Summary: I'm sure that many of you, like me, have been curious as to how James and Lily got together. So I called up JKR and asked her. She filled in all the details for me, and I wrote them down in this story. No, really, I did. J-Ro and I go waaaaaaaay back.

A/N: This is my first story I've put up here, so I'm pretty excited. Flame on, if you must!

I think everyone knows I don't own Harry Potter. I did think him up, but I sold the idea to JKR for $20 and a meatball sandwich.

The first weekend back from summer holidays was always a hectic one at Hogwarts. Students spent the time going through their schedules and unpacking, but most of the time was used for catching up with everyone else. In the Gryffindor common room, nearly the entire house was gathered there, talking and laughing and sharing stories. In the middle of the commotion, James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black were reenacting the story of how they fought off fire-breathing scuffers during their vacation in Germany. The other sixth year students knew that they were making it all up, but were enjoying the story nonetheless.

Across the room, Lily Evans and Remus Lupin were busy helping first years find their belongings and hanging up notices on the message board in the common room. As prefects, they were trying to organize the house before the term began. Remus was also half watching his three friends entertain the other students. During one particularly outlandish part of the story, Remus laughed along with everyone else.

Lily was not impressed. "Why do you laugh at them? It isn't funny. They are acting like complete dolts. How can you even be friends with them?"

"Don't pay any attention to them then, Lily. Everyone knows it's a joke."

At that moment, a fire bolt shot across the common room and hit the message board, whizzing by Lily's head. Whirling around in shock, she immediately saw the other Gryffindors rolling with laughter. James still had his wand pointed in her direction, a look of shock on his face. Sirius had fallen over and was gasping for air. "Evans… your face…" Sirius had trouble saying through his laughter.

Lily fumed over to where James stood. "What do you think you are doing?" she yelled at him.

"Just having some fun, why? Is something wrong?" James grinned.

"Of course there is! That thing almost hit me! Are you trying to burn down the school?" Lily was growing more furious by the moment. Sirius caught sight of Remus trying to douse the small flames and doubled over again with laughter.

"Don't get yourself all upset," said James. "No harm was done. I was just trying to demonstrate I—"

"I know what you were trying to do. Just stop it, before I take points away from Gryffindor!"

The other students went back to their own conversations, tired of the now-familiar fight that had been reoccurring between James and Lily since their first year together. Sirius stood next to his friend. "Lighten up, Evans. You're getting worse every year."
"I could say the same about you," she answered coolly.

James held up his hands. "You know what you need Evans? A date with me. Want to go out?"

Lily couldn't help laughing. "You're kidding, right? You've been asking me this since last year. And the answer is the same. No." With that, she stormed off to the girls' dormitories.

"She's a lost cause, mate."

But James just shook his head. "It's going to happen this year, I'm telling you."

The next day, the Gryffindors had History of Magic with the Ravenclaws. After class was over, everyone headed down to lunch. The Marauders left together, talking and laughing down the hallway. Lily spotted them while talking to another girl in Ravenclaw. She said a hasty goodbye and approached the four boys.

"Watch out, Prongs, your girlfriend is coming this way," said Sirius.

James turned around and quickly ran his hand through his hair. When Lily walked up to them, he said in a deep voice, "Hi, Lily. How's it going?"

Lily rolled her eyes, ignoring him. "Remus, can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Uh, sure. What about?"

"Yeah, what about?" James said.

"Alone?" Lily asked Remus.

"Hey, anything you can say to him you can say to us," Sirius said.

Lily sighed. "Please?" She grabbed Remus' arm and led him away. James watched them and mouthed What are you doing? to Remus. Remus shrugged and let Lily pull him down the hallway.

When they were away from the group, she stopped and said, "Remus, I owe you an apology."

"An apology?"

"Yes, for what I said yesterday. I'm sorry that I snapped at you about James and Sirius. It's not your fault that they act like idiots. And you're their friend. I shouldn't hold that against you. You're a good guy, Remus, and I like you a lot. I consider us friends. And I shouldn't say those things about them in front of you. I feel like I put you in an awkward position, and I'm sorry."

"Um, thanks, Lily. You know, they really aren't that bad," Remus replied.

Lily chuckled. "Maybe not to you. Anyway, still friends?"

"Sure." Lily smiled and gave Remus a quick kiss on the cheek before hurrying off to join a group of Gryffindor girls.

As soon as Remus arrived at lunch, James pounced on him. "Well, what did she want? Did she say anything about me? And why are you all red?"

"I'm not all red," he said as he sat down.

"Yes you are," Sirius teased. "You're blushing."

"Well?" James demanded.

"She just wanted to apologize." Quickly Remus filled him in on the conversation.

"She thinks I'm an idiot?" James said.

Sirius laughed. "Of course she does. She says it about fifty times a day. When are you going to give up? It's been over a year and she still won't go out with you. Just get over it! You should go out with someone else."

James shrugged. "I don't know what it is. I just can't. I want to go out with her. There's just something about her, and it's driving me nuts."

"You're already nuts."

Later that evening, James and Remus were studying together in the Gryffindor common room. "I'm never going to get this done! Who cares about stupid goblins?" James threw his parchment on the table and flounced down on the couch. A couple of other students looked over at the sudden shout. James took his snitch out of his pocket and began to toss it in the air and catch it. The room returned to quiet for a few minutes as everyone else got back to their homework. All of a sudden, James sat up and grabbed Remus on the arm.

"I've got a great idea!" he whispered.

"What?" Remus replied, shaking off James' hand and returning to his essay.

"You can help me to get Lily."

"Oh, no. No way."

"Come on, mate. You're friends with her. Maybe you could find out why she won't go out with me, maybe put in a good word . . ."

Remus laughed. "There's no way she'll buy it. She'll know immediately what I'm doing."

James lay back down on the couch. "Then what am I going to do? I can't stop thinking about her. It's her fault I can't finish my homework. She's taken over my mind. Remus," he said in a serious tone, "you are the only one who can help me."

Remus finally put down his quill. "I don't think it will work."

"But you'll try, right? You'll find out what she wants?"

Remus just sighed and went back to his work. There was no way to talk James out of something once he got an idea in his head. The best thing to do, he figured, was just to let James ride this plan out until he thought of a new one.

Lily was also finding it hard to concentrate. She slammed her book shut. They already had a huge amount of homework, but after reading the same page four times, she decided to quit. It was all James Potter's fault she couldn't finish. She hadn't been back to school for a week and already James was trying his best to annoy her. He was so arrogant, so conceited! Just because he was a good quidditch player, he thought he could do whatever he wanted. Lily shook her head. All the girls loved James, but she knew better. She didn't care how popular he was, she would never be interested in him.