A/N - Anything you recognise doesn't belong to me...obviously XD

Chapter 1

It was September first, just as he stepped through the barrier to platform 9 3/4 to take the Hogwarts Express, to start his fifth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. That was the day he saw her. The prettiest girl he had ever laid eyes on.

She had thick red hair that went just past her waist, a thin figure and stood at about 5'6". With a pretty face, cherry lips and stunning emerald eyes, James couldn't take his eyes off her. Then, someone waved their hand in front of his face.

"James, honey, what are you looking at?" his girlfriend Alyssa asked, scanning the crowded platform, trying to see what was diverting his attention from her.

He tore his eyes from the redhead for only a split second. "Huh?"

"Who is SHE??!!" Alyssa practically shrieked, realising what he had been looking at. James didn't answer her. Being the most popular girl in the fifth year, she wanted no competition and she could tell that this girl was much prettier than she could ever be. She glanced at James, who's eyes were still glued to the smiling girl as she stepped onto the train. Looking around, she noticed that he wasn't the only one. Dozens of guys were looking longingly at this same girl, and it wasn't hard to see why. That head of fiery hair was hard to miss. She cleared her throat importantly ans turned James's' head with her hands to look at her.

"James, I'm right here," she cooed.

"What? Oh, hi, didn't see you there." he said, smiling weakly. His eyes darted back toward the redhead, but she had disappeared inside of the train. He frowned, disappointed.

"So, how was your summer?" Alyssa asked, batting her fake eyelashes, happy to have his attention once more.

"Good, I guess. Sirius, Remus and I hung out a lot, bored to death," he said, looking at her eyelashes in disbelief. "How about you?"

"Fine. Courtney and I were at the beach a lot of course, I mean, what else is summer for? Anyway, we were quite bored apart from that, and went shopping at Diagon Alley for school supplies of course, where I saw..." She said all this very fast, and was going on about some guy that she met at Diagon Alley and was hopeing to see at Hogwarts this year. When James stepped onto the train with her, five minutes later, she was still talking. But he wasn't listening. He was thinking about the red haired girl that he had seen earlier. That, and he was too busy trying to escape her and find Sirius and Remus to be bothered trying to keep up with her fast talking.

When he finally did find the gang, they were in the last compartment of the train. Alyssa, seeing them, said she was going to find some of "the girls" and would be back soon. Remus was sound asleep, looking quite worn out, since there had been a full moon only two nights past, and was snoring loudly. Sirius, who was unwrapping a chocolate frog, looked up when James entered.

"Hiya Jamsie!" he said cheerfully.

"Don't call me that," James said, grinning in spite of the fact that he should be irritated by the pathetic nickname.

Sirius was just about to retort his comeback, when someone burst through their compartement and slammed the down behind them, locking it. James and Sirius looked up to see a pair of emerald eyes glancing between them through her long red hair. James could see her smiling at his untidy black hair and blue eyes, and raising her eyebrows and Sirius's brown hair that stood up straight with red tips.

"Sorry, I didn't realise that this compartment was taken," the girl apologised. "Some guy keeps hitting on me, it was getting really annoying, this was the closest escape." She was smiling.

"Not a problem, m'lady," Sirius stood, bowed dangerously low and stuck out his hand. "Sirius Black, it's a pleasure to meet you." he said, with a lopsided grin.

The girl laughed and shook his hand. "Lily Evans. You're quite a flirt, if I say so myself."

Sirius protested in mock outrage "Flirt? I was merely being polite!"

"Sure, whatever," Lily said still laughing.

Sirius grinned again and introduced her to the others. "This is my friend, James Potter, he's a MUCH bigger flirt than I am-"

"I am not!" James protested.

"-I'd watch out for him, if I were you," Sirius continued, winking at Lily, pretending he couldn't hear him. "And sleepy here is Remus Lupin." They all glanced at the thin boy's light brown hair and fatigued face.

James was staring at Lily. Gosh, she was beautiful. "Whoa, wait a second," a little voice inside his head interrupted his thoughts "don't you have a girlfriend?" But at this moment, James couldn't care less about Alyssa, or what she would think, for that matter.

"Well, I had better be off, Lucius might be gone by now.." Lily started, noticing James staring.

"Lucius?! No way you're staying right here!" Sirius pushed her into a seat and sat beside her. "Lucius Malfoy??!! If he even thinks about touching you.." he snarled.

"Oh, so now I have a protector, right?" Lily was laughing. "That's ok, I'll probably see you guys later."

She escaped from Sirius's grip and left, closing the compartment door behind her. Sirius looked at James, who was still staring at the door. "Jamsie? You ok?"

"Call me that one more time, and I'll hex you." James said, looking at him.

"Ok. Jamsie." Sirius said, trying to hide a smile.

James reached for his wand. "Ok, now you've had it!" But before he could, a prefect stuck his head into the compartement and told them to get changed into their school uniforms.

Sirius laughed, and they both woke Remus and the three got changed. As the train slowed to a stop, James couldn't help but think that this would be a year unlike any other.

A/N - What do yas think? Anything you want to say, whether it sucked or not, spelling and grammer, R/R!!!!