To Have And To Hold.

Summary: Lily Evans and James Potter must go back in time to save a boy from Death Eaters. He conceals a secret that could change the lives of everyone in the wizarding world. As expected there will be a lot of L/J love/hate (Which may get annoying). It's not a great plot, I know, but I'm thinking of one-two more and I need to practice somewhere. Bear with me and R/R!

DISCLAIMER: I own the bloody, stupid, rubbish plot (I don't know WHY I admitted that). JKR own everything else.

A/N: Ehm… yes. It's me. I dare to show my face still. Well, firstly, all those who endured that previous… er, chapter… I know it was bad. Bad doesn't begin to describe it. But, seriously, I'm not in the greatest frame of mind at the mo. I nearly cried when I saw that chapter. I don't cry, unless I'm very very very angry. But… yeah. Okay, so this chapter is… a little better, I think. Bear with me. Writer's block isn't fun. And, er, the diary entries may seem a bit boring, but this is how I imagine them in my head. You know, with the weird logic and dry humour? So…

Thanks to all these brave people:
hottiegirl: I appreciate your honesty.
MsMissProngs: Thank you very much.
Shraddha: There's no scope, Clone.
Aoms: FINALLY.

Also, some of you did not understand the relevance of the Dress robes part. I was trying to, you know, get started on their relationship and all, but… well. Okay, on with it then.

School, again.

17th September, 1965, 7:35 am, America, across from James Potter.

There's something I'd never think of seeing in this diary. But, hardly anything in this diary is ever expected. I want to write tales about travels and adventures and thrills and… well... all that.

Not about James Potter.

I hate James Potter. He's an absolute troll.

However, as the weeks progress, these pages will see a rather lot of him, unfortunately. I will, however, try to keep any mention of his Royal Ungodliness to a bare minimum.

We arrived in the United States this morning. The name of the school we will be attending for the next few weeks is called The River Valley School of American Magic. I tried hard to understand the logic behind that, but I really couldn't come up with anything. Well, I'll soon crack it, I suppose. Lily Evans: Born Sleuth.

That was humour. From me. It's really miraculous what not being in conversation with Potter does for me.

Er, moving on, the Principal, as they call the Headmaster here is William Clarke. He seems quite a silly man, in my opinion. Nothing at all, on Dumbledore. He actually passed off our style of dressing as 'classical'. Potter looked quite disturbed. He wears nothing but the latest fashions, I have heard. As far as I'm concerned, my "social life is less active than Peter's" so what do I know?

The school seems alright. All we've seen is the walk from the headmaster's Principal's office to the Dorms. It's clean, I can say that much. We won't be going to our dorms till 8:00 am, when the students are dressed and ready. Bah! American culture.

I suppose today's the day that we will be seeing Justin Jones as well. Hmm… I think he will be a shy, quiet boy. Well mannered and nice. He'll need some one protective… Like a sister or the like.

Potter will try to ruin everything, I'm sure, but, I will not let that happen. I won't, I won't, and I WON'T.

So there.

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17th September, America, Couch.

Evans looks beautiful when she writes. Her hair sort of falling on her face, her nose scrunching up, now and then. She's a beautiful girl.

So why won't she GO OUT WITH ME?

Just because I 'annoy her a great deal'? Ha! She annoys ME a 'great deal'! Is that deterring me? No! Well, she'll come around eventually, I suppose.

We arrived in America around a half hour ago. The Principal (Yes, no Headmaster here. It's PRINCIPAL.) is a complete dope. I mean, the guy is so thick he actually thought I dressed 'classically'. This is the HEIGHT of fashion 15 years later. Moron. Whoever made him Principal, anyway? Fool.

We go to our dormies at eight. Should be fun to have more people praying to the dust of my feet. In Hogwarts, I'm the cool messy haired lad. HERE, I'm the cool messy haired ENGLISH lad. Definite advantage. Evans will be pretty popular too, come to think of it. I pity the chaps. The school nurse will have a real job, when that ball approaches. Still, it's quite entertaining to watch her turn down all the lads in newer and more innovative ways.

