A/N: welcome to the wonderful world of fiction i never finish. I posted this story about 7 months ago, and fully intended to finish it. It didn't happen, but I am reposting in the hopes some will read, enjoy, review, and pester me to continue. This will actually be my third attempt to tell this story. Don't let that discourage you though, please R&R.

Summary: Lily and James' sixth year, Lily's POV. Not your average love story, and i suck at summaries. Read the first two chapters and you will know what it's all about.

Disclaimer: Anything you recognize from the Harry Potter books obviously does not belong to me, because I am not JK Rowling.

Lily Evans was a highly unusual girl in many ways. For one thing, she hated the summer holidays more than any other time of year. For another, she really wanted to do her homework, but was forced to do it in secret, in the dead of the night. And she also happened to be a witch.

The main reason for most of Lily's peculiarities could be summed up using one word: Petunia. The elder of the two sisters by a year and a half (17 months, 24 days, 8 hours and 6 minutes as Petunia would say), Petunia had wasted no time after finishing secondary school before becoming engaged; least of all to the worst sort of muggle imaginable.

His name was Vernon Dursley, and he was 4 years her senior. Recently, he had taken to coming to call on Petunia nearly every day, and unfortunately the pair had nothing better to do than sit around the house and criticize Lily's every move.

Lily tried to convince herself it was jealousy. After all, some would say Petunia was quite attractive. She was tall, thin (a little too thin in Lily's opinion, for she was also frail and bony), and blonde. However, these features did nothing to set her apart from the crowd, and she was quite ordinary.

Lily, on the other hand, could only be described as beautiful. Her thick auburn hair always fell in just the right way upon her shoulders, and her almond shaped eyes were a bright yet deep green. Although she was quite a bit shorter than her sister, her height complimented her thin frame.

So it came to pass that Lily spent nearly every day wandering the streets of her small town. Exploring the antique shops that littered it happened to be her favorite pastime, because every now and then, she came across an object so obviously magical it was a wonder the muggle owner had even put it on the shelf. Every time this happened she purchased the item, and by midsummer she had filled up nearly all the shelf-space in her bedroom.

When needed, Lily was also quite happy to work in her mother Rosemary's small bookshop, chatting with customers about their favorite novels and preparing coffee for them to drink while they perused the bookshelves. Reading books, particularly re-reading her favorites, was one of Lily's favorite activities.

Lily's continuous absence from her house presented a problem, however, she needed a time and place where she could do her homework undisturbed. Thus, she found herself staying up past 2 o'clock nearly every night. A particular essay for McGonagall was posing a particular threat, because, advanced as she was, transfiguration was surely her worst subject. Lily simply could not find enough information in any of the books she owned to write a well-organized essay on the ingredients needed for a proper truth-telling potion. She was dozing and her eyes began to close just as she heard the creak of her door.

"I wasn't sleeping," Lily said calmly as she shook her head and continued with her essay.

"Are you still awake studying?" Lily's father Richard asked, poking his head in her bedroom.

"Well, yes," said Lily matter-of-factly, "I would like to get this all done before the train-ride to Hogwarts."

"Lily, you do realize you don't have to do this at night," Richard reasoned, "There's a thing called daytime as well, Vernon and Petunia won't bother you."

"I'm sorry Daddy, but you're wrong, they just won't do it in front of you," Lily answered sweetly.

"Oh, well suit yourself," Richard sighed as he turned down the lights in her bedroom, "But don't stay up to late."

"I won't," Said Lily smiling, and she blew him a kiss, "Goodnight Daddy."

"Goodnight Lily," he said as he caught the kiss and pocketed it, shutting her door quietly.

Lily sat and stared at the door for quite some time after it was closed. She absolutely adored her father. For the first eleven years of her like he had been practically invisible to her. He was a businessman, coming and going as work allowed, taking extended trips to places such as America and Japan, leaving her mother's heart shattered every time he walked out the door.

But when she received her Hogwarts letter, things changed. He returned home from a 3-week stay in Hong Kong to find an overjoyed Rosemary thrusting a letter in his hand. He read the letter- which stated that Lily was in fact a witch- with disbelief on his face. When he was quite finished, he walked slowly up the stairs without comment into his study. Three hours later he emerged, and announced to the family that Rosemary would finally be able to open the bookshop she had always dreamed about, and he was quitting his job to become an author. Petunia had been furious. Now about to enter her sixth year at Hogwarts, the changes her father announced that night had become permanent, much to Lily's older sister's dismay.

