Disclaimer: I'm not claiming to own anything Harry Potter related, The characters, the world and the whole concept belongs to J K Rowling, I'm just a huge fan using my own imagination. Not to publish or plagiarize someone else's work. Some characters have been written in as family members of characters mentioned in Miss Rowling's series.

James Potter was many things. He was a loyal and trusted friend, as he had proven to be so in his friendship group. He and two of his best friends, Peter Pettigrew and Sirius Black had spent years learning to become illegal animagi in order to help their other best friend Remus Lupin make his transformations into a werewolf more bearable. He was a prankster, he had actually lost count of the amount of detentions that he had had over the years due to the pranks he had pulled with his best friends. He was admired by most girls for being a chaser of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. To most people he was a good looking boy of seventeen who had the record breaking amount of detentions who still managed to get top grades in his examinations.

But to one girl, he was an annoying little toerag who pestered her to go out with him. That person was none other than Lily Evans. To James, she was more than just any girl. To James, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever met, with her long red hair the colour of a summer sunset and green eyes that he had never seen on another made her so. It wasn't just her unique looks. She had the most warming smile, just to look at her laugh and smile with her friends made him feel better on the crappiest day. The problem was, they were complete opposites. Lily studied well into the night if she had a huge workload, she took studying seriously. She worked hard to earn her prefect status when they had entered their fifth year, she had never had a detention.

It was on a blistering hot day in the middle of May of their sixth year when James started to realise that maybe he and Lily had more in common than they both originally thought. James was walking down the staircase that led to the entrance hall when he heard a loud shriek coming from the caretaker's office. He stopped and scratched his head. He knew that the boys hadn't planned any pranks on Filch today, so what was going on?

Filch came out of his office and all the students who were in the entrance hall burst into a fit of laughter. Whatever had happened to the caretaker, it was absolutely hilarious. Filch stood in the middle of the staircase, hair constantly growing from his face and down to the floor. His clothes had turned into what a caveman would wear. James burst into laughter along with other students who were arriving. The caretaker's cat emerged from the office, resembling a mini sabre tooth tiger. Whoever had pulled this prank on the caretaker, James had to salute them. This was even better than any prank that he and the other marauders had pulled.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lily descending the staircase with a blonde haired girl with brown eyes. The other's girls name was Marlene McKinnon, she was one of Lily's best friends along with Mary McDonald and Alice Prewett. James had known Marlene since they were young children, their father's both worked at the Ministry and were life long friends since their own Hogwarts days. He looked at Lily and saw a mischievous glow in her eyes. He had never seen that in her before, it was amazing. It was almost as if she had something to do with it.

Lily met his gaze and grinned at him, her eyes lighting up as the sun burst through the window. James returned her grin and was about to walk over to her when...

"POTTER!" yelled Filch.

The laughter stopped and everyone turned to stare at the two of them. James let out a heavy sigh, the one time he hadn't actually had anything to do with this particular prank. Filch balled his hands into fists, the cat at his heel.

"It wasn't me," James sighed truthfully.

"Yeah right!" snapped Filch.

"It was me," Lily blurted.

Everyone in the hall turned to stare at Lily and they all stared at her in shock. Miss Goody Two Shoes pull a prank on the caretaker? It was so unlike her. James looked at her in shock too, he couldn't believe that Lily Evans would even dare to pull a prank. She was too good for that. There was a loud cough and everyone turned their attention from Lily to Professor McGonagall.

"Is this true, Miss Evans?" asked McGonagall.

Lily bowed her head and nodded.

"She got the idea from me," said James loudly.

Again everyone shifted their attention, placing their amused eyes on James. Lily looked up at James curious as to what was going to happen next. McGonagall studied the pair of them and tutted.

"I expected better from you Miss Evans, but Potter I can hardly say I'm surprised." said McGonagall sternly.

"Yes Professor," mumbled Lily.

"Detention tonight at eight o'clock. Scrubbing out cauldrons in the dungeons without magic," stated McGonagall.

The two of them nodded and conversation started up again as students carried on to where they needed to get to. Filch and the cat made their way towards the hospital wing to get themselves back to normal.

"Coming for lunch Lil?" asked Marlene.

"I'll catch you up," Lily smiled.

Marlene carried on towards the Great Hall when Lily turned to James with the angry glare that she reserved just for him.

"What was that all about?" hissed Lily.

"Evans, I was just trying to help." James defended.

"Listen Potter, you're not my knight in shining armour. I'm not yours to save," Lily stated.

James raised an eyebrow, "Like you had that situation under control," he said amused.

"I'd rather have detention myself than spend it with you!" she snapped.

James laughed as he ran a hand through his hair, "A couple of hours alone together, just what I've always dreamed of." he teased.

Lily rolled her eyes and scoffed in disbelief.

"Please, you have a whole group of girls who are willing to chuck their knickers at you. As if you'd rather spend a few hours alone with me, a girl who despises you." Lily said sarcastically.

"You know what Evans? Maybe you should relax around me a bit. I just did you a favour. You're lucky it's only a night's detention. If I hadn't stepped in you'd be faced with a week," stated James.

"Don't flatter yourself Potter, you just did it for the attention. You didn't do it to help me," replied Lily bitterly.

James raised an eyebrow, "See you tonight Evans." he muttered and headed towards the great hall.