Author's Note: I got this idea last night to do a Lily/James story with a Grease twist. This is only the first chapter and I promise that upcoming ones will be longer and contain a lot more action with much less backstory, but I thought it was necessary to get all the background stuff in, especially since a lot of the story doesn't follow canon. I hope you like it, please review and tell me what you think!

"I can't believe we have to say goodbye tonight," Lily Evans whispered to the hazel eyed boy lying next to her in the grass. "This summer has been perfect, James. I don't want it to end."

"I don't either," he sighed, rolling onto his side to face her. "After spending two months with you school sounds like torture. All the studying and classes," he flashed her a lopsided grin, "and none of the other girls are as pretty as you."

"Oh, other girls, huh?" Lily cocked an eyebrow and shoved him playfully in the chest.

"You know, Lils, a man has needs," he said mockingly, still smiling at her. "Though you may have ruined me for anybody else."

"Shut up," she snorted and shoved him again. "You are not a man; you're not even sixteen yet."

"I'm old enough to know that you're the most amazing person I've ever met," James said, his smirk giving way to a more serious expression as he watched her. "And I'm old enough to know I'd do anything for you, Lily Evans, because I can't imagine life without you."

Lily didn't say anything, just pressed her mouth firmly against his and then curling up into his chest. They lapsed into comfortable silence, his arm snaked around her waist and hugging her close to his side.

"What's your school like?" Lily asked suddenly, craning her neck to look at him. James tensed. After several seconds he slowly said "Er—not bad, I suppose. Yours?"

Lily sighed and rolled onto her back to stare at the clouds. "I'm starting at a new one this year. It'll be my first time going to a real school since I was eleven."

"Right, you mentioned you were homeschooled."

Lily nodded again. "Mum was too ill and insisted that I stay home with the family instead of going to the boarding school I'd been intending to go to."

"Which boarding school?" he asked, running the tips of his fingers up and down her arm.

"Just this little all-girls school in the middle of nowhere," Lily said quickly, biting her lip. "You've probably never heard of it. But tell me about yours a little more. You said it's some catholic school off in Scotland, right?"

"Right," James said, his fingers still trailing up and down her arm. "Well, it's not too bad. Actually, it's rather brilliant if I'm being honest." He glanced at her and flashed a lopsided grin. "The classes can be difficult but that's to be expected. But my three friends—the ones I told you about—they're all there and we have quite a bit of fun."

"Oh?" Lily raised an eyebrow. "What kind of fun?"

"Sneaking into the kitchens at midnight and stealing food before going for a nighttime stroll of the grounds fun," James chuckled.

Lily rolled her eyes before leaning over to kiss him on the cheek. Afterwards, she curled up against him once again and sat in silence. Her stomach and head both felt as though they held a twenty pound weight. She glanced at James, lying peacefully beside her watching the clouds languish across the sky, and sighed. She wanted to tell him so badly where she would really be going to school. To let him know that tomorrow morning she would be traipsing across King's Cross station with a heavy trunk filled with spellbooks and potions ingredients and plain black robes. She wanted to share her excitement with him that tomorrow, after four years of being tutored at home, she would finally be attending Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

But she couldn't share that with this lovely bespectacled boy with the lopsided grin. Lily thought back sadly to the many conversations she had had with her teacher, Dorcas Meadows, about the Statute of Secrecy.

"Remember," Dori had told her sternly, her round face scrunched into a scowl. "You can never, ever reveal the magical world to a muggle. Only immediate family can know and, if the time comes, a spouse. But that's all. Do you understand?" Lily had nodded quickly, thinking she would never find someone who would tempt her to reveal her secret.

Yet, as these things happen, that very someone had waltzed into her life shortly after. James' family was staying in Cokeworth for the summer, though why anyone would spend a summer in Cokeworth, Lily had no idea. It was a rather dull town, full of factories and middle-class families. But in the end she didn't care why the Potters had chosen Cokeworth because James was the very best thing that had happened to her since she had met Severus. They spent nearly every day together, eating ice cream and swimming and lying in the grass telling stories and jokes and their biggest fears and their happiest memories. In her fifteen years, Lily had never felt so entirely connected to another person. She wondered sometimes if it was fate.

Lily watched a particularly low cloud waltz across the sky's blue canvas and wondered what would happen if she sat up right that moment and told James everything: how she could do magic, how Severus had revealed to her a world full of marvelous things like giants and unicorns and potions, how she hadn't been able to go to Hogwarts because her mother was so ill but a kind man named Professor Dumbledore had arranged so a magical tutor named Dori Meadows arrived every day to teach Lily the things she would have learned at school. For a moment, she longed to take out her wand from its hiding place in her bedroom and show him how she could summon objects from across the house and change a teacup into a couch and develop photographs so that the people moved. It pained her there was an entire facet of her which he wasn't allowed to know.

But no, Lily shook her head to herself. She couldn't tell him any of that. Not yet, at least. Dori's warning stayed in the back of her mind as she glanced back at the cloud and tried to concentrate on enjoying the day.

The summer had begun innocently enough. James had been new to town and didn't know a soul; Lily had been lonely as her only friend was spending the summer with friends in London and she was still reeling from her mother's recent death. After meeting early in the summer, Lily and James quickly became inseparable. She showed him her private hideouts and slowly opened up, telling him about her rocky relationship with her sister and how empty she felt since her mother died. He returned this by becoming equally vulnerable, telling her about his elderly father's declining health and his worries about what he would do when he finished school. He never spoke much about his school or what his parents did for a living or what kind of job he wanted to get, but he told her all about his friends, and how they were the greatest people in the world. He told her about how his parents had always wanted another child but had not been able to have any more and he worried he wouldn't be able to meet their expectations. He told her all of this, but she always felt there was something he was keeping from her. She didn't push it; after all, she had her own secret to protect.