Lily finished her musings and looked down at her almost blank piece of parchment. It was true that it was only the middle of July, and she had ages to finish her homework. As well, this one only one of two essays she had left. Sighing, she set down her books, parchment, prompt, and quill next to her bed and pulled her covers over her. Within minutes a deep sleep had swept over her, as if only waiting for her to quit fighting it.

The very next morning, Lily sat by herself in her mother's bookshop, working all alone while her mother and father accompanied Petunia and Vernon on their quest across Europe to find the perfect wedding location. No customers had yet shown up, so she busied herself dusting the books with her feather duster and organizing the store to her taste. A small bell chime signaled the first customer of the day, and she walked to the front of the store to find her least favorite person in the world.

"Hullo, Evans," James Potter said in a deep masculine tone.

"Hello, Potter," Lily said coolly as she turned and began to stack the new arrivals, "What are you doing here?"

"What? A guy can't drop in to see his favorite girl every once in awhile?" He said, and when she turned around, he gave her a confident grin.

"Not when it's you," Lily's icy voice cut through the air. "How did you even know I worked here?"

"Well, it was pretty easy, since I am a god and all," James said nonchalantly while browsing the bookshelves. He looked down at her, catching her eye and smiled. "No, actually my parents have decided to go on an antique shopping spree, and since this little town of yours is like antique heaven, they decided to start here. Besides, you would be surprised how many magical objects can be found in muggle antique shops. Idiots buy 'em, and it's an awful mess for the ministry. How do I look as a muggle?" He twirled like a fashion model and smiled.

"Horrendous, but you still haven't answered my question," she persisted, quietly noting that he was actually quite good looking in muggle attire.

"Oh yeah," he said with a smile, "To be honest I didn't know, my parents were paying for some antiques and having a conversation with the muggle next door when I said I would be in the next shop, and they told me they were planning on coming here next, so here I am."

"Wonderful," Lily sighed. "And to be honest, I don't think your parents will have much luck finding magical objects here, I've combed this town pretty well."

She did not look up from her stacking again until the door jingled for a second time. Strangely, James did not carry on annoying her, but seemed lost in a book he had pulled from a shelf.

The Potters walked in, and had Lily not known them to be James' parents, she would have never thought them to be wizards. Mrs. Potter's long auburn hair was pulled into an elegant ponytail, and her glasses made her look stylish and sophisticated. Mr. Potter, however, had the same jet black hair as James, and it seemed that although he had tried to tame it, there was no hope. What struck her most was both of them had bright, icy blue eyes, and for a split second she wondered where James' mysterious hazel eyes had come from.

"Mum, Dad," James said at once, "This is erm… Lily Evans, my friend from school."

"Oh what a pleasant surprise!" said Mrs. Potter, "I wasn't aware there were any wizarding families in this area."

"My mum and dad are muggles," Lily said quickly, "I'm a muggle-born witch."

"Oh well that's wonderful!" Mr. Potter exclaimed, "I'm glad James here met up with you, he was getting terribly annoying…"

"Yeah," said James, "hey, while you guys continue your quest for whatever you are looking for, can I hang out here? Lily and I have a lot of catching up to do?"

"We do?" Lily said a little quizzically while he looked at her pleadingly, "Oh, yes we do, I don't mind at all."

"Well, we wouldn't be able to return until later this evening…" Mrs. Potter said, unsure.

"That's alright," Lily said, surprised she was being this kind to James, considering the last time they had spoken, "The shop closes at six and I am usually here until seven."

"Well we shouldn't be that late," Mr. Potter said, as if he was pleading to leave his son behind as well.

"Alright," sighed Mrs. Potter, "We will back later this afternoon." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small scrap of parchment and a quill, "Is there a phone number to this shop where I can reach James if we need to talk to him?"

"Of course," Lily said, taking the quill and parchment and writing it down, "I'll answer the phone."

"Alright," said Mr. Potter, heading for the door, "We will see you later then."

"Yeah, later," James said distractedly. Lily looked over at him, and saw that he was lost in a book he had taken off of the shelf. At this, the Potters made their way out the door and down the street.

"Thanks for that," James said with relief, "You saved me back there, you did. Don't worry, I'll just sit here. I won't get in your way."

"You weren't having fun?" Lily said jokingly.

"Of course not," James replied, "My parents are mental."

"Oh, I don't know," Lily smiled, "Antique shopping can be quite fun." She would never divulge the information that this was in fact her guilty pleasure, and James looked at her as if she in fact was the mental one.

