I remember the first time I saw Lily Evans. At the time, I was in Diagon Alley, looking at the latest broom, the Nimbus 1000, the summer before Hogwarts began. I had just turned eleven and my parents were letting me get anything I wanted. That was when Lily Evans walked into my life.

Fell into it to be more accurate.

"OWWWW!" I cried, suddenly finding myself on the ground with some redheaded girl on top of me. For a second I couldn't help staring. She had the strangest eyes.. they were kind of like huge green emeralds, and, even at the young age of eleven, I was hypnotized. She blushed furiously, breaking me out of my trance. I took the hand she offered me awkwardly.

"You know, you really out to look where you're going", I grumbled. She gave me this look, and said rather heatedly "It wasn't as though I had a choice. Really, when you're lost and then somebody pushes you, you don't have much room for debate, do you?"

It took me only the length of those two sentences when I figured out that she was the most gorgeous girl I had ever seen.

Nothing about what she said or did would indicate that, I confess. I guess that's just me for you.

I just stood there, unable to say anything. She looked at me for one more minute, and then she just walked off, muttering things about strange boys under her breath. At the time I couldn't tell what had come over me. I went home that day, thinking about that beautiful girl I had seen. It occurred to me I didn't even know her name at the time.

I prayed to the gods that she went to Hogwarts.

I saw her at the sorting. I couldn't help noticing she seemed to be fitting in just fine. I wasn't doing too bad myself. My best friend Sirius and I had met two other boys, Remus and Peter, and we were already fast friends. Luckily they didn't notice I was looking at her.

Four years came and went, and I would see Lily (as I learned her name was) fleetingly in the common room, in the classroom, places like that. Slowly I began to forget about looking for her, and became interested in other girls, as well as pranks and figuring out how to be an animagus. After all, Lily and I never talked or anything. Then, one day in my fifth year, I saw her. Really saw her, the way I never had, not even that day in Diagon Alley. It was late at night, and I had just come back from my quidditch practice. She had just gotten back from something as well, a prefect meeting I think. Remus had mentioned something about it earlier that day.

Anyway, she looked really tired. For some reason or other I remember that. Probably because that was the day that we had turned the whole third floor into a swamp, and she had had to help clean it. She had sat down on one of the couches, and she looked about ready to fall asleep. Then, out of nowhere, this first year girl came over to her, no doubt asking for help on her homework

Idiot I thought she's just going to yell at you. After all, that's what prefects did, right?

Wrong. Lily opened her eyes and smiled at the girl, then proceeding to help her for the next half hour. I was confused, and amazed. I never would have done something like that.

That's when I realized something. Something that, even that day in Diagon Alley, I had never known before.

I was in love with Lily Evans.

*****

I remember the first time I had ever seen James Potter. He hadn't seen me though. I had been buying my wand, and as I was leaving, he came in. He hadn't looked in my direction, though. He had no reason to. But even though I didn't know him, he was striking. Not amazing, or wonderful, just.striking. The kind of person you don't forget about. He had jet black hair, glasses, and lovely warm hazel eyes.

Later that day I was pushed into him. It was rather embarrassing, especially because he started to stare at me. Seemingly hypnotized now that I think about it. I remember vaguely thinking he was crazy. However, I couldn't help wondering if he was going to Hogwarts as well.

I was surprised and pleased to discover I quickly made several friends. The nicest of all was Alice; a girl who I could tell was taken by a certain boy named Frank.

I saw him at Hogwarts, and was quite pleased to find that he as well had some friends. A sandy haired, sweet looking boy, a tall dark haired boy who looked a lot like...well, I didn't know his name at the time, so I skipped over that..and a boy with a face like a rat. I carefully avoided looking at him, but I caught him glancing over in my direction a few times. Or, at least I thought it was my direction. I could never be sure.

I never actually spoke to him for four years. At first it was because I was too shy to. Then, I started to see that he wasn't as sweet and kind as he looked. He pulled pranks, some rather embarrassing, even degrading to others. Especially on that poor boy, Severus Snape. Severus would call me hurtful names, making me upset, but when another prank was pulled, I would always take pity on him. Soon, I was the only Gryffindor who didn't find the Marauders funny. I was able to stop some things once I became a prefect, but it barely helped. At this point, I hated James Potter, and wondered if there was anything that had intrigued me that first day besides his glasses.

James seemed to have reached some sort of a..I don't know, some sort of a revelation.. And one day I realized that there were days in class where he would just stare at me. I didn't know whether to be pleased or offended. But you can bet that when he asked me out, I shot him down like a duck. And the strangest thing was, he kept asking me, over and over again. It was as though he was in love with me or something. But there was no way in hell I was going to be James Potter's one weeker, there just to make him feel better about himself.

Two more years passed. Now it was our seventh year at Hogwarts. I had dated a few people, but James scared them all away. Despite this, I couldn't help noticing that around the end of sixth year, a change had come over James, and not just in his voice. He had become calmer, kinder, and more mellow some time around the end of sixth year. We had become somewhat like friends. However, his dogged pursuits of me never seemed to quit. Finally, I'd had enough.

It was the end of a prefect and head meeting, and we, being, the head boy and girl, were left to clean up. As we cleaned in silence, I finally asked.

"Why do you chase me so much?" I blurted out. I felt my face flush. That had come out all wrong.

James looked up at me, and his expression turned from surprise to laughter. I smiled a bit sheepishly.

"Why????" he said incredulously, when his laughter died away "Do you want to hear the truth?" he asked me seriously. I paused to consider this. Ordinarily I would have said yes right away, but I felt a major revelation approaching. Finally I nodded. He sat down for a moment, then said: "That's not a difficult question. I suppose a harder one would be as to why I wouldn't chase you. Maybe you aren't aware of it, but first off, you're gorgeous. You're witty, you're brave.." I felt my face flush. I was already surprised. James was being perfectly serious, and he had this look, like even talking about me was wonderful. It was overwhelming. And then, suddenly, I knew what I was going to do. In a way it was surprising, but in another, I knew it had to be done. "..you're smart, kind, generous-" At that point he was cut off, because I had started to kiss him. At first I was the only one (James seemed to be in shock) but then he returned the embrace. It was slow and sweet, my first real kiss. And in that instant, I knew.

I was in love with James Potter.