James Potter had always fancied Lily Evans, everyone knew that much, but it wasn't until after Easter in their sixth year that he realised that he was completely, utterly, irrevocably in love with her.
The "crush" started when he first saw her on the train when they were eleven. He didn't know what "love" was, then, other than the bond between a parent and a child, but it was something about the way dark red of her hair complimented vibrant green of her eyes that made him want to get to know her.
Later, in potions in third year, Lily chose to partner up with him to brew a particularly difficult concoction, and it was the way she smiled when he dropped the spoon, and the warmth of her body when she hugged him when they made the perfect potion sent a feeling ripping through him that he knew he had to peruse.
It was this feeling that, in the first weeks of fifth year sent James after the boy she trusted most when he saw said boy conforming with older kids who wanted to hurt her. And when she scowled at him, with the calculating stare he knew too well, he knew he had to protect her from harm.
But it wasn't until after Easter in sixth year, when she came to him for help, when she'd had enough of being taken for granted, that he realised she could take care of herself. It wasn't until she came to him and his friends for something to save her own friend, though she knew it was futile, that he could see just how strong a person she was. And it wasn't until she was pranking Slytherins along side him that he found the feeling he had been repressing.
It wasn't until the Easter of '77, when the five young Gryffindors banded together to teach Snivellus a lesson, that he knew that he was in love with Lily Evans. He knew it wasn't her eyes or her hair, her smile or her warmth, her scowl or her stare. It was her determination. Her ferocity. Her personality.
It was on that day that he knew, truly why he liked her. It wasn't because she was prettier than him, or because she didn't like him. It was because she was him. She was his soul mate. And on that day he knew that, maybe, he didn't just "like" her. He loved her.
And it was because her loved her that he stopped pursuing her. He stopped asking her to Hogsmead, or behind the Quidditch bleachers after charms. He stopped breaking rules just because he wanted her to notice him. And that's when she fell in love with him.
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The Marauding Maps: A Collection of Oneshots
FanfictionDid you ever wonder what the marauders got up to in their spare time at Hogwarts?? About the pranks they pulled?? The rules they broke?? James' many failed attempts at "wooing" Lily Evans?? Yes?? Click that read button up ^^ there ^^ No?? Click the...
