broom.

He tells this to his rather confused girlfriend, Emma, whose birthday is in January. "But you don't have to get me one," he assures her, "'cos they cost lots of money. You can get me candy, if you want."

"Okay," she says as she grins and walks to sit with her friend Poppy, her red ponytail swinging behind her.

The next day, when Emma's carpool arrives, she runs up to him, gives him a Snickers bar, and runs back to her seat without a word. "Emma!" James calls. She turns for a split second, but then she keeps talking to Katy O'Hare.

He corners her later on the playground while she and her friends play hide-and-go-seek. "James, I can't talk to you," she tells him sadly.

"Why?" he asks her.

"Cause Poppy said not to," Emma replies.

"Poppy? Why?"

"Well... you know... Poppy likes you."

"But she doesn't have red hair, and you do!"

"Sorry!" she says quickly as she rushes back to her and Katy's hiding spot, whispering with her and looking over at James every few moments. Well, James figures, she must not be the right redhead.

2015 - February

James reaches into his box of candy. There's lots of it, he thinks, and he grins. Then he sees it: an evidently homemade card. It looks very special. Could it be from a girl? Maybe, he realizes suddenly, it's from Chloe! Chloe came to his school in January, and she's a redhead. She and her sister Ellie are very cute, and James likes them a lot. But Chloe has red hair, like Emma. Maybe James is supposed to marry Chloe?

He opens up the card and reads the signature before the letter. It isn't from Chloe or Emma or even Poppy William. It's from Lily. "Hi James, Happy Valentines Day! I bet you have a crush on a redhead, but I know it can't be me cause I'm your sister. I love you James!"

Well, he does like a redhead, he guesses. Maybe he should tell her. So he does.

"Do you want to go out with me, Chloe?" he walks up to her as she's talking with Ellie and asks.

"Not really, James, I'm sorry."

"That's okay."

Two down, many more to go.

2022 - November

"So my uncles told me, well, James, you'll marry a redhead, and I always thought they were serious! So I'm all, 'well, Emma's a redhead, I should marry her,' so I asked out Emma Dixon - in third grade! And then when Emma didn't want to go out with me anymore, I decided, 'well, Chloe's a redhead, I should marry her,' so I asked out Chloe! I mean, how stupid was I?" James recounts the story to his friend Cadhla as they lounge on opposite ends of a couch in the Gryffindor common room.

"That was pretty dumb," Cadhla says as she grins.

Lily giggles from behind them. "I thought it was sweet! And Cadhla, ohmigod, I heard you're going out with Emilia, and you have no idea how long I've wanted you guys to get together!" James' sister flutters off as his friend grins a bit awkwardly.

"That was quite stupid, James," she laughs.

"Sorry, what was stupid?" comes the voice of their friend Sati Sharma from behind them. "I really didn't mean to meet you guys so late, but someone charmed my hair bright red and I just can't get it out!"

2029 - August

"And do you, James Sirius, take Sati Eshana to be your lawfully wedded wife?"

"I do."

Sati smiles from under a veil that doesn't hide her old streak of scarlet.