Oh and we'll be meeting that Justin Jones too, today. Ha! He'll be a breeze to befriend. Probably like Wormtail. Will need a hero to look up to, who I can easily be.
I hope Evans doesn't try to be all martyr-ish and like an elder sister to the boy. There's nothing more insulting to diminutive person. I won't let her spoil this. I WON'T. So there.

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Lily shut her monogrammed, leather bound journal and put it away in her bag. When she glanced up, she saw James doing the same with a ratty old notebook. A diary? Potter? It couldn't be!

"Some introspection, Potter?"

James looked at her with a start. "Introspection? No, I was just listing the ten best ways to seduce you."

Lily rolled her eyes. "You could have just asked me, I'd tell you the best way."

James looked at her wearily. "Really? And what's that?"

"Go jump in a dry well. I have a thing for horribly malformed people."

"Obviously, you've lived with yourself for all these years."

"Touché, Potter."

James laughed.

"Excuse me?"

A pretty brunette stood near the doorway. "James Potter and Lily Evans?"

James leapt up and rushed forward. "That's us," he said, offering her his right hand while running his left through his hair. "I'm James." He gave the girl a roguish smile.

The girl looked a bit frightened. "Um, I'm Cheryl."

Lily smiled and said, "Pleased to meet you, Cheryl."

"Yeah. Right back atcha. Um, the princi said you gotta come to the Dorms now. Class starts in half an hour, so better shake a leg."

Lily and James were confused. "You want us to dance?"

"Huh? Nooo! I meant get your butts to the dormitories!"

"…"

"Oh, just follow me!"

And that's exactly what they did.

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"… that's the guy's dorms. You can go right in. I think Justin's in ya dorm."

Lily and James exchanged a glance. Well, Lily looked at James. James continued to look at Cheryl.

"Okay then, buh bye!"

James raised his hand in slow motion. "Bye, Carol."

Cheryl giggled. "Cheryl!"

"Oh… yes. Well, it's hard to concentrate on the name, when I'm concentrating on those pretty eyes."

Cheryl giggled some more. Lily turned green.

"Come now, Cheryl," she said. "Shouldn't we... er... shake a leg?"

"Oh… yeah. Come on, Lily. See ya, James."

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"Right this way, girly. So, you're Brit, huh? Cool. I love your accent. By the way, our dorm is kinda messy. So… don't mind, awright?"

"Alright," Lily said. How awful can it be?

Very, as it turned out.

There were piles of clothes, stacks of cassettes, posters, tissues, perfume, hair spray… Everything. But most of all, there was noise.

"… I can't believe how Matt totallysnubbed me like that! I mean, chill already!"

"Nora, you went out with three guys while you were with him!"

"Uh, yeah! Not like, five, was it! Sheesh! Hey, anyone seen my hair band?"

"I have your tie-dyed one!"

"'Kay but I- hey, Cher! Who's this?"

"Everyone, meet Lily. Lily, everyone."

Lily smiled and gave a slight wave. "Hello."

"Woohooo, hello, what are you, like… French or something?"

Lily set her bag down next to a bed. "British, actually."

"Oh, riiiiight. You're from Hogsie, right?"

"Yes, I'm from Hogwarts."

"'Kay, Lily," said Cheryl. "You better get your butt in gear. We need to get to the mess to get some fuel!"

Lily looked at her blankly.

"Yeah. We seriously need to work on your American slang. So, for now, Lils, just hurry up and change. We need to go grab some breakfast." Turning to her friends, she said, "Oh my gosh, can you buh-lieve I just spoke like that? Man, Lils, you're gonna turn us all into damn Princesses!"

Lily looked up. "Er, see here, I don't mean to be rude, but, references to me as Lils, Lillers, Lilykins or anything of the like will fall on deaf ears."

The three other girls burst out laughing.

"Okay, okay, now MOVE! We need to get changed too!"

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Five minutes later,Lily emerged from the bathroom and stopped short. Her three roommates, Nora, Cheryl and the other blonde were in their school robes.

