For as long as Lily could remember, she'd fallen for blokes acting like gentlemen. Why she didn't for James Potter, she didn't know.

Maybe it was the fact that he'd act like a prat towards her the first two years and later on towards Severus Snape, her Slytherin friend. Or maybe because he and his friends – Marauders as they called themselves – hexed everyone they saw in sight and didn't like. Except for her. They didn't hex her. They went as far – especially James – to invite her on a date with James, every time they saw each other in the hallways. However she'd grown tired of it quickly and had started to hex James with a curse she'd learned from Severus – sticking someone's tongue to the roof of their mouth.

James hadn't grown out of asking her out until Sixth Year, when he slowly started to go out with other girls. And then her father had died, a heart attack is what the Muggles claimed as his death though Lily and all others who knew of the Wizarding World knew that Death Eaters had found her house and murdered her dad while her mum and sister while out working, and she'd slowly tore away from herself.

She'd sit hours and hours in windowsills looking out to the grounds, the grounds her father had longed to go to but could not see them for Muggles couldn't see or enter the Castle. She'd sit hours studying for her tests because she knew her dad had wanted her to do well in school. She'd spend hours talking to friends because she knew that if she didn't she'd slowly drift apart from them, which had happened to her father too and that was exactly why there were very few people at his funeral. She'd also drink coffee at breakfast because her dad swore by it and she needed to understand her father.

And from time to time James found her near the Forbidden Forest or near a tree, crying and a red nose from January's cold. He'd bring her some tea – two milk and three sugar – and talk to her for hours at the time, and even though she rarely spoke, he knew she listened to stories of his childhood, how he'd sneak sweets into his room, how he got cookies from the House-Elves, how his father had taught him to ride a broomstick, how his mum had taught him to properly cook and clean because hey – you didn't need House-Elves for everything.

And now when they saw each other in the hallways they'd smile and maybe even sometimes share a hug. James opened doors for her and help her jump over puddles on the way to Herbology and taught her how to ride a broomstick even though she was terrified by it so she sat on the back of his, her arms around his broad chest. And slowly Lily started to fall for him, for his smiles and hugs and cheekiness and sometimes even a kiss on the top of her head. He'd grown into a gentleman all the way.

That's when Lily knew why she fell for gentlemen; because they all were a bit of James she longed for.