The "If You're Lucky" Relationship—when the person you are in love with falls in love with you.
Contrary to popular belief, James Potter had not been in love with Lily Evans from the moment he first met her. Far from it, in fact.
Why would he even consider even remotely liking someone who was obviously friends with someone whose life goal was apparently to be sorted into Slytherin? Yeah, no thanks. And even when they were both sorted into Gryffindor, he honestly didn't know what to make of the Evans girl. Obviously she wasn't completely crazed in the head, as James had previously thought, if the Sorting Hat believed she was a Gryffindor. But that Snape kid she was friends with was still really weird…and a Slytherin.
Eventually though, James chose to look past what he considered to be the world's most bizarre friendship. Why waste time worrying about Snivellus' friends when he could be admiring Evans' breathtaking gorgeousness?
Of course…there some positives to the friendship. For starters, Snivellus and Evans were practically inseparable, so pranking Snivellus would ensure that James spent more time with Evans. Naturally, he had failed to realize that almost all of this time together would be spent with Evans yelling at him.
James could not be deterred, though.
So yes, maybe Evans apparently hated him. And yes, that did, in fact, translate into her refusing to go out with him. But that didn't mean that she couldn't one day change her mind about him. After all, James had changed his mind about her more than once.
James hadn't been interested in Lily initially. But then he had eventually progressed to deciding that she was rather nice to look at. And somewhere along the way of obsessing over ways to get Lily to go out with him, James had realized that he had come to legitimately like her. Why else would he continue to chase after her when his friends spent countless hours telling him how hopeless his outlooks were? And once he recognized that he actually liked her as a person and more than just a pretty face, James Potter realized that he was actually starting to fall in Love with Lily Evans.
Naturally, his observation at the age of twelve that she was beyond gorgeous was still completely accurate. But as the years passed, James took more and more notice of Lily's looks simply because she didn't flaunt them the way other girls did, which made him appreciate her even more.
Additionally, one would probably think that Lily constantly berating James and his friends for all of the mischief they got into would put a damper on his attraction to her. But of course James only thought that made her more appealing. After all, no one else was quite as honest (or blunt) with him as Lily was.
And although he, himself, often did not appear to put much stock in making any kind of effort in his schoolwork, he really admired Lily for the passion she put into her own. Whereas James liked to hide in the safe confines of his four-poster bed (curtains drawn and silencing/repelling charms up, of course) until all hours of the night studying and writing essays, Lily could be seen doing her school work just about everywhere around the castle. She was smart and she wasn't afraid to show it—not that James was afraid, per se; he just preferred to make everything about himself look effortless.
Really, there were numerous things about Lily that attracted James to her. He really wasn't at all surprised to find himself falling for her.
She still refused to go out with him, though, and James realized that he had probably missed his chance to be with her. He had been nothing more than a thorn in her side for years. A realization made inside of his head wasn't going to change that. And beyond that, nothing he actually did was going to change her mind either, he was sure of it.
And so James gave up. He loved Lily Evans beyond reason, but getting her to see that was hopeless.
If there was one thing about Lily and James' evolving relationship over the years that truly made it unique, it was what happened when James finally gave up on Lily.
Amazingly, miraculously, she fell in love with him.
James had loved Lily for ages, but all of his attempts to date her had been fruitless. He really couldn't understand how giving up had finally led to things working out for him. Naturally, Lily was more than happy to spell everything out for him.
"You don't act like a crazed lunatic all the time, now. It's like you're a real person; it's actually rather nice."
James was beyond caring that Lily had previously considered him a lunatic—because, honestly, she had called him much worse on multiple occasions. No, he was solely going to focus on the fact that she was falling in love with him, too.
He had never been happier.
Voldemort was swiftly gaining followers and power. And the wizarding world was slowly crumbling under the pressure. But James knew he would be able to fight on. He truly had Lily now. They had each other.
Maybe love really could conquer all.
A/N—Alas, this is the end of this lovely story, as I have used each of the seven types of relationships. However, even though this story is complete, I will not rule out posting additional chapters of these relationships with pairings I have not already used—and maybe even some pairings I have used. Below I have listed pairings I am currently contemplating writing about. Feel free to suggest pairings that you'd like to see, and I shall consider whether or not I can actually come up with a story line for them. Sadly, just know that I will be without internet for roughly the next two-ish months, as my summer job has me living in a tent for that time period, and I will thus be unable to update/post anything. You should still review, though :)
Love/Hate: Molly/Fleur—friendship/family
Love/Hate: Lily/James—romance
Betrayed: Sirius/Peter—friendship
