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Mr. James Potter and Miss Lily Evans – 1971 to 1981

I didn’t mean to fall in love with Lily Evans. After all, she was a bossy, arrogant little goodie-two-shoes whose best friend was a Slytherin. On top of that, she was a girl. That may not seem like a long list, but believe me, when you’re eleven and just starting your first year at Hogwarts, that’s all that matters.

All through first year, I was sure that Lily would be the death of me. To this day I swear that I wouldn’t have gotten half the detentions I did if it hadn’t been for her. She and Snape were constantly on my case, constantly ready to run to McGonagall, constantly thinking they were just that much better than me.

It was second year when I first asked her out. It was just a joke, a dare. We never thought that anything would come of it. No one was meant to get hurt. But her reaction was just hilarious enough for me to ask her again the next day, and the day after that. Soon, it was routine.

About halfway through third year, I realized that her constant rejections were actually starting to hurt. At first, I was sure it was just my self-esteem that was stinging. It wasn’t until one day when she hexed me that I realized it was really about her – that I wanted her to go out with me, not some other girl.

That realization scared me, so all through fourth year I dated other girls. No one else knew what I felt for her – not even Sirius. It was the first secret I kept from him. Around that time, we became animagi. Lily would sometimes be in the Common Room when we snuck out to help Remus. She would roll her eyes, but never turned us in. It puzzled me at the time. Now, of course, I realize that she knew what we were doing all along.

Fifth year was when things started getting bad. I gave up dating other girls and returned to Lily. This time, however, my friends quickly learned that it wasn’t a joke. Sirius spent a week in the hospital wing for teasing me about her. My love-life suddenly became the hottest topic in school. My friends (being the gits they are) loved it. Lily hated it, and therefore hated me. I barely noticed. All I cared about was Lily.

You know what happened at the end of that year, what that absolute {INSERT INSULTING NOUN OF YOUR CHOICE HERE} called Lily, what he did to her. In some ways, that was the turning point of our relationship. It’s funny, that the one person I hated most, who hated me most, would be the most helpful in getting Lily to fall for me. Suddenly, I was no longer the person she hated the most – he took that place. She still didn’t like me hexing him, but managed to turn a blind eye some of the time. She started laughing at some of my pranks, though she still hexed me each time I asked her out.

Then came seventh year. Our golden age, I suppose. We were happy then, happy even as our world fell around us. Lily and I were forced to work together as Head Boy and Girl, and slowly but surely, she fell in love with me. We started dating right before Christmas. It was the best day of my life, until our graduation day, when I proposed and she said yes.

We didn’t get married right away. There was a war going on, for one thing. We were both fighting, both risking our lives every day. And I wanted to meet Lily’s family. She already knew mine – the Marauders were all that I had left by the time we graduated. Lily took me to her sister’s wedding. Let’s just say it didn’t go all that well. But her parents let her marry me, and we were as happy as it was possible to be during the First Wizarding War.

It wasn’t really a huge shock to learn that Voldemort was targeting us. We had opposed him enough times for him to learn our names. It still scared us, though. How could it not? So we went into hiding, took every precaution. Only then, of course, we had to put our trust in the wrong person. We trusted Peter, and he betrayed us. Of all the betrayals of that time, that one hurt the worst.

I knew what was going to happen the instant Voldemort walked in our door. He was going to kill me, kill Lily, kill Harry, kill everything I held dear. I knew it was going to happen, and it almost did. I think Lily and I would have gone mad, up in Heaven, if it weren’t for the fact that we were together, and Harry survived. But if there’s one thing I discovered in my life, it’s that I can do anything I want, so long as Lily’s at my side.

A/N: In case you can’t tell, I'm experimenting with writing styles in this story. Part of it has to do with how much we already know about the characters, but it mainly just depends on my mood. Thank you so much to everyone who has reviewed. It makes my day every time it happens.