That summer had been the best one of Lily's life. James managed to make even dreary Cokeworth fun. He made Lily feel light and happy and entirely disconnected from all the ugliness which had infiltrated her life. He made her forget how much she missed her mum and how angry she was at her sister for being so horrid. He calmed her in a way Severus never could. Lily chewed her lip and ignored the twisting in her stomach whenever she thought back to her best friend. She had not told Severus about James; he was always so jealous of other boys and the last thing she wanted was a row. Likewise, she had not told James about Severus, not wanting to encourage any possible jealousies and not wanting him to question where her friend was and where he went to school.

Severus had been sending her letters once a week, filling her in on what to expect at Hogwarts. She would be sorted into a house, he told her, though they might not do that in front of everyone seeing as she wasn't a first year. He told her about his house, Slytherin, and how she would fit in perfectly. He told her of the different teachers and she mentally compared them to Dori, whom she adored. He assuaged her fears of being made fun of for growing up in a muggle family, telling her nobody would mind in the least. He told her about his friends and about a group of boys called the Marauders, whom he loathed.

You'll see for yourself when you get there. He wrote. They're awful. Arrogant, obnoxious. They really think they own the entire school. I'll point them out to you on the train and then you'll know to stay away. Lily sighed to herself a bit; she had really hoped that going to a magical school would mean not having to deal with arrogant berks. Even the prospect of meeting the Marauders, though, didn't dim Lily's excitement to finally go to Hogwarts. The idea of being able to use her magic anytime she wished and not being forced to hide in the house when she wanted to practice a new spell or attempt a difficult potion made her want to jump around and scream in delight. Hogwarts would be wonderful, Lily concluded happily at the end of every letter, the Marauders be damned.

Yes, Lily thought, Hogwarts would be wonderful, though she was rather sad that going to school meant leaving James behind. But even that, she decided, was a good problem to have. She was finally going to attend the school she had been dreaming of since she turned eleven, and she had found a boy who made life joyful and exciting. Really, Lily thought to herself as she snuggled closer to James in the grass, she was incredibly lucky.

They said a tearful goodbye that night and promised not to forget each other and to write often, though Lily knew the chances of her being able to regularly send mails via muggle post were almost nonexistent. Still, she kissed him enthusiastically goodbye and later laid in bed, dreaming happily of James. Maybe, she thought, just maybe, he would wait for her. She could finish Hogwarts and get a job in the wizarding world. Something to do with charms, she thought, or potions. She was good at those two subjects. She would get a job and then find him and they would live together and get married and then, finally, Lily could tell him everything. This wonderful boy who knew her better than anybody else would finally see the real her.

The morning of September 1st arrived. Lily and her father, who had agreed to drive her down to King's Cross in order to see her off, walked together down Platform 9 ¾ both gaping at the scene around them.

"I'm sorry Tuney couldn't make it," Mr. Evans said quietly, glancing sideways at Lily. "I know she'll miss you."

"Okay," Lily whispered, ignoring the tears leaking out of her eyes at the memory of Petunia standing in the kitchen mere hours ago, refusing to accompany them to the station and saying Lily was a disgrace to their mother's memory for running off so quickly to her "freak school."

They stopped in front of the scarlet steam engine as a whistle sounded.

"Well," Mr. Evans said, giving Lily a small smile. "Goodbye, Lilybean. Have a good term."

"Bye, Daddy," Lily said, reaching out and wrapping her arms around him. She buried her face in his chest, which smelled of gasoline and cigarette smoke, as it always did. She breathed in deeply and swallowed the lump in her throat before letting go.

Mr. Evans looked down at her and patted her on the back, his face relaxing into a faraway expression. "Make your mum and I proud, darling."

"I will," Lily nodded. Mr. Evans gave her one more squeeze and then, with a rather wobbly smile,

turned and walked towards the barrier that would take him back to the muggle world.

Now standing alone on the crowded platform, clutching her trunk and her owl Hera's cage, Lily found herself swallowed up by the crowd of people: returning students lounging about talking to friends, frantic parents saying goodbye and doling out last minute reminders. She suddenly felt as terrified as the small eleven-year-olds looked until she spotted a skinny, sallow boy with shoulder length black hair standing further down the platform.

"Sev!" she called, running towards him and waving her arms wildly. "Sev! Severus, it's me!" He turned and caught sight of her, his mouth curling into a smile.

"You made it," he said, returning her quick embrace.

"Yes," she said breathlessly. "It's wonderful. But I'm—I mean I don't—" He stared at her before comprehension dawned on him.

"Right, you must be nervous. Want to get on the train and find a compartment?"

"Yes, that would be lovely," she whispered, turning to follow him onto the train.

Severus helped her hoist her trunk and Hera onboard and they set off down the corridors, looking for an empty compartment. Lily drank the entire scene in. All these people, she realized, were just like her. They could do the same strange things she could and knew all about magic and potions and fantastic creatures. Feeling as though she were floating, Lily followed Severus blindly as he searched for empty seats. Her mind was far away from the train, too busy picturing the castle he had described so many times for her.

"Lily?" a voice broke through her reverie and she shook her head in confusion. She must have begun to daydream. That voice was all too familiar. She had listened to it all summer and just the sound of it brought butterflies to her stomach and goosebumps to her skin.

"Lily? Is that you?" it came again, shock and disbelief evident in every syllable. She turned around slowly and was met by a familiar mop of black hair and a pair of wonderful, sparkling hazel eyes. Her jaw dropped. She was not dreaming.

"James?"

Edited: 09/29/2016