Authors notes: ok this is my first Lily and James fanfic, please don't laugh at me. It will sort of follow what happens in OOTP, but it might not. I don't know, I haven't decided. It was actually posted before this (just this chapter) and it went funny so I pulled it off the boards and re- posted it

Disclaimer: everything belongs to J.K Rowling, except the things you don't recognise

Oh, by the way, if I don't describe something, its probably one you already know, from the book or elsewhere. Just so that you know, James family is Old money, and live in a mansion. Lily's are just a bit over the average mark, but Lily attended a prestigious private primary school on scholarship.

Chapter One - When Lily met James

On the morning of the first of September, a boy named James Potter rolled out of bed. Bleary eyed, he stumbled to the bathroom to brush his teeth, wondering why half the contents of his luxurious room were gone. Half way through his back teeth, it hit him. It was the first day of school.

"Oh crap," he mumbled, quickly walking over to his antique dresser, smashing into it with his big toe and swearing. It was probably a good thing that he had been a noisy child and his parents had soundproofed his room. He grabbed that days clothes, changed and did a mental checklist on the things he had used that morning and was supposed to put away.

As fast as humanly possible, he carried his trunk down the stairs, leaving a drag mark on the carpet in his wake, or rather the wake of the trunk. Pausing for a second, ignoring the telling-offs for scruffiness that the mirror gave him, he stuck his head into the dining room where his parents were eating breakfast.

"Hurry up mum, where going to be late for the train!"

"No we won't James, it won't leave without you"

That thought soothed James. He took a breath, and peeked in the hallway mirror to see the damage that running around had taken on his appearance. Not too bad, hair a little messy, even by his standards. It didn't really matter. the front door was magicked to neaten things up when they walked under it, though it didn't really tame James's unruly hair. Even so, it helped. James was short for an eleven year old, about ten centimetres under average. He had gorgeous blue eyes, glasses, and was much sought after by the girls. But James thought he was to young to take an interest in girls, and ignored their purpose when they liked him that way. it wasn't that he didn't like girls, they were nioce after all, he just didn't take and interest in them like that . Now, he made the hair that the girls liked so much, even messier, by running his hand through it when he remembered the time his sister missed the train.

"Yes it will. Don't you remember Bethany's second year? She missed it by 20 seconds, and you had to fly her all the way to Hogwarts, remember?"

"Oh yes to think that I had forgotten. The look on her face..."

"Mum, lets go!"

James ran down the stairs, his mother following at a leisurely pace

"MUM!

"Alright, alright"

The bags were put into the boot of the family Mercedes, James and his mother ushered into the back seat by the house elves, the chauffeur in the front, and they were off, to James first year of Hogwarts.
A scratch on the nose woke Lily Evans with a start. It was her newly bought tortoiseshell cat, Amazon, named for the colour of his bright green eyes. She looked at her calendar and shrieked, it was the first day of school. Normally Lily loved school, excelled at all of her subjects. But this school was different. It was called Hogwarts School for witchcraft and wizardry. It was a school for magical children. Lily was thrilled when she had received the letter saying that she had magic, and was chosen to go to this great school. But now that it was time to go, she was a bit scared. No, not a bit, a lot.

Lily was the sort of person that got nervous easily. Even though she excelled at everything, she wasn't really aware that she was better than most others. The fact that it was a new school, one where she had no idea of what would happen, made her very nervous.

What if I suck at everything? She thought. I've never been at the bottom of the class. Heck I've never even had to try very hard in class. It was all just easy.

She paced around the room, doing some last minute packing. All the while her stomach was doing somersaults. She had never ever been this nervous. She returned to her earlier thoughts, with an even worse one hanging above her head. It had just occurred to Lily that she didn't know a single soul at her new school. None. Nada. Zilch. She started worrying that know one would like her. At her old school, she wasn't one of the popular girls, but she had a lot of friends and that was good enough for her. Deciding that if she was nice she would have friends in no time, Lily rushed down the stairs to tell her parents and Petunia, her sister, to hurry up.

"What, are you going to go to your new school dressed like that?" asked Petunia. She was a great sister, and one of Lily's best friends.

"Why, what's wrong with it... oh" Lily had forgotten to get dressed. She was standing half out the door with her pink furry pajamas on, and half the boys in the neighbourhood were up and staring. Though she didn't know it, Lily was considered a hot pick on the romance market. She was petite, and had fair, flawless skin. Her auburn hair went down ten centimetres past her shoulders. But the thing that people noticed most was her pair of stunning green eyes.

