Hi all, thank you for taking the time to read my story, please let me know what you think! 3

He didn't do it for her. No matter how much he loved her, or thought he did, he would never have changed so irrevocably for a girl. She was just a nice side effect of said change.

No, it was an altogether larger force that caused it.

James Potter stood in front of the Hogwarts Express for the first time, looking up at it in wonder. His parent's tales had nothing on the real thing, that was for sure. This was infinitely better. The way the whole thing seemed to gleam, with magic he supposed, and the fact that it was so very, well, red. A grin spread across his face as he imagined the place where it would take him, and the adventures he was sure to have. It all started here.

James loved his family dearly, he really did, but he'd spent far too much time with them over the last eleven years. So now, September First, he kissed them goodbye and sped away as fast as he could. He'd waited much too long for this moment, he wasn't going to waste it with his parents.

Almost immediately upon boarding the train he ran into several boys about his age. He introduced himself and sat down eagerly. As the train ride went on, James grew weary; clearly these boys were different from him. After close to an hour of cruel jokes and crude humour he stood up and excused himself.

He took a deep breath and his smile returned, joyous once more at the prospect of meeting new people. Hopefully he'd have more luck next time.

James had all but given up by the time he began to change into his robes. He'd gone from compartment to compartment looking for someone who interested him, but he'd had no success. Maybe he was being too picky.

It happened as they neared Hogwarts. A young boy was taunting a green-clad elder. James couldn't fully hear the conversation, but from here he could tell it wasn't going well for either. He'd always been warned by his parents to not approach a fight lest he get involved, but he couldn't help himself.

Just as he neared enough to properly hear what had happened, things began to wind down and James groaned. At least a fight would've been more interesting than the boring ride so far. He ran a few steps, stopping in front of the younger of the two.

"James," he declared, thrusting out his hand. He wasn't sure what made him do it, after all neither of the boys looked particularly welcoming. But there was something about the younger one that just made him want to introduce himself. At first James got no reaction. Great, thought James. I acted rash and now look where I am. Waiting like some sort of fool for this boy to answer me. Just as he was about to pull back his hand and apologise for interrupting, his hand was grabbed, shaken once and quickly dropped. James grinned. Maybe he would find a friend here.

"Sirius." And with that the two began to walk forwards, Sirius stopping and grabbing his trunk on their way. To the carriages they trudged, in an unspoken agreement to stick together. After five minutes of complete silence they hopped up into one of the many horse-less carriages, planting themselves next to a young, quite pretty, redhead and a lanky boy with long hair, just barely sweeping his shoulders.

They barely noticed the newcomers, but paid them no mind, continuing their conversation. James couldn't help but to eavesdrop on them. They were in such a small space, he justified to himself, I couldn't not listen in.

"You'd better be in Slytherin," he heard the boy say, obviously trying to cheer up his friend.

Instantly James's interested piqued. He'd heard all about the different houses from his parents and something about this dark haired boy reinforced his belief that he would not want to be placed in such a house. He made some casual comment to Sirius about leaving Hogwarts before becoming a Slytherin and the two joked for several minutes, enjoying the obvious distaste of their companions, until finally the pair in question got up with a huff and switched carriages, just before they took off.

"Bye Snivellus!" called out James after them.

And thus began a whole era of new things.

No one could have guessed the events that were to unfold. No one could have foreseen the years to come.

So yeah, that's it. I promise the next few aren't going to be as short as this. This was more a test run/prequel. I've always loved James and Lily, but it was tiring to see the whole James-changed-because-Lily-asked trope, so I decided to write a story based on that alone! I'm planning it to be around ten to fifteen chapters and spanning until they graduate, or shortly after.

Thank you again for reading!