A/N: This is something that has been dancing in my head for quite some time. This is my first try at fanfic so don't be too mean but read it, review it, you know the drill.


Lily Evans was not looking forward to her sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. If her mother had not packed her trunk for her she would still be sitting in her yellow bedroom staring at the ceiling. She wanted to be there for her mum and mourn her father but that wasn't happening. Instead, Lily was sitting in the prefects car on the Hogwarts Express only half-listening to Frank Longbottom tell them about their upcoming school year.

The reason Lily did not want to leave home this year was because her father was killed while driving home from work. He was a secondary English teacher. He rarely drove to school, even in the winter, but that day had been different.

"Well Lily flower I am off to work," Richard Evans said, while kissing his youngest daughter on top of her head. She had just returned home from school the night before and today was Richards last day of the term. They were both looking forward to quality time that summer brought them.

"Have a great day daddy!" Lily replied. She hated being up this early but the one perk was getting to sit in the kitchen and have coffee with her father. She considered her father one of the most intelligent men she'd ever met, right up there with Professor Dumbledore, and strived to be like him. She had his thick red hair, his now snowy white, and green eyes.

"You're driving?" Lily asked the surprise evident in her voice.

"Well Lils I'm just not the man I used to be," Richard answered. "Walking or riding my bike is exhausting. I suppose I should start considering retirement." Richard sighed as he walked out the door.

After her father left Lily sat thinking about what he said. It was true, her parents weren't young. They had been in their mid-forties when she was born. She imagined what her parents' lives would be like if they were to retire. They were always so active she just couldn't imagine them sitting around in rocking chairs. Lily returned to her room and drifted off to sleep, visions of her parents floating in her mind.

Later that day Lily lay in her room returning a letter to her friend Alice about Frank Longbottom. Frank had asked Alice out on the final Hogsmeade weekend and they had finally made their relationship official. Alice's excitement was rubbing off on Lily and she found herself wishing she had someone to go with on Hogsmeade weekends. As she sifted through her large group of admirers, Benjy Fenwick, Michael McDonald and Andrew Davies, to name a few, her thoughts settled on one in particular. James Potter. She knew James had been after her for a long time but she tried to play it off as if she had no interest. She did however. She definitely didn't want to but she did.

Just as she was slipping into a fantasy which involved Potter and a trip to Hogsmeade there was a knock on her bedroom door.

"Lily," her mum said timidly. "Lils we need to talk." And just like that, Lily Evans' world came to a grinding halt.

Now, two months later, Lily was sitting on the train staring into space as the prefects around her moved off to other compartments to find their friends.

"Lils," she heard someone say. "Lily?"

"No you have to do this, LILY EVANS!" Alice yelled.

"Huh?" Lily turned to her friend, all of a sudden fully aware of the three sets of eyes on her.

"Lily, I volunteered for us to do prefect duty first," Remus Lupin said almost apologetically.

Remus was her fellow Gryffindor prefect. Lily thought he was a really good guy. He was very smart and well mannered, unlike his fellow "Marauders".

"Oh okay," Lily answered after a brief pause. "Let's get going then."

Prefect duty would be the perfect chance for her to find her other friends and get her mind off of her father. She was on the train now, there was no turning back.

JLJLJLJLJLJLJLJL

Farther down the train James Potter was finding himself jealous of Moony for the first time in his life. Being a 16-year-old werewolf wasn't exactly the greatest life, James had to admit, but anyone who had close contact with Lily Evans was definitely someone to envy in his eyes. He had been crazy about Lily since third year when she was his potions partner for a short time. He fell for her instantly thanks to her clever words and extreme talent in potions. He knew she was one of the top in their year but he had never realized just how smart she was.

From that moment on he had vowed to make her his, one day. He tried showing off to no avail. He would continuously be in detention thanks to his escapades while trying to prove that he was a worthy candidate for a date. He had even tried blackmail, which at the time he did not see it as that, but it clearly was. At the end of last term he had her so called friend suspended in midair when he asked her for a date. He was willing to let Snivellus go if she would only go out with him but she had made it clear that she really wasn't interested.

Now, nearly three months later he understood what she meant. He really was arrogant. He thought she had to have been crazy to not see how great of a "catch" he was.

After returning home to his parents he started to realize just how wrong he was. He was a bully. You can't fall in love with someone that bullies others. When he saw his parents it all made sense. They were still crazy about each other after all these years. They had been great aurors, great wizards, but now they were both older. Although they were both members of the Order of the Phoenix, his father wasn't exactly active in the group. Sure he gave them pointers, he kept up with the paper but his health was declining so rapidly that he rarely left his room over the summer. Even though he could see the end of his life on the horizon he still loved every second that he had. He never stopped telling his wife how beautiful she was or James just how proud he was.

This made James realize that it was Lily who was the great catch. He was just a jerk. No one else thought that of course. Everyone else thought he was still the same old James Potter. There were still girls asking if he'd like to sit in their compartments later or if they could get him anything off the trolley. He wanted them to go away. Everyone else was not Lily Evans and unless it was Lily, he wasn't interested.