Prologue

James Potter laid ten month old son Harry down in his crib.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world," he grinned.

His wife Lily stood next to him. "We're both lucky," she smiled.

James smiled at her. "I still look at you and can't believe you ever let me date you, never mind marry you."

Lily grinned, "A huge oversight on my part of course. One date and you sucked me in."

She grinned even more at his expression. "Just kidding sweetie, I love you."

They stayed watching Harry for a couple more minutes.

"He's just so perfect isn't he?" grinned James. "He's the perfect son for the perfect woman."

"And the perfect man," interjected Lily. "He'll be handsome like his father."

"Well I should hope so," James laughed softly.

"He's not sleeping," frowned Lily.

Harry looked into his mothers green eyes, but did not go to sleep. He just kicked his legs and smiled.

"Story," he ordered, story being one of the few words he knew.

"I'll get one," smiled James, looking to the shelf of Harry's little bedtime stories. "Hmm… The Keeper and The Unicorn… The Giant and the Friendly Imp… The Witch and The Old Muggle… no I've read you all these stories before lots of times."

Harry kicked his legs harder, demanding a story.

"We've even read him these muggle ones about a hundred times," sighed Lily, tossing aside Goldilocks and Snow White. "I'm fed up of these stupid stories."

"Well I know a story we could tell him," beamed James. "It all began ten years ago."

Lily smiled. "We were just little first years starting a big, big school."

Harry gurgled in delight at this new story he'd never heard before.

"Well to be honest the first few years aren't that great," irrupted James. "Well they were great, but they weren't particularly exciting… Pretty much the same me asking you out and you turning me down."

"Well I was foolish then," laughed Lily, kissing James on the cheek.

"Seriously though, I don't want to bore our son," chuckled James. "Start at 6th Year."

"Why 6th Year?" asked Lily, confused. "I didn't date you until halfway through 7th Year."

"Yeah, but 6th Year was when you when your love started to grow - well you stopped ignoring me anyway," grinned James, as Lily lifted one eyebrow elegantly.

"Oh yeah James Potter?" she questioned. "Well that's not how I recall it. Maybe we should start at 6th Year… even if it's just to agree on what actually happened!"

Harry had grown bored and had fallen asleep by this point, but Lily and James both sat down on the couch and began telling the story.

"Well," began James. "The handsome hero James Potter was sitting with his excellent friends on the train to Hogwarts. He spied Lily Evans, the girl who loved him with all her heart-"

"Ha! Yeah right," smirked Lily. "More like the bigheaded and arrogant James Potter sat with his band of loyal losers on the train to Hogwarts. He stared at the gorgeous Lily Evans, the girl who he stalked every year!"

"Ok," sighed James. "Way to burst my bubble! But if you insist, I'll tell it properly. I'll tell it for me and the Marauders, and you can tell it for you and your girlies. Then we can see what we each i b really /b /i thought of those last two years at Hogwarts."

Lily frowned at James's use of the word 'girlies' but decided to let it go, and agreed that she wanted to hear it from James point of view as well.

"Ok then Mr Big-shot," she beamed. "You start. Tell me everything."

James was halfway through a game of wizard chess with Sirius (Sirius was winning) and Remus Lupin sat in the corner reading a book. Peter was watching Sirius and James.

"Prongs, stop staring at Lily and move," snapped Sirius. James had been looking through the carriage window at Lily for nearly five minutes now.

"Sorry," James blushed. "Knight to C,4."

"Ha!" laughed Sirius triumphantly. "Right into my trap! Queen to D,3! Checkmate."

James shook his head and leaned back in his seat. "I'll never beat you will I?"

"No, and you won't beat Moony either, I'm training him to kick your ass," grinned Sirius.

"Fine, I'll train Wormtail."

"No way," chuckled Peter. "I want to be good."

"You just go back to staring at Evans," laughed Sirius, packing the chess set away.

"With pleasure."

Lily looked up to see James staring at her.

"Jenni, he's staring at Lily b i again /i /b ," sighed Emma, a short girl with shoulder length, dark brunette hair, brown eyes and a nice smile, looking up from her book. "Will he never give up?"

"I doubt it," muttered Lily. "He's so annoying."

James was writing something in the air with his wand, in big gold letters.

"Will…"

"you…"

"go…"

"out…"

"with…"

"me…"

"Evans," read the group of four girls, laughing.

Jenni, a sporty redhead, raised her wand and began drawing something very rude for a reply.

"No Jenni," said Lily, trying not to laugh. "No way."

Instead she raised her own wand and wrote, "No, stop bothering me."

Alex, a short girl with very long light brown hair and a great grin, looked up from her magazine to see James reaction - as usual he pretended to be heartbroken, and fell, pretending to sob, back into his seat. Alex shook her head.

"I can't believe he won't just give up!" Lily exclaimed, exasperated, as James began charming some plastic flowers into the words 'Please!'.

"Ok let me fix it," smiled Emma, pulling out her wand and muttering something Lily couldn't quite hear. The window of James carriage door was tinted so that the girls could no longer see him. "There," she grinned.

"Thanks Emma," smiled Lily. "I should have thought of that."

"Well of course you should, being the total brainy person you are," laughed Alex. "I don't think I would have got a pass in Transfiguration at all if it wasn't for you and Emma."

"Maybe you should just hex him," said Jenni - when Lily and Emma laughed she looked confused - she wasn't joking.

"I could use that charm we saw in Witch Weekly," said Alex. "What was it called?"

"The Repelling Charm. Or we could just silence him," interjected Emma.

James knocked on their window - the tinted glass had not diverted his attention then.

"Go out with me Evans please!" he begged, his voice muffled through the glass.

"James Potter, could you be any more desperate!" she screamed in annoyance. "Go away!"

"Fine, while I still have my dignity," he huffed. "I'm fed up with your constant rejections Lily."

Jenni, opened the door, and said, "We're so sick of you Potter!" She flicked her wand and there was a small bang.

James dangled from one leg and his robes dangled over his head, as if hanging from a hook, while the entire train got a good view of his boxers.

Lily, Alex and Emma howled with laughed, while Jenni just stood proud with her work. People from several carriages down were coming into the corridor to see what was happening and cracking up at one of the most popular boys in the school in such an embarrassing position.

James wand lay several feet out of his reach and he strained to reach it. "Accio wand!" he shouted, and cast the same spell on Jenni - who fortunately was still wearing her jeans and retained her pride.

James stormed back into his carriage, where even Remus was sniggering at him and Lily gently let Jenni down.

"Nice one," Lily grinned as the laughter died down. "I don't think he'll be bothering me again anytime soon. Or we might just remind him about his stripy boxers."

James stared daggers at Sirius as he laughed.

"It's not funny," James growled.

"It is so," said Sirius, who fell about laughing again.

James narrowed his eyes.

"Well my dear Padfoot, what if it's you hanging upside-down next time in your underwear."

Sirius sobered up instantly. "The women have gone too far!"

"Time to get them back," hummed James. "I wonder how…"