"Right," he said, with absolutely no agreement in his tone.

"So how did you parents know about telephones?" Lily asked, "I mean, I know you are pureblood as far back as medieval times."

"My parents are muggle freaks," he replied, "Since they are both pretty high up in the ministry, they doing a lot of liaising with muggles, they've just picked up some stuff. I guess this shopping spree is another phase of their muggle loving disease or something. By the way, thanks again for getting me out of it, I mean, I didn't really expect you to, given the state of our relationship."

Suddenly Lily turned ice-cold. "We have no relationship." She said plainly, "I did it because I am a kind person."

"Alright," he said, pulling the book he had been reading earlier from the shelf once again, "Don't mind me then."

"I won't," she replied.

Lily continued her cleaning, organizing, and reorganizing, as she watched James gaze intently into the pages of what she later found out was George Orwell's 1984. Well, at least he's not bothering me… she thought. After an hour of helping a few customers, she glanced back over at him, and noticed he couldn't be farther than page 15.

"What are you thinking about?" she asked quietly. He looked up as if she had woken him from a deep sleep.

"Oh, just this book," he said, looking back down at it, "'War is Peace?' what kind of rubbish is this?"

"You can't be further than twenty pages, obviously you aren't very into it," she pointed out.

"Oh, I guess your right," he sighed, "I'm just thinking about… erm… quidditch." A strange grin plastered his face.

"Okay, if you're not going to tell me," She smiled, "would you at least like something to drink?"

"Alright then," he said, and she sat down across from him and handed him a coffee.

The rest of the morning passed quite uneventfully. When a real customer arrived, Lily would jump up and move behind the desk, but after they left, she would resume her spot in the comfy armchair across from James, and they would talk about their summers, Hogwarts, what it would be like not to have classes with all of the gryffindors anymore, as they would be beginning their NEWT classes this year.

"But," James was quick to point out, "Me and Sirius have all the same classes, since we got all the same OWLs. I feel sorry for Peter though," he added, "he didn't do too well on his OWLs, I'm afraid he might be put in the remedial classes."

This, of course, was a shame, but Lily had expected no better out of Peter Pettigrew. He was such a scrawny boy; the only really amazing thing he had accomplished was getting in with the most popular boys at Hogwarts. However, the rest of the group only seemed to accept him for their amusement, tormenting him, and making him do all of their dirty work. Lily felt an immense compassion towards him. During the months leading up to their OWLs the previous year, she had spent three out of her five weeknights studying with him in a quiet corner, hoping that he might achieve at least a shadow of what she knew his friends were bound to accomplish. She knew it was hopeless, but she was disappointed to find that all her efforts had been fruitless.

"He did much better than he would have all on his own, of course," James added, seeing the disappointed look in Lily's face. Just then, the telephone rang, and Lily jumped up so quickly to answer it, a passerby would swear she had been sitting on a mousetrap which had just now decided to work.

"Good afternoon, Rosemary's Bookshop, how may I help you?" Lily answered the phone in a sweet voice. It was quite odd for anyone to call the shop, it was such a small town, people normally just dropped in, but she wanted to sound professional.

"Hello, is this Lily?" A woman's voice came back from the receiver, "This is Mrs. Potter, I'm really sorry, but I don't think we will be back as early as we expected. Would you mind terribly if James stayed with you until around 7 o'clock?"

Lily sighed and checked her watch, it was 4 o'clock. Normally, she would have minded terribly, but, not being surrounded by his posse seemed to bring about a change in James Potter, he had actually been quite a gentleman. "No, that's absolutely fine," she answered, "See you when you can get back." She paused for a second before turning to the figure sprawled on the floor examining books about football soccer in awe. "Turns out you'll be here longer than expected, your parents are… er… busy I suppose."

"No surprise there…" he sighed, "look, I'm really sorry about all of this; I really didn't expect them to take this long. I should've, they are always like this, but I didn't."

Lily chose to ignore this comment; he was getting a little too nice. Instead, she busied herself replacing the books customers had left on the tables which littered the bookshop after quickly browsing.

"I'm calling for dinner," she said finally, "are you hungry?"

"Of course!" he said smiling, "I mean, when am I not?"

"Good point," she agreed, picking up and dialing the telephone, "Do you like Chinese?"

"Chinese people?" he said in a confused voice, but Lily could not answer, for the person on the other line had answered. After placing her order, she begged them to please bring it down the street to the shop, since she could not leave.

"Chinese people?" James asked again, utterly bewildered.