So to speak.

Lily glanced down at her own and wondered if there was something that Dumbledore had forgotten to tell her.

Each and every one of their… er… uniformswere loose,short dresses with tie-dyed sashes around their waists.

"Er."

"Lil….y. Um, what HAPPENED?" Nora was looking as if she had just witnessed some kind of horrible accident.

"Isn't this… the right uniform?"

"Well, yeah, technically! That's how we dressed back in like, the first year!"

Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, thank goodness."

"But, doll, you can't possibly dress like that!"

"That's quite alright. I'm fine."

"No, you're not. But, we don't have the time for that now!" said the other blonde girl. "Let's get going. I'm Alice, by the way."

"Pleasure."

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The dining hall or themessas it was called was as different from Hogwarts as it was possible to get. Just like the rest of the school, it had a crisp corporate look about it. The tables were glass and laid out with an assortment of porridges, cereals and juices. The décor was office like and looked very posh.

But James Potter was oblivious to it all. All Jameswas aware of at that very moment was his extremely bad mood. "Wormtail?" He muttered to himself. "Ha!"

"Everything cool, dude?" asked a tall, tanned boy withwavy, brown hair and a slight athletic walk,slapping James on his back. The boy at first glance was extremely good looking. He was also extremely good looking at third and fourth and fifth glance.

But a non shallow person .:ahem:.may also have noticed that he had a nice, easy going air about him and seemed to be quite pleasant with his warm smile happy demeanor.

"Yes, everything's fine, Justin, thanks."

"Yeah, well gimme a holler if you need anything, right?"

James looked at him half angrily. "Alright!"

Another tall boy came and slapped James' shoulder. "You seem too wound up, man. What is it? Jet lag?"

"No,Matt. I'm er... cool."

But something had already distracted Matthew.

"Woahhhh, who is that?"

James followed his gaze and saw a certain very familiar red-head walking through the glass doors. She was laughing and saying something to Cheryl and two blonde girls.

"Man, that's what I call beneficial exchange! She with you?" Matt was positively drooling.

"She came with me, yes. But, she's not with me in that sense of the word, no.

"Well, stand back, men. Captain Matthew is on the prowl."

James opened his mouth to warn him, but thought better of it after noticing the expressions on the faces of ninety five percent of the male population in the Mess. How was he going to go around warning everyone? Besides, the girls next walking with Lily had shot him a glance or two. James Potter did not miss glances. Matthew would have to fend for himself.

"Hey, Justin, what's with you, man. You dead or what?"

And for the first time since Lily had entered, James glanced at Justin Jones. He was staring at her, his mouth slack and half open. He seemed to come out of his reverie when Matt beckoned him. "Wha…? Yeah. I- I'm good. Great."

And for some reason that seemed to bother James a great deal more than Matt's words.

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"… Jeff, Adam, Brandon, Andrew, Kevin, (and my three best dudes) Brett, Matt and Dan," said Justin, carefully avoiding looking at Lily. "And these are our gal pals, Cheryl, Nora, Alice, Steffie, Darrell, Liz and Sasha. Guys meet James Potter and um," he said, colouring slightly, pointing to a blushing red head, "Lily Evans."

"…."

Justin had shoved his hands in his pockets and was staring at floor. When he finally noticed the silence that had greeted his words he looked up and asked, wide eyed, "What?"

Everyone was nice enough to shrug and brush it off as if it was nothing.

However, looking back to this moment, they would all recall that a certain James Potter was livid.

James Potter did not miss glances.

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.: I laughed inwardly at Justin's expression. This was perfect. His little crush on the red head would prove to be quite useful, I was sure. Make him less alert. Also, a chance for some rivalry between Potter and him. No need for anyone to suspect me. The Dark Lord will be pleased. Very pleased. :.

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A/N: Hmm… not only am I bad, I'm also a cliché. Unpardonable. Anyway, I hope that wasn't as atrocious as the previous chapter. Still pretty bad, I know, but… whatever. Please don't forget to review!