She squeaked and raced upstairs, a piece of toast halfway to her mouth, hair streaming out like a banner behind her. She got changed at record pace, and flew down the stairs and into the car, where her parents, her sister, and her belongings waited patiently for her. They drove off to Kings Cross station where Lily's first year of Hogwarts awaited.
"Hurry up! Stupid traffic!" He pounded on the window for more effect "James, yelling isn't going to do the slightest bit of good, we won't move any faster. More likely that someone is going to get out of their car and bop you on the head" Mrs Potter sighed, impatient at her only son

"That I would like to see," said the chauffeur. His name was Martin, and had been working for the Potters since before James was born. He was about fifty, and his hair was starting to go grey, but he still enjoyed life. He was one of the nicest people James had ever met, but then, James's standards of nice were different to other peoples. 'Good at pranks' was one of the values James included in nice.

"So much for being one of the nicest people I know" James grumbled. It was well know in the family circle that the Potters considered Martin family.

"Ah, but I am being nice" said Martin with a grin "this way of nice is good for you in the long run. I am making sure that you do not become overconfident. You'll thank me when you older"

"Fat chance I will."

"Martin is right James," said his mother "there are ways that might seem cruel at the time, but are really actually nice things to do. Take a white lie for example. You are lying, but its only to make the person feel better about themselves, so that they can go and make a fool of themselves.... Ok, different example. Telling someone that what he or she is wearing looks bad, but you don't say it in front of everyone else. You say it privately, got it."

"Yes mum" replied James in a bored tone, gazing out the window. He was used to these lessons. While he had been schooled on the usual things, Maths and so fourth, he had also had grammar and courtesy lessons. As the heir to the family fortune, he had to show that he was well brought up. Which he was. He just sometimes forgot to act like it, because of his wicked sense of humour and adventure.

"Give me an example," replied his mother, ever intent to educate her son properly, just as a mother should.

A spark came into James' eyes, and a wicked grin spread across his face "Alrighty then" he replied "but can I wait until I get to the station?"

"NO!' answered his mother forcefully, recognising the mischievousness in his eyes. It meant James would go and play a prank, or say something uncalled for, or just do something that he thought was funny. Usually involving embarrassing someone."I said example, not go and bully some poor girl with piggy tails. Forget we had this conversation"

"From which part"

"Right before you said 'fat chance'"

"Fat chace I will"

"James!!"

"Sorry mum"
"Aren't we there yet? What's taking so long?"

"Traffic jam sweetie" replied Mr Evans, "longest I've seen in years"

"Am I going to be late? How will I get to school? It said to be on time!"

"Lily, honey, we left at eight o'clock. It usually takes us ten minutes to get to the station, but at this rate it will take ¾ of an hour. That still gives us fifteen minutes. Calm down. You won't be late" said Debbie Evans, Lily's mother. She was a very convincing person with green eyes and fair skin that she had passed on to her daughter. Her hair was cropped to her shoulders, and she was tall and thin. Lily had not inherited the tall part.

"Ok, I'll be calm." She turned around to look out of the back window. Suddenly she started to giggle, then laugh

"Lily, what is so funny" asked Petunia "you haven't laughed this hard since... that time that I slapped Fredrick"

"You WHAT?" said Mr and Mrs Evans

"I remember that, that was funny. The look on his face...."said Lily at the same time

"Well Fredrick – you remember Fredrick don't you" asked Petunia

"Yes Pet we do" said her parents

"Yeah, well Fredrick and I went to that dance, you remember, the one-"

"Yes, we remember!" Petunia had one of those annoying traits that make you explain everything the long way.

"Yeah, so we went to the dance, and he said I looked gorgeous, and you know, that sort of stuff. And then this other girl came and danced with him, and he talked to her for a while, she was actually really nice. Yeah, and so she comes up to me and goes ' Fredrick is so nice, you're so lucky to have a guy like him as your brother' and I said ' he's not my brother, he's my boyfriend' and she goes he said he was your brother' and then we both screamed at him for a while, coz it turns out he organised a date with her the next week, and this girl comes up and said ' but he's going out with me!' so we all got really angry at him, and we slapped him, and his face was this massive bruise for a week."

"Sorry Petunia dear, I didn't get any of that," said Mrs Evans with a puzzled look on her face.