"Chinese food," Lily answered, grinning at the thought that, although he knew much more than she about the wizarding community, he had absolutely no idea about anything about muggles.

"Ah, yes, I knew that," he said with a lopsided grin, and Lily could tell he knew no such thing.

"You're very lucky you know…" James mused distractedly, about a half an hour later, as Lily continued to clean the bookshop.

"Why is that?" She asked in a polite voice. After all, how could he know if she was lucky? He came from a wealthy family, was a talented wizard, revered by some as a genius, and he could have any girl he wanted, except, of course, Lily, because she was not shallow, and not planning on falling for that any time soon.

"You are just… I dunno… lucky, to be living with all the muggles. I mean, until recently, the muggles didn't even realize there was something evil out there, and even now, little muggle towns like this are safe." He sighed. "That's why my parents love visiting these towns, they like to know what all the wizards are sacrificing for, so towns like these can continue being ignorant and happy."

Lily smiled. She had never thought of it this way, the idea of all the muggles living without fear of the Dark Lord… of Voldemort. She shook the thought out of her head. Just at that moment, a bell jingled.

"That's our food!" Lily cried, jumping for joy at the thought of an entire Chinese feast. James watched her run to the door, and moments later she returned with a large bag in her hand.

"Bloody hell!" he exclaimed, "All of that for two people?"

"Of course," She smiled, "That's the great thing about Chinese food: there is a lot of it!" She began opening the cardboard packages. "Have you ever eaten on the ground before?" she said, sitting on the floor and patting the ground next to her.

"No," he said apprehensively.

"And you've never eaten Chinese food either?" she asked.

"Nope," he said, taking the seat next to her.

"Than this is two new experiences in one for you tonight," and she took a pair of chopsticks and began eating the sweet and sour pork.

"What are those?" he said, pointing at the chopsticks.

"These," she began, clearly enjoying all his confusion, "Are chopsticks. You eat with them." She proceeded to teach him how to use them, and after many failed attempts, he was able to successfully pick up a small amount of food. While James devoured his food, occasionally spitting out phrases such as "this is bloody brilliant!" and "wicked!" a bell jingled for a second time, and Lily looked up to see a young boy of about her age, with dark brown hair and a tall, chiseled body, walking through the door.

"Put that down," she hissed at James, who had been prodding the fried rice with his wand, which he hastily stuffed into his jeans pocket. "Hey, Carl!" Lily cried, standing up to go greet him. "What are you doing here?"

"I got off work early, and I didn't want you to be lonely here all day all by yourself," he said, a tone of hurt in his voice, "I didn't realize you had company."

"Oh!" she cried, understanding his plight, "I'm really glad you came by, I thought I was going to be alone all day as well! This is my friend, er… James." She searched for the words that would not get her, as well as the entire wizarding community in big trouble. "Remember how I told you I go to boarding school most of the year up north?"

"Yes," Carl answered, slightly bewildered.

"Well, James is a friend from there," she said, amazed her cover story was so close to the truth.

James stood up to say hello, shaking Carl's hand a tad bit more firmly than he would have with a common acquaintance. Lily had always given James credit for at least being rather fit, but next to Carl he looked scrawny and weak.

"James," Lily said uncomfortably, "This is my… er… friend, Carl. We've been dating for the past couple of weeks." James just nodded, apparently incapable of speech. Carl kissed Lily on the cheek, making it apparent to James they were not dating around, and that Carl thought of this as quite a serious relationship.

"I better be going," he said, "My mum is waiting for me at home, and I just thought I would stop by."

"Alright," Lily said. "See you tomorrow then?"

"Of course," he said, giving James a final glare and heading out the door.

"So you two are quite serious then?" James asked, trying to sound as though he didn't care either way, but failing dismally at it.

"Not as serious as Carl likes to think," said Lily, not noticing James' concern. "I have enough to be going on with without a steady boyfriend."

"Right," James said simply, and sat down, once again picking up a book about football.

A/N: I decided to open with the two getting along instead of fighting, and then move on to more hating of guts by Lily and failed wooing by James because I wanted it to be a real disappointment when they fight. Anyways, most of these stories open with squabbling, but I wanted a really good picture of why they should be together, not just the fact that we know they will be.

Also, Carl's name was originally Brandt, which to me, siginfies a real preppy, jockyname, just the perfect name for a football soccer player. However, although it is a British name, I thought it sounded too young for the 70's, so I changed it to Carl, which, although ugly, is fitting, since it means 'strong one.'