Summary: James Potter returns to Hogwarts School, this time as a teacher, and meets Lily Evans, brilliant and full of life. He falls for her and romance, comedy, and drama follow.

Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, anything from the brilliant mind of JK Rowling, and whatever else that isn't mine.

Chapter 1

Lily Evans sat down amongst all her Gryffindor friends, preparing for her sixth year of the ever-exciting sorting ceremony. She would honestly have preferred to spend time with Severus Snape instead. Well, no, perhaps that was a bit rash, but almost anything was better than watching a large group of first years sit, one by one, under a worn, old hat, which would randomly shout out one of four things:

"Gryffindor!"

"Hufflepuff!"

"Ravenclaw!"

"Slytherin!"

She supposed that knowing the names and houses of the first years would be handy, but couldn't Dumbledore just give them a list, even have them take a quiz over it to ensure that they knew each name by heart.

"Lily!" whispered one of her friends, Gretty Giddings, a few minutes into the ceremony. "Look at the head table. We have a new teacher."

Lily scanned over the head table and looked for a face that was unfamiliar to her.

"The one with the dark hair and glasses?" she questioned.

"Yes, isn't he dreamy?"

Lily laughed. "He is rather handsome, I must admit, but that's hardly orthodox."

"Hey, I'm okay with that," whispered another girl, Loren Katz. She was gazing at the man with an obviously glazed and dreamy look. It was a wonder he didn't notice.

Who was she to say? Perhaps he did.

James' eyes looked over the room, knowing he would not find a familiar face, since anyone he knew would have graduated by this time. He was, however, curious to see what this year's group of students was like.

His eyes fell on nearly everyone of the students there, first coming upon a young boy who was sitting at the Slytherin table, not speaking to anyone, and with a demonic, plotting look on his face. The girl beside him had white hair and large blue eyes. She looked rather scared of everything and everyone around her.

The Ravenclaw table was full of intelligent looking beings, all sitting in an orderly fashion.

Hufflepuff had possibly one of the largest young men he had ever seen, taking up three seats, but he had a very pleasant looking face, smiling and jolly.

At the Gryffindor table, a couple of girls were gazing at him with a dreamy stare. Fantastic, more crushes to deter. He thought he had finished with that sort of thing when he graduated Hogwarts. But after all, he should have foreseen this. He had been one of the most attractive boys at Hogwarts in his time. He probably still was. And no matter what anyone said, he was not cocky.

His eyes moved over a few seats and met the large, emerald eyes of a girl. She was looking at him curiously, but broke the eye contact as soon as she realized that it had been made. She blushed and looked down, her red hair covering her face.

And what a pretty face it was, pale with light freckles, full lips and a delicate nose.

No. No no no. She was a perfect oaf. Unattractive features, spotty skin, mousy, lank hair. Awful, awful, her face was the epitome of discord and chaos.

No, who was he kidding? She was exquisite, but he couldn't think that. He was her teacher, a trusted leader on the path of learning that led to success.

Oh, but she was lovely.

Author's Note: Yeah, I guess that was pretty short, too. Hopefully the chapters will get longer. Read and review, please?