"See Pet, I told you know one can understand you when you talk like that" smirked Lily "she meant that Fredrick cheated on her, so she slapped him"

"Why couldn't you just have said that Petunia, life would be so much easier." Sighed their father

"Where's the fun in that?" chorused Lily and Petunia together, bursting into giggles.

"Any way Lily, back to my question" said Petunia after the giggles had gone" what was so funny?"

"oh nothing really" replied Lily, giggling slightly again " but we went past this reaaaaally expensive looking car and their was this boy in it and he looked so out of place because his hair was sticking up and he was wearing jeans, and his mum - I think she was his mum -she was giving him this lecture and it looked so funny".

Petunia laughed too " I'm not the only one that talks without breathing around here. Not metioning any names... Lily"

The car pulled up to the station. the girls eyes began to leak at the thought of being seperated for a long time - after all they were best friends.

' I love you Lils"

"I love you sis'

"Bye"

"Bye"

"Sorry to interupt this painful goodbye girls" said Mrs Evans with a smile. " but we have to go. I'll go in with Lily, Pet, you'll be to scared. You know that weird things-"Lily glared at her "- different things, give you a fright" said their mother.

"I'll park the car," added Lily's Dad "be careful Poppet" advised her dad

"I will daddy," Lily promised, "Love you"

Lily got her things out of the boot while her mother grabbed a trolley. They put her things on it, and walked off towards the station.

"What platform is it Lily?" asked her mother

"Nine and ¾ mom" replied Lily promptly. She had stayed up most of the nights that holiday looking at her school things; her ticket was always the thing she looked at first.

"Lily, there is no Nine and three quarters" said her mom uncertainly, looking around the station. She was right. There was platform Nine to their left and platform ten to their right. Nothing in between but people and luggage.

Doom seemed to set in. Lily's hopes faded, but then they heard it

"NINE AND ¾ HERE I COME!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!"

"James, shut up"

"Are we there yet" asked a bored James for the thousandth time. He hated long car drives.

Stupid restrictions, he thought viciously, why can't I fly to the train station? Whoever thought up that rule was a total nutter.

"Yes James, I am pleased to announce, we are there," answered Martin, smiling at James's antics. Yes he could be stupid and unreliable at times, but he was a kid and never let you forget it, the way he acted.

"Finally! How long was that, an hour?" As stated before, James hated car drives. Couldn't stand them. What's the point of moving around in something that doesn't fly, he always thought. Might as well walk. Don't know how Muggles manage

"Twenty minutes James. Honestly, you are going to have to learn to live with car drives, or learn to keep your complaining to yourself. As the latter is highly unlikely, you will have to learn to live with car"

"But mum" whined James "I have to go in them twice a year. That's a lot. Can't I whinge a little bit? Pretty please?" he gave his mother puppy dog eyes.

"Ok then James, once every three years. Happy?" Meridith Potter smiled at the stupidity of the conversation. "Come on, let's get on the train."

James jumped out of the car and helped his mother find a trolley to put his trunk on, nearly knocking her over in the process. After yelling a hurried goodbye to Martin, who went to park the car, James and his mom set of to find the train.

James ran ahead and yelled "NINE AND ¾ HERE I COME! WOOHOO!!" everyone turned to stare. 'Sorry just being silly' James assured them

"Young kids these days", muttered a granny

"Oh no" muttered James as he saw his mother catching up to him

"Good luck mate" murmured a passing kid with black eyes and hair. He looked like a kid that had done something to get in trouble with the oldies before.

"James Harold Potter" grumbled his mother under her breath." If you weren't going away to school today you would be in big trouble. There's muggles everywhere! But since you are going away, I'll just have to embarrass you in public" she grinned mischievously at him, before saying in a big overly dramatic voice "Oh my Jamsie Poo is going of to his big school all by himself. I can't believe you've grown up so fast!" before grabbing James, his trolley and walking through the barrier, which had looked like a solid wall to James, but proved to be not so solid.

James appeared on the other side of thebarrier in shock. He rocked back and fourth on his feet, his face pale. even though his parents were magical, and he had saw them doing magic, he had never actually attempted it at all. still in shock, he walked forward muttering in amazment.

"I cannot believe I just walked through a wall"

Authors notes. Please review. I love suggestions for the plot and I'm really thankful for any support. I would really like someone to read my stories before they go on the site. Please email me if you are interested.