Disclaimer: I am not J.K Rowling and therefore do not own Harry Potter.

Beta by: ilovethedotgame

Chapter One: A Beginning by penguin'n'tales

This chapter is dedicated to my Beta reader, ilovethedotgame, for her support of my stories and her enthusiasm in editing.

For those of you who have not read, "In This Journal" (which is Lily's journal), "This is Not a Journal" should be able to stand alone as a separate story, but I would advise reading "In This Journal" because it gives a very different perspective of things.

This is not a journal. It is an idea notebook. And in this notebook, I, James Potter, am going to write down ideas on how to ask Lily Evans out and then record the results.

This whole idea notebook thing is a bit on the strange side, but I had an empty book and I have nothing else to do with it, so why not write about how wonderful Lily Evans is?

If you were to describe Evans in one word it would be perfect. She has red hair; my favorite color is red. She has green eyes; I like green eyes. And red and green are Christmas colors, and I like Christmas. Evans comes to all the quidditch matches so I can only assume that she must enjoy it, and there's another thing I like. I'm proud to say that I am a Chaser on the Gryffindor House team. I hope to be Captain someday... say next year.

Back to Evans. She's very pretty and I'm not the only one who thinks so. Only half of the male population wants to date her. She's all mine though, or will be anyway, when I ask her out.

I have a brilliant plan all laid out. The Halloween Feast is coming up tomorrow and I'm going to stand up and ask her out in front of everyone. Sirius claims that girls like attention in that way, so I'll give it to her.

She said no! How dare she? People just don't say no to me. That sounded really stuck up, I know, but it's just a fact of life. I'm an only child, only grandchild on both sides and I'm good at a lot of stuff, so 'no' is not a word I'm used to hearing.

But she said it! The first time I asked, she completely ignored me, and the second time she said no and stomped on my foot! It hurt too! I think I have a bruise now.

Why won't she go out with me? I'm a likeable guy, aren't I? I've never had any trouble getting a girl to go out with me before, why now, when I really want to date Evans, is she saying no?

Sirius thinks I've completely lost it; he reckons that Evans is all wrong for me. Obviously, I disagree. Evans is perfect for me. I'll get her someday; I know it.

Remus hasn't exactly come out and said his feelings on the matter, but I can tell that he's of the same opinion as Sirius. Maybe he still likes Evans, he sort of fancied her last year...I thought he's gotten over her, maybe not.

What did I ever, ever do to her? She's avoiding me and sending me nasty looks. Did I insult her hair once? Or maybe she was an innocent bystander in a prank that went wrong? Whatever it was, I don't know because she won't tell me and neither will her friends. Remus says that I'm supposed to figure it out myself. Isn't he so helpful?

Well, that was a productive hour spent in Arithmancy. I spent it staring at the back of Evans's head. Sirius, my best mate in the whole wide world, decided to throw paper at her and her friends. Her friend Alice is quick with a wand and cast a shielding charm on all of them so that they were protected from the flying paper.

On her way out of the class, Alice approached me and dropped at the paper bits that Sirius had thrown at her on our heads. Let me just say this: White paper scraps and black hair really don't go together. According to Peter, another of my friends, it looked like we had really bad cases of dandruff.

Quidditch has to be the best sport in the entire world. Today was the first quidditch match of the year. It was against Slytherin, my favorite. I love to beat them into the ground, the slimy gits.

Evans attended with her friends; I could see her up in the stands amongst a group of girls all waving Gryffindor pennants. Sad to say, she didn't have a pennant, but she was there none-the-less.

I decided to ask her out after the game. I flew over to her on my broom after we had won and magnified my voice so that everyone in the stadium could hear.

In response, she threw her shoe at me. I dodged it easily; she doesn't exactly have the best aim the world. I pocketed the shoe and it's going to be my lucky charm. I'll bring it to all of my games.

Remus told me that he doesn't like Evans anymore, but I have my doubts.

Remus: "No, I don't fancy Lily anymore."

Me: "Are you sure? I saw you looking at her today in Potions."

Remus: "James, I was her partner! How could I not look at her?"

Me: "Well...if you're sure..."

Remus: "I am, Prongs. Lily doesn't mean a thing to me."

Me: "Good."

Today, I kissed Evans.

Oh, Merlin, it was good.

We were on our way to Charms when I saw some mistletoe floating over her head. There were a couple of guys eyeing her so I took it as my duty to keep her from them.

She was really surprised at first, and didn't object, but then she seemed to realize what was happening and quickly pulled away.

Behind me, my friends were laughing and her friend Hestia looked like she was going to crack a smile. Personally, I was in heaven just then. Evans, on the other hand, looked livid.

Evans: "Potter! You prat! What did you do that for?"

Me: "It's custom."

Evans: "What?"

Potter: "Mistletoe."

She looked up, saw the plant and immediately pulled out her wand and vanished it. The moment she took her wand out, Filch turned the corner.

You have to admit, it was kind of funny. I swear, that man has some sort of built in radar to tell if students have their wands out. Filch gave her detention Friday night. Evans didn't think it was very funny though. She looked like she was going to cry, actually.

One detention and her world crumbles! I've had...well, I've had a lot of detentions and I'm still alive. What does she think is going to happen? It's not as though detention is that bad.

I tried to make her feel better by asking her out. She said no.

Remus says that I should apologize to Evans for getting her into detention. But, I didn't do anything! She's the one who used magic in the hallway! I just kissed her, big deal.

Well, that didn't go well.

Tonight was the night of Evans' detention so I waited up for her to apologize.

I said that I was sorry, and she seemed to appreciate it and was being nice to me. Wow, what a concept!

I then asked her out and she stormed off to her room in a huff. What did I do now?

Evans's friend, Alice, came up to me today and wanted to have a word. I wasn't sure what she wanted, but I followed her to the library and sat down at a table with her.

Alice: "James, did you make that mistletoe appear over Lily's head?"

Me: "No!"

But that's not a bad idea...I'll have to keep that in mind.

Alice: "Seriously James, Lily's really upset about it."

Me: "Why? I wasn't that bad of a kisser was I?"

Alice: "Oh, Merlin...I don't know if I should be telling you this, but...that was her first kiss James."

Me: "So?"

It was mine, too, for that matter. But don't tell anyone, I have a reputation to uphold after all.

Alice: "So? A girls first kiss is supposed to be special and you ruined it for her."

Me: "I ruined it? How?"

Alice: "You kissed her, that's how."

Well, some other guy would have gotten to her first if I hadn't made my move. And then where would she be? Kissed by some guy she doesn't even know. At least I'm in the same year as her and a Gryffindor. It was an act of kindness really. I don't see why I'm practically being shunned for it.

What is it about Evans? She gets upset about the stupidest things.

So I hexed some girl to moo? She was being annoying, so I stopped her. I was going to take the spell off her soon anyway. Evans didn't have to be act like I was some sort of bully. It's like she wants to make me look bad....

I hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Feel free to review!